Comment Re:ummm why? (Score 1) 901
Why ban wikipedia?
You just answered your own question.
Comment Re:Hey, remember when Ender's Game was good? (Score 1) 507
That's more like it.
Comment Re:Hey, remember when Ender's Game was good? (Score 1) 507
Somehow I doubt that he wants to kill government attempts to change the definition of marriage, what with that being impossible and all. Guy's an asshat. He's open about his opposition to gay marriage. He does not want to overthrow the government, nor does he want to use violence, as per his direct quotes.
I read Card's non-fiction editorial stuff quite a bit, not because I agree, mind you. Whatever else Card is, he's committed to democracy. He thinks it's panacea and utopia and rainbows and bunny rabbits. He's completely opposed to any kind of protest against government authority. This comes up repeatedly in his writing. You take one quote, misinterpret it wildly, and come out screaming about "violently overthrowing the government" when his stated stance is support of the political process that exists.
He's an asshat. He's always been an asshat. He ignores much history and engages in Mormon apologia and hates "the terrorists." You had to pick one (inaccurate!) sticking point about gay marriage as your reason not to read his books?
Comment Re:Big whoop... (Score 1) 125
I am among those people.
Comment Re:Hey, remember when Ender's Game was good? (Score 1) 507
(See user names for irony)
Lord Ender, while I agree that Card's politics are... disagreeable, I'd like to point you (as someone else already has) to this article. The relevant quote, to prevent TLDR:
"At that point, what can we do? I've heard frustrated people talk about armed rebellion, about overthrowing the government. Those of you with itchy trigger fingers, put away your guns. We are committed to democracy, not to violence. ...
All we have to do is withdraw our support from the dictatorship. "
Journal Journal: Teaching Programming to Kids? 2
I'm an undergrad Math/CS student. One of my cousins, an exceptionally bright 11-year-old, is interested in learning to program. I'd like to give him some kind of direction; at least, more than I got: to teach him to avoid bad habits, use design patterns (OO vs procedural, especially) properly, and make sure that he stays interested. I'd like to see what Slashdot thinks: what are appropriate resources to use? Which language should I try to teach him? Are there any good books out there?
Submission + - Microsoft Works to become ad-funded? (viagra.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Will Microsoft Works become "free", with ads?
(This story submission brought to you by Viagra, which can help you avoid downtime and keep a smile on your lips!) It worked for Opera, can it work for Microsoft?
Submission + - Study links climate change to Hurricane frequency (www.cbc.ca)
Socguy writes: Key factors in global climate change, like warming sea temperatures and shifting wind patterns, have prompted a sharp rise in hurricanes, according to a study out Monday.
The report by Greg Holland of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and Peter Webster of Georgia Institute of Technology was published online Monday in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.
The researchers analyzed data from about the past 100 years, ending with 2005. They used systematic meteorologist's data derived from aircraft flights starting in 1944, satellite data from about 1970, and more sophisticated measuring methods for the subsequent years.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/07/30/atlantich urricanes.html?ref=rss
The report by Greg Holland of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and Peter Webster of Georgia Institute of Technology was published online Monday in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.
The researchers analyzed data from about the past 100 years, ending with 2005. They used systematic meteorologist's data derived from aircraft flights starting in 1944, satellite data from about 1970, and more sophisticated measuring methods for the subsequent years.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/07/30/atlantic
Submission + - Censoring our Beloved Cartoons (wired.com)
Luxifer writes: "We all know that shows like the Simpsons and Family guy are screened before they get to air, I am sometimes amazed at what gets past the censors. But what about our childrens' cartoons? Shows like The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Casper's Scare School? Wired has a story about the writers of these shows and the hoops that they have to jump through just to entertain our kiddies. One show requires that the script is approved by 47 people before it's approved. Another show considers the word 'beseech' to be blasphemous. Personally, I think as long as you're not trying to show Horton Hires a Ho, or Bi-Curious George, you should let the writers have their creative reign. The Flintstones had a lot of content that kids wouldn't get, that's what made it fun for the adults to watch it with their kids."
Journal Journal: Is Internet threat measurable?
How do security companies measure Internet threat levels? To find out the answer we collected a year's worth of threat level data from four security companies and compared the results. The results show very little similarity between the four companies, which turns the question "How do they do it?" into "Why do they do it?". It appears to be not possible to accurately measure and represent the global Internet threat level.
Submission + - EOS (Evolutive Operating System)
alphinux writes: Hello,
I've been looking for a while if someone is working on an EOS (Evolutive Operative System), well that's the way I like to call it. It's an OS that is smart and changes it's Source Code, then compiles it. After zero results I came here to see if any slahdoters something about this subject.
Submission + - do Internet users want anonymity? 5
An anonymous reader writes: There's been quite a lot of research (academic and otherwise) on anonymous communication systems (TOR, Nyms, Crowds...). But the user population on even the most popular system, Tor, is an insignificant portion of the net user population. So I'm wondering, is anonymous communication useless, or is there just no killer app yet?
If someone implemented anonymous BitTorrent, would you sign up?
If someone implemented anonymous BitTorrent, would you sign up?
Submission + - China's space science prepares for liftoff (aip.org)
Engineer Murad writes: "In unveiling its five-year plan for 2006-10 this past March, the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) announced that the HXMT had won a competition for funding, beating out a proposal for the Solar Space Telescope (SST). A host of other astronomical projects are funded for various stages of R&D.
Scheduled for launch in 2010, the HXMT will survey the sky in the 20-250 keV range. "In this energy band, it should be the most sensitive instrument so far for a full-sky survey," says project coleader Shuang Nan Zhang, who splits his time between Tsinghua University and the Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing. "It will take a year to scan the whole sky," he adds.
In addition to a hard x-ray survey instrument, the mission will carry two lower-energy detectors — capable of observing from 1 keV to 30 keV — for pointed observations. Possible targets for such observations include neutron-star-black-hole binaries, active galactic nuclei, supernova remnants, soft gamma-ray burst repeaters, and galaxy clusters. "With all the detectors pointed at the same source," Zhang says, "we can look at sources with broadband spectra and rapid variability — like a high-energy version of RXTE [NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer]."
China is providing the launcher, spacecraft, and hard and medium x-ray detectors, while a low-energy detector will be built jointly with scientists in the UK.
Unspecified budget
Zhang estimates the HXMT price tag at about $100 million. "It's pretty cheap by international standards," he says. "But in China it's a megaproject. It's the [country's] largest astronomy project ever." The country's manned space program and lunar exploration plans — an orbiter will be launched this fall to map the Moon's surface, followed by landers and rovers that will carry out experiments and bring back samples — are larger, but they are not pure astronomy programs; the manned program is not under the CNSA.
The total budget for space science is unspecified, says Zhang, one of the architects of the CNSA five-year plan. "The government does not give us a budget. There is no cap. We tell them our needs. We say, 'It's been approved, please fund.' "
In the past, decisions about space missions in China have been made at top government levels. This time, with peer review, the people whose missions lost out were of course disappointed. But, says Zhang, the reaction from the community about using peer review has been positive. "Everyone is a winner because we have established the correct procedure.""
Feed Wired: Navy Wants to Predict Roadside Bombs (wired.com)
Feed Science Daily: Yale Chemists Work On Converting Solar Energy To Fuel (sciencedaily.com)
A team of chemists at Yale is working to increase the nation's energy supply through effective use of solar power under the auspices of the US Department of Energy program for basic research on solar energy utilization.
