"Why is there something rather than nothing?"
The question was answered decades ago in a paper in the American Scientist: There's something rather than nothing because "nothing" is unstable.
Posts by Maryland, USA
112 posts • joined Monday 7th January 2008 14:01 GMT
They picked Sorkin? Really?
Did anyone imagine any other screenwriter would be tapped?
BTW, his teen daughter was the cutest thing at the 2012 Oscars. I'm just sayin...
Posted in Real-time drone videos get GPU-tastic
Brilliantly written
As a science writer, I strive to write this lucidly and humanly. Unfortunately, I work for the U.S. government, whose public affairs folks delight in turning science stories like yours and mine into dull press releases. In any case, about once a month I forward a science article to my colleagues as an example of the best science writing. Tag, you're it.
"Yes, but if you did like cars, what would be your favourite?"
When I was 11, my classmate Jeff came over to play. When he left, my sister, then 7, remarked, "I still don't like boys, but if I did, I'd like Jeff."
Literally well-done
What a pleasure to see "literally" used correctly:
"PC makers forecast shortages nearer to Christmas as the deadly flooding disaster in Thailand literally wrecked the hard disk supply chain.
There's a simple way to end queue jumpers
Hand out numbered tickets. When I've found myself in a jumbled queue, I've worked with others in the queue to write numbered tickets on the spot. It worked like a charm.
Nice pun in the main title
"Drug cops log Nigerian star's 24 bowel movements"--Nice work. I imagine that if the article had been about William Shatner's bowel problems, we might have read, "Captain's log..."
in his defense...
Er, where can I contribute to his defense fund?
I'll take none of the above
It's SoftMaker Office 2012 for me. MS, OpenOffice, and LibreOffice should ask themselves how a small team of 20 Germans could quietly create the best office suite in existence.
Nice writing, as always
Great job, Bill Ray. Among the many scribes who aim to clarify the what and why of wireless, "No-o-body does it better."
Yes, "The Box"
By mistake, I recommended a different book. Yours is the title I was trying to think of. I read about 20 pages of it online. It's riveting.
There's a book about it
The box that changed the world: fifty years of container shipping - an illustrated history, by Arthur Donovan, Joseph Bonney (2006)
Also, a Scientific American podcast (2007), in audio and transcript: How Cargo Containers Shrank the World and Transformed Trade.
If either of these was your source, give credit where it's due.
It's not about whether I like an expression
Very clear? I think not.
Under your definition, if I write 'reduced it by a factor of two-thirds,' readers will think I mean 'multiplied it by 3/2, making it 50 percent larger.' Do you seriously believe anyone will think that? Is that your intent?
Under your definition--but not under mine--to 'reduced unemployment by a factor of zero' would be impossible, since you can't divide by zero.
Under your definition, if you leave a value unchanged, you're reducing it by a factor of 1 (100 percent divided by 1). by your definition, reducing by a factor of 1 = increasing by a factor of 1 (100 percent x 1). That's jarringly counterintuitive.
Under your definition, if you reduce unemployment by 1 percent, you're
reducing it by a factor of 1.01 (since 1 divided by 1.01 = 0.99). Not at all obvious.
I completely agree with you that journalists who write 'increased by 1%' when they mean 'increased by 1 percentage point' are guilty of ambiguity and worse: stupidity or contempt for accuracy. Ditto for journalists who write '3 times greater' when they mean '2 times greater' or '3 times as great.'
20 times smaller???
The innumeracy is going from bad to worse.
To quote from 'factor change' at zonelandeducation.com:
'If a speed changed from 40 m/s to 20 m/s, we would say that the speed changed by a factor of 1/2.'
Need further evidence? From Common Errors in English Usage by Paul Brians:
'Mathematically literate folks object to expressions like “my paycheck is three times smaller than it used to be” because when used with whole numbers “times” indicates multiplication and should logically apply only to increases in size. Say "one third as large” instead.'
If Brians is not sufficiently authoritative, there's always the New York Times Style and Usage ('times less, times more'):
'"And do not write "times less" or "times smaller" (or things like "times as thin" or "times as short"). A quantity can decrease only one time before disappearing, and then there is nothing less to decrease further. Make it "one-third as much" (or as tall, or as fast).'
How the hell can something be reduced by a factor of 20?
When something is increased by a factor of 20, it's larger by 20 times, or 2000 percent.
If something could be reduced by a factor of 20, it would be smaller by 20 times, or 2000 percent.
Yet once something is reduced by 100 percent, it no longer exists.
He meant to say that the new subsystem would draw 1/20th the power. In other words, its energy demand would be reduced by 95 percent.
Posted in Sprint issues iPhone 5 gag rule to staff
When someone tells me, "You'll have to ask the press officer..."
I reply, "Do you mean I'll have to ask the press officer because you don't know, or because you refuse to tell me?"
The drone then carefully repeats, with surprise and irritation, "You'll have to ask the press officer." To which I reply, "That won't be necessary; you've just answered my question."
Posted in Sprint issues iPhone 5 gag rule to staff
Verizon tried that tactic on me
Me: Will Verizon be getting the iPhone next month, as reported in the Wall Street Journal?
sales guy: I've read the same reports. Stories like that are nothing new.
Me: But according to the Journal, Apple has placed an order for millions of CDMA chips. That clearly points to Verizon, wouldn't you say?
sales guy: People have been asking us that for years. Verizon will never get the iPhone.
me: Then if the story turns out to be true, will you personally buy me an iPhone and a two-year plan?
sales guy:
It failed as a phone, not as a tablet
So callers don't want to hold a $500 5-inch brick against their ear. That doesn't mean that a $200 5-inch WiFi tablet, with Android 3.x, would fail.
Will someone please get the message the the U.S. government?
In too many of Uncle Sam's offices, XP remains king, together with Office 2007 (not 2010), Sharepoint 2007, and Internet Explorer 7 (not 8, much less 9).
: "I'll be leaving McAfee in great hands"
Four of them, to be precise.
Posted in Lenovo Thinkpad X220T 12.5in tablet PC
Docks?
The X220 can snap into any of three Lenovo docking stations. Didn't Lenovo provide a dock for this review?
Proving a negative
"unless it can prove a negative?" Nice bit of sophistry there, El Reg. The impossibility of "proving a negative" refers to the challenge of proving that something didn't happen, doesn't exist, or never will exist, despite one's limited ability to know. It doesn't refer to proving, analytically and experimentally, that a phenomenon like interference is impossible.
Great writing
The paragraph that begins, "One generally talks about radio transmissions being square" ranks among the most brilliantly clarifying technical explanations I've ever read. Few readers can appreciate how much effort, skill, and broad intelligence are required to craft sentences like these.
Posted in Data General's Tom West dies
Great book
Kidder's book, The Soul of a New Machine, won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, and rightly so. Reportedly, the day it came out, many (most?) DG employees called in sick to stay home and read it.
Posted in Yahoo! boo-hoo over Alibaba boo-boo
Well! Well! Well!
Look! A Reg article about Yahoo! that contains no gratuitous! exclamation! marks!
Heard that before
That's what the radio industry once said about TV, what makers of silent movies said about Talkies.
3-way videochats
Today, Skype charges $8.50 a month for the privilege of starting a group video chat. If Microsoft offers it for free--on any Skype platform--I'm all for it.
It seems everyone in movies uses a Mac
...even working-class stiffs who can't afford them. it makes the filmmakers look like idiots...just as it does when a starlet plays a working-class woman with perfect pearly-white teeth.
Fine, if "good enough" is good enough
When I took a master's level class in Technical Journalism, our professor began by teaching the five Ws (Who, When, Where, What, Why). Your first sentence, he added, must summarize what your story is about.
I asked, "If you were to survey Pulitzer Prize-winning science articles, how many would obey these rules?" Our prof smiled broadly. "You're right, Maryland, USA. These guidelines will help you create serviceable writing. They're not what you'd folllow to pen great writing."
reminds me of the Sarah Silverman shtick
American stand-up comic Sarah Silverman (I'm paraphrasing from memory): "Mexicans are upset that I said I thought they smell bad, So I gently explain to them, "You can't smell yourself."
Posted in Scotland bans smut. What smut? Won't say
"I can't define it, but I know it when I see it"
A few years ago, in Virginia (USA), the Washington Post revealed that a boys' baseball league refused to let parents read the game's rules. The league's director claimed, "If we let them see how we make our rulings, they'll quibble with our calls."
Youth speaks
After reading about this yesterday, I asked my 20-year-old daughter. 'Let's do a word association game. When I say, "app store," what comes to mind?'
Without a pause, she replied, 'Apple.'
(Her computer is a MacBook, her MP3 player an iPod Touch.)
Kinky name, don'tcha think?
WebMatrix = WebMistress + dominatrix...
Posted in Google founder sinks $45m in toy boat
tongue twister
Did you know that "toy boat" is difficult to repeat several times quickly without mispronouncing? Try it! (It will amuse your cubicle neighbor.)
The umpire strikes back
In the 1980s, at an American baseball game, the organ player was thrown out of the game for playing "Three Blind Mice" to protest a call.
Beware the New Sovietsky
A colleague of mine commented:
'Actually, the original Heinlein multigenerational spaceship concept was found in "Orphans of the Sky" in 1941, but otherwise the article is right on target. "Time for the Stars" was published in 1956.
'Parenthetically, the Register's writer misses the biggest problem with an organization like the Long Range Foundation: how to keep it focused on technology advancement, instead of turning, over time, into a funding source for Marxist entities trying to create the New Soviet Man. The record of the Ford Foundation is illustrative in this regard.'
Um. what other fighting nation...
...has done what Israel did during the Gaza War? Before dropping bombs, the IDF sent an Arabic text-message to each civilian cell phone, urging the phone owner to stay out of harm's way. This was one of the many ways Israel sought to minimize civilian casualties. They're documented at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_war#Air_strikes if you care to learn about them. I'm guessing you're not.
This isn't the first time she went after an unflattering newswriter
It's deja vu all over again. Check out the March 2009 Gawker.com post, Tesla Flack Bitches About 'Silicon Valley Gossip Blog'.
Too bad, 'cause she's kinda cute.
Samsung feels the love for Microsoft's search engine
Samsung, Samsung....isn't that the phone maker that loads it Google phone with a Microsoft search engine (Bing), locks down that search engine so the user can't replace it, and fails to forewarn them?
Error 404?
Dude,
Here in the colonies, your URL is a link to nowhere. Can you double-check it?
Posted in Moms stand firm against antenna madness
When those kids apply for college...
...the admissions officer will glance at the kid's address and think, "He's from that town of morons!"
But according to Jewish tradition, there were 12 splits
According to Jewish oral tradition (Midrash), the river split in 12 tunnels--one for each tribe. There were other features that the simulation would not account for. For details, Google ""further thoughts on beshalach".
The exploit preys on Androiders' dismal sex life
...since several articles last month reported (wrongly) that Android users get less "action." (Actually, they've had fewer partners.)
Then you independently parrotted CNET's and OK Cupid's' unfounded inference?
that more partners = more sex? Though CNET readers had pointed out the fallacy? The more's the shame.
Don't blame Reg; they got it from CNET (USA)
And CNET drew the same asinine conclusion:
"Study: iPhone grippers have more sex than Android clutchers"
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20013268-71.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
AIM isn't bad
When they go, I hope they don't kill AIM, their instant message program. It federates with iChat and Gmail Chat; and it now lets you chat with your FaceBook friends.
Posted in Mozy insists: It's not a bug...
If I'm on a 5GB/month data plan...
...and Mozy's unpredictable ways bust the budget while I sleep, without prompting me to approve, will Mozy pay my overfee?
Posted in Mozy users caught in repeat backup hell
Mozy on over to Box.et
Recently, Box.net began to provide free synchronization for users with business accounts. In August, the company will let all paying customers synch. I love Box.net; it integrates with LinkedIn and many more sites. I can't wait for synching. With Box, I pay more, but I get more.
Even better than Open Office is the German-made...
SoftMaker Office 2010. Test after test finds it more compatible with MS Office. I find it the easiest to use. Ever since I switched to it, my blood pressure has gone down. At about $80 U.S. for 3 licenses, it's not free, but it's a terrific value.
still no support for nonmodal headers and footers
After, what, 15 years? MS Word still won't show headers and footers in full color. Nor will it let you edit the header or footer without switching into header/footer mode. WordPerfect does. FrameMaker does. OpenOffice does. Softmaker Office's TextMaker does. Why, oh why, doesn't MS Word?
Opinion
David McLeman
My 25 years of comical IT buzzwords
Tim Worstall
Time to take a sniff at the coffee, perhaps
Chris Mellor
Will they have to drag him back like last time?
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