Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Image

Searching the Internet For Evidence of Time Travelers 465

Posted by samzenpus from the bill-and-ted-approved dept.
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Here's an interesting paper by two physicists at Michigan Technological University who have come up with a practical methodology for finding time travelers through the internet. 'Time travel has captured the public imagination for much of the past century, but little has been done to actually search for time travelers. Here, three implementations of Internet searches for time travelers are described, all seeking a prescient mention of information not previously available. The first search covered prescient content placed on the Internet, highlighted by a comprehensive search for specific terms in tweets on Twitter. The second search examined prescient inquiries submitted to a search engine, highlighted by a comprehensive search for specific search terms submitted to a popular astronomy web site. The third search involved a request for a direct Internet communication, either by email or tweet, pre-dating to the time of the inquiry. Given practical verifiability concerns, only time travelers from the future were investigated. No time travelers were discovered. Although these negative results do not disprove time travel, given the great reach of the Internet, this search is perhaps the most comprehensive to date.' Stephen Hawking's similar search (video) also provided negative results."

Comment Re:Too unstable (Score 2) 65

by vinehair (#45755073) Attached to: Belgian Telecom Becomes First To Accept Bitcoin
This kind of service doesn't help at all with future planning of finances, as would what you'd expect with a mobile phone plan. Sure, these services help with the immediate case, but if I have a recurring payment of $20, say, every month, what good is that to me if XBT have just tanked yet again and I have less than half in my wallet than I had planned for? The stability is the biggest (one of the only?) problems left with bitcoin to solve before it could see wider use, and this right now is just a novelty way to pay the odd bill or two for a slim margin of customers, from a company that has made its name with similar novel marketing tactics.

Comment Bitcoin rah rah rah! (Score 1) 292

by vinehair (#45657141) Attached to: JPMorgan Files Patent Application On 'Bitcoin Killer'

Okay, we get it, everything is related to Bitcoin and we must hear about it daily. Including this patent which barely has anything to do with how Bitcoin operates on a technical or design level, other than whatever the submitter could pretend to find while glancing over the patent abstract.

I really wish the Slashdot love affair with Bitcoin would end, already.

Comment Re:Yep. And more... (Score 1) 171

by vinehair (#42850407) Attached to: Rapiscan's Backscatter Machines May End Up In US Federal Buildings

Your truly important rights will disappear in the loss of the rights protected by the 2nd amendment. Don't believe it? What will YOU do when they pass a law that allows them to arrest you for no reason? Oh wait, they already have. OK, what will YOU do when they pass a law that allows them to pass judgement on you and execute you without a trial? Oh... ermm... they did that too.

OK, what will you do when they tell you that you have to worship a religion not of your choosing? Or that you aren't allowed to bitch about what a shitty government we have? Or that you can't say the president is a douchebag?

The whole point to the 2nd Amendment is that it gives the people the ability to defend their unalienable rights if need be. Its not about hunting or sporting clays as our current leadership would have plebs like you believe. Its to give the people the ability to cast down a tyrannical government if ever the need arises.

This is what Americans actually believe.

Good luck taking down an armed military with your plinkers, if they actually WANT to get rid of you. Or they could, you know, keep doing the slow-boil that they've been doing for years. That seems to be working pretty well - as you already note yourself. Why fight them when you can just make them agree with you?

Comment Re:Who cares about untethered? (Score 1) 587

by vinehair (#42844749) Attached to: Woz Says iPhone Features Are 'Behind'

Most of us wanted to move away from the whole 'needs a PC to store anything once the batteries die' thing when we ditched the Palm devices.

Okay, it's not exactly the same, but I don't like the idea of needing to bring a laptop that I otherwise simply don't need in case I'm away from home longer than the battery lasts in one go and when I'm between power points. That's just absurd to me.

Comment Re:Just another day. (Score 1) 268

by vinehair (#42631457) Attached to: TSA Terminates Its Contract With Maker of Full-Body Scanner
I've only ever done MSP as a stop on the way to somewhere else and you pointed out in another post that I must clearly have ignored/missed an exit to the unsecured area immediately after its customs barrier and just before security. So I have to apologise for my assertions in the thread. My destination is usually Kansas - short of hopping in a Greyhound or hiring a car or something equally horrible, I have no way of making a direct flight there so it's as good as an arrival scan to me, probably why I didn't think it through properly for people that were actually stopping at MSP.

Slashdot Top Deals

Your good nature will bring you unbounded happiness.

Close