Do you know how expensive that is? That's a lot of money to sink into debunking some crackpot's claims, and that's why it's not done. You put your money into what you think will give you the most gain, and proving Hoagland is wrong is not very scientifically (or politically) valuable.
It's not about proving Hoagland wrong. It's about actually investigating some EXTREMELY odd phenomenon. Also, on the "Glass Worm", depending on the location of the "Worm" on Mars' surface, I doubt the bottom of an impact crater (which by definition will contain materials not native to Mars) is going to provide any more useful data than the bottom of a potential runoff channel on the surface.
It reminds me of the "biodetector" experiments on Viking. Three seperate expreiments indicated the presence microbial life (in addition to possible evidence found in meteorites on Earth). It was then seen that it was possible the experiments could have provided false results. Did we devise new experiments and follow up? No. We put out a blanket label stating there was no evidence of life and have done NO further investigation in that direction. Sorry, that's fundamentally bad science.
The thing is, on some of the things (Crystal Worm, face) we simply won't know for sure until there are actual close-up examinations done. Period. You can argue back and forth forever, but at the end of the day, admit the answer is 'We don't really know'.
Could the face actually be something that was carved thousands of years ago and weathered to its current state? YES. Mars was once warm and rich in water, so it is possible. Could it be random weathering of a rock outcropping? YES.
The arguments presented against the 'Crystal Worm' are even better. 'I think it's an optical illusion that is actually concave with some sand dunes at the bottom'. Ok, do I think it's a fossilized worm out of Dune? No. Do I think it's possible that it's a convex tube that hasn't been explained? Possibly. Once again folks, without closer investigation WE DON'T KNOW.
I don't tend to buy conspiracy theories, but I also don't eliminate valid possibilities without investigation because I can make up an explanation. Want to know for sure what the hell the 'Glass Worm' is? Drop a lander there and FIND OUT. That's what scientific investigation is about. Forming a hypothesis and testing it. We seem to be missing the testing on some of these points. Providing an alternate, unporven hypothesis does not constitute proof (or debunking, for that matter).
On some of these, there are clearly valid explanations, such as the 'green spot' photos. On others, I'm sorry, there's simply not.
"According to the Info World article about Microsoft's Caller ID patents, Microsoft's license "... will encourage all parties involved to allow the Caller ID technology to develop and improve without being hindered by license restrictions or royalty schemes"; and "Microsoft wants to do more than merely give (Caller ID) away, they also want to make sure nobody else can profit from it.""
Ummm hmmm. And with Microsoft's track record I trust them not to wait until the system is widely deployed and then announce they plan to start charging for use of their patents why?
I very much agree the only way this should be touched is with a license that prevents MS from taking financial advantage of it later.
"About the problem itself: why don't people just use email signed with a digital certificate to prove the authenticity of the sender? If everyone signs digitally, and read only digitally-signed email, that would already be a large part of this whole callerID scheme, right?"
Brilliant. And just who issues/verifies these signatures? Oh, a signing authority. Yes, I want to have to buy a digital certificate to be able to send email. Sorry, I don't think so.
Actually, it's not a centralized automated database, but most of this data can now be obtained about an individual by the government without judicial oversite (ie no court order).
Bought anything with a bank card, credit card, or check? Your bank records are available for investigation. This yields your address, phone number, probably a cell number, Social Security Number, date of birth, and anyone you've ever paid by check or using a bank card (Visa Check card or ATM). Under the same statute, everyone you paid by check or bank card can also have their records for you examined. Library records are also open for scrutiny. I'm not positive, but I also believe that phone records (who you called and when as opposed to actual transcripts of conversations) are also covered under this. Oh, and all of the places that have their records checked are under a gag order so you won't know about it.
RSS is not a push technology. It's basically a standardized markup format to summarize news stories. Readers then download the RSS file from the provider using an aggregator program.
"He's using flash as the HD for the computing nodes"
Actually, he's not. IBM Micro Drives are not CF, they just have a CF form factor/interface to be compatible with hand held devices. They are hard drives.
"If IBM is serious about this and Sun refuses to play ball, then I'd be surprised if IBM didn't suddenly decide to champion the Kaffe project or perhaps even start their own open Java system."
Why would IBM back Kaffe instead of just open sourcing the current (clean room developed) IBM JDK/JRE? It would make no sense at all for them to back Kaffe, which would require tons of work to be compatible with the current versions of Java.
Umm, you obviously don't do much with your portable. I do software development and in my spare time I also work on electronic music and video editing. So yes, I could in fact use a G5. Some people do actually do more than surf the web and write Word documents on their laptops.
Clarification: you are not allowed to use Sun's documentation / specifications either. So trying to implement a free Java compiler / JVM is like flying blind with half your instruments out. That's why the various OSS Java projects like Kaffe are so behind and so incompatible. Even if, for some strange reason, Sun decides to keep their JVM code secret, they need to remove all the weird documentation licensing (NDA-style stuff).
You are completely wrong. The only limitations are:
You can not use Sun's source code
If you're going to brand it Java you MUST pass a set of compatibility tests.
Anyone who wants to is free to implement a JVM using the specs. In fact there are a number of them. IBM has their own JVMs. There are also free compilers available (Jikes, GCJ).
I'm assuming they reviewed a system from Dynamism.com, which mean it's not actually being offered in the US yet. This also typically means that Dynamism is charging a $1000+ markup on it for importing it and installing a US OS and providing support.
I would guess that if Sony releases this in the US it will probably sell for around $2000.
Having used a wide variety of laptops (IBM, Sony, Toshiba, and Apple) I have to say Apples are not bad for durability, but IBM laptops are the ultimate. I still have a Thinkpad 570 (5 years old) that's functional with no structural damage that's been dropped several times from heights up to 5 feet.
The thing got yanked off a desktop when somebody tripped over the power cord during a reboot. It hit the floor on it's side on battery power after dropping 3 feet and never even hickuped while rebooting. I picked it up, plugged it back in, and went back to work. This was when the laptop was ~1 month old.
The only thing I've ever had to do to it as far as service was have the display hinge replaced when it was roughly 2 and a half years old. It was still under normal warranty. Service went like this:
Day 1 - flickering display, called IBM, they said they'd send an Airborn Express box
Day 2 - received box, packed laptop, called Airborn Express and they came and picked it up
Day 3 - laptop at ibm
Day 4 - got laptop back from IBM working fine mid morning
I've had the same problem with my iBook, which I'm typing this on, which was 8 months old at the time. For starters I was seriously pissed to be having problems with a system less that a year old. Service went like this:
Day 1 - had problem, called Apple, was informed Store XYZ had authorized Mac techs and I should take it to them
Day 2 - drove laptop to Store XYZ, they looked at it, told me the display hinge (and thus the display connector) was bad (which I already knew) and it would need to be shipped to Apple for repair, left laptop with them after being told it would be 7 to 14 days before they'd have it back and that they'd call for me to come pick it up when it was in... grumbled while driving home
Day 7 - no laptop
Day 9 - decided to call Store XYZ, laptop was in that morning, drove to Store XYZ and picked up laptop
I have to say IBM's service makes Apple's look like a bad joke. IBM picked up and returned my laptop in a period of three days. Apple's service for the same problem involved two car trips and a nine day wait. I was also upset that a problem that's taken around 2 to 2 and a half years to develop on the two Thinkpads I've owned occured on my iBook in less than a year... and seems to be starting again at a year and a half... not to mention the battery which died at 13 months (which is not covered by an Apple Care extended warranty, so I had to replace it out of pocket). Now if only IBM would license OS X and build some Power PC laptops... sigh.
Support for the 350's tv out is still a bit flaky. It will probably be a few months before all of the kinks are worked out. Even so, this system is REALLY overkill. An NVidia 440MX vid card, 2GHz processor, and ata 100 or 133 HD would have been plenty of power.
Ok, are you paying for support? No? Then switch to Fedora when the release comes out in a week or so. Fedora is still going to provide up2date servers from what I've read at the web site, and you won't have to pay a fee for them. Simple.
I realize the parent is flamebait, but I can't resist.
Java already has generics, dumbass. They're in the 1.5 release, which is currently in beta (you know, as in a downloadable IMPLEMENTATION, as opposed to just on paper).
"We do not have the power to make Earth like Mars or Venus."
Umm, you are aware that there are more than enough nuclear weapons to pretty much vaporize the entire surface of the planet, right? I don't think it's likely to happen, but the power is definitely available to us as a species.
Interesting... I wonder if there was something wrong with your unit. We've had ours for about 2 weeks and it works great, picking up fuzz and even our dog's hair and leaving clean carpets and hardwood floors. Also, we've run it in an odd shaped hallway as well as in a living room and dining room full of furniture and it did hit everything, you just need to let it run until it tells you it's finished.
I will agree that the transitions are a bit rocky going from one surface to another. The solution is to use the virtual wall units to block transition spots and run it once on each side of a transition. For example our kitchen is linoleum and our living room is carpeted, so we run it separately in the lving room and kitchen.
What's really nice about it is that you can close it in a room and let it go and then come back later when it's finished running. That's what we do with the bedrooms in our house. The thing has decreased the time we spend vacuuming by about 90%.
I do a lot of web development, and I hate IE with a passion. Ideally, I use Safari, and when I'm not on OS X I use Mozilla (or other Gecko based browsers).
The problem is that 95%+ of traffic that web sites see is IE. Realistically, when 95% of your traffic is one browser, you make sure things work in that browser first and worry about the other guys later, when time and budget permit. It sucks, but that's the way things are, and since AOL was bought off I don't see things getting any better.
Haven't they basically been trying to implement this since the days of Cairo? Seems the 'revolutionary new file system' gets announced for every Windows release that is several years away, then vanishes by the time the release takes place.
Oh please let them take these measures. Every one of them violates federal law and would allow the RIAA to be branded as criminals (if not terrorists, considering the way the hacking laws in the US have gone recently).
Re:Dumping rabbits
on
Easter Humor
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Amen. We have two rabbits and I personally hate this time of year. You always end up with a ton if idiots that see the cute baby bunny and bring it home with no idea how to take care of it and no intention of learning. Two weeks later the local Humane Society is flooded with little abandoned rabbits.
A little common sense and reading would solve so many problems.
As a rabbit owner unasociated with the House Rabbit Society, I also highly recommend the House Rabbit Handbook.
Slashdot Mirror
It's not about proving Hoagland wrong. It's about actually investigating some EXTREMELY odd phenomenon. Also, on the "Glass Worm", depending on the location of the "Worm" on Mars' surface, I doubt the bottom of an impact crater (which by definition will contain materials not native to Mars) is going to provide any more useful data than the bottom of a potential runoff channel on the surface.
It reminds me of the "biodetector" experiments on Viking. Three seperate expreiments indicated the presence microbial life (in addition to possible evidence found in meteorites on Earth). It was then seen that it was possible the experiments could have provided false results. Did we devise new experiments and follow up? No. We put out a blanket label stating there was no evidence of life and have done NO further investigation in that direction. Sorry, that's fundamentally bad science.
Could the face actually be something that was carved thousands of years ago and weathered to its current state? YES. Mars was once warm and rich in water, so it is possible. Could it be random weathering of a rock outcropping? YES.
The arguments presented against the 'Crystal Worm' are even better. 'I think it's an optical illusion that is actually concave with some sand dunes at the bottom'. Ok, do I think it's a fossilized worm out of Dune? No. Do I think it's possible that it's a convex tube that hasn't been explained? Possibly. Once again folks, without closer investigation WE DON'T KNOW.
I don't tend to buy conspiracy theories, but I also don't eliminate valid possibilities without investigation because I can make up an explanation. Want to know for sure what the hell the 'Glass Worm' is? Drop a lander there and FIND OUT. That's what scientific investigation is about. Forming a hypothesis and testing it. We seem to be missing the testing on some of these points. Providing an alternate, unporven hypothesis does not constitute proof (or debunking, for that matter).
On some of these, there are clearly valid explanations, such as the 'green spot' photos. On others, I'm sorry, there's simply not.
Ummm hmmm. And with Microsoft's track record I trust them not to wait until the system is widely deployed and then announce they plan to start charging for use of their patents why?
I very much agree the only way this should be touched is with a license that prevents MS from taking financial advantage of it later.
Brilliant. And just who issues/verifies these signatures? Oh, a signing authority. Yes, I want to have to buy a digital certificate to be able to send email. Sorry, I don't think so.
Bought anything with a bank card, credit card, or check? Your bank records are available for investigation. This yields your address, phone number, probably a cell number, Social Security Number, date of birth, and anyone you've ever paid by check or using a bank card (Visa Check card or ATM). Under the same statute, everyone you paid by check or bank card can also have their records for you examined. Library records are also open for scrutiny. I'm not positive, but I also believe that phone records (who you called and when as opposed to actual transcripts of conversations) are also covered under this. Oh, and all of the places that have their records checked are under a gag order so you won't know about it.
Doesn't sound so far fetched now, does it?
LISP = Lots of Insipid, Stupid Parentheses ;-)
It's all pull.
Upon further research it looks like I was mistaken. IBM's JDK/JRE do not appear to be a clean room implementations. My bad.
Actually, he's not. IBM Micro Drives are not CF, they just have a CF form factor/interface to be compatible with hand held devices. They are hard drives.
Why would IBM back Kaffe instead of just open sourcing the current (clean room developed) IBM JDK/JRE? It would make no sense at all for them to back Kaffe, which would require tons of work to be compatible with the current versions of Java.
Umm, you obviously don't do much with your portable. I do software development and in my spare time I also work on electronic music and video editing. So yes, I could in fact use a G5. Some people do actually do more than surf the web and write Word documents on their laptops.
You are completely wrong. The only limitations are:
Anyone who wants to is free to implement a JVM using the specs. In fact there are a number of them. IBM has their own JVMs. There are also free compilers available (Jikes, GCJ).
I would guess that if Sony releases this in the US it will probably sell for around $2000.
The thing got yanked off a desktop when somebody tripped over the power cord during a reboot. It hit the floor on it's side on battery power after dropping 3 feet and never even hickuped while rebooting. I picked it up, plugged it back in, and went back to work. This was when the laptop was ~1 month old.
The only thing I've ever had to do to it as far as service was have the display hinge replaced when it was roughly 2 and a half years old. It was still under normal warranty. Service went like this:
I've had the same problem with my iBook, which I'm typing this on, which was 8 months old at the time. For starters I was seriously pissed to be having problems with a system less that a year old. Service went like this:
I have to say IBM's service makes Apple's look like a bad joke. IBM picked up and returned my laptop in a period of three days. Apple's service for the same problem involved two car trips and a nine day wait. I was also upset that a problem that's taken around 2 to 2 and a half years to develop on the two Thinkpads I've owned occured on my iBook in less than a year... and seems to be starting again at a year and a half... not to mention the battery which died at 13 months (which is not covered by an Apple Care extended warranty, so I had to replace it out of pocket). Now if only IBM would license OS X and build some Power PC laptops... sigh.
Support for the 350's tv out is still a bit flaky. It will probably be a few months before all of the kinks are worked out. Even so, this system is REALLY overkill. An NVidia 440MX vid card, 2GHz processor, and ata 100 or 133 HD would have been plenty of power.
Ok, are you paying for support? No? Then switch to Fedora when the release comes out in a week or so. Fedora is still going to provide up2date servers from what I've read at the web site, and you won't have to pay a fee for them. Simple.
Java already has generics, dumbass. They're in the 1.5 release, which is currently in beta (you know, as in a downloadable IMPLEMENTATION, as opposed to just on paper).
Umm, you are aware that there are more than enough nuclear weapons to pretty much vaporize the entire surface of the planet, right? I don't think it's likely to happen, but the power is definitely available to us as a species.
I will agree that the transitions are a bit rocky going from one surface to another. The solution is to use the virtual wall units to block transition spots and run it once on each side of a transition. For example our kitchen is linoleum and our living room is carpeted, so we run it separately in the lving room and kitchen.
What's really nice about it is that you can close it in a room and let it go and then come back later when it's finished running. That's what we do with the bedrooms in our house. The thing has decreased the time we spend vacuuming by about 90%.
The problem is that 95%+ of traffic that web sites see is IE. Realistically, when 95% of your traffic is one browser, you make sure things work in that browser first and worry about the other guys later, when time and budget permit. It sucks, but that's the way things are, and since AOL was bought off I don't see things getting any better.
Haven't they basically been trying to implement this since the days of Cairo? Seems the 'revolutionary new file system' gets announced for every Windows release that is several years away, then vanishes by the time the release takes place.
Oh please let them take these measures. Every one of them violates federal law and would allow the RIAA to be branded as criminals (if not terrorists, considering the way the hacking laws in the US have gone recently).
A little common sense and reading would solve so many problems.
As a rabbit owner unasociated with the House Rabbit Society, I also highly recommend the House Rabbit Handbook.
What is this, version 3 or 4 of 'This is what Progeny does'?
Amen. What does Nokia have against Bluetooth? Do they realize the number of customers they're losing over this?