I've been a faithful RedHat/Fedora Core user for years, but obsolescence happens too fast for anything but test or playground machines these days, where you don't mind a complete reinstall every now and then. Since I don't need RedHat's support, my servers now run CentOS, and everyhingthing else is on Ubuntu.
Why should I want to replace an already mature, tested, cheap, reliable technology with something that costs a whole lot more, and may direct power to where it is not wanted? Because it's cool? Inefficient? Expensive? Conspicuous consumption and all that.
Did you even watch al gores movie? No he hasn't of course. Could have opened his mind. Damn commie propaganda.
The way I remember it, though, is that puddles forming on the surface have a lower albedo, hence absorb more heat, which causes the ice shelf to break up quicker than previously thought.
the size of 11,000 football fields NFL? Canadian? European kickball?
Sounds like you don't use the footballfield as a unit of area? And here I was calculating how many kiloounces per microfootballfield an ice shelf can withstand.
By living such clean and germ free lives, washing our hands continually, we are opening ourselves up to one Hell of a super-bug eventually.
Kids from super clean households have a weaker immune system (plus a higher incidence of autoimmune diseases) than the ones that grew up on a farm for example. So, they're going to be more susceptible later in life, forming a nice substrate for infectious diseases.
A checkout guy at the grocery store told me the other day that he never gets sick when the flu goes around (like during the last few weeks.) Sniffles, if that, but he gets bombarded by viruses every day, from customers, money etc.
Nietzsche was right. That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. That definitely applies to the immune system.
I always have to fight the feeling of "Meh, wake me up when we have FTL, or at least a decent nuclear drive" when I read about space exploration. So, this may be counterproductive.
If free will exists, then there must be something which is NOT governed by the physical universe (hence, not deterministic)
There's plenty of non-deterministic behavior from ordinary physical effects: Thermodynamic randomness (e.g. Brownian motion), chaos (e.g. fluid dynamics), or even quantum effects. At least the former two are very applicable to what's going on in your brain.
You need to make a decision, and lacking stringent reasons for going one way or the other, the neurochemical coin falls either on this or on that side. Voila: Free Will.
This one's by far the most important. We all knew it, but now the data is in.
3 SHRINKING ICE
Glaciologists nailed down an unsettling observation this year: The world's two great ice sheets--covering Greenland and Antarctica--are indeed losing ice to the oceans, and losing it at an accelerating pace.
...as I recall was published in 1859. Not only was it not a breakthrough of this year, it was a breakthrough of near 150 years ago. As they say, "What exactly are you smoking, sir?"
Some people/groups/societies are just a tad slower than others. Unfortunately, it seems advantageous (evolutionarily) to be a religious nut. Go forth and multiply.
Wasn't there an attempt to force a label on every appliance saying "this device will cost you $x.xx per month if it's kept running" or some such? Can't remember. That would definitely make a lot of sense.
On the other hand, as long as everybody I know never turns off the light in their office I don't expect them to do that at home either. That tells me that energy is still far too cheap.
but then it's never been very hard to visually look at it and read the paper
Not when it's in my pocket.
I can't believe how juicy this is. Imagine being able to get your dirty fingers on the theft prevention system at the doors or a department store. Just a slight modification of the frequency and code, and let the harvesting begin.
Slashdot Mirror
You should have told us an hour ago. :)
Over 10 C (50 F) at midnight in northern Germany, FWIW. Yeah I know, just one data point.
I've been a faithful RedHat/Fedora Core user for years, but obsolescence happens too fast for anything but test or playground machines these days, where you don't mind a complete reinstall every now and then.
Since I don't need RedHat's support, my servers now run CentOS, and everyhingthing else is on Ubuntu.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/ 28/0259244
TERRORORRISTSS
If you look closely, you can see where explosives were planted near the base.
I think it was a secret government plot, just like the WTC. But I hadn't known the Canadians were in on it!
Did you even watch al gores movie?
No he hasn't of course. Could have opened his mind. Damn commie propaganda.
The way I remember it, though, is that puddles forming on the surface have a lower albedo, hence absorb more heat, which causes the ice shelf to break up quicker than previously thought.
No wonder Florida has disappeared under the waters.
Oh, cool. I hand't noticed. Now that'll make the next election so much easier.
the size of 11,000 football fields
NFL? Canadian? European kickball?
Sounds like you don't use the footballfield as a unit of area? And here I was calculating how many kiloounces per microfootballfield an ice shelf can withstand.
By living such clean and germ free lives, washing our hands continually, we are opening ourselves up to one Hell of a super-bug eventually.
Kids from super clean households have a weaker immune system (plus a higher incidence of autoimmune diseases) than the ones that grew up on a farm for example. So, they're going to be more susceptible later in life, forming a nice substrate for infectious diseases.
A checkout guy at the grocery store told me the other day that he never gets sick when the flu goes around (like during the last few weeks.) Sniffles, if that, but he gets bombarded by viruses every day, from customers, money etc.
Nietzsche was right. That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. That definitely applies to the immune system.
I always have to fight the feeling of "Meh, wake me up when we have FTL, or at least a decent nuclear drive" when I read about space exploration. So, this may be counterproductive.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=21.90N+88. 11E&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=14&ll=21.899969,88.110008&spn=0 .068408,0.163422&t=h&iwloc=addr
Switching between the map and the satellite picture is instructive.
I submit that if you can do steps 1..4 then you've got free will.
Depends on how much you'll pay me.
If free will exists, then there must be something which is NOT governed by the physical universe (hence, not deterministic)
There's plenty of non-deterministic behavior from ordinary physical effects: Thermodynamic randomness (e.g. Brownian motion), chaos (e.g. fluid dynamics), or even quantum effects. At least the former two are very applicable to what's going on in your brain.
You need to make a decision, and lacking stringent reasons for going one way or the other, the neurochemical coin falls either on this or on that side. Voila: Free Will.
This one's by far the most important. We all knew it, but now the data is in.
3 SHRINKING ICE
Glaciologists nailed down an unsettling observation this year: The world's two great ice sheets--covering Greenland and Antarctica--are indeed losing ice to the oceans, and losing it at an accelerating pace.
...as I recall was published in 1859. Not only was it not a breakthrough of this year, it was a breakthrough of near 150 years ago. As they say, "What exactly are you smoking, sir?"
Some people/groups/societies are just a tad slower than others.
Unfortunately, it seems advantageous (evolutionarily) to be a religious nut. Go forth and multiply.
Wasn't there an attempt to force a label on every appliance saying "this device will cost you $x.xx per month if it's kept running" or some such? Can't remember. That would definitely make a lot of sense.
On the other hand, as long as everybody I know never turns off the light in their office I don't expect them to do that at home either. That tells me that energy is still far too cheap.
but then it's never been very hard to visually look at it and read the paper
Not when it's in my pocket.
I can't believe how juicy this is. Imagine being able to get your dirty fingers on the theft prevention system at the doors or a department store. Just a slight modification of the frequency and code, and let the harvesting begin.
Now another researcher has shown how to clone a European e-Passport in under 5 minutes.
Thanks to a software he himself has developed, called RFdump, he downloads the passport's data onto his computer and then onto a blank chip.
How long would it take for some 3 letter agency to show up at their door in the US?
Their's is a *good* bias.
Repeat after me:
Microsoft==Evil
Oracle==Evil
EFF==Good
FSF==Good
I'm glad we got this taken care of.
George W is going to read this.
Then they deserve who they get!
You probably would have said the same thing about Germany in the 1930s.
He's pretty much shot himself in the foot, 'cause now he's got to prove that Windows works.
Unfortunately, it works very well. As a host for botnets, for example.
The "idiot" probably makes more in a week than you and me in our entire lives.
You get your frontal lobotomy and you can make just as much.
What the...WE HAVE SHARP METAL DISCS SPINNING @ 7200prm ON OUR LAPS?!
Worse... Glass!
You must be a real geek to be turned on by this kind of discussion.