I like the comforting feeling of knowing there's a pilot in the cockpit.
Computers don't get heart attacks or fall asleep at the stick.
They have their own failure modes. One issue is that modern commercial aircraft are subject to similar failure modes even when piloted by a human being.
... they would search the house for the key and if not found they would get a locksmith to crack open it. No safe will stop a determined person with lots of time and right tools. The difference is that they can't crack your skull (yet) to find the keys...
I had my arm set after an accident two weeks ago. I reckon the stuff they gave me to inhale could easily be used to extract information like that.
Re:This isn't sensationalist, it's the truth
on
Leaving the GPL Behind
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
One could only imagine how Linux would have turned out with a BSD or Apache license;
No need for imagination. Just look at the BSD projects and the pathetic support they get from business.
Paul Krugman (PK). Nobel Prize winning economist and columnist for the New York Times.
Charlie Stross (CS). Hugo-winning science fiction author.
Anticipation World Con, Montreal, Quebec August 6, 2009
Transcription by Edwin Steussy, Apogee Communications. Please send corrections to ed âoeatâ my last name âoedotâ com.
CS: Good evening, weâ(TM)re very pleased to be here and thank you very much for inviting us to talk.
PK: Yeah, this is different for me, but it should be a lot of fun. ⦠(Set up problems) ⦠What do you really think the world is going to look like, say, 30 years from now?
CS: Ummm, thereâ(TM)s a very simple answer to that and a misleading one, I think, and the simple answer is unless we are really, really unlucky the world in about 30 years time is going to look more complex. By really, really unlucky â" nuclear war, major plagues or similar â" the world in 30 years time after that is going to look a lot simpler, though not a good way.
PK: Right. Obviously what Iâ(TM)m thinking about is the technology. Given my perspective â" I was thinking about his coming up â" and thinking that â" maybe it was just my age or something, but things donâ(TM)t seem to have changed as much in the last 30 years as myself as a sci-fi reader would have expected them to. And I donâ(TM)t know if Iâ(TM)m missing something â" kinda that perspective.
CS: I think things have changed a lot in the last 30 years, but not in the direction that somebody 30 years ago would have expected. The 20th Century, and going back to the 19th Century, the real visible vector of change technologically was transportation speeds. You go back to 1809 and to get across the English Home Counties, the areas around London, you go via stagecoach and it would take you a couple of days to cross them, it would cost you probably about a monthâ(TM)s wages and cause you considerable discomfort. 2009, it costs about the same amount of money, it takes about the same time and the same amount of discomfort to get from here to New Zealand. The whole world has shrunk to the scale of the English Home Counties in 1809 over about two centuries. At the same time weâ(TM)ve gotten used to performance improvements in speed. Thereâ(TM)s this weird sort of political thing in the early 20th Century called air-mindedness. Everybody knew that flight was going to be the next really important technological revolution. They were all trying to find ways of making money from it or using it to demonstrate how important and modern and with-it they were and how on the cutting edge they were â" sort of like computers today with politicians. Who will never pass up a photo-op with a computer even if they donâ(TM)t even know how to type. Now the whole air-mindedness thing, the problem we ran into was ⦠it was sigmoid curve â" we had a slow start, a very rapid period of improvements where we went at about 20 years from biplanes to supersonic jets. And then the curve stopped going up â" it flattened off. And the reason it flattened off is all to do with energy. To go much faster, you need more and more energy inputs. Itâ(TM)s not a linear input increase but virtually an exponential one. We hit a point at which chemical propulsion wouldnâ(TM)t send us any faster. And for a variety of reasons including both engineering and politics, nuclear power wasnâ(TM)t an acceptable answer. And airliners today are slower than they were 20 years ago. However, the big difference is that everyone and his dog flies today, whereas 20 years ago, or 40 years ago more accurately, thatâ(TM)s where the term jet-set came from, its because those were the people who could afford to fly long distances.
PK: And yet, let me press on. What I kind of expected. Let me show my age here. What you came out believing if you went to the New Yorkâ(TM)s World Fair in 1964 w
Hey thanks for the informative post. I broke my arm the week before last. Doctors told me there was a wait for xray because of a computer virus problem. Later they sent me my xrays on CD along with a bunch of DLLs for reading said files. Office style issues seem to be encroaching on systems which were formerly embedded and airgapped...
The critical part is coherence: making sure that the only difference between the different universes is inside the quantum computer itself. So long as coherence is maintained, the universes can merge back together and all you're left with is the right answer (99.99999% of the time).
How does the observer in the universe with the right answer know their answer is right?
In related news, another reader links to an Australian study indicating that quantum computers "can continue to work perfectly even if half their components, or qubits, are missing."
Uhhhh....Hmmmmm....
I wonder if it keeps working when all of its components are missing?
At your home
At a motel (extension lead)
At a caravan park (powered site)
At a petrol station. Especially in the country they are good at making do. Maybe they have a workshop with a welder.
I think we need a standard a bit like high power USB. A device connects and negotiates with the supply system. It would say this is my account number, this is my requirement. Then the supply system enables charging current and bills the owner of the car. Devices like this could be attached to power poles along highways.
You remember last year when we had $4 / gallon gas?
This is a little bit OT but 4 usd/gallon is 1.26 Australian dollars per litre, which is the price we pay right now. And that is much lower than the peak a couple of years ago. People here are still buying SUVs which can't be sold in the US where they cost less to run.
I broke my arm a week ago. The doctor told me there was a wait on xray because they had a virus. He asked me what I did for a living (software engineer) and assumed incorrectly I was an IT person. He asked my opinion about the virus issue and I said it shouldn't happen on a properly managed system.
When I got home I had the xrays sent to me on CD. The disk was loaded with DLL files. Presumably the code for reading the data. Fortunately gimp reads those files so I was ok.
Its no bloody wonder they have a virus problem if they habitually send executables along with their data. And windows ones at that.
Slashdot Mirror
I like the comforting feeling of knowing there's a pilot in the cockpit.
Computers don't get heart attacks or fall asleep at the stick.
They have their own failure modes. One issue is that modern commercial aircraft are subject to similar failure modes even when piloted by a human being.
I had my arm set after an accident two weeks ago. I reckon the stuff they gave me to inhale could easily be used to extract information like that.
One could only imagine how Linux would have turned out with a BSD or Apache license;
No need for imagination. Just look at the BSD projects and the pathetic support they get from business.
The TV Networks will finally recognize your inflatable doll for the companion she really is!
Whats her body temperature?
Krugman and Stross Transcript
Paul Krugman (PK). Nobel Prize winning economist and columnist for the New York Times.
Charlie Stross (CS). Hugo-winning science fiction author.
Anticipation World Con, Montreal, Quebec
August 6, 2009
Transcription by Edwin Steussy, Apogee Communications. Please send corrections to ed âoeatâ my last name âoedotâ com.
CS: Good evening, weâ(TM)re very pleased to be here and thank you very much for inviting us to talk.
PK: Yeah, this is different for me, but it should be a lot of fun. ⦠(Set up problems) ⦠What do you really think the world is going to look like, say, 30 years from now?
CS: Ummm, thereâ(TM)s a very simple answer to that and a misleading one, I think, and the simple answer is unless we are really, really unlucky the world in about 30 years time is going to look more complex. By really, really unlucky â" nuclear war, major plagues or similar â" the world in 30 years time after that is going to look a lot simpler, though not a good way.
PK: Right. Obviously what Iâ(TM)m thinking about is the technology. Given my perspective â" I was thinking about his coming up â" and thinking that â" maybe it was just my age or something, but things donâ(TM)t seem to have changed as much in the last 30 years as myself as a sci-fi reader would have expected them to. And I donâ(TM)t know if Iâ(TM)m missing something â" kinda that perspective.
CS: I think things have changed a lot in the last 30 years, but not in the direction that somebody 30 years ago would have expected. The 20th Century, and going back to the 19th Century, the real visible vector of change technologically was transportation speeds. You go back to 1809 and to get across the English Home Counties, the areas around London, you go via stagecoach and it would take you a couple of days to cross them, it would cost you probably about a monthâ(TM)s wages and cause you considerable discomfort. 2009, it costs about the same amount of money, it takes about the same time and the same amount of discomfort to get from here to New Zealand. The whole world has shrunk to the scale of the English Home Counties in 1809 over about two centuries. At the same time weâ(TM)ve gotten used to performance improvements in speed. Thereâ(TM)s this weird sort of political thing in the early 20th Century called air-mindedness. Everybody knew that flight was going to be the next really important technological revolution. They were all trying to find ways of making money from it or using it to demonstrate how important and modern and with-it they were and how on the cutting edge they were â" sort of like computers today with politicians. Who will never pass up a photo-op with a computer even if they donâ(TM)t even know how to type. Now the whole air-mindedness thing, the problem we ran into was ⦠it was sigmoid curve â" we had a slow start, a very rapid period of improvements where we went at about 20 years from biplanes to supersonic jets. And then the curve stopped going up â" it flattened off. And the reason it flattened off is all to do with energy. To go much faster, you need more and more energy inputs. Itâ(TM)s not a linear input increase but virtually an exponential one. We hit a point at which chemical propulsion wouldnâ(TM)t send us any faster. And for a variety of reasons including both engineering and politics, nuclear power wasnâ(TM)t an acceptable answer. And airliners today are slower than they were 20 years ago. However, the big difference is that everyone and his dog flies today, whereas 20 years ago, or 40 years ago more accurately, thatâ(TM)s where the term jet-set came from, its because those were the people who could afford to fly long distances.
PK: And yet, let me press on. What I kind of expected. Let me show my age here. What you came out believing if you went to the New Yorkâ(TM)s World Fair in 1964 w
Its not like I can just drive to the local planning office in Alpha Centauri.
100 light-years! Boy that barely missed us, better put on your hardhats boys because the next mash up is said to be only 80 light-years away!
We should hope that whoever engineered this is not heading our way.
Google is trying to flog me glass repair and weight loss services.
Well there is RSS but its not prescriptive enough for most people.
With all those Fs in the name its a cert to be acquired by Facebook,
Hey thanks for the informative post. I broke my arm the week before last. Doctors told me there was a wait for xray because of a computer virus problem. Later they sent me my xrays on CD along with a bunch of DLLs for reading said files. Office style issues seem to be encroaching on systems which were formerly embedded and airgapped...
. . . give your liquids to the nice man from the TSA . . .
"I refuse to give them my 'precious bodily fluids'" - General Jack Ripper
You don't avoid the TSA, you just refuse them your essence.
The Fithp are coming! The Fithp are coming! Run for the hills!
We should just return to the trees. The Traveller Fithp will never think to look for us there.
That book would make a great movie BTW.
I was born in 1965 and I saw 2001 as a new release. The scene where Bowman disassembles HAL gave me nightmares for years afterwards.
Douglas Trumbull, the man who created the effects for 2001, told Kubrick that Saturn was too hard to depict realistically
And then ripped the footage off for his own movie!
In the original novel, the monolith was on a moon of Saturn.
Too bad the movie came first.
The movie was originally shot to finish at Saturn but Kubrick changed his mind. The Saturn footage was recycled for Silent Running.
If I get stuck in the country with my electric car and no power I could ask somebody to fax me a new battery pack.
The critical part is coherence: making sure that the only difference between the different universes is inside the quantum computer itself. So long as coherence is maintained, the universes can merge back together and all you're left with is the right answer (99.99999% of the time).
How does the observer in the universe with the right answer know their answer is right?
Uhhhh....Hmmmmm....
I wonder if it keeps working when all of its components are missing?
At your home
At a motel (extension lead)
At a caravan park (powered site)
At a petrol station. Especially in the country they are good at making do. Maybe they have a workshop with a welder.
I think we need a standard a bit like high power USB. A device connects and negotiates with the supply system. It would say this is my account number, this is my requirement. Then the supply system enables charging current and bills the owner of the car. Devices like this could be attached to power poles along highways.
You remember last year when we had $4 / gallon gas?
This is a little bit OT but 4 usd/gallon is 1.26 Australian dollars per litre, which is the price we pay right now. And that is much lower than the peak a couple of years ago. People here are still buying SUVs which can't be sold in the US where they cost less to run.
They could have started out with a much cheaper vehicle
Not without economies of scale. They always start at zero.
I broke my arm a week ago. The doctor told me there was a wait on xray because they had a virus. He asked me what I did for a living (software engineer) and assumed incorrectly I was an IT person. He asked my opinion about the virus issue and I said it shouldn't happen on a properly managed system.
When I got home I had the xrays sent to me on CD. The disk was loaded with DLL files. Presumably the code for reading the data. Fortunately gimp reads those files so I was ok.
Its no bloody wonder they have a virus problem if they habitually send executables along with their data. And windows ones at that.
My job once was to set the new password on all 40 or so terminal servers. Made it easy to memorise the new password.