While the internet did not make me an atheist, it did made me a better informed atheist with better arguments. It also showed me that I was far from alone.
If he would have just waited a few weeks the whole thing would have just blown over. Even the ten people boycotting Firefox would have forgotten. He must have been under some internal pressure.
Pardon this post as it is heavy on opinion. If you think it's so far off the mark you want to mod me down, it would be far more productive to reply.
Ubuntu One was a pretty big deal and one of the last good things attached to Canonical Ubuntu's name (IMHO). Hard times at Canonical perhaps? Canonical has always struck me as a company that won't be around forever, if even a few scant more years. They are always either too busy chasing unrealistic goals in the hopes of being elevated to the levels of the real major players in tech, or are busy fighting against popular trends and pushing back against the overall direction of Linux and Open Source.
The death of Canonical is a shake up the Linux development community needs for both perspective and spurring continued innovation in Linux and Linux distributions.
I agree. I wonder, yet also dare not wonder, what will become of those of us (a lot of people here) who will never be able to stop seeing the forest through the trees. Complacency from fear? Revolutionaries? Found out by technology that can spot us and executed? Perhaps all three where option two may be impossible.
When the acts of the NSA first came to light as we now know them, there was outrage not just from the tech sector, but from the general population as well. As these stories continue coming at a steady and regular pace, I still see outrage over the infringement of our rights - and the understanding of the general slippery slope creepiness of it - from those technically inclined. But less and less are the major outlets making a fuss, and even when the general population catches wind of each new story it is increasingly met with a sarcastic, "Gee, didn't see that coming." and a shrug of the shoulders. Is the possibility of a tipping point in favor of our rights being eliminated be the increasing apathy of the greater people toward these issues? I suspect we are on the losing side. I suspect that as the stories come out, and people in general not only become desensitized - but worse, it becomes the norm. In becoming the norm it will balloon to scales and scopes unimaginable. I feel we will reach a point where the majority of people will have forgotten that it was ever any other way. Even as it continues to get worse, they will continue to forget.
The moon does not physically shrink in size just because it moves further away from the Earth. Also, it moves away from the Earth at a mere rate of 1.5 inches per year.
And I'm still upset over this whole affair for all the reasons outlined by fellow Slashdoters when the facebook acquisition was announced. There is no way facebook is going let this technology develop without a plan to monetize the data of the people who wear it. That in itself may not be so bad, however I do not have a facebook account (as of several years) and I'm not going reactivate it just to use an Occulus. Certainly this is speculation, but it's not far fetched by any measure. Further, I am not about to wear something on my head or anywhere else with a facebook logo, except on a condom cause fuck facebook.
In the animal studies, there was no evidence of brain damage after the procedure - and they have been experimenting for a decade to be sure. Animal studies, especially on pigs (very close human relatives) are generally very accurate and telling. As for actual humans? We will have to wait and see, but ultimately human trials are a must. If they manage to save the lives of these first few, without incident directly related to the procedure, it will be one of the biggest breakthroughs in medicine in a very long time, and may eventually contribute to actual long-term suspended animation\stasis technology. The benefit there is that we will be able to take people who have incurable diseases, are nearing death, and put them into a long-term cold sleep until their disease can be cured. The article discusses how the low temperature protects cells from damage. Unfortunately, they left out that at those temperatures the brain goes in to a hibernation state to protect itself. It is likely that this will work out.
What is it about blood which causes problems which are solved by removing it?
10 C or 50 F is pretty cold for blood. I would imagine it would difficult to maintain pressure that that temperature. Cooling the blood to that level may also damage cells, regardless of the fact that it's not freezing - that's me speculating. I would also venture to guess that its faster to cool the body with readily available cold saline then run the blood through a cooling machine. Also, under the conditions they are testing the technique, the patient has already lost most of their blood. Doctors already use blood cooling machines for certain types of heart surgery, but in that situation, they have time. With this technique, time is of the essence.
especially if it's (1) approved by the living person in advance
From the article:
"The trial can only go ahead because the US Food and Drug Administration considers it to be exempt from informed consent. That's because it will involve people whose injuries are likely to be fatal and there is no alternative treatment. The team had to have discussions with groups in the community and place adverts in newspapers describing the trial. People can opt out online. So far, nobody has."
I am extremely wary yet curious about the technique.
Why are you wary? The technique has already passed animal trials and these people are going to die anyway. At the beginning of your comment you mention a concern that people will come back with demon souls or something similar that you have "learned" from watching horror films. At first I thought you were being facetious - are you actually concerned about that?
You should try reading the article, it's rather enlightening.
What I am saying is that the world is a rehab center for bigots, if they wind up in the right place. A long time ago worked at a two-story night club. We started renting the top floor out as a gay night club on Fridays. As part of my job, I got to help out. I was a bit homophobic at the time, but not bigoted. After I got to know the people and culture first hand, that homophobia melted away and they became just other people, some became friends.
Sometimes it takes other minds AND OR an environment to change a single mind. We can only change the world one mind at a time.
As I said, I understand where you are otherwise coming from. In fact we are in agreement. As part of the snowballing boycott, I myself have purged my system of all Mozilla software, as I am not waiting around for him to shed his moral repugnancy,that's the pressure we can apply.
BTW - I am having trouble finding an adequate replacement for Thunderbird. Can you recommend anything?
So this guy is now submerged in inclusiveness, namely with policies supporting GBLT. In an official statement he said he has people around him guiding him on the culture. Further, as with any company, he works directly with a good number of gay people. This is a perfect experience to change his mind on the issue regardless of the source of his current viewpoint.
Over the last... long while now scientists have developed a bad habit of getting really excited and presenting findings as concrete, only to get shot down. Besides, doesn't an experiment have to be repeated for the results to be confirmed? Regardless, if the alternate interpretation proves true, I find it no less significant.
You say you want to be a developer. Your time scale to pick up new skills in programming, join some Open Source projects for your resume, and begin creating a living resume of application you have written is extremely limited but doable. The most important question you have to ask and answer yourself right away is: What field of programming do you want to get into? If you want to get into web and mobile applications then there are probably half a dozen very specific languages and technologies you need to start drilling down on right now. If you want to get into any other particular area of programming then there will similarly be a different set of languages and technologies you need to nail to the wall. You say you like Java and that you like to solve problems. What types of problems do you like to solve with Java? Answering that might help you pin down the area you should pursue. The thing about programming these days is that it is a field of specialized compartments. For you that is good because it decreases the amount of time and effort you have to put into learning.
Government leadership on both sides could use an extended stay in a psychiatric facility. I thought US/Iran relations were supposed to be warming? With active gestures from both sides? In regards to that, I can think of stupider moves Iran could have made but this is dumb and disappointing all the same. When things progressed so far that President Obama and President Rouhani spoke by phone - a major accomplishment on both sides - I hoped things would keep getting better from there. That they would open up their nuclear efforts and that we could then lift sanctions with a real friendship on the horizon. What happened to all that? It was recent and a major news story for sometime. I guess I was naive. If the nations of the world could only humble themselves before one another... In most cases I suppose religion is the big barrier there. The planet is (figuratively) shrinking at an exponential rate and if we don't learn to actually truly get along as a planet of independent nations, we will see a mass thinning of the population at some point, under unfavorable circumstances.
I'm not even drinking yet I'm honestly not 100% sure what you are saying. I've tested it and CPU benchmarks are the same with or without using the integrated graphics. I'm not a gamer so I use cheap, lower end cards. I just really really hate dealing with Linux AMD drivers. I also dislike shared memory.
AMD still has roughly 20% market share, so I would say yes, AMD still matters. It's a pretty big market for what can be considered only two-players. AMD certainly has it's struggles, and with the prospect of an NVIDIA\Intel APU alliance on the horizon competition is going to get tougher. But even then they will probably be the "most bang for your buck" option which is a large but not exclusive part of what is keeping them alive. I use AMD APU's, but as a Linux user the first thing I do is disable the Radeon portion in the BIOS on pop in an NVIDIA card. My current frequency-unlocked quad core is no slouch and I hope to be getting an 8-core AMD in a couple of months.
I care for neither Vim nor Emacs. But only because they are overly powerful for my meager scripting needs. Basically, Vim's complexity actually slows me down. However, having taken the time to actually learn Vim, I fully appreciate why it is loved by more hardcore programmers and why it increases their productivity. The complexity of coding in Vala or Objective C, etc... is a match for the complexity of VIM - so to speak. I have yet to grow a beard long enough to try out EMACS.
My requirements for battery life might be less than others. I only care about getting through a day. It should also be mentioned that it has rapid charging technology. They are alleging you can charge 75% of the battery in 30-minutes. If that's true it's sounds like a decent compromise to me.
I am kind of surprised to see that the majority of posts are railing against this phone, mostly over the display resolution being so high. I'm thinking most people never made it past the summary. On top of what the summary lists, it has 3 gigabytes of ram, 32 gigabytes of internal storage, micro SD that can handle 128 gigabyte cards, 5 megapixel front facing camera, 50 (sorta) megapixel rear camera, 3000mAh removable battery. Rapid charging technology - going from 0 to 75% charge on a 3000mAh battery is pretty sweet.
At a $599 retail price point? That's pretty remarkable. The only thing the article does not discuss in the graphics chip set but I'm willing to bet it's nothing to sneeze at.
Slashdot Mirror
While the internet did not make me an atheist, it did made me a better informed atheist with better arguments. It also showed me that I was far from alone.
If he would have just waited a few weeks the whole thing would have just blown over. Even the ten people boycotting Firefox would have forgotten. He must have been under some internal pressure.
Pardon this post as it is heavy on opinion. If you think it's so far off the mark you want to mod me down, it would be far more productive to reply.
Ubuntu One was a pretty big deal and one of the last good things attached to Canonical Ubuntu's name (IMHO). Hard times at Canonical perhaps? Canonical has always struck me as a company that won't be around forever, if even a few scant more years. They are always either too busy chasing unrealistic goals in the hopes of being elevated to the levels of the real major players in tech, or are busy fighting against popular trends and pushing back against the overall direction of Linux and Open Source.
The death of Canonical is a shake up the Linux development community needs for both perspective and spurring continued innovation in Linux and Linux distributions.
Is the auto playing accessibility feature for the visually impaired the April fools joke?
I would be curious to know if the heart even has to be as efficient in micro gravity.
I agree. I wonder, yet also dare not wonder, what will become of those of us (a lot of people here) who will never be able to stop seeing the forest through the trees. Complacency from fear? Revolutionaries? Found out by technology that can spot us and executed? Perhaps all three where option two may be impossible.
I can't help but wonder...
When the acts of the NSA first came to light as we now know them, there was outrage not just from the tech sector, but from the general population as well. As these stories continue coming at a steady and regular pace, I still see outrage over the infringement of our rights - and the understanding of the general slippery slope creepiness of it - from those technically inclined. But less and less are the major outlets making a fuss, and even when the general population catches wind of each new story it is increasingly met with a sarcastic, "Gee, didn't see that coming." and a shrug of the shoulders. Is the possibility of a tipping point in favor of our rights being eliminated be the increasing apathy of the greater people toward these issues? I suspect we are on the losing side. I suspect that as the stories come out, and people in general not only become desensitized - but worse, it becomes the norm. In becoming the norm it will balloon to scales and scopes unimaginable. I feel we will reach a point where the majority of people will have forgotten that it was ever any other way. Even as it continues to get worse, they will continue to forget.
The moon does not physically shrink in size just because it moves further away from the Earth. Also, it moves away from the Earth at a mere rate of 1.5 inches per year.
And I'm still upset over this whole affair for all the reasons outlined by fellow Slashdoters when the facebook acquisition was announced. There is no way facebook is going let this technology develop without a plan to monetize the data of the people who wear it. That in itself may not be so bad, however I do not have a facebook account (as of several years) and I'm not going reactivate it just to use an Occulus. Certainly this is speculation, but it's not far fetched by any measure. Further, I am not about to wear something on my head or anywhere else with a facebook logo, except on a condom cause fuck facebook.
In the animal studies, there was no evidence of brain damage after the procedure - and they have been experimenting for a decade to be sure. Animal studies, especially on pigs (very close human relatives) are generally very accurate and telling. As for actual humans? We will have to wait and see, but ultimately human trials are a must. If they manage to save the lives of these first few, without incident directly related to the procedure, it will be one of the biggest breakthroughs in medicine in a very long time, and may eventually contribute to actual long-term suspended animation\stasis technology. The benefit there is that we will be able to take people who have incurable diseases, are nearing death, and put them into a long-term cold sleep until their disease can be cured. The article discusses how the low temperature protects cells from damage. Unfortunately, they left out that at those temperatures the brain goes in to a hibernation state to protect itself. It is likely that this will work out.
10 C or 50 F is pretty cold for blood. I would imagine it would difficult to maintain pressure that that temperature. Cooling the blood to that level may also damage cells, regardless of the fact that it's not freezing - that's me speculating. I would also venture to guess that its faster to cool the body with readily available cold saline then run the blood through a cooling machine. Also, under the conditions they are testing the technique, the patient has already lost most of their blood. Doctors already use blood cooling machines for certain types of heart surgery, but in that situation, they have time. With this technique, time is of the essence.
From the article:
"The trial can only go ahead because the US Food and Drug Administration considers it to be exempt from informed consent. That's because it will involve people whose injuries are likely to be fatal and there is no alternative treatment. The team had to have discussions with groups in the community and place adverts in newspapers describing the trial. People can opt out online. So far, nobody has."
Why are you wary? The technique has already passed animal trials and these people are going to die anyway. At the beginning of your comment you mention a concern that people will come back with demon souls or something similar that you have "learned" from watching horror films. At first I thought you were being facetious - are you actually concerned about that?
You should try reading the article, it's rather enlightening.
I appreciate and understand your sentiment.
What I am saying is that the world is a rehab center for bigots, if they wind up in the right place. A long time ago worked at a two-story night club. We started renting the top floor out as a gay night club on Fridays. As part of my job, I got to help out. I was a bit homophobic at the time, but not bigoted. After I got to know the people and culture first hand, that homophobia melted away and they became just other people, some became friends.
Sometimes it takes other minds AND OR an environment to change a single mind. We can only change the world one mind at a time.
As I said, I understand where you are otherwise coming from. In fact we are in agreement. As part of the snowballing boycott, I myself have purged my system of all Mozilla software, as I am not waiting around for him to shed his moral repugnancy,that's the pressure we can apply.
BTW - I am having trouble finding an adequate replacement for Thunderbird. Can you recommend anything?
So this guy is now submerged in inclusiveness, namely with policies supporting GBLT. In an official statement he said he has people around him guiding him on the culture. Further, as with any company, he works directly with a good number of gay people. This is a perfect experience to change his mind on the issue regardless of the source of his current viewpoint.
Mild banana and clove? If I could edit my last post, I would change from buy' ngop to nuqDaq 'oH puchpa''e'
buy' ngop
Figuratively of course : P
Your'e right.
Over the last... long while now scientists have developed a bad habit of getting really excited and presenting findings as concrete, only to get shot down. Besides, doesn't an experiment have to be repeated for the results to be confirmed? Regardless, if the alternate interpretation proves true, I find it no less significant.
You say you want to be a developer. Your time scale to pick up new skills in programming, join some Open Source projects for your resume, and begin creating a living resume of application you have written is extremely limited but doable. The most important question you have to ask and answer yourself right away is: What field of programming do you want to get into? If you want to get into web and mobile applications then there are probably half a dozen very specific languages and technologies you need to start drilling down on right now. If you want to get into any other particular area of programming then there will similarly be a different set of languages and technologies you need to nail to the wall. You say you like Java and that you like to solve problems. What types of problems do you like to solve with Java? Answering that might help you pin down the area you should pursue. The thing about programming these days is that it is a field of specialized compartments. For you that is good because it decreases the amount of time and effort you have to put into learning.
Whatever you figure out, best of luck.
Government leadership on both sides could use an extended stay in a psychiatric facility. I thought US/Iran relations were supposed to be warming? With active gestures from both sides? In regards to that, I can think of stupider moves Iran could have made but this is dumb and disappointing all the same. When things progressed so far that President Obama and President Rouhani spoke by phone - a major accomplishment on both sides - I hoped things would keep getting better from there. That they would open up their nuclear efforts and that we could then lift sanctions with a real friendship on the horizon. What happened to all that? It was recent and a major news story for sometime. I guess I was naive. If the nations of the world could only humble themselves before one another... In most cases I suppose religion is the big barrier there. The planet is (figuratively) shrinking at an exponential rate and if we don't learn to actually truly get along as a planet of independent nations, we will see a mass thinning of the population at some point, under unfavorable circumstances.
I'm not even drinking yet I'm honestly not 100% sure what you are saying. I've tested it and CPU benchmarks are the same with or without using the integrated graphics. I'm not a gamer so I use cheap, lower end cards. I just really really hate dealing with Linux AMD drivers. I also dislike shared memory.
AMD still has roughly 20% market share, so I would say yes, AMD still matters. It's a pretty big market for what can be considered only two-players. AMD certainly has it's struggles, and with the prospect of an NVIDIA\Intel APU alliance on the horizon competition is going to get tougher. But even then they will probably be the "most bang for your buck" option which is a large but not exclusive part of what is keeping them alive. I use AMD APU's, but as a Linux user the first thing I do is disable the Radeon portion in the BIOS on pop in an NVIDIA card. My current frequency-unlocked quad core is no slouch and I hope to be getting an 8-core AMD in a couple of months.
I care for neither Vim nor Emacs. But only because they are overly powerful for my meager scripting needs. Basically, Vim's complexity actually slows me down. However, having taken the time to actually learn Vim, I fully appreciate why it is loved by more hardcore programmers and why it increases their productivity. The complexity of coding in Vala or Objective C, etc... is a match for the complexity of VIM - so to speak. I have yet to grow a beard long enough to try out EMACS.
My requirements for battery life might be less than others. I only care about getting through a day. It should also be mentioned that it has rapid charging technology. They are alleging you can charge 75% of the battery in 30-minutes. If that's true it's sounds like a decent compromise to me.
I am kind of surprised to see that the majority of posts are railing against this phone, mostly over the display resolution being so high. I'm thinking most people never made it past the summary. On top of what the summary lists, it has 3 gigabytes of ram, 32 gigabytes of internal storage, micro SD that can handle 128 gigabyte cards, 5 megapixel front facing camera, 50 (sorta) megapixel rear camera, 3000mAh removable battery. Rapid charging technology - going from 0 to 75% charge on a 3000mAh battery is pretty sweet.
At a $599 retail price point? That's pretty remarkable. The only thing the article does not discuss in the graphics chip set but I'm willing to bet it's nothing to sneeze at.
It has a 3000mAh battery. That's actually pretty substantial for a phone.