No offence to you Fermilab guys, but if Mr. Higgs really is as light that you could find him, LEP will be first
I'm just thankful that we have the competition we do. Otherwise, the only people who would care about discovering the Higgs Boson would be the scientists themselves; with the competition, we have incentive from politicians, who coincidentally provide funding:-)
Good luck too all those pushing the frontier of High Energy Physics. May we someday discover order to the universe (don't hold your breath) ------
It is interesting that the US based Fermilab is trying to concentrate on tau neutrinos which are available at a much lower energy, and thus we are trying to make up for the lack of a cutting edge accelerator, while CERN forges ahead to make up for their loss in the top quark race
Not to contradict you, but Fermilab is not entirely based upon concentrating on the tau neutrino. I work for a pair of researchers/professors here at Ohio State, and we are part of the CDF group (Collider Detector at Fermilab). This is the group that, in 1995, detected the first direct evidence of the top quark, as well as the projected mass (175 GeV).
Currently, we are working on CDF Run II, the upgrade and improvement over our first run. We will be using the same accelerator as the DONUT group uses (the Tevatron) but we'll be colliding protons and antiprotons for our data.
The main focus during Run I was the top quark; in fact, we wanted to "beat" CERN to it (even in High Energy Physics, there are pissing contests). This time around, we are looking for the Higgs Boson, same as CERN. Hopefully, we'll find it before those CERN guys:-P
Fermilab is comprised of many groups, and while I am both amazed and proud of the DONUT's discovery, I look forward to our detector rolling into the particle path, and hopefully early next year you will be reading on/. about how the CDF group has confirmed existence of the Higgs Boson. ------
I, personally, take my privacy very seriously. However, I also simultaneously realize that, if the government (or any agency, for that matter, be it private investigators or my neighbors) wants to get information on me, they will get it one way or another. It's similar to protecting your house. I lock my doors, lock my windows, and have timers on my lights. However, as good as these precautions are, if somebody wants to get inside my house, they're going to get inside my house. They'll break down the door, smash a window, etc. If they want in, they'll get in. If somebody wants my information, they're going to get it, whether I like it or not (and I do NOT). ------
I hate to be the pessimist/conspiratory theorist here, but truthfully, for all that I know my phones are tapped by uncounted numbers of people/organizations. I would never know about it, from the "end user" point of view, but somebody could easily be eavesdropping on all my conversations, e-mail (can anybody say Echelon?), and God knows what else. Just because the U.S. government says they are upholding the law and not bending it does not make it true. I recall a bit of text placed on the music video for Van Halen's "Right Now" song... "Right Now, our government is doing things you think only other governments do" It's not far from the truth, folks. ------
Agreed 100%, Seumas. People are far too quick to act and not contemplate. There is, of course, the obvious exception of a Democratic government; they "decide" 10 seconds after Columbine that gun control is necessary, and here we are, over a year later, and nothing noteworthy has happened, to my knowledge, aside from the voluntary Smith & Wesson gun-lock deal. This is also evident here at Slashdot; people are so damned concerned about getting the "First Post" that they don't even bother to consider WTF they're doing. Plus, this new crop of spammers... but I'm getting off-topic.
I ask you, what can be done about this? To me, I think that the change has to happen at a more spiritual level. People in the U.S. are constantly concerned about how much time something will take, and so on. But really, in truth, what does it matter how long something takes? If I have to wait an extra minute because the traffic signal changed, SO WHAT?!?!?! I'm not sure where I'm going with this, so I'll stop now. But what can be done to change the current point-and-click attitude? I have no solutions... ------
This seems to be just a narrow-minded group of Psychologists complaining about "instant knowledge" that comes about through the internet. They say
[the Internet] discourages study, reflection, and observation
I say that it encourages reflection by forcing the student to NOT just mindlessly repeat the information that they are given. To be honest, this reminds me of the arguments for why young students should not be allowed to use calculators while doing math problems. IMHO, young students should not learn to only use calculators; they should learn the fundamentals before learning how to punch numbers. But with the Internet, what's the big deal? Let's say the homework is to find the first 4 presidents of the U.S. Whether a student looks the information up in a book or on the internet makes no difference whatsoever. They will still read the information, they will still have to study it to learn it for an exam, they will still have to put up with teachers who just want the blind facts mindlessly repeated to them, etc. The Internet is a source of not only information but ideas, and THAT is what should be taught in schools, not blind facts. ------
Doesn't this make perfect sense? I mean, how long ago was it that Corel released their version of Linux? 3 months, maybe less? And what's the largest complaint (that I've heard, anyways) regarding Linux being "ready for the desktop"? The issue of no good commercial programs programmed for Linux. This is Corel attempting to get more people to consider Linux as an alternative to Windows, and in the process, they'll say "Wait a second, Corel also has a version of Linux?!?! Then I'll have two programs from the same company!!!" It's the Microsoft effect; Since they have their name on the OS packaging, then their auxiliary programs (Office) will undoubtedly work the best.
I'm not complaining, mind you. This is definately a step in the right direction (commercial apps released for Linux). But IMHO the timing is a little too perfect... But maybe I'm just pessimistic. ------
Yeah, yeah, so I can't spell... It was late and I had to get up early to reformat some Linux partitions at work, so spelling wasn't my first priority. Sleep was:-) ------
...that we always hear about these guys when they're starting, but never when they end it? This is the aerospace equivalent of vaporware; they promise a lot but deliver very little. I can't recall how many times I've heard about people taking spaceflights "For under a million dollars" when they're just coming out, but how many of them have succeeded? You'd think that the media would jump all over any successful attempts to do so, right? And why haven't we heard about them? They don't exist. A month from now you won't remember what he planned to do, much less his name or what toys he is receiving royalties from. Rediculous... ------
I have no doubt that many of the/. responses that you'll read here will be merely MS bashers seeing this as a reason for bias. I admit, that was my first reaction to it. "BIAS! BIAS! They've obscured the data!"
Then I took a deep breath, downloaded the PDF file, and decided to read for myself the questions that were asked and the corresponding responses. Questions like...
If you knew that the DoJ was proposing a regulation that would end up increasing the cost of software to consumers, would you support or oppose it?
Not surprisingly, 72% either strongly or moderately oppose having to pay more money for their software. The survey later asks about the DoJ "slowing the pace of technological innovation". If that isn't MS spin doctoring, then I don't know what is.
Often you should trust your gut reaction (i.e. Microsoft biased the report). It's usually correct. But don't take my word for it. Read it yourself.
So, we should take the world of the Internet, one without any bounds and which disregards any and all racial, political, ethnic, religious, et al boundaries, and turn it back into a prejudiced playground? If one refuses to talk to AOLers or WebTVers simply because they are AOL or WebTV users, then those people are cyber-bigots.
That's what's always drawn me to the Internet; It's the "Great Equilizer". Only one thing matters online: the quality of your thoughts (ok, maybe more, like knowledge of grammar or typing speed in chat rooms).
Take/. for instance. I could be reading comments from a wealthy CEO of a major corporation, and in the next line I could be reading Joe Schmoe who works at $7.00 an hour. It really doesn't matter who it is; I regard them all as equals. Last time I checked, we were all human beings, and all worthy of respect.
One thread said: we were all newbies once. Well, some of us were AOLers once (myself included). If I were discriminated against because of what lay after the @ in my address, I would be just as mad as if I were discrimated against because I'm... well... anything. Discrimation is discrimination, no matter how you put it.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm just thankful that we have the competition we do. Otherwise, the only people who would care about discovering the Higgs Boson would be the scientists themselves; with the competition, we have incentive from politicians, who coincidentally provide funding :-)
Good luck too all those pushing the frontier of High Energy Physics. May we someday discover order to the universe (don't hold your breath)
------
Not to contradict you, but Fermilab is not entirely based upon concentrating on the tau neutrino. I work for a pair of researchers/professors here at Ohio State, and we are part of the CDF group (Collider Detector at Fermilab). This is the group that, in 1995, detected the first direct evidence of the top quark, as well as the projected mass (175 GeV).
Currently, we are working on CDF Run II, the upgrade and improvement over our first run. We will be using the same accelerator as the DONUT group uses (the Tevatron) but we'll be colliding protons and antiprotons for our data.
The main focus during Run I was the top quark; in fact, we wanted to "beat" CERN to it (even in High Energy Physics, there are pissing contests). This time around, we are looking for the Higgs Boson, same as CERN. Hopefully, we'll find it before those CERN guys :-P
Fermilab is comprised of many groups, and while I am both amazed and proud of the DONUT's discovery, I look forward to our detector rolling into the particle path, and hopefully early next year you will be reading on /. about how the CDF group has confirmed existence of the Higgs Boson.
------
I, personally, take my privacy very seriously. However, I also simultaneously realize that, if the government (or any agency, for that matter, be it private investigators or my neighbors) wants to get information on me, they will get it one way or another. It's similar to protecting your house. I lock my doors, lock my windows, and have timers on my lights. However, as good as these precautions are, if somebody wants to get inside my house, they're going to get inside my house. They'll break down the door, smash a window, etc. If they want in, they'll get in. If somebody wants my information, they're going to get it, whether I like it or not (and I do NOT).
------
I hate to be the pessimist/conspiratory theorist here, but truthfully, for all that I know my phones are tapped by uncounted numbers of people/organizations. I would never know about it, from the "end user" point of view, but somebody could easily be eavesdropping on all my conversations, e-mail (can anybody say Echelon?), and God knows what else. Just because the U.S. government says they are upholding the law and not bending it does not make it true. I recall a bit of text placed on the music video for Van Halen's "Right Now" song... "Right Now, our government is doing things you think only other governments do" It's not far from the truth, folks.
------
I ask you, what can be done about this? To me, I think that the change has to happen at a more spiritual level. People in the U.S. are constantly concerned about how much time something will take, and so on. But really, in truth, what does it matter how long something takes? If I have to wait an extra minute because the traffic signal changed, SO WHAT?!?!?! I'm not sure where I'm going with this, so I'll stop now. But what can be done to change the current point-and-click attitude? I have no solutions...
------
To be honest, this reminds me of the arguments for why young students should not be allowed to use calculators while doing math problems. IMHO, young students should not learn to only use calculators; they should learn the fundamentals before learning how to punch numbers. But with the Internet, what's the big deal? Let's say the homework is to find the first 4 presidents of the U.S. Whether a student looks the information up in a book or on the internet makes no difference whatsoever. They will still read the information, they will still have to study it to learn it for an exam, they will still have to put up with teachers who just want the blind facts mindlessly repeated to them, etc. The Internet is a source of not only information but ideas, and THAT is what should be taught in schools, not blind facts.
------
I'm not complaining, mind you. This is definately a step in the right direction (commercial apps released for Linux). But IMHO the timing is a little too perfect... But maybe I'm just pessimistic.
------
Yeah, yeah, so I can't spell... It was late and I had to get up early to reformat some Linux partitions at work, so spelling wasn't my first priority. Sleep was :-)
------
...that we always hear about these guys when they're starting, but never when they end it? This is the aerospace equivalent of vaporware; they promise a lot but deliver very little. I can't recall how many times I've heard about people taking spaceflights "For under a million dollars" when they're just coming out, but how many of them have succeeded? You'd think that the media would jump all over any successful attempts to do so, right? And why haven't we heard about them? They don't exist. A month from now you won't remember what he planned to do, much less his name or what toys he is receiving royalties from. Rediculous...
------
Then I took a deep breath, downloaded the PDF file, and decided to read for myself the questions that were asked and the corresponding responses. Questions like...
If you knew that the DoJ was proposing a regulation that would end up increasing the cost of software to consumers, would you support or oppose it?
Not surprisingly, 72% either strongly or moderately oppose having to pay more money for their software. The survey later asks about the DoJ "slowing the pace of technological innovation". If that isn't MS spin doctoring, then I don't know what is.
Often you should trust your gut reaction (i.e. Microsoft biased the report). It's usually correct. But don't take my word for it. Read it yourself.
So, we should take the world of the Internet, one without any bounds and which disregards any and all racial, political, ethnic, religious, et al boundaries, and turn it back into a prejudiced playground? If one refuses to talk to AOLers or WebTVers simply because they are AOL or WebTV users, then those people are cyber-bigots.
/. for instance. I could be reading comments from a wealthy CEO of a major corporation, and in the next line I could be reading Joe Schmoe who works at $7.00 an hour. It really doesn't matter who it is; I regard them all as equals. Last time I checked, we were all human beings, and all worthy of respect.
That's what's always drawn me to the Internet; It's the "Great Equilizer". Only one thing matters online: the quality of your thoughts (ok, maybe more, like knowledge of grammar or typing speed in chat rooms).
Take
One thread said: we were all newbies once. Well, some of us were AOLers once (myself included). If I were discriminated against because of what lay after the @ in my address, I would be just as mad as if I were discrimated against because I'm... well... anything. Discrimation is discrimination, no matter how you put it.