Re: Congratulations
12v does NOT = 0.012kw and the rest of your absurd ramblings make even less sense.
Troll or fool - it's hard to say
2677 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Mar 2010
Ideas are NOT patentable - at least in sensible countries- only implementations are patentable. I can't patent an idea for treating a disease for example but I can patent a chemical entity that has some effect that might be useful in treating that disease, even if it turns out to be not so useful in practice due to side-effects or unrealistic doses or whatever.
I know what you mean - I was taught Physics by a guy who had worked on the Manchester "baby" - he had a photo showing him stripped to the waist working in a cellar surrounded by racks of valves.
I thin Douglas Adams sums it up very well in a passage that kind of parodies the "Seven Ages of Man" speech from "As You Like It" but I can't just put my hand on just now. It's along the lines of - a technology that's invented when you reach a certain age is new and exciting and you could possibly get a job working with it ..........
I'm sure someone will have the passage off by heart
"Linux is unusable - even if you are a computer bod you actually want to use your computer to achieve something, this just isn't possible with an OS so full of holes, problems.."
I don't recognise any of this !
It's certainly totally usable for me and mine, we don't use anything else. It was usable ( in fact essential) for the major pharmaceutical company I worked for and that was 8-9 years ago.
This is the usual ignorance or FUD
"it's a disjointed pile of mish-mashed shit"
Strange then that I can read your wise words at all as OpenSuse is on all 6 of my computers and gives me a stable productive environment to support my many interests. There isn't one single thing I want to do that I can't do. Updates are automatic and easy, I don't have one piece of hardware that isn't supported - webcams, scanner, 2 printers, USB/serial converters, video acceleration, 3G dongle, wifi. A little bit of research before buying and sticking with a reliable distro has worked well for me.
@Richto - from your link - final paragraph
"We should close by saying that the number of Linux viruses that could possibly damage your system in any way is currently less than 10, so don't have any nightmares"
I certainly know from all the patents I filed that writing them was HARD work and the UK patent office in particular would be VERY picky about potentially related prior patents.
(Although all this Apple/Samsung stuff isn't really about what most people would call inventions anyway)
Well let's try and work it out.
Essentially all computers come with Windows installed. To have Linux you either :
1) Build your own computer from parts
2) Delete Windows ( which has been paid for) and install Linux
3) Try and find a retailer who isn't cowed and buy from them
4) Get a second-hand machine/hard-drive broken machine and fix and install (really a variant of 1 but useful for laptops)
Given that most people don't even know about alternative operating system and most others have to put up with what their employers/school whatever provide I think 1% of desktops using Linux is actual a very creditable number.
The problem is really basic science. It's possible now to homology model a modest single domain protein in a few hours even on a desktop workstation. Understanding how the current algorithms and model assumptions fail is MUCH harder. In the end a protein is a dynamic entity and that makes it all much harder.
A few years ago I was interested in a kinase enzyme. A xtal structure was available but the reality turned out that the protein was in dynamic equilibrium between ( at least ) two forms. One was equivalent to the xtal structure, the other was a form that could be activated to give the (unstable) working form - what the structure of that was ???.
The whole reason to model proteins is to make use of the information gained - a fast method of getting the wrong, non-physiological answer is useless on it's own. I'm very optimistic really but there are many problems to solve that don't depend on calculation speed.
"protein folding calculation"
It's not a 'calculation' really -just a series of relatively poor algorithms. Huge strides in the basic science have taken place in recent years - these have been assisted by the huge increase in processing power but it's all still far from routine - it's often (relatively) easy to fold a new protein if it has homology to a known structure but even in that 'easy' case it's often found that the optimized solution is still a poor fit to the eventual x-ray structure.
Even x-ray structures, produced as they are at very low temperatures in the solid state may not reflect the 'real' situation in vivo, where the protein is in aqueous solution and may well be associated metal ions (esp. calcium) AND other proteins AND be in dynamic equilibrium with various conformations of itself.
So great if the number crunching can be massively speeded-up but in all other respects there is still a long way to go.
"The correct position, imo, is not to balance ignorant bias against one OS with ignorant bias against another OS, but to balance it with informative posts regardless of direction"
I agree, I said something similar in that very post.
"imo. Windows *does* get a much harder time here than other OS"
Can't agree with that - as I mentioned in the same post the sheer ignorance or FUD about Linux stands out to me - hence the comment about where one stands.
"whinging on about Windows getting a hard time" " - I said that because the tenor of the post seemed to me to be exactly that, esp. suggesting that a (handful) of Linux supporters were somehow dominating the forum - that seemed more like paranoia in fact.
"put blind hatred and/or favouritism toward a different product/manufacturer above rationality. It is irrational. It is not sane behaviour."
So how do you rationalize your stupid "45 linux desktop users" with your above statement ?
I've worked at a pharma that had 200+ Linux desktops in one department alone (years ago) and know that many others are similar.
I'm all in favour of rational debate about problems/merits of different OS and approaches but as a "minority" Linux user I'm also sick of the FUD spread about Linux. Just in recent days " need the CLI to do anything", "need to compile programs to use them", " drivers only available on certain hardware" - it's not true and there's lots of it. Mostly it's ignorant people but some of it is malicious - so don't whinge on about Windows getting a hard time - it all depends where you're standing.
"self-selecting group where a qualification for entry is hating on Microsoft. Which given the law that competition is good for consumers is financial self-harming."
Microsoft and competition - words not often seen together !
and how a group of individuals can become self-selecting ..!!??
It seems that almost NO-ONE love microsoft - some find them useful, some are forced to use their software, some game, some know no better. But hardly anyone likes them.
That 1.5% is people who have voted to use Linux, mostly installed it themselves and maybe incurred the extra cost of Windows to do it.
Compared with go into shop, get essentially no choice and use ( and in many cases ) curse WIndows. As someone else said we wouldn't put up with 1 or 2 models of car, esp. if we had to buy the petrol and tyres from the manufacturer as well.