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Remember the ribwich?

And how Krusty said in the end when asked what animal it was made of "Think smaller. Think more legs"?

It's all in the commercial, I tell you. Just don't tell people what they're eating, slap a lot of MSG-loaded sauce on it and it will sell.

Drone Instruction Manual

No wonder Gibson and Stross quip that we're living in the sci-fi future already. This was in Empire Strikes Back

You need a PKE meter of course.

From: http://ghostbusters.wikia.com/wiki/P.K.E._Meter

The PKE Meter was one of the Ghostbusters' tools invented by Dr. Egon Spengler that enabled them to track ghosts. The full name of the device is a Psychokinetic Energy meter, so named because its function is to detect the amounts of said energy and to direct the user to its location.

According to her page on the TARDIS Wiki, Tom Baker is her "favorite monster" on Doctor Who.

For a second, I thought you wrote, "nimbus".

What the heck does Harry Potter have to do with this? ;-)

Behavioral Learning for Adaptive Electronic Warfare (BLADE). Acronym fail?

No, it's a case of bending the name or the way the acronym is made up, to make an acronym sound clever. So it's "Behavioral Learning for ADaptative Electronic warfare".

Uncyclopedia calls it a case of TTHTMAFPCW. The US government has been trying really to TTHTMAFPCW lately ("USA PATRIOT Act" for instance)...

Having combed the southern 2/3rd's of the map below the Strip area, so far everything in NV seems samey and frankly bland. The only points of any interest have been, well maybe Goldsprings, REPCONN Test Site and Helios One.

With FO3 there was a constant feel of adventure. Starting off in Vault 101, out into Springvale (a dull town but a "whoa" moment), on to Megaton... I even remember the SuperDuperMart. TenPenny Tower? And it keeps it up from there. Travelling above ground or Metro?

With FO3 it's easy to imagine they had dozens of little teams to design each point and all wanted to leave their mark on the game. NV feels more like one uninspired team endlessly churning out areas of mediocrity. Half the points are shacks, or might as well be.

Investigating the maps a little makes it extremely clear in my mind which was the more enjoyable game:
FO3, NV.

Then there's the characters, the humour, the music...

Having combed the southern 2/3rd's of the map below the Strip area, so far everything in NV seems samey and frankly bland. The only points of any interest have been, well maybe Goldsprings, REPCONN Test Site and Helios One.

With FO3 there was a constant feel of adventure. Starting off in Vault 101, out into Springvale (a dull town but a "whoa" moment), on to Megaton... I even remember the SuperDuperMart. TenPenny Tower? And it keeps it up from there. Travelling above ground or Metro?

With FO3 it's easy to imagine they had dozens of little teams to design each point and all wanted to leave their mark on the game. NV feels more like one uninspired team endlessly churning out areas of mediocrity. Half the points are shacks, or might as well be.

Investigating the maps a little makes it extremely clear in my mind which was the more enjoyable game:
FO3, NV.

Then there's the characters, the humour, the music...

Actually...it was from Harry Potter Book 7:

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Fall_of_the_Ministry_of_Magic

Taco's really brief and abrupt summary of the events kinda reminded me of this.

----
Also, your sig deserves a +5

Speaking from the group that saw the 1982 original in a theater, I also embrace the new storyline; the change-up, the suspension of disbelief and the "evolution" of the Tron world. I was just a grade-school kid then, and Tron was a completely unique film for the time.

Aside from being the pioneer of CGI effects, it was also a tale of oppression, tyranny and fighting for liberty. Only later in life did I recognize the paradigm of centralism vs. independence in computing; what one may interpret as the first glimmers of what the Internet should be. (nobody really knew of such a thing then)

In so much as Kevin Flynn wasn't even the "hero" of the movie, he was a sort of everyman/genius figure that we the audience accompanied through his adventure. He was a vidiot with a golden ticket to wonderland. His pivotal role moves the plot along, but only to reveal the true hero; Tron, a program created by the Alan Bradley character.

If you're talking about basing the film in fantasy... gotta say it; you're right! While there were only a few dozen computers in 1982 that could accomplish the 3D modeling and effects; there certainly weren't any smooth-glass full-interaction terminals in a desk, conversations with autonomous AI's that speak with a british accent or lasers that could digitize/record living matter through 'sucking cubes'. [sic]

Although, there were video games and that just about wraps-up Tron's connection to the real world. Of course, I wasn't even a teenager, so for me, that's the only connection it needed.

Barring all that, it was still a fantastic film for the sheer idea that there's an entire world in that one computer; specifically, a certain Encom 511 mainframe.

Learning about CS later in life showed me that the writers weren't completely tuned-in to the reality of computers, (Gibson put them to shame in that regard) but it was interesting to think that Tron represented a version of computing that may exist sometime... somewhere. To me, the fictional Encom corporation represents an application of computer science that we have yet to see... maybe if Amiga had the assets of Redmond, WA to innovate; maybe there's another permutation of IBM Cell architecture around the corner; maybe chips designed from neurological science? It was The Matrix that made the connection between "virtual reality" and identity projection via neuron stimulation. If that much is possible, then projecting one's ego into a Tron-like universe is not out of the question. There's no telling if the study of quantum entanglement will ever manifest into a cube-sucking laser... I'm not holding my breath for that one.

Responding to TFP: Yes, the proliferation and ubiquitous nature of higher technology in our everyday lives has altered our vision of technology. This isn't so much about the over-abundance or dearth of "imagination" for a film, but the presumptions on the part of the audience. If the audience's imagination is limited to what their iThing can do, then there's no way to stretch it to those super-computer dimensions, where this film exists.

The original Tron sparked my imagination about computers in a way that no other film can, from a time when "supercomputers" were actually super. The creation of Tron: Legacy has furthered the ideology of the first film, while managing to shake the Disney-fication veneer enough to make a visceral and gripping experience, and in classic "five steps of epic" style. For consummate film-goers like myself, it was a moving and inspiring tale with a delightfully imaginative and romantic ending.

...and it's got a bangin' soundtrack to match.

Speaking from the group that saw the 1982 original in a theater, I also embrace the new storyline; the change-up, the suspension of disbelief and the "evolution" of the Tron world. I was just a grade-school kid then, and Tron was a completely unique film for the time.

Aside from being the pioneer of CGI effects, it was also a tale of oppression, tyranny and fighting for liberty. Only later in life did I recognize the paradigm of centralism vs. independence in computing; what one may interpret as the first glimmers of what the Internet should be. (nobody really knew of such a thing then)

In so much as Kevin Flynn wasn't even the "hero" of the movie, he was a sort of everyman/genius figure that we the audience accompanied through his adventure. He was a vidiot with a golden ticket to wonderland. His pivotal role moves the plot along, but only to reveal the true hero; Tron, a program created by the Alan Bradley character.

If you're talking about basing the film in fantasy... gotta say it; you're right! While there were only a few dozen computers in 1982 that could accomplish the 3D modeling and effects; there certainly weren't any smooth-glass full-interaction terminals in a desk, conversations with autonomous AI's that speak with a british accent or lasers that could digitize/record living matter through 'sucking cubes'. [sic]

Although, there were video games and that just about wraps-up Tron's connection to the real world. Of course, I wasn't even a teenager, so for me, that's the only connection it needed.

Barring all that, it was still a fantastic film for the sheer idea that there's an entire world in that one computer; specifically, a certain Encom 511 mainframe.

Learning about CS later in life showed me that the writers weren't completely tuned-in to the reality of computers, (Gibson put them to shame in that regard) but it was interesting to think that Tron represented a version of computing that may exist sometime... somewhere. To me, the fictional Encom corporation represents an application of computer science that we have yet to see... maybe if Amiga had the assets of Redmond, WA to innovate; maybe there's another permutation of IBM Cell architecture around the corner; maybe chips designed from neurological science? It was The Matrix that made the connection between "virtual reality" and identity projection via neuron stimulation. If that much is possible, then projecting one's ego into a Tron-like universe is not out of the question. There's no telling if the study of quantum entanglement will ever manifest into a cube-sucking laser... I'm not holding my breath for that one.

Responding to TFP: Yes, the proliferation and ubiquitous nature of higher technology in our everyday lives has altered our vision of technology. This isn't so much about the over-abundance or dearth of "imagination" for a film, but the presumptions on the part of the audience. If the audience's imagination is limited to what their iThing can do, then there's no way to stretch it to those super-computer dimensions, where this film exists.

The original Tron sparked my imagination about computers in a way that no other film can, from a time when "supercomputers" were actually super. The creation of Tron: Legacy has furthered the ideology of the first film, while managing to shake the Disney-fication veneer enough to make a visceral and gripping experience, and in classic "five steps of epic" style. For consummate film-goers like myself, it was a moving and inspiring tale with a delightfully imaginative and romantic ending.

...and it's got a bangin' soundtrack to match.

You PAID for BBS porn? Gosh. I got all my 8-bit and 16-bit nudity for free:
http://girls.c64.org/a__girls64.php

http://bitworld.bitfellas.org/demo.php?id=309 (Porn Demo) "The 1985 Amiga was considered one of the first CPU's capable of handling high resolution, hard-core porn. This was achieved by putting a big juicy HAM inside the case, allowing the Amiga to display it's entire 12-bit palette of 4096 colors at once." - http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Amiga

DREN Chief Engineer? I don't think that means what you think it does.

Helios One doesn't "use space lazzors" to generate energy, but contains the control mechanism for the Archimedes II space-based laser weapon.

It's clear from looking at the pictures that Helios One was modelled pretty directly on Solar One and Solar Two.

Uncyclopedia:How To Be Funny And Not Just Stupid - Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia. Featuring various appeals of their own from founder "Jimbo Wales." I like the look of the suggestive one.

If you want to see what an advertiser-based Wikipedia would look like, go to the Klingon-language edition of Wikipedia, now hosted on Wikia since it got kicked out of the Wikimedia project circle. It isn't completely tasteless, although Wikia has gone the rounds with some really lousy advertisers and some significant defections of some of the contributors over the years in part due to the advertising. A slightly better representative would be to look at how advertising is currently being used on the World of Warcraft Wiki, which does include some targeted advertising based upon certain content pages too.

There are some problems with advertisements, and Wikia certainly has had its problems with them too. Considering that Wikia was also set up by Jimmy Wales, the differences between these sites and Wikipedia is all that more interesting too, even more considering there is certainly a whole bunch of cross-pollination between Wikipedia and many of these Wikia websites including many common volunteers.

Wikipedia would have to pay a lot of people to edit it because a huge number of their volunteers would probably revolt and quit working on the site if there were ads on it.

There are ads on Slashdot though. We still come here and contribute. /. even rewards our patience and contributions with the means to turn these ads off.

And Slashdot is far from the only such site. I use two such on a daily basis: Lumberjocks (a woodworking site), and The Fresh Loaf (a baking site). In fact, I suspect that sites that rely on user content contribution that don't rely on ad revenue to keep the lights on are more the exception than the rule, doubly so if the site is of any size/significance.
 
Heck, look at Wikia... An entire network of sites that rely on user contributions for content and ad revenue to keep the lights on.
 
But, sadly, Wikipedia is different as the 'no advertising' mantra is written into it's very DNA. But, I can't see how a Wikipedia dominated by those willing to play the game and accept ad revenue will be noticeably different in the long run from Wikipedia as it currently exists. It's been demonstrated that folks will contribute to sites run by ad revenue.

Whatever happened to "don't be evil?"

it turns out we have been reading that slogan wrong. it should read "don't beevil" but no one is quite sure what the word "beevil" means. But they definitely try not to beevil at google.

Perhaps it's bee toxin or maybe the power ranger's foe Beevil

Aaaaaaaaa!: Best wiki article ever.

It took a lot of time but they managed to outfit the Tollan Cannon finally! (Obscure obligatory Stargate reference)

Baby steps. Next we work on the telepathic paper.

You mean Psychic paper?

Yes, I am a pedant and Whovian; probably not that rare a combination.

The only catch I can see is how Lucas thinks buying rights to their movies gets him the rights to the actors, as usually that is controlled by an estate. But greed has no shame boys and girls, so don't be surprised to see Slim Pickens riding on a Predator drone for an air show advert or even Lucas recasting his old stars in horrible new movies. Just look at hoe he used makeup and another actor to bring Cushing back for the end of Episode III. .

Pointless trivia: That actor was the same guy who played Scorpius in Farscape(Wayne Pygram). http://farscape.wikia.com/wiki/Wayne_Pygram

Unless it's a spider mine http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Spider_mine

According to the level 80 shaman that lives in my basement ...

yeah mom i'm running out of food down here could you bring me some pizza please?

Mom, bathroom!

Who is the house owner

From the article, it sounds like they found Crazy Harry's House.

and why this amount of explosives?

Comedy.

There might be a few uses

Icarus Energy!

Not Poseidon Energy?

Parents shout at their children in supermarkets. I'm actually *glad* when some kids get told off because it means that the parent is paying attention to their actions and cares about the outcome for everyone

As expressed quite lucidly in the first 5 minutes of this episode. Definitely a depiction of the vast range in, er, parenting styles.

I can't believe no one on Slashdot has played with the actual XM25 itself in a game that came out June 2008, 2.5 years ago. You can test its battlefield effectiveness there yourself, in a combat environment similar to what we're seeing today. And the plot takes place in 2014, which makes the fielding of this weapon in real life decently timely. And you guys call yourselves nerds.

http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Metal_Gear_Solid_4_weapons#XM25

"War... war never changes."

Me! I saw it.
FN F2000
It was in Splinter Cell as the SC-20K too.

I would love to, but the CHDK doesn't yet support a lot of the newer entry-level DLSRs like the XS, XSi, T1i, T2i, etc: http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#Q._What_camera_models_are_supported_by_the_CHDK_program.3F

This is a cool proof of concept and neat little hack. But sound really isn't the best way to do high speed photography.
Look at the balloon in the video, you see the end of the action. I think ideally we want to see the moment the pin pricks it. Same with the glass, we want to see the hammer smashing it, not the moment after when the pieces are falling.
 
The CHDK has been around for awhile and can produce flash sync at least up to 1/60,000th of second on some pretty cheap cameras.
 
Simpler, if you don't like hacking your firmware, with high end flash heads you can simply use high speed sync mode and shoot around 8 fps at up 1/8000th of a second. Experimenting with wide apertures and higher (but still perfectly good)ISOs you can do pretty amazing things. Especially with the latest off-the-shelf radio strobe controls. You might have to work a little to catch the absolute perfect moment, but that's usually not hard with the right setup. TFA is a neat hack, but probably not the best nor the most direct route to great high speed photography.

This is a cool proof of concept and neat little hack. But sound really isn't the best way to do high speed photography.
Look at the balloon in the video, you see the end of the action. I think ideally we want to see the moment the pin pricks it. Same with the glass, we want to see the hammer smashing it, not the moment after when the pieces are falling.
 
The CHDK has been around for awhile and can produce flash sync at least up to 1/60,000th of second on some pretty cheap cameras.
 
Simpler, if you don't like hacking your firmware, with high end flash heads you can simply use high speed sync mode and shoot around 8 fps at up 1/8000th of a second. Experimenting with wide apertures and higher (but still perfectly good)ISOs you can do pretty amazing things. Especially with the latest off-the-shelf radio strobe controls. You might have to work a little to catch the absolute perfect moment, but that's usually not hard with the right setup. TFA is a neat hack, but probably not the best nor the most direct route to great high speed photography.

It was actually developed in Corellia's CorSec.

He finds out that Rostek, a freelance horticulturist, has encoded Jedi lore, in binary form, into the genetic sequences of the hybrid flowers he has become famous for.

Yeah I'm a big nerd. Let he who is without sin, yadda yadda.

They bypassed the UAC? We're DOOMED!

Are you sure you want to bypass UAC? Allow or Cancel?

They bypassed the UAC? We're DOOMED!

Sounds like this one: http://lotrgames.wikia.com/wiki/Nazgul#Behind_the_Scenes

Not to mention Canon models with the CHDK software. Not as good as a DLSR, but it's worth the trouble if you need to spy as an art-lover secret agent would. http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK

Oh, how I miss Wing Commander...

100% agreed. They could repackage the exact same story, missions, everything (throw in some voice overs with Malcom McDowell, Mark Hamill, and John Rhys-Davies to maintain consistency with Wings 3, 4, and 5, which would also be released with remastered footage on a Blu-Ray disc so I could play the whole thing without swapping discs) and I'd pre-order right now and be there opening day to pay full retail for all 5 of them. Also, if possible, I'd love to see a Mac port, I hate dual booting though I totally would for Wing Commander.

Even better though would be if they decided to finish off the Nephilim triolgy introduced in Prophecy, I still want to know what the frack happens to Blair after being captured.

I've met a number of magnetic-sticks-and-balls toys, and Geomag is by far the best (of the ones I've tried.)

You can get really cheap stick-and-ball toys where an icosohedron is a really difficult and delicate thing to make.

The next step up was Magnetix. The magnets were much better than no-brand, and you can get panels (squares, pentagons etc.) with magnets at each vertex. However, the magnets can fall out of the plastic bits (which in turn makes them a swollowing hazard), the stick lengths are not sufficiently accurate, panels are hard to come by, and the magnets still could be better.

Geomag uses much stronger magnets than Magnetix, and built with much better precision. They also do panels in a much better way: there are cheap plastic panels which clip in between the sticks and balls to transform (e.g.) a 5-cycle of sticks and balls into a rigid pentagon. Although they sell sets without panels, to my mind you're missing at least half the point if you don't have them.

For example this is strong enough to pick up. By comparison the much smaller snub dodecahedron is extremely delicate and hard to make with Magnetix.

I've met a number of magnetic-sticks-and-balls toys, and Geomag is by far the best (of the ones I've tried.)

You can get really cheap stick-and-ball toys where an icosohedron is a really difficult and delicate thing to make.

The next step up was Magnetix. The magnets were much better than no-brand, and you can get panels (squares, pentagons etc.) with magnets at each vertex. However, the magnets can fall out of the plastic bits (which in turn makes them a swollowing hazard), the stick lengths are not sufficiently accurate, panels are hard to come by, and the magnets still could be better.

Geomag uses much stronger magnets than Magnetix, and built with much better precision. They also do panels in a much better way: there are cheap plastic panels which clip in between the sticks and balls to transform (e.g.) a 5-cycle of sticks and balls into a rigid pentagon. Although they sell sets without panels, to my mind you're missing at least half the point if you don't have them.

For example this is strong enough to pick up. By comparison the much smaller snub dodecahedron is extremely delicate and hard to make with Magnetix.

If your friend really had a disruptor pistol, I think he could have gotten on the plane just fine without breaking it down. All he'd have to do would be to wave his hands and say, "There is no pistol" to the TSA agents.

Nah, this guy wasn't really any kind of a charmer. In fact, he seems to go through life generally disagreeable and pissed off, except when he's drunk and partying all rowdy-like. If the TSA guys had given him any trouble he'd probably retort with some kind of "kill you where you stand" comment, which of course would just get him in more trouble. So I guess he was being uncharacteristically clear-thinking in his decision to resort to this kind of subterfuge.

Yes, according to Captain Hindsight, we should have secured our PLC's and SCADA infrastructure better years ago.

If your friend really had a disruptor pistol, I think he could have gotten on the plane just fine without breaking it down. All he'd have to do would be to wave his hands and say, "There is no pistol" to the TSA agents.

"What a healthy child! And such plentiful organs!"

...the obscure episode of 6 Million Dollar Man with William Shatner on this exact theme.

Is that the one where Shatner is wearing the bigfoot costume and Steve runs around in an ice tunnel with aliens?

Sorry, that was Andre the Giant, not Shatner. You mean this one.

...the obscure episode of 6 Million Dollar Man with William Shatner on this exact theme.

Is that the one where Shatner is wearing the bigfoot costume and Steve runs around in an ice tunnel with aliens?

Sorry, that was Andre the Giant, not Shatner. You mean this one.

There's just one little problem: "Don't drink the water. Don't even touch it. Not one drop."

But seriously, if there is a calculated, viable way to survive on Mars once dropped there, I support this idea. But we really shouldn't go in blind. The colonists need some idea of what they're going to do when they get there.

http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Cypress_Creek