Remember, however insignificant 4,000 people are compared to the tsunami, they are still 4,000 people, people who had families, lives and were americans who lived, worked and touched the lives of those around them. The tsunami was a natural disater, 9/11 was a deliberate attack with malicious intent. Even one person murdered is far to many to accept and ignore.
Back to the Basics of Writing
on
Ask Neal Stephenson
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
In the time of R.A. Heinlein, Zelanzny, Assimov, and the other cornerstone writers, people would read SF who would not normally read fiction set in a different world or fiction that required a suspension of disbelief simply because the books were well written, had good story lines and interesting social ideas. It seems that today, writers like that are increasingly rare. As a writer, what can be done to improve the standards of quality writing in the SF world, either by yourself or the community as a whole?
Then you have to worry about the puck being brittle. Boy, it would suck to have your multi-thousand dollar puck shatter in a gajillion pieces on the first volley!
Rambus Shambus. No matter how technologically advanced a new product is, it has to be accepted by the consumer, i.e., it has to sell well. Rambus simply does not convince enough people that their extra edge is worth the additional money. In order to use the RDRAM, you can't just toss it on you current system. You have to either upgrade your motherboard or buy a new system.
While it may be worth it for a lot of geeks and gamers or for high-end application users, the demand for this technology does not outweigh the cost it takes to make the upgrade.
Rambus could overcome this by increasing consumer awarenss by doing massive advertising or making their product more 'sexy.' That's still a long chance though, because they are trying to get the train of public opinion to jump the tracks...
Please, please don't tell the Marine Corps!!! It'll switch the focus from towelheads to raiding the towels and shower curtains! And if the Army finds out, who knows.......
When looking at America's enemies, we cannot plan for just the ones most visible in the CNN headlines such as low budget terrorists. There are old enemies left over from the cold war such as North Korea and China who do not have the compunction against using weapons of mass destruction to achieve their goals.
At the moment there is not much visible enmity between these countries and the U.S., but as a student of political and military history, I can assure you that their momories are much longer than ours. While we joined with the former soviet bloc countries to dismember our bloated nuclear missile programs, China and North Korea, slipped out of view, giving just enough token participation to stay out of the hotseat.
There are detractors of the missle programs now, just as there were detractors of increases homeland security before the 9-11 attacks. We cannot allow ourselves to be so focused on the blatantly obviously security measures that we neglect and belittle the old threats and the seemingly lessened dangers.
The piece makes some very interesting points, namely that indiviuals are beginning to be heard when it comes to contributing to development of commercial technological applications. The curve is slow, true. But it has started to become more and more prevalent in the public eye with Linux and the uproar for open source release for the Windows OS. Websites are becoming more interactive, various hack books are being published, and hell, even slashdot comments are taken seriously on occasion! The most effective hacks that will be taken seriously in the future though will be the ones that are least visible or intrusive, but make life easier to navigate through the technological jungle. Steve Jobs created the "ultimate remote control," but he also popularized the Apple, for the very reason that it is simple to use. And that's where corporate interest will be focused- on hacking that smooths out the confusion and eases the techno-illiterates through high tech stuff.
Coffee became my friend in college. My friends and I always got better grades when the coffee would start slipping us the answers and taucht us valuable life lessons by making sure we got out of bed for class by coming over and slapping us awake.
Re:How do you decompose in space?
on
Space Burial
·
· Score: 1
I would imagine that yu would turn into a mummy. There is no oxygen to feed the decay process, and the vacuum would drain all the fluids and air particles from your body rather efficiently. There wouldn't be anything left to react and effect the breakdown process that happens on earth. Your greatest worry, I'm guessing would be stray chunks of space debris that will knock parts of you off into the farther reaches of space. Look at the bright side. You'd get a lot more places that way.
Introducing Alien Races to Humans
on
Space Burial
·
· Score: 1
If we are introducing ourselves to aliens, shuldn't we provide them with a proper introduction to a burial? Maybe a little freeeze dried beer or whiskey and instructions on how to give a wake?
The porn industry seems to be taking a course that the music seems to have forgotten- free marketing. Exposure to a target audience like this is worth tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising. It whets interests and brings familiarity to those who might spend money, but only if they know what they are going to be getting. The music industry ought to take a look at the response that Playboy is getting and find out just how successful they are with this new tack.
Hmmm. Maybe they can add a odor module that smells like cordite and pissed pants. Or a training add that adds a 60 lb pack and adjusted movement modifiers while you are sitting there playing.
Slashdot Mirror
Remember, however insignificant 4,000 people are compared to the tsunami, they are still 4,000 people, people who had families, lives and were americans who lived, worked and touched the lives of those around them. The tsunami was a natural disater, 9/11 was a deliberate attack with malicious intent. Even one person murdered is far to many to accept and ignore.
In the time of R.A. Heinlein, Zelanzny, Assimov, and the other cornerstone writers, people would read SF who would not normally read fiction set in a different world or fiction that required a suspension of disbelief simply because the books were well written, had good story lines and interesting social ideas. It seems that today, writers like that are increasingly rare. As a writer, what can be done to improve the standards of quality writing in the SF world, either by yourself or the community as a whole?
Then you have to worry about the puck being brittle. Boy, it would suck to have your multi-thousand dollar puck shatter in a gajillion pieces on the first volley!
Rambus Shambus. No matter how technologically advanced a new product is, it has to be accepted by the consumer, i.e., it has to sell well. Rambus simply does not convince enough people that their extra edge is worth the additional money. In order to use the RDRAM, you can't just toss it on you current system. You have to either upgrade your motherboard or buy a new system.
While it may be worth it for a lot of geeks and gamers or for high-end application users, the demand for this technology does not outweigh the cost it takes to make the upgrade.
Rambus could overcome this by increasing consumer awarenss by doing massive advertising or making their product more 'sexy.' That's still a long chance though, because they are trying to get the train of public opinion to jump the tracks...
Please, please don't tell the Marine Corps!!! It'll switch the focus from towelheads to raiding the towels and shower curtains! And if the Army finds out, who knows.......
When looking at America's enemies, we cannot plan for just the ones most visible in the CNN headlines such as low budget terrorists. There are old enemies left over from the cold war such as North Korea and China who do not have the compunction against using weapons of mass destruction to achieve their goals.
At the moment there is not much visible enmity between these countries and the U.S., but as a student of political and military history, I can assure you that their momories are much longer than ours. While we joined with the former soviet bloc countries to dismember our bloated nuclear missile programs, China and North Korea, slipped out of view, giving just enough token participation to stay out of the hotseat.
There are detractors of the missle programs now, just as there were detractors of increases homeland security before the 9-11 attacks. We cannot allow ourselves to be so focused on the blatantly obviously security measures that we neglect and belittle the old threats and the seemingly lessened dangers.
The piece makes some very interesting points, namely that indiviuals are beginning to be heard when it comes to contributing to development of commercial technological applications. The curve is slow, true. But it has started to become more and more prevalent in the public eye with Linux and the uproar for open source release for the Windows OS. Websites are becoming more interactive, various hack books are being published, and hell, even slashdot comments are taken seriously on occasion! The most effective hacks that will be taken seriously in the future though will be the ones that are least visible or intrusive, but make life easier to navigate through the technological jungle. Steve Jobs created the "ultimate remote control," but he also popularized the Apple, for the very reason that it is simple to use. And that's where corporate interest will be focused- on hacking that smooths out the confusion and eases the techno-illiterates through high tech stuff.
Coffee became my friend in college. My friends and I always got better grades when the coffee would start slipping us the answers and taucht us valuable life lessons by making sure we got out of bed for class by coming over and slapping us awake.
I would imagine that yu would turn into a mummy. There is no oxygen to feed the decay process, and the vacuum would drain all the fluids and air particles from your body rather efficiently. There wouldn't be anything left to react and effect the breakdown process that happens on earth. Your greatest worry, I'm guessing would be stray chunks of space debris that will knock parts of you off into the farther reaches of space. Look at the bright side. You'd get a lot more places that way.
If we are introducing ourselves to aliens, shuldn't we provide them with a proper introduction to a burial? Maybe a little freeeze dried beer or whiskey and instructions on how to give a wake?
The porn industry seems to be taking a course that the music seems to have forgotten- free marketing. Exposure to a target audience like this is worth tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising. It whets interests and brings familiarity to those who might spend money, but only if they know what they are going to be getting. The music industry ought to take a look at the response that Playboy is getting and find out just how successful they are with this new tack.
Hmmm. Maybe they can add a odor module that smells like cordite and pissed pants. Or a training add that adds a 60 lb pack and adjusted movement modifiers while you are sitting there playing.