Comment Re:Going out on a limb here... (Score 1) 673
Can we get those guys to work on Doctor Who canon, if they've finished with the Bible?
Can we get those guys to work on Doctor Who canon, if they've finished with the Bible?
Here let me explain it to you:
[evangalist on tour - California]
Evanagalist: YEAH JESUS IS GOOD, JESUS IS GREAT, JESUS WANTS YOU TO GIVE ME MONEY!!!! BTW The rapture happens 6pm on 21st May 2011.
Audience: PRAISE JESUS!!!
[Florida]
Evangalist: YEAH JESUS IS GOOD, JESUS IS GREAT
Audience: PRAISE JESUS!!!
Guy in audience: Errm, excuse me - I attended your show in California and you said the rapture was at 6pm there too! What gives?
Evangalist: Errm, (bugger), Errm, yeah it's 6pm local time - PRAISE JESUS!!!
Guy in audience: So the rapture it sweeps across the earth from east to west and hits every time zone at 6pm?
Evangalist: Errm, (shit), Errm, yeah that's right - JESUS IS OUR SAVIOUR!!!!
Guy in audience: Why exactly?
Evangalist: Errm, (fuck), Errm - BECAUSE BROTHER, GOD MOVES IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS!!!!
Guy in audience: Oh yeah, that old chestnut. What about DST?
Evangalist: [looks around for where those bloody bouncers have got to] Errm, yeah Jesus takes care of that too - PRAISE THE LORD!!!
Guy in audience: [getting dragged away by bouncers] But that's bollocks!!! Gaaghhh Let Go!!! You're just a charlaten!!! Hey Put Me Down!!! Give me back my life savings you piece of shit!!!
Evangalist: (where was I, oh yeah) PRAISE JESUS!!!! JESUS WANTS YOU TO GIVE ME MONEY!!!
Audience: PRAISE JESUS!!!
Sorry, forgot to add the rest of what I wanted to say
So yes, it's all a matter of if you can convince the rest of the network to accept your block and transaction. If you could get enough people to do that (by getting them to install your version of the client) then yes, as I said, you will have fractured the bitcoin system into two distinct "currencies". However that's a big "if" - what incentive could you offer to convince a non trivial number of people to do that?
AIUI If you override the difficulty you can mine blocks more quickly, but those blocks won't be accepted by the rest of network - so they'll be worthless.
(this first link is in a bit of an odd place, being under "Weaknesses" but under subsection "Definitely not a problem")
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses#Generate_valid_blocks_with_a_lower_difficulty_than_normal
Similarly when you mine a block you are allowed to create a transaction giving yourself a specific reward, which is currently 50 coins and halves every four years. If you award yourself a different amount then that transaction will be considered invalid by the rest of the network and will be worthless.
The way it works, AIUI, is the "new" bitcoins are crytographically guaranteed to be incompatible with the existing coins.
So all you would have done is create a distinct bitcoin currency and would have to convince everyone to trade with your version of the coins if you wanted it to have any value.
OK it's a fair cop - my grasp of these matters is less than stellar.
Bloody hell - $14T increasing by 2.2T a year!!! I'm glad I don't live in the US!
The only question is how much of the rest of world's economy goes down the shitter when the US goes bankrupt
AIUI, the states demanding action are the ones that think Amazon having affiliates living locally means the same as Amazon having a business presence in that state. Most people (outside of the states' tax offices) think that's something of a stretch.
So the question is, where are you going to cut the other $1.4T?
Wait a minute do you mean that the US deficit is growing by $2.2T a year - holy cow!
OTOH if you mean it's currently $2.2T in total and growing relatively slowly - then paying it off a $800B a year will take - let me see - a little over 3 years.
Hell you could even pay it off a little more slowly and maybe even afford a decent health service!
In taking insult though, you read implications into my words that I never made
Fair enough, that's just how it read to me.
Perhaps it means you find your job so satisfying that if they gave you two options: (1) here's your salary, every year, without you needing to ever show up, or (2) come work for me year in and year out for your salary, you would choose (2) in a heartbeat
Oh, its definitely a (1) for me - I code software for a living, which as a profession is something I enjoy - but given the choice, I'd sit at home coding things I want to rather than what my boss wants me to do.
Whilst I can imagine there are a small number of people that really enjoy sweeping floors or working in a factory - I suspect the vast majority do it mostly for the money.
Equally, while there are undoubtedly some that would happily draw a salary for eating nachos all day, I would like to think that for most people that would get boring eventually - and they would then seek to do something more fulfilling - and I stand by my opinion that everybody is capable of that.
While you say that all companies need grunts - I'd have to say that maybe that's true today but maybe that won't be the case in the future when all those boring, unfulfilling jobs would be automated or made unnecessary. It's already happening, you only have to look at the not so distant past - how many people work in typing pools these days, how many telephone operators are there compared to when switching calls had to be done manually?
Yes it might be a pipedream, or at least it might not happen until I'm long gone - but I like to imagine a future where everyone chooses option (2).
I think it's safe to say that there will, at least for the forseeable future, be plenty of jobs that require intelligence, skill and creativity that cannot be done by machines.
You seem to be implying that there's a whole bunch of people that are just too thick to do anything more inspiring than work on a production line, drive trucks or sweep floors. I actually find that idea quite insulting!
I prefer to believe that everyone is capable of aspiring to a more satisfying career and anyone that does not get that opportunity has been failed by our educational systems and/or by society in general.
It called Project Icarus because it's a billing itself as the "son of" Project Daedalus from the 70's.
Seriously, why does this meme just keep going round and round?
computers/phones already have hardware capable of decoding WebM - it's the same hardware used to decode h.264! In most cases all that is/will be needed is a firmware update.
Android phones will obviously be there first - it's already available in Gingerbread. Apple will follow suit eventually, they might resist for a while but with Android's rising market share and Google controlling Youtube, they're caught between a rock and a hard place and I'm sure they know it.
Firstly it's GP's analogy, not mine. Secondly it's just an example - the actual point I was making was to refute GGP's assertion that the GPL prohibition on distributing binaries without source makes it non-free by making the counter-point that living in a free society does not mean you are free to commit actions that abridge other peoples' freedom.
In any case you're completely mixed up wrt your use of involuntary/voluntary - the murder is voluntary on the part of the murderer but involuntary on the part of the victim. Distributing binaries without source is voluntary on the part of distributor but non-receipt of source is involuntary on the part of the recipient.
Way to miss the point!
If I tried a car analogy, would you say "that's completely different, one is about cars the other is a voluntary acceptance of goods"?
"By the time they had diminished from 50 to 8, the other dwarves began to suspect "Hungry." -- a Larson cartoon
