Domain: angelfire.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to angelfire.com.
Comments · 1,110
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Re:Ban on re-processing
To understand the true effects of a Nuclear accident do some light reading about Chernobyl.
Here's a good place to Start
http://www.iaea.or.at/NewsCenter/Features/Chernobyl-15/cherno-faq.shtml
Areas as far as 500km from the site were considered contaminated.
The Exclusion zone is 30km circle around the site.
This is a great site about one lady's motorcycle trips through the Chernobyl "dead zone"
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html -
Re:The New Interface
While this is offtopic, I don't see where else to post what the parent said. I agree that the new interface need work. It is too slow and some things don't look right.
I think the all-minified.js script is too brutal for some browsers to load. It will also be a good idea to validate the site. That'll take care of the typical problems.
I just hope that /. doesn't become like Google about validation. -
Another oscillating generator
It's so Popular Mechanics. Another resonant oscillating generator.
This is an old idea, but the usual form is a free-piston engine. Popular Mechanics was hot about that one back in 2004. For something that will light two LEDs, that thing looks big and expensive. Note the machined aluminum frame. For comparison, here's a toy wind generator kit ("convert a plastic bottle to a wind generator!").
Notice how the guy with the vibrating ribbon generator demonstrates it in front of an electric fan. On high. That's probably because it only works in a strong wind. People generally don't live where winds are regularly that high. Wind speed in Port-au-Prince has been between 9 and 12MPH all day, so something that cuts in around 9MPH is needed for use in Haiti.
The classic cheapie generator is taking an oil drum, cutting it in half, and using that as a Savonius rotor. Then you get an alternator from a car, and there's your actual generator. The axle sticks up into the air, where the halves of the oil drum collect the wind and turn the alternator. Here's a smaller version.
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Re:What will happen to English?
It is evolving faster than probably any language ever has before, and the rate of its change is likely to increase.
Do you have any scientific evidence to back up that claim or did you just pull it out of your ass? For example, just among the languages I know, Japanese has changed far more than English in the last 100 years:- The language reforms
- Massive importation of loan words
- Influence of manga on culture
- The massive effects of the rapid changes to traditional Japanese social hierarchies on "respect language."
- The modern industrialization of Japan.
A few folks making a Creole of English (a common process throughout history, BTW) doesn't begin to compare to the fundamental changes rapidly occurring in many of the world's languages. - The language reforms
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Re:kinda true
OK, I have some bad software I want you to look over:
This is an internet radio station selector for Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux. (See screenshots, below, there are some showing this working.)
You may get a copy here, be sure and chmod +x station* to get it working.
http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/station_selector.tcl
This thing is a front end for XMMS, and works alright as long as the addresses of the internet radio stations are vaild. If they are not, then XMMS will lock up, and cause a runaway process, actually a few of them.
I just "updated it", and it seems to work fine last time I checked.
The Station Selector works much faster than just using a browser, viewing ShoutCast, to "change stations".
I know, of course, that it is only a matter of time before the stations get out of date, causing XMMS to lock up, etc. if one of the buttons is pressed. I did get this to work in Kanotix linux,
For any other linux OS, you need XMMS to be able to play MP3 streams, which some do not, without fixes.
Namely Fedora Core 6. Must also have TCL-TK, to run the interface. I have it working in FC6, but the "update" feature does not work, that script is only in Rapidweather Remaster. You get the download one, and that's it anyway.
Although it's bad software, when it works, it changes radio stations really quick, lots of fun.
You can put your own stations in it, simple to do. Changing the interface somewhat can be a real chore, as placement of the buttons takes a bit of work to get them right.
If the radio stations would stay put, then this would work for a long time. Some really good stations have just disappeared, rendering that button on the interface useless.
Some times, with an XMMS lockup, I have to use KDE system guard to get all the XMMS processes out of the running linux system. I did write a short script that goes with the "Stop the Radio" button on the interface, sometimes that works, mostly not if one has had the misfortune to hit a dead station. I can run that script separately via the IceWM menu in the Remaster, that works sometimes if you close the Station Selector interface first.
That's mostly how I get along with this software, so all in all, it comes across as "bad".
-- Rapidweather -
Re:It was not part of the "Baldur's Gate family".
I assumed the engine was what they meant by 'family'. Anyone that takes even half a look at it would see how little it resembles Baldur's Gate.
I'll admit I didn't play all the way through PST (my attention wandered after being in that big city for so bloody long) but it's as much as CRPG as the Baldur's Gate games. Thinking maybe I didn't really know what CRPG meant, I looked it up. http://www.angelfire.com/hero/tjekanefir/crpg.htm
Yup, that's what I thought. BG and PST are both on that list, as well. -
Semantics vs. Syntax
Semantics
In linguistics, the study of meanings. In computer science, the term is frequently used to differentiate the meaning of an instruction from its format. The format, which covers the spelling of language components and the rules controlling how components are combined, is called the language's syntax. For example, if you misspell a command, it is a syntax error. If, on the other hand, you enter a legal command that does not make any sense in the current context, it is a semantic error. -
Re:Don't understand the original post.
I think of a leftist as someone who believes in a benevolent government that taxes the wealthy to provide benefits to the have-nots. This equates to Big Government.
Then you are thinking wrong, or at least much too simplistic. You know, there is actually contemporary leftist theory out there to read, why not try it instead of being stuck in a world view that fits your grandparents' time? E.g., Empire. PDF, txt and html versions here. -
re: "amok, amok, amok!"
Parent's comment is a reference to Sarah Jessic Parker's famous line from Hocus Pocus. I think it may have even been in the preview.
Surprisingly it doesn't appear in IMDB's "memorable quotes" section, despite the fact that it's the ONLY memorable quote in the entire movie. After a bit of googling I finally found the following transcript.
Winifred: Sisters, All Hallow's Eve has become a night of frolic. Where children wear costumes and run amok.
Sarah: (thinks this is funny) Amok? Amok, amok, amok, amok.
(Winifred elbows her in the stomach and she stops.)(Note: SJP's character is named Sarah Sanderson in the movie.)
Ever since we saw that movie, everyone in my family has always mimicked SJP's playful "amok, amok, amok, amok" upon hearing the word amok in any context.
;) -
Re:$1000 for Graduating HS on Time
There's a good point in there, though it's mixed up with one that misses the mark.
It's true that everyone graduating on time, not just those at risk of dropping out and going to jail, would get the bonus. But the numbers are basically the same. Preventing 1 from dropping out saves the state at least $250K, enough to pay for at least 250 kids who wouldn't have gone to jail even without the bonus. But that's still 0.25% being prevented saving the cost of the other 99.75%. Since 0.773% of Americans are incarcerated, there's at least a 3:1 savings rate. And that's just based on a single incarceration per person; the average length of total incarceration is longer than the 5 year baseline.
And of course there's extra benefits: some kids who were close to dropping out but would have made it will be motivated to try harder, getting all the benefits of performing better. That investment in their education will return more to our society, even just in increased taxes from their increased productivity.
There might be a case for calibrating the bonuses to dropout risk. For example, give everyone graduating on time $1000, and those who repeat a final year to graduate $500 anyway. Or calibrate everyone's risk 1-2 years out, and give them their bonus for exceeding their projections, at any point on the scale. Perhaps even weighting the bonus for bigger increases and higher final performance. But keeping it simple enough for everyone to understand and compete equally will be the biggest gain in the main solution: keeping kids in school to keep them out of jail. -
Re:only the paint is green
This refers to the UD effort that predates FCS by many years:
http://www.angelfire.com/art/enchanter/hybrid.html
Ralph Zumbro, Author of "Tank Sergeant", writes about the Hybrid drive M113 that United Defence have built:-
"Phil, The one I was in, and it may be the only one, is state of the art. They steer it with a Bradley gunner's control and it will run for an hour at 30mph on two batteries which are in boxes sized approximately 18"x36"x48". Then a standard issue genset cuts in. The motors are rated at 250 hp each and are oil cooled. It is weird to see a 3 inch diameter drive shaft coming out of a motor the size of a 5 gallon can.
The rubber tracks are soundless, and they've got 2500 miles on them with very little wear showing. That adds up to a VERY quiet vehicle for recon work. Put electric motors, rubber tracks and a two man turret with a 30mm gatling weapon on a standard 113 hull and you've got a recon Tankita.
I mentioned to the people at United Defense that not needing air for the engine made the vehicle capable of running around UNDER water and was told that that had been thought of. That means that you could add enough armor to stop larger weapons, as long as you don't compromise the mobility."
More links:
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002338.html
Hybrid M113
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbWbkOkTydk
Hybrid HMMWV
http://www.evworld.com/archives/conferences/evs14/ humvee.html -
Internet Trolls
What Is A Troll?
The term derives from "trolling", a style of fishing which involves trailing bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The troll posts a message, often in response to an honest question, that is intended to upset, disrupt or simply insult the group.
Usually, it will fail, as the troll rarely bothers to match the tone or style of the group, and usually its ignorance shows.
Why do trolls do it?
I believe that most trolls are sad people, living their lonely lives vicariously through those they see as strong and successful.
Disrupting a stable newsgroup gives the illusion of power, just as for a few, stalking a strong person allows them to think they are strong, too.
For trolls, any response is 'recognition'; they are unable to distinguish between irritation and admiration; their ego grows directly in proportion to the response, regardless of the form or content of that response.
Trolls, rather surprisingly, dispute this, claiming that it's a game or joke; this merely confirms the diagnosis; how sad do you have to be to find such mind-numbingly trivial timewasting to be funny?
Remember that trolls are cowards; they'll usually post just enough to get an argument going, then sit back and count the responses (Yes, that's what they do!).
How can troll posts be recognised?
* No Imagination - Most are frighteningly obvious; sexist comments on womens' groups, blasphemy on religious groups .. I kid you not.
* Pedantic in the Extreme - Many trolls' preparation is so thorough, that while they waste time, they appear so ludicrous from the start that they elicit sympathetic mail - the danger is that once the group takes sides, the damage is done.
* False Identity - Because they are anonymous cowards, trolls virtually never write over their own name, and often reveal their trolliness (and lack of imagination) in the chosen ID. As so many folk these days use false ID, this is not a strong indicator on its own!
* Crossposting - Any post that is crossposted to several groups should be viewed as suspicious, particularly if unrelated or of opposing perspective. Why would someone do that?
* Off-topic posting - Often genuine errors, but, if from an 'outsider' they deserve matter-of-fact response; if genuine, a brief apposite response is simply netiquette; if it's a troll post, you have denied it its reward.
* Repetition of a question or statement is either a troll - or a pedant; either way, treatment as a troll is effective.
* Missing The Point - Trolls rarely answer a direct question - they cannot, if asked to justify their twaddle - so they develop a fine line in missing the point.
* Thick or Sad - Trolls are usually sad, lonely folk, with few social skills; they rarely make what most people would consider intelligent conversation. However, they frequently have an obsession with their IQ and feel the need to tell everyone. This is so frequent, that it is diagnostic! Somewhere on the web there must be an Intelligence Test for Trolls - rigged to always say "above 150"
Who is at risk?
Any newsgroup, bulletin board, forum or chatroom can attract trolls, but they don't have the brains to attack nuclear physicists, and they are drawn to the quick response where sex, religion and race are found; so politics is easy prey.
One troll famously tried to infiltrate a mensa group; the results read like 100 trolls -
Re:Government tracking religion and ethnicity? Bad-on "The Exterminator" series in Eerie Magazine
"Though the preceding and succeeding stand-alone Exterminator stories from DuBay, featuring "Exterminator 212," "Exterminator 155," and Corben Steele respectively, are hardly fondly remembered or sought after by Warrenphiles today, the three Exterminator One stories featuring the highly tragic character of Peter Orwell, forced by the oppressive dictates of an early 21st century United States government to undergo a bio-technological transformation not unlike that suffered by law enforcement Officer Murphy in the Robocop film trilogy and various comic book follow-ups, Orwell was even more tragic on many levels because he wasn't forced to become a cybernetic, semi-autonomous police officer, but an assassin. Moreover, the criminals he was forced to kill, and helpless to resist carrying out due to his human brain and robotic body being linked to a powerful A.I. computer that he mockingly referred to as "George" (do you get it yet?), weren't killers, armed robbers, rapists, etc. Rather, they were mostly all innocent people who simply had the "wrong" type of genetic code, which made them, in the eyes of the government, "impure" rather than predisposed to committing any type of dangerous act save for perhaps conceiving more genetically "impure" people (see the entries below for further speculations on this)...or, they were simply considered a drain on the system's fiscal resources, such as disabled war veterans collecting government social services (though some of Orwell's targets were indeed unsympathetic conventional criminals). The first victim Orwell was forced to take in his new role as a mechanized government hit man was highly shocking to the reader and absolutely horrifying to Orwell himself, and it immediately set up an incredible pathos to the character and the series itself that drew readers right in, despite the often less than stellar job DuBay did with the scripts and the story direction (with the exception of the second story, which was quite well scripted, I must say). The author clearly put much thought into the plots, but then skimped quite a bit on the script and the pace of the tale (at least in the first and third entries in the sad Peter Orwell saga). Despite these imperfections, however, this series was a hit in the eyes of several readers, and it deserved to be."
-from http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/warrenverse/exterm
i nator_one.htmlSpoiler- The first hit is his daughter
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Non-Lethal: Super-cool
I think non-lethal weapons are great. How many times have we seen deadly force used to kill a suspect when all that was really needed was a good puking.
Check out this page that lists the real non-lethal weapons being worked on: http://www.angelfire.com/or/mctrl/nonlethal.html (scroll down the page to where it says: Nonlethal Weapons: Terms and References) -
Re:Sweet!
Not Java, but here are some of the world's worst websites:
A full background rainbow color cycle going on: Accept Jesus Forever Forgotten
This site has a scrolling polka dot pattern: SoulWax
How not to make a website: The World's Worst Website?
Or just a really bad color scheme: Lubees Pump and Irrigation -
Effects on animals
Actually, the best way would be to use subjects which have no subjective bias: rabbits, monkeys, etc. After all, they are trying to test whether or not the masts are causing the symptoms. Mind you, they cannot control for other possible environmental influences, i.e. other sources of radiation, because they are so prevalent and widely varied. The drawback to using animals is that how do you know if they are nauseous or dizzy?
From Anecdotes demanding investigation on TETRA Watch: (emphasis added)Finally, in Bavaria, in 1996, after a mobile phone mast was attached to a pylon, adjoining a farm, some of the cows showed extraordinary behaviour. When investigated by the University of Hanover and the University of the German army in Munich (on measurements) it was found that the cause of the extraordinary behaviour, after eliminating every other possible cause had to be emissions from the mobile phone antennae (2G). When the cows and the herd were taken 10 kilometres away to an open farm with no masts anywhere nearby, the milk yield returned to normal from having dropped 30 per cent and the cows which had been showing extraordinary behaviour (only some of the cows) returned totally to normal
More details: Transmission tower emissions cripple farm operation in Germany Transmission tower emissions cripple farm operation in Germany part 2 - a follow up report
When the cows were returned to the original farm it all happened again. When it was written up and reported in the German Journal of Veterinary Medicine, 38 other farmers in Bavaria stated that similar occurrences had occurred to their herds once a mobile phone mast had been erected in fee vicinity. A subsequent replication study failed to come to the same conclusion, because it came to no conclusion at all, due to having been very inadequately set up so that confounders confused any findings.
However, as everyone knows, cows don't read newspapers, don't listen to radio or television and therefore cannot be described by the NRPB as having been fed media scare stories. In the same way as in BSE everyone knew that 'cows eat grass' except apparently Government scientists, and those acting for the concentrates industry, who probably knew and ought to have known better. You cannot feed cows bits of other animals. It should not have been beyond the wisdom and scientific expertise of scientists to have been able to work that out for themselves. -
Effects on animals
Actually, the best way would be to use subjects which have no subjective bias: rabbits, monkeys, etc. After all, they are trying to test whether or not the masts are causing the symptoms. Mind you, they cannot control for other possible environmental influences, i.e. other sources of radiation, because they are so prevalent and widely varied. The drawback to using animals is that how do you know if they are nauseous or dizzy?
From Anecdotes demanding investigation on TETRA Watch: (emphasis added)Finally, in Bavaria, in 1996, after a mobile phone mast was attached to a pylon, adjoining a farm, some of the cows showed extraordinary behaviour. When investigated by the University of Hanover and the University of the German army in Munich (on measurements) it was found that the cause of the extraordinary behaviour, after eliminating every other possible cause had to be emissions from the mobile phone antennae (2G). When the cows and the herd were taken 10 kilometres away to an open farm with no masts anywhere nearby, the milk yield returned to normal from having dropped 30 per cent and the cows which had been showing extraordinary behaviour (only some of the cows) returned totally to normal
More details: Transmission tower emissions cripple farm operation in Germany Transmission tower emissions cripple farm operation in Germany part 2 - a follow up report
When the cows were returned to the original farm it all happened again. When it was written up and reported in the German Journal of Veterinary Medicine, 38 other farmers in Bavaria stated that similar occurrences had occurred to their herds once a mobile phone mast had been erected in fee vicinity. A subsequent replication study failed to come to the same conclusion, because it came to no conclusion at all, due to having been very inadequately set up so that confounders confused any findings.
However, as everyone knows, cows don't read newspapers, don't listen to radio or television and therefore cannot be described by the NRPB as having been fed media scare stories. In the same way as in BSE everyone knew that 'cows eat grass' except apparently Government scientists, and those acting for the concentrates industry, who probably knew and ought to have known better. You cannot feed cows bits of other animals. It should not have been beyond the wisdom and scientific expertise of scientists to have been able to work that out for themselves. -
Re:That's because
obviously grandpa didn't mean real foxes. real foxes make all sorts of cute sounds but rrarely rrawr.
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Re:what about the good of the internet
I second the recomendation of "Empire" and just wanted to add that you can download the e-book for free:
http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/negri/ -
But what a guy!
Sheer enthusiasm makes you that guy jumping off your roof with a 5-winged human-powered flying machine
Ah! You're talking about Leonardo Da Vinci. -
Re:The whole article is -1 redundant.
Didn't I read somewhere that Bill Gates stopped all of his code writers for nearly a month, so they could learn how to comment their code, so others in the Microsoft organization could make sense of it?
I try to comment my code to the extreme, since it's mine anyway, and I want the thing to be self-contained, in that a readme is in there. Here is an example you can see.
I'm not a professionally trained programmer, but I dog it along until it does what I want. -
"Up to" should be considered deceptive advertising
What we need is an FTC rule that advertising any service quality or quantity with the words "up to" or substantially similar language is, by law, considered deceptive. Advertising should have to specify a guaranteed level of service. That would put cable and DSL on the same measurement scale, discourage underprovisioning, and make cellular data transfer rates in ads something you could rely on.
There's precedent for this. At various times in the past, the FTC had to tighten up the definition of "horsepower" for cars and "watts" for audio gear.
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VT is the place to go
It's tunnels are practically legendary, at least by U.S. standards (nothing like the tunnels and crypts underneath Paris, but few places are):
Here's a site on it, hopefully it's still working:
http://www.angelfire.com/vt/vtsteamtunnels/index2. html
Unfortunately after the incident there last month I expect it might not be a good place to be crawling around in old steam tunnels, lest some overzealous security guard shoot you or something, but maybe when the current insanity passes it'll be safe again. -
Re:humanity vs capitalism
Andy Zebrowitz, sad but true
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Re:Two megs?
Sure. Try here http://www.angelfire.com/linux/floorzat/2diskXwin
. htm 2-Disk Linux.for a linux with x that will fit on two floppies, one for the base install and the second for x-windows.
They used to have a 1-Disk Linux distro that would fit on one floppy (1.72Mb?) with a tiny x-server, busybox, ed (an editor) and a web browser (dillo? elinks? I don't remember....) but I don't see it on the page anymore.
It is actually usable (I tried it) but I had some probs saving files to hard disk, IIRC. This was a long time ago, but the project looks still active. -
Re:What a disgusting waste of fuel
"On a New York-to-Denver flight, a commercial jet would generate 840 to 1,660 pounds of carbon dioxide per passenger. That's about what an SUV generates in a month." -- http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2006-12-18
- jet-pollution-usat_x.htm
NYC to Denver: 1629 miles -- http://www.angelfire.com/md2/timewarp/cursortrail. html
"4508 09322 GEP DPR RECAP MLS LWT BZN DBS FFU HVE RSK ALS PUB DVV RLG DVV PUB TBE LAA SNY RAP LBF ANY OVR HARPI" -- well I don't know how many miles that is. Cheers, -
Re:Needless arrogance.
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LiteratePrograms
One project that deserves a look here is the LiteratePrograms project. The goals are somewhat different from Rosetta, with more emphasis on teaching of algorithms and the ability to run code directly from the wiki.
As one who has worked on a couple of multi-language problem sets (SICP in other programming languages and OO Shapes), I can appreciate the amount of work it takes. We can always use more sites that teach programming in various unique fashions. -
Old hat?
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Who Designed the Body? Have They Caught Him Yet?WTF is up with that body design? It looks like Ark-II.
Is Detroit trying to make electric/hybrids as ugly as possible? What happened to all those sleek, jet-age futuristic designs dating back as far as the 1940's? You could grab just about any one of those designs, stick a hybrid engine in it, and have a winner.
Schwab
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Impact is what matters
add a few giftet artists to all this potential, and I'm sure the world would never look the same again (:
Yes, I can imagine how it's going to be: World's Worst Website. Walk trough Walmart low price products will be a unforgettable experience. -
Re:Real Estimates?Even in the case of a hybrid you have no idea what part of the benefit is from the hybrid engine as opposed to all the other improvements that toyota and honda put into the same cars.
Actually, I do. The efficiency of the Prius engine, a variation on the Atkinson cycle, is known to be about 37 percent (with not much variation over a fairly wide range of loads). Other engines with the traditional Otto cycle have peak efficiencies of around 30 to 33 percent.
That's the efficiency of the ICE, not the hybrid drivetrain. IOW, you can't compare how a prius would run with the same ICE, the same transmission, the same body, the same everything except without the electric engine. Until you can do that you don't really know what the "hybrid" part of the design is worth.
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Re:Real Estimates?What, exactly, do you expect? There is absolutely no way to show hard data on this because you can't do a head-to-head comparison between equivalent hybrid and conventional powered vehicles. All you offered was a potential way that hybrids could benefit at highway speed. I offered a potential reason why the hybrids would have an additional disadvantage at highway speed. You complain that disadvantage is minimal--I believe that your advantage is minimal. Go ahead and "show" me that you're right in whatever way you think is appropriate. Until you do, don't complain that I'm not "showing" anything.
As I recall, it was you who made the initial blanket statement, that hybrids offer no advantage in highway cruising. I think you have the burden of proof here.
Even in the case of a hybrid you have no idea what part of the benefit is from the hybrid engine as opposed to all the other improvements that toyota and honda put into the same cars.
Actually, I do. The efficiency of the Prius engine, a variation on the Atkinson cycle, is known to be about 37 percent (with not much variation over a fairly wide range of loads). Other engines with the traditional Otto cycle have peak efficiencies of around 30 to 33 percent.
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Re:It's all the games' fault!World's fastest invocation of Godwin's Law?
:D
~~=====> - Godwin's Law
0 - You
_|_
|
/ \
It's not a rule that can be invoked like "Whoever finishes the TP must install the new roll.", it's a law in the sense of "E=MC^2".
Let me introduce you to Kano's Law.- The odds of someone using Godwin's Law to shield an idea from criticism is proportional to how much that idea resebles those of the Nazis.
LK -
Re:But wait ...
Au contraire... it's a lot to lose sleep over if you dig deeply into the subject.
Ok, it's a little hard to explain since I'm not an economist, but it goes a little something like this.
If for the sake of an example, the world started trading everything in Euros, rather than the USD. There suddenly wouldn't be a need for any USD by anyone except Americans, and those people who do business directly with the US. Therefore, global demand for the USD will drop. When demand drops, there will be a suddenly increase in supply because countries who currently hold vast amounts of US currency (for currency protection purposes) will suddenly feel there is no worth in holding on to their float (devalued in worth) and try to release it on to the market to shift their holdings to the Euro. Like a seesaw, when one currency goes up, another goes down. So, when countries flood the market with excess USD and demand Euros in it's place, the USD starts to look cheap, and because Euros are in demand, only the highest bidders get it, therefore Euros goes up.
As you can see, if the USD drops in value, the ability for Americans to purchase foreign goods gets more expensive. Since the USD isn't worth as much anymore, so you need to pay more for the same goods. Also, since some goods are now priced in Euros, and the price of a Euro is more expensive, an American would not only have to pay more to buy a Euro, but also have to pay more because the USD is lesser value. Sort of like a double whammy.
Foreign things now cost more, but the American economy isn't growing as fast as the change in the currency, so goods for export aren't bringing in as much money as they used to. It's a vicious cycle until the US economy finds a balance, which is typically going to be at a lower level than it is now. The individual impact would be that suddenly as an American, everything costs more. So unless your salary is able to grow at the same rate the currency is dropping, you'll likely be able to afford less and less, prompting you to cut back on unneccessary purchases. However, if you realize that the US economy is run on people making unneccessary purchases, you will soon see how the economy is going to collaspe on itself.
So by changing the default trading currency it affects the USD and the US economy quite drastically.
I think you can get a better explaination than what I have provided by looking up "currency devaluation".
Here's a link: http://www.angelfire.com/biz/clinedavies/essay1.ht ml -
Re:Wiimote + Dancemat?
You know, you *can* make your own metal pad. The materials cost at most half the price of a high-quality pad, and that's only if you use top-notch stuff (like Lexan polycarbonate for the panels). Plus, since you built it, you know where to get the parts to repair it.
I used this guide, if it helps:
http://www.angelfire.com/d20/ddrhomepad/ -
Re:Ha ha
Spinning rings would be funny, an actual giant sandworm in Second Life would have been much more satisfying. No way would anyone want to go over and touch that.
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Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along
Take a look at the screenshots in the signature below.
I run this knoppix remaster on machines with 128 MB of ram, that were originally designed for Windows 98.
I do use the Windows 98 "dos" to have the autoexec.bat run a menu, from which I can choose Windows or any of the various windows managers in my remaster, KDE, twm, Fluxbox, and the default IceWM. The one item recommended is the "persistent home directory", a file called "knoppix.img" that is accessed via the loadlin command line in the various 'linux.bat" files that are selected with the menu. Here is an old page of mine describing the msdos menu now being used to multi-boot linux and windows. I do have one box that boots Debian 2.2, Mandrake 8, my remaster, and Windows 98. Only my remaster can run the latest web browsers, Opera 9, Flock, and Firefox.
No problem at all running my remaster on a 200 MMX box, I'm doing that now, using Firefox 2.0 to make this post.
The remaster is based on Knoppix 3.4, which uses a 2.4 kernel, so that is why it runs so well on older hardware.
I have experimented with livecd linux with 2.6 kernel, and that really slows down on these boxes. Some of those won't run at all.
There are some tricks to it all, one of them is to get the isolinux.bin file to test 100% with the "testcd" knoppix cheatcode. Not even the original Knoppix 3.4 can do that. If you get 100% in that test, then the livecd linux will boot on almost all older machines bios'. Damnsmall linux did not figure that out, and I had nearly 3/4 of my older boxes that DSL would not boot on once they went to an isolinux setup. They now have to offer a parallel "syslinux" setup to keep everyone happy. I don't need to do that.
I don't need a CDROM drive to "install", just use a backpack cdrom external drive to copy the 492 MB "/knoppix" to the Windows partition, set up the menu with the loadlin batch files, and reboot, choose your OS.
Most of the time I do place the /knoppix folder in a ext2 partition, however. Once you get going, you can refine your setup to do that.
I didn't just add some applications to the base Knoppix 3.4, I made a lot of my own, see the Getting Started Guide to see all the details.
I have used my livecd linux to boot into XP boxes that would not boot up at all, just a few lines of error message on a black screen. Then I can see what is missing, and have some idea what to do when I use the XP restoration CD to bring Window XP back to life. You can do a virus scan of all of the XP partitions using my livecd linux, if that makes one feel better.
I can use QTParted to partition the XP hard drive, and I have set up two separate XP installations on the same box, so each user can really have his/her own Windows XP. You have to reboot to get to the other one via the ntldr screen.
My main point here is bringing the latest web browsers to an old Windows 98 box, with my livecd linux.
I have a whole row of machines here that all do that, all were originally Windows machines, most with less than 256 MB of ram. There's a Toshiba 4015CDS with 160 MB of RAM, that boots my remaster, without the CD in the tray.
Very stable, with Guarddog firewall in place by default.
--Rapidweather -
Re:Nuh-uh!
That's 6,500 years, you heathen!
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What the Dalai Lama Doesn't Want you to See
If Tibet became "free" by Chinese withdrawal, would the Dalai Lama want you to see these images? He is holding the hand of Shoko Asahara, the cult leader who gassed a bunch of people on the Tokyo subway with sarin. http://www.angelfire.com/ego/sinzinrui/photo4/ram
a 2.jpg http://www.angelfire.com/ego/sinz inrui/photo4/rama3.jpg -
What the Dalai Lama Doesn't Want you to See
If Tibet became "free" by Chinese withdrawal, would the Dalai Lama want you to see these images? He is holding the hand of Shoko Asahara, the cult leader who gassed a bunch of people on the Tokyo subway with sarin. http://www.angelfire.com/ego/sinzinrui/photo4/ram
a 2.jpg http://www.angelfire.com/ego/sinz inrui/photo4/rama3.jpg -
Re:Apple 1984
http://www.angelfire.com/co/COMMONSENSE/reagan.ht
m l - Cowboys and Idiots - The Reagan Years. Voter turn out/popularity were not bone of contention. Painting the guy as some great president on the other hand was.
Mainstream American gives a rats ass about the Cannes Film Festival. Ask your average American what films have been shown there and they will shrug their shoulders. The 1984 commercial was mostly ignored/unseen/forgotten by the 80's populous. I'm sure afew papers wrote articles about it, buried in some unread section, but radio, tv, and the culture as a whole ignored it. -
Re:New Trek Comics
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Re:not possible, I fear
With each better method of filtering cogent information from background noise comes a new better source of noise.
You can't fight it, the law of entropy. We humans are just like every other body in the universe, destined to be pulled apart into the smallest of particles and redistributed at the most even consistency.
"We are but whirlpools in a river of ever-flowing water. We are not stuff that abides, but patterns that perpetuate themselves. Life is an island here and now in a dying world. The process by which we living beings resist the general stream of corruption and decay is known as homeostasis. We can continue to live in the very special environment which we carry forward with us until we begin to decay more quickly than we reconstitute ourselves. Then we die." -- Norbert Wiener, the father of the information age. -
You know what to do in 2008
Vote MacGyver for President! In Episode #56 he actually kicks the butts of a couple of these 'war is peace' neocon types. What better choice is there in 2008? He disarmes missiles with a paperclip and diffuses bombs with hockey tickets for crying out loud! - Oh yea, and of course Mr. T needs to be secretary of defence!
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The U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat in Photos
1. "Forever-Fearsome F-14 Tomcat Fighter Jet's Last Official Launch, Flyby, Landing": http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1679090/
p osts2. Nice F-14 and F-18 photos: http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20040817.htm
and http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20040818.htm3. Yet another fine gallery with F-14 photos: http://www.galleryoffluidmechanics.com/conden/pg_
s ing.htm4. Video of a transonic F-14 Tomcat, complete with the Prandtl-Glauert vapor cloud, with an unexpected ending: http://www.angelfire.com/hi/luckypuppy2840/MADDOG
J ET/videos/F14flyby.mpg5. Nice page with links to photo galleries of transonic aircraft --including the F-14 and F-18 fighter jets -- bombers, and space vehicles: http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-The-Spectacular-
C louds-of-the-Transonic-Flight-Regime.htmPrandtl-Glauert condensation cloud tutorial: http://fluidmech.net/tutorials/sonic/prandtl-glau
e rt-clouds.htm -
I wonder ...
whether the municipal water people can tell if a bluegill is tripping on LSD?
Or, for that matter, viagra.
(If anyone feels like responding "your can't trip on viagra" - that depends on how big the pill is, and whether you're looking where you're walking.) -
That's Back to the Future
that just made me think of the wide-screen version of a video someone accidentally released. Instead of taking the original film, they pan-and-scanned the pan and scan, giving a doubly cropped wide screen!
You're thinking of Back to the Future. I hope it was just part I but I never looked into it enough to see if it was all three movies.
They didn't double pan and scan. They took the pan and scan and then cut off the top of bottom. I think we all understand what you were trying to say but you said it completely wrong.
Perhaps though I was wrong about what went wrong because this site goes into detail about what went wrong and even mentions a few other movies to which the same/similar error occuredA Hard Day's Night, Fear And Loathing, Chasing Amy, Abba, Alien 3, Clerks and Reservoir Dogs.
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Re:Prior art
It appears that most anyone who created multimedia with Director and audio from Sound edit in the early 1990's has prior art for many of those "inventions"
I was thinking the same thing. I don't have the old Director files anymore, at least that I can find, but I did stash some screenshots away. I was 16 or 17 at the time, so the design is amateur, but functional:
InterlocK(tm) VF-2S(tm) Shockwave Streaming Audio (the copyright for the song being played says 1996, but I would have had the player up and running in 1995).
Futureshock, the unfinished successor with a GUI for configuration and playlist editing (the original read a text file in the program folder to get its playlist).
The best part was that at the time, I was absolutely convinced that I had made a valuable commercial product, despite it being more or less exactly what Director/Shockwave was intended to allow you to do. I even managed to sell two licenses. I guess what I *should* have done was patent it, then wait a decade and sue Apple. -
Re:Stupid
Wait, Apple is painting THEIR product better than everyone else's?! FOR SHAME! Adverts should NOT take the focus away from the truth! In a totally unrelated matter GET A FREE IPOD!!11!1 http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/freeoffer/ipod.jpg