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...is to "roll my own" and run a Firefly-based rpg. Notes available here.

Look at the bottom of the page.

My uncle used the own a Pachinko store in Cincinnati in the early 80's, and still has part of his garage full of old machines. About a month ago, my brother and I drove down there and gabbed 10 machines (so far, 3 are in working condition, with 2 more needing some minor repairs). And, this weekend, my uncle is driving up with a truckload of more machines! WooHoo!

I guess there are some early, practice footage of the hoverboards on the dvds. I remember how nuts everyone went after BttF2 came out, and how almost every kid I talked to wanted on (if only someone had been able to capitalize on that!)

I've been waiting 17 years for this to come out (check the user name, and my website), and now I only have to wait a few more days to see if someone got it for me for Christmas! WooHoo!

Although not that brand, it's pretty similar. I've got pictures on my website of my cat playing with mine (she didn't know what to make of it, but she was curious) here and a description here

The car is pretty cool (even though it was more expensive than the Radio shack model), and it runs on carpet pretty well. On our lamianate floor in the kitchen, it's pretty quick and nimble. I've even been able to get it to do a "bootlegger reverse" a couple of times.

I have to admit, the batteries last a lot longer in this toy than I expected. I've probably recharged the car about 20-30 times, and the batteries are still going strong (it takes about a minute to recharge the car, and it runs for 5-10 minutes from there).

Although not that brand, it's pretty similar. I've got pictures on my website of my cat playing with mine (she didn't know what to make of it, but she was curious) here and a description here

The car is pretty cool (even though it was more expensive than the Radio shack model), and it runs on carpet pretty well. On our lamianate floor in the kitchen, it's pretty quick and nimble. I've even been able to get it to do a "bootlegger reverse" a couple of times.

I have to admit, the batteries last a lot longer in this toy than I expected. I've probably recharged the car about 20-30 times, and the batteries are still going strong (it takes about a minute to recharge the car, and it runs for 5-10 minutes from there).

Well I guess spam comes in different size tins sometimes, and with different labels so you can tell the spam apart. I like Hot and Spicy Spam. Mmmm.

Bloody Vikings!

-Ed

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After watching the show last night, why do I suddenly think of Yosimite Sam opening door after door, while Bugs nails up new doors on the other end?

-Ed

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Art is anything that provokes an emotional reaction: good, bad or indifferent. All a computer program creates is pretty pictures, without emotional content.

-Ed

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Isn't that CowboyNeal's One super-weakness?

-Ed

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Wouldn't /.'ing the webcam cause enough heat to set of the highly explosive chemicals in the tank?

Although, I gotta admit, it'd be an impressive explosion.

-Ed

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WooHoo! I can't wait!

Soon, we'll be downloading pictures of women with blue skin, or 3 breasts.

-Ed

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the first computer that I ever had had only 500 megs of hard drive space

Heh. The first computer I had didn't have a hard drive. ~1-2mhz TI994a with a tape drive!

The first hard drive I got was many years later, and it was only 10 megs. It lasted quite a while, IIRC.

-Ed

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About 18 months ago, I took a Graphic Design job at a local non-profit county agency. It's been the best job move I've ever made. I've got a corner office (no windows, but it's still nice to have an office), nice equipment to design on, and best-of-all, respect. At me previous job, I wasn't really a graphic designer, just a glorified printer jockey (my main job was printing other people's work to the large plotters...not very challenging.)

One of the really nice thing is not having to (ahem)donate to Social Security anymore (PERS is much better). Even though the pay wasn't much higher than my previous job, the perks definately make up for it (an understanding boss who lets me leave early if I need it, paid medical for me and my family, etc.).

-Ed

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Yeah, it's a great idea...until you realise that some guests think think everything at the reception is a "party favor", and that they can take it home with them.

My wife and I did this at our wedding, and several guests walked off with "our" cameras.

-Ed

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the "Sam & Max: Freelance Police" unofficial rpg is available here
And "Fudge: Full Throttle" rpg is available here

-Ed

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Really? Why? I have ~56 icons in my tray (for all the major programs I use). I find it's alot faster to click the icon than find it in the Start Menu, and I dont clutter up my work space (the desktop).

-Ed

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Dont forget the hangliders.

-Ed

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Um, not it didn't. The engines used in Deep Impact were way too smooth for an Orion-type engine. I think the writers either thought the name was cool (and didn't realize it had already been used), or found a some info on Orion engines but didn't understand it.

After seeing the movie, I'm betting on the latter explaination. I doubt the writers understood basic astronomy and physics. I mean, c'mon, how could you see the asteroid both day and night? Was it circling the earth?

-Ed

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Forged Header easy
Spammers do it all the time
What is to stop them?

-Ed

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I'm guessing you haven't read any romance novels recently? Some of the thing in there would put a soft-core pr0n book to shame.

(They're my wife's books! Really!)

-Ed

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If you're going to buy a diamond for your SO, here's a trick I learned when I bought my (now) wife's engagement ring: Buy a smaller diamond, and put 2 darker colored stones around it in a jacket (rubies worked well for me, but you could use anything that's darker in color than the diamond). I had 2 marquise-cut rubies put in a jcaket around the diamond (1/3-1/2ct), and it makes the diamond look much bigger because of the contract between the stones.

Your SO will think they are getting a larger stone, and you wont have to break you wallet.

-Ed

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...decides to eat a tape, it'll eat an expensive MP3 player, rather than an inexpensive cassette!

I knew there was a reason that I replaced the cassette player in my car!

-Ed

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drinking too much water ... explodes

So that's what happens! Guess I'm not thirsty now. :O

-Ed

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Why does it have to be snakes?

-Ed

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There are only about 100 of them frozen right now. And 1000 on the waiting list. Hardly a lucrative source for organs. Besides, theraputic cloning and stem cell research are already on the track to growing organs from your own tissues. There is way more potential there than in developing further immunosupressant drugs for organ transplant. There is no reason to "harvest" organs out of corpsicles.

One word: cost. I'll bet it'll cost more to clone/grow a new organ than it will to harvest an organ from someone who can't complain.

And since, as some other people have mentioned, it's going to be costly to reanimate these corpses, so you might as well get some use out of them.

-Ed

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Actually, if they can fix the damage that the original death and freezing caused, making someone immortal should be easy.

They'll just pop you into the Microsoft Lazarus Chamber every couple of years to repair the damage to your new body, and you'll be all set.

Although, you better hope they worked all the bugs out of the software, or you'll end up with 5 butts or something...

-Ed

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...are closer than you think. Read some of Niven's Gil "The Arm" stories to see what could happen. (corpsicle is a contraction of corpse and popsicle)

All we need now is perfect organ transplants (no chance of rejection), and these frozen people will be harvested sooner than you could say "raw materials".

-Ed

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Of course they have to. It's their job as a parent. It's the parent's responsibility to protect their children until the children are old enough to protect themselves. Ignoring the problem (like many parents do), or insisting that someone else do their job is just delusional.

-Ed

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Apart from watching pr0n during a meeting/flight, what is the point ?

Do you really need another reason? :)

-Ed

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No :)

-Ed

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When I was a senior in high school, a group of us would hang around in the ahlls before calss and talk. Most of us were "mad-scientist wannabes", and we would discuss our current projects (one guy was trying to make napalm, IIRC).

Anyway, there was this one sophmore who hung around with us, who was always trying to immitate our projects (usually badly). He was ok, I guess, and it was usually funny to listen to his recent mistakes/problems (like accidently land-mining his room in the middle of the night with exploding paper strips.)

The hallway at our school were long, with lots of glass, and metal rails running along at about waist height. Usually, all the students would lean against the rails before class.

Well, one guy in our group had torn apart a disposible lighter and had gotten the electronic igniter out of it. He would touch the wire to the railing, and when he pushed the button, everyone touching the rail would get a shock (very minor shock). It was irritating and fun!

Well, this sophmore decided to "one-up" us, and managed to get hold of the igniter from a gas stove. The thing was about 10 times as big as the small igniter, and produced a nice, fat spark when pressed.

IIRC, he managed to shock himself, while the rest of us stood around laughing. I think he finally gave up on trying to shock anyone with that.

-Ed

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> No info on flux capacitors? Damn, guess I'll never get back to the 2030's...

Yes, you will. It just that the trip will take at least 28 or so years....

-Ed

docbrown.net
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IIRC, one of my images ("The Explorer") took somewhere around 2-3 weeks to render on my old AMD k-6 300mhz machine.

A few years later, after v 3.1 came out, I modified the code and re-rendered the image. IIRC, it took something like 20 or so hours to render.

It wasn't Moore's Law that got me....it was just older, slower code!

(BTW: you can see the latest version of "The Explorer" on my website in my Portfolio)
-Ed

docbrown.net
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...you cant run a car on the "Slashdot effect". If you could, all you'd have to do is post a link to your car to refuel!

-Ed

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Wouldn't it depend on the type of video game? I could see that playing a FPS type games for 7 hours a day would cause the subject to loose creativity, but what about the people that play RTS games? Wouldn't games like Warcraft3 cause more creativity, since they have to think in terms of strategy and tactics?

Real gamers want to know!

-Ed

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Now I can listen to my Super Mario Bros MP3 file anytime I want!

-Ed

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Hey! Some of us like eating soggy, greasy, cardboard-like substances!

-Ed

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...or they might have been eaten by a Grue.

-Ed

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...unfortunately, it was the "Star Trek:Nemesis" trailer, and the Trekkies did them in!

-Ed
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The new "Star Trek: Nemesis" trailer runs 1:34 and will also play in theaters, starting with the July 4th weekend. The official "Star Trek: Nemesis" movie site will give fans plenty to whet their appetites, with stunning imagery from the film, a 360-degree IPIX view of the Romulan Senate set

I guess they finally got the bugs worked out of IPIX in the 24th century.

-Ed
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...they make nifty drinking straws!


-Ed
docbrown.net

Step 1: Find a site they dont like, because
it's doing something they could be doing, but
wont, and it's "stealing money from our pockets"
Step 2: Post link to site on /.
Step 3: watch site crumble under the massive /.-ing.


-Ed
docbrown.net

....is to start making smart cards out of nanotubes! That way, when the hackers try to extract the data with their camera flash, the cards will explode! BOOM!

-Ed

Graphic Design, Web Design, Computer Rendering, Role-Playing Games...All the Good stuff

docbrown.net

...and your case melts.

-Ed
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There's nothing more irritating than having
some web designer I never met decide to take
control of my computer and make the browser
window full screen! If I wanted it full
screen, I'd make it full screen to begin
with. Some of us LIKE to browse at
800x600 (if nothing else, just to see how
screwed up some pages look at that
resolution).

-Ed
docbrown.net

But do it quick! If we file this while they're still celebrating about their hockey medal, maybe they wont notice!

-Ed
docbrown.net