how would it get there? I doubt Earth life could have come from rocks, or from an extremely cold lake. It had to arise somewhere where there was lots of water, energy, and nutrients. It is possible that life could have arrived there by meteor, though. (In fact, some argue that life on Earth probably comes from space because it is so difficult for a planet to create life on its own)
It isn't clear from the article where they're going to get the DNA "decoders," which include various types of RNA, some proteins, and amino acids. Are these going to be synthetic too, or are they going to be borrowed from existing life?
How can you know how hard a mathematical attack against an encryption algorithm will be? AFAIK the only algorithm known to be safe against pure mathematical attacks is a one-time-pad XOR.
And for that matter, how can you know the difficulty of cryptanalysis of a specific message encrypted by an algorithm, unless you happen to work for No Such Agency (link broken?).
The oft-repeated industry maxim, originally coined in 1965 by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, holds that the capabilities of semiconductors double roughly every 18 to 24 months.
I always thought Moore's law said 18 months. Is IBM trying to fudge the numbers to make the article sound better?
(OT) does anyone know the equivalant laws for RAM, hard disks, monitor size, etc?
I would expect the laser/retina trick to be more effective. I've never managed to superimpose one image on another by putting one in front of each of my eyes. And superimposing is pretty important (for me at least) because it would let me get my computer to recognize people for me to compensate for my face blindness.
maybe windows being full of bugs isn't why microsoft still has a monopoly, but being full of (buggy) "features" kept people buying it and the bugs kept people upgrading.
"The prospect of a flood of private follow-on cases -- with their triple damages in private antitrust cases -- are lawsuits with potentials that Microsoft simply cannot ignore," said Herbert Hovenkamp, a professor at the University of Iowa law school.
In consumer class actions, legal experts say, Microsoft has defenses that will lessen its potential liability and present formidable obstacles for plaintiffs. For example, most computer users do not purchase Windows directly from retail software stores in shrink-wrapped boxes. Generally, the operating system is already loaded on personal computers when they are purchased.
Aren't monopoly-owned products likely to be purchased indirectly? Why does antitrust law give triple punishment for monopolies but then give them a way out?
Hmm.. don't you think Microsoft, by creating a buggy operating system in order to maintain their monopoly, did about as much damage to those who used Windows without paying as to those who paid for Windows? And what about the people who used other operating systems and weren't able to find software for them because of the dominance of Windows?
24. Never document the units of measure of any variable, input, output or parameter. e.g. feet, metres, cartons. This is not so important in bean counting, but it is very important in engineering work. As a corollary, never document the units of measure of any conversion constants, or how the values were derived. It is mild cheating, but very effective, to salt the code with some incorrect units of measure in the comments. If you are feeling particularly malicious, make up your own unit of measure; name it after yourself or some obscure person and never define it. If somebody challenges you, tell them you did so that you could use integer rather than floating point arithmetic.
Looks like some Lockheed employee took this page too seriously.
(numbering might be wrong because i got it from the googlecache version, which has only 53 rules.
A recent science news article mentioned that they were hoping to get the shuttle up there to fix it between Dec. 2 and Dec. 14 because they were worried about Y2K problems with the docking software. Apparently they didn't get up there quite fast enough.
(OT) What's happening with the idea of a next-generation space telescope?
NA should release the virus in a way that it spreads quickly, but modify it:
Include a message explaining how to disable the exploit
Mention that the virus will probably be modified at some point, and may seem to act the same way but leave a time bomb on the computer, so keep watching the NA website for known variants (that way nobody is surprised when someone does)
Make the HTML code difficult to read so people don't make variants right away
Otherwise, someone is going to figure out how modify it RSN, and release a really bad virus to the wild, disabling 5-15% of all home computers.
Why the hell wasn't a patch to repair the error relased in August then?
Microsoft did release a patch to windowsupdate.microsoft.com a few weeks ago, but that was another few weeks after the flaw was documented on microsoft's security bulletin thing.
Science means coming up with theories to explain observations and testing these theories against each other through experiments. Being able to discuss the history of science in terms of conflicting theories, and understanding the thought processes behind each of the theories, gives us a better understanding of the theories that are currently "most correct," and allows us to continue conducting science. If we had only learned about the correct theories, how would we have been able to continue conducting science?
When Communicator freezes it takes down the entire interface and a reboot is needed, I can usually salvage an IE crash.
If IE brings explorer.exe down with it (which it does occasionally), you lose all the stuff in your system tray. This is probably a design flaw in the Windows O/S, because I saw that happening with a shell other than explorer.exe (probably litestep, but I'm not sure).
But then again I don't use netscape much, so I can't say anything about your first point.
A $10 rebate for each customer who has bought Windows would run into billions
So people using pirated copies don't get a rebate? They should, because they were basically forced to use windows and probably didn't have the money to pay for something else, but still ended up running an unreliable operating system.
it doesn't make sense to say someone has a monopoly over one person/company/entity. the person has to have a monopoly over the whole market for the product.
Slashdot Mirror
how would it get there? I doubt Earth life could have come from rocks, or from an extremely cold lake. It had to arise somewhere where there was lots of water, energy, and nutrients. It is possible that life could have arrived there by meteor, though. (In fact, some argue that life on Earth probably comes from space because it is so difficult for a planet to create life on its own)
It isn't clear from the article where they're going to get the DNA "decoders," which include various types of RNA, some proteins, and amino acids. Are these going to be synthetic too, or are they going to be borrowed from existing life?
How can you know how hard a mathematical attack against an encryption algorithm will be? AFAIK the only algorithm known to be safe against pure mathematical attacks is a one-time-pad XOR.
And for that matter, how can you know the difficulty of cryptanalysis of a specific message encrypted by an algorithm, unless you happen to work for No Such Agency (link broken?).
urg i don't get cartoon network
thanks anyway though
The oft-repeated industry maxim, originally coined in 1965 by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, holds that the capabilities of semiconductors double roughly every 18 to 24 months.
I always thought Moore's law said 18 months. Is IBM trying to fudge the numbers to make the article sound better?
(OT) does anyone know the equivalant laws for RAM, hard disks, monitor size, etc?
When are Wallace and Gromit going to be on TV?
YKK has a website. Apparently they also sell other types of fasteners.
(insert joke about being glad there isn't a YKK bug here)
I would expect the laser/retina trick to be more effective. I've never managed to superimpose one image on another by putting one in front of each of my eyes. And superimposing is pretty important (for me at least) because it would let me get my computer to recognize people for me to compensate for my face blindness.
maybe windows being full of bugs isn't why microsoft still has a monopoly, but being full of (buggy) "features" kept people buying it and the bugs kept people upgrading.
"The prospect of a flood of private follow-on cases -- with their triple damages in private antitrust cases -- are lawsuits with potentials that Microsoft simply cannot ignore," said Herbert Hovenkamp, a professor at the University of Iowa law school.
In consumer class actions, legal experts say, Microsoft has defenses that will lessen its potential liability and present formidable obstacles for plaintiffs. For example, most computer users do not purchase Windows directly from retail software stores in shrink-wrapped boxes. Generally, the operating system is already loaded on personal computers when they are purchased.
Aren't monopoly-owned products likely to be purchased indirectly? Why does antitrust law give triple punishment for monopolies but then give them a way out?
Hmm.. don't you think Microsoft, by creating a buggy operating system in order to maintain their monopoly, did about as much damage to those who used Windows without paying as to those who paid for Windows? And what about the people who used other operating systems and weren't able to find software for them because of the dominance of Windows?
24. Never document the units of measure of any variable, input, output or parameter. e.g. feet, metres, cartons. This is not so important in bean counting, but it is very important in engineering work. As a corollary, never document the units of measure of any conversion constants, or how the values were derived. It is mild cheating, but very effective, to salt the code with some incorrect units of measure in the comments. If you are feeling particularly malicious, make up your own unit of measure; name it after yourself or some obscure person and never define it. If somebody challenges you, tell them you did so that you could use integer rather than floating point arithmetic.
Looks like some Lockheed employee took this page too seriously.
(numbering might be wrong because i got it from the googlecache version, which has only 53 rules.
I wonder if the author sent slightly different variants to the different antivirus companies..
A recent science news article mentioned that they were hoping to get the shuttle up there to fix it between Dec. 2 and Dec. 14 because they were worried about Y2K problems with the docking software. Apparently they didn't get up there quite fast enough.
(OT) What's happening with the idea of a next-generation space telescope?
heh, good thing i traded #warez (dalnet) for a nickname last night.
Otherwise, someone is going to figure out how modify it RSN, and release a really bad virus to the wild, disabling 5-15% of all home computers.
Why the hell wasn't a patch to repair the error relased in August then?
Microsoft did release a patch to windowsupdate.microsoft.com a few weeks ago, but that was another few weeks after the flaw was documented on microsoft's security bulletin thing.
Was anyone else caught off guard by "November 9 1999, 9 pm", thinking momentarily that November was the 9th month of the year?
How many sides does a novagon have again? Or is that a nonagon?
Hmm.. the site on www.pbs.org that was posted says the show is playing at 9 pm ET, but my local station says 8 pm PT.
I guess that means everyone should check their local stations.
Science means coming up with theories to explain observations and testing these theories against each other through experiments. Being able to discuss the history of science in terms of conflicting theories, and understanding the thought processes behind each of the theories, gives us a better understanding of the theories that are currently "most correct," and allows us to continue conducting science. If we had only learned about the correct theories, how would we have been able to continue conducting science?
When Communicator freezes it takes down the entire interface and a reboot is needed, I can usually salvage an IE crash.
If IE brings explorer.exe down with it (which it does occasionally), you lose all the stuff in your system tray. This is probably a design flaw in the Windows O/S, because I saw that happening with a shell other than explorer.exe (probably litestep, but I'm not sure).
But then again I don't use netscape much, so I can't say anything about your first point.
A $10 rebate for each customer who has bought Windows would run into billions
So people using pirated copies don't get a rebate? They should, because they were basically forced to use windows and probably didn't have the money to pay for something else, but still ended up running an unreliable operating system.
so? apache has a monopoly at amazon.com.
it doesn't make sense to say someone has a monopoly over one person/company/entity. the person has to have a monopoly over the whole market for the product.
but someone with "newest first, ignore threads" mode would notice that post #55 is missing, and type &cid=55 into their url.
: Suddenly your brain is worth $5000.
eww, only $5000? i value mine a little more than that.