...how long will it take for someone to use this to swim the English Channel underwater?
I must be missing something. Does Guinness's Book have an all-purpose English Channel section? Why else would someone do this, when there's ordinary air available nearly the whole way . ..
With an automated test suite, what happens when a class of bug is discovered to be untested-for? Presumably, the suite is modified to detect it. Then, is the resulting new suite itself subjected to an automated test suite? And, then...[divide-by-zero error...]
Hence the protective sphere - it'll be there to protect you, as much as it is to protect the screen.
Sure. But they're also hoping to raise the spin rate to eliminate flicker... which suggests a flywheel in a vacuum. Wouldn't want to bump that sucker... or be nearby when someone does...
Like a giant spinning lollipop, the screen, encased in a transparent polycarbonate shell, turns at 15 revolutions per second, sweeping out a solid white sphere.
Just don't forget and reach for the pretty picture. ..
...terrestrial microbes who hitch a ride to Mars on spacecraft may be able to survive...
Remember in H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds how our germs were Earth's last best defense against the invading Martians? Good to know we're developing a first-strike capability...
...scientists have extracted and decoded the DNA of a cave bear that died 40,000 years ago.' The sequencing technique could also work for Neanderthals.
It seems that the person who offers the copyrighted file is guilty of something (...unless you think copyrights themselves are a clear and present evil). E.g., I bet it's not okay to leave porn mags lying in a playground...
Her account balance is temporarily reduced by $15, and when the library checks the CD back in (in good condition), her balance is restored to its original value.
As anyone who uses their public library can attest, missing items are a common search result. Yet, recovery suits brought by the libraries seem rare. (Litigation may not be in their hearts.)
This escrow approach not only appeals to one's vengeful dark side, but also smacks of fiscal responsibility. Moreover, posting the actual replacement cost of an item just might extend its shelf-life.
...many people (and legal systems) consider termination to be a reasonable choice where the fetus carries other genetic disorders such as Downs Syndrome. But this might also prevent the birth of future geniuses too.
What to do? Give prospective parents all available information, and let them choose their own paths. What else?
Lots of them will still take their chances...no matter how slim the upside. (After all, people still smoke...)
The system has been trained using the United Nations Documents as a corpus.
Seems one could devise a TQ (tranlsation quotient) measuring the effectiveness of machine (or human) translators. Take any standard reading-comprehension test, a send its text material through the translator, and back...and then compare the scores of subjects taking the resulting test vs. those taking the original.
(Before such translators make their way into, say, diplomatic circles, I'd sure hope there's some objective demonstration of near-infallibility...)
[Band of Brothers screenwriter Erik Jendresen said,] "There's an old tradition in space films, if you think about it, where war and conflict are very sterile... Death doesn't hurt, it's not really ugly. You can get killed by a phaser and just...disintegrate."
Truly 'ugly death' on-screen is made palatable by the weight of history...as with, say, a graphic portrayal of D-Day. Employing it for the sake of light fiction is a move towards only the gore crowd...and a miscalculation.
With the six legs attached to the microrobot, CMU researchers want to [be able to come] back to a suspected lesion.
This eye-robot, on its less-than-fantastic voyage, should soon thereafter be able to retrieve tiny tissue samples, too. Locomotion can't be much easier than prospecting...
...flipped the spin of electron inside it and emitted a photon...
(IANA quantum physicist, but...) What if the unsuspecting electron is one of a correlated pair? When the flip occurs, does the sibling electron (perhaps a galaxy away) simultaneously flip... and maybe squirt a photon to dazzle some Arcturians?
It is also capable of taking biometric measurements and transmitting them...
Too bad it's fake. Would've been interesting to see the realization of The Climacticon, a '60s novel about a hand-held device that detects sexual interest from across the room. (Talk about speed-dating...)
How about, "Using numbers to rate movies is subjective. That's part of the difficulty of this job." ?
(Clearly, I have a vested interest in this complaint, but...) I've never understood Ebert's relativity rationale. How are we poor schnook viewers to choose our fare, when Ebert gives 3.5 stars to some mindless b-movie merely for being in focus? It smacks a bit of those "most underrated player" awards...
[pet rocks, E-books]...Buying a rock? Reading a whole book on something that runs on batteries? Those never seemed like good ideas to me.
Selling rocks was the good idea...apparently. As for buying, you'd have to ask the man who owns one...
And, though I agree that E-books seem patently a solution in search of a problem, the consensus was initially otherwise...and may still be. But are we right (i.e., 'smart')? I think we're still waiting for Time to tell us.
Slashdot Mirror
I must be missing something. Does Guinness's Book have an all-purpose English Channel section? Why else would someone do this, when there's ordinary air available nearly the whole way . . .
I guess the old prank of jumping onto a crowded car and pushing all the buttons would be a no-no...
You're right, I made a mistake. I shall modify my test suite forthwith... [divide-by-zero error]
With an automated test suite, what happens when a class of bug is discovered to be untested-for? Presumably, the suite is modified to detect it. Then, is the resulting new suite itself subjected to an automated test suite? And, then...[divide-by-zero error...]
Sure. But they're also hoping to raise the spin rate to eliminate flicker... which suggests a flywheel in a vacuum. Wouldn't want to bump that sucker... or be nearby when someone does...
Just don't forget and reach for the pretty picture. . .
Remember in H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds how our germs were Earth's last best defense against the invading Martians? Good to know we're developing a first-strike capability...
Why would Neanderthals want to build a cave bear?
It seems that the person who offers the copyrighted file is guilty of something (...unless you think copyrights themselves are a clear and present evil). E.g., I bet it's not okay to leave porn mags lying in a playground...
As anyone who uses their public library can attest, missing items are a common search result. Yet, recovery suits brought by the libraries seem rare. (Litigation may not be in their hearts.)
This escrow approach not only appeals to one's vengeful dark side, but also smacks of fiscal responsibility. Moreover, posting the actual replacement cost of an item just might extend its shelf-life.
If a convoy of cars broadcast jazz to each other, would that be a traffic jam?
What to do? Give prospective parents all available information, and let them choose their own paths. What else?
Lots of them will still take their chances ...no matter how slim the upside. (After all, people still smoke...)
Seems one could devise a TQ (tranlsation quotient) measuring the effectiveness of machine (or human) translators. Take any standard reading-comprehension test, a send its text material through the translator, and back ...and then compare the scores of subjects taking the resulting test vs. those taking the original.
(Before such translators make their way into, say, diplomatic circles, I'd sure hope there's some objective demonstration of near-infallibility...)
Truly 'ugly death' on-screen is made palatable by the weight of history ...as with, say, a graphic portrayal of D-Day. Employing it for the sake of light fiction is a move towards only the gore crowd ...and a miscalculation.
This eye-robot, on its less-than-fantastic voyage, should soon thereafter be able to retrieve tiny tissue samples, too. Locomotion can't be much easier than prospecting...
Biodiesel algae - a 'power plant' a mother could love.
And soon, no doubt . . . Soylent Green - putting people to work...
(IANA quantum physicist, but...) What if the unsuspecting electron is one of a correlated pair? When the flip occurs, does the sibling electron (perhaps a galaxy away) simultaneously flip... and maybe squirt a photon to dazzle some Arcturians?
Well, yes, for sheer intellectual heavy lifting. But that doesn't mean we start forgetting things faster than we learn them.
As the population stays healthier longer, you'd expect experience-based advances to have increasingly older authors.
Incognito ergo sum. - Descartes
Too bad it's fake. Would've been interesting to see the realization of The Climacticon, a '60s novel about a hand-held device that detects sexual interest from across the room. (Talk about speed-dating...)
(Clearly, I have a vested interest in this complaint, but...) I've never understood Ebert's relativity rationale. How are we poor schnook viewers to choose our fare, when Ebert gives 3.5 stars to some mindless b-movie merely for being in focus? It smacks a bit of those "most underrated player" awards...
Selling rocks was the good idea ...apparently. As for buying, you'd have to ask the man who owns one...
And, though I agree that E-books seem patently a solution in search of a problem, the consensus was initially otherwise ...and may still be. But are we right (i.e., 'smart')? I think we're still waiting for Time to tell us.
Lots of ideas become 'good' or 'bad' only with hindsight. (E.g., pet rocks, E-books...) And, 'smart' doesn't always mean 'prescient' ...or 'lucky'...
Sounds like microwave-oven warnings. Are they microwaving the mouse ...to get it to talk?