I think Linus said that Stranger in a Strange Land was his favourite book growing up. https://archive.computerhistor...

(I wonder if it could be the origin of the name 'git')

But the point of recycling isn't energy efficiency. I don't doubt it takes twice the energy. The idea, surely, is to reduce the amount of plastic waste that goes into landfill.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I'll disagree a little bit: we have heavy lift rockets bringing mass to orbit at a greater rate than any time in history and new larger and more efficient rockets on the cusp of being brought to use, with next generations planned for the future. Space launch technology -- the actual raw launching of mass to orbit, where it can be useful -- has advanced. And mass to orbit means more fuel -- if we really wanted to get something out there faster.

And that's where our statements arrive at the same conclusion: there's little need to do anything but super efficient deep space probes. While I can quibble with your implied assertion about newer technology not making a difference in ability, in a practical sense given our funding of deep space research, the big tech upgrade has been to data collection devices and communication. We'll have to have way cheaper lift capability before extra fuel to cut time off a project makes any kind of sense. But it is now at least plausible as an option.

(Also, this appears to be the only thread that isn't making Trek or Aliens jokes)

When they load you into the trains, Iâ(TM)ll be taking photos to feed my Ai so folks never forget.

Until the next generation of you calls for censorship and forced speech.

Misinformation is free expression, comrade.

The book "Alex's Adventures in Numberland" by Alex Bellos talks about this. There is a difference in the way we treat numbers 1, 2, 3, possibly 4, compared to numbers 5 and above. The author suggests this is reflected in number systems. Roman numerals start I II III and there are two alternatives for four, IIII and IV. In Chinese too the first three numbers are groups of lines before it changes with four. Our Indio-Arabic glyphs for 1, 2, 3 also originate as one, two, or three lines joined up.

I would suggest that case endings in Slavonic languages might be another indicator. For two, three, or four of something you use the genitive singular (roughly: "three of apple") but then for five or more the genitive plural is used instead. (Things may get muddy when dealing with compound numbers like forty-two where you could use the same case ending as for two.)

What other languages or writing systems have a change between 2,3,4 and larger numbers?

I was assuming it was based essentially on existing digital camera hardware with an extra authentication or signing step at the point the image is written to storage. That's how these products have worked up to now. Of course if the camera manufacturers are investing big bucks in developing a secure system from the ground up, my assumptions are wrong. But I don't see any indication that's what is being offered here.

That's right, I am assuming the connection from the sensor to the rest of the camera electronics is not part of the secure system. I think that's a fair assumption, as CCD or CMOS sensors are relatively simple devices and don't have room or time for cryptographic processing at the moment the image is recorded and read out. Even if not, the point remains that you could leave the electronic parts untouched and just project in the image you want to record.

I'll second that. You are not alone. The surface Duo phones are great for getting work done.

But you don't have to crack the TPM or the secure enclave. You just have to replace the camera sensor with a custom device that outputs the image you want, and if necessary set the camera's date and time or fake some GPS signals. You could even keep the hardware untouched and use a slide duplicator attachment to make an authenticated copy of any image you want.

Yes, rampant inflation creates jobs.

Fuck off with those data points.

I voted for no one and am glad.

For many years advocates of more liberal drug policy have argued that addiction should be treated as a medical condition. And we're always told that mental illness should be seen as just another illness -- you wouldn't stigmatize or blame someone for having a broken arm, so you shouldn't do so if they are schizophrenic.

Well, isn't this the logical outcome? If a medical condition is severe enough to destroy your quality of life, and it isn't curable, then in some countries you have the option of assisted suicide. Why would you refuse that to someone whose condition is being addicted, if that's just another medical condition?

Hmm, you say a roundabout takes more space than a 4-way light *for the same amount of traffic*.

If that's true, it implies that roundabouts aren't that good after all? Since I thought their advantage was handling a higher volume of traffic. Like for example, if you put a four-way intersection with traffic lights it can handle an average flow of ten cars per minute, but a roundabout could take twenty cars per minute. In other words, greater throughput. (I don't know what the true numbers are.)

Perhaps the throughput is the same but a roundabout reduces the average time for a car to clear the junction -- in other words, same throughput but improved latency?

I do remember back in the day Google was known for its contrarian approach. Consultants would tell you that for an "enterprise" data centre you needed expensive servers, redundant power supplies on each unit, RAID on each unit in case a disk failed, ECC memory and so on. But Google decided to get the reliability at the large scale, throwing together large numbers of cheap systems with off-the-shelf parts and if one of them fails, well you just leave it there and use the remaining ones.

Nowdays it's conventional wisdom that servers should be "cattle, not pets". Perhaps in even in 1999 the smart people knew that. Perhaps I am setting up a straw man with these "consultants" who wanted an expensive, gold-plated approach. For sure it would have happened anyway without Google. But this guy did have to swim against the current.