On your first day at Google, you discover that your cubicle mate wrote the textbook you used as a primary resource in your first year of graduate school. Do you:
F: Wonder why you have a PhD and you're still sharing a cubicle like a code monkey.
Democracy depends on the populace having the CAPACITY to make informed decisions.
Careful -- it's a slippery slope from there to saying that smarter people should get more votes or that uneducated people shouldn't be allowed to vote at all... and that's the sort of thinking that makes people very, very upset...
The USA has a lot of diversity in its roots, but most of it has been homogenized at this point, at least from what the outside sees. As far as "white" goes, does that mean Italian, German, French, British, Irish, Nordic, Dutch, Russian, Spanish ancestry, or what? And as far as Christianity is concerned, there are many varieties (sects, if you will) of Christianity and the notion that one is the same as the other is not accurate -- although it also might not seem particularly important given that Christian sects don't tend to fight among each other (right now) with the same ferocity as followers of some other faiths. There's quite a mix of backgrounds and beliefs (I admit we don't come anywhere near India in this regard -- nobody can). True enough, every four years we elect some WASP (although not 100% with the P) but that has more to do with money than security, in my opinion.
Democracy depends on the populace having the information to make informed decisions, the freedom to do so, and the power to make these decisions stick. Journalism plays a role on this, but it's hardly enough on its own.
To the extent that jounalism provides useful and accurage information, it's helpful. If it provides a way for leaders to share their considered opinions about matters of state, even better. When it's a tool of the government, then of course it sucks. In the long run I think that bad journalism is worse for democracies than good journalism is good...
I dunno, but don't kid yourself, we all acquiesced to this course of action with our votes.
I don't think that the vote was unanimous. Was there ever a referendum on this? Was someone elected on a "let's build atomic bombs platform"?
In fact, I seem to recall that the first civilians to even be aware of the existence of the USA's atomic weapon program were residents of Hiroshima. By the first time the American public learned about Atomic weapons, the die was already cast.
A 16M telescope has a surface approx 44 times larger than one of 2.4M (give or take whatever area is lost for various reasons), so I'd expect it to do better, even after taking into account the attenuation due to the atmosphere.
However, if we can build 16M mirrors, then maybe what we should do is put one of them in orbit. My guess is that a 16M orbital telescope (or even something a few meters larger than Hubble) would kick ass.
All we need is some way to get the thing into high orbit... Oh, never mind.
Sorry, I wrote "are" when I meant to write "aren't". Too early in the morning for me (and I'm on the east coast -- you must really be burning the midnight oil!).
I've definately gotten heat for things like this in the past. Some parents (not all, but enough to make a stink) look at a syllabus and compare that with what they see in the help-wanted ads or in the press and get upset that their child is not being educated to be buzzword-compliant. Of course it's wrong to cave in to their demands, but it's also wrong to discount that there is a real cost in repeatedly defending your syllabus. There's also a real cost in terms of students whose parents will yank them from the course because they think it's a waste of time. Which is better: to have X kids learn something about IT using Windows/Office or to have X/Y kids learn something about IT via Linux/whatever? What's the value of Y for you?
When you compare "commercial off-the shelf" prices for computers and software with prices of "recycled" computers and free software, of course you're going to see a big difference.
A more interesting question is total cost of ownership; i.e. how much money this really saves over the long run (factoring in things like the fact that the PTA is probably giving the schools grief because the students are learning Office or similar skills that will help them get jobs... believe me, this happens). I'm sure someone has opinions (and hopefully data) related to that.
An even more interesting questions is why our schools aren't adequately funded...
I wonder if school email accounts are still off limits.
More likely your school has a kick-ass spam filter or something like that. My school account got hundreds of spams a day, and my classmates seemed to think that was about average.
Sky diving only offers you zero-g for a moment. After you
get going fast enough, wind resistance starts slowing you
down. When you reach terminal velocity, you've stopped accelerating and you're back at 1-g. (I don't know how long it takes to reach terminal velocity -- maybe 10 seconds? Sure feels like a long time...)
... doesn't seem all that unreasonable. The anti-virus subscriptions are much the same way -- pay more money, get more frequent updates/better tools.
The only question is what it takes to become a "premium cusomter". Is it simply a matter of giving MS a few bucks, or is it up to them to choose their friends? MS has a monopoly on the ability to patch their operating systems; if they don't market it openly and fairly then perhaps they'll get another visit from the DoJ (well, I guess this depends on what happens in November...).
That's why they are pushing Linux on their low end Opteron stuff,...
Opteron-based N-way blade servers (I'm not sure what values of N have been announced yet, but it's not 1...) aren't exactly low-end, but yes, they're for different markets.
The system requirements for these packages lists MacOS 10.1 and 10.2, but doesn't mention 10.3. Are there any glitches with 10.3? Why isn't it on the blessed list?
It only helps if you have a very parallel application that is enormously heavier on CPU cycles than on disk or anything else - there aren't many like that.
Too bad TFA is slashdotted... the point is not parallel applications, it's applications with lots of threads. If you're
putting together a service nicely decomposes into lots
of threads (i.e., lots of httpd's) then this is very nice -- lots
of threads running side by side, no context switches...
1. People who run Linux on a different box may be more likley to upgrade to the Open chip since they won't have to take an OS change into account as well.
Linux runs on Sparc, as does FreeBSD. There's no reason to think that these kernels will not be ported to take advantage of the Niagra architecture. If you don't like solaris, nobody is going to force you to use it (except maybe your customers, if that's what they like).
2. People not happy with big blue can migrate to another vendor without having to take an OS change into account. That means less lock in.
I call FUD on you. Doesn't "big blue" make the Z architecture, OS/390, System/36, etc., which are text-book examples of vendor lock-in? As in all other situations, you choose the system that works best for you. If vendor lock-in is fear for you, get Linux from IBM (or Sun, for that matter). On the other hand, if you need something that only System/36 or Windows or MacOS or Solaris provides, then you bite the bullet and buy that.
If you want google to paw through all your files and risk having your account yanked for violating the user agreement, feel free to use it... (heck, maybe google won't yank your account in return for the opportunity to index your files...)
Sarcasm aside, this is a valid point. If IE doesn't support it, most authors won't use it on their web pages, and there aren't any IE updates scheduled any time soon...
Ambidextrous design makes working more comfortable, whether you mouse with your left or right hand.
Translated from marketese, this means that it works equally poorly for both hands. Sorry, I think I'll keep my old asymmetric logictech mouse for a while longer; it might just look like a lump of beige plastic, but its shape fits my hand.
Slashdot Mirror
Try clicking on the "Cached" link...
The difficulty is that flash RAM currently isn't as fast as generic RAM and costs more, so it's not a cure-all.
(Is someone actually building single-piece mirrors that big? The drawing looked more like a bunch of hexagonal mirrors lumped together.)
F: Wonder why you have a PhD and you're still sharing a cubicle like a code monkey.
Careful -- it's a slippery slope from there to saying that smarter people should get more votes or that uneducated people shouldn't be allowed to vote at all... and that's the sort of thinking that makes people very, very upset...
To the extent that jounalism provides useful and accurage information, it's helpful. If it provides a way for leaders to share their considered opinions about matters of state, even better. When it's a tool of the government, then of course it sucks. In the long run I think that bad journalism is worse for democracies than good journalism is good...
I don't think that the vote was unanimous. Was there ever a referendum on this? Was someone elected on a "let's build atomic bombs platform"?
In fact, I seem to recall that the first civilians to even be aware of the existence of the USA's atomic weapon program were residents of Hiroshima. By the first time the American public learned about Atomic weapons, the die was already cast.
However, if we can build 16M mirrors, then maybe what we should do is put one of them in orbit. My guess is that a 16M orbital telescope (or even something a few meters larger than Hubble) would kick ass.
All we need is some way to get the thing into high orbit... Oh, never mind.
I've definately gotten heat for things like this in the past. Some parents (not all, but enough to make a stink) look at a syllabus and compare that with what they see in the help-wanted ads or in the press and get upset that their child is not being educated to be buzzword-compliant. Of course it's wrong to cave in to their demands, but it's also wrong to discount that there is a real cost in repeatedly defending your syllabus. There's also a real cost in terms of students whose parents will yank them from the course because they think it's a waste of time. Which is better: to have X kids learn something about IT using Windows/Office or to have X/Y kids learn something about IT via Linux/whatever? What's the value of Y for you?
A more interesting question is total cost of ownership; i.e. how much money this really saves over the long run (factoring in things like the fact that the PTA is probably giving the schools grief because the students are learning Office or similar skills that will help them get jobs... believe me, this happens). I'm sure someone has opinions (and hopefully data) related to that.
An even more interesting questions is why our schools aren't adequately funded...
More likely your school has a kick-ass spam filter or something like that. My school account got hundreds of spams a day, and my classmates seemed to think that was about average.
Wherever they are, I hope for your sake that they don't read slashdot, J. "They probably don't know it was me" Harris.
The only question is what it takes to become a "premium cusomter". Is it simply a matter of giving MS a few bucks, or is it up to them to choose their friends? MS has a monopoly on the ability to patch their operating systems; if they don't market it openly and fairly then perhaps they'll get another visit from the DoJ (well, I guess this depends on what happens in November...).
Opteron-based N-way blade servers (I'm not sure what values of N have been announced yet, but it's not 1...) aren't exactly low-end, but yes, they're for different markets.
Too bad TFA is slashdotted... the point is not parallel applications, it's applications with lots of threads. If you're putting together a service nicely decomposes into lots of threads (i.e., lots of httpd's) then this is very nice -- lots of threads running side by side, no context switches...
Linux runs on Sparc, as does FreeBSD. There's no reason to think that these kernels will not be ported to take advantage of the Niagra architecture. If you don't like solaris, nobody is going to force you to use it (except maybe your customers, if that's what they like).
2. People not happy with big blue can migrate to another vendor without having to take an OS change into account. That means less lock in.
I call FUD on you. Doesn't "big blue" make the Z architecture, OS/390, System/36, etc., which are text-book examples of vendor lock-in? As in all other situations, you choose the system that works best for you. If vendor lock-in is fear for you, get Linux from IBM (or Sun, for that matter).
On the other hand, if you need something that only System/36 or Windows or MacOS or Solaris provides, then you bite the bullet and buy that.
If you want google to paw through all your files and risk having your account yanked for violating the user agreement, feel free to use it... (heck, maybe google won't yank your account in return for the opportunity to index your files...)
Mail-based file systems are nothing new, nor are http-based file systems (or WebDAV, for that matter).
Sarcasm aside, this is a valid point. If IE doesn't support it, most authors won't use it on their web pages, and there aren't any IE updates scheduled any time soon...
Translated from marketese, this means that it works equally poorly for both hands. Sorry, I think I'll keep my old asymmetric logictech mouse for a while longer; it might just look like a lump of beige plastic, but its shape fits my hand.