So green, actually

"what kind of spambot is going to know what direction a Digger moves in?"

I for one think this is brilliant. Maybe not exactly that question, but a question like it that would be easier for people to get the same answer with, like "What color is a lemming's hair?"

The only way to deviate on that question is if

A: You don't know how to spell your colors
OR
B: You capitalize it. And that problem is easily nullified by an ignore case command.

"light is just that much more efficient."

Light would be nice, but it's really quite problematic as a Data Transfer method.

Basically it's too fast. It's difficult to control the flow of light because it's so fast. Electrical communications and logic is possible because it's actually pretty slow. Electricity moves actually pretty slowly, it's just that because what you're actually controlling is at the most basic level a force, not a physical object, all the electrons in circuit X start moving at once when you apply potential difference.

So sorry, but unless you can slow down light quite a bit, it's not incredibly feasible.

I think we've about reached the limits of physics' ability to provide the answers. If I'm wrong, alert the press.

Instead I think we gotta look at how we can organize what we have better.

"what is required to compute"

This is an interesting idea... At what point does the future get really boring because there's no further need for faster computing? At what point does the speed at which the computer works become irrelevant because it's always faster than the user is capable of responding?

Anyway, I don't really think we can rely on the past as a guide for what's to come.

In 1970... Maybe it was 1980, maybe 1960, it really doesn't matter, some guy predicted that the number of transistors humans could fit into a given area would rise by some ridiculous factor every year thereafter. He had no historical precedent for this prediction, in fact it contradicted the past, and yet he turned out to be exactly right.

Happy New Year, all. I don't know if anyone else I knew is even still on here, but I'm back. I've been gone for oh... About 4 years.

"I have my hopes up for 8th grade - hopefully it won't be as bad"

Unless you're in Sparta life is what you make it. Ask questions. You can get about 4 times more "learning" out of a class by asking questions, because seriously in most classes the teacher teaches about 1% of what they can teach because 1% of the class is too stupid to learn more.

Unless you're outside of the US. If that's the case please ignore everything I just said because I have no clue how school outside the US are in general.

Approximately 8% of pencils are not sharpened. How's THAT for pointless information?

INFORMATION ABOUT AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:

FINANCIAL STATS

Debt
Besides the debts of each state of the Dual Monarchy, there is a general debt, which is borne jointly by Austria and Hungary. The following table gives in millions sterling the amount of the general debt for the years 1875-1905: -
1875.    1885.    1895.    1900.    1905.
232.41    231.02    229.67    226.81    224.31

The foreign trade of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy is shown in the following table: -
Year.      Imports.              Exports.
1900    ÷0,666,000    ø0,916,000
1901    68,833,000    78,841,000
1902    71,666,000    79,708,000
1903    78,200,000    88,600,000
1904    85,200,000    86,200,000
1905    89,430,000    93,500,000

ARMY STRENGTH

The strength of the Austro-Hungarian army on a peace footing was as follows in 1905: -
                         Officers.    Men.      Horses. Guns.
Infantry -                
Common Army       10,801    187,604    1,152       ..
Austrian Landwehr    1,883    23,905      174          ..
Hungarian Honveds    2,258     21,149       262         ..
Cavalry -                
Common Army        1,890     45,486      40,740     ..
Austrian Landwehr  170        1,861       1,282       ..
Hungarian Honveds 390        4,170       3,510       ..
Field Artillery         1,630      27,612     14,520     1,048
Fortress Artillery     408        7,722       131         ..
Technical troops (Pioneers, and
Railway and Telegraph Regiment)
                     ^~588        9,935        19           ..
Transport Service  461        4,312       3,097        ..
Sanitary Service    85          3,062        ..           ..
            Total       20,564    336,818   64,887      1,048
Belonging to the         
Common Army       15,863    285,733   59,659      1,048
Austrian Landwehr 2,053      25,766   1,456         ..
Hungarian Honveds 2,648     25,319    3,772        ..

AGRICULTURAL STATS

According to the agricultural census of 1895, the main varieties of land are distributed as follows:
    Hungary Proper.    Croatia-Slavonia.
By area in acres -        
Arable land           29,714,382           13,370,540
Gardens                 928,053                 136,354
Meadows             7,075,888             1,099,451
Vineyards            482,801                 65,475
Pastures                 9,042,267            1,465,930
Forests                 18,464,396           3,734,094
Marshes                 199,685                 7,921
By percentage of the total area -        
Arable land           42.81%   32.26%
Gardens                 1.34%    1.31%
Meadows             10.19%   10.52%
Vineyards             0.69%    0.63%
Pastures              13.03%   14.03%
Forests                 26.60%   35.74%
Marshes                 0.28%     0.08%

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION STATS

Iron-  Iron ore, 1,876,000 tons; pig iron, 463,000 tons~Hungary; this next statistic is from 1903, Austria: iron ore, 2,586,000 tons; pig iron, 1,482,000 tons
    ~In all about 1,945,000 tons produced.
Coal - in 1900 it was 32,500,000 tons out of Austria; 6,600,000 tons out of Hungary
    ~In all about 39,100,000 tons produced.
Petroleum is found in Galicia
copper is extracted in Tirol
Zinc is only to be mined in Bohemia
Important Manufactured Products: Fire arms, files, wire, nails, tin plate scythes, sickles, steel pens, needles, rails, iron furniture, drains, and kitchen utensils.
    -These are made primarily in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Upper and Lower Austria, Styria and Carinthia- these places all contain ҥxtensive iron-worksҬ

The most important place of derivation and of destination for the Austro-Hungarian trade is the German empire with about 40% of the imports, and about 60% of the exports. Next in importance comes Great Britain, afterwards India, Italy, the United States of America, Russia, France, Switzerland, Rumania, the Balkan states and South America in about the order named. The principal articles of import are cotton and cotton goods, wool and woollen goods, silk and silk goods, coffee, tobacco and metals. The principal articles of export are wood, sugar, cattle, glass and glassware, iron and ironware, eggs, cereals, millinery, fancy goods, earthenware and pottery, and leather goods.

The following tables give the foreign trade of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy as regards raw material and manufactured goods: -
Imports.
Articles.    Value in Millions Sterling.
                                     1900.     1901.       1902.     1903.      1904.
Raw material (including
articles of food; raw
material for agriculture
and industry; and mining
and smelting products.        41.5       40.5        41.8       45.9       51.9
Semi-manufactured goods    9.6        9.6         10.3       10.6       10.8
Manufactured goods           19.5      18.7         19.5       21.6       22.5
Exports.
Articles.                           Value in Millions Sterling.
                                      1900.      1901.     1902.     1903.      1904
Raw material (as above)      34.1       34.1       35.9       39          35.3
Semi-manufactured goods    12.6       11.1       11.1      12.4        12.6
Manufactured goods.           34.2       33.3       32.8      37.2        38.3

POPULATION STATS

Total Population ~ 45.2 Million

0.2% of the population was employed in metalworking, while 2.6% of the total population was in the army.

The following table gives the numbers of different nationalities, as determined by the languages spoken by them in 1900: -

 Germans                           9,171,614

 Czechs and Slovaks         5,955,397

 Poles                            4,252,483

 Ruthenians                     3,381,570

 Slovenes                        1,192,780

 Italians and Ladini            727,102

 Servians and Croats         711,380

 Rumanians                      230,963

 Magyars                            9,516

I got this idea but I'm not really sure if it's possible or not, so that's kind of why I made this thread *shock, awe* =P