Author Topic: Somewhat Useful Facts Thread (Read 204578 times)

MLeo · « **Reply #920 on:** January 22, 2009, 06:19:19 AM »

Intelligent Design hypocrites, time to roll in your own graves! Uh, assuming you already died of course. Otherwise, prepare the bucket for throwing up because your main argument for ID is hereby proven wrong:

Or in higher quality:

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limey BSc. · « **Reply #921 on:** January 22, 2009, 07:10:03 AM »

That guy has faaaar too much time on his hands!

MLeo · « **Reply #922 on:** January 22, 2009, 07:45:11 AM »

Quote from: limey98 on January 22, 2009, 07:10:03 AM

That guy has faaaar too much time on his hands!

Really? That type of algorithm you can just run in the background (for 3 weeks!). And eventually (depending on how long you are willing to let it go on) you will get a (near) optimum solution.

Of course, it's a random algoritm (that is, random as in output, not an algorithm for generating random numbers), so it may not produce anything for a long time.

limey BSc. · « **Reply #923 on:** January 22, 2009, 07:53:13 AM »

Quote from: MLeo on January 22, 2009, 07:45:11 AM

Really? That type of algorithm you can just run in the background (for 3 weeks!). And eventually (depending on how long you are willing to let it go on) you will get a (near) optimum solution.

Of course, it's a random algoritm (that is, random as in output, not an algorithm for generating random numbers), so it may not produce anything for a long time.

I mean coming up with the idea to do this, writing the program, running it and putting the results on youtube!

MLeo · « **Reply #924 on:** January 22, 2009, 09:06:43 AM »

Quote from: limey98 on January 22, 2009, 07:53:13 AM

Quote from: MLeo on January 22, 2009, 07:45:11 AM
Really? That type of algorithm you can just run in the background (for 3 weeks!). And eventually (depending on how long you are willing to let it go on) you will get a (near) optimum solution.

Of course, it's a random algoritm (that is, random as in output, not an algorithm for generating random numbers), so it may not produce anything for a long time.

I mean coming up with the idea to do this, writing the program, running it and putting the results on youtube!

The idea is easy, especially if you are hammered by people that ID is "correct", especially with such a lame example as breaking a clock and then saying that it can't "evolve" back.

After that it's coming up with some form of "DNA" which represents a clock (or interconnecting parts and info about the parts), and then breeding is easy (both crossover and mutation). Basic Genetic Algorithms.

Senator · « **Reply #925 on:** January 22, 2009, 10:11:32 AM »

Quote

A man who lost his left hand in an accident three years ago has been fitted with the world?s most sophisticated prosthetic limb.

Evan Reynolds, 19, took only minutes to learn how to manipulate the i-LIMB, which is operated by tiny sensors resting against his arm muscles.

With his new hand he can now pick up a paper cup filled with water, peel a carrot or walk down the street eating crisps, all activities he could only dream about before.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5546888.ece

MLeo · « **Reply #926 on:** January 22, 2009, 10:47:40 AM »

Movie of the same:
http://www.botjunkie.com/2009/01/22/i-limb-cyborg-hand/

MLeo · « **Reply #927 on:** January 23, 2009, 08:20:21 AM »

It doesn't matter really (I don't care either way, and nor should you).

The being factual can be debated, but this is a moderator thing, so move along.

Senator · « **Reply #928 on:** January 23, 2009, 09:38:37 AM »

ID believer? Where? Where? What did I miss? :twisted:

Quote

getting his instructions from God and that some evangelists are just batshit insane.

Or neither.

Senator · « **Reply #929 on:** February 01, 2009, 03:07:28 PM »

From the outside, it's just a normal, chapel-ish building

But from the inside...

...it's Europe's 8th most powerful supercomputer:

I likey.

Senator · « **Reply #930 on:** February 01, 2009, 11:57:41 PM »

Useful fact of the day: You can make ships out of concrete. As is (well... was) the one above.

That's not really as strange as Project Habakkuk in WWII, which concerned itself with the possibility of making an aircraft carrier out of Pykrete.

(Pykrete = 14% sawdust + 86% ice)

Senator · « **Reply #931 on:** February 04, 2009, 04:04:31 PM »

Useful fact: World of Goo is fun.

limey BSc. · « **Reply #932 on:** February 04, 2009, 07:33:58 PM »

Computers are going to fail at 03:14:08 GMT on the 19th January 2038.

Computers measure time in seconds since the Unix Epoch, which is midnight on 1st Jan 1970. We're at about 1.2 million now. Computers store this time as a 32 bit signed integer. That basically means 31 bits for the actual number, and 1 (the first) to say whether its positive or negative. When we reach 03:14:07 GMT, the time stored will be 0111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111. Exactly 1 second later, it will be 1000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000, which is 20:45:52 GMT on 13th December 1901.

The main and more immediate implication of this, is that no task can be scheduled to end after 03:14:07 GMT, as the end time, as far as the computer can tell, is over 100 years ago! Most computers probably have safeguards to stop you scheduling tasks to finish later than that, but it's still a hell of a problem!

The problem is that the 32 bit signed integer is so embedded in modern computers, it will be next to impossible to change before the aformentioned date.

Darkthunder · « **Reply #933 on:** February 04, 2009, 08:56:27 PM »

Sounds like the Y2K bug, all over again. I'm sure we'll figure out a solution within 30 years

Senator · « **Reply #934 on:** February 04, 2009, 09:40:26 PM »

You know, you might think that eating bugs is disgusting etc and you will never do it, but if you think about it...

...prawns are bugs of the sea.

I mean, the exoskeleton (fishes don't have that. Beetles on the other hand...) and number of legs should have provided a clue, but let's examine this a little further.
Animals are biologically classified in Kingdom, Phylum, Subphylum, Class, Order yadda yadda.

Prawns, if you go a bit high, ultimately belong to the Subphylum "Crustacean", where all things prawn & shrimp belong (but not for example, mussels). Land based things that belong to the exact same subphylum are things like this:

(Ewww)

Finally, if you go one level higher, from subphylum to phylum. All these belong to "Arthropoda". And that's where pretty much all insects and spiders belong.

So the truth is that we do eat bugs in the west, and like them very much as well. Every time you see those nice prawn packets in the super market, you are being sold something like peeled beetles.

Kirk · « **Reply #935 on:** February 04, 2009, 11:30:41 PM »

I've never had them (prawns.)

limey BSc. · « **Reply #936 on:** February 05, 2009, 02:54:09 AM »

Quote from: Darkthunder on February 04, 2009, 08:56:27 PM

Sounds like the Y2K bug, all over again. I'm sure we'll figure out a solution within 30 years

The difference with the Y2K bug was that that wasn't to do with the fundemental operation of the computer. That was only about it's inability to go from 99 to 00 then carry on. There were only 8 documented cases of problems with the Y2K bug, and 2 of them were websites showing the date as "1/1/19100".

Senator · « **Reply #937 on:** February 05, 2009, 03:20:06 AM »

Thus 64bit computing?

limey BSc. · « **Reply #938 on:** February 05, 2009, 04:04:07 AM »

Quote from: Senator on February 05, 2009, 03:20:06 AM

Thus 64bit computing?

Most people and businesses still use 32-bit. And I didn't know if 64-bit computers stored time_t as a 64 bit integer.

USS Frontier · « **Reply #939 on:** February 05, 2009, 09:53:47 AM »

The most easy solution for fixing this int-32 problem is changing it to a int-64bit.

Doing that will make the "end date" be... well... lets just say that humanity shouldn't exist by then.

News:

Author Topic: Somewhat Useful Facts Thread (Read 204578 times)