I'll have to second this. Peter F. Hamilton's space operas are more accessible, equally engrossing, and after finishing them, more rewarding.
Some may disagree, as the epic Night's Dawn trilogy ended with something of a deus ex machina, but I hold that this sort of device was foreshadowed throughout the trilogy. And regardless, it was a heck of a ride getting there; it's a kick-ass space opera, and Hamilton leaves you wanting more. The Confederation milieu is one of the best in SF, on par with those of Brin, Niven, Asimov and (dare I say) Herbert.
I recently finished the Commonwealth sagas, and while the first 500 pages took some patience for me, others may enjoy the rich character development. And by the time I finished the following 1500 pages, I was grateful I slogged thru the first bit. Hamilton ties together all of his storylines, leaving few (if any) loose ends. And he's following it up with another pair of novels in the same milieu, "The Dreaming Void" and "The Temporal Void"
I'm now reading Fallen Dragon, and it has the same slow start as Pandora's Star... I'm hoping it develops well.
I don't recommend his Greg Mandel novels... unless you like fast, predictable reads.
Not to disrespect Iain M. Banks, those of his novels that I have read, I enjoyed and would recommend. But the Culture novels can be obtuse and difficult reads. Hamilton's novels do not suffer from this.
Actually, I have worked on DARPA programs that include concepts for micro and nano air vehicles that parasitically "feed" from AC power lines and RF transmissions.
I'm confident that this Army contract has similar ideas in play.
In 1980, Steve Jackson's Car Wars background history includes a grain blight which devastates the world's nations and economy, plunging most of the US into anarchy. The year? 2012. His timing may be dead on.
[ObPlug: I still play old-school Car Wars PBEM at MadHat. Drive Offensively!]
I swear by MenuMeters to monitor activity my OS X machines.
In addition to drive activity lights, you can choose from memory usage, up/down data rates, and CPU utilization displays for the right side of the menu bar. Each of the displays can be independently enabled/disabled and configured to your taste; I have all four enabled and they occupy only about 250 pixels' width on my menu bar.
Not everybody "celebrates" Krugman. A lot on the right think he's a partisan loon. And I, somewhere orthagonally distant from the center of the axis, disagree with them though I have observed that he's often inaccurate and sometimes careless.
That said, my estimation of Mr. Krugman has jumped considerably after reading this article. I hope his sense of humor and whimsy has not left him.
This kind of lowered expectation creep is why terms like "artificial intelligence" and "virtual reality" don't mean the same thing they once did.
Once, "artificial intelligence" meant a self-aware machine consciousness, one that could pass any Turing test. Now it is commonly used to describe something as simple as an expert system that can employ rules to perform one specialized task.
Once, "virtual reality" referred to complete sensorium immersion into an artificial world a la "Johnny Mnemonic" or "Dreamscape." These days, any eye candy rendered from a 3D model gets the "VR" label slapped onto it.
And now, the term "robot" -- which originally meant a completely autonomous, unassisted construct -- gets applied to every waldo and semiautonomous vehicle.
I build UAVs for one of the biggest companies in the business and none of us -- not our customers, our marketdroids, nor us -- refer to our Unmanned Systems as "robots." And our vehicles possess far more autonomy than the RC cars with buzzsaws and battleaxes that are called "robots" on these TV shows. (Don't get me wrong, my fellow engineers and I would LOVE to build entries for these contests... but the only time we would call them "robots" would be when dealing with the media... even then, I would probably just say "'bot.")
And, as I am a grizzled Usenet grognard, you don't want to get me started on the widespread misuse of the term "spam." (Hint: consider "spam F5" vs. "Viagra spam.")
Crust: "Watching, all the time watching...goggle-eyed geeks. Soon as I get out, I'm going to Patagonia, buy it?
...And not so many barrel spoilers... rotten old apples that sit an' stink... and stare atcha!"
"Freon!" Crat cursed. "Just once I'd like to catch some goggle geek alone, with fritzed sensors and no come-go record, then I'd teach 'em it's not polite to stare!"
... "Oh it started as a way to fight street crime - retired people staking out the streets with video cameras and crude beepers. And the seniors' posse really worked...But after the crime rate plummetted, did that stop the paranoia?
EWR-127 is almost always tailored from program to program, and often from mission to mission. The contracting agency (in this case NASA) negotiates with the range (Kwaj for Falcon 1, Canaveral for Falcon 9) which requirements apply, which are waived, and which can be modified.
In my experience, Canaveral and Vandenberg are the least forgiving at these negotiations, while more remote ranges (like Kodiak, Kwaj, and PWMR) are more liberal.
1. Fly half unzipped
2. Distracting Equine Laugh
3. "Geek" badge lanyard from ThinkGeek.com
4. Constantly yammering about your 70th level Paladin
5. Eau de Mildewed Laundry
6. Dressing in Fursuit for Holiday Party
7. Wearing the same five shirts and five pants every week
8. Toothbrush? What's a toothbrush?
9. Stains on pants aren't food
10. Prized possession is a common office implement
"In other news, the Bavarian Illuminati today used The Pentagon to make an attack to control The Orbital Mind Control Lasers, aided by the Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow. In response, the Gnomes of Zurich committed 3 Megabucks to interfere, which The Pentagon was unable to counter. The Pentagon then attempted to spend 5 Megabucks to make the attack Privileged, however The Discordian Society and Servants of Cthulhu objected, correctly, that this special ability must be asserted when first declaring the attack. The Bavarian Illuminati required a modified 7 or less to succeed in its attack, however, it rolled an eleven, automatically failing. On its next turn, Servants of Cthulhu successfully attacked to destroy the Orbital Mind Control Lasers, just for the hell of it. Joe Malik, NPR News, Washington."
When asked "I'm a 1E grognard who you couldn't sell on 3E - why should I buy this edition," the reply was:
The "beneath the surface" answer is, "Because this edition is the most exciting and playable version of D&D that has ever been published." In order for Dungeons & Dragons to continue to thrive, it needs to retain current players while also attracting new players to the fold. Third Edition D&D succeeded wildly on both counts, and also brought thousands of lapsed D&D players back into the game (in some cases after years away from the tabletop). We have every expectation that Fourth Edition will repeat that success.
Translation: You're not even on our radar. In fact, we didn't even comprehend your question. Honestly, the only people who are pleased with this edition are us marketing droids.
And the last sentance should tell us that this edition is yet another turd in a can.
The sisters and nieces to this comment really have hit on what was wrong with the joystick in my anecdotal experiences: It broke too often.
Mind you, the models being praised for durability were indeed up to the task of gaming, but most joysticks sold were not. I went thru three Gravis sticks in two years before giving up and switching to a trackball.
Generalizing this leverage theme, the length of the lever arm of a joystick poses two problems 1) the mechanical advantage of the users' force leveraged onto the innards made it expensive to make a durable device, and 2) this mechanical advantage also made it difficult to perform precise control movements.
Starting in the mid-90s, games emerged that required players to do things like select units, lasso groups of units, click on targets and waypoints, aim FPS weapons, etc. The joystick really was not suited to these actions. The much shorter lever arm of a control pad allowed more precise control for aiming FPS weapons, and an absolute displacement interface (mouse or trackball) works better for selecting and commanding RTS units.
I really have never had better controller than a good mouse. I've used trackballs, control pads, joysticks, touchpads, and wiimotes -- the mouse is still the most natural, least RSI-inducing controller I've used. The touchpad comes close, but it lacks precision and has a higher error rate. Of course, I make exceptions for automobile and aircraft simulators, where mockups of the actual vehicle controls can't be beat.
Indeed. We all recall the Princeton report earlier this year that described the locks as so ineffective that they could be picked with a "common office implement" in under 30 seconds. Don't we?
SFX: WAVY FLASHBACK LINES
The lock is easily picked--one member of our group, who has modest locksmithing skills, can pick the lock consistently in less than 10 seconds. Alternatively, this slot can be reached by removing screws and opening the machine. Some attackers will have access to keys that can open the lock--all AccuVote-TS machines in certain states use identical keys [24], there are thousands of keys in existence, and these keys can be copied at a hardware or lock store.
You seem to be misunderstanding the plan. The easiest way of "spreading Democracy" to the parts of the world under the rule of despots and corrupt plutocrats is not ridding the world of despotism and corruption.
No, it's by redefining "Democracy at home" to include despotism and corruption.
The authors call it a mindset that inclines them to take more extreme conservative and religious positions.
No mention or even apparent consideration of the fact that in the third world, technical educations are widely available that completely lack any sort of foundations in the basic humanities such as literature, history, and philosophy.
Therefore, while these people are technically educated, they're still ignorant of the entire body of humanities that might lead them to have their own opinions, rather than the ones they learned in the madrasas before they were sent to technical school.
Slashdot Mirror
Some may disagree, as the epic Night's Dawn trilogy ended with something of a deus ex machina, but I hold that this sort of device was foreshadowed throughout the trilogy. And regardless, it was a heck of a ride getting there; it's a kick-ass space opera, and Hamilton leaves you wanting more. The Confederation milieu is one of the best in SF, on par with those of Brin, Niven, Asimov and (dare I say) Herbert.
I recently finished the Commonwealth sagas, and while the first 500 pages took some patience for me, others may enjoy the rich character development. And by the time I finished the following 1500 pages, I was grateful I slogged thru the first bit. Hamilton ties together all of his storylines, leaving few (if any) loose ends. And he's following it up with another pair of novels in the same milieu, "The Dreaming Void" and "The Temporal Void"
I'm now reading Fallen Dragon, and it has the same slow start as Pandora's Star... I'm hoping it develops well.
I don't recommend his Greg Mandel novels... unless you like fast, predictable reads.
Not to disrespect Iain M. Banks, those of his novels that I have read, I enjoyed and would recommend. But the Culture novels can be obtuse and difficult reads. Hamilton's novels do not suffer from this.
You think I'm joking? Paul MacCready tried it. (Scroll down to the last section, regarding Concern for the Environment.)
I'm confident that this Army contract has similar ideas in play.
- Pedophiles lurking online to rape your children the moment you look away
- Hot tub drains that will suck your intestines out your bum
- Terrorists exploding LNG and chemical storage facilities
- McDonald's super-sized meals
- The face-eating Slashdot tro... [no carrier]
In 1980, Steve Jackson's Car Wars background history includes a grain blight which devastates the world's nations and economy, plunging most of the US into anarchy. The year? 2012. His timing may be dead on.
[ObPlug: I still play old-school Car Wars PBEM at MadHat. Drive Offensively!]
In addition to drive activity lights, you can choose from memory usage, up/down data rates, and CPU utilization displays for the right side of the menu bar. Each of the displays can be independently enabled/disabled and configured to your taste; I have all four enabled and they occupy only about 250 pixels' width on my menu bar.
That said, my estimation of Mr. Krugman has jumped considerably after reading this article. I hope his sense of humor and whimsy has not left him.
He'll need it in the coming decades.
Once, "artificial intelligence" meant a self-aware machine consciousness, one that could pass any Turing test. Now it is commonly used to describe something as simple as an expert system that can employ rules to perform one specialized task.
Once, "virtual reality" referred to complete sensorium immersion into an artificial world a la "Johnny Mnemonic" or "Dreamscape." These days, any eye candy rendered from a 3D model gets the "VR" label slapped onto it.
And now, the term "robot" -- which originally meant a completely autonomous, unassisted construct -- gets applied to every waldo and semiautonomous vehicle.
I build UAVs for one of the biggest companies in the business and none of us -- not our customers, our marketdroids, nor us -- refer to our Unmanned Systems as "robots." And our vehicles possess far more autonomy than the RC cars with buzzsaws and battleaxes that are called "robots" on these TV shows. (Don't get me wrong, my fellow engineers and I would LOVE to build entries for these contests... but the only time we would call them "robots" would be when dealing with the media... even then, I would probably just say "'bot.")
And, as I am a grizzled Usenet grognard, you don't want to get me started on the widespread misuse of the term "spam." (Hint: consider "spam F5" vs. "Viagra spam.")
"Freon!" Crat cursed. "Just once I'd like to catch some goggle geek alone, with fritzed sensors and no come-go record, then I'd teach 'em it's not polite to stare!"
(h/t some Brin fanboys)
As long as we make a lot of it, and use it to sequester atmospheric carbon (from CO2 and CH4, natch, yielding 2 H2O).
In my experience, Canaveral and Vandenberg are the least forgiving at these negotiations, while more remote ranges (like Kodiak, Kwaj, and PWMR) are more liberal.
I'm a software privateer!
1. Fly half unzipped
2. Distracting Equine Laugh
3. "Geek" badge lanyard from ThinkGeek.com
4. Constantly yammering about your 70th level Paladin
5. Eau de Mildewed Laundry
6. Dressing in Fursuit for Holiday Party
7. Wearing the same five shirts and five pants every week
8. Toothbrush? What's a toothbrush?
9. Stains on pants aren't food
10. Prized possession is a common office implement
[My "geek" lanyard broke last month.]
I've got my tinfoil hat on!
"In other news, the Bavarian Illuminati today used The Pentagon to make an attack to control The Orbital Mind Control Lasers, aided by the Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow. In response, the Gnomes of Zurich committed 3 Megabucks to interfere, which The Pentagon was unable to counter. The Pentagon then attempted to spend 5 Megabucks to make the attack Privileged, however The Discordian Society and Servants of Cthulhu objected, correctly, that this special ability must be asserted when first declaring the attack. The Bavarian Illuminati required a modified 7 or less to succeed in its attack, however, it rolled an eleven, automatically failing. On its next turn, Servants of Cthulhu successfully attacked to destroy the Orbital Mind Control Lasers, just for the hell of it. Joe Malik, NPR News, Washington."
Translation: You're not even on our radar. In fact, we didn't even comprehend your question. Honestly, the only people who are pleased with this edition are us marketing droids.
And the last sentance should tell us that this edition is yet another turd in a can.
Frankly, I'd rather play Rolemaster.
Mind you, the models being praised for durability were indeed up to the task of gaming, but most joysticks sold were not. I went thru three Gravis sticks in two years before giving up and switching to a trackball.
Generalizing this leverage theme, the length of the lever arm of a joystick poses two problems 1) the mechanical advantage of the users' force leveraged onto the innards made it expensive to make a durable device, and 2) this mechanical advantage also made it difficult to perform precise control movements.
Starting in the mid-90s, games emerged that required players to do things like select units, lasso groups of units, click on targets and waypoints, aim FPS weapons, etc. The joystick really was not suited to these actions. The much shorter lever arm of a control pad allowed more precise control for aiming FPS weapons, and an absolute displacement interface (mouse or trackball) works better for selecting and commanding RTS units.
I really have never had better controller than a good mouse. I've used trackballs, control pads, joysticks, touchpads, and wiimotes -- the mouse is still the most natural, least RSI-inducing controller I've used. The touchpad comes close, but it lacks precision and has a higher error rate. Of course, I make exceptions for automobile and aircraft simulators, where mockups of the actual vehicle controls can't be beat.
SFX: WAVY FLASHBACK LINES
From Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine: A.Feldman, J.Halderman, E. Felten: Princeton University (September 13, 2006).
No, it's by redefining "Democracy at home" to include despotism and corruption.
So far, their plan is working well.
Yes, and the same can be accurately said for Dick Cheney.
It's not about the intelligence stat. It's about the alignment stat.
I recommend that the phrase "Cox Blocked" be granted status as the official 'net jargon for any message blocked by an outgoing content filter.
I would also like to thank them, for creating the opportunity for me to perform the metamod of the year.
Mind you, not by establishing liberty abroad, but by redefining freedom at home.
No mention or even apparent consideration of the fact that in the third world, technical educations are widely available that completely lack any sort of foundations in the basic humanities such as literature, history, and philosophy.
Therefore, while these people are technically educated, they're still ignorant of the entire body of humanities that might lead them to have their own opinions, rather than the ones they learned in the madrasas before they were sent to technical school.
While the signal-to-noise ratio may not be as useful, I find that a man-in-the-middle approach has the potential to be far more rewarding.