Call me crazy, but does anyone actually know the real odds of a huge meteor or whatever hitting the earth?
*Assuming* that this is, in fact, what wiped out the dinosaurs, isn't it strange that another one hasn't hit for what, a couple hundred million years?
Is there any evidence that there are significantly more huge-space-rock-jammies out there now than there have been in the past? If not, then there is no good reason to think that tracking rocks for the purpose of saving the Earth makes sense. For the sake of science and discovery? Fine, I'm all for it. But if we're trying to save our lives, why don't we pour our money into alternative energy sources or pollution controls or something?
intel twerp: hey! what's that? harvard dork: it's an alpha. it runs unix. intel: unix? never heard of it. what does it do? harvard: it's a computer that works.
Seriously, folks, I wouldn't worry about FASCS being overrun by Intel anytime soon. All serious computing at Harvard is done on Alphas, and will be for a while. The public computer labs are about 2/5 unix, 2/5 fruity-colored imacs, and 1/5 wintel. By the way, the Crimson, which published the original story, has used Macs for about 15 years, and has pledged to switch to OS X as soon as they get their hands on it. There's nothing wrong with Harvard "buckling" to Intel's demands. The truth is, the kiosks are in a horribly inconvenient place if you're trying to hold a conference. Harvard, along with every other school in the country, is routinely "bought off" by corporate interests, but it seems to me that the primary goal here was to have the conference (such as it was) go off without a hitch, rather than kiss Intel's rear. Harvard, with its $14.4 billion and all, knows that it owes nothing to Intel and is itself a 400-pound gorilla.
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Call me crazy, but does anyone actually know the real odds of a huge meteor or whatever hitting the earth?
*Assuming* that this is, in fact, what wiped out the dinosaurs, isn't it strange that another one hasn't hit for what, a couple hundred million years?
Is there any evidence that there are significantly more huge-space-rock-jammies out there now than there have been in the past? If not, then there is no good reason to think that tracking rocks for the purpose of saving the Earth makes sense. For the sake of science and discovery? Fine, I'm all for it. But if we're trying to save our lives, why don't we pour our money into alternative energy sources or pollution controls or something?
more like:
intel twerp: hey! what's that?
harvard dork: it's an alpha. it runs unix.
intel: unix? never heard of it. what does it do?
harvard: it's a computer that works.
Seriously, folks, I wouldn't worry about FASCS being overrun by Intel anytime soon. All serious computing at Harvard is done on Alphas, and will be for a while. The public computer labs are about 2/5 unix, 2/5 fruity-colored imacs, and 1/5 wintel.
By the way, the Crimson, which published the original story, has used Macs for about 15 years, and has pledged to switch to OS X as soon as they get their hands on it.
There's nothing wrong with Harvard "buckling" to Intel's demands. The truth is, the kiosks are in a horribly inconvenient place if you're trying to hold a conference. Harvard, along with every other school in the country, is routinely "bought off" by corporate interests, but it seems to me that the primary goal here was to have the conference (such as it was) go off without a hitch, rather than kiss Intel's rear. Harvard, with its $14.4 billion and all, knows that it owes nothing to Intel and is itself a 400-pound gorilla.