Oh, I just realized not a lot of trees live to be 1300 years old. So...there's that, lol. Someone take a geiger counter to the redwood forests:-P
No, we will have to chop them all down to correctly analyze the rings. Of course, in order not to waste the wood we will sell it to the highest bidder. And we will have to cut down a large number of trees so as to get a good statistical sample.
--- Yours in Science and Industry (or Industry and 'Science')
Dick Cheney
What would you call them? Journalists? Perhaps - there certainly are journalists that write about things several decades ago. But that sort of time frame IS history. It is long enough ago that one has time to gather information about it from many times and try to synthesize something resembling 'the truth'. It is a long enough time that many people forget both the event and the lesson.
How many people on Slashdot were around during Minitel's heyday? Perhaps half of us? How many people on Slashdot are hearing about Minitel for the first time in this article?
So you are using major historical figure who was an admitted alcoholic to imply that it's OK to run around and do things while inebriated? There is some sort of relationship between politics and driving ability?
Lots of people drive home safely while flat out drunk. That doesn't imply that it is a particularly good idea.
Is Minnesota not using blood alcohol as the legal discriminator? In Alaska, you can't be tried on the basis of a breathalyzer test alone. If you blow positive, you're marched down to the local hospital and given a blood alcohol test which is quantitative and pretty accurate. If you refuse, you're guilty of a DUI. If you refuse the breathalyzer you're likewise guilty. The breathalyzers are really just screening instruments. They're accurate enough for that, but not for any sort of quantitative determination.
This is likely to be the best scenario in a potential worst case scenario. Even if Shell doesn't drill in the Beaufort Sea, the Russians, Canadians, Danes and anybody else who can manage to plant a flag above the Arctic Circle will.
We ARE going to Drill Baby, Drill until it costs too much to pull the stuff out of the ground. If we have any collective brains we will use that time to figure out how to power civilization using less environmentally disastrous methods. I'm not to sanguine about the collective intelligence of humanity however.
"A person is smart, people are dumb, panicky animals and you know that".
Agent K
For techy people? Oh well, probably more topical that a fake severed head on a fake TV show.
FWIW, Shell has drilled in the Arctic before - several other exploratory wells. They've done quite a bit of due diligence to mitigate problems including painting their disaster recovery ship a dark blue so as not to scare the whales.
They realize quite perfectly if they have a major spill or blowout then the game is over. Further, there is no assurance that this will go anywhere beyond the exploratory wells - they may not find oil, they may not find much oil, it may cost too much to pull out.
And if they wait long enough, the whole area may turn into a tropical paradise, much like it was when the algae, etc. that created the biomass that subsequently became oil was alive.
1) A stripped-down version of this tool could be used to attach de-orbiting or manoeuvring thrusters to disabled satellites that happened to be occupying (or threatening) particularly high-value orbital real estate. The ISS has to be periodically repositioned to avoid the occasional bit of space junk. Further up, there's a limited amount of space in geostationary orbit, and a malfunctioning satellite could be trouble as either a source of physical or radio clutter. If the program fails to produce its rather pie-in-the-sky 'dream' goal, it could still develop this useful sideline.
I think this is the real reason, at least in the beginning. Prime orbital slots are getting scare and you can't make new ones. Getting RID of the junk by deorbiting the stuff makes sense, is technologically feasible and doesn't require the tool waving and silly economics of bringing duct tape to low earth orbit.
Of course, EVENTUALLY you need to learn how to fix things in orbit. The ISS and the Shuttle / Hubble repair missions have shown that we can do baby steps but we need to develop capabilities far in excess of what we have now. You're not going to make much progress if it takes you a year to choreograph a repair mission that very nearly got sidelined by an errant bolt.
Self driving vehicles is probably a bad example. The tech is actually there - it's the infrastructure that's a bitch. Of course, that happens to be true for lots of tech things. Widespread adoption of a particular technology depends on much more than available hardware and software. The wetware has to be interested and available. Costs are a factor. Luck, the economy and perhaps moon phases as well.
But not to worry. The first widespread use of autonomous vehicles will likely be IED sweepers / screening patrols in a military operation. No freeways to worry about in *stan.
You're being deliberately obtuse. You don't like patents. Fine. They're rather poorly implemented of late. The US patent Office needs to get some cojones and start denying useless patents. However, you're banging around trying to make this a patent case as in 'inventing' something. This is about design. It's SOLE purpose is to prevent somebody from BLATENTLY COPYING a DESIGN so consumers are not misled into buying a fake something.
The Samsung lawyer could not tell the Galaxy from an iPad at 10 paces. The Samsung adverts had IPad icons. The argument is that a consumer could well pick up a Galaxy tablet thinking they were going to walk out with a real iPad. Nothing else. Whether or not they actually manages to copy the entire design (and recall, the appropriate Boolean operator is 'AND') is up to the judge to decide.
FWIW, I don't think it's worth an injunction. But try to wrap your brain around the point of a design patent. It's not about algorithms, operating systems, gizmos or materials. IT'S SOLEY TO PREVENT CONSUMER CONFUSION as to the origin of the product.
Save your bike for a real software patent dispute. And Samsung could just hire a couple of MacAir toting, Latte sipping unemployed designers that certainly must fill the seats of Starbucks everywhere to come up with a friggin DIFFERENT DESIGN. It can't be all that hard. Even Dell can do it.
What most Americans seem to not realize is that the various owners of the 'Middle East' has been chomping at each other for at least the past 8 centuries. This is not new. The various religious / tribal conflicts coupled with a fairly inhospitable landscape that makes many resources scare seems to create tensions that no one has been able to quench for any length of time. Since the 1400's the other major source of tension has been the "Western" world (various Christian sects) versus Islamic religions.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh, I just realized not a lot of trees live to be 1300 years old. So...there's that, lol. Someone take a geiger counter to the redwood forests :-P
No, we will have to chop them all down to correctly analyze the rings. Of course, in order not to waste the wood we will sell it to the highest bidder. And we will have to cut down a large number of trees so as to get a good statistical sample.
--- Yours in Science and Industry (or Industry and 'Science')
Dick Cheney
in an Ideal World(tm) the media would be a little bit more accurate...
Yep. Although these days, the words 'accuracy' and 'media' should be in the same sentence only if discussing computer hardware.
What would you call them? Journalists? Perhaps - there certainly are journalists that write about things several decades ago. But that sort of time frame IS history. It is long enough ago that one has time to gather information about it from many times and try to synthesize something resembling 'the truth'. It is a long enough time that many people forget both the event and the lesson.
How many people on Slashdot were around during Minitel's heyday? Perhaps half of us? How many people on Slashdot are hearing about Minitel for the first time in this article?
Yeah it's history and now please, off my lawn.
In Australia.
So you are using major historical figure who was an admitted alcoholic to imply that it's OK to run around and do things while inebriated? There is some sort of relationship between politics and driving ability?
Lots of people drive home safely while flat out drunk. That doesn't imply that it is a particularly good idea.
Is Minnesota not using blood alcohol as the legal discriminator? In Alaska, you can't be tried on the basis of a breathalyzer test alone. If you blow positive, you're marched down to the local hospital and given a blood alcohol test which is quantitative and pretty accurate. If you refuse, you're guilty of a DUI. If you refuse the breathalyzer you're likewise guilty. The breathalyzers are really just screening instruments. They're accurate enough for that, but not for any sort of quantitative determination.
This is likely to be the best scenario in a potential worst case scenario. Even if Shell doesn't drill in the Beaufort Sea, the Russians, Canadians, Danes and anybody else who can manage to plant a flag above the Arctic Circle will.
We ARE going to Drill Baby, Drill until it costs too much to pull the stuff out of the ground. If we have any collective brains we will use that time to figure out how to power civilization using less environmentally disastrous methods. I'm not to sanguine about the collective intelligence of humanity however.
"A person is smart, people are dumb, panicky animals and you know that".
Agent K
For techy people? Oh well, probably more topical that a fake severed head on a fake TV show.
FWIW, Shell has drilled in the Arctic before - several other exploratory wells. They've done quite a bit of due diligence to mitigate problems including painting their disaster recovery ship a dark blue so as not to scare the whales.
They realize quite perfectly if they have a major spill or blowout then the game is over. Further, there is no assurance that this will go anywhere beyond the exploratory wells - they may not find oil, they may not find much oil, it may cost too much to pull out.
And if they wait long enough, the whole area may turn into a tropical paradise, much like it was when the algae, etc. that created the biomass that subsequently became oil was alive.
I don't. Of course, I also don't waste my life obsessing over poorly-written, over-sexualized drivel.
I didn't think we were talking about Slashdot - just a TV program.
1) A stripped-down version of this tool could be used to attach de-orbiting or manoeuvring thrusters to disabled satellites that happened to be occupying (or threatening) particularly high-value orbital real estate. The ISS has to be periodically repositioned to avoid the occasional bit of space junk. Further up, there's a limited amount of space in geostationary orbit, and a malfunctioning satellite could be trouble as either a source of physical or radio clutter. If the program fails to produce its rather pie-in-the-sky 'dream' goal, it could still develop this useful sideline.
I think this is the real reason, at least in the beginning. Prime orbital slots are getting scare and you can't make new ones. Getting RID of the junk by deorbiting the stuff makes sense, is technologically feasible and doesn't require the tool waving and silly economics of bringing duct tape to low earth orbit.
Of course, EVENTUALLY you need to learn how to fix things in orbit. The ISS and the Shuttle / Hubble repair missions have shown that we can do baby steps but we need to develop capabilities far in excess of what we have now. You're not going to make much progress if it takes you a year to choreograph a repair mission that very nearly got sidelined by an errant bolt.
Funny thing. The XB37 is about the size of a pickup truck.
Just sayin'.
Or just export lots of expensive things. Aircraft. Giant construction machinery. Pharmaceuticals. Movies.
We are in the top three of exporting nations.
(Not to say we don't do dippy things like print money, but there are other mechanisms to generate capital. When all else fails, we start wars.)
Who the fuck modded this down?
DARPA
Exactly who do you think has unlimited mod points these days? Taco?
10. Fix Slashcode
11. Adulation and Adoration from geeks in basements everywhere!
Self driving vehicles is probably a bad example. The tech is actually there - it's the infrastructure that's a bitch. Of course, that happens to be true for lots of tech things. Widespread adoption of a particular technology depends on much more than available hardware and software. The wetware has to be interested and available. Costs are a factor. Luck, the economy and perhaps moon phases as well.
But not to worry. The first widespread use of autonomous vehicles will likely be IED sweepers / screening patrols in a military operation. No freeways to worry about in *stan.
Yeah, just get Adobe, Autodesk, the Microsoft Office folks and the rest of the big application writers to go along and you're there!
Software. Software that doesn't run on Linux.
You're being deliberately obtuse. You don't like patents. Fine. They're rather poorly implemented of late. The US patent Office needs to get some cojones and start denying useless patents. However, you're banging around trying to make this a patent case as in 'inventing' something. This is about design. It's SOLE purpose is to prevent somebody from BLATENTLY COPYING a DESIGN so consumers are not misled into buying a fake something.
The Samsung lawyer could not tell the Galaxy from an iPad at 10 paces. The Samsung adverts had IPad icons. The argument is that a consumer could well pick up a Galaxy tablet thinking they were going to walk out with a real iPad. Nothing else. Whether or not they actually manages to copy the entire design (and recall, the appropriate Boolean operator is 'AND') is up to the judge to decide.
FWIW, I don't think it's worth an injunction. But try to wrap your brain around the point of a design patent. It's not about algorithms, operating systems, gizmos or materials. IT'S SOLEY TO PREVENT CONSUMER CONFUSION as to the origin of the product.
Save your bike for a real software patent dispute. And Samsung could just hire a couple of MacAir toting, Latte sipping unemployed designers that certainly must fill the seats of Starbucks everywhere to come up with a friggin DIFFERENT DESIGN. It can't be all that hard. Even Dell can do it.
What most Americans seem to not realize is that the various owners of the 'Middle East' has been chomping at each other for at least the past 8 centuries. This is not new. The various religious / tribal conflicts coupled with a fairly inhospitable landscape that makes many resources scare seems to create tensions that no one has been able to quench for any length of time. Since the 1400's the other major source of tension has been the "Western" world (various Christian sects) versus Islamic religions.
The nucs are new. The rest is old. Very old.
You'd best get off of our collective lawns or else.... else.... We'll all have our nurses escort you out of the premises.
(Fondles his Hollerith cards.)
Read it? Mr. Mir has chopped up the book in little pieces and snorted the damned thing. He's a one man Libertarian side show.
Typical Europe.
Bar Nigel Farage, who is the Chuck Norris of politics, it's like watching monkeys at typewriters.
A model parliament should be like in Star Trek dammit!
Which episode? The one with Tribbles?
I'm still trying to get the Second Law.
Do what the $#! I told you, you stupid !@#$!
"I would blush if I could"
(Hint: Do not try this with Siri)
If you apply the first law to my smartphone, it would basically turn itself off and short the battery.
That might be an overall improvement, but I don't think it would be a terribly popular move.
You could have just said it was turtles all the way down.
A much easier answer and much less confusing.