Asimov's three laws have been dead meat since the day the first cruise missile was launched.
Someone decided back then that autonomous, mobile machines that kill people are a good idea. Laws? What laws?
There is more to this than simply scanning a flat image. The emulsion on these plates is a three dimensional medium, and different data can be extracted depending on your focal depth into the the emulsion. I believe David Malin did much pioneering work on this kind of thing, including the use of different layers for unsharp masking.
There will be information in the plates that is not yet part of human knowledge, and a simple scan of one focal plane is not going to get it all.
Certainly it is worth taking backup images of these plates in any way we know how, but we should remain aware that, as of today, no technology exists that will make exact duplicates of them, so great care should always be taken to preserve the originals.
Rats - dunno. Mice, definitely yes. Several years ago cancers were induced in laboratory mice using pulsed radiation of the form emitted by GSM digital cell phones.
There were at least 30 clearly identified military targets in Hiroshima at the time the bomb was dropped.
Japan was the aggressor. America would have been justified in using these bombs if they saved the life of ONE American soldier. As it happens, they probably saved the lives of four million Japanese by forcing a surrender.
This is a great argument for tariffs and protectionism, but not for software patents.
If IBM, Microslop et al want to demand monopoly power by making threats against the people of Europe, then governments should ban their products from sale in Europe. Problem solved.
They need our money far more than we need their third-rate software.
>JavaScript Applications fullfill a design that was started nearly 20 years ago
I think you're missing his point. Stipulated that this is nothing to do with Internet infrastructure, he is still raising a valid issue.
The operative word that you missed was "dynamic". This means platforms such as J2EE where a huge mass of dynamically generated script and HTML must be downloaded for every transaction
Having the application at this level meant that only absolutely necessary data was transferred over the network.
That is true of java and javascript apps, but patently false with dynamically scripted apps. A J2EE application is likely to require you to download a megabyte of application code every time you update a five digit database field. It is an appalling bandwidth hog, and the fault is in the architecture, not the application.
The cause of this is the failure of industry to standardise on an effective generic application client, thus forcing people to use dumb web browsers as the default client.
Re:Then how is the production funded?
on
P2P and TV
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· Score: 1
And, P2P aside, if it were that easy, it would already have been done.
Sounds like "I told Orville, and I told Wilbur, and now I'm tellin YOU. That contraption will never work!"
yeah, but re-design those plans using modern technology, and maybe we'd only need 3 or 4 of them. get the point?
Maybe - but while the bureaucrats are spending twenty years screwing up that redesign project, lets have a space program that uses the economical and effective launchers that were proven 40 years ago.
I promise not to complain if the guidance modules use integrated circuits instead of vacuum tubes.
They're not going to be terribly useful: rocket-science has come a loooong way since the 70's
Those boosters could lift about four times as much payload as a shuttle, for a fraction of the cost per launch. I fail to see how you regard this as "not useful".
This must be some new definition of "useful" I have not previously encountered.
Build a few Saturns and we could probably finish the space station in ten launches instead of 28. The shuttle is a costly white elephant.
don't get me started on "20,000 leagues under the sea". That's the PERFECT example of mundane sci-fi.
BZZZT! Not a chance. Both "20,000 leagues" and "5 weeks in a balloon" relied on electrical storage batteries with the equivalent capacity of a portable fusion plant!
As a plot device this is no different from using a "hyperdrive" or whatever. It's a little piece of techno-magic, without which the story is impossible.
True skill in writing "hard" scifi comes with the ability to keep the techno-magic to an absolute minimum.
Slashdot Mirror
The fact the results from this story alone indicate radioactivity is up to 200x higher than living next to a nuclear plant that has not yet exploded.
FTFY
However, I do agree that there is no such thing as clean coal.
Someone should check it for ASCII codes. Somewhere in there it probably says "Help! I'm being held prisoner in a universe factory!". (kudos to XKCD)
Asimov's three laws have been dead meat since the day the first cruise missile was launched. Someone decided back then that autonomous, mobile machines that kill people are a good idea. Laws? What laws?
This is a fine statement of the Democratic Fallacy. No, Highrollr, the majority is not always right.
Shape me downloadin' speed, mate.
Shape me downloadin' speed.
I'll just grab the bandwidth I need, mate,
if you don't shape me downloadin' speed.
There is more to this than simply scanning a flat image. The emulsion on these plates is a three dimensional medium, and different data can be extracted depending on your focal depth into the the emulsion. I believe David Malin did much pioneering work on this kind of thing, including the use of different layers for unsharp masking.
There will be information in the plates that is not yet part of human knowledge, and a simple scan of one focal plane is not going to get it all.
Certainly it is worth taking backup images of these plates in any way we know how, but we should remain aware that, as of today, no technology exists that will make exact duplicates of them, so great care should always be taken to preserve the originals.
Rats - dunno. Mice, definitely yes. Several years ago cancers were induced in laboratory mice using pulsed radiation of the form emitted by GSM digital cell phones.
Buying the items is ALSO cheating, equally as much as using a 'bot, so these people should ALSO be banned.
Starting? They've been doing it for thousands of years. It's called religion, and you're right, it's very very sad.
Someone please mod parent up. This is the most insightful thing I have heard in this debate in a long time.
Japan was the aggressor. America would have been justified in using these bombs if they saved the life of ONE American soldier. As it happens, they probably saved the lives of four million Japanese by forcing a surrender.
This is a great argument for tariffs and protectionism, but not for software patents. If IBM, Microslop et al want to demand monopoly power by making threats against the people of Europe, then governments should ban their products from sale in Europe. Problem solved. They need our money far more than we need their third-rate software.
I think you're missing his point. Stipulated that this is nothing to do with Internet infrastructure, he is still raising a valid issue.
The operative word that you missed was "dynamic". This means platforms such as J2EE where a huge mass of dynamically generated script and HTML must be downloaded for every transaction
Having the application at this level meant that only absolutely necessary data was transferred over the network.
That is true of java and javascript apps, but patently false with dynamically scripted apps. A J2EE application is likely to require you to download a megabyte of application code every time you update a five digit database field. It is an appalling bandwidth hog, and the fault is in the architecture, not the application.
The cause of this is the failure of industry to standardise on an effective generic application client, thus forcing people to use dumb web browsers as the default client.
Sounds like "I told Orville, and I told Wilbur, and now I'm tellin YOU. That contraption will never work!"
This won't kill the industry. It will just hand it, nicely gift wrapped, to India and China.
and your point is ???
Maybe - but while the bureaucrats are spending twenty years screwing up that redesign project, lets have a space program that uses the economical and effective launchers that were proven 40 years ago.
I promise not to complain if the guidance modules use integrated circuits instead of vacuum tubes.
Those boosters could lift about four times as much payload as a shuttle, for a fraction of the cost per launch. I fail to see how you regard this as "not useful". This must be some new definition of "useful" I have not previously encountered. Build a few Saturns and we could probably finish the space station in ten launches instead of 28. The shuttle is a costly white elephant.
BZZZT! Not a chance. Both "20,000 leagues" and "5 weeks in a balloon" relied on electrical storage batteries with the equivalent capacity of a portable fusion plant! As a plot device this is no different from using a "hyperdrive" or whatever. It's a little piece of techno-magic, without which the story is impossible. True skill in writing "hard" scifi comes with the ability to keep the techno-magic to an absolute minimum.