I'd refer to most of our group as polymaths. In a strict sense probably none of us are, but do you know of a science that any of us can't comprehend at both a technical and intuitive level? Our capabilities vary but if it's left brain related, we can understand it at a level and in a way well beyond simple education.
...years ago Telstra (Australias major Telco) trialled a device that was a GSM cellular phone but when within range of a specific base station functioned as a cordless land line...I think; I may have just been smoking some mighty fine crack and made the whole thing up...Anyone else in Oz remember this??"
Yes, I remember it.
No, you were not smoking crack.
I heard about it back in 1996 when it was being trialled in Melbourne.
The service you refer to was called "Telepath"
Some crack-smoking polymath told me all about it while giving me a lift to the airport to go to a conference.
As far as clarity, find me one developer who has taken over a project and not complained about the quality of the inherited code ever.
Guilty. But at least I'm thinking about the poor SOB who's going to be maintaining my code. In fact we were just implementing new functionality using a superfast but arcane algorithm and were having trouble debugging it (mucho matrix maths - yuk). Instead of finishing that, we researched another algorithm that instead uses triply-nested loops with two conditionals. It won't be half as fast (because of conditionals within loops of course) but it will be a heck of a lot easier for my successor to maintain. (Took 10 minutes to implement and worked first time. Had to check I wasn't stuck in a BTL simulation)
The Mr Fusion wasn't in the "original" car - that took plutonium fuel rods remember?
However one genuine inaccuracy is that the car from the movie was a manual, not an automatic. (Marty says "lets see if you guys can do ninety", changes gear, knocks the time circuits on, and the rest is history)
What gets me is that this house can't exist in the form they describe. One of the holy grails of solar power research is a system that will fit onto a single house and generate enough current to power a refrigerator. (Think about it - 8-13 Amps at 110 or 240 volts, all day, every day, day and night. Thats a lot of juice.)
Unless there was an enormous breakthrough in solar panel efficiently recently and Slashdot missed it, I don't see how this house can really operate in a self-sustainable manner. Admittedly, the *reduction* in environmental impact would be huge and kudos for that - but I like my beer cold and that's going to require the grid I'm afraid.
Slashdot Mirror
Probably not. Better be careful we don't attract mod points. The bad kind.
I'd refer to most of our group as polymaths. In a strict sense probably none of us are, but do you know of a science that any of us can't comprehend at both a technical and intuitive level? Our capabilities vary but if it's left brain related, we can understand it at a level and in a way well beyond simple education.
Yes, I remember it.
No, you were not smoking crack.
I heard about it back in 1996 when it was being trialled in Melbourne.
The service you refer to was called "Telepath"
Some crack-smoking polymath told me all about it while giving me a lift to the airport to go to a conference.
Designadrug - 'cos I do.
Guilty. But at least I'm thinking about the poor SOB who's going to be maintaining my code. In fact we were just implementing new functionality using a superfast but arcane algorithm and were having trouble debugging it (mucho matrix maths - yuk). Instead of finishing that, we researched another algorithm that instead uses triply-nested loops with two conditionals. It won't be half as fast (because of conditionals within loops of course) but it will be a heck of a lot easier for my successor to maintain. (Took 10 minutes to implement and worked first time. Had to check I wasn't stuck in a BTL simulation)
However one genuine inaccuracy is that the car from the movie was a manual, not an automatic. (Marty says "lets see if you guys can do ninety", changes gear, knocks the time circuits on, and the rest is history)
What gets me is that this house can't exist in the form they describe. One of the holy grails of solar power research is a system that will fit onto a single house and generate enough current to power a refrigerator. (Think about it - 8-13 Amps at 110 or 240 volts, all day, every day, day and night. Thats a lot of juice.) Unless there was an enormous breakthrough in solar panel efficiently recently and Slashdot missed it, I don't see how this house can really operate in a self-sustainable manner. Admittedly, the *reduction* in environmental impact would be huge and kudos for that - but I like my beer cold and that's going to require the grid I'm afraid.