Not really, software counts. I use Macs because of the interfaces and I expect most others do as well. If you Linux (with whatever interface manager you like) or Windows floats your boat fine, but I just find them irritating. Some find MacOS's interface irritating.
And Apple makes sure all the pieces work together. You must hope your Linux installation doesn't leave you groping for drivers. Windows has its share of crappy horses to ride, never liked the spit and polish on any of them.
Oh, like the Electric Monk from Douglas Adams "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency." In the future, entities were bored with machines that did physical things for them, so they built the Electric Monk which could believe things for them.
"A program capable of self improvement. " It would probably just develop emotional insecurities, wonder why it exists, and wind up slashing its own power cords.
Go ahead and try putting tariffs on imports. In this interconnected and trade deal world, you'd start a trade war with just about everyone. Once that happened, you can expect the U.S. economy to take one more bullet.
I don't have an answer, but the U.S. is still either bigger or equal to China as a manufacturer.
Yes, and the chlorofluorocarbons, you do remember those don't you, were and still are one of the major contributors to the ozone holes. The Montreal Protocol which started in the late 1980's, got a head of steam in the 1990's, and continues to this day pretty much banished chlorofluorocarbons from production. The expectation is the ozone holes will get back to normal around 2050 when chlorofluorocarbon have left the atmosphere.
And as someone below mentioned, there's been quite a large increase in skin cancer in the S. latitudes as a result of the ozone holes. There's something very susceptible to environmental blinkers, and it takes a really magnificent demonstration of intelligence every generation to snap people out of their blindness towards environmental dangers. This is it!
Hell, that was true 12 years ago. Being at a major U.S. uni at the time, I was exposed to their "honors" group. They had no ability to size up a problem much less know to solve it. And that was using Java. I don't think the problem was with Java, it was rather the concentration on a functional language as somehow giving them "computer science principles". That might be true but all those principles were lost on them because they had no context. And I'm fairly sure they had no understanding of what went on behind the language or frameworks.
Yeah, but there is credible evidence of large floods, and that is precisely the problem. They were local but the creationists seize upon them and then the argument comes down to how large they were. At that point, the creationists have heard all they need, i.e., there were large floods, hence they can ignore pesky details by claiming the opposition is choking on gnats. For all the Biblical "miracles", there are physical explanations (well, nearly all, some are just induced by those funny mushrooms). The Biblical people just claim G-d used nature to work his will, the science people will claim they have no need to postulate G-d. The creationists have again heard all they need.
There's no point arguing with a creationist. As someone above noted, they are not convinced with logical argument. My suspicion is that science frequently gives answers up to something less than 100% accuracy, that odd left over percent gap is enough to drive a caveman riding a dinosaur through for the creationists. Again, they have heard all they need because their world is black and white, 100% accuracy....anything less just means the opposition cannot claim the creationists degree of certitude. There's no point in arguing with someone like that.
"of-course it's a government program, so there has to be a level of inefficiency", this is true of any program, it isn't special to government. It is just that government is more conspicuous due to it running on taxpayer dollars. The citizenry will complain vociferously about "waste" in a government program but will happily fork over much more as a percentage of their income for things like cable TV, internet access, gasoline. Why? Because they see themselves as getting a direct benefit and hence it okay. Curtail spending on NHTSA, the people who figure out how the public wrecks its cars, and when the rate of accidents goes up, people will not notice, yet it is now more "efficient".
One other thing government has to contend with to a greater extent than private industry is the scale of the programs. Some are extraordinarily large, and require large sums of money. When that happens, the dear American citizenry, well a certain segment of them, will devote much time and effort bilking the government programs. Managing a large operation is quite difficult, companies generally can only get to a certain size before it becomes apparent that breaking them up would be more efficient. Government does not have that luxury. They are tasked with managing an entire program or several at the same time.
Across all government services, government is quite efficient, and some like NASA and DARPA have given back much more than they have received. Some are inefficient but not in ways that are easily amendable. As soon as changes are attempted, there will be special interest groups devoted to explaining LOUDLY how any changes will mean the End-O-World of Biblical Proportions, dogs and cats living together. One would think the Pentagon would be ripe for making more efficient. The Air Force says it doesn't want plane X, Congress forces them to take plane X forgetting the Air Force must now provide the infrastructure for plane X. The F18 program couldn't be made more efficient because parts were made in Mass. where Ted Kennedy prevented any changes. So if a liberal Democrat cannot even be relied upon, what hope is there for the rest of the government programs. And streamlining those programs would create new headaches given their size and their complexity just due to unintended consequences. And then the government can expect to be sued because Grandma lost her dentures due to Medicare changing the way it pays doctors for eyecare.
The best mix I ever saw was with Apple's MPW Commando interface. They had a unix like script language, but when you couldn't recall the special arcane syntax of some command, you could just hilite the command name and hit a key. A Commando dialog box came up formatted with radio buttons, checkboxes, etc. which recorded every dodad the command could use. Clicking and typing into the dialog fields built the text command for you in a pane at the bottom of the dialog box. When you were done, you could hit the run button or copy and paste the command into a command line window or paste it into a script you were building.
Nah, it will be when business cease to want that space that Redmond becomes vulnerable. The termites have already started in the guise of pads and smartphones. When the suits suddenly realize Powerpoint makes them look stupid, MS is toast. Bwahahahahahahaha...like that will ever happen.
Ding, Ding Ding!!! We have a winner for most vociferous use of the word "fuck" in an internet posting. Would you like a complimentary copy of Powerpoint to make your point with arrows and bullet points?
You are reading too much into the Democrats. They backed the Bush policies because they suddenly found they'd be held responsible if things went badly. They got scared and decided the Bush policies were just the ticket to prevent the backlash because then they can say they did everything they could.
Not beer, but social norms and the male/female preferences. While the social norms were covered above, I noticed in a lab for which I was an assistant director that the women in the lab were social beings that needed much interaction to feel at home. The males were typically laconic and wanted to do their own thing. The mathematical sciences prize individual achievement and so attract males. The other sciences value more communal research because it takes a team to get it done, and women naturally gravitate towards them when they are science minded. A math problem does not lend itself naturally to group interaction, figuring out how an organism does a certain thing involves many different specialties.
The humanities in general value group work, so women gravitate toward them and males gravitate away from them. However, science in general is bit more austere than the humanities and so women do not feel attracted to it. Over time, the sciences become populated by males and so that makes females even less attracted to them because males just aren't particularly sociable. And if they are male dominated, any female is going to feel like she's fresh meat on the hoof because, being male dominated, she's probably one of the few prospects the little Poindexters are going see. And the little Poindexters, having spent their young lives working around other males, do not develop the sort of charms a woman might appreciate.
These are not hard fast rules, like most things in the real world, there are probability distributions involved even if it is difficult to pin down precise figures.
The GP is talking about civil service, not congressmen/women. And most of the former do have a different mindset that the private sector...especially the ones that must deal with the public. People treat help-desk workers like shit, they treat civil servants even worse. It seems they pin to civil servant all the grievances they've spent their lives inventing.
An aspect of science is applied math as the AC below mentioned. More particularly, we should be somewhat cautious in treating math as physics. Physics is describable in math, but it isn't math. And the mathematics of a physical situation functions more like an analogy. It says "that works like this"...and usually it does that to some epsilon because we can only measure up to a certain energy. One can think of a physical theory described in mathematics as an idealization. The math is very precise, the real world is not necessarily.
Just because you have 200 F-22 doesn't mean you can field 200 F-22 at the same time. Some are down for repair, some will get cannibalized after training damages, etc. They'd be lucky to get 100 airborne for any one conflict.
Check the stats on state institutions, the states have been removing support for close to 20 years now. Research institutions have to pander to the federal government for research money....but that too is drying up because apparently Washington believes research grows on trees, and fundamental research has all been done by now.
The consequence is that research institutions have made a mad scramble for star professors who can bring in enough to cover their salary. This puts pressure on the private institutions and raises the cost of education in general because with federal research money drying up, there isn't enough to go around.
Teaching institutions have also taken it in the neck from state legislatures. The legislatures figure students can get federal aid and/or loans, so why should the states ante up.
The problem for your basic bog-standard legislator is that s/he has no understanding of science. This means not only can they not understand why the U.S. should fund basic research, they cannot explain to their constituents why they should fund it.
Ah, but you say, the Defense Department, they still believe in basic research, they'll fund it. Nope, not anymore. DoD has been taken over by bean counters just like companies. They don't have science degrees, they have bean counting degrees.
There was several years ago an email spammed to just about everyone in DoD. It purported to solve the research problem. The solution was to simply cherry pick available research and use it. Soooo....after a few years when all we are doing is rearranging the deck chairs on the Research Titanic, the rest of the world will bound past the U.S. and Congress will blame everyone but themselves.
And you won't replace the spontaneity or timing insight of a drummer either. Most of what I've heard in computer generated drum rhythms and fills seems to have been produced by non-drummers. It's usually mundane because most people, including other musicians (especially other musicians) have no idea what makes a rhythm or fill interesting. They just want something back there so they can concentrate on their instrument. As a consequence, and as a drummer, I find their music usually mundane and uninteresting.
Look at a YouTube video, say, Buddy Rich Amazing Drum Solo. No one yet has been able to reproduce electronically what he was capable of. Most drummers can't come close either.
Also, you wont' drive a band like Deep Purple without an Ian Paice or Iron Maiden without a Nicko McBrain. Both bands are still touring to large audiences. And why would you go to see a bunch of electronics generate music at you. Part of the allure of a live performance is, uh the live performance. If all you wanted was to jump around with a bunch of friends to loud music, throw a party.
I made a cat scratching post and started mine (dearly departed) on it when they were kittens. Don't buy a post, pure garbage. Go out and find a dead tree about 5 in diameter, saw flat butt ends, and leave it about about 3 foot long. Then get a 3/4" in sheet of plywood approx 1.5 feet on a side, this is your base. Also get a 10 in long 2x6 and a 3/8'" dowel, about 2ft worth. Center the 2x6 on the base, glue it. When dry, screw it down from the back side of the base up but not through the 2x6 (drill holes first so you don't need superman to drive in the screws and it also prevents splitting).
Match a drill bit size to the dowel size, just a bit bigger. Center your tree on the 2x6 and draw a line around it (i.e., a circle). Locate 3 places within the circle you just drew on your 2x6, trace three dowel holes on the 2x6 within the tree circle you made. Make a template of this, i.e., you have a round disk with the holes marked. Mark the holes from the template on the butt end of your tree. Now, with a very straight, steady hand, drill 3 holes into 2x6 (about down to the plywood) and do similarly to the butt in of your tree about 2 or inches deep. Cut your dowel into three pieces, each piece so that it just about will fill one of the 2x6 holes and one the tree holes. Dry fit loosely, i.e., don't cram the tree down to the base.
Put some wood glue in the 6 holes, insert your dowels into the base, and wet the tops and sides of the dowels sticking out with glue as well. Now cram the tree onto your base being careful to line up the dowels. Using a sledge hammer, bash the top of the tree lightly until the 2x6 and the tree form a tight fit. Wait for glue to dry.
Now get yourself some think hemp rope, about 3/8" thick. Wrap the pole from base to top tucking the ends into the winding so friction will keep them from unwinding. You'll need to replace the hemp every 6 months or so. You may need two rolls of it.
Your cats will honor you like a god...well...they'll at least be pleased for you to be in their presence.
Ya, I'd recommend Siamese to anyone, but I'm unsure what happens if you do not get them as kittens. Kittens will bond to you at 6-7 weeks. My Siamese wanted to be near me whenever I was at home, climbing on me, curling up, anything to get close. I guess they are more talkative than the average moggie. Mine lived to 17 years, and I was heartbroken when they went to the Great Food Bowl in the Sky.
The oddest thing happened during their last days. Tinkerbell was on her last life and would curl up near my face at night with her head on my arm. Ariel slept down at the foot where they both usually slept until Tinkerbell got sick. The last night Tinkerbell was with us (I had planned to take her in for the final vet visit the following day, she was really near the end), Ariel came up and was inconsolable, stayed near Tinkerbell that whole night side by side. The following night, when Tinkerbell was no more, Ariel came up and cuddled up just like Tinkerbell had done.
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Not really, software counts. I use Macs because of the interfaces and I expect most others do as well. If you Linux (with whatever interface manager you like) or Windows floats your boat fine, but I just find them irritating. Some find MacOS's interface irritating.
And Apple makes sure all the pieces work together. You must hope your Linux installation doesn't leave you groping for drivers. Windows has its share of crappy horses to ride, never liked the spit and polish on any of them.
Unemployed ex-staff?
Oh, like the Electric Monk from Douglas Adams "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency." In the future, entities were bored with machines that did physical things for them, so they built the Electric Monk which could believe things for them.
"A program capable of self improvement. " It would probably just develop emotional insecurities, wonder why it exists, and wind up slashing its own power cords.
Go ahead and try putting tariffs on imports. In this interconnected and trade deal world, you'd start a trade war with just about everyone. Once that happened, you can expect the U.S. economy to take one more bullet.
I don't have an answer, but the U.S. is still either bigger or equal to China as a manufacturer.
Yes, and the chlorofluorocarbons, you do remember those don't you, were and still are one of the major contributors to the ozone holes. The Montreal Protocol which started in the late 1980's, got a head of steam in the 1990's, and continues to this day pretty much banished chlorofluorocarbons from production. The expectation is the ozone holes will get back to normal around 2050 when chlorofluorocarbon have left the atmosphere.
And as someone below mentioned, there's been quite a large increase in skin cancer in the S. latitudes as a result of the ozone holes. There's something very susceptible to environmental blinkers, and it takes a really magnificent demonstration of intelligence every generation to snap people out of their blindness towards environmental dangers. This is it!
Soooo....all you do is GUis and somehow that makes C++ the answer to Java and .NET?
Hell, that was true 12 years ago. Being at a major U.S. uni at the time, I was exposed to their "honors" group. They had no ability to size up a problem much less know to solve it. And that was using Java. I don't think the problem was with Java, it was rather the concentration on a functional language as somehow giving them "computer science principles". That might be true but all those principles were lost on them because they had no context. And I'm fairly sure they had no understanding of what went on behind the language or frameworks.
Yeah, but there is credible evidence of large floods, and that is precisely the problem. They were local but the creationists seize upon them and then the argument comes down to how large they were. At that point, the creationists have heard all they need, i.e., there were large floods, hence they can ignore pesky details by claiming the opposition is choking on gnats. For all the Biblical "miracles", there are physical explanations (well, nearly all, some are just induced by those funny mushrooms). The Biblical people just claim G-d used nature to work his will, the science people will claim they have no need to postulate G-d. The creationists have again heard all they need.
There's no point arguing with a creationist. As someone above noted, they are not convinced with logical argument. My suspicion is that science frequently gives answers up to something less than 100% accuracy, that odd left over percent gap is enough to drive a caveman riding a dinosaur through for the creationists. Again, they have heard all they need because their world is black and white, 100% accuracy....anything less just means the opposition cannot claim the creationists degree of certitude. There's no point in arguing with someone like that.
"of-course it's a government program, so there has to be a level of inefficiency", this is true of any program, it isn't special to government. It is just that government is more conspicuous due to it running on taxpayer dollars. The citizenry will complain vociferously about "waste" in a government program but will happily fork over much more as a percentage of their income for things like cable TV, internet access, gasoline. Why? Because they see themselves as getting a direct benefit and hence it okay. Curtail spending on NHTSA, the people who figure out how the public wrecks its cars, and when the rate of accidents goes up, people will not notice, yet it is now more "efficient".
One other thing government has to contend with to a greater extent than private industry is the scale of the programs. Some are extraordinarily large, and require large sums of money. When that happens, the dear American citizenry, well a certain segment of them, will devote much time and effort bilking the government programs. Managing a large operation is quite difficult, companies generally can only get to a certain size before it becomes apparent that breaking them up would be more efficient. Government does not have that luxury. They are tasked with managing an entire program or several at the same time.
Across all government services, government is quite efficient, and some like NASA and DARPA have given back much more than they have received. Some are inefficient but not in ways that are easily amendable. As soon as changes are attempted, there will be special interest groups devoted to explaining LOUDLY how any changes will mean the End-O-World of Biblical Proportions, dogs and cats living together. One would think the Pentagon would be ripe for making more efficient. The Air Force says it doesn't want plane X, Congress forces them to take plane X forgetting the Air Force must now provide the infrastructure for plane X. The F18 program couldn't be made more efficient because parts were made in Mass. where Ted Kennedy prevented any changes. So if a liberal Democrat cannot even be relied upon, what hope is there for the rest of the government programs. And streamlining those programs would create new headaches given their size and their complexity just due to unintended consequences. And then the government can expect to be sued because Grandma lost her dentures due to Medicare changing the way it pays doctors for eyecare.
The best mix I ever saw was with Apple's MPW Commando interface. They had a unix like script language, but when you couldn't recall the special arcane syntax of some command, you could just hilite the command name and hit a key. A Commando dialog box came up formatted with radio buttons, checkboxes, etc. which recorded every dodad the command could use. Clicking and typing into the dialog fields built the text command for you in a pane at the bottom of the dialog box. When you were done, you could hit the run button or copy and paste the command into a command line window or paste it into a script you were building.
Worse, it might make Winders 8 look good. That would be an appalling outcome.
Nah, it will be when business cease to want that space that Redmond becomes vulnerable. The termites have already started in the guise of pads and smartphones. When the suits suddenly realize Powerpoint makes them look stupid, MS is toast. Bwahahahahahahaha...like that will ever happen.
Ding, Ding Ding!!! We have a winner for most vociferous use of the word "fuck" in an internet posting. Would you like a complimentary copy of Powerpoint to make your point with arrows and bullet points?
You are reading too much into the Democrats. They backed the Bush policies because they suddenly found they'd be held responsible if things went badly. They got scared and decided the Bush policies were just the ticket to prevent the backlash because then they can say they did everything they could.
Not beer, but social norms and the male/female preferences. While the social norms were covered above, I noticed in a lab for which I was an assistant director that the women in the lab were social beings that needed much interaction to feel at home. The males were typically laconic and wanted to do their own thing. The mathematical sciences prize individual achievement and so attract males. The other sciences value more communal research because it takes a team to get it done, and women naturally gravitate towards them when they are science minded. A math problem does not lend itself naturally to group interaction, figuring out how an organism does a certain thing involves many different specialties.
The humanities in general value group work, so women gravitate toward them and males gravitate away from them. However, science in general is bit more austere than the humanities and so women do not feel attracted to it. Over time, the sciences become populated by males and so that makes females even less attracted to them because males just aren't particularly sociable. And if they are male dominated, any female is going to feel like she's fresh meat on the hoof because, being male dominated, she's probably one of the few prospects the little Poindexters are going see. And the little Poindexters, having spent their young lives working around other males, do not develop the sort of charms a woman might appreciate.
These are not hard fast rules, like most things in the real world, there are probability distributions involved even if it is difficult to pin down precise figures.
The GP is talking about civil service, not congressmen/women. And most of the former do have a different mindset that the private sector...especially the ones that must deal with the public. People treat help-desk workers like shit, they treat civil servants even worse. It seems they pin to civil servant all the grievances they've spent their lives inventing.
An aspect of science is applied math as the AC below mentioned. More particularly, we should be somewhat cautious in treating math as physics. Physics is describable in math, but it isn't math. And the mathematics of a physical situation functions more like an analogy. It says "that works like this"...and usually it does that to some epsilon because we can only measure up to a certain energy. One can think of a physical theory described in mathematics as an idealization. The math is very precise, the real world is not necessarily.
Just because you have 200 F-22 doesn't mean you can field 200 F-22 at the same time. Some are down for repair, some will get cannibalized after training damages, etc. They'd be lucky to get 100 airborne for any one conflict.
Read about the Rape of Nanking sometime if you think the Japanese having a free reign in Asia meant they were fluffy bunnies.
Check the stats on state institutions, the states have been removing support for close to 20 years now. Research institutions have to pander to the federal government for research money....but that too is drying up because apparently Washington believes research grows on trees, and fundamental research has all been done by now.
The consequence is that research institutions have made a mad scramble for star professors who can bring in enough to cover their salary. This puts pressure on the private institutions and raises the cost of education in general because with federal research money drying up, there isn't enough to go around.
Teaching institutions have also taken it in the neck from state legislatures. The legislatures figure students can get federal aid and/or loans, so why should the states ante up.
The problem for your basic bog-standard legislator is that s/he has no understanding of science. This means not only can they not understand why the U.S. should fund basic research, they cannot explain to their constituents why they should fund it.
Ah, but you say, the Defense Department, they still believe in basic research, they'll fund it. Nope, not anymore. DoD has been taken over by bean counters just like companies. They don't have science degrees, they have bean counting degrees.
There was several years ago an email spammed to just about everyone in DoD. It purported to solve the research problem. The solution was to simply cherry pick available research and use it. Soooo....after a few years when all we are doing is rearranging the deck chairs on the Research Titanic, the rest of the world will bound past the U.S. and Congress will blame everyone but themselves.
Wrong, the moral is to study hard and stop attempting to make excuses for your failures.
And you won't replace the spontaneity or timing insight of a drummer either. Most of what I've heard in computer generated drum rhythms and fills seems to have been produced by non-drummers. It's usually mundane because most people, including other musicians (especially other musicians) have no idea what makes a rhythm or fill interesting. They just want something back there so they can concentrate on their instrument. As a consequence, and as a drummer, I find their music usually mundane and uninteresting.
Look at a YouTube video, say, Buddy Rich Amazing Drum Solo. No one yet has been able to reproduce electronically what he was capable of. Most drummers can't come close either.
Also, you wont' drive a band like Deep Purple without an Ian Paice or Iron Maiden without a Nicko McBrain. Both bands are still touring to large audiences. And why would you go to see a bunch of electronics generate music at you. Part of the allure of a live performance is, uh the live performance. If all you wanted was to jump around with a bunch of friends to loud music, throw a party.
I made a cat scratching post and started mine (dearly departed) on it when they were kittens. Don't buy a post, pure garbage. Go out and find a dead tree about 5 in diameter, saw flat butt ends, and leave it about about 3 foot long. Then get a 3/4" in sheet of plywood approx 1.5 feet on a side, this is your base. Also get a 10 in long 2x6 and a 3/8'" dowel, about 2ft worth. Center the 2x6 on the base, glue it. When dry, screw it down from the back side of the base up but not through the 2x6 (drill holes first so you don't need superman to drive in the screws and it also prevents splitting).
Match a drill bit size to the dowel size, just a bit bigger. Center your tree on the 2x6 and draw a line around it (i.e., a circle). Locate 3 places within the circle you just drew on your 2x6, trace three dowel holes on the 2x6 within the tree circle you made. Make a template of this, i.e., you have a round disk with the holes marked. Mark the holes from the template on the butt end of your tree. Now, with a very straight, steady hand, drill 3 holes into 2x6 (about down to the plywood) and do similarly to the butt in of your tree about 2 or inches deep. Cut your dowel into three pieces, each piece so that it just about will fill one of the 2x6 holes and one the tree holes. Dry fit loosely, i.e., don't cram the tree down to the base.
Put some wood glue in the 6 holes, insert your dowels into the base, and wet the tops and sides of the dowels sticking out with glue as well. Now cram the tree onto your base being careful to line up the dowels. Using a sledge hammer, bash the top of the tree lightly until the 2x6 and the tree form a tight fit. Wait for glue to dry.
Now get yourself some think hemp rope, about 3/8" thick. Wrap the pole from base to top tucking the ends into the winding so friction will keep them from unwinding. You'll need to replace the hemp every 6 months or so. You may need two rolls of it.
Your cats will honor you like a god...well...they'll at least be pleased for you to be in their presence.
Ya, I'd recommend Siamese to anyone, but I'm unsure what happens if you do not get them as kittens. Kittens will bond to you at 6-7 weeks. My Siamese wanted to be near me whenever I was at home, climbing on me, curling up, anything to get close. I guess they are more talkative than the average moggie. Mine lived to 17 years, and I was heartbroken when they went to the Great Food Bowl in the Sky.
The oddest thing happened during their last days. Tinkerbell was on her last life and would curl up near my face at night with her head on my arm. Ariel slept down at the foot where they both usually slept until Tinkerbell got sick. The last night Tinkerbell was with us (I had planned to take her in for the final vet visit the following day, she was really near the end), Ariel came up and was inconsolable, stayed near Tinkerbell that whole night side by side. The following night, when Tinkerbell was no more, Ariel came up and cuddled up just like Tinkerbell had done.