There was a camp at Beale. I'm not sure if it was an internment camp or held POWs, but they were TINY little cages, 2mx2mx2m and open on one side (a barred door). Drawings on the walls, some quite good.
I wouldn't have wanted to be in one of those cages. I can see why he didn't want to talk about it, must be some horrible, terrible memories.
Seven years? Kid, seven years is nothing. How old are you, fourteen? I just published Nobots last month, have been working on it since 2009. I'd have a two year copyright.
The Paxil Diaries aren't even in print yet but the copyright would have expired.
Asimov's Foundation trilogy was out for ten years before Asimov made a dime from it.
The present copyright term is way too long and harms creativity and culture, but your length is equally ridiculous. Make it twenty years, same as patents.
No, he's right. If the penalty for murder is twenty years, and you and four other people beat someone to death, all five of you will spend 20 years in prison, not four years each.
I've dropped my Kyocera more than once and it's never broken. A case? If it was in a protective case it wouldn't fit in my pocket. As it only cost a hundred bucks with no subsidy, if it does break I'll just buy a new one.
What kind of cheap but expensive phone do you have that is so delicate?
Turing computers will never be sentient, although computers can fool you into thinking they're sentient if programmed cleverly. I can see idiots in the future wanting to give computers rights.
Maybe some day we'll come up with an electrochemical computer, like a Blade Runner Replicant. But before we make a sentient machine we'll have to understand what sentience is, how it comes about, and how it operates. So far, we're so clueless about sentience that we don't even know how to research it.
There was no real standard when the Lisa was out, but these days *nix is the standard -- Unix, Linux, BSD. Most mainframes and all the 100 fastest computers run Linux (which is taking over for Unix), Android is Linux, Apple is BSD. Microsoft is way behind everyone.
Of course there's some made-up shit in any science fiction -- dilythium crystals, mitichlorians, grabonic radiation (that one's mine), but most "technobabble" is actually real words, or words made up from Greek or Latin roots that describe the fictional technology (like "tachyons"). A literate, educated person can make the meanings out by context.
I wrote about that in my journal today. A friend read Nobots and some of the words weren't in her vocabulary. "Those big words -- are they real or can I look 'em up in a dictionary?" Of course, she's not a nerd.
Heinlein invisaged chimpanzees genetically enhanced to be more intelligent and more like humans.
Yes, I'll give you that. But remember that Heinlein was probably a racist, the story was written in 1947.
Of all these things, probably the most important is that they don't think like humans. At all. Chimpanzees do not understand non-verbal communications even as much as dogs do. They're just not people.
Well, I don't know about chimps, but dogs and cats are people. Folks consider their animals family (and mine have helped me through hard times).
That "troll" moderation was completely uncalled for. Someone with mod points, please rectify it. It was a valid point -- if this abomination actually gets through the courts (and I'll flap my arms and fly to the moon if it happens), will animals have reproductive rights?
You can install an app under/usr and anyone's/usr/home directory can run it if they have the proper permissions. Their configuration files for that app are stored in their own space; one size does not fit all.
Unlike Windows, you also can't see other users' files or "folders" (using MS's nonstandard nomenclature) unless you're logged in as root ("Admin" in Windows-speak).
Your desktop is your desktop. If you install an app in your own space it doesn't affect any other user. In Linux, most any app you might want is installed with the OS anyway.
1. Agreed, the Windows way is stupid. 2. Disagreed, Windows is the only OS with C:\$App. All the others have user/$file. The Windows way is stupid. And copying the subdirectory to another machine won't install $App because the execute bit is reset on copy. To enable the app you have to flip the execute bit, adding a bit of safety to it.
One of the reasons Windows has been historically insecure is that they have no execute bit, but treat data as code if it has a certain extension.
He's not wrong, he's entirely correct. Someone wrongly accused has indeed been incorrectly accused. You're conflating "wrongly" with "wronged".
BTW, I'm American and think calling a car's trunk a "boot" is ridiculous. A trunk was, before autos, a box holding things and was often installed on wagons and carriages.
OTOH, I think it's stupid of us to use a four syllable word for "lift".
These things are both abominations and illegal. The problem isn't government, but who has the power to place people within that government. The real Presidents are Koch and Soros and their ilk. The problem with big government is that the corporates are even bigger and more powerful.
Sorry, but fuck you, I will not surrender my natural rights and freedoms peacefully for your comfort & convenience.
Neither will I, and will continue to speak out against abuses. No matter how weak and small the government becomes, the easier it is for the CORPORATIONS to remove your rights. Look at Railroad workers in the 19th century and miners in the early 20th century before government started cracking down on corporations.
Some people say a man is made outta mud A poor man's made outta muscle and blood Muscle and blood and skin and bones A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong
You load sixteen tons, what do you get Another day older and deeper in debt Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"
You load sixteen tons, what do you get Another day older and deeper in debt Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain Fightin' and trouble are my middle name I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line
You load sixteen tons, what do you get Another day older and deeper in debt Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store
If you see me comin', better step aside A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died One fist of iron, the other of steel If the right one don't a-get you Then the left one will
You load sixteen tons, what do you get Another day older and deeper in debt Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store
Those people were SLAVES. Is that what you really want?
I was going to post something similar. Examples: cotton shoelaces gave way to nylon because nylon is more durable, but nylon laces wouldn't stay tied. Later they did actually have a change for the better with a nylon/cotton combination.
Then there was replacing car radio knobs with buttons, making it so you had to take your eyes off the road to adjust the volume. Dangerous, at least they brought knobs back.
But now they have something worse than buttons -- touch screens. Are auto manufacturers that blase about their customers dying? Or are designers simply stupid?
Improvements are good. Change for the sake of change is stupid (MS is particularly bad about this). If you can't make it better, leave it alone.
Slashdot Mirror
There was a camp at Beale. I'm not sure if it was an internment camp or held POWs, but they were TINY little cages, 2mx2mx2m and open on one side (a barred door). Drawings on the walls, some quite good.
I wouldn't have wanted to be in one of those cages. I can see why he didn't want to talk about it, must be some horrible, terrible memories.
Seven years? Kid, seven years is nothing. How old are you, fourteen? I just published Nobots last month, have been working on it since 2009. I'd have a two year copyright.
The Paxil Diaries aren't even in print yet but the copyright would have expired.
Asimov's Foundation trilogy was out for ten years before Asimov made a dime from it.
The present copyright term is way too long and harms creativity and culture, but your length is equally ridiculous. Make it twenty years, same as patents.
No, he's right. If the penalty for murder is twenty years, and you and four other people beat someone to death, all five of you will spend 20 years in prison, not four years each.
I've dropped my Kyocera more than once and it's never broken. A case? If it was in a protective case it wouldn't fit in my pocket. As it only cost a hundred bucks with no subsidy, if it does break I'll just buy a new one.
What kind of cheap but expensive phone do you have that is so delicate?
Yeah, you dismiss a scientific study because the vocabulary is over your head on a nerd site but I'm the troll?
Go back to 4chan, you noncompos.
PS - The word "robotics" was coined to discuss a fictional piece of engineering, as when Asimov coined it, robots didn't exist.
Turing computers will never be sentient, although computers can fool you into thinking they're sentient if programmed cleverly. I can see idiots in the future wanting to give computers rights.
Maybe some day we'll come up with an electrochemical computer, like a Blade Runner Replicant. But before we make a sentient machine we'll have to understand what sentience is, how it comes about, and how it operates. So far, we're so clueless about sentience that we don't even know how to research it.
There was no real standard when the Lisa was out, but these days *nix is the standard -- Unix, Linux, BSD. Most mainframes and all the 100 fastest computers run Linux (which is taking over for Unix), Android is Linux, Apple is BSD. Microsoft is way behind everyone.
Of course there's some made-up shit in any science fiction -- dilythium crystals, mitichlorians, grabonic radiation (that one's mine), but most "technobabble" is actually real words, or words made up from Greek or Latin roots that describe the fictional technology (like "tachyons"). A literate, educated person can make the meanings out by context.
I wrote about that in my journal today. A friend read Nobots and some of the words weren't in her vocabulary. "Those big words -- are they real or can I look 'em up in a dictionary?" Of course, she's not a nerd.
My cat's so dumb she moves her lips when she reads.
I agree. Free them all. There's no reason for an advanced, "civilized" human society to treat living, sentient* creatures as products to consume.
I belong to redneck PETA: People Eating Tasty Animals.
Now stop trolling me, son, before I make you explain exactly what "sentience" is and how it can be proven.
Excuse me, a cheeseburger awaits.
Are you saying the poor should not get a vote??
Heinlein invisaged chimpanzees genetically enhanced to be more intelligent and more like humans.
Yes, I'll give you that. But remember that Heinlein was probably a racist, the story was written in 1947.
Of all these things, probably the most important is that they don't think like humans. At all. Chimpanzees do not understand non-verbal communications even as much as dogs do. They're just not people.
Well, I don't know about chimps, but dogs and cats are people. Folks consider their animals family (and mine have helped me through hard times).
They're still my property.
That "troll" moderation was completely uncalled for. Someone with mod points, please rectify it. It was a valid point -- if this abomination actually gets through the courts (and I'll flap my arms and fly to the moon if it happens), will animals have reproductive rights?
The whole thing is silly. Monty Python silly.
(Full text)
Heinlein saw this coming in 1947.
Techno-babble: a term used by non-nerds to describe speech or writing by those more educated than them that they don't understand.
You can install an app under /usr and anyone's /usr/home directory can run it if they have the proper permissions. Their configuration files for that app are stored in their own space; one size does not fit all.
Unlike Windows, you also can't see other users' files or "folders" (using MS's nonstandard nomenclature) unless you're logged in as root ("Admin" in Windows-speak).
Your desktop is your desktop. If you install an app in your own space it doesn't affect any other user. In Linux, most any app you might want is installed with the OS anyway.
1. Agreed, the Windows way is stupid.
2. Disagreed, Windows is the only OS with C:\$App. All the others have user/$file. The Windows way is stupid. And copying the subdirectory to another machine won't install $App because the execute bit is reset on copy. To enable the app you have to flip the execute bit, adding a bit of safety to it.
One of the reasons Windows has been historically insecure is that they have no execute bit, but treat data as code if it has a certain extension.
He's not wrong, he's entirely correct. Someone wrongly accused has indeed been incorrectly accused. You're conflating "wrongly" with "wronged".
BTW, I'm American and think calling a car's trunk a "boot" is ridiculous. A trunk was, before autos, a box holding things and was often installed on wagons and carriages.
OTOH, I think it's stupid of us to use a four syllable word for "lift".
Shear [sic] ignorance
Oh, the irony! If only we could shear ignorance. Let me shear a little of yours -- it's sheer ignorance.
Digital tuning and volume control is cheaper than analog
Nonsense, a single stacked potentiometer is a buck or less, retail. Same with a tunable capacitor. The digital controls are really more expensive.
A single touch panel replaces a bunch of separate controls.
A dollar or two per switch, as opposed to... how much does a touchscreen display cost? They can't be cheap, considering what you pay for a tablet.
They don't have to change back even when it is unsafe because all of the manufacturers do the same thing
They didn't all start doing it at once. That stuff was originally only in the most expensive cars.
Less freedom to feed the homeless
Uh, can you expound?
less freedom from warrant-less surveillance...
These things are both abominations and illegal. The problem isn't government, but who has the power to place people within that government. The real Presidents are Koch and Soros and their ilk. The problem with big government is that the corporates are even bigger and more powerful.
Sorry, but fuck you, I will not surrender my natural rights and freedoms peacefully for your comfort & convenience.
Neither will I, and will continue to speak out against abuses. No matter how weak and small the government becomes, the easier it is for the CORPORATIONS to remove your rights. Look at Railroad workers in the 19th century and miners in the early 20th century before government started cracking down on corporations.
Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion
Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't a-get you
Then the left one will
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
Those people were SLAVES. Is that what you really want?
I was going to post something similar. Examples: cotton shoelaces gave way to nylon because nylon is more durable, but nylon laces wouldn't stay tied. Later they did actually have a change for the better with a nylon/cotton combination.
Then there was replacing car radio knobs with buttons, making it so you had to take your eyes off the road to adjust the volume. Dangerous, at least they brought knobs back.
But now they have something worse than buttons -- touch screens. Are auto manufacturers that blase about their customers dying? Or are designers simply stupid?
Improvements are good. Change for the sake of change is stupid (MS is particularly bad about this). If you can't make it better, leave it alone.
The crack (in the battery) was smoking Teslas.
is to
science as a virgin is to a hooker.
(I assume you were looking for a punch line and didn't misspell "too". How could anyone misspell a three letter word?)