Cynicism is only bad insomuch as it doesn't reflect reality.
So, is it fair to label someone paranoid if the whole world really is out to get them?
Knowing the truth, and speaking it, does not necessarily improve the world - often the opposite. But, from the Cynic's point of view, at least it's entertaining.
I've been all over this fangalaxy, seen some pretty strange things, but nothing that would make me believe that the editor is that kind of fan. Sure, those people exist, he's just not one of 'em.
There is the offsetting Bread and Circuses problem with direct democracy - an overnight revolution establishing true democracy would probably lead to a breakdown of society sufficiently dramatic to erase the technology that makes direct democracy possible - catch 22 if you will.
Still, it would be gratifying to just once see a majority of the US Federal Congress vote for something (important, like tax rates) that serves the majority of the people - directly, without waiting for the benefits to "trickle down" from a few private hands.
Don't get me wrong, it's good to be good to the rich, we wouldn't want them leaving en-masse for Australia or anything like that, but we shouldn't be pandering the way we are.
Oh, and circling back to topic slightly, I'm all for private space development, but here again is a big fat handout to private companies owned and operated by wealthy individuals.
I have a one word prediction for where 3D is going to be in 10 years: Quadraphonic
Sure, it came back as "N.1 Surround Sound", but the market just wasn't ready for it in 1972. 3D has splashed through the theaters off and on since the 1950s - I don't think this time through is going to be "the big one" for 3D in the home, with or without glasses.
I think there's a grain of truth hiding in there somewhere, to the effect of: people lie to themselves more convincingly when foods are modified with unnaturally high calorie carbohydrates like refined sugar. Evolution has taught some level of caloric self-regulation, some sense of how much meat or potatoes you need, but refined sugar bypasses that.
Most people are not 100% regulated by their higher cognitive functions.
Mr. K is going to live forever - if you don't know about the Singularity, you really are missing a lot about Ray Kurzweil.
I presume he's made some statement about sugar and its relationship to how he's going to make it to the day when somebody as rich and healthy as he is can buy his way to immortality.
Is Mr. K a Kook? Probably, but he's also done quite a bit of research, and I believe that he believes...
My frustration with the "scientific community" has been their consistent over-application of Occalm's Razor, explaining things in simple terms because anything more complex would be too difficult or expensive to make a sound-bite conclusion with in their research. Time and time again over the last 40 years, I have witnessed scientific dogma overturn itself with new research that, frankly, isn't much more impressive than the old research. I've gotten to where I trust it all less and less. When there's a viable alternative with millennia of human experience behind it, that's usually the alternative I will lean toward. Of course, in modern life, that's not always possible, but it often is, and when the new stuff is screwing up - the old stuff usually looks pretty workable.
I have worked with many "scientists," some good, some shills, and even the good ones will establish a personal prejudice about certain topics and be very easy to convince about things they believe, and horrible skeptics about things they don't - you can tell they're actually good when they occasionally let go of a long held prejudice when faced with convincing data. The shills are just predictable based on who pays them, and, unfortunately, in industry, I ran into more shills than good scientists. You might argue that companies hire "good scientists, who happen to agree with the company's interests" but that argument wears pretty thin when you get to know some of them, and track their reversals of opinion over time and employers.
So, when the scientific community comes out with yet another "your tiny little mind is just too feeble to understand why, but you should do as we say anyway because we know what is good for you" assertion, I do like to check their advice against history, personal experience, ulterior motives, alternative viewpoints, and just the basic smell test. Life is too short to thoroughly research every daily choice, we are all constantly developing our own set of prejudices, and I hope I continue to enjoy the freedom to make my own choices in things that matter to me like: food, water, shelter, and air to breathe.
I can deal with the dollar cost of proprietary tools, what I find harder to deal with is the administrative overhead of getting corporate approval for a license, periodic renewal or maintenance, licenses for my coworkers when they want to do something similar to me, and evaluating the tool vendor's commitment to maintaining the tool. All of that (except the commitment to maintenance issue) is absent in FOSS.
It's nice to be able to "scratch an itch" and fix a bug in a week if it really needs fixing, instead of begging for a patch, waiting and hoping for 6 months or (more often) just having to live with and/or work around a bug. This is a benefit of FOSS I rarely use, but have done on occasion, same for extending a package to add that one last missing feature.
The really cool thing with an open toolkit (like Qt Creator) is the ability for anyone, anywhere in the organization to be able to install and execute the developer tools and "get it to run just like on my machine" without having to go through creating an installer. Sure, "finished product" deserves a good installer, but for quick little developers' tools that might need source level tweaking, an installer is just annoying.
Neither were the results on Saccharine, but that didn't stop it from being condemned in "CANCER CAUSING AGENT" hell for 25 years.
Personally, I don't like too much extra formaldehyde in my body, and regardless of what is or isn't happening on a chemical basis, a tall glass of Crystal Light with NutraSweet gives me a 5 alarm hangover headache every time - a personal causative correlation I established with about a dozen trials before hearing anything bad about Aspartame. I tried to like Crystal Light, but it was just too obvious what it was doing to me.
While one small review noted aspartame is likely one of many dietary triggers of migraines, in a list that includes "cheese, chocolate, citrus fruits, hot dogs, monosodium glutamate, aspartame, fatty foods, ice cream, caffeine withdrawal, and alcoholic drinks, especially red wine and beer,"[72] other reviews have noted conflicting studies about headaches[8][73] and still more reviews doubt a link.
Cheese, chocolate, citrus fruits, hot dogs, MSG, fatty foods and ice cream are deeply into my favorite foods list and cause me no problems, caffeine and alcohol can cause headaches if abused, but I think this is true for most people. The rest of the article goes on with a very one sided presentation that would make a marketing VP proud.
People's digestive system depends on more than their DNA, it is a symbiotic microbial colony with highly variable effects on the host depending on its composition. The colony balance depends on many things, including what you feed it. Most of the published scientific research into food safety and diet was blind to this prior to about 10 years ago.
The Orion spaceship is the easy part, "Political Science" is the hard one. We're making some progress on the political front, if we could only get the politicians serving the majority of the people, I think we'd be in great shape.
yeah there's methane in fluid form but it's sterile like an operating room it will be just another one of those rocks.
Watch the opening to "The Polar Express" - pay attention to the "Devoid of Life" bit, then watch any of the BBC documentaries about the polar regions...
Things are far more complex and interesting up-close than they ever will be when viewed with less than a trillionth of their reflected light...
...I wish I was born 500+ years from now so I could actually be able to explore these strange worlds with my own eyes.
Lots of optimistic assumptions built into this one - like a turn-around in the space program's current growth pattern, continued stability of the underlying political structure, and climate.
It is easy to imagine lots of possible 500+ year from now futures, not many of them include the majority of the world population having access to explore interplanetary space, if even just remotely.
I think the figure is $0.11 per kWh where each watt consumed 24*7/365 costs $1 per year.
So, your computer, sleeping at 120W, costs you $120 per year (or more, if you pay more than $0.11 per kWh)
If you can buy that computer for $600, I find it hard to believe that they are using more energy to make it than it consumes sleeping for 5 years, unless they are getting some of that energy very cheap (in the lithium mines?)
Back linking is a very attractive idea, until you live with it for a few years, then it starts to develop festering sores because nobody scrubs it hard enough.
Yeah, maintenance is the problem. It's hard enough to create any document in the first place, harder still to make it harmonious with the extant ecosystem at the time. When you go back to revise something, keeping it harmonious with everything related created before or after it is just more work than most people are willing to do.
Hell, even spall chacking is too much effort for most people.
I see the lightest gases being "flared off" all over Houston, there is some control of the diesel / gasoline ratio, but, while not as expensive as making gold from lead, cracking and reforming comes at a higher price than simple fractional distillation.
I had a job applicant who included a link to his website on his resume, on that website he detailed his ongoing troubles with the MK-Ultra program. Which leads me to why we didn't hire him for a position that required logical thinking. Either a) we wouldn't believe in the MK-Ultra program and would think he's a complete loon, or b) we would believe in the MK-Ultra program and wouldn't want to be associated with him in any way whatsoever for fear of being inducted into the program ourselves.
Clearly, he was not suited for evaluating binary if-then propositions.
Ever talk business with a farmer? Or read farming business publications? These are BIG landholders, with lots of time on their hands between planting and harvest. They spend LOTS of time with their representatives in Congress and elsewhere, and it shows in the laws that are passed.
There are all kinds of wealth in this world, and the people who grow your food aren't all hurting the way they are portrayed to be in Hollywood. Sure, some of them are, especially small time "mom and pop" operations, but the ones who do the real volume production are not hurting at all.
Slashdot Mirror
People don't want to be improved. Twitter embraces that. Facebook too.
When you say people, does that include yourself, or are you special?
I don't use Twitter, and I don't let Facebook use me, apparently that does make me different from most people.
Cynicism is only bad insomuch as it doesn't reflect reality.
So, is it fair to label someone paranoid if the whole world really is out to get them?
Knowing the truth, and speaking it, does not necessarily improve the world - often the opposite. But, from the Cynic's point of view, at least it's entertaining.
I've been all over this fangalaxy, seen some pretty strange things, but nothing that would make me believe that the editor is that kind of fan. Sure, those people exist, he's just not one of 'em.
Editor is missing the point that Tatooine didn't have any plants or trees at all.
...or they parrot the already established group opinion.
Is there any more efficient definition of social value?
People don't want to be improved. Twitter embraces that. Facebook too.
There is the offsetting Bread and Circuses problem with direct democracy - an overnight revolution establishing true democracy would probably lead to a breakdown of society sufficiently dramatic to erase the technology that makes direct democracy possible - catch 22 if you will.
Still, it would be gratifying to just once see a majority of the US Federal Congress vote for something (important, like tax rates) that serves the majority of the people - directly, without waiting for the benefits to "trickle down" from a few private hands.
Don't get me wrong, it's good to be good to the rich, we wouldn't want them leaving en-masse for Australia or anything like that, but we shouldn't be pandering the way we are.
Oh, and circling back to topic slightly, I'm all for private space development, but here again is a big fat handout to private companies owned and operated by wealthy individuals.
I have a one word prediction for where 3D is going to be in 10 years: Quadraphonic
Sure, it came back as "N.1 Surround Sound", but the market just wasn't ready for it in 1972. 3D has splashed through the theaters off and on since the 1950s - I don't think this time through is going to be "the big one" for 3D in the home, with or without glasses.
If you like aspartame, olestra, or extacy, that's cool - put whatever you want in your body and enjoy the effects.
Just don't spout off that it's "perfectly safe for everyone" and slip it into foods without clear labeling.
I think there's a grain of truth hiding in there somewhere, to the effect of: people lie to themselves more convincingly when foods are modified with unnaturally high calorie carbohydrates like refined sugar. Evolution has taught some level of caloric self-regulation, some sense of how much meat or potatoes you need, but refined sugar bypasses that.
Most people are not 100% regulated by their higher cognitive functions.
Mr. K is going to live forever - if you don't know about the Singularity, you really are missing a lot about Ray Kurzweil.
I presume he's made some statement about sugar and its relationship to how he's going to make it to the day when somebody as rich and healthy as he is can buy his way to immortality.
Is Mr. K a Kook? Probably, but he's also done quite a bit of research, and I believe that he believes...
My frustration with the "scientific community" has been their consistent over-application of Occalm's Razor, explaining things in simple terms because anything more complex would be too difficult or expensive to make a sound-bite conclusion with in their research. Time and time again over the last 40 years, I have witnessed scientific dogma overturn itself with new research that, frankly, isn't much more impressive than the old research. I've gotten to where I trust it all less and less. When there's a viable alternative with millennia of human experience behind it, that's usually the alternative I will lean toward. Of course, in modern life, that's not always possible, but it often is, and when the new stuff is screwing up - the old stuff usually looks pretty workable.
I have worked with many "scientists," some good, some shills, and even the good ones will establish a personal prejudice about certain topics and be very easy to convince about things they believe, and horrible skeptics about things they don't - you can tell they're actually good when they occasionally let go of a long held prejudice when faced with convincing data. The shills are just predictable based on who pays them, and, unfortunately, in industry, I ran into more shills than good scientists. You might argue that companies hire "good scientists, who happen to agree with the company's interests" but that argument wears pretty thin when you get to know some of them, and track their reversals of opinion over time and employers.
So, when the scientific community comes out with yet another "your tiny little mind is just too feeble to understand why, but you should do as we say anyway because we know what is good for you" assertion, I do like to check their advice against history, personal experience, ulterior motives, alternative viewpoints, and just the basic smell test. Life is too short to thoroughly research every daily choice, we are all constantly developing our own set of prejudices, and I hope I continue to enjoy the freedom to make my own choices in things that matter to me like: food, water, shelter, and air to breathe.
There are days that I believe I might have to leave the United States to get that freedom.
I can deal with the dollar cost of proprietary tools, what I find harder to deal with is the administrative overhead of getting corporate approval for a license, periodic renewal or maintenance, licenses for my coworkers when they want to do something similar to me, and evaluating the tool vendor's commitment to maintaining the tool. All of that (except the commitment to maintenance issue) is absent in FOSS.
It's nice to be able to "scratch an itch" and fix a bug in a week if it really needs fixing, instead of begging for a patch, waiting and hoping for 6 months or (more often) just having to live with and/or work around a bug. This is a benefit of FOSS I rarely use, but have done on occasion, same for extending a package to add that one last missing feature.
The really cool thing with an open toolkit (like Qt Creator) is the ability for anyone, anywhere in the organization to be able to install and execute the developer tools and "get it to run just like on my machine" without having to go through creating an installer. Sure, "finished product" deserves a good installer, but for quick little developers' tools that might need source level tweaking, an installer is just annoying.
Neither were the results on Saccharine, but that didn't stop it from being condemned in "CANCER CAUSING AGENT" hell for 25 years.
Personally, I don't like too much extra formaldehyde in my body, and regardless of what is or isn't happening on a chemical basis, a tall glass of Crystal Light with NutraSweet gives me a 5 alarm hangover headache every time - a personal causative correlation I established with about a dozen trials before hearing anything bad about Aspartame. I tried to like Crystal Light, but it was just too obvious what it was doing to me.
The wikipedia article appears heavily astroturfed from my perspective:
While one small review noted aspartame is likely one of many dietary triggers of migraines, in a list that includes "cheese, chocolate, citrus fruits, hot dogs, monosodium glutamate, aspartame, fatty foods, ice cream, caffeine withdrawal, and alcoholic drinks, especially red wine and beer,"[72] other reviews have noted conflicting studies about headaches[8][73] and still more reviews doubt a link.
Cheese, chocolate, citrus fruits, hot dogs, MSG, fatty foods and ice cream are deeply into my favorite foods list and cause me no problems, caffeine and alcohol can cause headaches if abused, but I think this is true for most people. The rest of the article goes on with a very one sided presentation that would make a marketing VP proud.
People's digestive system depends on more than their DNA, it is a symbiotic microbial colony with highly variable effects on the host depending on its composition. The colony balance depends on many things, including what you feed it. Most of the published scientific research into food safety and diet was blind to this prior to about 10 years ago.
The Orion spaceship is the easy part, "Political Science" is the hard one. We're making some progress on the political front, if we could only get the politicians serving the majority of the people, I think we'd be in great shape.
yeah there's methane in fluid form but it's sterile like an operating room it will be just another one of those rocks.
Watch the opening to "The Polar Express" - pay attention to the "Devoid of Life" bit, then watch any of the BBC documentaries about the polar regions...
Things are far more complex and interesting up-close than they ever will be when viewed with less than a trillionth of their reflected light...
...I wish I was born 500+ years from now so I could actually be able to explore these strange worlds with my own eyes.
Lots of optimistic assumptions built into this one - like a turn-around in the space program's current growth pattern, continued stability of the underlying political structure, and climate.
It is easy to imagine lots of possible 500+ year from now futures, not many of them include the majority of the world population having access to explore interplanetary space, if even just remotely.
Keep dreaming, and vote liberal...
Lots of dedicated video encoder/compressor boxes on the market, I haven't seen one yet that wasn't FPGA based.
Less than it makes, or you wouldn't be able to sustain them as a business without government subsidies.... oh, wait.
I think the figure is $0.11 per kWh where each watt consumed 24*7/365 costs $1 per year.
So, your computer, sleeping at 120W, costs you $120 per year (or more, if you pay more than $0.11 per kWh)
If you can buy that computer for $600, I find it hard to believe that they are using more energy to make it than it consumes sleeping for 5 years, unless they are getting some of that energy very cheap (in the lithium mines?)
Back linking is a very attractive idea, until you live with it for a few years, then it starts to develop festering sores because nobody scrubs it hard enough.
Yeah, maintenance is the problem. It's hard enough to create any document in the first place, harder still to make it harmonious with the extant ecosystem at the time. When you go back to revise something, keeping it harmonious with everything related created before or after it is just more work than most people are willing to do.
Hell, even spall chacking is too much effort for most people.
Galileo's telescope was for Space Surveillance too...
I see the lightest gases being "flared off" all over Houston, there is some control of the diesel / gasoline ratio, but, while not as expensive as making gold from lead, cracking and reforming comes at a higher price than simple fractional distillation.
I had a job applicant who included a link to his website on his resume, on that website he detailed his ongoing troubles with the MK-Ultra program. Which leads me to why we didn't hire him for a position that required logical thinking. Either a) we wouldn't believe in the MK-Ultra program and would think he's a complete loon, or b) we would believe in the MK-Ultra program and wouldn't want to be associated with him in any way whatsoever for fear of being inducted into the program ourselves.
Clearly, he was not suited for evaluating binary if-then propositions.
Ever talk business with a farmer? Or read farming business publications? These are BIG landholders, with lots of time on their hands between planting and harvest. They spend LOTS of time with their representatives in Congress and elsewhere, and it shows in the laws that are passed.
There are all kinds of wealth in this world, and the people who grow your food aren't all hurting the way they are portrayed to be in Hollywood. Sure, some of them are, especially small time "mom and pop" operations, but the ones who do the real volume production are not hurting at all.