1. It hadn't been named Battlestar Galactica 2. then made Starbuck a woman 3. it would stop jumping the shark.
I have a few friends who have followed the new BSG since its first episode. They said the like the first season. Then, it went downhill. Look, this person is really a cylon! No, starbuck is really a cylon! No, wait, is that hyperspace jellyfish? (a gold star to the person who understand this reference)
Ah, right! I had almost forgotten. Okay, so we put Jayne on the outside of Serenity and put a space-suit on his big gun. That way, he will be able to fire at the Falcon, breaking the window and killing Han!
People really need to see cars as transport. Perhaps then they will start to think in terms of efficiency etc.
The kind of car that can get 100 mpg is going to be:
1. light = unsafe unless made of expensive materials
2. fuel efficient = excessively low acceleration and/or low top speed
3. aerodynamic = low to the ground = drives don't see you
I'd trust my life to a tiny, low slung car if it had a rollcage.
Otherwise it's a death trap.
Crumple zones anyone?
The less mass a vehicle carries, the less danger to the occupants. I have heard and read numerous Geo Metro stories where much larger cars were involved, and the Metro driver survived with few injuries? Why? Low mass. The Metro more easily moved when hit, avoiding the need of the car to crush inwards on the driver. Some just consider this anecdotal, but not to me. I survived in a similar small car, a Ford Escort GT. Did a header into another car, the car with its low mass easily moved off to the side, bending the car to heck, but I was safe and sound.
Okay, so the second point regarding low acceleration. My wife's Hyundai Accent with its 1.6L engine will reach 65 in 10 seconds. That is quite sufficient and safe for highway driving. It will jump from 65 to 80 in about 5 seconds, which ain't too shabby. But, that is only 40MPG.
The third point, low to the ground...eh. Maybe. Aerodynamic design doesn't require low to the ground, but it is helpful if you want to generate more downforce more efficiently.
Maybe we need to move beyond the concept of the drive-train being directly attached to the engine. Here is my idea: A standard 4-stroke engine optimized for producing electricity. Place an electric motor at each wheel, getting its electricity from the motor. With this setup, the engine wouldn't need to worry about torque and could be made much smaller, but higher revving to permit higher amounts of electricity.
The Falcon would win in a fight...the Serenity isn't even armed. 8)
It has been a while since I have seen a good ol' fashioned throw-down of sci-fi series. I think the youngsters moved on to arguing about which OS is better, or dynamic programming languages, or frameworks, or processors.
Andromeda Firefly Star Trek Star Wars Farscape Battle Star Galatica (even that raping-of-my-childhood bastard new series) Lost In Space...and many more
I am happy to see ALL of the sci-fi franchises like this continue on. Why? Because I have satellite TV, and as a result, these shows will live on in syndication unto my great-grandchildren's adulthood.
Ignoring the users of Facebook, the site is about the use of technology. They made their job easy on themselves and created a framework to make their own jobs that much easier. And...in the same spirit of other companies, are releasing that software to the public. I applaud this. May the best framework win!
After the bloodbath, the new executives fired some rocket launchers at observing SWAT helicopters before brushing themselves off and giving their first press release.
Without even stopping at the Pay N' Spray to get the SWAT team off their backs? Talk about brass balls! They had to have used a cheat code. LeaveMeAlone!
From what I have read about Stallman, his ego is just as maniac as Linus. Both are just trying to stand up for their ideals. It is the ability of such people compromise that makes the world a better place. Leaving the world in the hands of fanatical extremes is a Bad Thing(tm).
This all sounds moot, though. If the Linux Kernel is licensed as GPLv2 (with no additional wording), and there is provision for changing it, then Linus' opinion wasn't even needed? Or am I missing something?
I would be happier if they would apply all their resources to better spam prevention.
Like another poster pointed out, I too have had little trouble with yahoo's spam filters. And nowadays spammers are so obvious that a simple right click -> this is spam and you're done. It's hardly a bother at all, and I've seen only one false positive come along. I'm pretty impressed. My account was created in the first year of Yahoo! Mail. My spam folder was huge on a daily basis. Despite Yahoo's "obvious" filtering, I was still selecting 30 messages a day in my inbox for spam reporting. YEMV (Your Environment May Vary)
I was one of those rare people who paid (albeit, a small fee) for premium service. At the time, I needed the larger inbox, the lack of ads and increased number of filters.
I was a paying customer. I think I earned the right to criticize.
There has got to be some small print. It is Yahoo!, there's just gotta be.
Personally, I would be happier if they would apply all their resources to better spam prevention. I had to retire my long-time Yahoo! account due to more spam than real messages. I dutifully reported all spam via the SPAM button, to no real effect. Yahoo's policies for putting ads in messages is also a tad disruptive.
Yahoo has already lost me as a customer, but maybe this "unlimited" storage deal with draw some new untainted blood to them.
Some government propping is a good thing (OSHA, Fair Labor Laws). For big business, it is all about who will give the company the best deal, which usually means no taxes. When Miller Brewery built their facility near Trenton, Ohio, they didn't produce any bear at it for a decade. It wasn't until the local government threatened to pull the exempt status that Miller opened the factory and, thus, local workers.
Wal-Mart in Oxford, Ohio moved its store location to outside the city limits after its tax-exempt status expired. This, after a lot of money was spent to restructure the road their old building was locating within the city, AND the fact that Wal-Mart didn't even build the building, but only leased.
NM did a good thing. This deal puts them on front of a wave of cutting-edge travel, even if it starting as entertainment for the rich.
The LP never completely died, but I believe another poster already mentioned that.
Okay, so the album is no longer the market. The labels are only just now understand this? We buyers have suffered for years with crappy songs. I have been personally disappointed many times to by a CD that has, maybe, 2 good songs, with 11 crap songs. $15 wasted. (The cost of the CD is a rant for another day).
The future of music sales seems to be the per-song model that iTunes and other sellers have shown to be profitable. Get rid of pre-packaged CD and put a kiosk in place (for the B&M stores) that would allow me to preview songs, pick the 70 minutes I want, burn it, print it and spit it out. Now, $15 for a CD of music *I* chose would be worth it.
We should not allow what-if fears to rule us. Evil bastards will do evil bastardly things, no matter what. The evil bastards win we stop innovating in the name of "safety" from their attacks.
No, keep on with the big stuff. The blended-wing body jet from Boeing will hold a thousand people, and this will be good for the airlines. Bigger buildings will make more efficient use of the cityscape. Bigger ships will become true mobile cities on the sea.
Eh. I prefer to drive, anywho. How else can one have your picture taken next to the biggest rubber band ball?
Very true. That $50 book would most likely have free shipping on it.
I think Amazon.com did a smart thing with the free shipping offer. That $25 minimum to quality has encouraged me to add one more item to many of my purchases to avoid paying the shipping. No B&M bookstore can hope to compete to with the selection and ease of search that Amazon.com offers me.
The reason Borders partnered with Amazon in the first place was because they couldn't come up with a good enough web site on their own. What has changed since that time? I think their greed is overcoming their common sense here, as Amazon is going to be hard to compete with. I would agree with 14erCleaner on this one. Up to this point, Amazon.com has been accepting all of the risk via the front-end. The amazon.com web site keepers have to worry about security, updates, upgrades, etc. Borders part in this? Provide the listing of books and prices to charge.
Micro$oft has stated in the past that if someone is going to pirate an OS, they would prefer it Windows, on the premise that the pirate (Arrrrrr!) could be converted into a paying user. Or at the minimum, allow Micro$oft to count the person as a user to tout how dominant their products.
So, we have here a product that Micro$oft already had other versions of, and wishes to no longer spend money on. Sooooo, is this yet another way of keeping the world on Micro$oft software? By making the source available, you suddenly allow old installations an excuse not to migrate to a more current DBMS. Legions of open-source programmers will flock to enhance and expand an old, dead product. In a strange way, this is a smart move on Micro$oft's part. They can only benefit from this move.
My wife once cleaned a bunch of my papers off my computer desk. It was the last time she ever did that. When I was unable to find some very important papers, we made an agreement that I would be in charge of keeping the computer room clean. Life has been bliss ever since.
I am a visual learner, I can "see" where I left a item and can find it quickly. Thus, my desk looks cluttered. But I know where everything is. So, it isn't messy, it just doesn't look organized according to someone else's definition. We are all individuals and it is a tad unfair to expect all of us to fit one mold for what is considered organized.
Do you really think anyone still running DOS/Win3.1/95/98/ME/NT is the type of user that buys aftermarket add-on cards to install in their computer?
Absolutely. Then they'll call me to install it for them, since I apparently "know computers". Amen, brother. And lest I forget, sometimes, the integrated audio breaks. It is easier to install a PCI card than replace teh motherboard. I am one of the people who look at after-market cards to fix older systems. I rebuild old PCs all the time for churches, schools and charities. These systems are usually running Win95 and Win98. The kids gotta have audio.
With the move by many motherboard makers to integrate EVERYTHING, I am surprised that Creative has last this long producing stand-alone cards. There will always be a need for high-end audio, though, so if Creative loses the low-end, they could continue to produce high-quality audio cards for the discerning gamer and audiophile.
As for Vista, maybe it is just me and lack of desire to ever want to touch it, but I don't see it as a deciding factor. At no point has a new M$ release 100% replaced the previous version. There are still DOS, Win3.1/95/98/ME/NT and 2K systems out in great numbers. Many of the newer integrated chipsets do not have drivers for the older OSes. BUT, thanks to the ubiquity of the SoundBlaster card, those older OSes can still have audio. I don't see this as a huge and growing market. No, it is a dying market, but the need still exists.
First off, my apologies to the tree-huggers. For all know, they may love nuclear power since means not burning trees or strip mining for coal.
Second, yes, as long as humans are part of the safety formula, we are going to have issues. I took most issue with the request that we reduce our power needs to obviate the need for nuclear power.
I forget the count at the moment, but I think the American Navy is operating over 100 nuclear-powered vessels. Their safety record is impeccable. Not perfect, but impeccable. It has been a while since the last accident. It is this very situation that I point to as proof that nuclear fission can be used safely and effectively, and should be on a wider scale. Maybe all nuclear power plants should be run by the Navy?
...of one company muddy the waters for the rest of the power companies with nuclear plants. There are far more plants that do follow safe procedures and have no accidents.
Now, to my energy rant.
Nuclear power plants provide the most efficient production of electricity. It far outstrips the ability of coal, oil, solar, wind, whatever. And, it would be foolish to think that we are going to REDUCE the amount of electricity we need. So, please, all you tree-huggers, just go home. Society is dependent on an ever-increasing amount of the stuff, so just accept it. Thus, we need a power source that gives up the most bang for the buck.
This incident, as with others, provides invaluable data that we learn from, improving the process everywhere else.
All of the electric-car fantatics should be cheering for more nuclear power plants.
Slashdot Mirror
I think I might have liked the new BSG more if...
1. It hadn't been named Battlestar Galactica
2. then made Starbuck a woman
3. it would stop jumping the shark.
I have a few friends who have followed the new BSG since its first episode. They said the like the first season. Then, it went downhill. Look, this person is really a cylon! No, starbuck is really a cylon! No, wait, is that hyperspace jellyfish? (a gold star to the person who understand this reference)
Ah, right! I had almost forgotten. Okay, so we put Jayne on the outside of Serenity and put a space-suit on his big gun. That way, he will be able to fire at the Falcon, breaking the window and killing Han!
Hmm. Unless, of course, Han shoots first. *grin*
1. light = unsafe unless made of expensive materials
2. fuel efficient = excessively low acceleration and/or low top speed
3. aerodynamic = low to the ground = drives don't see you
I'd trust my life to a tiny, low slung car if it had a rollcage.
Otherwise it's a death trap.
Crumple zones anyone?
The less mass a vehicle carries, the less danger to the occupants. I have heard and read numerous Geo Metro stories where much larger cars were involved, and the Metro driver survived with few injuries? Why? Low mass. The Metro more easily moved when hit, avoiding the need of the car to crush inwards on the driver. Some just consider this anecdotal, but not to me. I survived in a similar small car, a Ford Escort GT. Did a header into another car, the car with its low mass easily moved off to the side, bending the car to heck, but I was safe and sound.
Okay, so the second point regarding low acceleration. My wife's Hyundai Accent with its 1.6L engine will reach 65 in 10 seconds. That is quite sufficient and safe for highway driving. It will jump from 65 to 80 in about 5 seconds, which ain't too shabby. But, that is only 40MPG. The third point, low to the ground...eh. Maybe. Aerodynamic design doesn't require low to the ground, but it is helpful if you want to generate more downforce more efficiently.
Maybe we need to move beyond the concept of the drive-train being directly attached to the engine. Here is my idea: A standard 4-stroke engine optimized for producing electricity. Place an electric motor at each wheel, getting its electricity from the motor. With this setup, the engine wouldn't need to worry about torque and could be made much smaller, but higher revving to permit higher amounts of electricity.
The Falcon would win in a fight...the Serenity isn't even armed. 8)
...and many more
It has been a while since I have seen a good ol' fashioned throw-down of sci-fi series. I think the youngsters moved on to arguing about which OS is better, or dynamic programming languages, or frameworks, or processors.
Andromeda
Firefly
Star Trek
Star Wars
Farscape
Battle Star Galatica (even that raping-of-my-childhood bastard new series)
Lost In Space
I am happy to see ALL of the sci-fi franchises like this continue on. Why? Because I have satellite TV, and as a result, these shows will live on in syndication unto my great-grandchildren's adulthood.
Ah, a software license that doesn't require a lawyer to interpret. I like it.
Ignoring the users of Facebook, the site is about the use of technology. They made their job easy on themselves and created a framework to make their own jobs that much easier. And...in the same spirit of other companies, are releasing that software to the public. I applaud this. May the best framework win!
Without even stopping at the Pay N' Spray to get the SWAT team off their backs? Talk about brass balls! They had to have used a cheat code. LeaveMeAlone!
From what I have read about Stallman, his ego is just as maniac as Linus. Both are just trying to stand up for their ideals. It is the ability of such people compromise that makes the world a better place. Leaving the world in the hands of fanatical extremes is a Bad Thing(tm).
This all sounds moot, though. If the Linux Kernel is licensed as GPLv2 (with no additional wording), and there is provision for changing it, then Linus' opinion wasn't even needed? Or am I missing something?
Like another poster pointed out, I too have had little trouble with yahoo's spam filters. And nowadays spammers are so obvious that a simple right click -> this is spam and you're done. It's hardly a bother at all, and I've seen only one false positive come along. I'm pretty impressed. My account was created in the first year of Yahoo! Mail. My spam folder was huge on a daily basis. Despite Yahoo's "obvious" filtering, I was still selecting 30 messages a day in my inbox for spam reporting. YEMV (Your Environment May Vary)
I was one of those rare people who paid (albeit, a small fee) for premium service. At the time, I needed the larger inbox, the lack of ads and increased number of filters.
I was a paying customer. I think I earned the right to criticize.
There has got to be some small print. It is Yahoo!, there's just gotta be.
Personally, I would be happier if they would apply all their resources to better spam prevention. I had to retire my long-time Yahoo! account due to more spam than real messages. I dutifully reported all spam via the SPAM button, to no real effect. Yahoo's policies for putting ads in messages is also a tad disruptive.
Yahoo has already lost me as a customer, but maybe this "unlimited" storage deal with draw some new untainted blood to them.
Earth to Major Tom, we have a problem.
Some government propping is a good thing (OSHA, Fair Labor Laws). For big business, it is all about who will give the company the best deal, which usually means no taxes. When Miller Brewery built their facility near Trenton, Ohio, they didn't produce any bear at it for a decade. It wasn't until the local government threatened to pull the exempt status that Miller opened the factory and, thus, local workers.
Wal-Mart in Oxford, Ohio moved its store location to outside the city limits after its tax-exempt status expired. This, after a lot of money was spent to restructure the road their old building was locating within the city, AND the fact that Wal-Mart didn't even build the building, but only leased.
NM did a good thing. This deal puts them on front of a wave of cutting-edge travel, even if it starting as entertainment for the rich.
Uh...never mind. It is just too easy.
The LP never completely died, but I believe another poster already mentioned that.
Okay, so the album is no longer the market. The labels are only just now understand this? We buyers have suffered for years with crappy songs. I have been personally disappointed many times to by a CD that has, maybe, 2 good songs, with 11 crap songs. $15 wasted. (The cost of the CD is a rant for another day).
The future of music sales seems to be the per-song model that iTunes and other sellers have shown to be profitable. Get rid of pre-packaged CD and put a kiosk in place (for the B&M stores) that would allow me to preview songs, pick the 70 minutes I want, burn it, print it and spit it out. Now, $15 for a CD of music *I* chose would be worth it.
We should not allow what-if fears to rule us. Evil bastards will do evil bastardly things, no matter what. The evil bastards win we stop innovating in the name of "safety" from their attacks.
No, keep on with the big stuff. The blended-wing body jet from Boeing will hold a thousand people, and this will be good for the airlines. Bigger buildings will make more efficient use of the cityscape. Bigger ships will become true mobile cities on the sea.
Eh. I prefer to drive, anywho. How else can one have your picture taken next to the biggest rubber band ball?
*applause*
You're right! What WAS I thinking?
*laugh*
Very true. That $50 book would most likely have free shipping on it.
I think Amazon.com did a smart thing with the free shipping offer. That $25 minimum to quality has encouraged me to add one more item to many of my purchases to avoid paying the shipping. No B&M bookstore can hope to compete to with the selection and ease of search that Amazon.com offers me.
Micro$oft has stated in the past that if someone is going to pirate an OS, they would prefer it Windows, on the premise that the pirate (Arrrrrr!) could be converted into a paying user. Or at the minimum, allow Micro$oft to count the person as a user to tout how dominant their products.
So, we have here a product that Micro$oft already had other versions of, and wishes to no longer spend money on. Sooooo, is this yet another way of keeping the world on Micro$oft software? By making the source available, you suddenly allow old installations an excuse not to migrate to a more current DBMS. Legions of open-source programmers will flock to enhance and expand an old, dead product. In a strange way, this is a smart move on Micro$oft's part. They can only benefit from this move.
My wife once cleaned a bunch of my papers off my computer desk. It was the last time she ever did that. When I was unable to find some very important papers, we made an agreement that I would be in charge of keeping the computer room clean. Life has been bliss ever since.
I am a visual learner, I can "see" where I left a item and can find it quickly. Thus, my desk looks cluttered. But I know where everything is. So, it isn't messy, it just doesn't look organized according to someone else's definition. We are all individuals and it is a tad unfair to expect all of us to fit one mold for what is considered organized.
Absolutely. Then they'll call me to install it for them, since I apparently "know computers". Amen, brother. And lest I forget, sometimes, the integrated audio breaks. It is easier to install a PCI card than replace teh motherboard. I am one of the people who look at after-market cards to fix older systems. I rebuild old PCs all the time for churches, schools and charities. These systems are usually running Win95 and Win98. The kids gotta have audio.
With the move by many motherboard makers to integrate EVERYTHING, I am surprised that Creative has last this long producing stand-alone cards. There will always be a need for high-end audio, though, so if Creative loses the low-end, they could continue to produce high-quality audio cards for the discerning gamer and audiophile.
As for Vista, maybe it is just me and lack of desire to ever want to touch it, but I don't see it as a deciding factor. At no point has a new M$ release 100% replaced the previous version. There are still DOS, Win3.1/95/98/ME/NT and 2K systems out in great numbers. Many of the newer integrated chipsets do not have drivers for the older OSes. BUT, thanks to the ubiquity of the SoundBlaster card, those older OSes can still have audio. I don't see this as a huge and growing market. No, it is a dying market, but the need still exists.
Live on, Creative!
I think I still some old Pascal programs I wrote back in 1990 that used linked-lists. I am such a pack-rat.
First off, my apologies to the tree-huggers. For all know, they may love nuclear power since means not burning trees or strip mining for coal.
Second, yes, as long as humans are part of the safety formula, we are going to have issues. I took most issue with the request that we reduce our power needs to obviate the need for nuclear power.
I forget the count at the moment, but I think the American Navy is operating over 100 nuclear-powered vessels. Their safety record is impeccable. Not perfect, but impeccable. It has been a while since the last accident. It is this very situation that I point to as proof that nuclear fission can be used safely and effectively, and should be on a wider scale. Maybe all nuclear power plants should be run by the Navy?
...of one company muddy the waters for the rest of the power companies with nuclear plants. There are far more plants that do follow safe procedures and have no accidents.
Now, to my energy rant.
Nuclear power plants provide the most efficient production of electricity. It far outstrips the ability of coal, oil, solar, wind, whatever. And, it would be foolish to think that we are going to REDUCE the amount of electricity we need. So, please, all you tree-huggers, just go home. Society is dependent on an ever-increasing amount of the stuff, so just accept it. Thus, we need a power source that gives up the most bang for the buck.
This incident, as with others, provides invaluable data that we learn from, improving the process everywhere else.
All of the electric-car fantatics should be cheering for more nuclear power plants.