Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

• 

  nonuser, 23 Feb 2005 @ 6:34pm

  
  

  it occurred to me as well

  Spam could probably be largely solved in a straightforward manner using some combination of authenticated email and sender micropay (e.g., by charging three cents to send an email to an address that hasn't agreed to accept mail from the sender). Viruses could similarly be contained by re-architecting operating systems. But this would deprive us of a chance of learning a lot of useful information about intelligent viruses, some of which may be transferrable to the biological domain.

  [ link to this | view in chronology ]

• 

  dorpus, 23 Feb 2005 @ 6:52pm

  
  

  Bwa ha ha

  So Mr. Gates thinks he understands the field of bioinformatics now?
  
  Sure, such simple techniques will work once more useful problems are solved, such as the protein folding problem. Until the protein folding problem is understood in, say, another 20-30 years, DNA is just so many letters.
  
  

  [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • 

    Koey London, 23 Feb 2005 @ 11:19pm

    
    

    Re: Bwa ha ha

    Well, actually we're not that far off. Remember, it only took us a few hundred years to get from throwing axes at one another to nuking each other. It's a small step from understanding what DNA is to understanding what it does. And if we can take the enxyclopedia Britanica and fit it into my vest pocket at work, we can sure as hell beat AIDS and, more importantly, HIV, the virus responsible.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • 

      dorpus, 23 Feb 2005 @ 11:28pm

      
      

      Re: Bwa ha ha

      Can we? For all the technological glory, we have not beaten the common cold virus. We have not beaten any of the herpes simplex viruses. The only viruses we have managed to defeat are those with unusually low rates of mutation, such as smallpox or polio virus. HIV is a high-mutation virus, which has resisted vaccines -- more than one attempt has been made. Researchers expect to just make incremental progress, by treating it like a managed condition like Herpes. There have been plenty of false hopes, such as when secretary of HHS Donna Shalala said a cure for AIDS is 5 years away.
      
      

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • 

      Jared, 24 Feb 2005 @ 9:04am

      
      

      Re: Bwa ha ha

      Remember, it only took us a few hundred years to get from throwing axes at one another to nuking each other.

      And we've devleoped nukes by studying axe throwing? Biological and binary are two completely seperate fields. This will not aid (pardon the pun) any research in combatting biological viruses because we don't program bilogical viruses, while we do program digital viruses. Biological viruses have a nasty habit of "building up immunities" to our vaccines or drugs, and they will only continue to do so. Call it, the will to live, if you must, but at any rate the human race will always be sick in this world.

      I don't understand why MS brings themself down by stating one specific virus, AIDS. Why AIDS? Why not the common cold, or the flu? When they don't live up to this, they're going to say, "Oh, well, we didn't really mean curing AIDS, we meant...uh...hold on a sec, I'm waiting for my queue."

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • 

      Guy Mitchell Gauthier, 30 Jan 2007 @ 11:08am

      
      

      there is a cure

      did you know that there is a cure for aids?

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

• 

  Anonymous Coward, 23 Feb 2005 @ 8:21pm

  
  

  No Subject Given

  so their software cures you of aids, then crashes and kills you?!

  [ link to this | view in chronology ]

• 

  guest, 24 Feb 2005 @ 7:13am

  
  

  No Subject Given

  Why does nearly every mention of Microsoft meet with such sarcasm? It's almost as if MSFT has become the habitual whipping boy for every geek out there.
  Although it admittedly has its rough edges, what other companies compare in providing customer value, and a corporate leader willing to commit billions of dollars for humanitarian causes?
  Oracle?
  Sun?
  IBM?
  Perhaps we should save some of our sarcasm for them as well.

  [ link to this | view in chronology ]

• 

  sly squirrel, 24 Feb 2005 @ 9:38am

  
  

  replace aids with need to get people going with th

  no thanks

  [ link to this | view in chronology ]