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Ian Bell (the other half of elite) has indicated that he doesn't want to make a new elite until processors are up to real-time ray tracing, none of this cheating with graphics acceleration.

Systems aren't defined by what they're *not* which is exactly what you are doing here.

Capitalism is not the lack of communism, as you seem to infer here, according to dictionary.com it's "An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market."

And also, according to investorwords.com, capitalism is where "free market forces determine the prices of goods and services".

In other words, a collective monopoly like the movie theatres have are against the spirit of capitalism where these companies should be competing to drive the prices down. Such is one of the many faults of capitalism.

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If I had my choice of economic system, I'd choose socialism; at least we wouldn't be killing people and the earth trying to cut costs. We'd have a wonderful system of state-controlled production.

And for anyone who feels like saying "socialism fails", I would ask for specific examples of *just socialism* failing (not communism, which inevitably fails for other reasons, not the least of which is the "proletarian dictatorship"). In recent times, every single socialist state that has been set up has been sabotaged in some way by a Western country (more often than not the US). The US took Allende out of power in Chile and put in Pinochet, a fascist dictator. Why was Allende taken out of power? For nationalizing the Chilean copper, to the chagrin of the American copper companies who were profiting from Chilean poverty. ...But I digress...

I just had a vision of releasing prisoners early, and using this balloon/camera thingy to track their every move. It hovers over them all the time, and feeds pictures back to some central point so their whereabouts can be monitored at all times.

you must have been hanging around my time. Punch Cards, Paper Tape and Slide Rules

I have used this Rip Vinyl with much success on audio tapes and it works pretty much the same with lp's. You can also use EZ-CD Creator's SoundStream to record from cassette or lp.

With due respect, jdfox, I have already posted several links discussing the March 1973 Constitutional Elections in Chile.

As even this anti-Pinochet site acknowledges, Allende consistently ignored the results of the March,1973 Constitutional elections, spinning the results which had been 58-44 against his rule as a `victory'. Other documents I have linked point out that Mr. Allende used of violence, imprisonment, and torture against journalists and political opponents to achieve even this 44 percent showing.

Likewise, I have already demonstrated that by the summer of 1973, the entirety of the Chilean constitution was in suspension, that the courts and the legislature had been effectively shut down, with all of their power now in the hands of Allende and Allende alone, and with even direct votes of the legislature and direct rulings of the courts being ignored by Allende's administration.

Now I understand, given how far-fetched your original claims have turned out to be, and given how much difficulty you are having finding evidence to back your wild assertions, that you would like to change the subject. And I understand that getting hung up on a legal technicality (If an election was held, but its results ignored, was that election `cancelled'?), but unless you can provide evidence that Allende intended to behave differently in the elections of 1976 than he had in the ignored elections of 1973, you won't get anywhere this way.

Which brings us back to your original black-helicopter theories: since you have yet to present any evidence of US involvement in Pinochet's rise to power, and since you have now changed the subject, lashing out desperately in hopes of finding some other point to cling to, can we assume that you now accept that your original premise (that the US aided Pinochet's coup) was simply false?

Site seems to be down, here's a mirror

The biggest issue with this idea is cross-platform. So far a few suggestions have been raised, and I like the idea of a samba frontend, though it seems a little extreme.

BestCrypt is the only cross-platfrom encrypted drive/volume software I know of, its only free for Linux though. :(

Scramdisk/ e4m are options. Though Scramdisk doesn't run on w2k or XP, nor Linux. E4M doesn't run on linux either. The source for Scramdisk and E4M is available, but I've forgotten what the license is. I *think* its GPL, but don't count on it.

DriveCrypt is made by the same people as ScramDisk, but DC is closed source. Though they are promising a Linux release (as well as the current XP/2K/etc clients).

You may also like to try The Linux crypto mailing list to search for answers there.

Developing On-The-Fly encrypted drives for linux isn't all that hard, afterall, its been done before a few times. Doing so for Windows 95 though to XP is a lot harder.

As for the Mac side, I have no idea. I think the most portable option would be the Samba idea mentioned before. It shows the most promise, you are esentially piggybacking off a known and support product.

Incidentally, the modern version of this title is Freelancer, which I hate to love because Microsoft gets money when you buy it, but it's really a fantastic title. I was a little irked about being forced into using the mouse, but now that I have played it I can see that it really wouldn't work any other way. (Short of a full HOTAS or a yoke with a shitload of switches.) People zig around so much that it would certainly be more challenging to keep them pasted down with fire with a stick. I might even have to use missiles.

ADSL where available either direct from BT or several resellers (there are loads more). 512 down / 128 up costs about GBP 30.00 / month give or take.

There are two major cable operators in the uk, ntl: and Telewest. Both offer cable modem in almost all areas of their networks for about GBP 25.00 / month for 512 and 40.00 / month for 1M.

ntl couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.

Curiously enough, the other joint copyright holder has just about every version of Elite ever released available for free download on his website. It seems the two no longer get along terribly well...

Dang, I think I'm being trolled again. You're doing it gently and politely, I'll grant, but I think you're trolling all the same. That makes the second time recently for me.

I'm terribly sorry for inconveniencing you with an impression that I am trolling, however, I stand by my opinion and let you have yours. *giggle* ;-)

Have you found any? Care to share? It's not up to others to find evidence for an unconvincing case.

I'll let RedBear speak for me, as he does it much more elegantly than me. A reply to his post is also worth an extra glance. These are not evidence per se, but they are very compelling reasons to investigate further. It's better to read books about the subject than what's on the net (so much crap).

There are tons more of these little facts: It's happening all over the world in varying degrees. Crop circles have been reported in mostly barley and wheat. But, they also appear in corn, oats, oilseed rape (canola), grass, ricefields, trees, sand, and even snow. When investigators come early to an authentic ring, there are no footprints or traces of the creators, even on a rainy day with muddy ground. Many rings are made in canola, which you cannot step into without turning completely yellow, and breaking the fragile crop leaving trails into the crops. The earliest known formation was in 1647 in England (see the picture of the devil bending the crop), so it's not new of date. The microscopic structure of the plants themselves seem to have changed, which cannot be explained by conventional methods. Claims have been made that the cropgrowth are boosted (also researched). This means that many times you can see cropcircles of last year, in the new crop this year, as faint shadows because of longer crops. The genuine cropcircles also exhibits more complexity, whirls within the circles, especially in the middle. They are much more complex when you get a closer look at them.

All in all, there's alot of interesting stuff. Perhaps it's all made up of kooks and hoaxers as you seem to suggest, but I'm not that paranoid to believe such a grand conspiracy. There's too much work involved, both in design, planning and

Also, you missed the bit about keeping an open mind, even when one has a firm position/opnion. Clearly you find it difficult to believe that one can both have an opinion on topic X and an open mind on topic X. You've certainly shown that the reverse is true - one can have no opinion on a topic and a closed mind on it!! :-)

But I do have an opinion, and it is not convinced that humans are doing this. You are the one who cannot for the life of you accept the possibility of ETs or anything extraordinary. But it's typical to attack others for your own lacks..

Clearly, some of these works of art involve more than planks of wood and string, hence my reference to smart people. But I think you know this already - you were just defeating a straw man there (attacking a position I did not take).

Why would anybody with all the knowledge behind circles spend their time sweating in the long dark hours, without even being detected? What is the motive?

And let me repeat my question - which do you REALLY think is more likely? C'mon - say it! You really think it's 50-50? I don't know who did it either, but I have an opinion on the most likely explanation - do you?

50-50 of WHAT?? Crop circles are interesting, even with humans making them. When you really study them, they're impressive.

Actually you are, and that's OK! Stand firm! Express an opinion! You clearly think it's likely that I'm wrong!

How can you be wrong, when you offer no hypothesis and motive? You're just dismissing the whole thing as 'uninteresting', and that's your right..

Close! I have a negative attitude to anything non-existent. And I take a very, VERY broad interpretation of what existence means. But if it's invisible, unmeasurable, unpredictable, with no form or substance, and no effect on the world whatsoever (all in the broadest sense), then it doesn't exist.

Then in 1800, atoms and molecules didn't exist for you. They could not be measured or understood at the time, so they didn't exist, except for the "nutcracks" and "kooks" that persisted in researching what building blocks the world is made of.

Times certainly doesn't change much..

And your evidence for that assertion? Let me guess - I disagree with you, so I mustn't have done the research!

Seems so to me. The only other explanation is that you're AFRAID to find out that something fantastic really exists.

Sure I do, that's why I don't need to make stuff up.

They're not made up, you can visit crop circles yourself.

Tangent? I feel like I stepped into the middle of a different conversation.

Hint: It's to do with your dismissal attitude.

Hey - anything's possible! ;-)

If only more people actually believed that, they would be open to new discoveries.

Instead, a witchhunt is clearly taking place. Ok, some of the kooks clearly "deserves it". However, that doesn't justify a crucifiction IMHO.

Dang, I think I'm being trolled again. You're doing it gently and politely, I'll grant, but I think you're trolling all the same. That makes the second time recently for me.

I'm terribly sorry for inconveniencing you with an impression that I am trolling, however, I stand by my opinion and let you have yours. *giggle* ;-)

Have you found any? Care to share? It's not up to others to find evidence for an unconvincing case.

I'll let RedBear speak for me, as he does it much more elegantly than me. A reply to his post is also worth an extra glance. These are not evidence per se, but they are very compelling reasons to investigate further. It's better to read books about the subject than what's on the net (so much crap).

There are tons more of these little facts: It's happening all over the world in varying degrees. Crop circles have been reported in mostly barley and wheat. But, they also appear in corn, oats, oilseed rape (canola), grass, ricefields, trees, sand, and even snow. When investigators come early to an authentic ring, there are no footprints or traces of the creators, even on a rainy day with muddy ground. Many rings are made in canola, which you cannot step into without turning completely yellow, and breaking the fragile crop leaving trails into the crops. The earliest known formation was in 1647 in England (see the picture of the devil bending the crop), so it's not new of date. The microscopic structure of the plants themselves seem to have changed, which cannot be explained by conventional methods. Claims have been made that the cropgrowth are boosted (also researched). This means that many times you can see cropcircles of last year, in the new crop this year, as faint shadows because of longer crops. The genuine cropcircles also exhibits more complexity, whirls within the circles, especially in the middle. They are much more complex when you get a closer look at them.

All in all, there's alot of interesting stuff. Perhaps it's all made up of kooks and hoaxers as you seem to suggest, but I'm not that paranoid to believe such a grand conspiracy. There's too much work involved, both in design, planning and

Also, you missed the bit about keeping an open mind, even when one has a firm position/opnion. Clearly you find it difficult to believe that one can both have an opinion on topic X and an open mind on topic X. You've certainly shown that the reverse is true - one can have no opinion on a topic and a closed mind on it!! :-)

But I do have an opinion, and it is not convinced that humans are doing this. You are the one who cannot for the life of you accept the possibility of ETs or anything extraordinary. But it's typical to attack others for your own lacks..

Clearly, some of these works of art involve more than planks of wood and string, hence my reference to smart people. But I think you know this already - you were just defeating a straw man there (attacking a position I did not take).

Why would anybody with all the knowledge behind circles spend their time sweating in the long dark hours, without even being detected? What is the motive?

And let me repeat my question - which do you REALLY think is more likely? C'mon - say it! You really think it's 50-50? I don't know who did it either, but I have an opinion on the most likely explanation - do you?

50-50 of WHAT?? Crop circles are interesting, even with humans making them. When you really study them, they're impressive.

Actually you are, and that's OK! Stand firm! Express an opinion! You clearly think it's likely that I'm wrong!

How can you be wrong, when you offer no hypothesis and motive? You're just dismissing the whole thing as 'uninteresting', and that's your right..

Close! I have a negative attitude to anything non-existent. And I take a very, VERY broad interpretation of what existence means. But if it's invisible, unmeasurable, unpredictable, with no form or substance, and no effect on the world whatsoever (all in the broadest sense), then it doesn't exist.

Then in 1800, atoms and molecules didn't exist for you. They could not be measured or understood at the time, so they didn't exist, except for the "nutcracks" and "kooks" that persisted in researching what building blocks the world is made of.

Times certainly doesn't change much..

And your evidence for that assertion? Let me guess - I disagree with you, so I mustn't have done the research!

Seems so to me. The only other explanation is that you're AFRAID to find out that something fantastic really exists.

Sure I do, that's why I don't need to make stuff up.

They're not made up, you can visit crop circles yourself.

Tangent? I feel like I stepped into the middle of a different conversation.

Hint: It's to do with your dismissal attitude.

Hey - anything's possible! ;-)

If only more people actually believed that, they would be open to new discoveries.

Instead, a witchhunt is clearly taking place. Ok, some of the kooks clearly "deserves it". However, that doesn't justify a crucifiction IMHO.

Its been done

I like this line from the third "2" link:

By definition, hoaxes are forgeries, and forgeries require originals from which to copy. So what is this 'unknown force' that creates genuine crop circles?

If you buy that, I've got a nice screen capture from C-Span of George W. Bush shaking hands with Osama Bin-Laden on the floor of the Senate last Monday, 2003. Contact me and we'll discuss the price, I'm quite good with Photoshop.

My personal theory on what creates genuine crop circles has to do with the chemical action of certain fermented biomasses on carbon based bipedal life forms. More amazing than those odd creatures who create this art is those who find need to invent amazingly complex theories to prove the phenomenon "genuine".

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)

Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. BELIEvE. There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING. Acknowledge.

http://www.dcccs.org/the_alien_at_crabwood_farm_ho use.htm

http://home.clara.net/lucypringle/articles/crabwoo d.html

http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=381&cat egory=Environment
(this one requires a registration. I haven't read it yet)

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8 &oe=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=EELRIJUE&btnG=Google+Sea rch
DejaNews shows 57 threads

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe =UTF-8&scoring=d&q=EELRIJUE&sa=N&tab=g w
Google finds 66 sites.

Most of these sites scream hoax or conspiracy. One message said straight-up that there's no way anyone could decode it (yada, yada. They just didn't try hard enough. I do the impossible twice before lunch daily.{grin})

here that fits my favorite insects. :)

Actually a PIII can handle simultaneous encoding and decoding of data over a video stream. See my video modem page for details. I get about 180kB/s over PAL video with a reasonable error rate.

A token can be easily misplaced, duplicated, or bypassed. A password is NOT a big deal to enter when you sit at your desk. If they're too lazy/clueless to enter a password, they shouldn't be responsible for any secret information.

Use a program like Scramdisk or the commercial version Drivecrypt. Keep all of your critical files on the encrypted partition. When you leave your desk, activate the screenserver with a keystroke.

Unless someone knows your password, you're safe. If they reboot, the encrypted disk is inaccessible.

What's the big deal?

You can download almost every version of Elite released here (including many not released).

To emulate a BBC Micro I recommend BeebEm. To keep "in theme" for today, there's even a PS2 version!

Gareth

Yes well, those of us using more modest and affordable kit rather than the veritable supercomputer you were using can verify the delay and prove it.

I was using a Sinclair ZX80 in 1981 and it was painfully slow. I don't know of any ZX80 emulators out there, but here are some ZX81 emulators for various systems, so you can see for yourself:

Palm Pilot

Dos/Windows

Java

It is virtually impossible to parade infront of you the Chilean family living next door to my apartment. What I know about Chile under Pinochet is from their experience...a Chilean nationals experience, not a westerner living in Chile during that period.

But your comment of the righteous Pinochet who is revered by Chileans is laughable to say the least.

Why dont you just google on Pinochet and look at the results?

Also please dont assume that corruption is the root cause for the ills of many developing nations. Look at Saudi Arabia...though it is not one of the developing countries, it is largely immune from corruption due to its barbaric justice system. The examples you give supporting dictatorial regimes and lack of corruption are best comparable to the present environment of Saudi Arabia.

I also hope you are not one of those oil company executives who lived in Saudi Arabia who knows the "ground reality" and is not an armchair analyst.

Both Machiavelli and Pirates were by Microprose, and from the same era as Civ and Col. I liked Colonization... I used to ship Trade Goods and Tools to the Incas for Silver, then ship that home. Once the London price of Silver had collapsed, I'd start selling it to the Dutch - and keep a fleet of privateers off their coast to steal it straight back once they tried to get it back to Amsterdam. Then I'd sell it to them again...

I played Privateer 2 for a while a few years ago, and it's similar in concept to Elite, but doesn't feel quite the same somehow. Elite 4 is currently in Development Hell; if you want to play the original, co-author Ian Bell makes just about every version ever produced freely available.

...but since you weren't very specific about subject matter, I might as well mention that I have a few dozen pictures (drawings and computer-generated) for perusal at my website. Start here.

I retain the copyright on these images, but I'm fairly permissive about what you can do with them - basically, whatever you like, as long as you don't sell them, or represent them as someone else's work. Enjoy!

A word for word recitation of Faraday's "The Chemical History of a Candle" lectures could be appropriate.

You can find four (count 'em!) complete and unrestricted songs by yours truly here. They're in RealAudio, I'm afraid; at the time I didn't know any better. I'll get around to replacing them with MP3s or OGGs one of these years. I'm too old and cynical for a career as a musician now, so do whatever you like with them, as long as you don't sell them or represent them as someone else's work. Ta!

OK, that search led me to here where a good few are around.

Sentinel Returns can live again...

Cheers,
Ian

Okay, but this Bolo player is on my team.

I realize that a thrill for everyone '80s related is quite now quite common (look at the MAME craze), but really, getting excited about the DDR? What, do these fans drive Trabants and Wartburgs while singing Die Partei hat immer Recht?

Not free as in speech, but Elite was one of my favourite '80s games, and is now freely available. Though there appears to be no Mac version, so you'll need an emulator for one of the dozen or so platforms it ran on (c64, Amiga, Atari ST, NES, Spectrum CPC, Archimedes, BBC, Apple ][, Electron, PC). Classic first-person-3d space combat & trading sim. Oh yeah, and it got better framerates on a C64 than my 300mhz PC does with GL under X.

blind suicide bombers worrys me about as much as shark mounted lasers

Alternatively, now that you've got me thinking about it, maybe they can just teach their kids to do it, same as the Palestinian suicide bombers in Jenin. I remember seeing his Mother on BBC, "One of my sons is a martyr, he will set an example to my other sons to follow until we are freed from Israeli oppression" yada yada. They could say, "I was blinded and my face was burnt to a crisp by these terrible Americans, but no my children, it's cool don't worry about it, peace out." I don't think so

But seriously do we want these laser weapons in the hands of people that have committed these crimes? People like this?

blind suicide bombers worrys me about as much as shark mounted lasers

Alternatively, now that you've got me thinking about it, maybe they can just teach their kids to do it, same as the Palestinian suicide bombers in Jenin. I remember seeing his Mother on BBC, "One of my sons is a martyr, he will set an example to my other sons to follow until we are freed from Israeli oppression" yada yada. They could say, "I was blinded and my face was burnt to a crisp by these terrible Americans, but no my children, it's cool don't worry about it, peace out." I don't think so

But seriously do we want these laser weapons in the hands of people that have committed these crimes? People like this?

I can easily imagine this one being made by a trio of MIT types using the following basic process:

1. Map out the design you want in pixels on graph paper.

2. Obtain a length of rope equal to the desired width of the final 'in field' design.

3. Section off the rope with numbered markers every yard or so. Each marker will represent the width of a pixel.

4. Section two other ropes equal to the length of the project, using the same pixel scale chosen for the width (we'll say it's a yard).

5. Approach the field during daylight hours and survey and mark the four corners of a rectangle equal to the size and width of the length/width ropes discussed above, orienting the rectangle as desired (in this case 'pointing' to the observatory).

6. Approach the field under cover of darkness.

7. Stake out the 'length' ropes firmly using the marks planted in step 5.

8. 2 of the 3 pranksters each take an end of the 'width' rope and stand opposite each other on the first yard/space of the 'length' ropes.

9. The 3rd prankster walks along the rope making yard wide and yard long depressions using a small log, board or whatever, row by row according to a map of sequences predetermined from the original graph paper drawing. When one row is done, the first two pranksters step over to the next empty row and prankster number 3 does it again, and so on. He's not thinking visually at this point, but instead, like a good engineer, is simply executing the specification, "Let's see, row 7...I need to make blips at 5,6,7,8,9,20,21...blah blah blah..."

10. When you're done, do what the Aricebo pranksters did and make a few runs around the perimiter to neaten up those rough edges. You can see that they did this in the arial photos of the 'circle'.

11. After a good 3-4 hours work (if not less), head for home with giggles and hi-5's all around. Enjoy an early-bird special at the local diner and then head home or back to campus or whatever for a well-deserved rest, dreaming of the day when your well-planned prank appears on the cover of the next Mysteries of the Unexplained coffee table book or Led Zeppelin album!

I love the human race, truly I do.

...for the big guns in the sky.

The accuracy with which these "images" are "drawn" seems to fall into two categories, foot-trodden, and laser-like. Many seem, to me, to be the latter.

Some of these images are very complex, and yet so accurately drawn, that the very notion they were trod out with plank and rope by a couple of old codgers (or a team of college students even) is pretty unthinkable. They would need sight lines and all sorts of technique for making sure each one of their stompings went right where it's supposed to -otherwise they'd not look so perfect as they do, no?

These highly accurate-looking images are, in my view, a combination test pattern and non-subtle message, imaged with microwave or other high-energy, non-visible laser, mounted on an orbital "Star Wars" missile defense test platform.

The message being, "notice the accuracy with which we draw on your front lawn? we can focus that beam on anybody who pisses us off!" (except Saddam or Osama, inexplicably) There was a hilarious scene along these lines at the begining of the Val Kilmer movie "Real Genius".

An article in New Scientist Magazine asked "How long before we see a manifestation of a Mandelbrot [set] in the fields?" One year to the day after the publication of that question, a mandelbrot set appeared in a field near Cambridge University -where Benoit Mandelbrot had taught.

circlemakers.org is a handful of guys who go out and make crop circles for fun and profit. They have put on presentations on how to make crop circles and they have been videoed in the process.

But when the spectacular Milk Hill formation, the largest and most complex crop circle ever, occurred on August 13/14, 2001, even they had to say:

"Awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, mind-warping, incomprehensible and bloody huge."

When the hoaxers are impressed, and no one else comes forward to claim responsibility, it kind of makes you think...

...that a crop circle hoax has been used for corporate marketing. The History Channel commissioned a hoax recently...

Superman vs. Batman.. woo woo. A more interesting battle will be when da man who's burnt up like a weenie fingers the drowned boy from crystal lake in Freddy vs Jason !!!

*Pondering* If Jason drowned as a boy, why is he a man now?

or Scramdisk

Use Scramdisk. It's free, and works on Win9x. (Or better yet, use Linux and any of the numerous encrypted file solutions there.) -Meefan

I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.

Not a nut or a bolt will reach Chile.... We will do all in our power to condemn Chileans to utmost poverty

The Dinorwig pump storage station in Wales.

I'd guess that hyrdogen cells have an even faster startup time than the claimed 12 seconds of Dinorwig though

By adulthood, Mendeleev's periodic table of the elements is firmly planted in a typical mind either as a tool for study or proof of mystical forces at work in nature. There are alternative structures: some clever and others using alternate media, extensions to the table providing nuclear structure, fermi surfaces, and line spectra.

Still others are extraordinarily cross-thematic, merging chemistry with comic books, poetry or haiku. But only the grouping-nature of the columns is retained in rejected elements, condiments and beer. Eventually the elements and the periodic qualities have been lost entirely, reducing the periodic table to a design template for topical lists of funk and rock music, comedy and TV shows, famous mathematicians and presidents, even SGI products. Soon a complete breakdown of the scientific aspect yields no similarity to the original, becoming a glorified table, a marketing tool, or hype itself. There is mounting evidence of a conspiracy.

Laser fire striking the defensive shields makes a light screeching sound. Listen for laser fire striking the hull direct. Through damaged screens it makes a low, screeching sound. DANGER.

It probably helps to have a slightly underheated room, too.

As they say themselves: "We do retro""

...is from the end of The Elements, Tom Lehrer's parody of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Modern Major General."

I used to have a recording of a Pharmacia chemist singing it with his barbershop quartet, but someone stole it and left 4 other CDs behind. Go figure.

I find the trend towards simulations of real life interesting. Does anyone else remember space simulations such as Elite? In a nutshell they were science fiction simulations. Isn't it odd that as computing power has increased more and more real life situations and systems are been simulated! Sim-this, Sim-that, Sim-U, Sim-Pets etc..

I wonder if there'll be a Sim-Slasdot, where you have to manage revenue over costs and keep the mods in line ;-).

So you increase your computing power and instead of simulating unreality, you simulate existing reality (albeit someone elses), there has got to be something backward.

The problem is also one of graininess. What is one "issue"? The Australian referendum on a republic returned a "No" (ie the Queen be retained) because the referendum also included a proposal on how a replacement President should be chosen. And many anti-monarchists sided with the monarchists since they did not like the proposed election procedure.

It [the BBC version] has already been reverse-engineered and ported:

http://home.clara.net/cjpinder/elite.html

Have fun!!

ll