I have heard a semi-confirmed story along those lines. It goes that on a group of fighter jets sold to Isreal by the US the navigation system would crash while doing low altitude maneuvers. It was eventually discovered that these jets were ove the dead sea which is actually below sea level. When the jets went below sea level the program puked. The initial designers didn't think a plane could go below sea level without crashing so they never planned for it.
This assumes that the merchant USES those fancy secure boxes. Any business could buy/make pads that record PINs and I'll bet no customer would ever even check.
If there is no incentive (profit) waiting for the company that comes up with the best recipe at the best price, then there's nothing to lure in the investment that must be risked in paying people to dream up and prototype such things.
I completely agree with that. The problem arrises that one man's fair price is another man's extortion. Keep in mind that this is microsoft we're talking about.
This has nothing to do with WHO is developing this technology, it's about what their practices are. All those examples you list are material objects. Microsoft plans to patent the idea behind a 911 style plan.
You are right, if a municipality wants a police cruiser or ambulance they have to pay for it. What they are paying for is the metal and labor that went into producing that vehicle. But what if the idea behind a police cruiser was patented as microsoft plans to patent this. Then a municipality that wants a police cruiser would need to pay microsoft in addition to paying for the item itself. Lets say the muicipality can't/won't pay the licensing. Well, the police would have to make due without sirens or lights or 4 tires or some change that would exclude them from the patent.
"Corporate" isn't the best term to use in this situation as there are perfectly moral corporations out there. But the reality is that most are out to make a buck before all else; and I don't trust microsoft to put my personal safety (911) above their own profits.
Because the rover only has a grayscale camera onboard. To get color pictures they put different colored filters on it and combine it back into a color picture as a human being would see it.
Yes, Shippensburg is cornfields, dairy farms and a college, but more importantly they built the new super walmart across the street from the only kmart for miles around. Yes, that's right. Originally walmart went for the niches that weren't filled, but those were filled up long ago. Ever since they have been digging into the markets of other stores like kmart predator style. It's still all about location, just it's all turned around now.
Got the 12 monkeys phone wrong. There is nothing special about the number Bruce Willis calls. It just happens to be an answering machine that the people in the post-apocalyptic future find intact. A time traveler could leave a message on that machine and years later the authorities can recieve it. No two way time communication.
It is fortunate that there hasn't been a plutonium air burst but I think it's worth the risk to have one. "High Engery Solar Power".......high energy is a very relative term. A few square miles of solar cells might equal the power of a fission plant, you speak as though they are equal. If we are going to send more than small, unmanned probes, or go farther than this solar system, we need MUCH more power than solar cells can provide.
Exactly, it can be fun to spot mistakes. Have you seen the really good one in the original Star Wars? As the storm troopers break into the control room where R2D2 and C3PO are hiding look closely and you'll notice one of the storm troopers beans himself unconcious on the low door!
You act as though you think the people on that site do nothing but critique and criticise the movies they see. Is it so hard to believe that some people can watch a movie, enjoy it, and then at a later date enjoy poking fun at the obvious mistakes the movie makers let slip? You act as if these people NOT having orgasms in their seats over every movie ever made is the worst thing to ever happen. As you said: "It's a movie, for christ's sake!"
Actually, I do think the original poster did have an "MTV attention span." Yes GITS has many slow scenes but I didn't think it ruined the whole movie like I think he thought.
The Matrix sequels did suck, not because they were boring, but because they were not nearly as innovative as the original and they were not philosophical, they were psuedo-philosophical.
I think superbanana is just tired of people who either group all anime alongside mickey mouse; or people who think that all anime is as fast paced and shallow as DBZ. Not that I don't like DBZ, it's just not mental.
NASA was founded in the same spirit as this project. It's only recently that politicians (I shudder at the word) have been pulling NASA's strings. They are very much more insterested in PR and avoiding bad PR than real exploration and science. Nowadays NASA has a severely inadequate budget and STILL can't risk a single failure which would result in negative press.
Well, the article guy says he just wants a dirt cheap portable word processor. Why then buy an expensive calculator with a word processor thrown in? Other people have posted that he could find an older PDA with folding keyboard accessory for under $50.
This system defends against balistic missiles. The only countries that have missiles capable of reaching US soil are Russia and China. Both of these nations are friendly towards the US currently. This is an example of the military preparing to fight the last war.
Now, don't look at me like I'm a peacenik, I am all for the developement of weapon technology for the obvious combat advantage and the spinoff technologies. BUT, this technology is completely irrelevent to counter-terrorism. Even if a terrorist group gets ahold of a nuclear bomb, it would be easier and cheaper to sneak it into the US than to develope and build ICBMs.
And even then, this system can only shoot down missiles as they are launched by flying over the enemy's territory. This means that the government has spent billions on a gimmicky star wars program that only works if we invade another country's airspace, a.k.a. an act of war.
These people don't treat it as SF though. To them it's fantasy. They are copying something they saw on TV for god's sake. True science fiction takes today's known laws of science and extrapolates. Star Trek starts with a writer's plot and then has pseudo science added to it.
The deisgners of Star Trek do not get biologists, anthropologists and physicists together to theorize what an alien would look like. Klingons aren't even that creative a design, just the ridgy forehead that trek is infamous for.
IMHO the works of Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Pohl Anderson and others are vastly superior SF that Star Trek. Unfortunately that kind of hardcore SF doesn't make good TV so it stays in paper form.
Those who dream about what if, that take science fiction (emphasis on science) as more than entertainment ARE the future, I agree with you there. The people in this article are not that kind of people. They have been TOLD a possible what if and have become obsessed with it.
If these wannabe klingons had learned a language that didn't require human vocal chords that could actually be used to communicate with extra-terrestrials then I'd be impressed.
Re:Openness is the first casualty of going public?
on
How does Google do it?
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· Score: 3, Insightful
I disagree. An investor deserves to know at least general information about the goings on of a business. If I were a stock broker I would want to know that say: FruitCompanyA uses insecticide whereas FruitCompanyB doesn't. I personally would choose FruitCompanyA as a a rise in the insect population would ruin FruitCompanyB.
With google: before I give them my money, I would like to know how many servers they have, how close to capacity they are, what softwares they use (compatibility issues).
Honest reporting of operations lets an investor make an intelligent decision about their money and helps avoid boiler-room companies.
Slashdot Mirror
I have heard a semi-confirmed story along those lines. It goes that on a group of fighter jets sold to Isreal by the US the navigation system would crash while doing low altitude maneuvers. It was eventually discovered that these jets were ove the dead sea which is actually below sea level. When the jets went below sea level the program puked. The initial designers didn't think a plane could go below sea level without crashing so they never planned for it.
This assumes that the merchant USES those fancy secure boxes. Any business could buy/make pads that record PINs and I'll bet no customer would ever even check.
If there is no incentive (profit) waiting for the company that comes up with the best recipe at the best price, then there's nothing to lure in the investment that must be risked in paying people to dream up and prototype such things.
I completely agree with that. The problem arrises that one man's fair price is another man's extortion. Keep in mind that this is microsoft we're talking about.
This has nothing to do with WHO is developing this technology, it's about what their practices are. All those examples you list are material objects. Microsoft plans to patent the idea behind a 911 style plan.
You are right, if a municipality wants a police cruiser or ambulance they have to pay for it. What they are paying for is the metal and labor that went into producing that vehicle. But what if the idea behind a police cruiser was patented as microsoft plans to patent this. Then a municipality that wants a police cruiser would need to pay microsoft in addition to paying for the item itself. Lets say the muicipality can't/won't pay the licensing. Well, the police would have to make due without sirens or lights or 4 tires or some change that would exclude them from the patent.
"Corporate" isn't the best term to use in this situation as there are perfectly moral corporations out there. But the reality is that most are out to make a buck before all else; and I don't trust microsoft to put my personal safety (911) above their own profits.
Because the rover only has a grayscale camera onboard. To get color pictures they put different colored filters on it and combine it back into a color picture as a human being would see it.
Hey I go to shippensburg, maybe I know you.
Yes, Shippensburg is cornfields, dairy farms and a college, but more importantly they built the new super walmart across the street from the only kmart for miles around. Yes, that's right. Originally walmart went for the niches that weren't filled, but those were filled up long ago. Ever since they have been digging into the markets of other stores like kmart predator style. It's still all about location, just it's all turned around now.
Got the 12 monkeys phone wrong. There is nothing special about the number Bruce Willis calls. It just happens to be an answering machine that the people in the post-apocalyptic future find intact. A time traveler could leave a message on that machine and years later the authorities can recieve it. No two way time communication.
It is fortunate that there hasn't been a plutonium air burst but I think it's worth the risk to have one. "High Engery Solar Power".......high energy is a very relative term. A few square miles of solar cells might equal the power of a fission plant, you speak as though they are equal. If we are going to send more than small, unmanned probes, or go farther than this solar system, we need MUCH more power than solar cells can provide.
That sounds like at least one episode of Star Trek.
Exactly, it can be fun to spot mistakes. Have you seen the really good one in the original Star Wars? As the storm troopers break into the control room where R2D2 and C3PO are hiding look closely and you'll notice one of the storm troopers beans himself unconcious on the low door!
You act as though you think the people on that site do nothing but critique and criticise the movies they see. Is it so hard to believe that some people can watch a movie, enjoy it, and then at a later date enjoy poking fun at the obvious mistakes the movie makers let slip? You act as if these people NOT having orgasms in their seats over every movie ever made is the worst thing to ever happen. As you said: "It's a movie, for christ's sake!"
Actually, I do think the original poster did have an "MTV attention span." Yes GITS has many slow scenes but I didn't think it ruined the whole movie like I think he thought.
The Matrix sequels did suck, not because they were boring, but because they were not nearly as innovative as the original and they were not philosophical, they were psuedo-philosophical.
I think superbanana is just tired of people who either group all anime alongside mickey mouse; or people who think that all anime is as fast paced and shallow as DBZ. Not that I don't like DBZ, it's just not mental.
NASA was founded in the same spirit as this project. It's only recently that politicians (I shudder at the word) have been pulling NASA's strings. They are very much more insterested in PR and avoiding bad PR than real exploration and science. Nowadays NASA has a severely inadequate budget and STILL can't risk a single failure which would result in negative press.
It's water-cooled. No air circulation so no dust should be in there.
For those that are overrun with spam, virii and anything else that can be embedded in an html this actually IS a feature.
Well, the article guy says he just wants a dirt cheap portable word processor. Why then buy an expensive calculator with a word processor thrown in? Other people have posted that he could find an older PDA with folding keyboard accessory for under $50.
Heh, it'd be cheaper to buy a PDA.
Because a while a spork does the job of a fork and a spoon it does neither nearly as good as the original implements.
There is a HUGE difference between demolishing inanimate houses, and killing civilian men women and children.
250mil years of evolution? That sounds about right.
This system defends against balistic missiles. The only countries that have missiles capable of reaching US soil are Russia and China. Both of these nations are friendly towards the US currently. This is an example of the military preparing to fight the last war.
Now, don't look at me like I'm a peacenik, I am all for the developement of weapon technology for the obvious combat advantage and the spinoff technologies. BUT, this technology is completely irrelevent to counter-terrorism. Even if a terrorist group gets ahold of a nuclear bomb, it would be easier and cheaper to sneak it into the US than to develope and build ICBMs.
And even then, this system can only shoot down missiles as they are launched by flying over the enemy's territory. This means that the government has spent billions on a gimmicky star wars program that only works if we invade another country's airspace, a.k.a. an act of war.
These people don't treat it as SF though. To them it's fantasy. They are copying something they saw on TV for god's sake. True science fiction takes today's known laws of science and extrapolates. Star Trek starts with a writer's plot and then has pseudo science added to it. The deisgners of Star Trek do not get biologists, anthropologists and physicists together to theorize what an alien would look like. Klingons aren't even that creative a design, just the ridgy forehead that trek is infamous for. IMHO the works of Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Pohl Anderson and others are vastly superior SF that Star Trek. Unfortunately that kind of hardcore SF doesn't make good TV so it stays in paper form. Those who dream about what if, that take science fiction (emphasis on science) as more than entertainment ARE the future, I agree with you there. The people in this article are not that kind of people. They have been TOLD a possible what if and have become obsessed with it. If these wannabe klingons had learned a language that didn't require human vocal chords that could actually be used to communicate with extra-terrestrials then I'd be impressed.
Where is the setting for this?
I disagree. An investor deserves to know at least general information about the goings on of a business. If I were a stock broker I would want to know that say: FruitCompanyA uses insecticide whereas FruitCompanyB doesn't. I personally would choose FruitCompanyA as a a rise in the insect population would ruin FruitCompanyB.
With google: before I give them my money, I would like to know how many servers they have, how close to capacity they are, what softwares they use (compatibility issues).
Honest reporting of operations lets an investor make an intelligent decision about their money and helps avoid boiler-room companies.
The game this is based on has been in open beta for a year now. Follow the second link for a trial.