ok, let's make it clear: I claim no authority in the higher crafts and I had no intention of insulting you, and if anything was insulting in what I wrote, put it down on my poor English and... ignorance. Don't need to remind me that, I already know:-) . Still, as long as I don't attempt to publish in peer reviewed journals and I cannot do more damage than annoying other/.-ers, I think have the right to have an oppinion and that is: the task of science is to produce intelectual tools to deal with observed phenomena, not discover "realia". The moment it claims to discover intrinsic laws that govern, the shape of the universe etc. and ask us, the ignoramuses, to believe in them, it stops being science and the only missing connection with religion is asking for human sacrifices. But I am an ignorant, what can be expected fo me...
"Theological theories unify, physical theories unify, therefore physics = theology"... you must be in a hurry. I never claimed that. I claimed that theories that mix unmixable things seem to carry more traction and the logical and debatable theories don't. Maybe because the later leave too much room for debate and dissent, while the former do not so they are more efficient in supporting stable power structures (such as churches and scientific hierarchies). Should I put "seem to" and "maybe" in bold letters to make it even more evident that's just/. talk ?
"same observed speed" across "two different frame of reference" looks pretty much exclusive to me. They might not really be exclusive, since M. and M. observed something else, but, as far as my ignorance helps me, it does not work for anything else but electromagnetic radiation.
Just in case J.P. Luminet or somebody more informed than I am is watching: would it have been possible to observe these regularities if Earth was not located somewhere close to the center of the dodecahedron ? Is the background radiation distribution influenced by large masses located between us and the boundaries of the dodecahedron?
Nobody gets anywhere near 2 billion dollars for studying the topology of the universe.
No, I probably not, but one can ask:).
The problem is that it is very difficult to come up with a mechanism explaining how the CMBR can have particular geometric regularities without actually postulating that the universe itself is geometrically regular. If you can think up a better explanation, go ahead. In the meantime, evidence of geometric regularity does support the multiply-connected universe scenario.
I have not said the universe is regular, only that what lies right beyond what we can observe from our point of view could looks like it is, and this is a much simpler guess than what the authors of the fine article propose.
Physicists don't brand people "heretics". String theory is far from an established theory. Einsteinian relativity and Big Bang cosmology are established theories, but if you think you can do better, you're free to do so. You simply have to be able to explain everything that those theories currently explain — and that's a lot.
I have stressed believe: as in "x believes in Zeus". Theories are, well, theories (tools to think with) whether they are established or not. That the universe was born out of a monster slain by a god was also an established theory, and belief was required. The advantage (over the theory that we don't know s***) of the slain monster theory is that it's better than nothing and pretends to be complete. The multiply-connected universe scenario promises to be a complete solution, as in postulating that we don't expect many surprised from the universe, at least not as far as size, composition, age etc. are concerned.
If you don't think physicists are in the branding business, try one of the schools that spits out mostly law, marketing and humanities-minded graduates: you'll find scientifically trained people teaching ex-cathedra (pun intended) the dogma of established science.
Seeing that you haven't missed once leaving two spaces after a '.', I infer you either edited or passed through the tedious process of writing and rewriting papers published in peer reviewed journals... you certainly are aware of the practice of academic ketman (Rorty even recommended it for budding scientists) and how antagonizing your department head by "not believing" can harm your career prospects. Ever since Michelson and Morley blew it by not asking the right question, we deal more and more with belief than with method. I have no idea if the theories of relativity/quantum etc. are right or wrong, but how about this: funny how out of the early church theories, the one that won was the one which joined mutually exclusive concepts: one person in three hypostases , and out of the late physics, the theory that almost won is the one that joins mutually exclusive concepts: same speed no matter what system of reference (it wasn't me the one that noticed this... some 1930s obscure philosopher).
The whole point is that they found dupes in the cosmic microwave background that at least support the theory. i.e. duplicates that occur at angles consistent with the theory.
certainly,certainly... I live in a foggy neighbourhood and I never left my block; when I look around, I see looming out of the fog, on every side, shadows that resemble the building I live in: it must be that the universe is finite, square, and each side is connected to the opposite side and I need another 2 billion USD grant to continue the study of a problem of such a great importance.
Finding some regularities in background radiation means only one thing: there are some regularities in the background cosmic radiation; the first explanation could be that beyond our field of vision our cosmic neighbourhood is more regular than we think; no need for universes looped upon themselves.
Little wonder the smart kids of today don't want to become physicists and dream about going to law school... if physicist promise to solve the question about the life, universe and everything during the next budgetary exercise and one can get branded as a heretic for not believing in string theory, Einstein and Big Bang, then even History looks like an exact science.
I have used Linux 2.6 on a P.I with 64M of RAM recently... it took, from BIOS to Gnome login, about 90 seconds. Gnome was a little slow, but XFCE worked great. True, I started Apache and mysql only when I needed them.
s2disk works great for me. I have not rebooted linux in a while: just s2disk, and on debian etch it takes care of everything: setting up grub to restore my session etc.
Ask, "Does this person, with a clean record, hold the propensity to go postal (aka, rm -rf *) ?" How many people graduating with a CS or IT degree have a crime-addled past?
better ask "How long would this guy, with a clean record and not yet twitching, manage to stay sane while maintaining code with lots of globals, uncommented and copy/pasted over and over under the pressure of unreasonable deadlines? How long will it take until he will become self-destructive and will do something stupid ?" I have not spent that many years in IT, but already I have seen a few gifted people burning out and leaving to sell used cars, become DJs, or turning into office machiavellis.
Yeah, that's nice. Chip with what? A chisel and a wooden mallet? Another stone? A bronze hammer?
No, just a wet rope and sand. Cuts through steel.
Want to bore a hole into a hard rock? Use a soft tube (almost any dry and hollow stalk would do), water and sand.
Want to move a slab of rock of 200 metric tons? Use logs and 100 people... most of them would be employed in moving the logs in front of the rock. It was done in modern times, and well documented.
It does not make sense to use concrete and casts to make big blocks, and not use it to fill the space between them, and it is much more expensive (in terms of effort, disabled workers due to splinters, tools) to pound limestone into powder to make concrete than to cut the limestone into neat blocks using rope, water and sand.
which Europeans ? First class (Fr,De,BeNeLux)? Second class (It, Es etc.)? Third class (former Eastern Europe) ? Outsiders such as UK ?... Pariahs (Maghrebiens, Turks, Vietnamese, Chinese, Gypsies, Russians in the former Soviet Union countries, expatriates from other EU countries) ?
Only a free market for commodities, services and labour will unite Europe. A common citizenship would help, too, but that's too sensitive a subject for now.
Common dislikes do not bind people... only prevent them, for a while, from expressing their mutual antipathy.
Declare war on a member state of the EU and the rest of it will come running to their defence. Remember that the EU is a strong bind between the member states, much stronger than the bond between even the UK and the US (people here generally dislike the fact we're so close to the US politically).
... right... do you watch state-sponsored TV stations from Western Europe? I did it a few years back: I watched regularly for half a year TV5 (French) and Deutsche Welle (German)... so much insidious anti-German/anti-French propaganda and so much mutual resentments I could not believe it. If your US of A would declare war on a member state of the EU, most of the other member states would most probably cheer, ban all imports from the target country and close their borders for it's citizens.
I am not saying EU citizens hate each other... I am only saying national bureaucracies fear losing control over their subjects so much that they prefer to rub and rub and rub old imaginary wounds rather than have a go at a functional federation
just in case you don't know: most Iranians are white and speak an Indo-European language, so his English might have been very good... could not find a picture of the guy on the web, but I am quite certain that unless you already knew he is not American you could not tell he is "ethnic" or foreign.
How do we make IT salaries increase? Simple. Decrease the supply of IT workers in the short-term.
... right... and I am manager for the XZY Inc. company, and I am looking for 10 devels in XZY city. Now, there are only 5 unemployed devels either living there or willing to move in, while I can hire, for the same price (wages + extra offices in Bombay + communication costs + 1 highly skilled local developer to lead them + 1 copywriter to deal with language issues + 1 therapist to help me deal with the added stress) 10 top devels in Bombay. Guess what I am going to do ? Split the salary for 10 devels in five and hire those five ? wrong guess...
Outsourcing happens because there is not enough available people in the right place at the right time, not because prices are lower. Outsourcing began happening massively in 1998.
Indeed: when icebergs fload in the background it's gaciation: like some 14,000 years ago
When icebergs get dumped faster into the see its because there is more ice pushing them down than it used to be. If the southern ice cap was melting, the glaciers would not move at all and would start receding: melting starts from the top and from the edge, not from the bottom.
... but, hey, somebody's gradma burned the cake: it is because of Anthropogenic Global Warming; it's getting colder lately: it is because global warming... please don't torture me to make me confess my sins and "retract" what I said in the above paragraph: I believe in Global Warming... I pray to it three times a day, and I have payed my Green Tithe twice this month
and I have a machine with SuSE 6.2 on it, and I am not going to upgrade it since I'll have to spend like 2 man-month to test the combination between my old app., the new OS and the old hardware. I'd better use that time to test a new version on new hardware on a new OS.
You don't have to upgrade Linux: older versions of the kernel/libs are still maintained and the bugs fixed, so you can stay with what you are running now. Windows upgrades are... mandatory... since MS is always promising that the next M.S.Windows will s*** less.
How would a laptop with no internet connection that's given to a mostly-illiterate population do anything?
... ceterum censeo, those are not 'mostly illiterate population'... they are the guys that are already successfully competing with you, but you don't realize because you still believe the world is still in shambles after WWII and only US of A is left standing, and if some poor schmuck from the sticks is taking your job it means the evil corporation are quitting on you and going for the lower bidder.
The countries that promised to buy the OLPC gadget are quite developed, and only the difference in the prices for services, which are much cheaper there than in USA, might make you believe they are earning only one tenth of your income. The OLPC is targeted at primary school children from relatively affluent countries, that live relatively comfortable and are quite well fed, but don't see a reason to invest 1000+USD into an overpriced and under-performing device called laptop.
how many Neanderthal skulls were discovered ? 20 ? 30 ? If anybody but a paleontologist would try to go statistical on so little data s/he would be sent back to undergrad school faster than one can spell "Neanderthal"...
btw... Homo Sapiens Sapiens were making much more complex stone tools than the Homo Sapiens Neanderthaliensis... so maybe the size of the processing unit does not tell everything.
try to install a linux distribution for PCs without the Perl packages and see if it will work...
as far as I can see, the demand is not great, but quite stable... for better or worse, Perl5 is the next COBOL;) meaning there are huge custom apps built with Perl that won't be replaced in a hurry
... and were sent to a secluded meteo-station to say 200345 "Credo Global Warming" and 173900 "Ave Hockey Stick Graph"
I don't know if global warming is man-made or not, and I leave other people more knowledgeable in the area decide, but I cannot stand and look while this debate turns into a religious one. Maybe we should pray to the Spaghetti Monster to enlighten us in the matter.
When you think that they pay for a haircut less than 1USD, while you might be paying 30USD or more, and extrapolate this to other prices, those people who "have no money" look a lot less poor. OLPC will take the glitz out of computing and will make it commonplace, breaking the vicious circle of counting Giga Hertz-es sponsored by Intel. If you really think AMD et comp. care for the poor of the world, think again: first, the countries that commited to buy are not really that poor, and second, think of the publicity, the research and the industrial expansion that will be sponsored by those "poor" countries if the project gets through.
Slashdot Mirror
ok, let's make it clear: I claim no authority in the higher crafts and I had no intention of insulting you, and if anything was insulting in what I wrote, put it down on my poor English and ... ignorance. Don't need to remind me that, I already know :-) . Still, as long as I don't attempt to publish in peer reviewed journals and I cannot do more damage than annoying other /.-ers, I think have the right to have an oppinion and that is: the task of science is to produce intelectual tools to deal with observed phenomena, not discover "realia". The moment it claims to discover intrinsic laws that govern, the shape of the universe etc. and ask us, the ignoramuses, to believe in them, it stops being science and the only missing connection with religion is asking for human sacrifices. But I am an ignorant, what can be expected fo me ...
... you must be in a hurry. I never claimed that. I claimed that theories that mix unmixable things seem to carry more traction and the logical and debatable theories don't. Maybe because the later leave too much room for debate and dissent, while the former do not so they are more efficient in supporting stable power structures (such as churches and scientific hierarchies). Should I put "seem to" and "maybe" in bold letters to make it even more evident that's just /. talk ?
"Theological theories unify, physical theories unify, therefore physics = theology"
"same observed speed" across "two different frame of reference" looks pretty much exclusive to me. They might not really be exclusive, since M. and M. observed something else, but, as far as my ignorance helps me, it does not work for anything else but electromagnetic radiation.
Just in case J.P. Luminet or somebody more informed than I am is watching: would it have been possible to observe these regularities if Earth was not located somewhere close to the center of the dodecahedron ? Is the background radiation distribution influenced by large masses located between us and the boundaries of the dodecahedron?
No, I probably not, but one can ask :) .
The problem is that it is very difficult to come up with a mechanism explaining how the CMBR can have particular geometric regularities without actually postulating that the universe itself is geometrically regular. If you can think up a better explanation, go ahead. In the meantime, evidence of geometric regularity does support the multiply-connected universe scenario.I have not said the universe is regular, only that what lies right beyond what we can observe from our point of view could looks like it is, and this is a much simpler guess than what the authors of the fine article propose.
Physicists don't brand people "heretics". String theory is far from an established theory. Einsteinian relativity and Big Bang cosmology are established theories, but if you think you can do better, you're free to do so. You simply have to be able to explain everything that those theories currently explain — and that's a lot.I have stressed believe: as in "x believes in Zeus". Theories are, well, theories (tools to think with) whether they are established or not. That the universe was born out of a monster slain by a god was also an established theory, and belief was required. The advantage (over the theory that we don't know s***) of the slain monster theory is that it's better than nothing and pretends to be complete. The multiply-connected universe scenario promises to be a complete solution, as in postulating that we don't expect many surprised from the universe, at least not as far as size, composition, age etc. are concerned.
If you don't think physicists are in the branding business, try one of the schools that spits out mostly law, marketing and humanities-minded graduates: you'll find scientifically trained people teaching ex-cathedra (pun intended) the dogma of established science.
Seeing that you haven't missed once leaving two spaces after a '.', I infer you either edited or passed through the tedious process of writing and rewriting papers published in peer reviewed journals ... you certainly are aware of the practice of academic ketman (Rorty even recommended it for budding scientists) and how antagonizing your department head by "not believing" can harm your career prospects. Ever since Michelson and Morley blew it by not asking the right question, we deal more and more with belief than with method. I have no idea if the theories of relativity/quantum etc. are right or wrong, but how about this: funny how out of the early church theories, the one that won was the one which joined mutually exclusive concepts: one person in three hypostases , and out of the late physics, the theory that almost won is the one that joins mutually exclusive concepts: same speed no matter what system of reference (it wasn't me the one that noticed this ... some 1930s obscure philosopher).
certainly,certainly ... I live in a foggy neighbourhood and I never left my block; when I look around, I see looming out of the fog, on every side, shadows that resemble the building I live in: it must be that the universe is finite, square, and each side is connected to the opposite side and I need another 2 billion USD grant to continue the study of a problem of such a great importance.
Finding some regularities in background radiation means only one thing: there are some regularities in the background cosmic radiation; the first explanation could be that beyond our field of vision our cosmic neighbourhood is more regular than we think; no need for universes looped upon themselves.
Little wonder the smart kids of today don't want to become physicists and dream about going to law school ... if physicist promise to solve the question about the life, universe and everything during the next budgetary exercise and one can get branded as a heretic for not believing in string theory, Einstein and Big Bang, then even History looks like an exact science.
You might try to uninstall Exchange ;)
... it took, from BIOS to Gnome login, about 90 seconds. Gnome was a little slow, but XFCE worked great. True, I started Apache and mysql only when I needed them.
I have used Linux 2.6 on a P.I with 64M of RAM recently
s2disk works great for me. I have not rebooted linux in a while: just s2disk, and on debian etch it takes care of everything: setting up grub to restore my session etc.
better ask "How long would this guy, with a clean record and not yet twitching, manage to stay sane while maintaining code with lots of globals, uncommented and copy/pasted over and over under the pressure of unreasonable deadlines? How long will it take until he will become self-destructive and will do something stupid ?" I have not spent that many years in IT, but already I have seen a few gifted people burning out and leaving to sell used cars, become DJs, or turning into office machiavellis.
No, just a wet rope and sand. Cuts through steel.
Want to bore a hole into a hard rock? Use a soft tube (almost any dry and hollow stalk would do), water and sand.
Want to move a slab of rock of 200 metric tons? Use logs and 100 people ... most of them would be employed in moving the logs in front of the rock. It was done in modern times, and well documented.
It does not make sense to use concrete and casts to make big blocks, and not use it to fill the space between them, and it is much more expensive (in terms of effort, disabled workers due to splinters, tools) to pound limestone into powder to make concrete than to cut the limestone into neat blocks using rope, water and sand.
which Europeans ? First class (Fr,De,BeNeLux)? Second class (It, Es etc.)? Third class (former Eastern Europe) ? Outsiders such as UK ? ... Pariahs (Maghrebiens, Turks, Vietnamese, Chinese, Gypsies, Russians in the former Soviet Union countries, expatriates from other EU countries) ?
Only a free market for commodities, services and labour will unite Europe. A common citizenship would help, too, but that's too sensitive a subject for now.
Common dislikes do not bind people ... only prevent them, for a while, from expressing their mutual antipathy.
Declare war on a member state of the EU and the rest of it will come running to their defence. Remember that the EU is a strong bind between the member states, much stronger than the bond between even the UK and the US (people here generally dislike the fact we're so close to the US politically).
... right ... do you watch state-sponsored TV stations from Western Europe? I did it a few years back: I watched regularly for half a year TV5 (French) and Deutsche Welle (German) ... so much insidious anti-German/anti-French propaganda and so much mutual resentments I could not believe it. If your US of A would declare war on a member state of the EU, most of the other member states would most probably cheer, ban all imports from the target country and close their borders for it's citizens.
I am not saying EU citizens hate each other ... I am only saying national bureaucracies fear losing control over their subjects so much that they prefer to rub and rub and rub old imaginary wounds rather than have a go at a functional federation
this is worth an "INSIGHTFUL" :)
just in case you don't know: most Iranians are white and speak an Indo-European language, so his English might have been very good ... could not find a picture of the guy on the web, but I am quite certain that unless you already knew he is not American you could not tell he is "ethnic" or foreign.
You could have been in his place.
Outsourcing happens because there is not enough available people in the right place at the right time, not because prices are lower. Outsourcing began happening massively in 1998.
we're bathed in nanoparticles every second: they are called dust
Indeed: when icebergs fload in the background it's gaciation: like some 14,000 years ago
When icebergs get dumped faster into the see its because there is more ice pushing them down than it used to be. If the southern ice cap was melting, the glaciers would not move at all and would start receding: melting starts from the top and from the edge, not from the bottom.
... but, hey, somebody's gradma burned the cake: it is because of Anthropogenic Global Warming; it's getting colder lately: it is because global warming ... please don't torture me to make me confess my sins and "retract" what I said in the above paragraph: I believe in Global Warming ... I pray to it three times a day, and I have payed my Green Tithe twice this month
and I have a machine with SuSE 6.2 on it, and I am not going to upgrade it since I'll have to spend like 2 man-month to test the combination between my old app., the new OS and the old hardware. I'd better use that time to test a new version on new hardware on a new OS.
... mandatory ... since MS is always promising that the next M.S.Windows will s*** less.
You don't have to upgrade Linux: older versions of the kernel/libs are still maintained and the bugs fixed, so you can stay with what you are running now. Windows upgrades are
... ceterum censeo, those are not 'mostly illiterate population' ... they are the guys that are already successfully competing with you, but you don't realize because you still believe the world is still in shambles after WWII and only US of A is left standing, and if some poor schmuck from the sticks is taking your job it means the evil corporation are quitting on you and going for the lower bidder.
The countries that promised to buy the OLPC gadget are quite developed, and only the difference in the prices for services, which are much cheaper there than in USA, might make you believe they are earning only one tenth of your income. The OLPC is targeted at primary school children from relatively affluent countries, that live relatively comfortable and are quite well fed, but don't see a reason to invest 1000+USD into an overpriced and under-performing device called laptop.
how many Neanderthal skulls were discovered ? 20 ? 30 ? If anybody but a paleontologist would try to go statistical on so little data s/he would be sent back to undergrad school faster than one can spell "Neanderthal" ...
... Homo Sapiens Sapiens were making much more complex stone tools than the Homo Sapiens Neanderthaliensis ... so maybe the size of the processing unit does not tell everything.
btw
try to install a linux distribution for PCs without the Perl packages and see if it will work ...
... for better or worse, Perl5 is the next COBOL ;) meaning there are huge custom apps built with Perl that won't be replaced in a hurry
as far as I can see, the demand is not great, but quite stable
http://www.open-xchange.com/
I wonder which is costing a company more ... the RedHat support, or the big custom CRM application built and tested on top of RedHat Linux ?
the parent should be modded "insightful" ...
the joypad and Dasher : you can get to above 20 wpm, which most people using keyboards don't reach.
try www.magnatunes.com ... you won't find Britney Spears there, though ...