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That's alright, I pictured giant wheels like the shield generators on Hoth:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Theater_shield

On the other hand, there aren't any gravitarians* who go around telling people that the world would be much better if we removed all those "expensive and inefficient" safety rails and let free gravity fix all of our problems. After all, there are few problems that won't be resolved by 100 meters of free fall.

Specifically, it is exactly because I view economics as a natural law, like gravity, that I have an implicit distrust of libertarian ideology. I actually understand that markets are amoral and thus I don't trust them to produce the result that I consider to be good without intervention.

* This may because of the holy war being waged between the gravitarians and the intelligent fallers.

A giant underground cave, built for longevity, and permanently sealed? Sounds like something from a video game...

Next up: you'll have to apply to travel from one city to another, you must have a legitimate, government-approved reason for traveling, you will have to show your papers at checkpoints in between (currently only required when traveling close to the border), and your vehicle's position and speed will be constantly monitored by GPS and radio transmitter.

Welcome to City 17

If it had been Bennett Halverson then it might have been worth reading.

In the Windows-ish type stuff, you see an X, a box, and a line.

I see an X, a box, and a 360 degree circle. But then I look to the top right and see the line, box, X that you're talking about.

The line has always bewildered me

It represents the shape of a taskbar entry in all versions of Windows Explorer from Windows 95 through Windows Vista. Roughly it means "turn this window into a taskbar entry". (Windows 7 changed taskbar entries to be square.)

I'd second that petition: To declare Wikipedia the world's largest collection of ego compared with utter schizotypic delusion.

Ego, because only what those in control of the servers think, will become Wikipedia "reality". (As opposed to actual reality.)

And utter schizotypic delusion, because (read these in Advice God fashion):
- "Appeal to authority" is a logical fallacy -- Citation needed, your word is less true than your word on a linked site with authority!
- "Anyone can edit" -- Only mine stays, you vandal!
- "Assume good intend" -- Lock down and delete fucking everything!
- Wikipedia's success to date is entirely a function of our open community.* -- Decide site bias in secret mailing list!
- Newcomers are always to be welcomed.* -- With banning for vandalism!
- "You can edit this page right now": We must respect this principle as sacred.* -- Locked pages "protection policy"!
- The topic of Wikipedia articles should always look outward, not inward at Wikipedia itself.* -- Make entire section about Wikipedia!
- Anyone with a complaint should be treated with the utmost respect and dignity.* -- Breed Wikinazis!
* These are actual Jimbo Wales "principles".

Delusion on a schizotypic level... versus actual reality.

Just imagine what this scaling algorithm could do for classic low-res games like Diablo.

Look at Doom's face* in the article. It acknowledges that it produces suboptimal results on heavily antialiased sprites like this or like those seen in Donkey Kong Country, Uniracers, or Super Mario RPG.

* It's not a case of Pretty Cool Guy as much as that Quake III Arena called the character Doom.

Yeah, well how would you like incubators for human babies to start spinning out of control and destroying themselves?

Not really an issue here on earth, maybe on a space station it would be a consideration. Or were you thinking of Fetus Harvesters?

Well, I can tell you it's not Aperture Science. They're in Michigan or Cleveland, depending on who (and when) you ask.

Here's a public domain map you can use, used it for a work project the other day:

http://lyrics.wikia.com/File:World_Map_(Simple).png

Windows was designed!? It's the platypus of operating systems.

Colbert - It's French, Bitch.
(Also, by video.)

You know, it's a pretty sad day when dedicated slashdot trolls can't think up anything more entertaining than your standard born-again crap.

http://atheism.wikia.com/wiki/Atheist_vs_Agnostic#Combining_Terms

I'd like some Naquadria.

http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Naquadria

No, one was pretending to be blind, and the other was named Cherith Cutestory.

I think movements in 1850 were composed of human beings. I think in 2011 they still are.

"will never understand anonymous, nor the internet, or routing or torrents."

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/One_of_These_Things

So you complain that the software doesn't have default cooking instructions programmed in that would just magically make cookies or cupcakes without you having to do all that extra work.

Yah actually, that is what I'm complaining about. I want a cupcake, I'll settle for the recipe, but just the ingredients? Thanks for nothing.

Example: LDAP, Kerberos, DNS vs.
Active Directory

Sure, you _could_ use the above technologies to accomplish what AD does, with a ton of time, and still not get to the point where ISVs can even dream of integrating with it. There are an infinite number of ways to implement an authentication/delegation/identity/system management/configuration management/service advertising solution etc., and then there is Active Directory. The cupcake won.

The problem is that the users can't be bothered figuring out what they want, so the software is at fault.

See, that's your problem right there. You can't just ask the users what they want.
Steve Jobs was right when he said this "You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new."
My favorite illustration of this mistake is the Homer Car http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/The_Homer
That is the wrong way to design _anything_, including software.

If you can't figure out how to turn your pile of crap ingredients into a cupcake, then what chance do your customers have? That is what "box of ingredients" software tells me, the authors have no idea what to do with it.

I choose to blame this guy. It's about as accurate as targeting an umbrella group alias over a text file that provides no real identifying intelligence, and he's far more entertaining. IMHO, I would place this sort of thing under the heading of "fiddling while Rome burns." Sony needs to be reacquainted with the term FAIL, then they need to demonstrate that they know why they're a fail whale, and that they will fix whatever the hell went so desperately wrong with their information security.

Accept no substitutes.

I get that all the time. Compare this SGU episode with this DS9 episode.

To be fair, though, TOS was in the business of ripping off things already. Consider Balance of Terror, which proudly combines a classic WW2 U-boat terror movie with the Roman Empire... IN SPACE!

But can I get an understandable car analogy here?

15 cars tried to transform into Voltron but instead turned into Snarf.

The Alliance and Reapers are central to the Mass Effect story. I can only assume he confused Reapers and Reavers, not too hard to imagine.

The Alliance and Reapers are central to the Mass Effect story. I can only assume he confused Reapers and Reavers, not too hard to imagine.

exiv2 rm *

* because there might be a mixture of images that I'm due to upload somewhere or other.
From my camera (CHDK FTW!) they are all .JPG or .DNG.

The NOx were a race in Stargate. They tended to have leaves and twigs in their hair. Wouldn't it be good to have more NOx?

http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/The_Nox

I was taught metrics in 1st grade, that was back in the 70s, and it's so easy a 7 year old can master it.
This imperial crap almost everyone else in the US uses is rather incomprehensible.

What it vaguely reminds me of is the old British system of money before decimalization. And children could master that easily too?

I mean look at this shit. It's ridiculous.

There were
          20 shillings in £1 - a shilling was often called 'bob', so 'ten bob' was 10/-
        12 pennies in1 shilling
        240 pennies in £1
Pennies were broken down into other coins:
          a farthing (a fourth- thing) was ¼ of a penny
          a halfpenny (hay-p'ny) was ½ of a penny
        three farthings was ¾ of a penny
Other coins of a value less than 1/- were
        a half-groat (2d) 6 x 2d = 1/-
        a threepenny bit (3d) made of silver 4 x 3d. = 1/-
        a groat (4d) 3 x 4d = 1/-
        sixpence (silver) - often called a 'tanner' 2 x 6d = 1/-
Coins of more than 1/- but less than £1 in value were
        a two shilling piece (called a florin) 10 x 2/- = £1
        a half-crown ( 2/6d) 8 x 2/6d = £1
        a crown (5/-) 4 x 5/- = £1
        ten shillings (a half-sovereign) 2 x 10/- = £1
        a half-guinea (10/6d) 2 x 10/6d = £1/1/-
A £1 coin was called a Sovereign and was made of gold. A paper pound often was called a 'quid'.
Coins of more than £1 were
        a guinea (£1/1/-)
        a £5 coin

But children could still get it. Hell, I'm sure kids understand how Harry Potter money works and quite frankly that's just plain nonsense to most of us.

According to Rubeus Hagrid, there are 17 Sickles in a Galleon, and 29 Knuts in a Sickle, meaning there are 493 knuts to a Galleon.

Simply saying it's "difficult to learn" isn't really something against it. Shit, I'm pretty sure Chinese is a confusing as hell language, but that doesn't mean we should stop a billion plus people from speaking it. Or to loosely quote Fred Colon in Jingo by Terry Pratchett, "Well of course they spoke Morporkian. It's an easy language. Even babies speak it. After learning something as difficult as Klatchian it must be easy."

Hell, if anything learning Imperial measurements might *increase* a child's capacity to subdivide crap into random numbers. Now they can think not only in base 10 but also in base 12. Now we just need kids to learn in base 16 and hex will no longer be a confusing maze for the average joe. Or even fucking binary.

I live literally 3 miles from the Atlanta capital. I would assume Atlanta is on Skynet's nuke list, due to the military bases around here and the fact that it's a major population center. It's a shame, I won't get to use my small weapons stockpile. Oh well, on the bright side I guess I don't have to worry about doing that paper and presentation for my grad IPE class tomorrow evening. You know, now that I think about it, getting nuked sounds like the better and least painful of the two options.

Yup - you're screwed: http://terminator.wikia.com/wiki/Judgment_Day#Cities_destroyed

Might I suggest it be renamed the GECK? It's just in time for Fallout 5:Fukushima. This trailer shows off great graphics, a easily-monitored PIPboy, friendly canine companions, and the Brahmin are so mutated that they only have one head!

I'm sorry, but that's just Crazy!

Are you serious?

MW2 and the Halo games are two good examples off the top of my head. Lots of asshats cheat at console games, just like lots of asshats cheat at PC games.

Considering it took them 6 years to release Half Life 2, having it take 2 years a piece for HL2:Ep1 and HL2:Ep2 does not seem like that big of a deal to me. They certainly left a huge cliff hanger for HL3... and we haven't even got any teasers (unless you call Portal a teaser, and the inclusion of Aperture Science in HL2:Ep2). It is getting a little long in the tooth for HL2:Ep3 to come out. I'm really going to have to replay HL2 and the episodes when Ep3 comes out (or, I guess, I could just read the wikia.)

Where else would a "daemon" run but on FreeBSD? But then of course, Netcraft confirms that FreeBSD is dead.

Colbert asked them directly. They said they'd researched it, and were told that even Hubble can't see the gear and footprints.

And it was The Big Bang Theory that verified the existence of a reflector on the moon.

First thing I thought of as well... http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Helios_One

Wrong Rebels. Tunisia already had theirs. Tatooine style.

it's not new, it goes way back before the '80s, corps used to get away with a lot worse, in some cases, they ran everything:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson's_Bay_Company

in fact, if we go to the stars, it will probably under the same form as this:

http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Weyland-Yutani

it makes sense that corporations take these risks, profit, then they are absorbed. the point is, corporations are never going away, because they do make sense for many reasons in terms of the most efficient way to do things. however, they are like beasts of burden: you must harness them and put them to use, or they run roughshod over your society. like GE, which paid no taxes to the USA, where the corporation is corrupting our system of government to stand above the people:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/general-electric-paid-federal-taxes-2010/story?id=13224558

additionally, we are making progress. the labor movement a hundred years ago made a huge step forward (that yes, we are backsliding on now)... after the civil war, corporations had a larger military than the federal govt, to suppress labor. blackwater is a hiccup in comparison:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_National_Detective_Agency

2 steps forward, 1 step back. this struggle is going on for centuries. but please do not forget we ARE making progress against the corruption of the people's will by monied interests. it is very difficult, and takes time and much effort. today, they have an entire corporate propaganda machine, fox news, that incenses the poor and middle class to actually fight against their own interests, like affordable healthcare. it is absurd, but real

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations

But if they make it to Bespin they can really make money off tibanna gas. That's why it is important to keep funding the Hyperspace Navigator's Guild http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hyperspace_Navigator's_Guild :P

Definitely. (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/, Wikipedia entry, and Girl Genius Wiki @ wikia)

Here's a late vote for a web-only entry: Kevyn Andreyasn of Schlock Mercenary.

Inventor of the Teraport transportation system, he started a galaxy spanning war, successfully used a wormhole for time travel, and embeds antimatter into his Officer rank epaulets so that he can use them as antitank rounds/13.75 kiloton bombs as necessary.

Perhaps he's not as prolific as Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne, but he thinks big =)

And he's also Earth-616's Scientist Supreme. http://marvel.wikia.com/Scientist_Supreme So says Eternity. http://www.comicvine.com/hank-pym/29-2247/since-pyms-been-recognized-as-the-scientist-supreme-by-eternity/92-532715/
But I hear Eternity gave Hank the title under duress (Dr. Pym threatened to rape Eternity).

Professor Hawk.

...They'll call it something else, and the equations might look different, but they will be mathematically identical...

In our Universe, it's called a Saunt Bucker's Basket!

Nice name. Me, I prefer the super-colliding super button.

I thought the monks were the first threat. http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Printing

The first thing I thought of here was Bright Man from Mega Man 4.

His main weapon, the Flash Stopper, stuns and blinds opponents with an intense burst of light for a brief moment.

Game came out in 1991 and I'm pretty sure the idea was from farther back then that.

So we're sending T-800s to Japan?

They are the ones who said Wii was going to sell less than 15 million units in USA by 2010, while both the PS3 and Xbox 360 would each sell over 20 million units. A pity they missed Wii sales for, say, over 100%. http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/File:IDG_chart.png

It seems I was channeling Uncyclopedia on double negatives :). Sorry.

Also, everything is canon.

It's a time traveling show in which characters continuously change the outcome of past events. (HA! Get it? Past... events. In a time traveling show that regularly jumps between ancient past and beyond distant future.)

And if that was not enough to make everything that was ever written/recorded possible in SOME iteration of the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey... stuff - Eleventh Doctor basically (re)creates a blank slate making any attempt at canonizing past events moot.
While at the same time remaining a continuity of those events!

Hilarious, isn't it?

"Immunize the escutcheon"? Why would anyone want to prevent a coat of arms from getting diseases?

Perhaps you mean "Immanentize the eschaton", which means to hasten the end of the world (literally or figuratively). You probably heard it from someone who read The Illuminatus! Trilogy.

fnord