What is rare. In an infinite universe, even a rare planet is replicated an infinite amount of times. Or if you prefer to not get all LSD about it, if you consider that X is a value that the number of total planets, and that Y is a subset of X which are "rare". Even given a ridiculous low value for Y, it is certainly countered by a ridiculous high value for X. Which when you think about it is really moot, as when you look at the possible theoretical distances involved between such entities, for all intents and purposes they might as well not exist other than a mental exercise as our ability to interact with them is so closing with the approximately NIL as to be sad and depressing.
So are there plenty of earth like planets floating out there supporting life. Defiantly! However more importantly, whats your point, and is that actually useful information at all?
Ya, I remember upgrading my 286 4Mhz computer with a 20MB! HD. I remember thinking when DOOM2 took up 500k that there is no way I am ever going to fill this thing!:)
I did COBOL in university back in the day. I also did C and Pascal and VB, and a host of others (even assembly).
When I wrote in C and Pascal, the Professor cared about elegance. I recall they really seemed to dig recursive algorithms as being good (given situations).
COBOL seemed more about structure, and having things... "consistent". I recall for my final project, I thought I was being smart by doing a few recursive algorithms within the program. I actually LOST marks for doing so.
VB didn't really care so long as your widget did what it was supposed to do, and the GUI looked good.
So I think programming "Flaws" are relative to what language you are using, or at least that was how I seemed to be taught.
In addition to the aforementioned postulation that that different languages are meant to do different things, and that COBOL has had 30 years of maintenance and work to fix problems, I think it is worth mentioning that COBOL was generally done a long time ago, while Java is recent. By that I mean a lot has changed over time as to how programs are constructed, maintained, and the culture is vastly different now. I mean everything now seems to be released in Alpha, Beta, and just patched until it works properly. Back when doing that was a fairly big deal to change, you wanted to get it right the first time I would imagine, so a lot more care may have gone into the code. Projects are generally bigger now I would say as well, increasing complexity and difficulty as well. Where before you may have had a small team, now you have whole companies, many with overseas contracting etc... Also anyone can go to their local college and pick up a course in Java, where as back in the day, one likely had to have a more complete education (say in Computer Science) in order to have that training. Now in today's business, they just hire the cheapest labor, as no one really looks beyond a quarter or two these days. I would say in most cases they don't really care about getting it done proper, but rather doing it as quickly and cheaply and getting it out the door, they intend to fix all the problems later on.
I still have the microwave my parents gave me to go to university back in 1995. It was their first, which they had for years. I just made pizza pockets in it for lunch today. Yes it has an actual dial. People suggest that I should probably be wearing some sort of lead apron when using it, but it seems to work just fine to me.
My calculations indicate if we take known data (I would argue our space faring expertise hasn't gotten all that better since the 70's) and project it to a distance of 600 light years (and this doesn't even take into consideration deceleration), it would take about 14 million years just to smash into the planet.
or about 14,000 millenniums, which technically is many, but I would suggest that word isn't quite strong enough.
Heck, at best given we have some fantastic magic alien detection device that travels the speed of light, all we can do is say that 600 years in the PAST there was alien life.
Hell, if you can build a device that can detect if HUMAN life here on earth will still be here 600 years from now, you are probably doing pretty good!
Just think about it. Imagine sending a signal 600 years ago, and now trying to receive that result, I mean the technological differences would be immense!
So in short, the Air Force is dumb. But hey if they want to give money to SETI I am all for it!:) Its probably more useful way to spend money anyway than those F35's!;)
It would have been a bit funny, after a particular epic part, or moving dialog, if ship officers got into the tubolift and just stood there awkwardly, staring at the walls or floor, waiting to get to destination, while cheesy music plays. Extra points if it actually has to stop somewhere a long the way and pick up a red shit or something...
Apple is not a hardware company. Sure they may have contributed to the design of the A5, but it isn't like they make or design from the bottom up processing chips. They have used a host of different manufactures for different pieces, from Motorola, to Intel, etc... Pretty sure the A5 was an ARM build to order produced by some Fab.
If Apple really wants to, and can design for it, they can just start using nVIDIA chips. I am sure nVIDIA would be more than happy to sell licenses to Apple!
Its been mentioned before, that Apple is more about providing an experience or service using software, than it is about building physical objects (though sure they put a lot of design into the construction, its just that they don't actually build ALL the components...)
Yeah "gouge" might be too strong a word. Elevated prices due to limited competition is likely a better way to put it. At best when AMD was even at its height and enthusiasts argued hotly which was better, AMD only had a marginal market share, mostly due to the big box stores such as Dell, Gateway (remember them, whatever happened to them), and the rest being reluctant to move away from Intel (I also recall some shady trade practices by Intel at the time also).
In any case, even though limited, the competition was good for a time, and did drive better processors and prices. Only now those savings are only really available for businesses, and basically "Net" computers (though even that has expanded use since back in the day). So while the 2500K is the best bang for buck I would agree, it costs about 210-240$ depending where you shop, and maybe just maybe if AMD had anything worthwhile (like a Bulldozer that doesn't suck) those prices might be sub-200$.
"Our strategy is to accelerate our growth by taking advantage of our design capabilities to deliver a breadth of products that best align with broader industry shifts toward low power, emerging markets and the cloud."
We will continue to make chips for servers, and low end crap. We can't compete with Intel for the consumer market in the short to medium term, however we are still relevant in business circles.
Consumers prepared to be gouged by Intel as soon as they figure this out. Also other than to just "say it" this has been the truth for some time, years in fact. I don't know if it is AMD stumbling or Intel just continuing to hit home runs, but there hasn't exactly been a whole lot of competition since the days of the ye old Athlon 64 series of processors. Ever since Intel came out with the Core 2 Duo, AMD has been unable to come up with an answer. Perhaps it had something to do with diversifying by buying up ATI, diverting capitol or focus away from core business. Ironically the AMD/ATI brand of video cards has a better reputation than the AMD CPU division, if only my opinion...
One I was thinking of the other day. Suppose hypothetically that you accidentally discovered a new free energy source by yourself. Unfortunately for you, you also discover that it can be turned into the most destructive force known to man, with the ability to destroy the world. Now what do you do with the information? Who to you tell, who do you trust? Do you trust your own government?
Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader. [Vader walks toward Motti, then slowly raises his hand] Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes [begins to sound strained] or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebels' hidden fort- [grasps his throat as if he is being choked]
[laughs] Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.
Personally my favorite is the Robot Chicken where the Empire fleet officers pretend that Vader actually had the ability to force choke people. You show me a religion that can force choke, has telekinesis, and the ability to shoot lightning out of my hands and I'll be the first to sign up. These ones with no proof and lots of faith, not so much.
Slashdot Mirror
What is rare. In an infinite universe, even a rare planet is replicated an infinite amount of times. Or if you prefer to not get all LSD about it, if you consider that X is a value that the number of total planets, and that Y is a subset of X which are "rare". Even given a ridiculous low value for Y, it is certainly countered by a ridiculous high value for X. Which when you think about it is really moot, as when you look at the possible theoretical distances involved between such entities, for all intents and purposes they might as well not exist other than a mental exercise as our ability to interact with them is so closing with the approximately NIL as to be sad and depressing.
So are there plenty of earth like planets floating out there supporting life. Defiantly! However more importantly, whats your point, and is that actually useful information at all?
Ya, I remember upgrading my 286 4Mhz computer with a 20MB! HD. I remember thinking when DOOM2 took up 500k that there is no way I am ever going to fill this thing! :)
I'll be programming the navigation system on your space shuttle using VB6. Have a nice trip! :)
I did COBOL in university back in the day. I also did C and Pascal and VB, and a host of others (even assembly).
When I wrote in C and Pascal, the Professor cared about elegance. I recall they really seemed to dig recursive algorithms as being good (given situations).
COBOL seemed more about structure, and having things... "consistent". I recall for my final project, I thought I was being smart by doing a few recursive algorithms within the program. I actually LOST marks for doing so.
VB didn't really care so long as your widget did what it was supposed to do, and the GUI looked good.
So I think programming "Flaws" are relative to what language you are using, or at least that was how I seemed to be taught.
In addition to the aforementioned postulation that that different languages are meant to do different things, and that COBOL has had 30 years of maintenance and work to fix problems, I think it is worth mentioning that COBOL was generally done a long time ago, while Java is recent. By that I mean a lot has changed over time as to how programs are constructed, maintained, and the culture is vastly different now. I mean everything now seems to be released in Alpha, Beta, and just patched until it works properly. Back when doing that was a fairly big deal to change, you wanted to get it right the first time I would imagine, so a lot more care may have gone into the code. Projects are generally bigger now I would say as well, increasing complexity and difficulty as well. Where before you may have had a small team, now you have whole companies, many with overseas contracting etc... Also anyone can go to their local college and pick up a course in Java, where as back in the day, one likely had to have a more complete education (say in Computer Science) in order to have that training. Now in today's business, they just hire the cheapest labor, as no one really looks beyond a quarter or two these days. I would say in most cases they don't really care about getting it done proper, but rather doing it as quickly and cheaply and getting it out the door, they intend to fix all the problems later on.
Quit trying to give China the moral high ground!
I still have the microwave my parents gave me to go to university back in 1995. It was their first, which they had for years. I just made pizza pockets in it for lunch today. Yes it has an actual dial. People suggest that I should probably be wearing some sort of lead apron when using it, but it seems to work just fine to me.
That's only because it is impossible to prove that someone can live forever.
I think if a whole fucking country just dissapeared, you would have bigger issues than foreign policy and censorship.
No. Professional just means you get PAID to do it.
One hell of an insurance claim...
What do you mean cannonballs are not covered!
We have only made one object that has left our solar system. It took 33 years to do so. It is less than 15 light minutes away.
http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/12/07/2127247/voyager-1-exits-our-solar-system
Millennium refers to 1000 years.
My calculations indicate if we take known data (I would argue our space faring expertise hasn't gotten all that better since the 70's) and project it to a distance of 600 light years (and this doesn't even take into consideration deceleration), it would take about 14 million years just to smash into the planet.
or about 14,000 millenniums, which technically is many, but I would suggest that word isn't quite strong enough.
Heck, at best given we have some fantastic magic alien detection device that travels the speed of light, all we can do is say that 600 years in the PAST there was alien life.
Hell, if you can build a device that can detect if HUMAN life here on earth will still be here 600 years from now, you are probably doing pretty good!
Just think about it. Imagine sending a signal 600 years ago, and now trying to receive that result, I mean the technological differences would be immense!
So in short, the Air Force is dumb. But hey if they want to give money to SETI I am all for it! :) Its probably more useful way to spend money anyway than those F35's! ;)
Bulk packages of crap I don't care about to get one channel.
Can we get inexpensive a la cart channel selection already!
Because if you don't/can't be prepared to be eaten alive by Netflix.
It would have been a bit funny, after a particular epic part, or moving dialog, if ship officers got into the tubolift and just stood there awkwardly, staring at the walls or floor, waiting to get to destination, while cheesy music plays. Extra points if it actually has to stop somewhere a long the way and pick up a red shit or something...
Get the banner out...
Mission Accomplished! :)
So Mexico is Israel? Don't both parties need nuclear weapons to have a cold war?
bc most sane countries spend about 2%. Only places like Libya and North Korea spend that sort of GDP on military.
Apple is not a hardware company. Sure they may have contributed to the design of the A5, but it isn't like they make or design from the bottom up processing chips. They have used a host of different manufactures for different pieces, from Motorola, to Intel, etc... Pretty sure the A5 was an ARM build to order produced by some Fab.
If Apple really wants to, and can design for it, they can just start using nVIDIA chips. I am sure nVIDIA would be more than happy to sell licenses to Apple!
Its been mentioned before, that Apple is more about providing an experience or service using software, than it is about building physical objects (though sure they put a lot of design into the construction, its just that they don't actually build ALL the components...)
maybe the 560 Ti's will come down in price to that magical 150-175$ threshold to which I refuse to spend over for a video card.
Wait... we were talking about Wall Street Bankers right?
So does that pretty much say that the new 3rd generation Xbox is going to be released for 2013-2014?
Yeah "gouge" might be too strong a word. Elevated prices due to limited competition is likely a better way to put it. At best when AMD was even at its height and enthusiasts argued hotly which was better, AMD only had a marginal market share, mostly due to the big box stores such as Dell, Gateway (remember them, whatever happened to them), and the rest being reluctant to move away from Intel (I also recall some shady trade practices by Intel at the time also).
In any case, even though limited, the competition was good for a time, and did drive better processors and prices. Only now those savings are only really available for businesses, and basically "Net" computers (though even that has expanded use since back in the day). So while the 2500K is the best bang for buck I would agree, it costs about 210-240$ depending where you shop, and maybe just maybe if AMD had anything worthwhile (like a Bulldozer that doesn't suck) those prices might be sub-200$.
"Our strategy is to accelerate our growth by taking advantage of our design capabilities to deliver a breadth of products that best align with broader industry shifts toward low power, emerging markets and the cloud."
We will continue to make chips for servers, and low end crap. We can't compete with Intel for the consumer market in the short to medium term, however we are still relevant in business circles.
Consumers prepared to be gouged by Intel as soon as they figure this out. Also other than to just "say it" this has been the truth for some time, years in fact. I don't know if it is AMD stumbling or Intel just continuing to hit home runs, but there hasn't exactly been a whole lot of competition since the days of the ye old Athlon 64 series of processors. Ever since Intel came out with the Core 2 Duo, AMD has been unable to come up with an answer. Perhaps it had something to do with diversifying by buying up ATI, diverting capitol or focus away from core business. Ironically the AMD/ATI brand of video cards has a better reputation than the AMD CPU division, if only my opinion...
I suppose having limitless energy might help in that regard also.
Sort of reminds me of the movie Pandorum.
Recorded Voice: You're all that's left of us. Good luck, God bless, and God's speed.
One I was thinking of the other day. Suppose hypothetically that you accidentally discovered a new free energy source by yourself. Unfortunately for you, you also discover that it can be turned into the most destructive force known to man, with the ability to destroy the world. Now what do you do with the information? Who to you tell, who do you trust? Do you trust your own government?
Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader. [Vader walks toward Motti, then slowly raises his hand] Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes [begins to sound strained] or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebels' hidden fort- [grasps his throat as if he is being choked]
[laughs] Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.
Personally my favorite is the Robot Chicken where the Empire fleet officers pretend that Vader actually had the ability to force choke people.
You show me a religion that can force choke, has telekinesis, and the ability to shoot lightning out of my hands and I'll be the first to sign up.
These ones with no proof and lots of faith, not so much.