And I'm good with that. I just don't want a big government protecting everyone from themselves. If the ignorant survive, hey, that's cool. I don't advocate eugenics, only the prohibition of big government. It's give and take, and the conversation took that form. Big government protects people from themselves by regulating activities on the basis of safety. I believe it's political, not safety consciousness, or protection of society. For those that truly believe it is for safety, I say well, the government should not be protecting us from ourselves, so if that means some people will die from doing stupid things, so be it. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. The laws of nature and science seem to apply for that as well. Caveat emptor, as they say.
Now if the government wants to work to educate people about the dangers of doing certain things, that's more than cool, just don't make laws about it. I'm quite fine with educational programs to inform people how to properly store their home chemicals, what not to mix, and so on. I just don't want large government making laws about it. If some of the ignorant survive, ok. I don't think stupidity is a death sentence, it just seems to often put the noose around your neck for you.
In a good world, Google Apps would collaborate with OOo, and we'd get OOo with use anywhere functionality. You can use it stand alone, or when away from the office/home/computer you can use your data via web based tools. IMO, that is the best possible outcome, what I would like to see. For now, I use a USB drive to port things around where I need them because Google apps doesn't quite get me what I want and need.
Even though I got modded flamebait (lol) I've been too subtle maybe? If the stupid ones live long enough to breed... your assertion is correct. Protect them from themselves, they will live long enough.
I know what you're talking about. Yet I still do not believe it is reason enough to grow large government to protect people from themselves. I personally protect those in my house from the more egregious ignorance. Mostly they believe me to be anal retentive, due to something that must have happened to me in the military. Truth is that I just dislike seeing things go boom/spark/flash/etc. in my house/garage/lawn/neighborhood.
It really doesn't take that much to learn about dangers. Most of what you need to know is on the label. Much of the rest is on the Internet. Have you ever seen any regulations about fine aluminum dust? How about mixing household cleaners? There are many things that are dangerous but go without regulation. There is more politics than safety behind this. Never mind if people dispose of oil, not that many change their own oil. How about do they dispose of batteries properly? There are no regulations for many things that can and will kill you and others, which just points out that this is political in nature, not safety oriented.
There are probably a dozen ways to use common chemicals found in your home to make your day a bad one. Some take more work than others, yet none of them have any government regulations. No license for buying a car battery etc.
That said, human society is about more than just natural selection; we have the reasoned ability to choose what is better long-term, rather than simply allowing immediate survival to determine everything.
Let me guess, you voted for Bush, 4 times, right?
Yes, we have the 'ability' to choose, but seldom do. Lets take an example: We have amazing modern medical skills, science, and techniques but we 'choose' to let pharmaceutical companies fill us with pills that mask the symptoms rather than offer cures because that is where the money is to be made.
We build huge gas guzzling vehicles, practically encourage one driver per vehicle usage, and sell all that like it will help our sex life. Yet we could have 'chosen' to go the other direction, but what's a little green house gas between friends, right?
Hmmm We could have 'chosen' to educate our young with the best education on the planet, but instead we are arguing whether ID is science. We could have chosen to educate them in multitudinous ways yet we give them Survivor, Dancing With The Stars, and Miley Cyrus/Paris Hilton/Britney Spears.
Choosing the high road for society is good in theory, but doesn't make much money in practice. In other words, your idealism is nice, but I bet you're broke for it.
Yes, my comment comes close to eugenics type thinking, but when nature is the eugenics executioner, there is not much you can say. I'm not saying that picking who should be allowed to die off is good, but I do think there just isn't enough reading material each year in the Darwin Awards. You see, evolution allows the bad or unprofitable mutations to die off of their own doing. When we protect those mutations from the natural course of things, we choose to alter the course of evolution in a manner that may not be so good for us in the long term. When the chemical nature and food supply of a closed water system changes... the fish that are not smart enough, or able to adapt simply die off.
It's not a value judgment. I'm just thinking that if there are people who are ignorant enough to kill themselves, perhaps it's for the better of us all. There are other issues as well. Limited resources on the planet, and we are propping up older people on pills to use those resources. just ask China about this problem. What I'm saying is not new or even unheard of. Certain American Indian groups would put the old out to die when it was time. Protecting everyone from themselves is exactly how to build big government. It's exactly how to grow a population that is not capable of fending for itself. It's exactly the wrong thing to do... for immediate and long term reasons. You probably make moral judgments on people anyway. Should killers be executed? Locked away from society for life? Allowed to procreate? Given conjugal visitations?
Sure, every now and then a genius is born to ignorant parents. I'm not saying they should have been sterilized, just that if they are going to do something suicidal out of ignorance... ooops. There is no reason to create government, and grow it large just to protect people from themselves. That's just stupid.
Worse yet, we let them pro-create. Protect them from blowing themselves up and let them create little replicas of themselves. The antitheses of evolution.
Don't let people experiment with stuff that they might be able to make a bomb out of, or a meth lab because we law enforcement agents can't tell the difference, and besides, only terrorists and criminals are interested in chemical reactions. right?
That says nothing about the fact that even if it is illegal, terrorists, criminals, and drug czar wannabes will still have their labs. This can only hurt the honest law abiding citizenry.
It's about time we had much less government interference, and more government support of engineering and entrepreneurship in these United States. Do you have any idea what it costs for a safe chem storage locker? If price is not enough, they put regulations out to make it near impossible to do simple things, never mind experiment with any chemicals.
Why would someone want to do that? Hmmm perhaps you might be looking for a heat transfer fluid for a closed system solar power electric generator. Perhaps you are experimenting to find the optimum chemical recipe for heat transfer fluid on a home/earth heating/cooling system for your area. Perhaps you are trying to create a cheap cleaning solution that is environmentally friendly. There are hundreds of reasons that someone might want to set up a chemistry lab at home for hobby use. I mean seriously, if you find a cheap clean easy method to convert old motor oil to some sort of valid fuel... go for it. Perhaps you find the exact chemical soup required for quickly biodegrading rubbish or plastics in a quick ecologically sound manner.
The roomba did not come from government research facilities or even Boeing or Lockheed-Martin. Why should we expect that all chemical discoveries would come from commercial enterprises? That's just fucking stupid.
When I read it, I thought the title was "AVG Virus Scanner Removes Critical Windows Flaw"... That would have been excellent sales technique. shame the reality is so very different.
I know it's sad and all, but aren't Mars rover years like 45 human years? That guy was freakin' old when he kicked, and he went down with a fight! Martian storms really REALLY suck. Forget Kansas Toto, Mars is not for girly rovers!
I do similar to geek squad types who come rushing up hoping to get a sale. When they ask if they can help me, I simply reply that I'd like (whatever item I'm holding in my hands or looking at)this to be marked down to 50% of sticker price. when they just sort of stare at me, I mutter 'nevermind' as I'm walking away.
If you can do it with a straight face, they get pretty perplexed:-)
Nothing like teasing a junkyard dog from the other side of the fence!!
Absolutely right on! Safety is not common sense in many cases. Look at F1 racing vehicles. They move at incredible speeds and consequently, when they crash it is a sight to behold, yet because their cockpit is designed with lightweight and very strong materials, drivers survive all but the most devastating of crashes. Those materials push up the cost of the vehicle, but if there are several million vehicles made every year with such materials, the cost of manufacturing with those materials will go down. Not even scifi dreamed materials will stop a guard rail from pushing it's way through the vehicle if you hit it head on. For pretty much everything else, there are safe ways to design a vehicle that will protect it's occupants at the cost of the vehicle's structure. You do NOT need to drive a tank.
I've thought of this quite a bit, and I think that Home Depot has the right idea to reduce some of the need for big vehicles. If you buy huge volumes of stuff from them, they will rent you a truck for $20 to take it home. So you can ride your bicycle to Home Depot and buy a fridge, and supplies to fence in your yard, rent a truck to get it home, then return and get your bike. This is one way to reduce the need for bigger vehicles. There are others that will help design around the problems of delivering bulk materials, transporting many passengers etc. It will take time, but we will get there. Every effort helps.
If one man, or one team should or could have all the answers, Thomas Edison would not have had to spend so much time perfecting his version of the light bulb. With that, here is a hat's off to materials scientists. They will find a material that is almost as light as plastic and has the needed strength to replace steel in vehicles. Situations like that the USA finds itself in right now will help drive the process of finding those materials. Please let's also not forget what kind of contributions that NASA and DARPA have given us, and can continue to give us if they are funded properly.
But here is the deal... this is a START. Better things are coming. There are other ways to hybridize a power train. Several really good ideas for recovering energy that is typically wasted in current vehicles will help, _more_ efficient engines help, better battery technology helps, more efficient solar cell technology helps, more efficient electric motors helps, and most of all a populace willing to accept smaller more efficient vehicles will help. It will take time to put it altogether and make it usable.
You should not be expecting a revolutionary vehicle or power train technology to come along next Tuesday at 2:37 p.m. It will take time. If instant success at the end goal of technology were possible we would not be following Moore's Law at all. We would simply have leap-frogged to the end-game technology. Let's not even go to that thought that alien technology would help if the government would release the information from Area 51. I'm quite happy that there are folk working diffidently to create things that will help us arrive at the end goal - very efficient modes of travel. Note that automobiles are not the only place that improvements can be made.
Safe and ridiculously cheap is what you will not have for a while yet. They will get there. There are private groups working on electric and hybrid cars as well as very cheap cars. The no one you speak of are the same people that think driving a hummer or huge pickup is ok since it only costs a few dollars more. Not everyone has those 'few dollars more' to waste.
Safety? Are motorcycles safe? If there were far fewer SUV's and other big vehicles on the road, safety issues change a bit. No vehicle is safe enough to drive head first into a concrete bridge upright at 70 MPH. Safety is a subjective word and ideal. If you want to drive around in a tank, I'm pretty sure that more than 50% of the populace is okay with you having to pay quite a bit extra for the privilege. Good luck with that.
Damn, clicked too soon. Server OS software has to meet those functions which are critical to servers, I.E. that extra 100 transactions per second. This same OS can have a desktop interface. There is one of several overlaps.
The point is that a generally good desktop OS might not be able to give you that extra transactions per second that you need, yet the OS that can, might also give you a nice desktop interface. This particularly is why I hope Solaris builds on their reputation. Server performance is not necessarily the performance you want for a desktop; graphics is a prime example. Despite that, the server CAN have great graphics performance and be configured to work most effectively in the role of server.
Again, desktop is the Swiss army knife application where server is an application specific configuration. The server needs to transfer data at some levels with great efficiency where the desktop can get away with less performance. A web server like Google uses has performance needs, yet the same OS might be compiled or configured to work in a different environment where that is not needed.
Both desktop and server need stability, reliability, and performance. It is only when you get to the point of needing an extra 100 transaction per second that it counts. This means that threads, forks, time keeping, cache usage performance, and other such things are important. The actual performance of such is not critical for Desktop, but is for Server applications. They do overlap, but in a one-way kind of manner. What makes a good desktop does not make a good server, and what makes a good server can ALSO make a good desktop.
I do not disagree. The kernel is where they overlap. UI is a matter of choice. Linux has shown that the same Kernel can be compiled to do the server job AND the desktop job. You can even compile the kernel and OS to do BOTH jobs.
The thing is that the 'idea' of server environment vs. desktop environment means that a successful OS for either area would have to meet the exacting criteria for that application. In this respect, server and desktop are the same underneath, yet different in operation. This gives them overlap in the eyes of many. The Linux kernel has blurred the distinction for many. Solaris (staying on topic) has been a server OS and not a desktop OS. Now, they are taking the Linux route and making two versions, just as your example of Ubuntu does. I happen to use both of these OS. I find that for a given application on given hardware, one makes more sense than the other for various reasons. In each case, a decision about server vs. desktop was made. In several cases, I have chosen a server setup that also has a desktop interface as that most suits the needs of the application.
I'm sorry, but you are wrong... they do overlap. Your particular needs for servers might not include overlap, but they do indeed have overlap in functionality and form.
I would agree with you but for one point: The desktop arena is the general purpose 'swiss army knife' area, while server software has specific issues of speed, security, and robustness. Sure, they have overlap, but there are different generalized criteria for both.
I like what Solaris is becomming, and there are definite advantages to running Solaris in certain environments on certain hardware, especially when speed and robustness are critical factors.
Now I'm not talking about running DukeNukem, I'm talking about when an extra 100 transactions per second makes meaningful differences to your bottom line. This is when server OS software is a critical thing. Typically, desktop software OS is not what you want running a server with such critical issues under the microscope.
Solaris has historically been an OS which can be trusted in the server environment. I look with hope that they will continue and build on such a reputation.
I am certain that I am not the only one that wishes you more than good luck, but wishes you could somehow knock their game so off balance that they can fight no more. Strangely, it takes money to eventually show them that they wasted money and reputation to salvage a business model that not only is extinct, but was wrong in the first place.
That lawyers, educated people, would stand up and fight for them simply for 30 pieces of silver is... well, humanity is not 'all that and a bag of chips' most days. It's always sad to see the evil guys winning, and inspiring to see the underdog smack down the "goliaths."
Well, the classic sense is a bit confusing in these oh so modern times, yet I agree with you. I think the players should get what they need:-) I mean that in the sense that I think the RIAA legal team 'needs' to be begging on the street to pay for their next meal.
I don't hate them really, I just hate what they have chosen to do.
I was hoping someone would do this. Certification is something that is useful and rehabilitating. A+ is an awesome suggestion. There is not much chance for a prisoner to become a certified Honda mechanic inside, but they can become A+ certified. Fuck, the number of times I've had to fend off IT staff that didn't know that the connector on the end of a monitor cable is NOT a female 9-pin D-type is scary in the extreme. I'm certain that a prisoner who wants to learn can learn much more than some of the IT staff I've had to deal with that had certifications.
Seriously, anything that certifies them to qualify for a reasonable job after paying their penance is very cool. There are a LOT of people locked up for crimes that really shouldn't be on the books. I don't think that training a hardened 14 time killer for usefulness in the outside world is 'worth while' but I do think that depriving that person of the room and ability to grow is wrong. Whatever their knowledge might be, they can do no harm if they are not allowed access to the NSA's computer system... right?
Truth be told, learning is more cathartic and rehabilitating than any amount of time spent in jail... well, in most cases. Even someone who only suffers from poor self image can benefit from learning. Computers are complex, yet made from simple to plug together parts. Software can be free, hardware donated. Learning to make the most of that while you have all that time on your hands can be a huge thing for those wanting to learn. Go ask McCain if he would have benefited from some (even simple) learning program while prisoner during the war? I'm betting it would have made a huge difference. As it is, he can't even send email now!!
Point is that there is much to learn from and about computing that has nothing to do with the outside world per se`, just as learning gardening/landscaping is probably not a truly hands-on experience for prisoners.
Translated to English vernacular, this roughly translates to I fuck you. Chinese is notoriously difficult to translate on the computer, so I hear.
Baidu has a nasty habit of being at the center of redirection issues. I wonder. Just wondering, mind you. Just how hard would it be to release a bit of a bot that spammed those bit torrent sites from inside the great firewall?
Yes, I understand the ramifications of such an activity, but I'm laughing so hard I can't stop thinking of how to accomplish it....
The fact that Obama recognizes the need for any type of position of this kind is a step forward... or should be. I think that handling information and the more general term of technology needs to be separate things. Many here on/. will think of technology as IT. It profoundly is much more. IT and green energy technology have very little in common, as do IT and many other 'technology' domains. I feel that they must be considered and dealt with separately except where they have overlaps in domain. I feel this way for the two at any level, federal or even small business.
I'm waiting to see what Obama does, and am hoping for the best. Comments you make are salient and accepted.
In the classic sense of tragedy/comedy the Greeks called it a comedy if the ending was happy, a tragedy if the ending was sad. In that sense, I hope like hell that NYCL manages to make this a comedy.
Humor and entertainment is often skewed off kilter beyond belief in the US of A. We watch NASCAR for the wrecks, WWE for the pretend mayhem and babes, and then can't miss out on who got kicked off the island or who won't be dancing next week. All that drama is worth about one good fart. The drama that NYCL is drumming us is galactic in proportion when compared to television. So is it entertaining? Would you pay to watch Evil Kenevil wreck his bike on a 350 foot jump over 14 swimming pools filled alternately with piranha and alligators? Entertainment does not always mean what you think it does. IMO, watching NYCL hand the RIAA their figurative asses is far more entertaining than watching Evil dump his bike in a pool of alligators.
You have to hand it to NYCL, just blogging about the right stuff got their attention, then when they weren't looking he hits back. The RIAA fiasco gets more entertaining all the time. The more they lose, the funnier it gets. I think NYCL just added the laugh track!!
Slashdot Mirror
Now THAT is funny!
And I'm good with that. I just don't want a big government protecting everyone from themselves. If the ignorant survive, hey, that's cool. I don't advocate eugenics, only the prohibition of big government. It's give and take, and the conversation took that form. Big government protects people from themselves by regulating activities on the basis of safety. I believe it's political, not safety consciousness, or protection of society. For those that truly believe it is for safety, I say well, the government should not be protecting us from ourselves, so if that means some people will die from doing stupid things, so be it. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. The laws of nature and science seem to apply for that as well. Caveat emptor, as they say.
Now if the government wants to work to educate people about the dangers of doing certain things, that's more than cool, just don't make laws about it. I'm quite fine with educational programs to inform people how to properly store their home chemicals, what not to mix, and so on. I just don't want large government making laws about it. If some of the ignorant survive, ok. I don't think stupidity is a death sentence, it just seems to often put the noose around your neck for you.
In a good world, Google Apps would collaborate with OOo, and we'd get OOo with use anywhere functionality. You can use it stand alone, or when away from the office/home/computer you can use your data via web based tools. IMO, that is the best possible outcome, what I would like to see. For now, I use a USB drive to port things around where I need them because Google apps doesn't quite get me what I want and need.
Even though I got modded flamebait (lol) I've been too subtle maybe? If the stupid ones live long enough to breed... your assertion is correct. Protect them from themselves, they will live long enough.
I know what you're talking about. Yet I still do not believe it is reason enough to grow large government to protect people from themselves. I personally protect those in my house from the more egregious ignorance. Mostly they believe me to be anal retentive, due to something that must have happened to me in the military. Truth is that I just dislike seeing things go boom/spark/flash/etc. in my house/garage/lawn/neighborhood.
It really doesn't take that much to learn about dangers. Most of what you need to know is on the label. Much of the rest is on the Internet. Have you ever seen any regulations about fine aluminum dust? How about mixing household cleaners? There are many things that are dangerous but go without regulation. There is more politics than safety behind this. Never mind if people dispose of oil, not that many change their own oil. How about do they dispose of batteries properly? There are no regulations for many things that can and will kill you and others, which just points out that this is political in nature, not safety oriented.
Want some danger? http://www.swissrocketman.com/perochem/concentrator.html
Drop a car battery in a bucket of that stuff, see what happens. I could go on.
or http://aiche.confex.com/aiche/s07/preliminaryprogram/abstract_80050.htm Don't use the wrong grinder on your aluminum lawn sculpture!
There are probably a dozen ways to use common chemicals found in your home to make your day a bad one. Some take more work than others, yet none of them have any government regulations. No license for buying a car battery etc.
That said, human society is about more than just natural selection; we have the reasoned ability to choose what is better long-term, rather than simply allowing immediate survival to determine everything.
Let me guess, you voted for Bush, 4 times, right?
Yes, we have the 'ability' to choose, but seldom do. Lets take an example: We have amazing modern medical skills, science, and techniques but we 'choose' to let pharmaceutical companies fill us with pills that mask the symptoms rather than offer cures because that is where the money is to be made.
We build huge gas guzzling vehicles, practically encourage one driver per vehicle usage, and sell all that like it will help our sex life. Yet we could have 'chosen' to go the other direction, but what's a little green house gas between friends, right?
Hmmm We could have 'chosen' to educate our young with the best education on the planet, but instead we are arguing whether ID is science. We could have chosen to educate them in multitudinous ways yet we give them Survivor, Dancing With The Stars, and Miley Cyrus/Paris Hilton/Britney Spears.
Choosing the high road for society is good in theory, but doesn't make much money in practice. In other words, your idealism is nice, but I bet you're broke for it.
Yes, my comment comes close to eugenics type thinking, but when nature is the eugenics executioner, there is not much you can say. I'm not saying that picking who should be allowed to die off is good, but I do think there just isn't enough reading material each year in the Darwin Awards. You see, evolution allows the bad or unprofitable mutations to die off of their own doing. When we protect those mutations from the natural course of things, we choose to alter the course of evolution in a manner that may not be so good for us in the long term. When the chemical nature and food supply of a closed water system changes... the fish that are not smart enough, or able to adapt simply die off.
It's not a value judgment. I'm just thinking that if there are people who are ignorant enough to kill themselves, perhaps it's for the better of us all. There are other issues as well. Limited resources on the planet, and we are propping up older people on pills to use those resources. just ask China about this problem. What I'm saying is not new or even unheard of. Certain American Indian groups would put the old out to die when it was time. Protecting everyone from themselves is exactly how to build big government. It's exactly how to grow a population that is not capable of fending for itself. It's exactly the wrong thing to do... for immediate and long term reasons. You probably make moral judgments on people anyway. Should killers be executed? Locked away from society for life? Allowed to procreate? Given conjugal visitations?
Sure, every now and then a genius is born to ignorant parents. I'm not saying they should have been sterilized, just that if they are going to do something suicidal out of ignorance... ooops. There is no reason to create government, and grow it large just to protect people from themselves. That's just stupid.
Worse yet, we let them pro-create. Protect them from blowing themselves up and let them create little replicas of themselves. The antitheses of evolution.
Don't let people experiment with stuff that they might be able to make a bomb out of, or a meth lab because we law enforcement agents can't tell the difference, and besides, only terrorists and criminals are interested in chemical reactions. right?
That says nothing about the fact that even if it is illegal, terrorists, criminals, and drug czar wannabes will still have their labs. This can only hurt the honest law abiding citizenry.
It's about time we had much less government interference, and more government support of engineering and entrepreneurship in these United States. Do you have any idea what it costs for a safe chem storage locker? If price is not enough, they put regulations out to make it near impossible to do simple things, never mind experiment with any chemicals.
Why would someone want to do that? Hmmm perhaps you might be looking for a heat transfer fluid for a closed system solar power electric generator. Perhaps you are experimenting to find the optimum chemical recipe for heat transfer fluid on a home/earth heating/cooling system for your area. Perhaps you are trying to create a cheap cleaning solution that is environmentally friendly. There are hundreds of reasons that someone might want to set up a chemistry lab at home for hobby use. I mean seriously, if you find a cheap clean easy method to convert old motor oil to some sort of valid fuel... go for it. Perhaps you find the exact chemical soup required for quickly biodegrading rubbish or plastics in a quick ecologically sound manner.
The roomba did not come from government research facilities or even Boeing or Lockheed-Martin. Why should we expect that all chemical discoveries would come from commercial enterprises? That's just fucking stupid.
When I read it, I thought the title was "AVG Virus Scanner Removes Critical Windows Flaw" ...
That would have been excellent sales technique. shame the reality is so very different.
I know it's sad and all, but aren't Mars rover years like 45 human years? That guy was freakin' old when he kicked, and he went down with a fight! Martian storms really REALLY suck. Forget Kansas Toto, Mars is not for girly rovers!
What a rockin' piece of robot! Salute!
I do similar to geek squad types who come rushing up hoping to get a sale. When they ask if they can help me, I simply reply that I'd like (whatever item I'm holding in my hands or looking at)this to be marked down to 50% of sticker price. when they just sort of stare at me, I mutter 'nevermind' as I'm walking away.
If you can do it with a straight face, they get pretty perplexed :-)
Nothing like teasing a junkyard dog from the other side of the fence!!
Absolutely right on! Safety is not common sense in many cases. Look at F1 racing vehicles. They move at incredible speeds and consequently, when they crash it is a sight to behold, yet because their cockpit is designed with lightweight and very strong materials, drivers survive all but the most devastating of crashes. Those materials push up the cost of the vehicle, but if there are several million vehicles made every year with such materials, the cost of manufacturing with those materials will go down. Not even scifi dreamed materials will stop a guard rail from pushing it's way through the vehicle if you hit it head on. For pretty much everything else, there are safe ways to design a vehicle that will protect it's occupants at the cost of the vehicle's structure. You do NOT need to drive a tank.
I've thought of this quite a bit, and I think that Home Depot has the right idea to reduce some of the need for big vehicles. If you buy huge volumes of stuff from them, they will rent you a truck for $20 to take it home. So you can ride your bicycle to Home Depot and buy a fridge, and supplies to fence in your yard, rent a truck to get it home, then return and get your bike. This is one way to reduce the need for bigger vehicles. There are others that will help design around the problems of delivering bulk materials, transporting many passengers etc. It will take time, but we will get there. Every effort helps.
If one man, or one team should or could have all the answers, Thomas Edison would not have had to spend so much time perfecting his version of the light bulb. With that, here is a hat's off to materials scientists. They will find a material that is almost as light as plastic and has the needed strength to replace steel in vehicles. Situations like that the USA finds itself in right now will help drive the process of finding those materials. Please let's also not forget what kind of contributions that NASA and DARPA have given us, and can continue to give us if they are funded properly.
Fret not, good things will come our way.
But here is the deal... this is a START. Better things are coming. There are other ways to hybridize a power train. Several really good ideas for recovering energy that is typically wasted in current vehicles will help, _more_ efficient engines help, better battery technology helps, more efficient solar cell technology helps, more efficient electric motors helps, and most of all a populace willing to accept smaller more efficient vehicles will help. It will take time to put it altogether and make it usable.
You should not be expecting a revolutionary vehicle or power train technology to come along next Tuesday at 2:37 p.m. It will take time. If instant success at the end goal of technology were possible we would not be following Moore's Law at all. We would simply have leap-frogged to the end-game technology. Let's not even go to that thought that alien technology would help if the government would release the information from Area 51. I'm quite happy that there are folk working diffidently to create things that will help us arrive at the end goal - very efficient modes of travel. Note that automobiles are not the only place that improvements can be made.
Safe and ridiculously cheap is what you will not have for a while yet. They will get there. There are private groups working on electric and hybrid cars as well as very cheap cars. The no one you speak of are the same people that think driving a hummer or huge pickup is ok since it only costs a few dollars more. Not everyone has those 'few dollars more' to waste.
Safety? Are motorcycles safe? If there were far fewer SUV's and other big vehicles on the road, safety issues change a bit. No vehicle is safe enough to drive head first into a concrete bridge upright at 70 MPH. Safety is a subjective word and ideal. If you want to drive around in a tank, I'm pretty sure that more than 50% of the populace is okay with you having to pay quite a bit extra for the privilege. Good luck with that.
Most excellent. Pedantry is becoming a lost art. You can almost never find a grammar nazi when you need one. - â" ... ermmm both em-dash and hyphen are available on your keyboard btw. Try this link for information. http://www.visionn.com/learn/13-hyphens-en-dashes-and-em-dashes-don-t-let-friends-dash-incorrectly
Damn, clicked too soon. Server OS software has to meet those functions which are critical to servers, I.E. that extra 100 transactions per second. This same OS can have a desktop interface. There is one of several overlaps.
The point is that a generally good desktop OS might not be able to give you that extra transactions per second that you need, yet the OS that can, might also give you a nice desktop interface. This particularly is why I hope Solaris builds on their reputation. Server performance is not necessarily the performance you want for a desktop; graphics is a prime example. Despite that, the server CAN have great graphics performance and be configured to work most effectively in the role of server.
Again, desktop is the Swiss army knife application where server is an application specific configuration. The server needs to transfer data at some levels with great efficiency where the desktop can get away with less performance. A web server like Google uses has performance needs, yet the same OS might be compiled or configured to work in a different environment where that is not needed.
Both desktop and server need stability, reliability, and performance. It is only when you get to the point of needing an extra 100 transaction per second that it counts. This means that threads, forks, time keeping, cache usage performance, and other such things are important. The actual performance of such is not critical for Desktop, but is for Server applications. They do overlap, but in a one-way kind of manner. What makes a good desktop does not make a good server, and what makes a good server can ALSO make a good desktop.
I do not disagree. The kernel is where they overlap. UI is a matter of choice. Linux has shown that the same Kernel can be compiled to do the server job AND the desktop job. You can even compile the kernel and OS to do BOTH jobs.
The thing is that the 'idea' of server environment vs. desktop environment means that a successful OS for either area would have to meet the exacting criteria for that application. In this respect, server and desktop are the same underneath, yet different in operation. This gives them overlap in the eyes of many. The Linux kernel has blurred the distinction for many. Solaris (staying on topic) has been a server OS and not a desktop OS. Now, they are taking the Linux route and making two versions, just as your example of Ubuntu does. I happen to use both of these OS. I find that for a given application on given hardware, one makes more sense than the other for various reasons. In each case, a decision about server vs. desktop was made. In several cases, I have chosen a server setup that also has a desktop interface as that most suits the needs of the application.
I'm sorry, but you are wrong... they do overlap. Your particular needs for servers might not include overlap, but they do indeed have overlap in functionality and form.
I would agree with you but for one point: The desktop arena is the general purpose 'swiss army knife' area, while server software has specific issues of speed, security, and robustness. Sure, they have overlap, but there are different generalized criteria for both.
I like what Solaris is becomming, and there are definite advantages to running Solaris in certain environments on certain hardware, especially when speed and robustness are critical factors.
Now I'm not talking about running DukeNukem, I'm talking about when an extra 100 transactions per second makes meaningful differences to your bottom line. This is when server OS software is a critical thing. Typically, desktop software OS is not what you want running a server with such critical issues under the microscope.
Solaris has historically been an OS which can be trusted in the server environment. I look with hope that they will continue and build on such a reputation.
I am certain that I am not the only one that wishes you more than good luck, but wishes you could somehow knock their game so off balance that they can fight no more. Strangely, it takes money to eventually show them that they wasted money and reputation to salvage a business model that not only is extinct, but was wrong in the first place.
That lawyers, educated people, would stand up and fight for them simply for 30 pieces of silver is ... well, humanity is not 'all that and a bag of chips' most days. It's always sad to see the evil guys winning, and inspiring to see the underdog smack down the "goliaths."
I salute you Mr Beckerman
Well, the classic sense is a bit confusing in these oh so modern times, yet I agree with you. I think the players should get what they need :-) I mean that in the sense that I think the RIAA legal team 'needs' to be begging on the street to pay for their next meal.
I don't hate them really, I just hate what they have chosen to do.
I was hoping someone would do this. Certification is something that is useful and rehabilitating. A+ is an awesome suggestion. There is not much chance for a prisoner to become a certified Honda mechanic inside, but they can become A+ certified. Fuck, the number of times I've had to fend off IT staff that didn't know that the connector on the end of a monitor cable is NOT a female 9-pin D-type is scary in the extreme. I'm certain that a prisoner who wants to learn can learn much more than some of the IT staff I've had to deal with that had certifications.
Seriously, anything that certifies them to qualify for a reasonable job after paying their penance is very cool. There are a LOT of people locked up for crimes that really shouldn't be on the books. I don't think that training a hardened 14 time killer for usefulness in the outside world is 'worth while' but I do think that depriving that person of the room and ability to grow is wrong. Whatever their knowledge might be, they can do no harm if they are not allowed access to the NSA's computer system... right?
Truth be told, learning is more cathartic and rehabilitating than any amount of time spent in jail... well, in most cases. Even someone who only suffers from poor self image can benefit from learning. Computers are complex, yet made from simple to plug together parts. Software can be free, hardware donated. Learning to make the most of that while you have all that time on your hands can be a huge thing for those wanting to learn. Go ask McCain if he would have benefited from some (even simple) learning program while prisoner during the war? I'm betting it would have made a huge difference. As it is, he can't even send email now!!
Point is that there is much to learn from and about computing that has nothing to do with the outside world per se`, just as learning gardening/landscaping is probably not a truly hands-on experience for prisoners.
Baidu is an anagram for I bad U
Translated to English vernacular, this roughly translates to I fuck you. Chinese is notoriously difficult to translate on the computer, so I hear.
Baidu has a nasty habit of being at the center of redirection issues. I wonder. Just wondering, mind you. Just how hard would it be to release a bit of a bot that spammed those bit torrent sites from inside the great firewall?
Yes, I understand the ramifications of such an activity, but I'm laughing so hard I can't stop thinking of how to accomplish it....
Anyone up for a bit of weekend fun?
awesome! Bookmarked! Done :-) Thanks Ray
The fact that Obama recognizes the need for any type of position of this kind is a step forward... or should be. I think that handling information and the more general term of technology needs to be separate things. Many here on /. will think of technology as IT. It profoundly is much more. IT and green energy technology have very little in common, as do IT and many other 'technology' domains. I feel that they must be considered and dealt with separately except where they have overlaps in domain. I feel this way for the two at any level, federal or even small business.
I'm waiting to see what Obama does, and am hoping for the best. Comments you make are salient and accepted.
In the classic sense of tragedy/comedy the Greeks called it a comedy if the ending was happy, a tragedy if the ending was sad. In that sense, I hope like hell that NYCL manages to make this a comedy.
Humor and entertainment is often skewed off kilter beyond belief in the US of A. We watch NASCAR for the wrecks, WWE for the pretend mayhem and babes, and then can't miss out on who got kicked off the island or who won't be dancing next week. All that drama is worth about one good fart. The drama that NYCL is drumming us is galactic in proportion when compared to television. So is it entertaining? Would you pay to watch Evil Kenevil wreck his bike on a 350 foot jump over 14 swimming pools filled alternately with piranha and alligators? Entertainment does not always mean what you think it does. IMO, watching NYCL hand the RIAA their figurative asses is far more entertaining than watching Evil dump his bike in a pool of alligators.
Maybe he needs a donation page?
You have to hand it to NYCL, just blogging about the right stuff got their attention, then when they weren't looking he hits back. The RIAA fiasco gets more entertaining all the time. The more they lose, the funnier it gets. I think NYCL just added the laugh track!!