Dear Gnome project. I am a long term linux user and also a long term gnome user.
Let me make this perfectly clear. If you script things on my desktop with either javascript or scheme I will wipe my hard disk and install Microsoft Windows.
When I was in Russia, all the hot water for the city was heated in one big plant and then pumped through giant hot water pipes everywhere. This produced all the hot water for heating buildings, bathing, etc..
That is an extreme example of how stupid and wasteful centralized utilities are.
In this day and age why are we still distributing power via overhead wires. We should no more be using gridded power via wires than we do telegraphy as our main means of communication.
O.K., this is bogus. If the images he is creating are 200x200 then it would take a similar number of iterations just to methodically move polygons and perform correlation calculation between source and destination images. Genetic algo or not, it's not an accomplishment unless he's trying to prove that genetic algorithms are a pile of crap.
People get so excited over pretty pictures that their brains turn off completely.
"a post-prohibition future might prove less alarming"
If you add up the amount of money passed around in the *business* of incarcerating people for drug offences it really makes one take pause to think, "Where is the real money in illicit substances?".
Is the money in the actual trafficking, or is it in the administration and enforcement business? The administration and enforcement reinforces the extreme cost structure of the trade of the illicit substances themselves.
If the U.S. and E.U. legalized drug use and then treated addiction as a medical/psychological issue, which it rightly is, the price of drugs would fall in value and the producers would go out of business. This would certainly be a benefit to Afghanistan and many other places in Asia where people could then get back to their lives without a bunch of drug lords blowing them up while trying to protect thier [drug] turf/business/poppy_fields.
I find it remarkable how philosophy always seems to trump common sense in these matters.
I keep reading this reference. Where the heck are you people finding free beer? I look for it and I can never find it, it always costs me where ever I go. Yet, every time I come to read slashdot someone is purporting the existence of free beer. It's driving me nuts! Where are you getting this free beer and how much are you allowed to carry away at a single time? Secondly, does that come with salty snacks? Surely *those* must be extra... What is the free beer like? Is it just a lager or light beer, or is it a richer hoppy blend with a soft dark finish?
Next, where is the free beer made? I prefer one that is made using pure water and only, good, malting barley and flavored with hops that have not been dry for too long. Of course, being free, I assume the quality is not going to be perfect, possibly a zymurgy work in progress. (Open Source Beer...???)
I would certainly like to find this fountain of free beer that people mention. Let us all in on the secret.
Tell Richard Stallman too. Then he can give up the pepsi for something that's easier on the pancreas and doesn't go to the waistline as much.
Why not ask Marvin Minsky. I learned a lot by reading his stuff. I disagree with some of the limits he puts on things but he certainly has the behavioural aspects categorized.
MIT is a well advertised product. The reason MIT has tuition prices as high as it does is because MIT has convinced the public that those prices are warranted in some way. Whether that message is true or not is subject to debate like any other chewing gum, car, or salable item.
Let's be honest, if it were *ALL ABOUT EDUCATION* then the advertising flyer could be a photocopy on recycled news print instead of glossy color on high grade bond. As long as people came out knowing how to engineer, do science, etc., 'who the heck cares what the flyer looks like?'.
The reality is that the 'BIG NEWS' stories that come out of MIT are a small proportion of the overall student population. In fact, if one were to do a statistical analysis of the student population at MIT showing what percentages of the students were the cream of the crop, what students are really only just average, and and which students should not have bothered to go to college at all, you would find that the distribution of those groups is relatively the same as any other major educational institution.
If you are already able to teach yourself a subject that you are interested in, and simply wish to be mentored, you are *SMARTER* to use your money and resources wisely. Wise use of your resources is the first skill of any successful person.
If you do an analysis of where you can be, financially speaking, by getting your degree at a more reasonably priced facility, rather than getting into huge debt, you will find that your life will accelerate faster by concentrating on the content of your education rather than the location.
Suppose for a moment that you took 1/4 of the monies allocated by your parents and placed it with a reputable investment firm. Base your institutional targets on the money you have left, resisting loans and the 'theory' of excess, (perhaps do a co-op term or two) and then, once finished, take the money you have saved and start a business of your own. You will be younger, faster, more agile, and superior to Google, MS, or any other company out there. Why? Because by that time, they will all be old fuddies who no longer 'Get It' (Some already are), and you will be the young gun in town.
I suggest that you should put more stock in your own ability to learn and less in the public perception/delusion of an institution with nice glossy flyers. If they spent less on the flyers the tuition could be lower.
I thought the United States of America was a *FREE* (as in FREEDOM) country. It's a bit disconcerting to see a bunch of weak knee-jerk politicians quickly errode the very freedoms that made the US a shining light in the developed world.
The very things that people were attempting to escape by creating the U.S. as a country, as opposed to a colony, are now completely backward from the way they were designed.
Religious freedom (freedom of thought and assembly), freedom of the press and expression, freedom to move around the country and the world. Now everyone needs to kiss bourgoise/royal/government ass.
What next, fricken arm bands for the undesirables?!!!
Depending on the type of single engine aircraft he would have 2 to 5 hours of duration.
An article suggests that he told a friend that he would return by noon. He left at 9 A.M.
If he only took enough fuel to get to his waypoint and return then his total expected duration would be 3 hours.
This means his expected outbound waypoint should be within 1.5 hours of departure.
If he's flying something like a cessna 170, his top speed is ~140 MPH.
If we calculate for 160 MPH to take into account either foolhardiness or massive tail wind, his maximum distance should be in a circular radius of 240 miles.
From that information he could be almost anywhere in Nevada. He could be in California. Or he may have made it as far as Arizona, Utah, Idaho, or Washington.
It would be easiest to find him by reading his day-timer, checking his old phone messages, looking in his car, and phoning everyone he knows (friends/family/recent business) and mapping their positions. Perhaps his most frequent destinations from previous flight plans would also help.
This should reduce the search area substantially and possibly give some insights into what he may have been doing/thinking when he left.
There doesn't appear to be any mention of technical details regarding aircraft type, fuel purchase, or his heading after takeoff.
I always wonder about the 'Us vs. Them' kind of angle in stories.
Is it really a problem if the United States isn't the defacto world leader in everything. The world isn't going to end if China is able to defend itself against some completely theoretical threat.
When it comes to economic prowess the U.S. is slowly sliding into economic obscurity. With that change, the U.S. ability to fund a huge military will also dry up. It's completely predictable when the unrecoverable level of U.S. debit is taken into account. Technology comes from both necessity and ingenuity. The need for spending money to make new weapons systems will be superceded by the most basic needs of the U.S. population.
This is likely a good thing. Less pressure to compete with the U.S. level of per capita military spending will allow other nations to also make reductions. This will include China.
With the U.S. no longer a big economic and military force in the world it will become less of a focus for psychotic pseudo-religious morons like Al Queda, etc..
The thing that has historically caused the most problems for the U.S. is the periodically insular eruption of the 'Us Vs. Them' mentality.
It's NOT us vs. them. It's all of us in the same boat and we need to find ways to fix it up and keep it afloat. Otherwise, all the electronic warfare technology in the universe won't mean anything. There won't be any power to plug it into.
"US Tries to take on China in Cyber Warfare Tech" This is what that headline should read.
By population; if the United States has 10,000 people with math and electrical engineering degrees working on electronic-warfare technology. China by scale would have 100,000 people with similar accreditation working on the same stuff. The Chinese also import technologies from many other nations as well.
Statistically speaking, who do you think would win this type of arms race?
If electronic warfare is such a threat, why not try using a pencil and paper?
If you're looking for a complete change of scenery why not try part time horticulture or agriculture. If you decide you like being out doors and working growing plants and/or animals you couls expand into full time.
Most green houses and animal barns are now automated in some way. There's room for improvement though.
It's more of a lifestyle than a business, but it has it's perks. ie: free food.
Cooking is low paid but can be interesting. Once again, free food.
I made a database to calculate recipies for huge batches of muffins for a big bakery. This indicates that there is room for technical improvements in that field.
Just taking stock and tracking products in these fields are huge IT projects.
Yes, I agree. There are huge glossing statements that make it sound like google actually acquires data. This engineer has only a vague idea of how airborne and satellite imaging work.
After 28 years education counts for nothing next to experience. The experience *IS* the education after that period of time.
Academic credits, while indicative of what a persons interest are and on what genre of expertise they have focused, are *NOT* an indication of level of skill or competence.
Universities and Colleges are businesses selling a *PRODUCT*. Just because I drive a specific type of car doesn't make me a Formula 1 driver. Likewise being able to afford to attend math at MIT doesn't make me any better at understanding hermitian polynomials or even basic statistics for that matter.
There are numerous people out there with doctorates that are completely incompetent in thier chosen fields of expertise. Their accreditation only shows that they can jump through hoops, play the system, and generally keep thier grades above a pass.
Slashdot Mirror
Dear Gnome project. I am a long term linux user and
also a long term gnome user.
Let me make this perfectly clear. If you script things on my desktop
with either javascript or scheme I will wipe my hard disk and install
Microsoft Windows.
Ps.
I program in both scheme and javascript.
PPs.
You're morons.
When I was in Russia, all the hot water for the city was heated
in one big plant and then pumped through giant hot water pipes
everywhere. This produced all the hot water for heating buildings,
bathing, etc..
That is an extreme example of how stupid and wasteful
centralized utilities are.
In this day and age why are we still distributing power
via overhead wires. We should no more be using gridded
power via wires than we do telegraphy as our main means
of communication.
This needs to be fixed.
RE: "98.3% of registered Wikipedia users are inactive"
98.3% of registered SourceForge users are inactive. That's the nature of
internet social networking.
You just need to know where to look.
http://happypenguin.org/
O.K., this is bogus.
If the images he is creating are 200x200 then it would take
a similar number of iterations just to methodically move polygons
and perform correlation calculation between source and destination
images. Genetic algo or not, it's not an accomplishment unless
he's trying to prove that genetic algorithms are a pile of crap.
People get so excited over pretty pictures that their brains turn off
completely.
"a post-prohibition future might prove less alarming"
If you add up the amount of money passed around in the
*business* of incarcerating people for drug offences it
really makes one take pause to think,
"Where is the real money in illicit substances?".
Is the money in the actual trafficking, or is it in
the administration and enforcement business? The
administration and enforcement reinforces the extreme
cost structure of the trade of the illicit substances themselves.
If the U.S. and E.U. legalized drug use and then treated
addiction as a medical/psychological issue, which it rightly is,
the price of drugs would fall in
value and the producers would go out of business.
This would certainly be a benefit to Afghanistan and many other
places in Asia where people could then get back to their lives
without a bunch of drug lords blowing them up while trying to protect
thier [drug] turf/business/poppy_fields.
I find it remarkable how philosophy always seems
to trump common sense in these matters.
"and I needed a free, as in beer, compiler."
I keep reading this reference.
Where the heck are you people finding free beer?
I look for it and I can never find it, it always costs me where ever I go.
Yet, every time I come to read slashdot someone is purporting
the existence of free beer. It's driving me nuts! Where are you getting this
free beer and how much are you allowed to carry away at a single time?
Secondly, does that come with salty snacks? Surely *those* must be extra...
What is the free beer like? Is it just a lager or light beer, or is it a richer hoppy
blend with a soft dark finish?
Next, where is the free beer made? I prefer one that is made using pure water
and only, good, malting barley and flavored with hops that have not been dry for too long.
Of course, being free, I assume the quality is not going to be perfect, possibly a
zymurgy work in progress. (Open Source Beer...???)
I would certainly like to find this fountain of free beer that people mention.
Let us all in on the secret.
Tell Richard Stallman too. Then he can give up the pepsi for something that's
easier on the pancreas and doesn't go to the waistline as much.
The summary says javascript flaw, then it says java.
??
Why not ask Marvin Minsky.
I learned a lot by reading his stuff.
I disagree with some of the limits he puts on things but he certainly has the behavioural
aspects categorized.
He probably knows some bright prospects.
It'd be nice to see Marvin's site slashdotted...
http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/
When 19 out of 24 *VOTE NO* to a proposed standard
and it still passes, there's something wrong in
Norway.
The simplest answer is usually the best answer.
It's always interesting when a piece like this comes out.
"Sure you hate Microsoft now. You didn't used to.
Why don't you crazy kids patch things up and get back together?"
Like they think I'm going to rush out and buy Vista
for nostalgic love reasons.
MIT is a well advertised product.
The reason MIT has tuition prices as high as it does is because
MIT has convinced the public that those prices are warranted in
some way. Whether that message is true or not is subject to debate
like any other chewing gum, car, or salable item.
Let's be honest, if it were *ALL ABOUT EDUCATION* then
the advertising flyer could be a photocopy on recycled
news print instead of glossy color on high grade bond.
As long as people came out knowing how to engineer, do
science, etc., 'who the heck cares what the flyer looks like?'.
The reality is that the 'BIG NEWS' stories that come out of
MIT are a small proportion of the overall student population.
In fact, if one were to do a statistical analysis of the student
population at MIT showing what percentages of the students were
the cream of the crop, what students are really only just average,
and and which students should not have bothered to go to college
at all, you would find that the distribution of those groups
is relatively the same as any other major educational institution.
If you are already able to teach yourself a subject that you are
interested in, and simply wish to be mentored, you are *SMARTER*
to use your money and resources wisely. Wise use of your resources
is the first skill of any successful person.
If you do an analysis of where you can be, financially speaking,
by getting your degree at a more reasonably priced facility, rather
than getting into huge debt, you will find that your life will
accelerate faster by concentrating on the content of your education
rather than the location.
Suppose for a moment that you took 1/4 of the monies allocated
by your parents and placed it with a reputable investment firm.
Base your institutional targets on the money you have left, resisting
loans and the 'theory' of excess, (perhaps do a co-op term or two)
and then, once finished, take the money you have saved and start a
business of your own. You will be younger, faster, more agile, and
superior to Google, MS, or any other company out there. Why? Because
by that time, they will all be old fuddies who no longer 'Get It'
(Some already are), and you will be the young gun in town.
I suggest that you should put more stock in your own ability to learn
and less in the public perception/delusion of an institution with nice
glossy flyers. If they spent less on the flyers the tuition could be lower.
"We've had much better luck with (for example) the Joel on
Software job boards, but that still doesn't generate enough volume."
Maybe there really isn't that much volume.
The thing about the 'bell curve' is that most of the
part of the curve that is really above average is
really thin. (ie: low population)
Pay reasonable money and give people some downtime
and you'll get 'geek share'.
Just curious, but if the US Trade and Patent Office is
allowing such stupid patents, why isn't anyone suing them
for that harmful stupidity?
Seems more to the point to kick the 'weak link' in the balls
than to chase around every shoe-shine in the town.
We already have technology to turn carbon dioxide into raw carbon.
I thought the United States of America was a *FREE*
(as in FREEDOM) country. It's a bit disconcerting
to see a bunch of weak knee-jerk politicians quickly errode
the very freedoms that made the US a shining light in the
developed world.
The very things that people were attempting to escape
by creating the U.S. as a country, as opposed to a colony,
are now completely backward from the way they were designed.
Religious freedom (freedom of thought and assembly), freedom of
the press and expression, freedom to move around the country
and the world. Now everyone needs to kiss bourgoise/royal/government
ass.
What next, fricken arm bands for the undesirables?!!!
OpenBEOS !!!???? .....oh..., it's BIOS.....
Oh my goodness, is it 64 bit? I can hardly wait!!!
Awe, shucks!
Don't go in there! That's where the giant spiders live!
If you make them mad it's game over for all of us!
Look! Wasn't that a green jet of gas coming form the surface of mars?
I guess the chances of anyting living on mars are maybe...a million to one.
I doubt that any self respecting terrorist is going to
expend resources making a web page that spiders can crawl.
Here's a hint:
Terrorist #1 sets up a WIFI home network with
limited external access and **no connection** to the
internet.
Non of the terrorists really want to know each other
since that would make them easier to find if one got caught.
All the other terrorists require is a GPS location relatively
close to the hot-spot. Not even the street address.
They park, or slow down,the car at the GPS coordinates, get some instructions
via WIFI ssh, and drive on.
How's a web spider going to find that?
The authorities would be better off looking for *extra powerful*
WIFI hot-spots.
Here's another hint:
Facsimile over dual channel FRS radio. Same as above
except the interchange is FAX.
Go get em boys!!!
Depending on the type of single engine aircraft he would have
2 to 5 hours of duration.
An article suggests that he told a friend that he would return by noon.
He left at 9 A.M.
If he only took enough fuel to get to his waypoint and return then
his total expected duration would be 3 hours.
This means his expected outbound waypoint should be within 1.5 hours
of departure.
If he's flying something like a cessna 170, his top speed is ~140 MPH.
If we calculate for 160 MPH to take into account either foolhardiness
or massive tail wind, his maximum distance should be in a circular radius
of 240 miles.
From that information he could be almost anywhere in Nevada.
He could be in California. Or he may have made it as far as
Arizona, Utah, Idaho, or Washington.
It would be easiest to find him by reading his day-timer,
checking his old phone messages, looking in his car, and phoning
everyone he knows (friends/family/recent business) and mapping
their positions. Perhaps his most frequent destinations from previous
flight plans would also help.
This should reduce the search area substantially and possibly give
some insights into what he may have been doing/thinking when he left.
There doesn't appear to be any mention of technical details
regarding aircraft type, fuel purchase, or his heading after takeoff.
I always wonder about the 'Us vs. Them' kind of angle
in stories.
Is it really a problem if the United States isn't the
defacto world leader in everything.
The world isn't going to end if China is able to
defend itself against some completely theoretical threat.
When it comes to economic prowess the U.S. is slowly sliding
into economic obscurity. With that change, the U.S. ability
to fund a huge military will also dry up. It's completely
predictable when the unrecoverable level of U.S. debit
is taken into account. Technology comes from both necessity
and ingenuity. The need for spending money to make new
weapons systems will be superceded by the most basic needs
of the U.S. population.
This is likely a good thing. Less pressure to compete with
the U.S. level of per capita military spending will allow
other nations to also make reductions. This will include
China.
With the U.S. no longer a big economic and military
force in the world it will become less of a focus for
psychotic pseudo-religious morons like Al Queda, etc..
The thing that has historically caused the most problems
for the U.S. is the periodically insular eruption of
the 'Us Vs. Them' mentality.
It's NOT us vs. them. It's all of us in the same boat
and we need to find ways to fix it up and keep it afloat.
Otherwise, all the electronic warfare technology in the
universe won't mean anything. There won't be any power to
plug it into.
"US Tries to take on China in Cyber Warfare Tech"
This is what that headline should read.
By population; if the United States has 10,000
people with math and electrical engineering degrees
working on electronic-warfare technology. China by scale
would have 100,000 people with similar accreditation
working on the same stuff. The Chinese also import
technologies from many other nations as well.
Statistically speaking, who do you think would win
this type of arms race?
If electronic warfare is such a threat,
why not try using a pencil and paper?
If you're looking for a complete change of scenery
why not try part time horticulture or agriculture.
If you decide you like
being out doors and working growing plants and/or animals
you couls expand into full time.
Most green houses and animal barns are now automated
in some way. There's room for improvement though.
It's more of a lifestyle than a business, but it
has it's perks. ie: free food.
Cooking is low paid but can be interesting.
Once again, free food.
I made a database to calculate recipies for
huge batches of muffins for a big bakery.
This indicates that there is room for
technical improvements in that field.
Just taking stock and tracking products in these fields
are huge IT projects.
Yes, I agree. There are huge glossing statements that make
it sound like google actually acquires data.
This engineer has only a vague idea of how airborne and satellite
imaging work.
After 28 years education counts for nothing next to experience.
The experience *IS* the education after that period of time.
Academic credits, while indicative of what a persons interest are and
on what genre of expertise they have focused, are *NOT* an indication
of level of skill or competence.
Universities and Colleges are businesses selling a *PRODUCT*. Just because
I drive a specific type of car doesn't make me a Formula 1 driver. Likewise
being able to afford to attend math at MIT doesn't make me any better at
understanding hermitian polynomials or even basic statistics for that matter.
There are numerous people out there with doctorates that are
completely incompetent in thier chosen fields of expertise.
Their accreditation only shows that they can jump through hoops,
play the system, and generally keep thier grades above a pass.