The notion that natural disasters don't discriminate has no factual basis, except for extremely rare kinds of disasters, such as death by asteroid. Those who live in flood plains will be a slightly greater risk. Those that live in fire-prone, or tornado-prone, or hurricane-prone areas will also be at slightly greater risk. While the results of this kind of selection may not be well understood in humans, this is hardly evidence that a small but definite selection pressure does not exist.
Indeed, if it did not, it would be difficult to explain the multiple evolution of fire-resistant plant communities that actually require fire at times. Such fires in the past were largely the result of near random lightening strikes, but clearly there has been directional selection that has occurred.
This is simply not true. Humans have altered their environment temporarily in many cases and irreparably in others, but to say that we have somehow escaped the bounds of the constraints that our phenotypes impose on our genotypes is naive at best.
That said, the potential for genetic modification is vast, but also fraught with incredible difficulties, since the actions of genes, seldom have a single effect and the unexpected effects can easily swamp the desired ones. This explains much of why evolution is as erratic as it is.
Selection for more capable, larger brains (that require more energy,not less) may well result in the creation of miniaturized atomic weapons with vastly larger yields available to all, rather than benefits to mankind. My guess is that humanity will destroy most of the planets biodiversity essential to understand these kinds of genetic trade-offs, long before the technology to implement them ever emerges.
The secret of News Corporation scientists at their laboratory on Island of Dr. Moreau, who have been working with cloned mice with "fully functional human brains" to perfect the ideal republican candidate is out.
Just remove all the genes encoding for brain development!
Looks as if the Intel marketing folks and bean counters are crawling all over slashdot. If this flies its just a short jump to hardware licenses and rentals, with chips scheduled for deactivation if additional recurrent fees are not payed every 6 months.
Yes, the next step is for the fine print to read, "this license gives you the opportunity to rent our CPU from us" for a period of 6 months after which time you will be required to pay an additional $50 per month to continue to rent it".
If consumers accept this, they can expect CPU rentals not to be far behind.
Get your new Genuine Intel Disadvantage built in! Sounds like a great marketing strategy to let competitors brand their processors as genuinely, intentionally "brain dead".
they are determined to hand AMD a PR club they can use to beat Intel about the head.
I can just see the ad bylines now, "Why pay extra to have the IQ of your microprocessor raised to average, when you can get one with a higher IQ with no additional hidden costs?"
This is purely a marketing ploy to see if they can sucker consumers into accepting, so that can generate an additional profit line.
Yes, so we can all blind our neighbors with the laser beam.
Given that a majority of republicans are now on record for reducing funds for care of the blind and they are about to take over the government, this might not be the best thing for UC Berkeley to have developed at this time.
Presently, Mississippi politicians have larded up the hurricane hunter fleet in Biloxi, MS.
The use of drones could eliminate the need for putting pilots and crew in harms way and shut down an over-expensive program. Its time the government began investing in technologies that will save money rather than just protecting political pork.
With the bug fixes coming so quickly one after the other, Chrome needs an automatic update option to have it download and install new versions rather than requiring manual downloads. Is this in the works? Or have I missed something in the "Options" box?
"All iPhone modesl short of the original are fully capable of "
Until Apple decides it needs more cash and sends its cash cows (iPhone users) to the Apple store to get one that is compatible with their next version of iOS.
This sounds a lot like Apple and Research in Motion media hype. Its not as if ANY phone is immune to these issues. Just look at the Apple users who rushed out to by the first iPhone only to discover lots of apps and features developed for latter models that are not supported.
Apple and other competitors are just scrambling to keep Android from running away with the market. To do that they will have to build better phones and not media blitzes, although certainly marketing is a really big element in purchasing. Just as it is with sneakers. People are buying for personal identification.
There will never be a phone won't be obsolete in a few years.
The big winners will be those who can lock down users in penned networks, where the real money is made, extracting financial blood on a daily basis from those wishing to be seen as "cool", "hip", "tech savy", etc.
you have to look at natural selection. The "fragmentation" could be Android's greatest strength if among the diversity there emerges variants that excel at what users want. Likewise, different variants may prove more successful than others in different environments (when put to different uses). Can any of these potential variants be better than those that are designed around a much more "non-fragmented platform"? That will depend entirely on the kinds of uses and environments to which they will be put, their ability to evolve in the face of different set of circumstances and their relative cost of use, the latter possibly more strongly influenced by the network supporting the phone than the phone itself, since in the long run the cost of the phone is primarily in its monthly maintenance.
But if you were a user running multiple apps in the background each consuming lots of memory, it would be a big deal, since it could dramatically reduce workflow and productivity. In a perfect world, where everyone has an infinitely fast CPU and an infinite amount of memory these things don't matter. However, in the real world a lot depends on allocation both in terms of time and space (memory/disk).
Hardly, both Java and Net will be in a far better position to structure what could otherwise be spaghetti Javascript coding. Consequently, these languages will hardly go away. To the contrary, asynchronous transfers will make their use more desirable from a management perspective.
Yes. It hardly makes much sense to remove IO as an issue for a browser and call that "realistic". Most browsers are not going to be CPU bound, rather it will be the interplay between the CPU at the times the I/O is both blocked or unblocked that will make all the difference in the world in term so browser experience. Nonetheless, distinguishing CPU bound performance from non-CPU bound performance is important in isolating unnecessary latencies. Also the challenge of determining what a benchmark should look like in the face of IO issues will be a difficult one that may not readily transfer across all platforms and networks. Different browsers may well be better in different circumstances. The trick for browser developers will be better establishing what those circumstances are more times than not.
Its just nervous laughter. They are like cows lining up at the slaughterhouse. They are just waiting for their tap water to be next. Cracking a few jokes makes the grim reality more bearable.
The irony is that by burning this stuff they will warm the atmosphere enough that they won't need to heat their homes in the winter.
"the reason people who raise more money win is because they have more supporters".
The reason people with more money wins is that most voters vote for the person they saw in the last commercial they watched. Americans have become programmed by commercialism. How else could you explain why so many American's spend 100-200 dollars/month just to spend half their time watching commercials. If that weren't true ALL sides wouldn't spend so much time and effort falling all over themselves to get money to run commercials. They would appeal to people's reasoning skills instead, but since most voters find reasoning to difficult to contemplate, they vote for candidates who's commercials best tug at their emotions and preconceptions.
Take a hint. If you get support from "Freakonomics", its a sign that you know little about issues you are spouting off about. But you don't have to believe me, just vote Fiorina in and see if all your problems are magically solved, but don't say the folks at HP didn't warn you. She'll do what she did before, live high on the publicity, get a golden parachute and leave you footing the bill. If you are ok with that go for it.
Your probably right. The premium they paid will have HP customers picking up the slack in their profits via higher prices and poorer service for some time to come as they digest this thing. Perhaps Dell did itself a favor by bidding it up and letting HP get indigestion over the purchase. Too often takeovers are more about eliminating the competition than actually improving their business in the face of competition.
While Dell has foreign call centers and they did have a rough go of it early on, it seems to me that they have that largely resolved. If you are willing to be even modestly polite (I know difficult for many Americans, always determined to prove their cultural "superiority"), you can get quick fast service. This is no longer a problem. However, with HP, you'll be luck to talk to a telephone server machine that won't send you into phone hell or simply just hang up on you, if you can even find a phone number on their website.
You're right though they could do even better, for example get their servers to better pass service tag, identification info, etc. on to the next tech so you don't have to repeat it. Nonetheless, they have improved quite a bit.
They are very good at supporting their customers when things go wrong. I have purchased a number of Dell computers and have had excellent service with them over the years, particularly when I've had hardware failures. They attend to them courteously and promptly.
HP on the other hand does not support its products. I purchased a very expensive color laser printer from them just a few years ago, but when Windows 7 came out and I upgraded from XP, I discovered they refused to make a new driver for this printer. I and I learned thousands of other customers like me were left high and dry. I will never, ever buy HP equipment again. They simply don't support their products.
Given that most computers these days are essentially built from commodity components, service becomes a much more significant issue in terms of total cost of ownership. With Dell I have come out ahead when it comes to service, but with HP I had a lot of hidden costs when it comes to support for the inevitable repairs. HP may look sweet when they are new, but they become lemons a lot sooner than they should because of HP's determination to cut service and support costs at the expense of their customers.
Slashdot Mirror
that passengers will be hoping their barf bags aren't transparent.
The notion that natural disasters don't discriminate has no factual basis, except for extremely rare kinds of disasters, such as death by asteroid. Those who live in flood plains will be a slightly greater risk. Those that live in fire-prone, or tornado-prone, or hurricane-prone areas will also be at slightly greater risk. While the results of this kind of selection may not be well understood in humans, this is hardly evidence that a small but definite selection pressure does not exist.
Indeed, if it did not, it would be difficult to explain the multiple evolution of fire-resistant plant communities that actually require fire at times. Such fires in the past were largely the result of near random lightening strikes, but clearly there has been directional selection that has occurred.
"Humans have tamed the environment".
This is simply not true. Humans have altered their environment temporarily in many cases and irreparably in others, but to say that we have somehow escaped the bounds of the constraints that our phenotypes impose on our genotypes is naive at best.
That said, the potential for genetic modification is vast, but also fraught with incredible difficulties, since the actions of genes, seldom have a single effect and the unexpected effects can easily swamp the desired ones. This explains much of why evolution is as erratic as it is.
Selection for more capable, larger brains (that require more energy,not less) may well result in the creation of miniaturized atomic weapons with vastly larger yields available to all, rather than benefits to mankind. My guess is that humanity will destroy most of the planets biodiversity essential to understand these kinds of genetic trade-offs, long before the technology to implement them ever emerges.
The secret of News Corporation scientists at their laboratory on Island of Dr. Moreau, who have been working with cloned mice with "fully functional human brains" to perfect the ideal republican candidate is out.
Just remove all the genes encoding for brain development!
Looks as if the Intel marketing folks and bean counters are crawling all over slashdot. If this flies its just a short jump to hardware licenses and rentals, with chips scheduled for deactivation if additional recurrent fees are not payed every 6 months.
Yes, the next step is for the fine print to read, "this license gives you the opportunity to rent our CPU from us" for a period of 6 months after which time you will be required to pay an additional $50 per month to continue to rent it".
If consumers accept this, they can expect CPU rentals not to be far behind.
Get your new Genuine Intel Disadvantage built in! Sounds like a great marketing strategy to let competitors brand their processors as genuinely, intentionally "brain dead".
they are determined to hand AMD a PR club they can use to beat Intel about the head.
I can just see the ad bylines now, "Why pay extra to have the IQ of your microprocessor raised to average, when you can get one with a higher IQ with no additional hidden costs?"
This is purely a marketing ploy to see if they can sucker consumers into accepting, so that can generate an additional profit line.
Yes, so we can all blind our neighbors with the laser beam.
Given that a majority of republicans are now on record for reducing funds for care of the blind and they are about to take over the government, this might not be the best thing for UC Berkeley to have developed at this time.
will they be able to vote?
Presently, Mississippi politicians have larded up the hurricane hunter fleet in Biloxi, MS.
The use of drones could eliminate the need for putting pilots and crew in harms way and shut down an over-expensive program. Its time the government began investing in technologies that will save money rather than just protecting political pork.
With the bug fixes coming so quickly one after the other, Chrome needs an automatic update option to have it download and install new versions rather than requiring manual downloads. Is this in the works? Or have I missed something in the "Options" box?
"All iPhone modesl short of the original are fully capable of "
Until Apple decides it needs more cash and sends its cash cows (iPhone users) to the Apple store to get one that is compatible with their next version of iOS.
This sounds a lot like Apple and Research in Motion media hype. Its not as if ANY phone is immune to these issues. Just look at the Apple users who rushed out to by the first iPhone only to discover lots of apps and features developed for latter models that are not supported.
Apple and other competitors are just scrambling to keep Android from running away with the market. To do that they will have to build better phones and not media blitzes, although certainly marketing is a really big element in purchasing. Just as it is with sneakers. People are buying for personal identification.
There will never be a phone won't be obsolete in a few years.
The big winners will be those who can lock down users in penned networks, where the real money is made, extracting financial blood on a daily basis from those wishing to be seen as "cool", "hip", "tech savy", etc.
you have to look at natural selection. The "fragmentation" could be Android's greatest strength if among the diversity there emerges variants that excel at what users want. Likewise, different variants may prove more successful than others in different environments (when put to different uses). Can any of these potential variants be better than those that are designed around a much more "non-fragmented platform"? That will depend entirely on the kinds of uses and environments to which they will be put, their ability to evolve in the face of different set of circumstances and their relative cost of use, the latter possibly more strongly influenced by the network supporting the phone than the phone itself, since in the long run the cost of the phone is primarily in its monthly maintenance.
But if you were a user running multiple apps in the background each consuming lots of memory, it would be a big deal, since it could dramatically reduce workflow and productivity. In a perfect world, where everyone has an infinitely fast CPU and an infinite amount of memory these things don't matter. However, in the real world a lot depends on allocation both in terms of time and space (memory/disk).
Hardly, both Java and Net will be in a far better position to structure what could otherwise be spaghetti Javascript coding. Consequently, these languages will hardly go away. To the contrary, asynchronous transfers will make their use more desirable from a management perspective.
Yes. It hardly makes much sense to remove IO as an issue for a browser and call that "realistic". Most browsers are not going to be CPU bound, rather it will be the interplay between the CPU at the times the I/O is both blocked or unblocked that will make all the difference in the world in term so browser experience. Nonetheless, distinguishing CPU bound performance from non-CPU bound performance is important in isolating unnecessary latencies. Also the challenge of determining what a benchmark should look like in the face of IO issues will be a difficult one that may not readily transfer across all platforms and networks. Different browsers may well be better in different circumstances. The trick for browser developers will be better establishing what those circumstances are more times than not.
Don't laugh. It appears that birth defects are rising in a number of rural PA counties.
Its just nervous laughter. They are like cows lining up at the slaughterhouse. They are just waiting for their tap water to be next. Cracking a few jokes makes the grim reality more bearable.
The irony is that by burning this stuff they will warm the atmosphere enough that they won't need to heat their homes in the winter.
"the reason people who raise more money win is because they have more supporters".
The reason people with more money wins is that most voters vote for the person they saw in the last commercial they watched. Americans have become programmed by commercialism. How else could you explain why so many American's spend 100-200 dollars/month just to spend half their time watching commercials. If that weren't true ALL sides wouldn't spend so much time and effort falling all over themselves to get money to run commercials. They would appeal to people's reasoning skills instead, but since most voters find reasoning to difficult to contemplate, they vote for candidates who's commercials best tug at their emotions and preconceptions.
Take a hint. If you get support from "Freakonomics", its a sign that you know little about issues you are spouting off about. But you don't have to believe me, just vote Fiorina in and see if all your problems are magically solved, but don't say the folks at HP didn't warn you. She'll do what she did before, live high on the publicity, get a golden parachute and leave you footing the bill. If you are ok with that go for it.
Your probably right. The premium they paid will have HP customers picking up the slack in their profits via higher prices and poorer service for some time to come as they digest this thing. Perhaps Dell did itself a favor by bidding it up and letting HP get indigestion over the purchase. Too often takeovers are more about eliminating the competition than actually improving their business in the face of competition.
While Dell has foreign call centers and they did have a rough go of it early on, it seems to me that they have that largely resolved. If you are willing to be even modestly polite (I know difficult for many Americans, always determined to prove their cultural "superiority"), you can get quick fast service. This is no longer a problem. However, with HP, you'll be luck to talk to a telephone server machine that won't send you into phone hell or simply just hang up on you, if you can even find a phone number on their website.
You're right though they could do even better, for example get their servers to better pass service tag, identification info, etc. on to the next tech so you don't have to repeat it. Nonetheless, they have improved quite a bit.
They are very good at supporting their customers when things go wrong. I have purchased a number of Dell computers and have had excellent service with them over the years, particularly when I've had hardware failures. They attend to them courteously and promptly.
HP on the other hand does not support its products. I purchased a very expensive color laser printer from them just a few years ago, but when Windows 7 came out and I upgraded from XP, I discovered they refused to make a new driver for this printer. I and I learned thousands of other customers like me were left high and dry. I will never, ever buy HP equipment again. They simply don't support their products.
Given that most computers these days are essentially built from commodity components, service becomes a much more significant issue in terms of total cost of ownership. With Dell I have come out ahead when it comes to service, but with HP I had a lot of hidden costs when it comes to support for the inevitable repairs. HP may look sweet when they are new, but they become lemons a lot sooner than they should because of HP's determination to cut service and support costs at the expense of their customers.
"Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."
Precisely the kind of thinking that is leading to their destruction. They are vast but not endless and they are in trouble.
Who will pay for that? The ignorant and the short-sighted, but ultimately everyone, especially the fishermen.