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Comment Re: Able to or will? (Score 1) 291

Interesting idea, a robot colony. Going to the moon was easy in the sense that very little "new" science was needed.

A robot colony presents challenges. Robots need lots of energy, far more than can be delivered though cables. Machines wear out, there are no 100% rechargeable batteries...

Sounds like a great teaching premise!

"Class. the project is to design a self-substaining robot colony for deployment on planets and moons. Start with Mars as a target."

Comment Research some of the linguistic discussions (Score 1) 626

James Cameron director of Avatar, Aliens, Terminator, Titanic et al is a (perhaps mad) genius. He created an artificial language for Avatar. There is an interesting article of a discussion he had on this subject. He knows a lot about artificial languages and languages in general. The discussion covered what makes a language "live"; a pool of active users interacting in real life, ambiguity... (I think) he considers Klingon an active language but not Esperanto. See if you can find the article. It's worth while given your interest.

Pidgin is a language form that arise when many diverse workers are thrown together. Cajun is the form that arises amongst the children. Each has its own grammar that arises no matter what the mix of languages. Read about those before you try to invent your own. Computer languages are not the same as human languages although I attended a meeting of sysadmins on regular expressions and the discussion of examples sounded like s Gilbert and Sullivan song! :-)

Finally, an old language joke: there was an international meeting of academics where they all spoke a common language, Yiddish! :-)

Comment Handle the legal details and leave family stories (Score 1) 698

There are a lot of details you should handle, legal and otherwise.

Look at * diesmart.com * It provides the most information and the best roadmap. Created by a friend and a wonderful lady who went through it all with her mother. You can die knowing you didn't leave anything unresolved.

My mother had a "burial" policy and specified that she be cremated and the remainder used for a family celebration. My sister did the same. Throw your own farewell party!

My sister died rather unexpectedly last year. She was the oldest in the family, six years my senior and had many family stories that are now lost. The one thing I had planned to last summer was to visit her and record those stories. Now they are lost and I am the one with the most family stories.

In any case, video is now easy to do and I urge you to record your family stories and your memories. If you have the writing discipline, do a journal. If you have siblings or other relatives,you might ask for their help. I think that if you do that, you will say everything you need to say. I'd let your family see them before you go.

A little genealogy might fill in some blanks. There are 14 family history libraries around the country usually next to an LDS temple.

"If lie has meaning, then death has meaning as death ends life!" - Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Comment Yes but a few will still be needed (Score 1) 266

Why is there no map theory? Because a map is a theory.

Code is a theory about solving a problem. There is no general theory about problem solving.

It's the major reason CASE failed. You could get the job done in less time than it takes to search a library of code.

Until Big Blue is sentient, if ever, it will be able to search code and suggest or possibly refactor and apply solutions. Another big drop in the need for coders follows. It will do what most coders can't do; look at all possible solutions and understand if there is a good fit.

Are there truly 1M-1.5M unique apps? Which are the truly best ones and how does one find them?

Comment We contacted,,,and they refused to comment. (Score 1) 409

A PR person told me that his company tried to contact 60 Minutes before the show was aired and got no response to the calls. 60 Minutes still used the tagline in the subject heading.

CBS is the network whose lead "reporter" had to step down for fabricating a story that he broadcast.

I don't know if that happened but the Chernobyl story may surface other companies with the same experience.

Ever notice how newspaper "retractions" are buried in back pages?

Comment US Figures seem the opposite (Score 1) 403

I bought a 2013 Dodge Caravan new. Its mileage is rated at 17 city 25 highway. I have gotten as high as 31 MPG on a (very level) freeway and generally about 28-29 on a long trip with some mixed terrain. The people at the dealer seem unsurprised. I drive at freeway speeds, usually 70-75 MPH. City mileage is 17-19.

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