Domain: angelfire.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to angelfire.com.
Comments · 1,110
-
Re:Kent, this is Jesus
What do you think a phase conjugate tracking mirror is used for, Kent?
The quote is "What do you think a secret phase conjugate tracking system is FOR? A big mirror makes a big beam."
LK -
Re:Like a dinosaur
A boa constrictor that swallowed an elephant?
-
Cue the creatures!
Someone warn the Ice Warriors, giant nostalgia robots, Selenites, fey yet lovable ant things, bungling green men with swimming caps, Servants of the Dark Lord Xenu, and all the rest that we'll be coming by for dinner.
-
Re:Not the trench, thoughAlso, subduction zones aren't particularly stable and predictable, so the waste would likely spew about rather than being neatly sucked away.
Big deal. If you took all the waste ever produced by every reactor on Earth and diluted it in even one cubic mile of water, I'd happily drink a glass every day for the rest of my life. It would be totally harmless and might even be beneficial.
There are trillions of tons of naturally occurring radioactive isotopes in the world, not to mention the millions of cosmic rays passing through us every second. Life evolved repair mechanisms to deal easily with low-level radiation, and it's a joke that people are so scared of it.
-ccm
-
Re:Artificial
Trying to force anyone to be interested in things they simply aren't is morally wrong...
....not something that should be foughtYou're using some very inappropriately strong words to describe what's being done here. Why is that? Are you scared of something?
Traits and interests are not the same. Men and women have naturally different traits, that much is obvious. But interests? My favourite example here is skateboarding, as described in this essay (mirror).
Describing the attitudes of male skaters towards women:
they explained the lack of female participation as a natural inability or as a choice of women not to skate. It appeared that dominant ideology of sex- typed behavior was an assumption of these skaters
Sound familiar? That's probably because it's the exact same thing you're saying. And yet:
...
Skaters expressed the assumptions that women either exclude themselves by choosing not to skate (act masculine) or that women naturally would not be interested in skating (in acting masculine)Skateboarding is a typical female model of sport: it is cooperative, anti-competitieve, a means of self-expression, a means of self-control, it lacks rules, and it lacks a hierarchal structure. In addition, the skills involved are typically seen as feminine such as grace, coordination, and balance. It is not a sport that is based on muscle-bound power.
Correlation does not imply cause. The fact that an interest or activity is male-dominated does not necessarily mean that it's a result of the differences between mens' and womens' natural traits.
-
Re:So who is to blame
Some people seem to have the bizarre idea that things exist by themselves in some sort of vaccuum with no causes
If only you'd applied that logic to the matter at hand, you'd have a much better understanding of this mysterious "American logic". The American theory that terrorists are just plain evil itself does not exist in a vacuum. It is a response to liberal notions (and I'm use the word in a descriptive and not pejorative sense) about punishment theory which seem to reduce personal responsibility almost to the point of exclusion. The basic idea is this new-fangled concept that punishment is about rehabilitation.
Ironically enough, one of the earliest opponents of rehabilitation theory was C. S. Lewis - a brit. You can read his famous essay on the subject here: http://www.angelfire.com/pro/lewiscs/humanitarian. html
Of course that was back in the 50s when punishment as rehabilitation was new. Since then the debate was come back a little right-wards from there, and most liberals now sort of mash together punishment-as-rehabilitation as a subset of punishment-as-deterrence.
The result is this vague philosophy that the best way to reduce crime is to see crime chiefly in terms of the sociological drivers. Eliminate those drivers, and you reduce the problem.
There are a number of issues with this.
1. It can be seen to eclipse personal responsibility.
2. It's not so simple to find the sociological drivers. We know that poverty and crime have a positive correlation, but this does NOT mean that poverty drives crime. Something else may drive both of them, or some other set of "something else's" may drive both of them.
3. It's not clear that eradication of poverty is even a coherent goal, or one that would not be worse than the cure. Standard of livings are not static. Poverty is based on deviation from the standard of living. So the only way to eradicate poverty is to eradicate differences in standard of living. This is likely either impossible or something that would result in a lower standard of living for everybody - including the poor.
Americans, as pragmatic as we tend to be, have started to come to the conclusion that 1 - it may not be really that valid to find sociological reasons for crime, terrorism, etc. (since there's still precious little evidence crime is CAUSED by poverty) and 2 - that in any case, even if someone has a reason to do something evil it may be wiser and more pragmatic to stop them from doing the evil thing first and figure out why they wanted to do it second.
You'd think it's obvious to say that "crime is caused by criminals" but lately the world seems so interested in understanding terrorists and criminals that we're in danger of running out of people who are willing to actually oppose them. So if you come along and don't pay any attention to the prior discussion then sure - it looks stupid. But when you see the insane liberal desire to cure criminals and to reason with terrorists it starts to make sense. I'm all in favor of curing criminals, but I'd rather lock them up first and cure them second. I'm all in favor of understanding terrorists, but I'd rather stop them from blowing shit up first.
Then again, I *am* just a crazy American.
-stormin -
free-thinking adults fear the brain-washed youth
"In 1984, brainwashing and instilling loyalty to the political parties begins at a very young age, similar to the situation during the Holocaust. In Orwell's novel, children were encouraged to be spies, and even to turn in their own parents."
from http://www.angelfire.com/blog/1984essay/index.htm -
Re:My declining karma
Would you care to elaborate on what a Brontosaurus is, considering that it's not a recognised species?
http://www.angelfire.com/mi/dinosaurs/brontosaurus .html -
Re:This affects science little in the present but.
What you are saying about Carbon Dating is True. http://www.trueauthority.com/cvse/carbon.htm
What I said about Carbon-14 dating applies to other radiometric dating as well. But it is still relevent. Why? Because Carbon Dating is thought to be really accurate. Still scientists throw out the data from it all the time because it shows items to be younger then they thought was possible. What it the items were not only younger then they thought but younger then the C-14 data showed? What if fossils really are only 6000 years old? Now I am not going to say that only a new earth view of the world will dissprove evolution. Macro-Evolution is so full of holes that it's amazing people can see what the theory really is anymore.
Page showing C-14 datum being thrown away. http://www.angelfire.com/mi/dinosaurs/carbondating .html -
Re:But are they "Imperial" droid satellites?
Basically, yes. Imho the pope resembles the emperor more closely, though. But hey, it's hollywood.. Angelina Jolie looks nothing like a hacker either.
-
Links, yo
http://www.expage.com/page/amorderey - Latin King Nation (PEOPLES)
http://www.angelfire.com/folk/gangstaz/ - Gangsta Disciples (FOLKS)
http://www.angelfire.com/il/ViceLord/ - Vice Lords (PEOPLES)
These are the major chicago based gangs. These claim to be offical nation sites, and it looks like the people that built them are members, or at least know the creeds and rules of the gangs. Most gang researchers and gang taskforce members will know the creeds of the gangs, so its not like any of that is secret. -
Links, yo
http://www.expage.com/page/amorderey - Latin King Nation (PEOPLES)
http://www.angelfire.com/folk/gangstaz/ - Gangsta Disciples (FOLKS)
http://www.angelfire.com/il/ViceLord/ - Vice Lords (PEOPLES)
These are the major chicago based gangs. These claim to be offical nation sites, and it looks like the people that built them are members, or at least know the creeds and rules of the gangs. Most gang researchers and gang taskforce members will know the creeds of the gangs, so its not like any of that is secret. -
Turkish Twist / Rotor
"a really cool ride called the Gravitron"
I grew up near an ammusement park that had a ride call the "Turkish Twist". Apparently, that was their own name for what the manufactuer calls "The Rotor". It was much like a Gravitron, but more powerful. It was kind of like being on the inside of a giant washing machine tub. The walls were completely vertical, and padded with a thin layer of rubber. You stood against, and got stuck to, the wall. Once up to speed, the floor dropped down, but you stayed stuck to the wall.
Google found a computer model of a Rotor, too.
One of the weird things (aside from being stuck to a wall in mid-air) was that, once up to speed, my perception was that the whole world had turned sideways. I didn't feel like I was spinning at all. I guess that rotation really messes with one's inner ear.
All the Gravitrons I've been on were tame in comparison. -
Re:Does anybody at NASA have a MEMORY?
Or, I supposed, these guys...
-
EMC
Why does Ellingson Mineral Corporation need RSA? Are they afraid of their Gibson being hacked, or something?
-
Re:10%-Baptists-Christian Coolition-Bush-War
OK, whatever. I'm happy to oblige.
Here's what the Zoroastrians have to say on the subject (I've always liked that religion too): (if you don't want to read all of it the cliff notes is that they think it's bad)
The Vendidad is the "Book of Laws" for the Zoroastrian Faith. Here is what it says about abortion:
"9. If a man come near unto a damsel, either dependent on the chief of the family or not dependent, either delivered [married] or not delivered, and she conceives by him, let her not, being ashamed [of her adultery or fornication] of the people, produce in herself the menses, against the course of nature, by means of water and plants.
10. And if the damsel, being ashamed of the people, shall produce in herself the menses against the course of nature, by means of water or plants, it is a fresh sin as heavy [as her adultery].
11. If a man come near unto a damsel, either dependent on the chief of the family or not dependent, either delivered [married] or not delivered, and she conceives by him, let her not, being ashamed of the people [fearing the people will think her shameful], destroy the fruit in her womb.
12. And if the damsel, being ashamed of the people, shall destroy the fruit in her womb, the sin is on both the father and herself; the murder is on the the father and herself; both the father [of the child] and herself shall pay the penalty for wilful murder.
13."If a man comes near unto a damsel, either dependent on the chief of the family or not dependent, either delivered or not delivered, and she conceives by him, and she says, 'I have conceived by thee;' and he replies, 'Go then to the old woman and apply to her for one of her drugs, tha she may procure thee miscarriage;'
14. "And the damsel goes to the old woman and applies to her for one of her drugs, that she may procure miscarriage; and the old woman brings her some Banga, or Shaeta, a drug that kills in the womb or once that expels out of the womb, or some other of the drugs that produce miscarriage and says, 'Cause thy fruit to perish!" and she causes her fruit to perish; the sin is on the head of all three: the man, the damsel, and the old woman." (Vendidad, Fargard 15: 2a:9-12, 2b:13-14)
http://www.angelfire.com/mo/baha/zoroastrianism.ht ml
The Shinoists seems to have a weird acceptance of abortion. They apparently accept that abortions will be done, but then apologize to the aborted in special shrines: http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9610/desmond .html Go figure.
-stormin -
Re:16MB with X?
You might want to check this out:
http://www.angelfire.com/linux/floorzat/2diskXwin. htm
However, I believe your best bet is to avoid X. You need a very minimal hand-built linux that uses the svgalib and links, and maybe seejpeg, to do all graphical stuff. If you put it together consider posting an image of it somewhere. -
NOX has superb art
The old NOX RPG from Westwood Studios still has jaw-dropping 2D art to this day. The real killer is that it combines great art with amazing animation and special effects (lighting for one). I would like to see more 2D titles take this route!
-
Not the greatest, but not bad
An older DIY design is here, and Riptide's videos as well. Build costs are estimated at 140 and 200 dollars. One more here.
The main problem with the InventGeek design is that it doesn't appear to have any tactile feedback. You need the subtle height differences to be able to read with your feet. Also, you want the standing surface in the middle to be solid metal (unless you're going to play Pump It Up, as that provides further feedback.
It also doesn't use any vertical crossbeams in the pads, leading to sensor and support disparity. This is why the base is generally built out of wood, or a bit more metal. That keeps the right side of the left sensor feeling the same as the up, down, and left sides. As it stands, I wouldn't be surprised if stepping on the right side of the left sensor crushed the pad material for a permanent button-down signal. Or if the acrylic began to bow there.
For that matter, generally you want Lucite or Lexan for the deck. Hard as hell, and going to take it for a while. But people have successfully used other things.
And if you're going to buy metal, you want a Cobalt Flux. Unless you're more casual / like your knees, at which point get an ignition. Most of the 150 metal mats will leave you disappointed, especially compared to the Cobalt. Though I've heard the 200 ninja is ok too. -
Benjamin Frankiln's liberty quote
It's obvious you need those civics classes as much as anyone else. The actual quote is: Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
There seems to be disagreements as to exactly what Benjamin Frankiln said. This website says:
To be clear, since it has been a while since I have written on this matter, security and liberty are both highly desirable goals for which we strive. They are, unfortunately, conflicting. Ben Franklin's dictum, "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" is oft misquoted as an absolute ("They who would give up liberty for security, deserve neither liberty or security"); Franklin was, alas, not that simpleminded.
This one says basically what you've got but is more compleat:
As Benjamin Franklin once wrote, those who would give up essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security. Where our security and liberty is concerned, we must remain constantly vigilant and uncompromisingly devoted. - Representative Ron Paul, July 13, 1998 [WorldNetDaily]
And this one says:
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Although worded differently they all mean basically the same thing, if you give up essential liberty for temporary safety you will neither get nor deserve either.
Falcon -
English Prime
The best writing style to avoid active or passive sentences remains E-prime. Just prohibit the use of the verb 'to-be' and your message comes out a lot clearer. In this case: 'The boy rides the bike to the store'. In this case the sentences mostly describe action or relations, instead of the abolutes. Using the verb 'to be' makes the writer either allseeing or a passive victim. Using the previous example a passive sentence would become: 'The bike is ridden to the store by the boy.'
E-prime helps me a lot in making my technical reports a lot more understandable and clearer.
For more information see:
http://www.wonderfulwritingskillsunhandbook.com/ht ml/e-prime.html
http://www.angelfire.com/nd/danscorpio/ep2.html/ -
Re:On physics
Heh, someone else did the same search as me. Found a really good example:
http://www.angelfire.com/mn/jvolstad/CarAccident.h tml
Fear the telephone poles. They will end you. -
Re:That's good and allThe monkeys and Shakespeare meme has an obscure history. This page tracks it back to statistical mechanics, ca. 1913.
[Babelfish translation]
It's interesting that the sense of the idea has been reversed: originally it was meant to show how staggeringly unlikely it was that an ordered situation would emerge by chance. Now it often is used to imply that if you throw enough monkeys/time/computing power at a problem that you can brute force it.
Let us conceive that one drew up a million monkeys randomly to be struck the keys of a typewriter and that, under the monitoring of illiterate foremen, these monkeys typists work with heat ten hours per day with a million typewriters varied types. The illiterate foremen would gather the blackened sheets and would connect them in volumes. And at the end of one year, these volumes would be to contain the exact copy of the books of any nature and all languages preserved in the richest libraries of the world. Such is the probability so that it occurs during one very short moment, in a space of some extent, a notable variation of what statistical mechanics regards as the most probable phenomenon
Émile Borel, ``Mécanique Statistique et Irréversibilité,'' J. Phys. 5e série, vol. 3, 1913, pp.189-196.It's part of geek pop culture now; I noticed a reference in an episode of The Lone Gunmen a couple of years ago.
-
Monkeys, donkeys, and elephants
-
Re:But ...
There is evidence to conclude that small doses of radiation, as opposed to high doses, actually have a beneficial effect, reducing the susceptibility to various radiation effects. The term is radiation hormesis.
-
Re:No suprise
That's good to know, but regardless of whether she's 26 or 30, or whether she rode a motorbike or a Jeep, the real question is whether or not the photos in the photo-essay are authentic. I've been reading through it and by and large I think the text is far less interesting and compelling than the photos.
Anybody have any clue as to the authenticity of the photos?
(Particularly, since we're talking about the wildlife in this thread, the ones of the mutant animals? Which she admits are not hers.) -
Re:No suprise
It's not authorative but apparently Elena's story is a hoax. According to the linked posting she was 30, not 26 at the time of writing and cannot ride a motorbike. According to the thread she is actually a tourguide with Chernobylinterinform. Sorry for ruining the fantasy.
-
Re:No suprise
I highly doubt this has anything to do with mother nature adapting in a relatively short period of time. Stuff like that is for comic books. Radiation levels, while still incredibly unhealthy, have dropped considerably.
I would imagine animals and plantlife are not thriving or living as well as they should be. Radiation levels in outlaying areas have probbaly dropped to levels that allow life to screw faster then it is consumed by disease and cancer.
Heck people that lived in the chemical waste dump of Love Canal could still have kids... but in a toxic situation like that you're gon'a have a flipper baby or two, and life expectancy is going to be fairly bad.
This woman motorcycled through Chernobyl not to recently. In many parts radiation levels were safe enough for her to travel around. As I recall she carried a geiger counter, but didn't wear a radiation suit. She didn't venture around the epicenter of disaster, but she took a lot of rad photos, and saw wild life.
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/jour nal/articles.html
But who knows, perhaps radiation has produced a race of super bears which are immune to nuclear weapons. If so, someone should notify Steven Colbert. -
Douglas Adams
Also, it is rumored that Douglas Adams had something to do with the puzzle, since he was friends with the band and actually came up with the name for the album.
-
Publius Enigma
This reminds me of another interesting public puzzle, the "Publius Enigma", which was/is a puzzle connected with Pink Floyd's 1994 album The Division Bell and some anonymous postings made to the newsgroup alt.music.pink-floyd coinciding with their 1994 tour of the same name.
Numerous, interesting sites are out there, and people have been trying to solve the thing for over 12 years.
Quite interesting, especially if you like the music and want to add a "new dimension". -
FOIL'ID AGAIN
The FOIL'ID AGAIN is a humourous example of how to prevent the Department of Homeland Insecurity from messing up your privacy:
http://www.angelfire.com/mt/woodmtn/insight.html -
Re:It's about time
As far as public health is concerned, TMI was a non-event. Nor has any nuclear power plant had an accident that resulted in casualties that were even comparable to monthly deaths from automobile wrecks. The Chernyobl deaths were the result of fire, which cannot occur in a properly designed plant. Even a Chernyobl-style plant's potential danger pales in comparison to many chemical plants. The supposedly uninhabitable area near Chernyobl is actually ecologically thriving compared to when it was inhabited. Virtually all of that area is actually inhabitable, although often not usable for agriculture due to the potential for concentrating certain isotopes in food.
The enhanced backround radiation near Chernyobl is lower than the natural radiation level in some places such as Ramsar, Iran, and the hormesis effect makes it likely that people living near Chernyobl will actually be healthier than they otherwise would have been. -
the "law" versus my physical existence
it is also my understanding that
.. with regard to the rights granted to free men under the "magna carta" .. there is a clause that forbid future governing bodies from passing laws that take away the originally granted rights ..
also it is my understanding that by signing any document with the included statement:
"without prejudice and under duress"
signifies that "i" am signing this document stating that .. "i" do not acknowledge that the signature has any significance .. (that a signature has no real .. only abstract value) .. and that "i" am signing this because someone is requiring that "i" do so ..
which is what the whole issue .. that some people are trying to raise with respect to what it means to be an actual physical existence apart from any conceptual or legal meaning and definition .. is really all about .. and how what some people refer to as a "natural person" is defined under the "law" .. which is actually another fictitious entity under the law .. apart for my actual physical sovereign existence as a living entity .. to which "i" have never granted anyone authority over .. nor have "i" ever agreed to live by anyone else's rules .. laws or conscience .. save my own ..
the whole modern system is nothing but a sophisticated scam .. indoctrinated by public education .. that allows those of wealth and power to exert a claim to having authority over my being .. in the "name" of a civilized society controlled by "the rule of law" and the threat of punishment .. and by simple democracies .. were by 51 percent can claim a right to exert authority over 49 percent of a people .. in fact nothing but limited dictatorships ..
there by providing the means for a just and civilized society .. and a means of protecting their wealth and power .. and keeping us safe of course .. read .. them safe from the rest of the us .. the 95 or so percent of us without any significant wealth or real power over our own lives ..
while really not providing the vast majority any real security at all .. but promising to seek out and punish anyone causing us harm after the fact .. along with no real opportunity for significant wealth .. unless you happen to win the lotory that is and even that is not the level of wealth the ruling class enjoy ..
http://www.angelfire.com/az/sthurston/
http://www.wealth4freedom.com/law/Mary.htm
http://matrix.freecanadian.net/
http://www.originalintent.org/edu/thelaw.php -
Re:Happened to me in a demo...
I've never heard about it, but I've READ things off and on about CTOS for years.
:-)
Here are a couple of nice sites about it for the curious... -
Re:Now, Knowing this...
Gates has proved to be very good at monopoly.
I think that's because he got the little car. Fittingly, I got the boot. -
Re:It's a No BrainerWhat has Apple Records released since the Beatles?
Well, we have Mary Hopkin way back when.
Then we have Badfinger. Looks like their first five albums were on Apple records. I happen to like Badfinger. I have Magic Christian Music on vinyl unopened. I suggest this one. It was a boot they released themselves with little or no enhancement. Great live music!
But I can't think of any more. I thought Klaatu was but was mistaken.
Just google around. You find some interesting related stuff.
But yeah, nothing recent.
qz
-
Re:It's a No BrainerWhat has Apple Records released since the Beatles?
Well, we have Mary Hopkin way back when.
Then we have Badfinger. Looks like their first five albums were on Apple records. I happen to like Badfinger. I have Magic Christian Music on vinyl unopened. I suggest this one. It was a boot they released themselves with little or no enhancement. Great live music!
But I can't think of any more. I thought Klaatu was but was mistaken.
Just google around. You find some interesting related stuff.
But yeah, nothing recent.
qz
-
Re:Dell received an A+?The guy who worked at Dell's support also said that GWB was "my favorite President during my lifetime."
Thie means we know the guy is six years old or less, so no particular need to pay any attention to him.
-
Re:Dell received an A+?
The reviewer obviously never called Dell customer service.
LK -
Asteroid B-612
Does this remind anybody else of the classic story "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint Exupery?
From chapter 4:
I have serious reason to believe that the planet from which the little prince came is the asteroid known as B-612.
This asteroid has only once been seen through the telescope. That was by a Turkish astronomer, in 1909.
On making his discovery, the astronomer had presented it to the International Astronomical Congress, in a great demonstration. But he was in Turkish costume, and so nobody would believe what he said.
Grown-ups are like that . . .
Fortunately, however, for the reputation of Asteroid B-612, a Turkish dictator made a law that his subjects, under pain of death, should change to European costume. So in 1920 the astronomer gave his demonstration all over again, dressed with impressive style and elegance. And this time everybody accepted his report. -
DeJaVoogle
Funny, I could've sworn GeoCities and Angelfire had something like this many many years ago. Complete with page building tools and wizards...
The only true advantage I see to this is that Google gives you a LOT more disk space for free, wheras you have to pay for more with G&A... but perhaps that's why we're seeing "Sorry, we are unable to offer new accounts today. We appreciate your interest and invite you to add your Gmail address to our wait list. We'll let you know when we've enabled your account."
I'm not trying to advertise for G&A, I just don't see how this is something to jump up and down about. Search engine, Email, webpages, online stores/auctions... they're just becoming the next Yahoo.
--
"Man Bites Dog
Then Bites Self" -
Many lying astroturfers here - try OO yourself
Be warned that many of the comments and FUD here are by lying astroturfers. Probably sock puppets too.
The reality is that this review is a useful introduction to open office chart, and open office chart and open office in general work just fine.
Remember, OO is open source; you can download it any time you like and make your own decision. No need to believe me or the astroturfers.
M$ and other companies have multi-million dollar incentives to pollute forums like slashdot. e.g. M$ makes $40,000,000,000+ per year. A tiny 1% drop in that revenue is $400,000,000. That pays for an awful lot of marketing propaganda and given the size and global influence of slashdot's readership a 1% drop (or more!) is easily possible over the long term.
Given M$'s business ethics (i.e. if it's halfway legal and it makes money it's ethical) do you honestly think that they won't be going all out? The marketing industry in general regards astroturfing as a legitimate tool. Keep in mind that marketers aren't stupid and can be very sophisticated in their manipulativeness, including fake conversations, fake moderation and entire fake websites.
M$ will be using a third party marketing firm to get plausible deniability when they get caught and also to reduce the impact on the morale of their own developers. M$ has been caught many times before astroturfing and it's common industry practice. Other examples on slashdot that can trigger astroturfing are Adobe's cash cow Photoshop whenever gimp is mentioned and the RIAA whenever copyright and patents are discussed. Astroturfing even happens off the net.
Common astroturfer tactics on slashdot are to emotionally associate open source with something bad, to apply a negative argument to open source that applies equally to all software, to apply a positive argument to commercial software that applies equally to all software, to pretend that commercial licenses are less onerous than open source licenses, to gloss over the fact that readers can download and test open source for themselves, to flood technical stories with irrelevant tachnical information about a commercial product only vaguely relevant to the article at hand, to flood the slashdot editors with commercial propaganda article submissions, and to flood open source discussions with irrelevant nonsense to drown out rational discussion and evaluation.
I have no connection with either OO, M$ or the marketing industry. I just hate liars.
---
Marketing talk is not just cheap, it has negative value. Free speech can be compromised just as much by too much noise as too little signal.
-
Re:You were supposed to call Nintendo when you won
Actually, it was Episode 2, Level 8, and the sign was for "aardwolf". This is the original sign. In the 1997 re-release of the game, they replaced the sign with a pile of crap on the floor. Here's what Apogee's Joe Siegler originally said about it (stolen from here):
"Call Apogee and say Aardwolf." It's a sign that to this day is something that I get asked about a lot. This is a sign that appears on a wall in a particularly nasty maze in Episode 2 Level 8 of Wolfenstein 3D. The sign was to be the goal in a contest Apogee was going to have, but almost immediately after the game's release, a large amount of cheat and mapping programs were released. With these programs running around, we felt that it would have been unfair to have the contest and award a prize. The sign was still left in the game, but in hindsight, probably should have been taken out. To this day, Apogee gets letters and phone calls and asking what Aardwolf is, frequently with the question, "Has anyone seen this yet?"
Also, in a somewhat related issue, letters were shown after the highest score in the score table in some revisions of the game. These letters were to be part of another contest that got scrapped before it got started, where we were going to have people call in with their scores and tell us the code; we'd then be able to verify their score. However, with the cheat programs out there this got scrapped too.
Basically, "Aardwolf" and the letters mean nothing now. Also note that if you found the Aardwolf sign in the game (without cheating), there's a VERY strong chance that you're stuck in there. The only way out may be to restart, or load a saved game from before you went into that maze. -
Re:One good reason NOT to buy Windows Vista:
Every computer I have has a windows sticker, except for one that I "threw together" myself. I still put Windows in it, because I use that sometimes (offline, of course), and have desktop icons for Debian 2.2 and Mandrake 8 linux. (Double click on one, and loadlin takes you there..)
The Vista computers are supposed to be powerhouses, and I would like to someday run Kanotix linux on one, and see how that goes.
I understand that the manufacturers are charged about $40.00 for windows, so that is all that is added to the cost. Nobody hardly wants to make PC's without Windows preinstalled, anyway. There are some, but they tend to be low priced, (and out-of-date) boxes, aimed at buyers that only want to spend a small sum for their PC. Would like to note here that the PC Walmart offers in the stores comes with 512 MB of RAM now, apparently needed to run XP at a decent pace. So, we get the Windows boxes, our only problem is getting all the hardware to work in Linux. It's a waste of time keeping a Windows box updated, there is no end to it. Run Linux, especially a livecd linux, and be done with it. -
Re:Something important from CanadaBMW sold Land Rover to Ford. It hasn't really been a UK brand for some time.
-
Space Bird!
You mean like this?
(Sorry, it's angelfire and might notlike hot-linking, but if you enter the URL directly, it ought to work...) -
Re:Snapshot
Fact is, we're looking at a ~2000 year snapshot of an incredibly comlex system that's a few billion years old.
Dude, no, we're looking at ~2000 years worth of data from a planet that is around 6,500 years old. Thus we have almost 2/3 of the total earth climate data.
With that kind of data, the truthiness of the situation is that mankind must be causing global climate change. Either that, or the devil is warming the place for his coming arrival. -
Re:Cartoons
which has been governed by radical priests for too long
Well, had the CIA not overthrown the nascent Iranian democracy and replaced it with a brutal totalitarian regime, the mad priests would probably not have gotten a foothold.
But we can't have that, can we? How else would the US justify their invasions in oil-rich countries. -
The gogol truth
I found this project on freshmeat that seems to unveil what gogol is really all about? Googles dark secret
-
Re:Mmmmm