If you RTFA:) it pretty much describes the stomata as cellular automata as in the game of life where they operate by simple rules based on their neighbours. The result is emergent behaviour that is computation. Pretty clever.
Makes me wonder if forests also act like this as well... forests are very old, in fact the rainforests of Australia have existed since well before the breakup of Gondwana and are probably 100 million years old and trees do signal one another via chemical messages I recall.
I think of SCO as one of those bugs that enters a pitcher plant. It seems so easy at first and the smell of so much nectar is irresistable. But, then they find that the sides are slippery and there are hairs/spikes preventing them going backwards. They have to go forwards... to their destruction. I guess to use another metaphor they think that if they hit this problem at high enough speed they'll have escape velocity or something... maybe to the Bahamas. Personally, I think they're just plain screwed and panicing.
Back in the '60s I read some stuff by Arthur C. Clarke on these nuclear powered rockets. So I wondered if my local state library (Library of NSW)knew anything. So went in and did a search. And amazingly came across detailed diagrams (as in draughting plans by NASA) etc for a nuclear rocket using gas pumped through the core as the exhaust. It was a geek's dream come true. However, it was quite obvious and known to the writers that this also posed a huge risk. It was soooo compelling... go to Mars in a couple of weeks from Earth liftoff.. hmmm. Though the launch pad and environs might glow a bit in the dark if there was any ablation from the core.
Exactly true. I used to have to run some Lotus classes at the time, apart from the PC support, programming etc etc. And when the ordinary guys learnt about 123 their first reaction was to go out and buy a PC. Then try and dig up some shitty excuse to the wife/husband/SO to validate it. 1-2-3 really sold the PC. I could do complicated stuff on lotus literally with my eyes shut back then... the horror, but I recovered.
I think similarly OpenOffice will sell open source and Linux (indirectly) once it gets a bit of critical mass. Perhaps IBM will supply that critical mass... especially if they decide that they prefer their documents as SXW format (not likely, but if you're IBM you can make these things happen).
Re:I like Baxter, but...
on
Coalescent
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Errr... and then lose because they were second best.
One problem with this scheme is that since programmers are now accountable then they and their companies are likely open to lawsuits. Which means developing software in the US becomes very very expensive.
Even if there are no lawsuits the sudden reduction in available programmers (just how quickly can all those current developers be licensed anyway?) means salaries go through the roof and many developers are unemployed and suddenly a lot of software becomes vapourware for the next 5 years. Ok, yeah exagerating a bit, but not much. I'm not an American, but I can't seeing it doing the US a whole lotta good. So many talented developers would be too young too broke (how much does licensing cost ?) or not have the experience / quals to get a license.
Seems we've had more success with Venus than Mars. Maybe its just the prolonged period of cold and then the need to fire the systems up with a cold machine. I don't know anything in detail about the missions so I'm just guessing. Or maybe we've just become a little sloppy and stopped thinking that amazing achievements like this require extraordinary effort at all levels.
Gees what do they teach people in school these days. Nope, not much gamma from the sun and even so it would act like the mag fields were not even there since those mag fields only affect charged particles. Sorry, but to be blunt you have no idea what you are talking about. The original poster is right on the money.
Just a note. Strangely the Sydney Morning Herald web site often has links from the front page to Linux and even Linux vs SCO articles. The articles tend to be pro Open Source mostly. Unusually savvy for a mainstream major paper, in Oz anyway.
All this suggests to me that they have lost most their technical talent or they aren't talking to them at all. This is management driven technical knowhow... in other words, pull something out of your arse and call it fact.
Fantasy is the the most flexible genre because it can encompass Norse stuff and Star Wars. But settling for a sub-genre seems a bit limiting. If you look at the amount of effort required to create a new sub-genre then it is very daunting. Tolkien practically created modern fantasy by doing all the legwork of language, myths etc. Someone needs to go back to scratch and do something similar. Ug. What comes to mind is the frightening amount of work that, for example, the people doing Orion's Arm have put into it.
Um. Not an expert in this stuff but awhile back I read an interesting book on the history of dark age England and they mentioned that the Venerable Bede (8th century) and the earlier Gildas (6th century) who lived shortly after the events described how Vortigern allowed the Germanic Englisci into Britain as mercenaries and how a war then ensued between them and the Britons. The writers state that the Britons (really the Romanised inhabitants left high and dry after Rome fell) were pushed back but that a leader arose called Arturus who fought successfully but was finally defeated by internal intrigue. Bede went on and on about how the plotters screwed Britain. Sounds like a model for Camelot. I don't know how accurate this all was, the book was pretty scholarly describing in detail the spread of things like buckle designs of Germanic origin at the time etc. Pretty interesting though showing a very different view of the "Dark Ages".
Google around for vortigern bede gildas arthur and you'll see plenty of stuff. For example.
One little quote on that page (which is later but Bede mentions Arthur too):
"The Battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ for three days and three nights on his shoulders and the Britons were the victors."
But don't forget that what Fedora is for. To be the bleeding edge, the cannon fodder for Enterprise. However, I welcome the chance to be Fedora cannon fodder. Hmmmm... 2.6.
Well I'm glad they got him because he's an A-grade arsehole. But starting a war means your going to end up losing some or many of your own people... and there are lots and lots of arseholes in the world who need invading. Mugabe in Zimbabwe comes immediately to mind. Invading just makes trouble for yourself unless you have a very good reason. Saddam had nothing, or very little, to do with 9/11 but the Taliban and Osama did. And does anyone really believe the US invaded Iraq for WMD ? Come on it was so obvious from the beginning, they kept changing tack all the time as if these were just public excuses. I'd turn rant mode off now but being Slashdot that functionality is not implemented.
For algorithm stuff its better on an old computer because you can see the big difference in efficiencies. Implementing different algorithms in a learning environment really has impact when one version runs for say a minute and then a different implementation runs in 5 seconds. The natural response is "Wow"... and you remember it. Though of course you could just increase the complexity for a faster computer, but perhaps not if you have to create data for it.
I mean just think about if for a second. Glowing fish. Now how long do you think you're going to survive if you're glowing like a neon sign saying "Eat Me" (this is where Slashdot should support the blink tag:). Bioluminescent fish do exist yes, but they can turn it off at times of danger (from what I remember)... these fish can't... they are evolutionary mistakes. Selection of the fittest will take care of it. Mind you I'm very wary of importing fish etc because what seems like a harmless thing can end up in your rivers as a self reproducing curse... but that's almost another issue.
Amazing. Many thanks. I didn't realise that about Knuth. Now we know who the Waterhouse character is based on. Makes me think I should read The Art of Programming properly and not just read chunks here and there (otherwise I would have known about his organ interests).
Where is the energy coming to extract the atoms, move them create the chemical bonds move the nanites etc etc. I think we will get nanotech but a lot of the nanotech postulated just seems like modern day alchemy... just wishing for a magic wand. Reality check required I think. And don't forget the amount of information required to position all those atoms to duplicate the Ferrari, where is it stored, what about inter-nanite co-ordination and communication... argg. More likely there will be nano facilities (as in 'factories') that will make components for robot assembly, but just a bunch of nanites building stuff forget it... look at bacteria for a model and see what they can and cannot do, they are highly sophisticated nano machines.
Well in the era of Trusted Driving you will require an activation key to start your car delivered by Wifi to one only car. If more than one car requests it then none are supplied. Hmmm. Disturbingly that doesn't even seem like a joke.:(
I know this might seem like an obvious thing to say but looking at the guy's website don't you think he has the coolest job ? I mean here he has been in space, does lots of python, has lots of money to support open source and interest in it and has some nice ideas.
Apart from that the money incentive is fun. I mean I remember years back working on posed magazine programming problems that had nominal cash rewards... but the race and the reward were so appealling I put lots of effort into it. $50 is plenty to get this kind of interest.
Agree partly. I couldn't read the Hobbit at all after I read LotR. But I started reading The Hobbit to my kids to get them into it, and I discovered that the book is meant to be read aloud... there seems to be a lot of poetry in the book when it is spoken that you miss if you just read it by yourself.
Maybe as a movie some of that effect would come out.
Always thought it should be a long mini-series. Though how to develop some of the stories would be difficult. I mean in the Silmarillion everything is hooked into everything else... the whole book was meant for hypertext. You can't explain one thing without explaining half a dozen other things. Hmmm. But it is very very very cool. I always wondered what the Battle of Unnumbered Tears would have been like on screen with Morgoth attacking with an army of Balrogs and dragons. But my favourite is Beren and Luthien which I have always considered a far better story than the LotR. But its such a bittersweet book, like the basic stuff of LotR concentrated... comparing brandy to wine.
In the real world however it aint gonna happen. Christopher Tolkien is known for being an arsehole on these kind of issues. I mean he kicked his son out of the family because he liked the idea of Peter Jackson making the movies. JRR sold the rights for LotR but not for the Silmarillion (of course since Christopher has his name on the book as well). Oh well.
Slashdot Mirror
If you RTFA :) it pretty much describes the stomata as cellular automata as in the game of life where they operate by simple rules based on their neighbours. The result is emergent behaviour that is computation. Pretty clever.
Makes me wonder if forests also act like this as well ... forests are very old, in fact the rainforests of Australia have existed since well before the breakup of Gondwana and are probably 100 million years old and trees do signal one another via chemical messages I recall.
I think of SCO as one of those bugs that enters a pitcher plant. It seems so easy at first and the smell of so much nectar is irresistable. But, then they find that the sides are slippery and there are hairs/spikes preventing them going backwards. They have to go forwards ... to their destruction. I guess to use another metaphor they think that if they hit this problem at high enough speed they'll have escape velocity or something ... maybe to the Bahamas. Personally, I think they're just plain screwed and panicing.
Back in the '60s I read some stuff by Arthur C. Clarke on these nuclear powered rockets. So I wondered if my local state library (Library of NSW)knew anything. So went in and did a search. And amazingly came across detailed diagrams (as in draughting plans by NASA) etc for a nuclear rocket using gas pumped through the core as the exhaust. It was a geek's dream come true. However, it was quite obvious and known to the writers that this also posed a huge risk. It was soooo compelling ... go to Mars in a couple of weeks from Earth liftoff.. hmmm. Though the launch pad and environs might glow a bit in the dark if there was any ablation from the core.
Damn!
First sensible thing I've seen posted on this discussion.
Exactly true. I used to have to run some Lotus classes at the time, apart from the PC support, programming etc etc. And when the ordinary guys learnt about 123 their first reaction was to go out and buy a PC. Then try and dig up some shitty excuse to the wife/husband/SO to validate it. 1-2-3 really sold the PC. I could do complicated stuff on lotus literally with my eyes shut back then ... the horror, but I recovered.
I think similarly OpenOffice will sell open source and Linux (indirectly) once it gets a bit of critical mass. Perhaps IBM will supply that critical mass ... especially if they decide that they prefer their documents as SXW format (not likely, but if you're IBM you can make these things happen).
Errr ... and then lose because they were second best.
Don't bet on it.
One problem with this scheme is that since programmers are now accountable then they and their companies are likely open to lawsuits. Which means developing software in the US becomes very very expensive.
Even if there are no lawsuits the sudden reduction in available programmers (just how quickly can all those current developers be licensed anyway?) means salaries go through the roof and many developers are unemployed and suddenly a lot of software becomes vapourware for the next 5 years. Ok, yeah exagerating a bit, but not much. I'm not an American, but I can't seeing it doing the US a whole lotta good. So many talented developers would be too young too broke (how much does licensing cost ?) or not have the experience / quals to get a license.
Its a dumb idea.
Seems we've had more success with Venus than Mars. Maybe its just the prolonged period of cold and then the need to fire the systems up with a cold machine. I don't know anything in detail about the missions so I'm just guessing. Or maybe we've just become a little sloppy and stopped thinking that amazing achievements like this require extraordinary effort at all levels.
Gees what do they teach people in school these days. Nope, not much gamma from the sun and even so it would act like the mag fields were not even there since those mag fields only affect charged particles. Sorry, but to be blunt you have no idea what you are talking about. The original poster is right on the money.
Just a note. Strangely the Sydney Morning Herald web site often has links from the front page to Linux and even Linux vs SCO articles. The articles tend to be pro Open Source mostly. Unusually savvy for a mainstream major paper, in Oz anyway.
All this suggests to me that they have lost most their technical talent or they aren't talking to them at all. This is management driven technical knowhow ... in other words, pull something out of your arse and call it fact.
Fantasy is the the most flexible genre because it can encompass Norse stuff and Star Wars. But settling for a sub-genre seems a bit limiting. If you look at the amount of effort required to create a new sub-genre then it is very daunting. Tolkien practically created modern fantasy by doing all the legwork of language, myths etc. Someone needs to go back to scratch and do something similar. Ug. What comes to mind is the frightening amount of work that, for example, the people doing Orion's Arm have put into it.
Um. Not an expert in this stuff but awhile back I read an interesting book on the history of dark age England and they mentioned that the Venerable Bede (8th century) and the earlier Gildas (6th century) who lived shortly after the events described how Vortigern allowed the Germanic Englisci into Britain as mercenaries and how a war then ensued between them and the Britons. The writers state that the Britons (really the Romanised inhabitants left high and dry after Rome fell) were pushed back but that a leader arose called Arturus who fought successfully but was finally defeated by internal intrigue. Bede went on and on about how the plotters screwed Britain. Sounds like a model for Camelot. I don't know how accurate this all was, the book was pretty scholarly describing in detail the spread of things like buckle designs of Germanic origin at the time etc. Pretty interesting though showing a very different view of the "Dark Ages".
Google around for vortigern bede gildas arthur and you'll see plenty of stuff. For example.
One little quote on that page (which is later but Bede mentions Arthur too):
But don't forget that what Fedora is for. To be the bleeding edge, the cannon fodder for Enterprise. However, I welcome the chance to be Fedora cannon fodder. Hmmmm ... 2.6.
Well I'm glad they got him because he's an A-grade arsehole. But starting a war means your going to end up losing some or many of your own people ... and there are lots and lots of arseholes in the world who need invading. Mugabe in Zimbabwe comes immediately to mind. Invading just makes trouble for yourself unless you have a very good reason. Saddam had nothing, or very little, to do with 9/11 but the Taliban and Osama did. And does anyone really believe the US invaded Iraq for WMD ? Come on it was so obvious from the beginning, they kept changing tack all the time as if these were just public excuses. I'd turn rant mode off now but being Slashdot that functionality is not implemented.
OK. Feel much better now.
For algorithm stuff its better on an old computer because you can see the big difference in efficiencies. Implementing different algorithms in a learning environment really has impact when one version runs for say a minute and then a different implementation runs in 5 seconds. The natural response is "Wow" ... and you remember it. Though of course you could just increase the complexity for a faster computer, but perhaps not if you have to create data for it.
I don't really see the problem here.
I mean just think about if for a second. Glowing fish. Now how long do you think you're going to survive if you're glowing like a neon sign saying "Eat Me" (this is where Slashdot should support the blink tag :). Bioluminescent fish do exist yes, but they can turn it off at times of danger (from what I remember) ... these fish can't ... they are evolutionary mistakes. Selection of the fittest will take care of it. Mind you I'm very wary of importing fish etc because what seems like a harmless thing can end up in your rivers as a self reproducing curse ... but that's almost another issue.
Amazing. Many thanks. I didn't realise that about Knuth. Now we know who the Waterhouse character is based on. Makes me think I should read The Art of Programming properly and not just read chunks here and there (otherwise I would have known about his organ interests).
The first thing I thought when I saw the item was of the organ/computer in Cryptonomicon. Aside from that a very creative mix of old and new tech.
Where is the energy coming to extract the atoms, move them create the chemical bonds move the nanites etc etc. I think we will get nanotech but a lot of the nanotech postulated just seems like modern day alchemy ... just wishing for a magic wand. Reality check required I think. And don't forget the amount of information required to position all those atoms to duplicate the Ferrari, where is it stored, what about inter-nanite co-ordination and communication ... argg. More likely there will be nano facilities (as in 'factories') that will make components for robot assembly, but just a bunch of nanites building stuff forget it ... look at bacteria for a model and see what they can and cannot do, they are highly sophisticated nano machines.
Well in the era of Trusted Driving you will require an activation key to start your car delivered by Wifi to one only car. If more than one car requests it then none are supplied. Hmmm. Disturbingly that doesn't even seem like a joke. :(
I know this might seem like an obvious thing to say but looking at the guy's website don't you think he has the coolest job ? I mean here he has been in space, does lots of python, has lots of money to support open source and interest in it and has some nice ideas.
Apart from that the money incentive is fun. I mean I remember years back working on posed magazine programming problems that had nominal cash rewards ... but the race and the reward were so appealling I put lots of effort into it. $50 is plenty to get this kind of interest.
Agree partly. I couldn't read the Hobbit at all after I read LotR. But I started reading The Hobbit to my kids to get them into it, and I discovered that the book is meant to be read aloud ... there seems to be a lot of poetry in the book when it is spoken that you miss if you just read it by yourself.
Maybe as a movie some of that effect would come out.
Always thought it should be a long mini-series. Though how to develop some of the stories would be difficult. I mean in the Silmarillion everything is hooked into everything else ... the whole book was meant for hypertext. You can't explain one thing without explaining half a dozen other things. Hmmm. But it is very very very cool. I always wondered what the Battle of Unnumbered Tears would have been like on screen with Morgoth attacking with an army of Balrogs and dragons. But my favourite is Beren and Luthien which I have always considered a far better story than the LotR. But its such a bittersweet book, like the basic stuff of LotR concentrated ... comparing brandy to wine.
In the real world however it aint gonna happen. Christopher Tolkien is known for being an arsehole on these kind of issues. I mean he kicked his son out of the family because he liked the idea of Peter Jackson making the movies. JRR sold the rights for LotR but not for the Silmarillion (of course since Christopher has his name on the book as well). Oh well.
Although I kept thinking the author just couldn't remember the word "encourage".