Re:Confusing tech knowledge with politics
on
The Future of Ideas
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· Score: 2
You seem to be assuming that anyone with knowledge of the situation will automatically agree with you, and hence concluding that therefore the politicians and judges you don't agree with are therefore ignorant. Thats a very large assumption, although I suppose its marginally better than the similar logic which declares that they must be corrupt instead.
I was more going on the transcripts I read and the reports I had read of some of the goings-on in courts when these things were being decided. THe characterizations of some of these judges who heard the cases seemed to me that they wouldnt know a computer if it fell on them. I just dont think that is a competent review board to decide something as landmark as these decisions. Not all judges are clueless, obviously, but not all of them fully understand what they are deciding either.. law of averages.
They aren't spraying DDT to kill West Nile. It's malathion, IIRC, which is not harmful to birds. Or, at worst, is less harmful to birds than West Nile.
I said the "new stuff" they are spraying. I didnt say it was DDT. My concern is that Malathion turns out in 20 years to be far worse than DDT ever was. I have no faith whatsoever in a 2 year controlled test that says "well, its safe enough" when we have a lot of evidence to prove that in the last five times it was "safe enough" it wasnt. (Dioxins, DDT, Asbestos, Fiberglass, Carbon Tet, etc)
You seem to be complaining that companies own the products that we are producing for them and for which we are paid.
Actually, I'm more complaining that a company makes billions of dollars of of one employees hard work and inspiration, and that employee doesnt see squat. Or that in this day and age of code, it becomes a lot more blurred. When does plagiarism occur? When one line matches another? In these new days of coding, what is the likelihood that someone somewhere will get sued because their line of code (standard) matches someone elses line of code (standard) which existed first?
How a someone who clearly doesn't see human life as more valued and cherished than bird life got moderated to a 5, I can't fathom
First off, dont put words in my mouth. Never did I say human life was less important than a birds life. However, I think you will find that without birds (plural) Humans wont be around all that long. Ecologically there is an *extremely* delicate balance we are dealing with here.. and we keep messing with it hard. THe Earth is a huge
ecological entity, and much like your body generating a fever to rid itself of disease, so can "nature" rid itself of parasites.. and in the words of Pogo.. 'i have seen the enemy.. and they is us".
Now.. my *main* point, (which I guess you missed) is that 5 lives is nothing. Medical Malpractice kills many more people a year. Tylenol kills many more people a year. And they do nothing (or very little) about it. Those are acceptable losses in the multi-billion industry that medicine has become.
This ties into my statements about corporate lawyers versus true innovators. Do you really think the RIAA, MPAA, or Microsoft give a rats ass about this tiny little group here on SlashDot? No.. they could care less. THey know that even if every one of us gets every one of our friends to clearly not-support them, or even to boycott their products, it wont amount to a hill of beans, because joe sixpack will A) not care, and B) want to see The Perfect Storm in Dolby at his house.
-- DDT is now banned for most uses in the U.S., and the book had great effect in raising environmental awareness, but overall, environmental quality has continued to suffer. Lessig's book is not likely to be as successful. Attacking DDT was relatively easy compared to attacking the unlimited expansion of intellectual property, which has many multi-billion dollar companies willing to fight to defend their continued erosion of the public commons.
Well, yeah, Silent Spring *did* raise the problem of DDT and it's gone now. But there had to be *something* to fill in those gaps. Now they are spraying for West Nile Virus mosquitoes up here in the Northeast US and doing far more damage with the pesticides than they are helping. After all, WNV has killed what.. three? five? people. Is it really worth destroying generations of birds and their offspring to save five lives? How many millions die of malpractice?
But back to the topic at hand.. until we get judges who know computers are better for something than product placement in televised courtrooms, or understand something about intellectual copyright itself, there wont be a change. If you dont think that large companies are stealing ideas left right and center, well, wake up. 3m bought the idea for post-it notes for like, 1.99 from the guy who came up with it, due to contractual obligations that almost all of us sign. If you develop code, and use your work computer for even one line of said code, it probably falls under your blanket contract that says your company now owns it, and owns j00 as well.
Until laws like that get challenged, and beaten, companies squelching free development, or the furthering of technology outside their-own pockets are going to continue to be the status quo.
What is the solution? I dont pretend to know.. but getting more technologically savvy people into the courts in judge, jury, and lawyer roles could be a start. Face it, M$ is going to send in the best 10 lawyers they can find, and what does a Mitnick get? Whatever the PD's office can spare.
Which doesn't make much difference, because the engine's waste-heat output doesn't change nearly as fast with throttle opening as the crankshaft output does. Even at idle (zero power) you are still burning fuel and still pumping heat out the exhaust pipe. If you can force that waste heat to do some work for you instead of just being diluted to uselessness in the atmosphere, you've accomplished something.
What I was thinking was not of straight exhaust.. but of somehow mining the catalytic converter. That uses Platinum, among other things, to burn unburnt fuel gases and force co into co2.. and attains some pretty high temperatures while it is at it. Straight exhaust wont even give you the heat you need, I think, to do what this "promises". but strap one to the catalytic.. and you might just get what you need.
(Course, I always wanted to strap some fin tube to the catalytic to jumpstart the heater on those cold mornings..)
*Why are we just looking around? We have the technology! Let's at least go to Mars. Consider that eventually Earth will die. Sooner or later we must be prepared to go somewhere else. I think we should start now.*
Firsters: The earth will die in a billion years or so.. dont start picking out gravesites yet. We have a far far better chance of being killed off by ourselves, or by the Earth, the great macro-organism that it is finally rearing up and removing us as the parasites we are, than lasting until the sun does its "puff up! puff up! THEY HATE THAT!" move.
2) Umm.. mars.. yeah.. we managed to drop a probe through an ice shelf (maybe) and lose it. You really wanna be on the first lander down? Can you think of anyone who *does* want to be on the first lander down?
3) The solution may lie more in science fiction than science fact. Generation ships, ringworlds, or wheels.. that will probably happen long before "terra" forming and habitation of other planets.
(This is assuming the Aliens dont show up with "boobs, beers, or buns, no-one rides for free" stickers on their ships and invite us out for a quick joyride.)
Realistically tho: We have a *hell* of a lot more research and development and scientific knowhow to work through before we are ready to ship people to Mars. Even the fact that we routinely put stuff in orbit is less due to the scientific ability than to the fact that things seem to *not* go cataclysmically wrong very often.
(Not dishign on Nasa.. they are at the very top of my "respected" list.. but its a pure miracle we even got our guys off the moon in the first place!)
In the later books, after Jubal et-al was on Ishtar's planet, (the grand unification books.. umm.. number of the beast, cat who walks through walls, sail beyond the sunset,(which was basically Maureen being a round-heel), Dorcas was a hologram.. because they described her emerging from the pool, or appearing behind jubal when he would yell 'FRONT".
At least, that was my impression.. remember she would appear wearing the white robe?
Heinlein had a lot of writing based on things that did not yet occur.
Waterbeds. Microwaves. Radiant heating in a real world *modern* solution. Rooms being bathed in germ-killing light (UV) while people are not in them. Sensors in doors/rooms to tell when people were there and how they preferred the room. Disposable "sheets" on beds. (like a doctors table with the rip-off paper.. not sure if he was first or not). Wash off clothing.. this exists now too.. Saw it in a fashion show.. i know he was using that with Laz and Lor on the Dora in the Lazarus Long books. (when they wore anything at all).
Dictation to a computer.. (Dorcas, who dictated for Jubal.. which is only the true development of free-standing holograms away).
Umm.. more.. grass growing indoors. (carpets of grass.. it has since been done.)
he did a lot with ram-drivers, like the old mass induction coil up the side of the Andes, but so did other people.
Niven and Pournelle were deep into spaceships.. but Heinlein was the first to come up with the "generation ship" (Orphans of the Sky), as well as Exoskeletal Power Suits (umm.. a couple of books and innumerable short stories.)
Nuclear reactors.. I dont think he came up with them, but I know he did a lot to project where they would be now.
**What was, I think, pioneered in the US was science fiction as a genre. That formed around Doc Smith, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Amazing Stories and the like. Someone correct me if I'm wrong...**
You are right. You mised Gardner, L Sprague De Camp, (dead on on the Lensman).
I also credit (believe it or not) Dixon with "the hardy boys" and the fellow who wrote the Tom Swift stuff. People who read this as children went on to read more mind-opening question asking fiction as they got older.. Conan, Pellucidar, ERB's Lost World, etc. This led in time to the other "antique" authors who were churning stuff out heavily in the range of the 1950's, when the boom *really* started to kickoff.
I still dont consider Bradbury to be Science Fiction.. he pretty much takes history and rewrites it into the future, AFAIC, which isnt much of a stretch. One I keep *not* seeing mentioned, is Anthony Burgess.. who tended to play with a bizarre and not-so distant future, based on trends obvious in the present.
I will be curious to read this and see what he has to say about HG Wells. As far as "science fiction" is concerned, I have always thought it to be a reasonable projection, based on current technology, of where we will be at a certain time.
Look at some of the things that are basically unpatentable now due to them being pre-written about:
microwaves
waterbeds
heated floors
UV sterilizers for rooms when people arent in them.
(thanks RAH!)
Seems to me from the review, that he is more interested in attacking the politics of the authors than he is in wondering about "science fiction" itself.
I wonder what his take on Ellison is, the man who announced (after recieving several awards) that he was "no longer a sci-fi writer, but was a fantasy writer now, as there was no money left in sci-fi". (or so niven said, in "playgrounds of the mind") If ever there was a political mover and shaker, or one who tried to mold the genre to fit his personal views, it is Ellison. (and Bradbury to a lesser extent).
That has a lot less to do with "fiction" than it does with what the Author felt at the time.
Heinlein, himself, in the blurbs in his anthologies, explained a lot of his viewpoint changes and why they happened. Niven and Pournelle also have a tendency to do this. I do not need a reviewer telling me what they did, when I can read in the authors own words why their opinions and feelings changed.
Heinlein, as an example, was in the military. After watching a war, his attitudes changed. he also began writing on a lark, not for any great cause.. as a supplement for his money.. and you have to remember.. this man wrote for over half a century.. there is a *lot* of sociological change that goes on in that period, leading him to go from anti-nuke (mistakes happen) anti war (starship troopers) to group love (number of the beast) and multiple wives (lazarus long). His opinions changed a *lot* around the first heart surgery he had, possibly him coming to grips with his own mortality, and suddenly realizing there are other things in life to worry about. (though I could have done with a lot less of horny old maureen in the later books, and more with some of the other characters).
I will have to read this book, and see what is up!
first off, you gotta love Ballmer rating unix as a "phenomenon".. that sets the tone right there.. link the worlds oldest and most solid family of OS with the "new young upstart" Linux, and you immediately make people forget it is what the industry was built on.
Second, several posts have mentioned "its not about the money" but yes, it is, really. unfortunately, to a lot of potential purchasers, business model is *far* more important that functionality. Am I going to buy a couple of hundred thousand dollars worth of software and support from a company that says "its not about the money"? no.. because A) they probably wont be around long (business model projections like those in the article) and B) why bother, when MS will be here forever?
Unfortunately, thats how the people see it. "we save money" is far more important than "we get good stuff at a good value". Ask any company who has gone from HP to Lexmark. or from one tecnical service provider to another one provided by a certain 3 letter company. Saving money is *not* always the best thing on the front end. (you can get screwed down the road.. especially when you are dealing with purchasing, or support contracts)
Really? That explains the domination of Unix-based server's on the Internet then eh?
I really shouldnt reply to this, but dude.. that was *sarcasm*. Microsoft are the ones that keep claiming 85% of the server market, when we *know* damn well that aint true!
**but what's next? i sure haven't seen anything REMOTELY as easy to use as Napster.. i'm not saying Gnutella or OpenNap are terrible for Slashdot readers, but the vast majority of Napster's customers are casual-to-moderate computer users who would never put up with the idiosynchracies of gnutella and its ilk**
I gave up on all that crap long ago.. I do AGSattelite now..
I like it.. both the Windows and Linux versions work well, (linux with minimal tweakage) and I get tons of songs much faster than with Napster.
Try it out.. its pretty nice.. and I have found the usual 5 second songs, and crap, and mistitled artists/songs, but its still pretty good, with a *huge* genra sweep.
1) The fact that it is *slooooow*.. (which is sort of to be expected, it attempting to be all things to all people, not an easy task)
2) MicroSoft kind of fuxored it *and* them up long enough to pretty much kill it at birth, thereby damaging it irreparably. (and yeah, they *just* settled on that one, but I suspect the blow to Java was swift, and fierce, and even a lingering death wont help it).
So.. what does MS need to do to make its app better?
1) make it (as they make everything) MScentric.. cause well, if you dont use MS, you are just a fringe nerd anyway, and your OS will be gone soon enough.
2) Not destroy it (or let it be destroyed) in the way that they have destroyed every decent piece of competition ever.
Seems to me this is a no-brainer for them. after all, MS is the only company in the world that can release nearly unuseable apps and get rave reviews for it.
I dont know how many people know or care about this, but a memorial was erected to the people killed in the accident down at NASA.
This memorial consisted of a mirror, that tracks the sun while it is in the sky.
The motor has broken on the sun mirror, and NASA has announced they plan to *not* fix it due to the cost of it, and how much that money is needed elsewhere.
Just thought ya'll might like to know that.. and maybe some people would want to do something about it. I have no links, and I wouldnt know the first person to contribute to to get this working again, but I personally think it is a sad state of affairs when 7 people who die for the attempted betterment of mankind are basically blown off 15 years later.
>>Who really cares about someone's grammar? If it's a good point, it's a good point. Don't knock someone's argument just because their grammar is sub-par. Find somewhere else to be nit-picky and petty.
I do. I care because words mean things, pal. If you cannot use the language correctly, then you probably do not mean what you are saying.
BTW, "poindexter", Voltaire didnt say that, SG Tallentyre did.. look it up.
heh.. lemme start by pointing out your own proofreading in response to my capitalization and punctuation. *grin*
Yes.. you have a point.. but my point was not to make english the dominant or only language.. but that one should come out of an american high-school with the ability to speak and work it fluently. It is, after all, the primary language of this country. (In other words, we are graduating people who speak fluent french or spanish, but who cannot write fluently in english.. this is a travesty!)
Hearing a public speaker in a high position say "I want to axe you a question" makes me cringe. Hearing a person doing a radio commercial say "right off the back" or "get down to brass taxes" (both of which I have heard locally) annoys me greatly.
High-school education exists to give you a basis for all future education you choose to pursue, or just enough to get by should you not decide to pursue it. Having that foundation flawed and cracked is a serious problem.
My point was not to set English up as the only language here, but to set it up as the one that is predominately used here, therefore the one the most attention should be paid to.
I speak well, and write well when I want to. I automatically mark somone down when I see them speaking publically and see common grammatical errors, misused words, an flat out mistakes. Yes, the cue card said "potatoe" but ya know what? I would have caught, or at least questioned that.. because I *do* know how to spell potato.
***It's tough to imagine a more urgent moral issue than the fate of children without access to computers or the Net, since their educational, economic, cultural and social lives will be directly affected**
Au contraire, mon frer! Listen Katz.. at *least* half of the common readers/editors of slashdot (I I would surmise) gre up without access to computers or the net. So why in the hell isnt the world in chaos, and why are we here, instead of in jail or running amok in the streets, killing lousy journalists who exist only to stick buzzwords into hard to swallow "secret studies"?
You *DONT* need a computer to learn.. you need to learn, in school, Math, Science, ENGLISH (yes, its america, ENGLISH) and history. Sports if you want, etc etc.. but those are foundational.
You dont learn them, you can forget College, where you *get* a nifty computer, and a nifty internet connection, once you are old enough and trustworthy enough to *USE* them right.
yeah.. I'm gonna get flamed.. but thats my opinion.
My 8 year old son has a P1 laptop. He has no internet access. he will not *GET* internet access. The last thing I want is him on the web at 8 years old. He has magic schoolbus, and a host of learning software.. and yeah, I suppose its unfair that his dad cobbled together this equipment for him.. but guess what? Welcome to america.. I work my butt off for a living so he can *have* things like this. Will it give him a head start? yes. Do I care that this disenfranchises inner city youth? not a bit.
Sorry dude.. computers in lower level education are *not* a requisite.. typing class is. but surfing class isnt.
1) streamline it.. i dont want to click through a million and a half checkboxes and free emails and popup banners to get to where I am trying to go. Try having the wigs that come up with your web concept actually *use* the sucker a few times before releasing it.
2) KISS.. not everyone on the net is a techno-genius..
3) Be realistic in your claims.
4) Have some kind of content review, so that people who go there can have other things removed if they dont like them. I am not advocating "censorship" per se.. but I am advocating that I am not going to hang out on an online community that has five health rooms, and a white power room right next to it. No-one is saying you cant say waht you want, just not *here*
5) Take some responsibility for your hosting/setup.
I used to hang out in an EFNET channel that was the closest thing I have ever seen to a "virtual community".. we had births, we had deaths, we had marriages (mine among them) between regulars.. it was *wonderful*.. parties, etc.. but the line got blurred when some people let the power get to their heads..
6) make it available to people who want to have *fun*.. if you have moderators, give them guidelines, put pick people with a good sense of humor.. not people who will remove you because they dont like your nick, your religious choice, or your jokes.. (within reason.. see # 4)
Thats my recipe.. can anyone implement it? In todays day of litigation and corporate fear of the former, probably not.
easy! Simply call in the football team. Every time they practice. Every time they get out of classes early. Every time there is a pep rally. Simply call up the toll-free number. Say that there are people in your school who are obsessed with violence. Say there is a club meeting quietly during school hours, where everyone involved slips out of class, and they meet to plot how to hurt other students. Vaguely reference the Pep rally.. in that it is an involuntary gathering where you are forced to cheer the vulgar and violent actions of a few in your school who "dont really fit in".
Flood them with enough calls like this, it will die. And dont think for a moment a school is going to put up with *anything* that threatens their pretty little sports programs.. the band has to pay for their uniforms and instruments, but I dont see the football players buying the new stadiums.
This is simple folks.. use their own system against them.
Want to stop violence in school? Stop teachign the biggest, dumbest idiots *IN* the school that might makes right, and that crushing those who oppose them on the scrimmage field is a suitable application of power, and is okay!
you arent actually "looking around in the wrong places".. decoding of radio-signals has found quasars, and some other anomalies in space.. not *everything* has to be about BEM's does it?
I know this is not a purely technological question, but as you deal with the FCC, how do you feel about the almost purely arbitrary application of "community standards" to judge content of films, TV, and radio? (IE: Howard Stern can get away with something that other broadcasters cannot, or vice versa, due to the media watch-dogging of Mr Stern.) And do you feel that that application can be applied to the Internet (or will it) in that something residing on a server in the Barbados can be criminal content for someone in Salt Lake City versus someone in New York City, where "community standards" say that is legal?
IANAL, but I suspect you are mistaken on that first one.. I think once it leaves the hands of the post office, and leaves the box legally, (IE the recipient takes it indoors) it loses the "post office property" sanctity. (Otherwise, you couldnt rip up junk mail, could you?)
As far as that "municipal property" bit.. yes, in the case of recyclables.. but no, in *most* (not all) places in reference to curbside garbage.
"most" municipalities do not have municipal garbage anymore either...most of them are large contracts with private firms who pick up garbage, and charge the municipality with pickup. (and believe me, I would suspect they would *rather* you reuse than toss.. it saves them money in landfill and transportation fees).
Maeryk
You are mistaken. At such time, in *most* places, you put something in the garbage, it becomes the property of anyone willing to rummage through it.
I know where I live, once it goes out, anyone can grab it. (I almost got shot once trying to explain this to a dude who threw out a repairable gas grill, yet once I started to haul it off, threatened that either A) I pay him for it, or B) he call the cops. I said call em.. once it is out on the curb with other garbage intended for pickup, it is fair game.)
As far as the envelope with someone elses name on it.. I believe that falls under the same rules. Once it leaves the mailbox and is recieved by the recipient, it is out of the care of the US mail and is a piece of paper.
Go ask some of the celebrities whose trash is picked daily by the tabloids. If it were a felony and punishable, why are they still in business?
Slashdot Mirror
You seem to be assuming that anyone with knowledge of the situation will automatically agree with you, and hence concluding that therefore the politicians and judges you don't agree with are therefore ignorant. Thats a very large assumption, although I suppose its marginally better than the similar logic which declares that they must be corrupt instead.
I was more going on the transcripts I read and the reports I had read of some of the goings-on in courts when these things were being decided. THe characterizations of some of these judges who heard the cases seemed to me that they wouldnt know a computer if it fell on them. I just dont think that is a competent review board to decide something as landmark as these decisions. Not all judges are clueless, obviously, but not all of them fully understand what they are deciding either.. law of averages.
M
They aren't spraying DDT to kill West Nile. It's malathion, IIRC, which is not harmful to birds. Or, at worst, is less harmful to birds than West Nile.
I said the "new stuff" they are spraying. I didnt say it was DDT. My concern is that Malathion turns out in 20 years to be far worse than DDT ever was. I have no faith whatsoever in a 2 year controlled test that says "well, its safe enough" when we have a lot of evidence to prove that in the last five times it was "safe enough" it wasnt. (Dioxins, DDT, Asbestos, Fiberglass, Carbon Tet, etc)
You seem to be complaining that companies own the products that we are producing for them and for which we are paid.
Actually, I'm more complaining that a company makes billions of dollars of of one employees hard work and inspiration, and that employee doesnt see squat. Or that in this day and age of code, it becomes a lot more blurred. When does plagiarism occur? When one line matches another? In these new days of coding, what is the likelihood that someone somewhere will get sued because their line of code (standard) matches someone elses line of code (standard) which existed first?
Maeryk
How a someone who clearly doesn't see human life as more valued and cherished than bird life got moderated to a 5, I can't fathom
First off, dont put words in my mouth. Never did I say human life was less important than a birds life. However, I think you will find that without birds (plural) Humans wont be around all that long. Ecologically there is an *extremely* delicate balance we are dealing with here.. and we keep messing with it hard. THe Earth is a huge
ecological entity, and much like your body generating a fever to rid itself of disease, so can "nature" rid itself of parasites.. and in the words of Pogo.. 'i have seen the enemy.. and they is us".
Now.. my *main* point, (which I guess you missed) is that 5 lives is nothing. Medical Malpractice kills many more people a year. Tylenol kills many more people a year. And they do nothing (or very little) about it. Those are acceptable losses in the multi-billion industry that medicine has become.
This ties into my statements about corporate lawyers versus true innovators. Do you really think the RIAA, MPAA, or Microsoft give a rats ass about this tiny little group here on SlashDot? No.. they could care less. THey know that even if every one of us gets every one of our friends to clearly not-support them, or even to boycott their products, it wont amount to a hill of beans, because joe sixpack will A) not care, and B) want to see The Perfect Storm in Dolby at his house.
Acceptable losses.
Maeryk
-- DDT is now banned for most uses in the U.S., and the book had great effect in raising environmental awareness, but overall, environmental quality has continued to suffer. Lessig's book is not likely to be as successful. Attacking DDT was relatively easy compared to attacking the unlimited expansion of intellectual property, which has many multi-billion dollar companies willing to fight to defend their continued erosion of the public commons.
Well, yeah, Silent Spring *did* raise the problem of DDT and it's gone now. But there had to be *something* to fill in those gaps. Now they are spraying for West Nile Virus mosquitoes up here in the Northeast US and doing far more damage with the pesticides than they are helping. After all, WNV has killed what.. three? five? people. Is it really worth destroying generations of birds and their offspring to save five lives? How many millions die of malpractice?
But back to the topic at hand.. until we get judges who know computers are better for something than product placement in televised courtrooms, or understand something about intellectual copyright itself, there wont be a change. If you dont think that large companies are stealing ideas left right and center, well, wake up. 3m bought the idea for post-it notes for like, 1.99 from the guy who came up with it, due to contractual obligations that almost all of us sign. If you develop code, and use your work computer for even one line of said code, it probably falls under your blanket contract that says your company now owns it, and owns j00 as well.
Until laws like that get challenged, and beaten, companies squelching free development, or the furthering of technology outside their-own pockets are going to continue to be the status quo.
What is the solution? I dont pretend to know.. but getting more technologically savvy people into the courts in judge, jury, and lawyer roles could be a start. Face it, M$ is going to send in the best 10 lawyers they can find, and what does a Mitnick get? Whatever the PD's office can spare.
Maeryk
Which doesn't make much difference, because the engine's waste-heat output doesn't change nearly as fast with throttle opening as the crankshaft output does. Even at idle (zero power) you are still burning fuel and still pumping heat out the exhaust pipe. If you can force that waste heat to do some work for you instead of just being diluted to uselessness in the atmosphere, you've accomplished something.
What I was thinking was not of straight exhaust.. but of somehow mining the catalytic converter. That uses Platinum, among other things, to burn unburnt fuel gases and force co into co2.. and attains some pretty high temperatures while it is at it. Straight exhaust wont even give you the heat you need, I think, to do what this "promises". but strap one to the catalytic.. and you might just get what you need.
(Course, I always wanted to strap some fin tube to the catalytic to jumpstart the heater on those cold mornings..)
maeryk
*Why are we just looking around? We have the technology! Let's at least go to Mars. Consider that eventually Earth will die. Sooner or later we must be prepared to go somewhere else. I think we should start now.*
Firsters: The earth will die in a billion years or so.. dont start picking out gravesites yet. We have a far far better chance of being killed off by ourselves, or by the Earth, the great macro-organism that it is finally rearing up and removing us as the parasites we are, than lasting until the sun does its "puff up! puff up! THEY HATE THAT!" move.
2) Umm.. mars.. yeah.. we managed to drop a probe through an ice shelf (maybe) and lose it. You really wanna be on the first lander down? Can you think of anyone who *does* want to be on the first lander down?
3) The solution may lie more in science fiction than science fact. Generation ships, ringworlds, or wheels.. that will probably happen long before "terra" forming and habitation of other planets.
(This is assuming the Aliens dont show up with "boobs, beers, or buns, no-one rides for free" stickers on their ships and invite us out for a quick joyride.)
Realistically tho: We have a *hell* of a lot more research and development and scientific knowhow to work through before we are ready to ship people to Mars. Even the fact that we routinely put stuff in orbit is less due to the scientific ability than to the fact that things seem to *not* go cataclysmically wrong very often.
(Not dishign on Nasa.. they are at the very top of my "respected" list.. but its a pure miracle we even got our guys off the moon in the first place!)
maeryk
In the later books, after Jubal et-al was on Ishtar's planet, (the grand unification books.. umm.. number of the beast, cat who walks through walls, sail beyond the sunset,(which was basically Maureen being a round-heel), Dorcas was a hologram.. because they described her emerging from the pool, or appearing behind jubal when he would yell 'FRONT".
At least, that was my impression.. remember she would appear wearing the white robe?
Maeryk
Heinlein had a lot of writing based on things that did not yet occur.
Waterbeds. Microwaves. Radiant heating in a real world *modern* solution. Rooms being bathed in germ-killing light (UV) while people are not in them. Sensors in doors/rooms to tell when people were there and how they preferred the room. Disposable "sheets" on beds. (like a doctors table with the rip-off paper.. not sure if he was first or not). Wash off clothing.. this exists now too.. Saw it in a fashion show.. i know he was using that with Laz and Lor on the Dora in the Lazarus Long books. (when they wore anything at all).
Dictation to a computer.. (Dorcas, who dictated for Jubal.. which is only the true development of free-standing holograms away).
Umm.. more.. grass growing indoors. (carpets of grass.. it has since been done.)
he did a lot with ram-drivers, like the old mass induction coil up the side of the Andes, but so did other people.
Niven and Pournelle were deep into spaceships.. but Heinlein was the first to come up with the "generation ship" (Orphans of the Sky), as well as Exoskeletal Power Suits (umm.. a couple of books and innumerable short stories.)
Nuclear reactors.. I dont think he came up with them, but I know he did a lot to project where they would be now.
Maeryk.
(Dont even get me started on Asimov and Dick)
**What was, I think, pioneered in the US was science fiction as a genre. That formed around Doc Smith, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Amazing Stories and the like. Someone correct me if I'm wrong...**
.02
You are right. You mised Gardner, L Sprague De Camp, (dead on on the Lensman).
I also credit (believe it or not) Dixon with "the hardy boys" and the fellow who wrote the Tom Swift stuff. People who read this as children went on to read more mind-opening question asking fiction as they got older.. Conan, Pellucidar, ERB's Lost World, etc. This led in time to the other "antique" authors who were churning stuff out heavily in the range of the 1950's, when the boom *really* started to kickoff.
I still dont consider Bradbury to be Science Fiction.. he pretty much takes history and rewrites it into the future, AFAIC, which isnt much of a stretch. One I keep *not* seeing mentioned, is Anthony Burgess.. who tended to play with a bizarre and not-so distant future, based on trends obvious in the present.
Just my
Maeryk
I will be curious to read this and see what he has to say about HG Wells. As far as "science fiction" is concerned, I have always thought it to be a reasonable projection, based on current technology, of where we will be at a certain time.
Look at some of the things that are basically unpatentable now due to them being pre-written about:
microwaves
waterbeds
heated floors
UV sterilizers for rooms when people arent in them.
(thanks RAH!)
Seems to me from the review, that he is more interested in attacking the politics of the authors than he is in wondering about "science fiction" itself.
I wonder what his take on Ellison is, the man who announced (after recieving several awards) that he was "no longer a sci-fi writer, but was a fantasy writer now, as there was no money left in sci-fi". (or so niven said, in "playgrounds of the mind") If ever there was a political mover and shaker, or one who tried to mold the genre to fit his personal views, it is Ellison. (and Bradbury to a lesser extent).
That has a lot less to do with "fiction" than it does with what the Author felt at the time.
Heinlein, himself, in the blurbs in his anthologies, explained a lot of his viewpoint changes and why they happened. Niven and Pournelle also have a tendency to do this. I do not need a reviewer telling me what they did, when I can read in the authors own words why their opinions and feelings changed.
Heinlein, as an example, was in the military. After watching a war, his attitudes changed. he also began writing on a lark, not for any great cause.. as a supplement for his money.. and you have to remember.. this man wrote for over half a century.. there is a *lot* of sociological change that goes on in that period, leading him to go from anti-nuke (mistakes happen) anti war (starship troopers) to group love (number of the beast) and multiple wives (lazarus long). His opinions changed a *lot* around the first heart surgery he had, possibly him coming to grips with his own mortality, and suddenly realizing there are other things in life to worry about. (though I could have done with a lot less of horny old maureen in the later books, and more with some of the other characters).
I will have to read this book, and see what is up!
Maeryk
first off, you gotta love Ballmer rating unix as a "phenomenon".. that sets the tone right there.. link the worlds oldest and most solid family of OS with the "new young upstart" Linux, and you immediately make people forget it is what the industry was built on.
.02
Second, several posts have mentioned "its not about the money" but yes, it is, really. unfortunately, to a lot of potential purchasers, business model is *far* more important that functionality. Am I going to buy a couple of hundred thousand dollars worth of software and support from a company that says "its not about the money"? no.. because A) they probably wont be around long (business model projections like those in the article) and B) why bother, when MS will be here forever?
Unfortunately, thats how the people see it. "we save money" is far more important than "we get good stuff at a good value". Ask any company who has gone from HP to Lexmark. or from one tecnical service provider to another one provided by a certain 3 letter company. Saving money is *not* always the best thing on the front end. (you can get screwed down the road.. especially when you are dealing with purchasing, or support contracts)
Just my
Maeryk
Really? That explains the domination of Unix-based server's on the Internet then eh?
I really shouldnt reply to this, but dude.. that was *sarcasm*. Microsoft are the ones that keep claiming 85% of the server market, when we *know* damn well that aint true!
sheesh.
Maeryk
**but what's next? i sure haven't seen anything REMOTELY as easy to use as Napster .. i'm not saying Gnutella or OpenNap are terrible for Slashdot readers, but the vast majority of Napster's customers are casual-to-moderate computer users who would never put up with the idiosynchracies of gnutella and its ilk**
I gave up on all that crap long ago.. I do AGSattelite now..
I like it.. both the Windows and Linux versions work well, (linux with minimal tweakage) and I get tons of songs much faster than with Napster.
Try it out.. its pretty nice.. and I have found the usual 5 second songs, and crap, and mistitled artists/songs, but its still pretty good, with a *huge* genra sweep.
www.audiogalaxy.com
Maeryk
Isnt the main problem behind Java twofold?
.02
1) The fact that it is *slooooow*.. (which is sort of to be expected, it attempting to be all things to all people, not an easy task)
2) MicroSoft kind of fuxored it *and* them up long enough to pretty much kill it at birth, thereby damaging it irreparably. (and yeah, they *just* settled on that one, but I suspect the blow to Java was swift, and fierce, and even a lingering death wont help it).
So.. what does MS need to do to make its app better?
1) make it (as they make everything) MScentric.. cause well, if you dont use MS, you are just a fringe nerd anyway, and your OS will be gone soon enough.
2) Not destroy it (or let it be destroyed) in the way that they have destroyed every decent piece of competition ever.
Seems to me this is a no-brainer for them. after all, MS is the only company in the world that can release nearly unuseable apps and get rave reviews for it.
Just my
Maeryk
I dont know how many people know or care about this, but a memorial was erected to the people killed in the accident down at NASA.
This memorial consisted of a mirror, that tracks the sun while it is in the sky.
The motor has broken on the sun mirror, and NASA has announced they plan to *not* fix it due to the cost of it, and how much that money is needed elsewhere.
Just thought ya'll might like to know that.. and maybe some people would want to do something about it. I have no links, and I wouldnt know the first person to contribute to to get this working again, but I personally think it is a sad state of affairs when 7 people who die for the attempted betterment of mankind are basically blown off 15 years later.
Maeryk
>>Who really cares about someone's grammar? If it's a good point, it's a good point. Don't knock someone's argument just because their grammar is sub-par. Find somewhere else to be nit-picky and petty.
I do. I care because words mean things, pal. If you cannot use the language correctly, then you probably do not mean what you are saying.
BTW, "poindexter", Voltaire didnt say that, SG Tallentyre did.. look it up.
Maeryk
The truly scary part to *me* is that they *DID* grant a patent to two people from Arlington VA for a "method to exercise a cat" using a laser pointer.
Which brings me to my next question.. if they can patent an action, can I patent masturbation? Think of the money maker there!
Maeryk
heh.. lemme start by pointing out your own proofreading in response to my capitalization and punctuation. *grin*
Yes.. you have a point.. but my point was not to make english the dominant or only language.. but that one should come out of an american high-school with the ability to speak and work it fluently. It is, after all, the primary language of this country. (In other words, we are graduating people who speak fluent french or spanish, but who cannot write fluently in english.. this is a travesty!)
Hearing a public speaker in a high position say "I want to axe you a question" makes me cringe. Hearing a person doing a radio commercial say "right off the back" or "get down to brass taxes" (both of which I have heard locally) annoys me greatly.
High-school education exists to give you a basis for all future education you choose to pursue, or just enough to get by should you not decide to pursue it. Having that foundation flawed and cracked is a serious problem.
My point was not to set English up as the only language here, but to set it up as the one that is predominately used here, therefore the one the most attention should be paid to.
I speak well, and write well when I want to. I automatically mark somone down when I see them speaking publically and see common grammatical errors, misused words, an flat out mistakes. Yes, the cue card said "potatoe" but ya know what? I would have caught, or at least questioned that.. because I *do* know how to spell potato.
Maeryk
***It's tough to imagine a more urgent moral issue than the fate of children without access to computers or the Net, since their educational, economic, cultural and social lives will be directly affected**
Au contraire, mon frer! Listen Katz.. at *least* half of the common readers/editors of slashdot (I I would surmise) gre up without access to computers or the net. So why in the hell isnt the world in chaos, and why are we here, instead of in jail or running amok in the streets, killing lousy journalists who exist only to stick buzzwords into hard to swallow "secret studies"?
You *DONT* need a computer to learn.. you need to learn, in school, Math, Science, ENGLISH (yes, its america, ENGLISH) and history. Sports if you want, etc etc.. but those are foundational.
You dont learn them, you can forget College, where you *get* a nifty computer, and a nifty internet connection, once you are old enough and trustworthy enough to *USE* them right.
yeah.. I'm gonna get flamed.. but thats my opinion.
My 8 year old son has a P1 laptop. He has no internet access. he will not *GET* internet access. The last thing I want is him on the web at 8 years old. He has magic schoolbus, and a host of learning software.. and yeah, I suppose its unfair that his dad cobbled together this equipment for him.. but guess what? Welcome to america.. I work my butt off for a living so he can *have* things like this. Will it give him a head start? yes. Do I care that this disenfranchises inner city youth? not a bit.
Sorry dude.. computers in lower level education are *not* a requisite.. typing class is. but surfing class isnt.
Maeryk
1) streamline it.. i dont want to click through a million and a half checkboxes and free emails and popup banners to get to where I am trying to go. Try having the wigs that come up with your web concept actually *use* the sucker a few times before releasing it.
2) KISS.. not everyone on the net is a techno-genius..
3) Be realistic in your claims.
4) Have some kind of content review, so that people who go there can have other things removed if they dont like them. I am not advocating "censorship" per se.. but I am advocating that I am not going to hang out on an online community that has five health rooms, and a white power room right next to it. No-one is saying you cant say waht you want, just not *here*
5) Take some responsibility for your hosting/setup.
I used to hang out in an EFNET channel that was the closest thing I have ever seen to a "virtual community".. we had births, we had deaths, we had marriages (mine among them) between regulars.. it was *wonderful*.. parties, etc.. but the line got blurred when some people let the power get to their heads..
6) make it available to people who want to have *fun*.. if you have moderators, give them guidelines, put pick people with a good sense of humor.. not people who will remove you because they dont like your nick, your religious choice, or your jokes.. (within reason.. see # 4)
Thats my recipe.. can anyone implement it? In todays day of litigation and corporate fear of the former, probably not.
Maeryk
easy! Simply call in the football team. Every time they practice. Every time they get out of classes early. Every time there is a pep rally. Simply call up the toll-free number. Say that there are people in your school who are obsessed with violence. Say there is a club meeting quietly during school hours, where everyone involved slips out of class, and they meet to plot how to hurt other students. Vaguely reference the Pep rally.. in that it is an involuntary gathering where you are forced to cheer the vulgar and violent actions of a few in your school who "dont really fit in".
Flood them with enough calls like this, it will die. And dont think for a moment a school is going to put up with *anything* that threatens their pretty little sports programs.. the band has to pay for their uniforms and instruments, but I dont see the football players buying the new stadiums.
This is simple folks.. use their own system against them.
Want to stop violence in school? Stop teachign the biggest, dumbest idiots *IN* the school that might makes right, and that crushing those who oppose them on the scrimmage field is a suitable application of power, and is okay!
maeryk
you arent actually "looking around in the wrong places".. decoding of radio-signals has found quasars, and some other anomalies in space.. not *everything* has to be about BEM's does it?
Maeryk
I know this is not a purely technological question, but as you deal with the FCC, how do you feel about the almost purely arbitrary application of "community standards" to judge content of films, TV, and radio? (IE: Howard Stern can get away with something that other broadcasters cannot, or vice versa, due to the media watch-dogging of Mr Stern.) And do you feel that that application can be applied to the Internet (or will it) in that something residing on a server in the Barbados can be criminal content for someone in Salt Lake City versus someone in New York City, where "community standards" say that is legal?
Thank you.
Maeryk
IANAL, but I suspect you are mistaken on that first one.. I think once it leaves the hands of the post office, and leaves the box legally, (IE the recipient takes it indoors) it loses the "post office property" sanctity. (Otherwise, you couldnt rip up junk mail, could you?) As far as that "municipal property" bit.. yes, in the case of recyclables.. but no, in *most* (not all) places in reference to curbside garbage. "most" municipalities do not have municipal garbage anymore either...most of them are large contracts with private firms who pick up garbage, and charge the municipality with pickup. (and believe me, I would suspect they would *rather* you reuse than toss.. it saves them money in landfill and transportation fees). Maeryk
You are mistaken. At such time, in *most* places, you put something in the garbage, it becomes the property of anyone willing to rummage through it.
I know where I live, once it goes out, anyone can grab it. (I almost got shot once trying to explain this to a dude who threw out a repairable gas grill, yet once I started to haul it off, threatened that either A) I pay him for it, or B) he call the cops. I said call em.. once it is out on the curb with other garbage intended for pickup, it is fair game.)
As far as the envelope with someone elses name on it.. I believe that falls under the same rules. Once it leaves the mailbox and is recieved by the recipient, it is out of the care of the US mail and is a piece of paper.
Go ask some of the celebrities whose trash is picked daily by the tabloids. If it were a felony and punishable, why are they still in business?
Maeryk