Now, in addition to dealing with measuring voltages in the sub-millivolt range, buggy compilers, incompletely documented hardware and similar issues, I also need to consider cryptography.
We will have certainty about the existence or nonexistence of non-Earth-originated life a few million years after we build a working von-Neumann-probe.
The big issue is when you get to "1 cup of flour" or "1 cup of butter" - things that are much more easily measured by mass,
1 cup of flour is trivially measured by volume: Just grab the "1 cup" cup from your set of measuring cups, scoop up flour from your storage container, level. You're done. If you're using measuring cups, you can make a batch of cookie dough without using a scale or having to look at the actual measurement.
US recipes usually don't use "cups" of butter, they use "sticks" of butter. If you live where butter isn't sold in US sticks (113.4 grams), you're screwed.
On a mission like that, your might survive one major thing going wrong, but the second mishap will kill you. You can't duct-tape your way out of misfortune after misfortune in space.
See Apollo 13. One thing went wrong, and it took all the engineering and duct-taping skills (literally) to get the crew back alive.
Yes, MSX and possible the CPC6128 came close, but just that and they came too late. The killer 8-bit machine wouldn't have required any technology that wasn't available when the C64 came out.
In 1983, the 68k had been out for a few years already and new 8-bit computer designs were doomed.
There was a Z-80 in the C=128 , but it wasn't used.
Yes, I found this part of the article amusing too.
C128s were cobbled together from too many different parts. And they appeared when the 8-bit generation was already on its way out.
However, the C128 mode had its uses. The BASIC was had lots of additional features (commands for music, graphics, sprites), and it had a built-in sprite editor. If you didn't know the C64 inside out and could do these things in assembly (blindfolded), the C128 mode gave you much more access to the machines capabilites.
Too bad no company ever came up with a killer 8-bit machine. Z80 CPU, more than 64 kB RAM, sound and graphics like SID and VIC-II.
A living chemical system is organized to continually minimize local entropy.
Actually, it's not. If your body tried to minimize its entropy, you'd end up frozen or your body separated into its constituent atoms.
I guess you're trying to describe the concept of homeostasis, which is in fact part of the "official" definition of life. One thing living things do is use energy to keep their internal state constant even against outside influences. This is different from trying to minimize entropy.
That's how things get done: not with the stick, but that they legally offer a lot of carrots that states can't afford to turn down, and then attach strings to those carrots to get states to do things that Congress shouldn't have authority over.
I wonder how much extra tax money from alcohol sales a state could make if it lowered the drinking age to 18...
So you should phrase your answer in the form of cleverly devised SQL?
Possibly. Something like that might make for an interesting scene in a movie. Captured subject utters a seemingly nonsensical phrase and interrogation-bot suddenly turns on the captors. Ooops.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm still not convinced why you need a dozen computer-controlled boats with toys when you could just shot the presumed enemy vessel.
I've lost count of how many times HP split off/spun off parts of the company in the last 20 years ...
Now, in addition to dealing with measuring voltages in the sub-millivolt range, buggy compilers, incompletely documented hardware and similar issues, I also need to consider cryptography.
(white) sugar. Not brown sugar, which is stickier.
I asked the resident baked goods engineer at home, and she does indeed use the more correct version shown in the link.
Scooping ingredients directly from the container only works with fairly incompressible things like (white) or salt.
Let's see:
An exhaustive search is the only way to exclude the possibility of having overlooked something.
Of course, there are other sufficient conditions, like receiving the signal you mentioned.
We will have certainty about the existence or nonexistence of non-Earth-originated life a few million years after we build a working von-Neumann-probe.
Angels fail at least one of the criteria necessary for "life", and possibly all of them.
1 cup of flour is trivially measured by volume: Just grab the "1 cup" cup from your set of measuring cups, scoop up flour from your storage container, level. You're done. If you're using measuring cups, you can make a batch of cookie dough without using a scale or having to look at the actual measurement.
US recipes usually don't use "cups" of butter, they use "sticks" of butter. If you live where butter isn't sold in US sticks (113.4 grams), you're screwed.
Only if you're European. If you're from the US, 1 cup is a very exact volume.
Convenient, isn't it?
I never looked at it this way, but the argument is astonishingly convincing.
It's "death and taxes", not death (x)or taxes".
I would guess they will turn out more like battles between submarines. Whoever gets detected first loses. And one hit and you're dead.
On a mission like that, your might survive one major thing going wrong, but the second mishap will kill you. You can't duct-tape your way out of misfortune after misfortune in space.
See Apollo 13. One thing went wrong, and it took all the engineering and duct-taping skills (literally) to get the crew back alive.
However, even in case of catastrophe, it means that, what, six people die who signed up for this voluntarily and made history already?
In 1983, the 68k had been out for a few years already and new 8-bit computer designs were doomed.
Yes, I found this part of the article amusing too.
C128s were cobbled together from too many different parts. And they appeared when the 8-bit generation was already on its way out.
However, the C128 mode had its uses. The BASIC was had lots of additional features (commands for music, graphics, sprites), and it had a built-in sprite editor. If you didn't know the C64 inside out and could do these things in assembly (blindfolded), the C128 mode gave you much more access to the machines capabilites. Too bad no company ever came up with a killer 8-bit machine. Z80 CPU, more than 64 kB RAM, sound and graphics like SID and VIC-II.
Actually, it's not. If your body tried to minimize its entropy, you'd end up frozen or your body separated into its constituent atoms.
I guess you're trying to describe the concept of homeostasis, which is in fact part of the "official" definition of life. One thing living things do is use energy to keep their internal state constant even against outside influences. This is different from trying to minimize entropy.
Pretty much any element heavier than helium in our solar system pre-dates the sun. All of the oxygen in our solar system was produced by other stars.
I wonder how much extra tax money from alcohol sales a state could make if it lowered the drinking age to 18 ...
... before there was life?
Possibly. Something like that might make for an interesting scene in a movie. Captured subject utters a seemingly nonsensical phrase and interrogation-bot suddenly turns on the captors. Ooops.
He said something about wanting his Solex back.