Interesting, and yet the very fact that there are quite heated debates over the true meaning of passages in the Koran (over here in the UK it is a fairly common occurrence to see debates between Islamic scholars on TV) suggests that ambiguity still exists. The old classic example is the debate over the meaning of 'jihad' which crops up from time to time.
Even with a single text, I presume that there are still cases where either individual words or phrases can have differently nuanced meanings. Such nuances lead to differences of opinion about what a particular passage really means, and before you know it, two groups, with conflicting interpretations, both claiming theirs as the divine truth
In general I'm right behind the rebuttal. However John Timmer chooses a very bad real-life example as his rebuttal champion.
He asks:...would Anderson be willing to help test a drug that was based on a poorly understood correlation pulled out of a datamine? These days, we like our drugs to have known targets and mechanisms of action and, to get there, we need standard science.
These days we may like our drugs to have these attributes, but very often they don't. There are still quite a few medicines around that clearly work and are prescribed on that basis, but for which there is only the haziest evidence as to how exactly they work.
The good thing about the scientific method, however is it gives us a framework to investigate these drug's actions - even if the explanation is still currently beyond us.
Mind if I go off-topic for a moment, since there is an expert in the room? No, good.
Several years ago, when I was in France, I took a group of children to racing stables where they bred racing horses - a stud farm. While we were walking around, we met a charming, well-spoken Dutch couple in their 60s who chatted about this and that, and then indicating the breeding stables asked "So, tell me - do you have fuckeries like this England?" At least that's what I'm 90% sure they said.
I presume that "fuck" exists in the Dutch language and that their on-the-fly translation attempt misfired?
Ummm, well I do rather a lot of browsing on an iPod Touch and I rather disagree with you. In fact, I tend to use the fully configured 'normal sites' rather than the stripped down 'iPhone friendly' versions'.
My guess would be that the NDA didn't cover anything to do with the technology - it is out there for all to try. It probably covered Apple's plans for using the technology. And that seems quite reasonable to me.
I'd say the problem isn't anything to do with the head of state, it's the fact that the legislature cannot hold the executive to account in a meaningful way on most occasions. Indeed, the Commons is often bypassed as the government makes up policy as it goes along.
Personally, I think a strengthening of the Select Committee system is the way to go.... but that doesn't sound very sexy, does it?
OK, I also have a mad proposal for reform of The House of Lords, that I think would help, but would never be accepted:
Members of House of Lords would be appointed from the ranks of the Commons - from retiring or ousted MPs (so far, that's pretty much like the existing system, with the party leader choosing his/her favourites). However here is the difference - MPs would vote on appointees and would only be able to vote for people on the opposing benches. So you wouldn't be able to vote for someone from your own party.
What's the point? I believe this system would tend to reward the free-thinkers and individualists who tended to rebel from the party line. It would also reward the people whose expertise was so obvious that even their political opponents recognised it.
That's extremely interesting and your interests and my interests at the time diverge sufficiently to explain why I didn't like the book much and you did. II'm a biologist by training and was fascinated by the biological basis of consciousness. So I ploughed through the early chapters, impatiently waiting for him to get on to the subject of consciousness. I waited and waited, but the thesis never really built. Then in the last couple of chapters we got to the "You know what I think about consciousness"? part, which was probably the least successful piece.
I was probably mislead by the title. What you took as an elegant introduction to mathematical physics, I took as intellelectual throat-clearing. So I skimmed it - reading enough to ensure that I understood enough conceptually to follow his arguments when we got to the 'real' subject; the mind.
Perhaps I should read it again, but pretend it has a different title.
I looked at the codename and thought it was probably quite intentional. This may very well be wishful thinking, but naming the release Snow Leopard, implies a small increment to Leopard and therefore a not-full-price upgrade.
I know, I know, I'm a fool - Jobs doesn't work that way.... usually.
I would mark you insightful, if I could. Moreover, if it really is a question of saving disk space by avoiding redundant different-architecture code, the installer should be able to do this just fine: Put code for both architectures on the install DVD and then let the installer select the right code for the machine.
I found The Emperor's New Mind a remarkably irritating book. As far as I could tell, the whole tome basically boiled down to 'Consciousness is spooky and difficult to explain, Quantum effects are spooky and difficult to explain, ergo human consciousness probably has its basis in qyuantum effects'. I didn't read any of his books after that one.
I like Hofstadter a *lot* though. His book of essays from SciAm: Metamagical Themas is still woeth grabbing if you ever see a copy.
I read a book about the history of television the other week. I was Shocked SHOCKED that it was in book form, rather than being a television program. What were they thinking?!
You like reading documentation on screen, that's great. The publishers are betting that there are significant numbers of people who are willing to pay for a book that describes a complex subject at length.
That's the problem with cell-phone companies today. They subsidize the cost of the equipment, in the expectation that they might get some call revenue in exchange. Then they get all annoyed when you don't give them any call revenue. Weird that.
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting, and yet the very fact that there are quite heated debates over the true meaning of passages in the Koran (over here in the UK it is a fairly common occurrence to see debates between Islamic scholars on TV) suggests that ambiguity still exists. The old classic example is the debate over the meaning of 'jihad' which crops up from time to time.
You are assuming that the cellular operators have control or say over which applications are available via the app store.
I'm assuming they won't.
Let's wait and see whose assumption is right. ... I'm never wrong, you know.
.
Absolutely. Such articles should be banned immediately.
Even with a single text, I presume that there are still cases where either individual words or phrases can have differently nuanced meanings. Such nuances lead to differences of opinion about what a particular passage really means, and before you know it, two groups, with conflicting interpretations, both claiming theirs as the divine truth
That was exactly the point at which I could take it no more and reached for the close widget.
He has to, if he doesn't he'll bugger up the efficacy of the placebo effect, which is a pretty important element in prescribing.
I'm only half joking. /Disclaimer: My wife is a hospital consultant and she's really good and interested in root cause.
In general I'm right behind the rebuttal. However John Timmer chooses a very bad real-life example as his rebuttal champion.
He asks: ...would Anderson be willing to help test a drug that was based on a poorly understood correlation pulled out of a datamine? These days, we like our drugs to have known targets and mechanisms of action and, to get there, we need standard science.
These days we may like our drugs to have these attributes, but very often they don't. There are still quite a few medicines around that clearly work and are prescribed on that basis, but for which there is only the haziest evidence as to how exactly they work.
The good thing about the scientific method, however is it gives us a framework to investigate these drug's actions - even if the explanation is still currently beyond us.
It would have take all of the fun out of alt.fan.warlord back in the good old days. Kibo's .sig would have had problems too.
Mind if I go off-topic for a moment, since there is an expert in the room? No, good.
Several years ago, when I was in France, I took a group of children to racing stables where they bred racing horses - a stud farm. While we were walking around, we met a charming, well-spoken Dutch couple in their 60s who chatted about this and that, and then indicating the breeding stables asked "So, tell me - do you have fuckeries like this England?" At least that's what I'm 90% sure they said.
I presume that "fuck" exists in the Dutch language and that their on-the-fly translation attempt misfired?
.... router company tells shareholders.
That just about wraps it up for Heisenberg, then.
In my experience, this problem can be solved very simply, by decreasing the font size as appropriate.
You will note the point in the original posting about the damage that a lack of intellectual honesty invariably causes, yes?
Ummm, well I do rather a lot of browsing on an iPod Touch and I rather disagree with you. In fact, I tend to use the fully configured 'normal sites' rather than the stripped down 'iPhone friendly' versions'.
My guess would be that the NDA didn't cover anything to do with the technology - it is out there for all to try. It probably covered Apple's plans for using the technology. And that seems quite reasonable to me.
In this case, the Roughly Drafted article is well written and appears credible , so that rather looks like an ad bloginem attack.
I'd say the problem isn't anything to do with the head of state, it's the fact that the legislature cannot hold the executive to account in a meaningful way on most occasions. Indeed, the Commons is often bypassed as the government makes up policy as it goes along.
Personally, I think a strengthening of the Select Committee system is the way to go.... but that doesn't sound very sexy, does it?
OK, I also have a mad proposal for reform of The House of Lords, that I think would help, but would never be accepted:
Members of House of Lords would be appointed from the ranks of the Commons - from retiring or ousted MPs (so far, that's pretty much like the existing system, with the party leader choosing his/her favourites). However here is the difference - MPs would vote on appointees and would only be able to vote for people on the opposing benches. So you wouldn't be able to vote for someone from your own party.
What's the point? I believe this system would tend to reward the free-thinkers and individualists who tended to rebel from the party line. It would also reward the people whose expertise was so obvious that even their political opponents recognised it.
Ah well, I can dream, can't I?
That's extremely interesting and your interests and my interests at the time diverge sufficiently to explain why I didn't like the book much and you did. II'm a biologist by training and was fascinated by the biological basis of consciousness. So I ploughed through the early chapters, impatiently waiting for him to get on to the subject of consciousness. I waited and waited, but the thesis never really built. Then in the last couple of chapters we got to the "You know what I think about consciousness"? part, which was probably the least successful piece.
I was probably mislead by the title. What you took as an elegant introduction to mathematical physics, I took as intellelectual throat-clearing. So I skimmed it - reading enough to ensure that I understood enough conceptually to follow his arguments when we got to the 'real' subject; the mind.
Perhaps I should read it again, but pretend it has a different title.
I looked at the codename and thought it was probably quite intentional. This may very well be wishful thinking, but naming the release Snow Leopard, implies a small increment to Leopard and therefore a not-full-price upgrade.
I know, I know, I'm a fool - Jobs doesn't work that way.... usually.
I would mark you insightful, if I could. Moreover, if it really is a question of saving disk space by avoiding redundant different-architecture code, the installer should be able to do this just fine: Put code for both architectures on the install DVD and then let the installer select the right code for the machine.
I found The Emperor's New Mind a remarkably irritating book. As far as I could tell, the whole tome basically boiled down to 'Consciousness is spooky and difficult to explain, Quantum effects are spooky and difficult to explain, ergo human consciousness probably has its basis in qyuantum effects'. I didn't read any of his books after that one.
I like Hofstadter a *lot* though. His book of essays from SciAm: Metamagical Themas is still woeth grabbing if you ever see a copy.
Certainly is. I'm currently sitting on this one: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90096456 - nice lumbar support and really does the job. Probably not present material tho.
You do know that the hereditary peers are on the way out, right?
I read a book about the history of television the other week. I was Shocked SHOCKED that it was in book form, rather than being a television program. What were they thinking?!
You like reading documentation on screen, that's great. The publishers are betting that there are significant numbers of people who are willing to pay for a book that describes a complex subject at length.
That's the problem with cell-phone companies today. They subsidize the cost of the equipment, in the expectation that they might get some call revenue in exchange. Then they get all annoyed when you don't give them any call revenue. Weird that.