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Comment he invented the term ``ironic science'' (Score 1) 292

I think ``ironic science'' is a useful concept. However, this particular article is a bit strange. The title has ``Science running out...'' but in the body of the article he almost solely talks about physics. How about molecular biology? No hope for great discoveries? And pure mathematics? Maybe, he does not think mathematics is a science...
As for physics, it does indeed appear to be in crisis. It seems that physics is running out of fundamental problems which can be approached within its traditional methodology. But at the same time, this methodology is extremely valuable. Perhaps the right solution is to go towards becoming a ``multidisciplinary environment''. That is, to inject the methodology of physics into other fields of science. For example, many ideas of modern mathematics were inspired by string theory. This is a manifestation of the usefulness of the physicist's way of thinking.
It would be a pity if physics dies, or even worse goes into that undead state which Horgan calls ``ironic science''.

Submission + - How do I request someone to send me a public key?

extraqwert writes: An organization wants me to send them my personal data by email. I certainly do trust them. However, I would like to politely ask them to send me their public key for encryption. The secretary probably does not know what it is. But they do have a pretty good IT department, so they can figure out. My question is, what is the proper wording for such a request? What is the right terminology to use? Should I say ``please send me your RSA key''? ``Public key''? ``PGP key''? Is there a standard and reasonable wording for such a request? (On my end, I am using GNU PGP: http://www.gnupg.org/ ) Any suggestions on how to be polite in this case?

Comment wmjump for switching (Score 2) 357

I written wmjump some time ago, for switching between workspaces and applications. Here it is: http://code.google.com/p/wmjump/ This uses ``hints'' similar to Vimperator's. If I had more time, I would maintain it more often. But it works, more or less, on all window managers which support EWMH. I use it myself (with xmonad), and I still think that this is the best format for switching windows.

Comment no whiteboard (Score 1) 350

I tried to use wave, but never figured out how to use their whiteboard. Now I don't remember what was the problem. They did have a whiteboard, but for some reason it was not usable.

Comment Re:How can you... (Score 1) 452

Very well written sillybilly! But I would like to add a thought. We lost expertise, freedom of creativity, etc, because they are now useless. All that technological progress was driven by discoveries of fundamental science. But in the recent decades we have not made any serious fundamental discoveries. Fundamental science slowed down. Therefore, we should expect that applied science/technology will slow down too. Yes, we can build hybrid cars. But that will only cut oil consumption by half. This is clearly not enough. The resources are running out, and science/technology simply cannot help. I doubt that Japanese or Chinese are better than us, in this respect. I am afraid that creativity is not very useful anymore, and so instead of talented engineers we now have, here in US, talented lawyers. And strong army.

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