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"How stuff works" is a terrorist traing tool.

btw: Thanks for the wheelbarrow tip, I have the same problem and now I know how to solve it!

Printable version of the article found here.

(This is a good starting place if you want to know the basics.)

The interesting thing about the Harrison clocks, is not only were they the GPS of their day, they were also the atomic clocks of their day.

With the present and future state(s) of wireless it shouldn't be long before we have a ubiquitos new

IIRC, the force of nuclear bombs is spherical in nature. It seems as if the force is spread upward, since the bombs hit the ground, providing resistance, so much debris is "bounced" upwards.

Another tactical use of nukes is detonating them several miles up and flattening everything on the ground below.

More info can be found here.

Ditto. My canonical example of "good Flash" is HowStuffWorks. They use it mostly for interactive demonstrations of physical processes, not just to make stuff whiz around the page. It also helps that they use it fairly minimally.

There are actually a few ideas in progress to melt the ice and Terriform Mars so that the climate is sufficient to support human life.

I typically despise any animations or plugins, and I prefer Lynx to any other browser. However, Opera's nice for looking at userfriendly every day. What's annoying, though, is that I have to enable javascript just to view some sites. This is useless. Offhand, Mail.com... there's absolutely no need to make links with javascript. As other people have said, keeping things simple is best. If you have no content, then you're just wasting bandwidth anyway, and no amount of cutsey pictures will disguise the fact. There is only ONE site that I've ever seen that makes *perfect* use of flash/gif animations, and that's How Stuff Works. Check out their article on lock picking, or Programming In C. Compare useful stuff like that to frivolous garbage, shown here: FX Networks. The world will be a far better place when we can simply euthanize Frontpage users.

Once it solidifies though, it is definitely a cool sounding (excuse the pun) technology. Use humans only have 2 ears in fixed positions, and I've often wondered how we can locate 3 dimensional sounds using only 2 ears (do we really?). Wonder how this turns out over the next few years...

Or when you want to accelerate (you bow forward) over the maximum velocity. There'll be a point where whis thing won't be able to accelerate any more to prevent you from falling, and too bad it will be at max speed...

The acceleration isn't what balances it, it has specific motors for rotating the chassis based on input from the gyros (hence "self-balancing").

Though I admit it would be very nice if caffeine actually did lengthen life (as opposed ot just making it seem to be lived faster) ...

I realize you were joking, but it reminded me that I wish more people would realize that caffeine really is bad for you.

But reading that didn't do it for me. It was after I read this account of an extreme case of caffeine withdrawal that I decided enough is enough.

Sorry for straying O/T. Um, yeah, sleep! Who needs it! Life's too short! Bah! (there).

Good overview here.

Boeing 737??

September 11, 2001 involved 2 Boeing 767s and 2 Beoing 757s.

The news media said the terrorist likely used 757s and 767s since the training for them is similar.

There are clocks you can buy that set their time via radio waves -- http://www.howstuffworks.com/question461.htm has some info. Maybe somebody makes a PCI card or other device that allows you to do this on a computer.

• Lasers. Everything from CD players to laser surgery.
• MRI, which manipulates the spin of hydrogen nuclei.

• Lasers. Everything from CD players to laser surgery.
• MRI, which manipulates the spin of hydrogen nuclei.

By reading How CDs work I came to the conclusion that CDROM readers collect the data stored in a CDROM in a quite different way than audio CD players use to collect data stored in an audio CD. This is because the binary data stream actually stored by the continuous laser beam has very different formats, mainly due to the implemented error detection and or correction schemes. Thus, their internal digital electronics do different things INTERNALLY (internal microcontrollers and so). Moreover, any of us who has used one of those copiers that broke the protections of that old 5.25" diskettes containing self-loading games in the '80s know that usually it gets more complicated that copying bit by bit.

Cameras have been sensing depth with infra-red for years. It's called auto-focus. All this camera has added is recording that data along with the rgb. There is a nifty little method of scanning film location for later 3D reconstruction using Lidar that has already been used in films for some time. Lidar is often also implemented for geographical surveys by folks such as NASA. The resolution of the ZCAM sounds very limited and will not be useful for truly realistic keying. Possibly guy-in-front-of-weathermap applications, but it doesn't look like it can handle fine hair, water, or other transparencies that most keying software can today. If you don't want to deal with a green/blue screen, there's also the option of a "difference key" that compares the shot without anyone in it to the shot when your person walks in. Some systems can now do real time insertions this way. The ZCAM still won't give convincing film quality compositing results. With the advances in photogrammetry and it's applications in movies, I don't think that ZCAM has much use potential

Well put. I suppose that AC never thought of a plane trip in terms of hours instead of miles, or wouldn't want anyone to know how many feet are in a typical movie (answer: 1 mile per hour of film)

That reminds me of a very cool clock I saw in Hong Kong (of all places ;)

It had a single row of LEDs, mounted along a pendulum. The pendulum would swing back and forth, and the LEDs would flash so as to make it look like the current time was 'hanging' in the air in front of you.

Kind of like the way monitors work, I guess, except with a very low refresh rate.

You can rig one up with your parallel port (I think parallel ports can just put out enough current to drive LEDs, but you might blow your port outputs if you're not careful); get it to output a fixed sequence at a certain frequency and wave a bit of wood with your LEDs mounted on it back and forth, and you should see a nice pattern.

I had a friend who was doing this, but I have no idea if he got it going or not.

It's already heading our way. Check out:

Disposable cell phone Disposable cell phone

But, we should always consider the other side of our use and toss society:

Disposable cell phone and the toxic price

The Slashdot Story Submission System or Four-S (pronounced "force") is a closely guarded Slashdot secret. As much as Slashdot claims to be anti-patent, in their well-known hypocritical nature, they have a patent pending for their story submission system. It is this very system's precision and robustness that explains why slashdot is so popular yet other similar slashcode sites get less hits than the average AOL user's personal homepage.

Like the formula to Coca-Cola, KFC's secret recipe, and the chemical structure of SPAM, the workings of the Four-S system was the question keeping me awake at night. After weeks of saving my allowance, obtaining a fake ID and making a few trips to the seedier parts of town, I finally had everything I needed to discover the truth behind one of mankind's greatest mysteries.

Thanks to a life-size inflatable tux doll and a keg of mediocre quality lukewarm beer, I had little trouble coaxing the secrets of the Four-S system out of Rob Malda. Between mugs of beer and unspeakable acts against nature (and vinyl inflatable dolls), in his drunken slurred speech, he explained the most intimate details of the four-s system.

R.M.: Well... Hey, you're kinda cute. Wanna see a cool trick I can do with a taco?

Me: Umm, I think I know what you have in mind - it won't work. When I was mowing a lawn last summer, I had an unfortunate accident and was involuntarily castrated. How that would effect the outcome of your trick should be self explanatory.

R.M.: Damn, that sucks. Hey, since you've taken yourself out of the gene pool, did you win a Darwin award?

Me: Did you win a Queer of the Year award? All fags like you should be given a Darwin award for taking themselves out of the gene pool. One more comment about my lack of balls and I'm deflating Tux!

R.M.: No, not Tux! I'm SO sorry! How can I make it up to you?

Me: The Four-S system. Tell me about it.

R.M.: Never. I'll take it to my grave.

Me: Damnit Rob, tell me or I'll shove my withered scrotum in your face. It's so nasty BME, Stileproject AND Steakandchese refused to post the picture!

R.M.: You make a compelling case, but no.

ME: Damn you, I'm so mad I don't feel like typing A HREF= anymore! Now you're gonna pay!

At this point I pull down my pants.

R.M: OH LORD OF ALL THINGS HOLY!!! I'M BLIND! OH THE AGONY! FOR GREAT JUSTICE, PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!

ME: Not until you tell me about the Four-S!

R.M.: Okay you win, I'll talk, I'll talk. Just put your pants back on.

ME: I don't trust you. Tell me about the Four-S first!

R.M.: Sigh. Okay, the Four-S. Most people think the Four-S stands for "Slashdot Story Submission System", they're wrong - it's just the public codename. It really is an acronym for the four steps involved in story selection. Scratch paper, spin, semen, shredder - That's what the Four-S really means.

During the first step, the "scratch paper" stage, hardworking monks here at Slashdot HQ carefully transcribe each story submission on to a piece of environmentally friendly recycled paper. For the "spin" step, these pieces of paper are then placed in a Kenmore dryer (set to air dry only, heat caused us to lose a whole day's worth of submissions once when the paper burst into flames!) for 5 minutes for a good randomizing effect. Now ready for the "semen" stage, one of the Slashdot editing crew opens the dryer door and proceeds to masturbate into the dryer. Whichever lucky paper happens to catch the wad of jism will be posted to the main page of Slashdot and then placed in the shredder. The reason for shredding a successfully submitted story is simple, if it's shredded, we can be sure we won't see the dried semen on it and accidentally post it again. Since we can only masturbate so many times in one day, you can understand why we're only able to post so many stories in one day - and why so many are rejected. This is exactly why the Four-S system is so much more versatile than other story submission systems.

Me: Wow, that explains a lot. So how did you come up with the Four-S anyway?

R.M.: I was up late one night trying to write a script to randomly pick story submissions, but everyone at Slashdot HQ kept complaining it wasn't random enough. After debating for hours, my throat was becoming sore and I was starting to go hoarse. In frustration, I finally yelled, "Well how do you propose I make it more random, use the for..(cough)..se?" At that moment, the idea dawned on me.

Me: Why am I not surprised?

R.M.: Now that you have this information, you have entered a circle of trust. Promise me you won't tell a soul about what I have told you today!

Me: (With fingers crossed) Sure, I promise.

The Slashdot Story Submission System or Four-S (pronounced "force") is a closely guarded Slashdot secret. As much as Slashdot claims to be anti-patent, in their well-known hypocritical nature, they have a patent pending for their story submission system. It is this very system's precision and robustness that explains why slashdot is so popular yet other similar slashcode sites get less hits than the average AOL user's personal homepage.

Like the formula to Coca-Cola, KFC's secret recipe, and the chemical structure of SPAM, the workings of the Four-S system was the question keeping me awake at night. After weeks of saving my allowance, obtaining a fake ID and making a few trips to the seedier parts of town, I finally had everything I needed to discover the truth behind one of mankind's greatest mysteries.

Thanks to a life-size inflatable tux doll and a keg of mediocre quality lukewarm beer, I had little trouble coaxing the secrets of the Four-S system out of Rob Malda. Between mugs of beer and unspeakable acts against nature (and vinyl inflatable dolls), in his drunken slurred speech, he explained the most intimate details of the four-s system.

R.M.: Well... Hey, you're kinda cute. Wanna see a cool trick I can do with a taco?

Me: Umm, I think I know what you have in mind - it won't work. When I was mowing a lawn last summer, I had an unfortunate accident and was involuntarily castrated. How that would effect the outcome of your trick should be self explanatory.

R.M.: Damn, that sucks. Hey, since you've taken yourself out of the gene pool, did you win a Darwin award?

Me: Did you win a Queer of the Year award? All fags like you should be given a Darwin award for taking themselves out of the gene pool. One more comment about my lack of balls and I'm deflating Tux!

R.M.: No, not Tux! I'm SO sorry! How can I make it up to you?

Me: The Four-S system. Tell me about it.

R.M.: Never. I'll take it to my grave.

Me: Damnit Rob, tell me or I'll shove my withered scrotum in your face. It's so nasty BME, Stileproject AND Steakandchese refused to post the picture!

R.M.: You make a compelling case, but no.

ME: Damn you, I'm so mad I don't feel like typing A HREF= anymore! Now you're gonna pay!

At this point I pull down my pants.

R.M: OH LORD OF ALL THINGS HOLY!!! I'M BLIND! OH THE AGONY! FOR GREAT JUSTICE, PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!

ME: Not until you tell me about the Four-S!

R.M.: Okay you win, I'll talk, I'll talk. Just put your pants back on.

ME: I don't trust you. Tell me about the Four-S first!

R.M.: Sigh. Okay, the Four-S. Most people think the Four-S stands for "Slashdot Story Submission System", they're wrong - it's just the public codename. It really is an acronym for the four steps involved in story selection. Scratch paper, spin, semen, shredder - That's what the Four-S really means.

During the first step, the "scratch paper" stage, hardworking monks here at Slashdot HQ carefully transcribe each story submission on to a piece of environmentally friendly recycled paper. For the "spin" step, these pieces of paper are then placed in a Kenmore dryer (set to air dry only, heat caused us to lose a whole day's worth of submissions once when the paper burst into flames!) for 5 minutes for a good randomizing effect. Now ready for the "semen" stage, one of the Slashdot editing crew opens the dryer door and proceeds to masturbate into the dryer. Whichever lucky paper happens to catch the wad of jism will be posted to the main page of Slashdot and then placed in the shredder. The reason for shredding a successfully submitted story is simple, if it's shredded, we can be sure we won't see the dried semen on it and accidentally post it again. Since we can only masturbate so many times in one day, you can understand why we're only able to post so many stories in one day - and why so many are rejected. This is exactly why the Four-S system is so much more versatile than other story submission systems.

Me: Wow, that explains a lot. So how did you come up with the Four-S anyway?

R.M.: I was up late one night trying to write a script to randomly pick story submissions, but everyone at Slashdot HQ kept complaining it wasn't random enough. After debating for hours, my throat was becoming sore and I was starting to go hoarse. In frustration, I finally yelled, "Well how do you propose I make it more random, use the for..(cough)..se?" At that moment, the idea dawned on me.

Me: Why am I not surprised?

R.M.: Now that you have this information, you have entered a circle of trust. Promise me you won't tell a soul about what I have told you today!

Me: (With fingers crossed) Sure, I promise.

The Slashdot Story Submission System or Four-S (pronounced "force") is a closely guarded Slashdot secret. As much as Slashdot claims to be anti-patent, in their well-known hypocritical nature, they have a patent pending for their story submission system. It is this very system's precision and robustness that explains why slashdot is so popular yet other similar slashcode sites get less hits that the average AOL user's personal homepage.

Like the formula to Coca-Cola, KFC's secret recipe, and the chemical structure of SPAM, the workings of the Four-S system was the question keeping me awake at night. After weeks of saving my allowance, obtaining a fake ID and making a few trips to the seedier parts of town, I finally had everything I needed to discover the truth behind one of mankind's greatest mysteries.

Thanks to a life-size inflatable tux doll and a keg of mediocre quality lukewarm beer, I had little trouble coaxing the secrets of the Four-S system out of Rob Malda. Between mugs of beer and unspeakable acts against nature (and vinyl inflatable dolls), in his drunken slurred speech, he explained the most intimate details of the four-s system.

R.M.: Well... Hey, your kinda cute. Wanna see a cool trick I can do with a taco?

Me: Umm, I think I know what you have in mind - it won't work. When I was mowing a lawn last summer, I had an unfortunate accident and was involuntarily castrated. How that would effect the outcome of your trick should be self explanatory.

R.M.: Damn, that sucks. Hey, since you've taken yourself out of the gene pool, did you win a Darwin award?

Me: Did you win a Queer of the Year award? All fags like you should be given a Darwin award for taking themselves out of the gene pool. One more comment about my lack of balls and I'm deflating Tux!

R.M.: No, not Tux! I'm SO sorry! How can I make it up to you?

Me: The Four-S system. Tell me about it.

R.M.: Never. I'll take it to my grave.

Me: Damnit Rob, tell me or I'll shove my withered scrotum in your face. It's so nasty BME, Stileproject AND Steakandchese refused to post the picture!

R.M.: You make a compelling case, but no.

ME: Damn you, I'm so mad I don't feel like typing A HREF= anymore! Now you're gonna pay!

At this point I pull down my pants.

R.M: OH LORD OF ALL THINGS HOLY!!! I'M BLIND! OH THE AGONY! FOR GREAT JUSTICE, PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!

ME: Not until you tell me about the Four-S!

R.M.: Okay you win, I'll talk, I'll talk. Just put your pants back on.

ME: I don't trust you. Tell me about the Four-S first!

R.M.: Sigh. Okay, the Four-S. Most people think the Four-S stands for "Slashdot Story Submission System", they're wrong - it's just the public codename. It really is an acronym for the four steps involved in story selection. Scratch paper, spin, semen, shredder - That's what the Four-S really means.

During the first step, the "scratch paper" stage, hardworking monks here at Slashdot HQ carefully transcribe each story submission on to a piece of environmentally friendly recycled paper. For the "spin" step, these pieces of paper are then placed in a Kenmore dryer (set to air dry only, heat caused us to lose a whole day's worth of submissions once when the paper burst into flames!) for 5 minutes for a good randomizing effect. Now ready for the "semen" stage, one of the Slashdot editing crew opens the dryer door and proceeds to masturbate into the dryer. Whichever lucky paper happens to catch the wad of jism will be posted to the main page of Slashdot and then placed in the shredder. The reason for shredding a successfully submitted story is simple, if it's shredded, we can be sure we won't see the dried semen on it and accidentally post it again. Since we can only masturbate so many times in one day, you can understand why we're only able to post so many stories in one day - and why so many are rejected. This is exactly why the Four-S system is so much more versatile than other story submission systems.

Me: Wow, that explains a lot. So how did you come up with the Four-S anyway?

R.M.: I was up late one night trying to write a script to randomly pick story submissions, but everyone at Slashdot HQ kept complaining it wasn't random enough. After debating for hours, my throat was becoming sore and I was starting to go hoarse. In frustration, I finally yelled, "Well how do you propose I make it more random, use the for..(cough)..se?" At that moment, the idea dawned on me.

Me: Why am I not surprised?

R.M.: Now that you have this information, you have entered a circle of trust. Promise me you won't tell a soul about what I have told you today!

Me: (With fingers crossed) Sure, I promise.

The Slashdot Story Submission System or Four-S (pronounced "force") is a closely guarded Slashdot secret. As much as Slashdot claims to be anti-patent, in their well-known hypocritical nature, they have a patent pending for their story submission system. It is this very system's precision and robustness that explains why slashdot is so popular yet other similar slashcode sites get less hits that the average AOL user's personal homepage.

Like the formula to Coca-Cola, KFC's secret recipe, and the chemical structure of SPAM, the workings of the Four-S system was the question keeping me awake at night. After weeks of saving my allowance, obtaining a fake ID and making a few trips to the seedier parts of town, I finally had everything I needed to discover the truth behind one of mankind's greatest mysteries.

Thanks to a life-size inflatable tux doll and a keg of mediocre quality lukewarm beer, I had little trouble coaxing the secrets of the Four-S system out of Rob Malda. Between mugs of beer and unspeakable acts against nature (and vinyl inflatable dolls), in his drunken slurred speech, he explained the most intimate details of the four-s system.

R.M.: Well... Hey, your kinda cute. Wanna see a cool trick I can do with a taco?

Me: Umm, I think I know what you have in mind - it won't work. When I was mowing a lawn last summer, I had an unfortunate accident and was involuntarily castrated. How that would effect the outcome of your trick should be self explanatory.

R.M.: Damn, that sucks. Hey, since you've taken yourself out of the gene pool, did you win a Darwin award?

Me: Did you win a Queer of the Year award? All fags like you should be given a Darwin award for taking themselves out of the gene pool. One more comment about my lack of balls and I'm deflating Tux!

R.M.: No, not Tux! I'm SO sorry! How can I make it up to you?

Me: The Four-S system. Tell me about it.

R.M.: Never. I'll take it to my grave.

Me: Damnit Rob, tell me or I'll shove my withered scrotum in your face. It's so nasty BME, Stileproject AND Steakandchese refused to post the picture!

R.M.: You make a compelling case, but no.

ME: Damn you, I'm so mad I don't feel like typing A HREF= anymore! Now you're gonna pay!

At this point I pull down my pants.

R.M: OH LORD OF ALL THINGS HOLY!!! I'M BLIND! OH THE AGONY! FOR GREAT JUSTICE, PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!

ME: Not until you tell me about the Four-S!

R.M.: Okay you win, I'll talk, I'll talk. Just put your pants back on.

ME: I don't trust you. Tell me about the Four-S first!

R.M.: Sigh. Okay, the Four-S. Most people think the Four-S stands for "Slashdot Story Submission System", they're wrong - it's just the public codename. It really is an acronym for the four steps involved in story selection. Scratch paper, spin, semen, shredder - That's what the Four-S really means.

During the first step, the "scratch paper" stage, hardworking monks here at Slashdot HQ carefully transcribe each story submission on to a piece of environmentally friendly recycled paper. For the "spin" step, these pieces of paper are then placed in a Kenmore dryer (set to air dry only, heat caused us to lose a whole day's worth of submissions once when the paper burst into flames!) for 5 minutes for a good randomizing effect. Now ready for the "semen" stage, one of the Slashdot editing crew opens the dryer door and proceeds to masturbate into the dryer. Whichever lucky paper happens to catch the wad of jism will be posted to the main page of Slashdot and then placed in the shredder. The reason for shredding a successfully submitted story is simple, if it's shredded, we can be sure we won't see the dried semen on it and accidentally post it again. Since we can only masturbate so many times in one day, you can understand why we're only able to post so many stories in one day - and why so many are rejected. This is exactly why the Four-S system is so much more versatile than other story submission systems.

Me: Wow, that explains a lot. So how did you come up with the Four-S anyway?

R.M.: I was up late one night trying to write a script to randomly pick story submissions, but everyone at Slashdot HQ kept complaining it wasn't random enough. After debating for hours, my throat was becoming sore and I was starting to go hoarse. In frustration, I finally yelled, "Well how do you propose I make it more random, use the for..(cough)..se?" At that moment, the idea dawned on me.

Me: Why am I not surprised?

R.M.: Now that you have this information, you have entered a circle of trust. Promise me you won't tell a soul about what I have told you today!

Me: (With fingers crossed) Sure, I promise.

The Slashdot Story Submission System or Four-S (pronounced "force") is a closely guarded Slashdot secret. As much as Slashdot claims to be anti-patent, in their well-known hypocritical nature, they have a patent pending for their story submission system. It is this very system's precision and robustness that explains why slashdot is so popular yet other similar slashcode sites get less hits that the average AOL user's personal homepage.

Like the formula to Coca-Cola, KFC's secret recipe, and the chemical structure of SPAM, the workings of the Four-S system was the question keeping me awake at night. After weeks of saving my allowance, obtaining a fake ID and making a few trips to the seedier parts of town, I finally had everything I needed to discover the truth behind one of mankind's greatest mysteries.

Thanks to a life-size inflatable tux doll and a keg of mediocre quality lukewarm beer, I had little trouble coaxing the secrets of the Four-S system out of Rob Malda. Between mugs of beer and unspeakable acts against nature (and vinyl inflatable dolls), in his drunken slurred speech, he explained the most intimate details of the four-s system.

R.M.: Well... Hey, your kinda cute. Wanna see a cool trick I can do with a taco?

Me: Umm, I think I know what you have in mind - it won't work. When I was mowing a lawn last summer, I had an unfortunate accident and was involuntarily castrated. How that would effect the outcome of your trick should be self explanatory.

R.M.: Damn, that sucks. Hey, since you've taken yourself out of the gene pool, did you win a Darwin award?

Me: Did you win a Queer of the Year award? All fags like you should be given a Darwin award for taking themselves out of the gene pool. One more comment about my lack of balls and I'm deflating Tux!

R.M.: No, not Tux! I'm SO sorry! How can I make it up to you?

Me: The Four-S system. Tell me about it.

R.M.: Never. I'll take it to my grave.

Me: Damnit Rob, tell me or I'll shove my withered scrotum in your face. It's so nasty BME, Stileproject AND Steakandchese refused to post the picture!

R.M.: You make a compelling case, but no.

ME: Damn you, I'm so mad I don't feel like typing A HREF= anymore! Now you're gonna pay!

At this point I pull down my pants.

R.M: OH LORD OF ALL THINGS HOLY!!! I'M BLIND! OH THE AGONY! FOR GREAT JUSTICE, PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!

ME: Not until you tell me about the Four-S!

R.M.: Okay you win, I'll talk, I'll talk. Just put your pants back on.

ME: I don't trust you. Tell me about the Four-S first!

R.M.: Sigh. Okay, the Four-S. Most people think the Four-S stands for "Slashdot Story Submission System", they're wrong - it's just the public codename. It really is an acronym for the four steps involved in story selection. Scratch paper, spin, semen, shredder - That's what the Four-S really means.

During the first step, the "scratch paper" stage, hardworking monks here at Slashdot HQ carefully transcribe each story submission on to a piece of environmentally friendly recycled paper. For the "spin" step, these pieces of paper are then placed in a Kenmore dryer (set to air dry only, heat caused us to lose a whole day's worth of submissions once when the paper burst into flames!) for 5 minutes for a good randomizing effect. Now ready for the "semen" stage, one of the Slashdot editing crew opens the dryer door and proceeds to masturbate into the dryer. Whichever lucky paper happens to catch the wad of jism will be posted to the main page of Slashdot and then placed in the shredder. The reason for shredding a successfully submitted story is simple, if it's shredded, we can be sure we won't see the dried semen on it and accidentally post it again. Since we can only masturbate so many times in one day, you can understand why we're only able to post so many stories in one day - and why so many are rejected. This is exactly why the Four-S system is so much more versatile than other story submission systems.

Me: Wow, that explains a lot. So how did you come up with the Four-S anyway?

R.M.: I was up late one night trying to write a script to randomly pick story submissions, but everyone at Slashdot HQ kept complaining it wasn't random enough. After debating for hours, my throat was becoming sore and I was starting to go hoarse. In frustration, I finally yelled, "Well how do you propose I make it more random, use the for..(cough)..se?" At that moment, the idea dawned on me.

Me: Why am I not surprised?

R.M.: Now that you have this information, you have entered a circle of trust. Promise me you won't tell a soul about what I have told you today!

Me: (With fingers crossed) Sure, I promise.

The Slashdot Story Submission System or Four-S (pronounced "force") is a closely guarded Slashdot secret. As much as Slashdot claims to be anti-patent, in their well-known hypocritical nature, they have a patent pending for their story submission system. It is this very system's precision and robustness that explains why slashdot is so popular yet other similar slashcode sites get less hits that the average AOL user's personal homepage.

Like the formula to Coca-Cola, KFC's secret recipe, and the chemical structure of SPAM, the workings of the Four-S system was the question keeping me awake at night. After weeks of saving my allowance, obtaining a fake ID and making a few trips to the seedier parts of town, I finally had everything I needed to discover the truth behind one of mankind's greatest mysteries.

Thanks to a life-size inflatable tux doll and a keg of mediocre quality lukewarm beer, I had little trouble coaxing the secrets of the Four-S system out of Rob Malda. Between mugs of beer and unspeakable acts against nature (and vinyl inflatable dolls), in his drunken slurred speech, he explained the most intimate details of the four-s system.

R.M.: Well... Hey, your kinda cute. Wanna see a cool trick I can do with a taco?

Me: Umm, I think I know what you have in mind - it won't work. When I was mowing a lawn last summer, I had an unfortunate accident and was involuntarily castrated. How that would effect the outcome of your trick should be self explanatory.

R.M.: Damn, that sucks. Hey, since you've taken yourself out of the gene pool, did you win a Darwin award?

Me: Did you win a Queer of the Year award? All fags like you should be given a Darwin award for taking themselves out of the gene pool. One more comment about my lack of balls and I'm deflating Tux!

R.M.: No, not Tux! I'm SO sorry! How can I make it up to you?

Me: The Four-S system. Tell me about it.

R.M.: Never. I'll take it to my grave.

Me: Damnit Rob, tell me or I'll shove my withered scrotum in your face. It's so nasty BME, Stileproject AND Steakandchese refused to post the picture!

R.M.: You make a compelling case, but no.

ME: Damn you, I'm so mad I don't feel like typing A HREF= anymore! Now you're gonna pay!

At this point I pull down my pants.

R.M: OH LORD OF ALL THINGS HOLY!!! I'M BLIND! OH THE AGONY! FOR GREAT JUSTICE, PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!

ME: Not until you tell me about the Four-S!

R.M.: Okay you win, I'll talk, I'll talk. Just put your pants back on.

ME: I don't trust you. Tell me about the Four-S first!

R.M.: Sigh. Okay, the Four-S. Most people think the Four-S stands for "Slashdot Story Submission System", they're wrong - it's just the public codename. It really is an acronym for the four steps involved in story selection. Scratch paper, spin, semen, shredder - That's what the Four-S really means.

During the first step, the "scratch paper" stage, hardworking monks here at Slashdot HQ carefully transcribe each story submission on to a piece of environmentally friendly recycled paper. For the "spin" step, these pieces of paper are then placed in a Kenmore dryer (set to air dry only, heat caused us to lose a whole day's worth of submissions once when the paper burst into flames!) for 5 minutes for a good randomizing effect. Now ready for the "semen" stage, one of the Slashdot editing crew opens the dryer door and proceeds to masturbate into the dryer. Whichever lucky paper happens to catch the wad of jism will be posted to the main page of Slashdot and then placed in the shredder. The reason for shredding a successfully submitted story is simple, if it's shredded, we can be sure we won't see the dried semen on it and accidentally post it again. Since we can only masturbate so many times in one day, you can understand why we're only able to post so many stories in one day - and why so many are rejected. This is exactly why the Four-S system is so much more versatile than other story submission systems.

Me: Wow, that explains a lot. So how did you come up with the Four-S anyway?

R.M.: I was up late one night trying to write a script to randomly pick story submissions, but everyone at Slashdot HQ kept complaining it wasn't random enough. After debating for hours, my throat was becoming sore and I was starting to go hoarse. In frustration, I finally yelled, "Well how do you propose I make it more random, use the for..(cough)..se?" At that moment, the idea dawned on me.

Me: Why am I not surprised?

R.M.: Now that you have this information, you have entered a circle of trust. Promise me you won't tell a soul about what I have told you today!

Me: (With fingers crossed) Sure, I promise.

It's a GPS receiver, not a transmitter. GPS works passively by listening to the timing differences of time-encoded signals from up to 12 satellites at once (there are 24, but generally the most you'll be able to "hear" at once are 12). Here's the dummies guide to it.

It is funny though how GPS is a basic technology, but every application of it is treated as some new discovery: i.e. I'm going to make a piece of software that has a database of all movie theatres, and when you have a GPS on your PDA it'll point you to the nearest theatre: Whoopee, I've developed a new theatre detector! Blah. As a sidenote: MapPoint 2002 is a very nice product. The breadth of information in it is astounding.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/chess.htm

(Is there anything that site doesnt have?)

There are 536 tonnes of air in both the Biomes
volume inside HT Biome; 330,110m3
volume inside WT Biome; 85,620m3

Density of air = 1.225 Kg/m3 (at 15 deg C) - though this gives a mass of 509 tonnes.

Either way the air does not quite weigh as much as the steel but its close.

The Millennium Dome is a suspension type construction which is generally very light so I would guess that the air inside it weighs a lot less than the structure.

1964: Government sponsored Hardiman project. I remember reading about this in a robots book in 1997.

Link to howstuffworks

I still want a veritech fighter. I'd go to war in one of those.

Read, enjoy!

Wouldn't it be possible to make it go around the main loop several thousand times before going out?

It already does that. The way a cyclotron works is that charged particles in a magnetic field move in circles. It turns out that the radius of the circle increases as the particle's energy increases, but the time for one period remains constant. A cyclotron injects charged particles near the center, and they start moving in circles. Every time they cross the mid-line of the device, an AC field gives them an energy boost and moves them to a slightly greater radius (the field reverses polarity every half-orbit, so the field is always pushing the particles along their direction of travel). When the particles have gained enough energy to reach the outer edge of the device, they are extracted and sent down the beamline.

Cyclotrons are good at producing a very high number of particles per second (so they're great for isotope production), but they don't easily scale to the energy levels needed to create antiprotons.

howstuffworks.com has a bit more information.

Hmm. Checks certificate. Hmm still says Degree in Physics. Oh well.

a) sonic booms occur above mach 1 not at mach 1. They are produced continuously. They are going to be more intense at higher mach.

b)&c) Making a mach 27 object survive at all is not easy. IRC no vehicle except rockets have exceeded about mach 5 or so (give or take a couple of mach), and they do it OUTSIDE the atmosphere. Reentering space vehicles do sort of enter the atmosphere but they deliberately lose a lot of speed at high altitude in thin air, so that's not really comparable.

d) orbital mechanics... what can I say... there are three types of orbits around anything; elliptical, escape and hyperbolic. Any object with less than escape velocity is in an elliptical orbit. These orbits are generally stable. It's theoretically possible to get a decaying solar orbit, but not practically; decaying orbits need atmosphere- the sun doesn't really have this.

The orbital velocity of the earth is 67000 miles per hour BTW. Escape velocity of the earth is ~25000 miles per hour, so I was way off- its more like mach 60 or so. Forget about it; it ain't going to work.

I suggest you pull a book on orbits and read it for once; I know I have. I've also played around on computer simulations. You will find its generally a good idea not to make assumptions about people online based on little to no evidence.

Oh yeah, you mention rail guns. Rail guns have achieved about 5 km/s (about mach 12ish); but they suffer from severe rail erosion. I'm not aware of any that can go faster than this. Coil guns don't have any rails but top out at about 2 km/s right now, although faster is probably doable.

...hold your toung while saying "apple", it sounds like you're saying asshole.

Uerm.. correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't glow-in-the-dark stuff "stop and hold light to be later emitted"?

Glow in the dark stuff is made up of phosphors - similar material as what's in your CRT monitor. Phosphors emit visible light when excited.

The phosphors in your monitor are delicately excited by the electron gun in the back. The phosphors in glow in the dark stuff are excited en masse by normal light.

See How Stuff Works for more details.

J.J.

I also think it is silly to beleive that an unhackable system cannot be designed.

The problem is, it's even more silly to believe that an unhackable system can be designed. History has proven that time and again. Either argument bears a heavy burden of hubris, but the hackers at least have the bulk of historical evidence on their side.

Practicality quickly becomes a straw-man arguement. New methods are invented daily; computational methods, mathematical analysis methods, etc., any of which could render a seemingly intractable problem trivial. Problems that would take an incredibly long time to solve using traditional computers take only a few days using a bucket of protiens.

To assume it will take 6000 years, or even 60 years, to break a 4096-bit key displays far greater hubris, based on historical evidence, than the hacker who claims there is no unhackable system.

For more background info on how neurons work: see How stuff works sub-page on the brain. I was hoping that they would have a good discussion on how sodium and potasium ions move through the cell membranes creating a charge, but at least it's a good intro.

link here

it's a good read and has flash animations so even i could understand it.

>To encode a 10Khz note (sine wave, which means like a smooth ocean wave) that moves from volume 0% to volume 100% immediatly, 16/44.1 can only describe the change in 2 discreet steps. Imagine a 2 step stair when what we want is a pond ripple.

Sorry to say this, but an audio DAC does not do this.

I was corrected on this point once myself, so I'll help you too.

When a high-frequency sound is to be played, harmonics above the sampling rate are discarded (all instruments have harmonics, unless you like listening to test tones). When a DAC sees a strong high-to-low swing it shapes it (jeez... can't remember the name now... Q filter? Delta filter?) into a sine wave. By adding these sine-wave shapes together you get an exact representation of the sound below the maximum sampling frequency.

Basically, a pure sine wave is dead easy for a DAC to represent (no harmonics), whereas a true square wave (infinite harmonics) is impossible for a DAC to perfectly represent.

Fortunately, most instruments aren't square waves, and even so, most square waves can be reasonably approximated.

Anyways, for a more thorough (and correct) analysis, talk to your local Telecomm engineer. :)

Here's some info.

This is the best layman's explanation I've found.

Hydrogen, being the lightest element, doesn't go liquid until close to absolute zero at standard pressure. Even if you make the pressure dangerously high, the refrigeration will still keep it from being worth it to force it into the liquid state. An oxygen molecule is 16 times the size, but it still takes some work to make liquid oxygen, and the pressure would once again be dangerous.

How do they not take up too much space, as you said? Fuel cells are extremely efficient because rather than producing pneumatic energy from combustion which is then converted to electrical energy, they essentially make a battery out of them that fuses hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity. But they still don't usually store hydrogen or oxygen.

Fuel cells usually have a liquid forms - these are produced by dissolving or chemically combining hydrogen with less electropositive and negative elements (making an acid and a base), and then removing the hydrogen from this right before it is needed. Typically, the hydrogen is removed from an alcohol. Oxygen is just taken straight out of the air.

Here is a good summary of fuel cells, if you want to know more.

The GM device you refer to is really pretty simple. The little "chip" embedded in the key is just a resistor. The ignition switch contains a simple ohmmeter that checks to see if the proper key has been inserted, if not it disables the fuel pump for a few minutes. This link explains a bit about how it works. a bit of Google searching will turn up lots more links that describe the system.

Seiko has the only Quartz watch of this kind, afaik.

However, self winding watches have been around for quite a while. Now, these watches don't run off body heat, sweat, brain waves or any else NASA might be thinking of, god knows. They work from adjustments in tilt, giving off enough power to build a reserve. Just getting out of the office chair and going for coffee, or off the couch and walking the dog, should be enough.

According to this reading in the dark isn't likley to cause any permanent damage to your eyes. Also, since my PDA is backlit I don't even suffer from any eye strain.

That's standard operating procedure for consoles.

It's a well-documented fact that Sony does this:

"However, the market leader Sony are set to cut the price of their Playstations to £69 in response. This would be a loss leader, but the bulk of Playstation profits come from software." - full story

For a more historical perspective:

"The NES introduced three very important concepts to the video game system industry:

Using a pad controller instead of a joystick
Creating authentic reproductions of arcade video games for the home system
Using the hardware as a loss leader by aggressively pricing it, then making a profit on the games themselves"
- full article

It's the way the industry works. Do a little research.

There's an article on that over at How Stuff Works.

There's an article on that over at How Stuff Works.

"It's here that the graphics co-processor helps: it splits the work with the CPU so that the total multi-media experience can move at an acceptable speed." A summed up explaination

Okay, so if I'm wrong, please explain me why my Pentium Pro 200, 128Meg EDO RAM and a VooDoo2 card with 16Meg onboard (PCI, I don't think those come in AGP) kicks the hell out of my P-III 800, 128Meg SD-Ram and NVidia GeForce MX2 with 32Meg onboard (Aperture set to 64Meg, as set by default in my BIOS). Both systems ran under a stock Windows 2000 install, after bootup ideling at about 55Meg Memory used as reported by the taskmanager. Both had the latest available drivers installed. The game in occurence is Half-Life, which has good support for both graphic cards: Glide for the VooDoo and Direct3D for the NVidia. Why did the P-III suddenly used about 196Meg Ram instead of 128Meg on the PPro. Both games were set to 800x600x16bit and maximum details. The only plausible explanation I found was that the P-III reserved a huge amount of memory for graphics data in main memory and the machine got low on memory and had to swap. Proof to my theory (for me) was that adding 128Meg (more now) to the P-III fixed the problem.

I'm not a big gamer, but I was really astonished by those results.

It was also stated that people will return to a website on a regular basis that they like. I think most of us here understand that, I know that I read slashdot at least once a day. And so if Tomshardware makes the mistake of splitting up their content too much, they will lose money as people migrate to another hardware review website. If you were smart and trying to make money off of this system, you would strive try for a _massive_, loyal reader base. This means providing quality content in an accessible manner.