Actually, the artificial muscles in the article were powered by heat; they just used burning alcohol to generate that heat. It didn't say how much waste heat was generated in the process, but you probably wouldn't want a prototype prosthetic strapped to you.
Now, artificial intelligence powered by alcohol would be... no wait, that already exists. Pretty much all alcohol-powered intelligence is artificial.
But having a certification doesn't automatically mean that you are incompetent. Better to have the certification (of admittedly dubious value). There are companies out there that make their first cut on resume searching using keyword searches. If you don't have "MCSD" in your resume, the HR department won't even pass your resume on to someone who can reasonably evaluate your other, more pertinent qualifications.
I don't know if it is applicable in this specific case (the english "w" sound in german), but there are precedents in linguistics that phonemes that are not used in a language are lost to speakers of that language. In some native american languages there are sounds that most non-speakers cannot discern, i.e. two distinct words that native speakers can easily differentiate sound identical to people who don't speak the language. And things like glottal stops and dipthongs in some languages are, at best, difficult for the average english-only speaker to replicate.
That will only work if your website is the only one of its kind. Otherwise, it won't be "My browser crashes whenever I visit buyWidgets.com. I'll switch to Firefox." Instead, it will be "My browser crashes whenever I visit buyWidgets.com. I'll switch to buyGizmos.com."
You're absolutely right, but why stop there? Set up a bot that extracts the first noun from the tagline and posts "I, for one, welcome our new overlords" as soon as an article is released. And make the title of the post "Obligatory."
Your brother is right. It is safe and effective to turn off a computer by pouring beer on the power supply. But it only works once. And after it does, you really wish you still had that beer.
That is a good point, but (at least in the U.S.) huge regions are connected by electric power grids. So even if you live a mile from a hydroelectric power plant, it is very possible for some portion of the electricity in your home to have been generated by a natural gas powered plant in the next state. Even if demand in your area can be met by the hydro, that plant is exporting extra electricity to the grid. So when you turn on that extra lightbulb, there is a tiny bit less to export. A coal powered plant has to fire up somewhere.
An additional wrinkle is this: the community in which I live is about 30 miles from a wind farm. Our local power utility allows us to pay a slightly higher price for "wind generated electricity." However, they acknowledge that the wind farm doesn't produce as much electricity as the premium rate payers consume. Some of that money is (presumably) going into research and future expansion of the wind farm.
That isn't completely irrational. The line between art and porn is pretty subjective, and a company might just punt on the issue and consider any photograph of a naked woman porn. And I can imagine a company policy that allows limited personal use of the internet on company time (ok to read slashdot), but not allowing the viewing of internet porn on company time.
The "Hot Chick" part, though, should have been enough to urge caution. And you are correct, I never would have though to put any kind of warning on a link to that page; it could only offend an extreme puritan.
Then again, maybe the poster was trying to inject a little humor and wasn't actually nearly fired.
Absolutely correct. A couple of joints usually makes me the weakest (but happiest) part of any system I am in.
But seriously, what I was trying to say is this. Say you glue two components together. You then subject them to enough force to break them apart. If the glue is stronger than the components, then part A will have some glue and a little piece of part B on it. Part B will need to be repaired or replaced. If the glue is weaker than the components, then I will just have to glue them back together. Ideally, the glue will only be slightly weaker than the actual things being glued, but it will be weaker.
This is kinda like why you put a relief valve in a high pressure system - you are intentionally introducing something that will (in a sense) fail before the force builds up to damage the primary system.
You apparently aren't a backpacker. Hiking 15 miles with a 41 lb. backpack is surprisingly worse than hiking 15 miles with a 40 lb. backpack. There is a huge market for camping gear that is a couple of percentage points lighter (and orders of magnitude more expensive) than the alternatives.
But what does this have to do with memory? you ask. Ok, technically you didn't ask, but I've never let that stop me before. In your desktop, a 2.5% difference in memory speed is imperceptible. If you have a server farm with enough machines, that could be the equivalent of an extra server or two.
That said, my problems with TFA are:
1. The size of their statistical universe, and
B) Of course a manufacturer is going to send you their best. A responsible lab will do their own random sampling.
I don't know how official it was, but somewhere recently I read a definition for planet. It was among a set of 4 astronomical objects: planet, comet, asteroid and moon/satellite. I think that for a planet, large enough for it's gravity to pull it into a roughly spherical shape, posessing an atmosphere (didn't specify density or composition) were among the criteria. FWIW, the same article mentioned that whether or not Pluto is a planet is occasionally debated in the media, but that the responsible scientific community doesn't question its planethood any more than they question whether or not the earth is round (ok, an oblate spheroid).
No apologies are necessary. Your spelling and grammar are better than an alarmingly high number of (presumably) native English speaking contributors to this site demonstrate. And no, in the United States there are no actual laws compelling employers to create a comfortable workplace; they only need to provide a workspace free of obvious, provable and widely recognized hazards. Many do go beyond the minimum requirement, either to foster greater worker productivity, or to avoid lawsuits.
You got it all wrong. The satellites have figured out that we're stopping their direct influence with our tinfoil hats, so now they have to resort to more subtle means to rid the planet of human vermin.
Slashdot Mirror
Now, artificial intelligence powered by alcohol would be ... no wait, that already exists. Pretty much all alcohol-powered intelligence is artificial.
Yeah, but do we really want people dancing on that spot either?
when they implanted the RFID next to my scapula, but everyone just said I had a chip on my shoulder.
But having a certification doesn't automatically mean that you are incompetent. Better to have the certification (of admittedly dubious value). There are companies out there that make their first cut on resume searching using keyword searches. If you don't have "MCSD" in your resume, the HR department won't even pass your resume on to someone who can reasonably evaluate your other, more pertinent qualifications.
I don't know if it is applicable in this specific case (the english "w" sound in german), but there are precedents in linguistics that phonemes that are not used in a language are lost to speakers of that language. In some native american languages there are sounds that most non-speakers cannot discern, i.e. two distinct words that native speakers can easily differentiate sound identical to people who don't speak the language. And things like glottal stops and dipthongs in some languages are, at best, difficult for the average english-only speaker to replicate.
Maybe if you didn't post as AC....
That will only work if your website is the only one of its kind. Otherwise, it won't be "My browser crashes whenever I visit buyWidgets.com. I'll switch to Firefox." Instead, it will be "My browser crashes whenever I visit buyWidgets.com. I'll switch to buyGizmos.com."
And yet, people continue posting to this thread.
with World Wide Web (3 syllables) and not "double-u double-u double-u" (9 syllables) ;)
is going to have 11GB
You're absolutely right, but why stop there? Set up a bot that extracts the first noun from the tagline and posts "I, for one, welcome our new overlords" as soon as an article is released. And make the title of the post "Obligatory."
It's starting to look like we might be "visiting" Iran sooner than you think.
Your brother is right. It is safe and effective to turn off a computer by pouring beer on the power supply. But it only works once. And after it does, you really wish you still had that beer.
I think you are referring to mud wrestling with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it.
That is a good point, but (at least in the U.S.) huge regions are connected by electric power grids. So even if you live a mile from a hydroelectric power plant, it is very possible for some portion of the electricity in your home to have been generated by a natural gas powered plant in the next state. Even if demand in your area can be met by the hydro, that plant is exporting extra electricity to the grid. So when you turn on that extra lightbulb, there is a tiny bit less to export. A coal powered plant has to fire up somewhere.
An additional wrinkle is this: the community in which I live is about 30 miles from a wind farm. Our local power utility allows us to pay a slightly higher price for "wind generated electricity." However, they acknowledge that the wind farm doesn't produce as much electricity as the premium rate payers consume. Some of that money is (presumably) going into research and future expansion of the wind farm.
That isn't completely irrational. The line between art and porn is pretty subjective, and a company might just punt on the issue and consider any photograph of a naked woman porn. And I can imagine a company policy that allows limited personal use of the internet on company time (ok to read slashdot), but not allowing the viewing of internet porn on company time.
The "Hot Chick" part, though, should have been enough to urge caution. And you are correct, I never would have though to put any kind of warning on a link to that page; it could only offend an extreme puritan.
Then again, maybe the poster was trying to inject a little humor and wasn't actually nearly fired.
Absolutely correct. A couple of joints usually makes me the weakest (but happiest) part of any system I am in.
But seriously, what I was trying to say is this. Say you glue two components together. You then subject them to enough force to break them apart. If the glue is stronger than the components, then part A will have some glue and a little piece of part B on it. Part B will need to be repaired or replaced. If the glue is weaker than the components, then I will just have to glue them back together. Ideally, the glue will only be slightly weaker than the actual things being glued, but it will be weaker.
This is kinda like why you put a relief valve in a high pressure system - you are intentionally introducing something that will (in a sense) fail before the force builds up to damage the primary system.
But what does this have to do with memory? you ask. Ok, technically you didn't ask, but I've never let that stop me before. In your desktop, a 2.5% difference in memory speed is imperceptible. If you have a server farm with enough machines, that could be the equivalent of an extra server or two.
That said, my problems with TFA are:
1. The size of their statistical universe, and
B) Of course a manufacturer is going to send you their best. A responsible lab will do their own random sampling.
What good is a glue that has a bond stronger than the tensile strength of the substances it is binding together?
I don't know how official it was, but somewhere recently I read a definition for planet. It was among a set of 4 astronomical objects: planet, comet, asteroid and moon/satellite. I think that for a planet, large enough for it's gravity to pull it into a roughly spherical shape, posessing an atmosphere (didn't specify density or composition) were among the criteria.
FWIW, the same article mentioned that whether or not Pluto is a planet is occasionally debated in the media, but that the responsible scientific community doesn't question its planethood any more than they question whether or not the earth is round (ok, an oblate spheroid).
Just wait 'till the Intel based Apple computers come out. Then the pirates will be able to plunder "dual boot-y". Sorry. It's late.
No apologies are necessary. Your spelling and grammar are better than an alarmingly high number of (presumably) native English speaking contributors to this site demonstrate. And no, in the United States there are no actual laws compelling employers to create a comfortable workplace; they only need to provide a workspace free of obvious, provable and widely recognized hazards. Many do go beyond the minimum requirement, either to foster greater worker productivity, or to avoid lawsuits.
You got it all wrong. The satellites have figured out that we're stopping their direct influence with our tinfoil hats, so now they have to resort to more subtle means to rid the planet of human vermin.
But God help you if the webpage that gives you an electric shock ever shows up on /.
Good science fiction has some basis in science.