Oh come on, we're talking about taking down blogs that call for the overthrow of the Chinese govt. This is a little different from aiding Nazis to build concentration camps. Do you think China is the only govt. that has censorship laws? If you do, you're wrong. Almost all countries censor kiddie porn for instance. Just because you don't like China's laws doesn't mean that companies that want to do business there shouldn't respect them. As I mentioned in my previous post, I don't like the laws either, but I still believe companies doing business there should respect local laws. It would be amoral to do otherwise. Sure companies have a responsability to act with a sense of morality. We saw what happened when they do not at Enron and Worldcom. That doesn't mean they have to lead the protest. China's laws are not democratic, but do we have to impose democracy on them? It's up to the people of China to demand rights. It's not up to American corporations. Believe it or not, there are people in China that believe that the Chinese govt. is ok. Some of them work at the same company as me. The best thing we can do is to continue to do business there. If we want to get all excited and start breaking the laws we will not be allowed to do business there. By doing business, the people of China work with Americans and see American values and have an improved economy. All of this will lead to more freedoms in a natural way. Protesting, by not complying to Chinese laws, will only make the situation worse.
People need to be reminded that the Chinese citizens supposedly have their free speech
Why is it Microsoft's job to do this? I think it would be better for the world if China was more democratic, but I just don't think it's corporations duty to do this. Corporations have a responsibility to their community, but that doesn't include breaking the law of foriegn lands. In China, there's a lot less restriction around using other people's intelectual property than in the US (dvd's cost about $1 for instance). Does that mean that Google should not respect the US laws like the DMCA because many Chinese (and Americans) don't like that law? No, I think Corporations have a duty to their shareholders to do business in foreign countries. They also have a duty to obey the law, even if they don't like it. It's not their job to overthrow Governments or even encourage citizens to do so. They should respect local customs and norms just as we would expect from foriegn companies doing business in the US. It's the job of the US state department to encourage democracy if that's the policy we want as a nation. Corporations should stay on the sidelines in this one.
Why not decouple the pleasure you get from eating and the nutrients you need to stay alive? Maybe it's not a big deal for you because you don't like eating Pizza and burgers very much, but for those of us who like it, it would be nice to just make these two things mutually exclusive. It's more likely than not that in the next few decades we'll have this capability. We may choose in the future to not have the food we eat stored as fat. We would get nutrients through some sort of supplimentation or other means. It's been shown that a diet of 50 - 70% of the standard amount of calories adds years to the lives of mice and it's believed that this form of caloric restriction would add years to our lives as well. The problem is that most people don't like living on 1000 - 1400 calories a day for long periods of time. What if we could completely decouple eating from being nourished? This would add years to many of our lives and allow us to enjoy the standard 2000 calorie diets we're used to. Or, if we want, we could even choose to eat 3500 calorie diets. Overeating might not appeal to you, but I would imagine eating 1000 calories a day for years probably seems pretty unbarable. However, it's been demonstrated to be one of the most effective things you can do to incrase longevity. Should we not research ways to decouple these two distinct functions so that we can experience the pleasure of food while having an optimum nutritional intake? I ask, why the heck not?
Remember earlier this month, we had this:
this.
I've even heard people rumor that Google will be building a Space Elevator. Where do these people come up with this stuff? Who knows, this one could be right, but there's still a lot of these out there.
eating fat when you eat a fat blocking drug tends to cause nasty oily diarrhea
Again, I'm not talking about what we can do NOW. How many times do I need to explain this on Slashdot? I know we don't have this technology today, but they are researching drugs that allow you to eat what you want and not cause oily diarrhea. Given that goal, wouldn't it make sense to continue research? Just imagine eating gourmet meals as much as you like and not having to exercise and still having a body like Usher. That is what they are trying to figure out.
Isn't that what they said about penicillin when it first came out? I mean working out is great and all but aren't there better things to do with our time if we come out with a way to do the exact same thing using some form of suplementation? I know we don't have the technology to do this today, but shouldn't we at least look into it? Or is the status quo ok with you?
But do you really think that between the last version of an OS that Microsoft released (ie. subject to viruses) and Vista, that they've suddenly designed an operating system which is safe from such stuff??
Security does not have to come in the form of virus protection as the post has implied. This is a common misconception. BSD is considered a very secure OS, but it's not because it has a lot of virus protection software.
Well, that is one cure. Researchers are discovering cures to new techniques to reduce obesity though without diet and exercise. One example are two drugs that are about to get FDA approval here.
Also, researchers are currently looking at drugs that modify genes to change metabolism. This would cause an obese person to digest food faster. This research is very promising and should be out in 5 years. It's a narrow view to think that the only solution to a problem is the one you know. Many people can't or don't want to cure obesity with diet and exercise.
Oh ok, yeah I guess creating a multibillion dollar auction house, a worldclass database, the most used search engine in the world, and a best selling OS are just specialized abilities as you've said. These executives wouldn't need "The ability to come up with a vision and integrate many abilities into a new combined ability that's more powerful than any individual ability." to do this stuff. And if you believe this, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.
Oh come on. According to your analogy, Steve Jobs is a human, and Larry Ellison is a Gorilla? Give me a break. Jobs is good, but he's not the best in my opinion. Even if you believe he's the best, you can't say that everyone else is monkey when compared to him.
If Microsoft tanked like apple did, do you think that Steve Balmer would be able to lead the company back to it's former glory, or do you think that Bill Gates will take the helm once more?
Not sure, the reason I mentioned Balmer is because his company makes the most money.
If I'm not mistaken, Bill still has a lot to do with Microsoft, so Balmer is effectively sharing the job of CEO.
Bill Gates is Chairman and Cheif Software architect, but yes he's the founder and very influential at MSFT
Well, Microsoft just reported 3 billion last quarter so there's one that's a LOT bigger. Exxon Mobile reported 10 billion last quarter. Apple isn't close.
Margaret Whitman's company (Ebay) is bigger
Larry Ellison (Oracle) has been around longer (without leaving the company at least)
Eric Schmidt's company (Google) gets an article on Slashdot every few hours
Steve Balmer's company (Microsoft) sells more Operating Systems
I guess to Jobs credit he founded a very successful company, then left and it tanked and came back and it became a great company again, but I just don't think that there's no question about him being number one as this article has implied.
Companys are entities just as governments are entities. Their purpose is a little different, but just as with governments, there are good ones and bad ones. You can think of the board of Directors as a parliment. They are approved by the shareholders (the people). The Directors apoint a CEO (the president or prime minister). The CEO then hires employees (his administration). So, in this view corporations are a lot like democratic countries. On the other hand, there are corporations where there is only one shareholder who is also the "CEO". In that company, it is not exactly a dictatorship, but everyone under the CEO is really part of the administration. I could go on....
I don't disagree with you. My point is: it's a start. It's better to allow access to this stuff for now. The alternative is Google shuts down it's search engine in China entirely. Which is better in your opinion?
This is on China's version of google. You will see the Wikipedia entry on democracy as the first search on the list which is a very interesting read. Now try a search on Tienemen sqaure masacre. You will not find the results you expect, so they are only censoring things that put the govt. in a bad light. They don't block out things like democracy.
Even though they are blocking out a lot of porn and anti chinese govt. sites, the Chinese people will get to see all the articles on democracy and many other things that will educate the citizens. Thus the good outweighs the bad by a long shot. In time, the Chinese citizens will demand more freedoms, but this is a big step in the right direction in my opinion.
The Ultrasparc T1 is not a high-end machine, it's a low end one designed to compete against cheap x86 machines, I think the main surprise for me is that it's not available in a blade form-factor.
Your refering to the Sun Fire T1 server. This is a low-end system because it has a single chip. They will be releasing high-end systems based on the UltraSparc T1 that have multiple chips. The Ultra Sparc T1 is most definitly NOT considered a low end chip. It's designed compete with the IBM Power 5 really.
Your logic is based around the concept that every task is highly parallel
No it's not. I was talking about webservers/app servers. In a webserver, it makes littler difference if one page is served out faster, but you want to have a lot of throughput. The T1 has much better total throughput.
Yes, you're right about this. The T1 can only do a single thread of floating point ops at a time. This is why it's being marketed to the web/ap server market which don't do many flops. Sun is working on a new chip code named Rock which will address these issues. If I remember correctly rock will support 8 floating point threads at a time. It will also have some really awsome I/O lookahead features that allow a special 'thread' to read thousands of instructions ahead and look for I/O that can be started early. What the T1 is going to do to the Webserver market, Rock will do to the high end number crunching market.
If you believe Moore's Law is the end of computing performance increases, yes this would pose a problem. Although, according to the roadmaps for the major chip manufacturers it's not going to happen for more than 10 years. But since Silicon is not the first substrate that we've continously increased computing performance with, I don't think it will be the last. Before we were improving performance with Silicon, we were using Vaccuum tubes. Before that, relays. If we use very conservative estimates for the power of Carbon Nanotubes, which are being researched extensively at many universities, we can extend the improvements in computing power out until 2060. I haven't even mentioned quantum computing.
Slashdot Mirror
There are many kinds of nerds ok? This is interesting to our anthropological nerd brethren. Nerds need to learn to respect each other.
Oh come on, we're talking about taking down blogs that call for the overthrow of the Chinese govt. This is a little different from aiding Nazis to build concentration camps. Do you think China is the only govt. that has censorship laws? If you do, you're wrong. Almost all countries censor kiddie porn for instance. Just because you don't like China's laws doesn't mean that companies that want to do business there shouldn't respect them. As I mentioned in my previous post, I don't like the laws either, but I still believe companies doing business there should respect local laws. It would be amoral to do otherwise. Sure companies have a responsability to act with a sense of morality. We saw what happened when they do not at Enron and Worldcom. That doesn't mean they have to lead the protest. China's laws are not democratic, but do we have to impose democracy on them? It's up to the people of China to demand rights. It's not up to American corporations. Believe it or not, there are people in China that believe that the Chinese govt. is ok. Some of them work at the same company as me. The best thing we can do is to continue to do business there. If we want to get all excited and start breaking the laws we will not be allowed to do business there. By doing business, the people of China work with Americans and see American values and have an improved economy. All of this will lead to more freedoms in a natural way. Protesting, by not complying to Chinese laws, will only make the situation worse.
People need to be reminded that the Chinese citizens supposedly have their free speech
Why is it Microsoft's job to do this? I think it would be better for the world if China was more democratic, but I just don't think it's corporations duty to do this. Corporations have a responsibility to their community, but that doesn't include breaking the law of foriegn lands. In China, there's a lot less restriction around using other people's intelectual property than in the US (dvd's cost about $1 for instance). Does that mean that Google should not respect the US laws like the DMCA because many Chinese (and Americans) don't like that law? No, I think Corporations have a duty to their shareholders to do business in foreign countries. They also have a duty to obey the law, even if they don't like it. It's not their job to overthrow Governments or even encourage citizens to do so. They should respect local customs and norms just as we would expect from foriegn companies doing business in the US. It's the job of the US state department to encourage democracy if that's the policy we want as a nation. Corporations should stay on the sidelines in this one.
Why not decouple the pleasure you get from eating and the nutrients you need to stay alive? Maybe it's not a big deal for you because you don't like eating Pizza and burgers very much, but for those of us who like it, it would be nice to just make these two things mutually exclusive. It's more likely than not that in the next few decades we'll have this capability. We may choose in the future to not have the food we eat stored as fat. We would get nutrients through some sort of supplimentation or other means. It's been shown that a diet of 50 - 70% of the standard amount of calories adds years to the lives of mice and it's believed that this form of caloric restriction would add years to our lives as well. The problem is that most people don't like living on 1000 - 1400 calories a day for long periods of time. What if we could completely decouple eating from being nourished? This would add years to many of our lives and allow us to enjoy the standard 2000 calorie diets we're used to. Or, if we want, we could even choose to eat 3500 calorie diets. Overeating might not appeal to you, but I would imagine eating 1000 calories a day for years probably seems pretty unbarable. However, it's been demonstrated to be one of the most effective things you can do to incrase longevity. Should we not research ways to decouple these two distinct functions so that we can experience the pleasure of food while having an optimum nutritional intake? I ask, why the heck not?
Except that a space evlevator would be cool!
Yup, I agree. It just doesn't exactly fit into anything Google's doing. Maybe it will Sergei Brin's 20% time personal project?
Remember earlier this month, we had this: this. I've even heard people rumor that Google will be building a Space Elevator. Where do these people come up with this stuff? Who knows, this one could be right, but there's still a lot of these out there.
eating fat when you eat a fat blocking drug tends to cause nasty oily diarrhea
Again, I'm not talking about what we can do NOW. How many times do I need to explain this on Slashdot? I know we don't have this technology today, but they are researching drugs that allow you to eat what you want and not cause oily diarrhea. Given that goal, wouldn't it make sense to continue research? Just imagine eating gourmet meals as much as you like and not having to exercise and still having a body like Usher. That is what they are trying to figure out.
Isn't that what they said about penicillin when it first came out? I mean working out is great and all but aren't there better things to do with our time if we come out with a way to do the exact same thing using some form of suplementation? I know we don't have the technology to do this today, but shouldn't we at least look into it? Or is the status quo ok with you?
But do you really think that between the last version of an OS that Microsoft released (ie. subject to viruses) and Vista, that they've suddenly designed an operating system which is safe from such stuff??
:)
I not and would not make such a claim!!!!!
Security does not have to come in the form of virus protection as the post has implied. This is a common misconception. BSD is considered a very secure OS, but it's not because it has a lot of virus protection software.
The cure to obesity is to eat and live healthier
Well, that is one cure. Researchers are discovering cures to new techniques to reduce obesity though without diet and exercise. One example are two drugs that are about to get FDA approval here. Also, researchers are currently looking at drugs that modify genes to change metabolism. This would cause an obese person to digest food faster. This research is very promising and should be out in 5 years. It's a narrow view to think that the only solution to a problem is the one you know. Many people can't or don't want to cure obesity with diet and exercise.
Oh ok, yeah I guess creating a multibillion dollar auction house, a worldclass database, the most used search engine in the world, and a best selling OS are just specialized abilities as you've said. These executives wouldn't need "The ability to come up with a vision and integrate many abilities into a new combined ability that's more powerful than any individual ability." to do this stuff. And if you believe this, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.
Oh come on. According to your analogy, Steve Jobs is a human, and Larry Ellison is a Gorilla? Give me a break. Jobs is good, but he's not the best in my opinion. Even if you believe he's the best, you can't say that everyone else is monkey when compared to him.
If Microsoft tanked like apple did, do you think that Steve Balmer would be able to lead the company back to it's former glory, or do you think that Bill Gates will take the helm once more?
Not sure, the reason I mentioned Balmer is because his company makes the most money.
If I'm not mistaken, Bill still has a lot to do with Microsoft, so Balmer is effectively sharing the job of CEO.
Bill Gates is Chairman and Cheif Software architect, but yes he's the founder and very influential at MSFT
Well, Microsoft just reported 3 billion last quarter so there's one that's a LOT bigger. Exxon Mobile reported 10 billion last quarter. Apple isn't close.
They'll be releasing a new driver with the latest version of Windows that extends batery life by 1 hour. Ingenius!
Margaret Whitman's company (Ebay) is bigger
Larry Ellison (Oracle) has been around longer (without leaving the company at least)
Eric Schmidt's company (Google) gets an article on Slashdot every few hours
Steve Balmer's company (Microsoft) sells more Operating Systems
I guess to Jobs credit he founded a very successful company, then left and it tanked and came back and it became a great company again, but I just don't think that there's no question about him being number one as this article has implied.
Companys are entities just as governments are entities. Their purpose is a little different, but just as with governments, there are good ones and bad ones. You can think of the board of Directors as a parliment. They are approved by the shareholders (the people). The Directors apoint a CEO (the president or prime minister). The CEO then hires employees (his administration). So, in this view corporations are a lot like democratic countries. On the other hand, there are corporations where there is only one shareholder who is also the "CEO". In that company, it is not exactly a dictatorship, but everyone under the CEO is really part of the administration. I could go on....
I don't disagree with you. My point is: it's a start. It's better to allow access to this stuff for now. The alternative is Google shuts down it's search engine in China entirely. Which is better in your opinion?
Please try this search
This is on China's version of google. You will see the Wikipedia entry on democracy as the first search on the list which is a very interesting read. Now try a search on Tienemen sqaure masacre. You will not find the results you expect, so they are only censoring things that put the govt. in a bad light. They don't block out things like democracy.
Even though they are blocking out a lot of porn and anti chinese govt. sites, the Chinese people will get to see all the articles on democracy and many other things that will educate the citizens. Thus the good outweighs the bad by a long shot. In time, the Chinese citizens will demand more freedoms, but this is a big step in the right direction in my opinion.
The Ultrasparc T1 is not a high-end machine, it's a low end one designed to compete against cheap x86 machines, I think the main surprise for me is that it's not available in a blade form-factor.
Your refering to the Sun Fire T1 server. This is a low-end system because it has a single chip. They will be releasing high-end systems based on the UltraSparc T1 that have multiple chips. The Ultra Sparc T1 is most definitly NOT considered a low end chip. It's designed compete with the IBM Power 5 really.
Your logic is based around the concept that every task is highly parallel
No it's not. I was talking about webservers/app servers. In a webserver, it makes littler difference if one page is served out faster, but you want to have a lot of throughput. The T1 has much better total throughput.
The T1 has terrible FP performance
Yes, you're right about this. The T1 can only do a single thread of floating point ops at a time. This is why it's being marketed to the web/ap server market which don't do many flops. Sun is working on a new chip code named Rock which will address these issues. If I remember correctly rock will support 8 floating point threads at a time. It will also have some really awsome I/O lookahead features that allow a special 'thread' to read thousands of instructions ahead and look for I/O that can be started early. What the T1 is going to do to the Webserver market, Rock will do to the high end number crunching market.
If you believe Moore's Law is the end of computing performance increases, yes this would pose a problem. Although, according to the roadmaps for the major chip manufacturers it's not going to happen for more than 10 years. But since Silicon is not the first substrate that we've continously increased computing performance with, I don't think it will be the last. Before we were improving performance with Silicon, we were using Vaccuum tubes. Before that, relays. If we use very conservative estimates for the power of Carbon Nanotubes, which are being researched extensively at many universities, we can extend the improvements in computing power out until 2060. I haven't even mentioned quantum computing.