Physics allows practical applications of mathematics, whether using sine/cosine to explain wave motion or complex calculation of celestial objects, like planetary orbits. Yet it still cannot explain quantum mechanics, i.e. interactions of subatomic particles because there the general laws of physics do not work.
So basically it just comes down to how much of physics knowledge that humanity has obtained up to now really explains the universe - and it seems there are still vasts gaps in science that still needs to be filled.
I started playing the original Civilization (floppy disk version) back in middle school. Gradually went on to play other versions that came out later (including the Alpha Centauri version). I consider it one of the best strategy and overall enjoyable game I've ever played.
Zebra is a great metaphor for the type of companies investors should be funding. What we continue to forget is that technology is supported to help build better societies and communities, and not the other way around, where we continue to get more dependent on it (even addicted to it).
Look everywhere people are checking every 5 minutes to see what's on social media. People are more than happy to see and contribute on videos of cats and other meaningless junk, but not on meaningful literature.
This is a well written article. I agree that this problem is growing, due to less social interaction and more reliance on social media tools and apps. This is not good for society
Very nice article. It is nice to see photoshop-like capabilities added to web applications. Although, it seems a pain to use with various platforms, like Java, .NET ... image manipulation is needed depending on what device or connection speed the requester might be using.
I would like non-camera pics to be vector based, to allow dynamic resizing. And camera photos should use this capabilities, along with a small link provided to download full quality photo, if needed. But these image manipulation capabilities should be part of a framework so that it is easier to use and update. After all, every page is littered with images, however, there is so little we can do with them right now.
Good approach though to start of with ...
Very nice article. This statement sums it all "The problem: “game changing” technologies cannot do their magic if the players and the playing fields remain the same."
Take tennis. Titanium and other lightweight materials along with other customization of racquets allowed players to drastically improve their shot selection. However, only the ones that combined this with their mental and physical fitness reaped greatest benefits.
Same goes for the technologies. Only when everyone is aware of their potential benefits and is trained properly to use them, they will not yield their maximum benefit.
Very nicely written article. You could apply the principles discussed here to any other dangerous sports, like boxing, racing etc.
It is sad that our society rewards egoistic thoughts. People are happy to applaud someone boasting how deep they have gone underwater, yet no one wants to tell them that greater depths poses greater risk on the physiology of the body and psychology of the mind.
Nice article. I remember reading about CORBA in uni days. The article summarized it well as it became a bulky technology with very length and confusing documentation. Industry on the other hand, was ready to adopt simpler technology that focused on web-based protocols, like HTTP (HTTPS).
Then SOA came and it changed the landscape completely with REST-based services, that relied on HTTP protocol themselves.
Finally, it comes down to simplicity. A technology that is too complex to implement and understand will not easily meet demands of constant change and innovation. Hence, as mentioned, it is reduced to a niche technology.
Very interesting article ... namely because fresh drinking water is now becoming a valuable resource. I'm sure the time the article has been written, better and more efficient ways would turn up for churning out fresh water for public consumption.
Very interesting article .. it demonstrates that big ivy league institutions used it as means to obtain funding and built connections for their institutions. An "honorary" degree cannot be compared to a degree won through sheer hard work and dexterity ... society should know this and highlight it
Interesting article ... I do believe that competence, skills and being useful to others is the most important currency in today's world ... this article is worth reading ... thanks for sharing
As a developer, I tend to be now agnostic/indifferent towards programming languages. Essentially, you can use any programming language to do the job. The difference lies in developer's comfort zone and libraries.
For example, I prefer C# over VB.Net for ASP.NET/MVC backend. However, for several practical in-house projects, I've found Excel+VBA far quicker over IIS/ASP.NET project.
So, it all depends on the context, your audience and usability of the project. We should not let technologies drive our projects, but our business users and current trend patterns. For example, I'm seeing a lot of JavaScript frameworks being used to deliver responsive and device-independent web applications, such as SPA (Single Page Application).
Granted, it takes a while to learn a language's API, but essentially all of them do similar things. The advantages lies not in them alone, but in the entire framework/suite that it comes with.
We are living in times where knowing programming languages is not as important as knowing frameworks/libraries. There are heaps of them out there that require programmer to spend more time on writing integration code to "glue them" or configuring them. We no longer need to write the low-level mundane code, but focus on delivering high-quality, rich software applications.
There is a chart that shows a new car starting off with a $30,000 value, and losing about 25% value in the first year alone. By the second year, the car has lost about 30-40% off its original value. By the 3rd year, most cars have lost about 50% of their value.
In a nutshell, a new car looses 50% of value in 3 years in general ...
This was a very thoughful article. I agree it is very unlikely (at least up till now) to find another habitable planet like ours. I watched an interesting documentary that stated that another reason earth is habitable due to Jupiter, whose powerful gravitational forces keeps large astroids and comets from reaching earth. And the possibility of having another planet like ours would likely need a planet like Jupiter to protect it.
And inspite of movies/scifi on visions of earthlings colonizing other planets and galaxies, with the current scope of our environment, I highly doubt that it would occur unless we change our current ways ...