It was probably designed this way because it wasn't actually MIT designed...
It's an "educational" kit sold by some random, non-affiliated vendor that wants high-schoolers to buy it and "learn about electronics."
It's neither "fun" nor "interesting" when your design is 8 times as complicated and expensive as one that works, and yours is neither stable, accurate, hi-fi, or immune to temperature changes, power supply noise or electrical interference.
Yes it's fun to mess around with parts and get them to do something, anything. But this is not an example of any kind of sane engineering. I assume most people going into $95,000 debt to attend MIT intend to try to be useful engineers. This item on your resume is a quick ticket to Palookaville.
Because, obviously, a company that pays MIT money to have their product advertised to a bunch of high-schoolers visiting MIT must be representative of the actual education MIT students get.
MIT wasn't even INVOLVED with the creation of this thing, and they definitely aren't bragging about it -- this is just a great example of a slashvertisement
It seems that computers with a capacity equivalent to human brains will be developed in the next twenty years or so.
OK. I know, this prediction has been made before, but now it's for real, because the hardware capacity is well within the reach of Moore's law. To build a cluster of processors with the same data-handling capacity of a human brain today is well within the range of a mid-size research grant.
An equivalent prediction is made, and explained in more detail, in Ray Kurzweil's book "The Singularity is Near" -- some of which is available as a preview on Google Book Search.
I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say the reference to Mussolini indicates an understanding of World War II - and an allusion that many more people would understand.
The grandparent also successfully avoided mentioning Hitler, which you seemed to have failed at.
I live in a small suburb (25,000 people or so), and I have to disagree with everything you said.
My local library has received a lot of funding and local attention recently. A recent grant from the state has allowed them to tear down our old, worn-out library and build a new facility to allow an expansion of the library's collection. Before the renovation, there was an overflow and books had to be stored in boxes in the back as new ones (and I mean new as in recent best sellers) were cycled in.
As of now, there is sufficient space for many more books, and the staff there are working hard to fill it as fast as possible. I personally volunteered there last summer, the first one in the new library, and the librarians there are very interested in catering to the patrons, conducting regular surveys to determine which types of books they are lacking and trying to focus on those areas. There is a "New Materials" section in the front that is continuously cycled as new books come in and old ones go to their places, and it's not surprising to see a book released within the past month sitting on the shelf. These books can only be taken out for a week, in order to allow the greatest number of patrons to enjoy them.
Also, and this is probably the most important part, every single one of them is available to people in other towns nearby through an interlibrary loan system, run by the local library consortium (the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium). Most books can be shipped to another library within two or three days, sometimes only one. With this system a patron at the library has access to an expansive selection of books in their hometown. Remember, this is only a group of smaller libraries - imagine the resources available to a city such as Boston or New York.
In addition, the books on "obscure subjects" may be useful to some people, if not yourself - imagine how useful it would be to have a book available when you're trying to do some research on the Cold War, for example. Maybe a more indigenous perspective could be useful?
As for the timing issue, my local library is open from 8:00 in the morning to 9:00 at night - pretty reasonable for most people in this area. If you have a different situation, there's really not much I can do to help you. Maybe you should see if your library card gives you access to any of the libraries on your drive home, as mine does.
People legalize things they love and suppress the things they hate ignoring all logic in the process. You can't fight your nature.:)
I hate to pick on a small point, but there a signs that point in the opposite direction.
Take for example, the Roman Catholic Church. It suppresses a significant amount of things that people "love," and yet still manages to keep these rules in the same way that you say the government won't for cannabis. Humans are genetically disposed to love sex -- it is the only way genes spread, after all -- and yet for more than a thousand years the Church has successfully made sex illegal except in certain circumstances (Almost like exceptions for medicinal cannabis use).
One might protest that the Church isn't the same as the law; don't forget that religion, for most of history, has been a force on the scale of national governments. When they decide if a person will go to hell, that person tends to listen to them.
The essential issue with both of the above discussions is that both the Church and the government are banning something that people have a drive to do (this may be a slight stretch for cannabis), and therefore making everyone guilty. If a person has those sorts of desires, and the ruling group says its wrong, they'll feel guilty inside -- and -- this is the key -- they ruling group will remain in power. Police, politicians, kings, popes; they're all the same, in some ways.
As long as the control of cannabis makes people feel guilty, and the common use of the drug creates a sea of criminals that will give in to power such that their habit will not be discovered, legalization of the drug is by no means guaranteed.
Another example of technology developed for the space program that could assist us earthbound folks as well.
The LOCAD-PTS described in the article seems superior to any other method of portable biological detector present in the market (That I know of), could this be an effective device for the detection of biological weapons?
Or even, in a more mundane manner, for companies that specialize in flood recovery?
What I really like about slashdot is that every year someone manages to sneak one subtle and ironic comment into a discussion, and get moderated insightful.
No, he suggested that the process of measuring the velocity AND THEN storing, analyzing, and acting upon that observation will create as much (or more) entropy as the device will eliminate in the particles.
The method used by most brute-force password cracking programs is:
1) Gain a copy of the password hash file stored on the target computer (by social engineering, service vulnerabilities, etc.) 2) A program takes the hash of your password, and encrypts random strings of text until the encrypted hash is equal to the hash obtained from the target computer. 3) The program knows what it just encrypted, and therefore knows your password.
Minitrue mark article doubleplusungood crimethink. Miniluv remake goodthink fullwise.
(The contents of this article have been determined by the Ministry of Truth to be of a highly criminal and fallacious nature, and the Ministry of Love is working to ameliorate any harm done by the falsehoods above.)
Slashdot Mirror
It was probably designed this way because it wasn't actually MIT designed... It's an "educational" kit sold by some random, non-affiliated vendor that wants high-schoolers to buy it and "learn about electronics."
It's neither "fun" nor "interesting" when your design is 8 times as complicated and expensive as one that works, and yours is neither stable, accurate, hi-fi, or immune to temperature changes, power supply noise or electrical interference.
Yes it's fun to mess around with parts and get them to do something, anything. But this is not an example of any kind of sane engineering. I assume most people going into $95,000 debt to attend MIT intend to try to be useful engineers. This item on your resume is a quick ticket to Palookaville.
Because, obviously, a company that pays MIT money to have their product advertised to a bunch of high-schoolers visiting MIT must be representative of the actual education MIT students get. MIT wasn't even INVOLVED with the creation of this thing, and they definitely aren't bragging about it -- this is just a great example of a slashvertisement
OK. I know, this prediction has been made before, but now it's for real, because the hardware capacity is well within the reach of Moore's law. To build a cluster of processors with the same data-handling capacity of a human brain today is well within the range of a mid-size research grant.
An equivalent prediction is made, and explained in more detail, in Ray Kurzweil's book "The Singularity is Near" -- some of which is available as a preview on Google Book Search.Hey Mr. Wolfram! When did you start reading slashdot?
I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say the reference to Mussolini indicates an understanding of World War II - and an allusion that many more people would understand.
The grandparent also successfully avoided mentioning Hitler, which you seemed to have failed at.
I live in a small suburb (25,000 people or so), and I have to disagree with everything you said.
My local library has received a lot of funding and local attention recently. A recent grant from the state has allowed them to tear down our old, worn-out library and build a new facility to allow an expansion of the library's collection. Before the renovation, there was an overflow and books had to be stored in boxes in the back as new ones (and I mean new as in recent best sellers) were cycled in.
As of now, there is sufficient space for many more books, and the staff there are working hard to fill it as fast as possible. I personally volunteered there last summer, the first one in the new library, and the librarians there are very interested in catering to the patrons, conducting regular surveys to determine which types of books they are lacking and trying to focus on those areas. There is a "New Materials" section in the front that is continuously cycled as new books come in and old ones go to their places, and it's not surprising to see a book released within the past month sitting on the shelf. These books can only be taken out for a week, in order to allow the greatest number of patrons to enjoy them.
Also, and this is probably the most important part, every single one of them is available to people in other towns nearby through an interlibrary loan system, run by the local library consortium (the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium). Most books can be shipped to another library within two or three days, sometimes only one. With this system a patron at the library has access to an expansive selection of books in their hometown. Remember, this is only a group of smaller libraries - imagine the resources available to a city such as Boston or New York.
In addition, the books on "obscure subjects" may be useful to some people, if not yourself - imagine how useful it would be to have a book available when you're trying to do some research on the Cold War, for example. Maybe a more indigenous perspective could be useful?
As for the timing issue, my local library is open from 8:00 in the morning to 9:00 at night - pretty reasonable for most people in this area. If you have a different situation, there's really not much I can do to help you. Maybe you should see if your library card gives you access to any of the libraries on your drive home, as mine does.
I hate to pick on a small point, but there a signs that point in the opposite direction.
Take for example, the Roman Catholic Church. It suppresses a significant amount of things that people "love," and yet still manages to keep these rules in the same way that you say the government won't for cannabis. Humans are genetically disposed to love sex -- it is the only way genes spread, after all -- and yet for more than a thousand years the Church has successfully made sex illegal except in certain circumstances (Almost like exceptions for medicinal cannabis use).
One might protest that the Church isn't the same as the law; don't forget that religion, for most of history, has been a force on the scale of national governments. When they decide if a person will go to hell, that person tends to listen to them.
The essential issue with both of the above discussions is that both the Church and the government are banning something that people have a drive to do (this may be a slight stretch for cannabis), and therefore making everyone guilty. If a person has those sorts of desires, and the ruling group says its wrong, they'll feel guilty inside -- and -- this is the key -- they ruling group will remain in power. Police, politicians, kings, popes; they're all the same, in some ways.
As long as the control of cannabis makes people feel guilty, and the common use of the drug creates a sea of criminals that will give in to power such that their habit will not be discovered, legalization of the drug is by no means guaranteed.
They can't make your post funny.
In all honesty there was a goatse image on that page. Be right back, I need to stab my eyes with a fork.
Gattaca is the name of the corporation that he is working for.
Uh dude... He was talking about the publication Science. Nice rant though. *slow clap*
Surely you're joking, Mr. Freeman!
Another example of technology developed for the space program that could assist us earthbound folks as well.
The LOCAD-PTS described in the article seems superior to any other method of portable biological detector present in the market (That I know of), could this be an effective device for the detection of biological weapons?
Or even, in a more mundane manner, for companies that specialize in flood recovery?
He knows what he's talking about.
What I really like about slashdot is that every year someone manages to sneak one subtle and ironic comment into a discussion, and get moderated insightful.
Actually, if you're using the "..." to mean repeating, then 3.999... == 4
.999... .999...
.999... = 3 + 1 = 4
Remember this proof from your high school math class?
x =
10x = 9.999...
10x - x = 9.999... -
9x = 9
x = 1
So, using that...
3 +
Of course, maybe I don't understand the difference between being "the same" and "in an equivalence class".
In which case, ignore me.
That book was published over a year ago, lots can and has changed in that time.
Plus, he's sure because he's proposing a solution to the 'unsolved problem.'
No, he suggested that the process of measuring the velocity AND THEN storing, analyzing, and acting upon that observation will create as much (or more) entropy as the device will eliminate in the particles.
More accurately:
Remove Intellect Before Reading
The method used by most brute-force password cracking programs is:
1) Gain a copy of the password hash file stored on the target computer (by social engineering, service vulnerabilities, etc.)
2) A program takes the hash of your password, and encrypts random strings of text until the encrypted hash is equal to the hash obtained from the target computer.
3) The program knows what it just encrypted, and therefore knows your password.
One of the main points of this technique is that it is the closest ever to "true black," being almost completely non-reflective in most wavelengths.
When the batteries die, the "picotech" sensors on the nano-power-grids will send out warnings to the electric company...
Until their batteries die, that is...
That's the sound of a joke going over your head...
http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/
Might be perfect for such a situation, with a firefox extension to change the keys.
Minitrue mark article doubleplusungood crimethink. Miniluv remake goodthink fullwise.
(The contents of this article have been determined by the Ministry of Truth to be of a highly criminal and fallacious nature, and the Ministry of Love is working to ameliorate any harm done by the falsehoods above.)