tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.comments2010-02-04T14:55:09.298-05:00Salt TrickHysteresis Monkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04084894749308955072noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-29471110939373497692010-02-02T13:11:45.505-05:002010-02-02T13:11:45.505-05:00Hence, the death of actual blogs, and the rise of ...Hence, the death of actual blogs, and the rise of FaceBook.Jon Peckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12239061056836273211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-68025235009436884702009-12-10T17:29:32.781-05:002009-12-10T17:29:32.781-05:00Well, it tells me thatWell, it tells me thatAndyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00160916097987237490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-64244464596374062042009-12-07T20:20:30.212-05:002009-12-07T20:20:30.212-05:00Yes, but now everyone's attention span fails h...Yes, but now everyone's attention span fails halfway through your blog post. ;-)Christopher Chapmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13759200168414881326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-58584718360022989272009-05-19T00:28:00.000-05:002009-05-19T00:28:00.000-05:00Worse yet, different contexts give these symbols w...Worse yet, different contexts give these symbols widely different meanings, and the meanings aren't always explicitly described, even when the contexts are similar enough to be confusing. For example: most folks assume that Theta indicates "angle", but in stats it often indicates "mean"; even more confusingly, Gamma indicates a factorial under some cases, but represents a matrix in others (this is much like a word being both a verb and an unrelated noun). These overridden meanings would not be problem if users indicated which context they were operating under, but most (even textbooks) don't.Jon Peckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12239061056836273211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-47652955403587370702008-11-21T11:16:00.000-05:002008-11-21T11:16:00.000-05:00Yikes.A little angry, but a fairly good descriptio...Yikes.<BR/><BR/>A little angry, but a fairly good description of my local CVS, anyway.<BR/><BR/>This is why people shop online...Halhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06901722007294911457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-25302032906145536842008-08-05T16:38:00.000-05:002008-08-05T16:38:00.000-05:00Bad at job -> Stress -> EscapismEscapism != ...Bad at job -> Stress -> Escapism<BR/><BR/>Escapism != Productivity in Other Fields<BR/><BR/>In other words, when I'm frustrated w/ my work, I browse too much YouTube.Jon Peckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12239061056836273211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-36445476609801870102008-07-22T17:35:00.000-05:002008-07-22T17:35:00.000-05:00Entangled particles are still great for encryption...Entangled particles are still great for encryption, tho. Hey, maybe you don't need FTL communication if you cave sufficient encryption...just stretch your plot out over a few thousand years!Jon Peckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12239061056836273211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-52196247504741819582008-07-22T17:32:00.000-05:002008-07-22T17:32:00.000-05:00I'll know you've gone too far when you buy this to...I'll know you've gone too far when you buy this to superheat your water: http://tinyurl.com/5lkbhx<BR/><BR/>Also, for just $114.95 you can eliminate those wasteful disposable stirrers from your life: http://tinyurl.com/6lnnanJon Peckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12239061056836273211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-86273937114101411342008-07-01T13:23:00.000-05:002008-07-01T13:23:00.000-05:00I definitely agree with your second paragraph, but...I definitely agree with your second paragraph, but as spec-fic writers, we need to come up with better buzz words. Especially if we need instantaneous communication to validate certain plot points.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps something to do with teleportation?<BR/><BR/>Heh. And remember, I'm not published either, so we can hypothesize together.Spherical Timehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02435055266803359329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-107360035966763782008-07-01T13:08:00.000-05:002008-07-01T13:08:00.000-05:00Ah, shoot. No, sorry, I got nothin'. I don't hav...Ah, shoot. No, sorry, I got nothin'. I don't have any work-in-progress that relies on ansibles; I just brought it up because I'm terminally curious about this stuff. When I learned about entanglement, my first thought was, "Ooh! Ansibles!" And then I saw a comment somewhere that said, "Nope, you can't use entanglement to make an ansible." But no clear explanation of why. Thus this post. <BR/><BR/>As a writer of spec-fic, though, my opinion is not that this means you can't have ansibles, but that you can't base ansibles on entanglement. <BR/><BR/>Which brings up a bigger point in SF writing. Hrmm, how do we word this. Uh... <BR/><BR/>What annoys smart readers is not when you make up stuff that's <I>outside</I> what we, as a civilization, currently think we understand about nature, it's when you make up stuff that <I>directly contradicts</I> what we, as a civilization, currently think we understand about nature. <BR/><BR/>The former suggests that you're thinking outside the box. The latter suggests that you don't even know where the box is. <BR/><BR/>The entanglement thing would be a sub-genre of this problem, which I'll call the Buzzword Problem (it probably already has a name though). For instance, you can say that in your world people can communicate faster than light, and imply that it depends on some as-yet-undiscovered loophole in relativity. That's a stretch, but if you write it right, you can make clear that it's the former thing. If, however, you do what many writers do, and say it's possible because of [insert some hot science buzzword that doesn't actually justify FTL communication], then many readers will figure that you just didn't read the Wikipedia page all the way to the end, and that it's the latter thing. <BR/><BR/>Anyway, that's my current thinking on that topic. Might change next week. <BR/><BR/>And I've never been published. So, you know, take anything I say with a grain of salt.Hysteresis Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04084894749308955072noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-56342676798329438602008-06-27T13:28:00.000-05:002008-06-27T13:28:00.000-05:00So, is an ansible an important aspect of one of yo...So, is an ansible an important aspect of one of your stories? It certainly is in mine. Thus, I'm having to come up with alternate explanations for the FTL communications that play a major role in the formation of the interstellar government.<BR/><BR/>Any ideas for yourself?Spherical Timehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02435055266803359329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-86648806047219153742008-05-13T21:17:00.000-05:002008-05-13T21:17:00.000-05:00You're gonna make me comment on every post here, a...You're gonna make me comment on every post here, aren't you? Just promise me you'll check in your code before replying!<BR/><BR/>Anyway:<BR/><BR/>We don't have time to check every fact presented to us. And we aren't willing to trust everyone...or any one entity (read: the feds). So we seek a middle ground -- find a few entities we trust for other reasons, and then trust them on everything.<BR/><BR/>Which is why TJ's is one of the few places I don't read every ingredient label thrice over. And also why various branches of Christianity keep slaughtering other ones.<BR/><BR/>Does it really matter whether we're trusting their 'facts' or their 'knowledge'? Is it not enough to say, "I only have so much time to be a skeptic; after a point I have done my due diligence"?Jon Peckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12239061056836273211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-25279376437287038392008-05-13T20:59:00.000-05:002008-05-13T20:59:00.000-05:00Following along the lines of "we don't get up to f...Following along the lines of "we don't get up to forage for fruit, because fruit is all around us", the author of http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2005/0213/cover.html implies that, without anything in our environment to oppose or challenge us, humans lose the desire to form social networks. Comfort breeds complacency, with wide-ranging social effects. For the record: I don't feel this to be a Seattle-specific problem, as she apparently does (Ania adds that we may just notice it more b/c there is less general hostility, thus raising our social expectations).Jon Peckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12239061056836273211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-37993155090689167532008-03-11T21:05:00.000-05:002008-03-11T21:05:00.000-05:00You know, it's a good thing Genesis didn't mention...You know, it's a good thing Genesis didn't mention what shape the Earth was, or globes would be banned in Kansas.Hysteresis Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04084894749308955072noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21827430.post-11205578919165718242007-06-20T13:44:00.000-05:002007-06-20T13:44:00.000-05:00Is it really keeping Science honest, or does Scien...Is it really keeping Science honest, or does Science just <B>look</B> more honest than usual in comparison?Halhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06901722007294911457noreply@blogger.com