Step 1: Turn the ships off. Step 2: Wait two weeks for all the water vapor to precipitate.
Do I get my $15b now?
Water vapor doesn't stay in the atmosphere for very long at all — maybe a week or two. Other greenhouse gases vary: Ozone lasts a few weeks, methane, about a decade, CO2 and fluorocarbons, close to a century.
But in each case, "cleanup" is just a matter of waiting. The hard part is stopping production, but in the case of these ships it's as easy as flipping a switch.
We need to do enough research to make sure it won't cause a hurricane / tsunami first (would make an interesting weapon if they were stealthed).
Funny that you mention it, as I drew up a design for a RTS game about ten years ago with a unit exactly like that. I also thought about a "hurricane gun" — a solar power satellite with microwave antenna — as a superweapon.
Of course, in the real world I think any system powerful enough to create a hurricane would be impossible to keep a secret and less practical than conventional weapons. And the use of such a system would be considered a war crime in anybody's book.
For what it's worth, I was aiming for funny — not insightful.
But as time goes on, I predict that the two fields will become very closely linked, as we continue to develop machines that imitate biology (and vice versa).
In the last several years, scientists have discovered that non-coding regions of the genome, far from being junk, contain thousands of regulatory elements that act as genetic "switches" to turn genes on or off.
...Biologists discover "flags". Seriously, these guys should just bring a programmer on-staff — preferably assembly, as decoding the arcane secrets of all Earth life should be a breeze for anyone whose day job involves the x86 instruction set.
Re:Okay, it's a neat idea ...
on
The Google Navy
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
If Google (or Microsoft, or Apple, or..) doesn't patent every single idea they come up with now, someone else will sue them for it later on. If you were sued as often as Google, you'd learn to CYA every chance you could get. Such insanity is the price of doing business in the USA.
So owning patents (frivolous or not) is neutral. Releasing patents to the public is good. Suing others over frivolous patents is evil.
Google may not be doing "good", but they're still following their mantra.
Re:People use Google because...
on
Google Turns 10
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· Score: 5, Funny
Of all the search engines, Google was the best name to use as a verb.
I disagree. Imagine the conversations if Microsoft's service had caught on:
"Dude, have you seen Japanese tentacle rape?" "Yeah, I Lived it!"
The matchup: Beta vs. Beta!
on
Chrome Vs. IE 8
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Does anyone else think that benchmarking early builds is useless? Of course they're not particularly efficient yet - premature optimization and all that. Wake me when the final builds roll around.
(Of course, that brings up another issue: What the rest of the world calls "Version 3.0", Google calls "Beta". And what the rest of the world calls "Beta", Microsoft calls "Version 3.0".)
Re:Non-Tech Percent of Web Traffic from Chrome
on
Google Chrome, Day 2
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· Score: 1
Mozilla: Everybody claims to be some form of Mozilla. It doesn't matter anyway.
OS: Since the web site can't access the OS, it doesn't need to know what OS it is.
Language: A header for language preferences already exists. It doesn't matter what language the browser UI uses.
Versions: Capability checking is more reliable and more efficient than UA sniffing.
Just because other browsers claim to be Mozilla doesn't mean that Mozilla shouldn't.
Lots of software download sites and plugin-based applications (virus scanners, remote desktop...) tailor links to your operating system.
Unless otherwise specified in an Accept-Language header, the user agent is the standard means for determining language. RFC 2616 even points out that Accept-Language can be a privacy risk.
You can't check for crash bugs, security problems, or many rendering bugs with a simple javascript capability check.
You're worried about your video habits? To reach the limit, you'd have to watch Amazon Unbox video for 8 hours a day, every day. That's eleven or so hour-long programs, sans commercials.
If you're doing that, you don't need a faster connection - you need a life.
...I could never figure out why every sci-fi show has super-advanced computerized binoculars, even when they can't seem to do anything but enlarge an image (and show numbers and blinking lights).
That's not entirely correct, from a programming standpoint.
In most old games, "physics" were limited to jumping (and, occasionally, explosions knocking players around). Rather than try to simulate ballistic trajectories for every object in the game, rockets and other projectiles were simply moved forward a certain distance for every "tick" of game time.
So the transporter didn't preserve the rocket's momentum - it just put the rocket at a new location, and the game then resumed moving the rocket forward.
Slashdot Mirror
The fish rots from the head, as they say?
An interesting plan. I assume you have some means of bending the peoples of the world to your will?
Step 1: Turn the ships off.
Step 2: Wait two weeks for all the water vapor to precipitate.
Do I get my $15b now?
Water vapor doesn't stay in the atmosphere for very long at all — maybe a week or two. Other greenhouse gases vary: Ozone lasts a few weeks, methane, about a decade, CO2 and fluorocarbons, close to a century.
But in each case, "cleanup" is just a matter of waiting. The hard part is stopping production, but in the case of these ships it's as easy as flipping a switch.
Funny that you mention it, as I drew up a design for a RTS game about ten years ago with a unit exactly like that. I also thought about a "hurricane gun" — a solar power satellite with microwave antenna — as a superweapon.
Of course, in the real world I think any system powerful enough to create a hurricane would be impossible to keep a secret and less practical than conventional weapons. And the use of such a system would be considered a war crime in anybody's book.
For what it's worth, I was aiming for funny — not insightful.
But as time goes on, I predict that the two fields will become very closely linked, as we continue to develop machines that imitate biology (and vice versa).
In the last several years, scientists have discovered that non-coding regions of the genome, far from being junk, contain thousands of regulatory elements that act as genetic "switches" to turn genes on or off.
...Biologists discover "flags". Seriously, these guys should just bring a programmer on-staff — preferably assembly, as decoding the arcane secrets of all Earth life should be a breeze for anyone whose day job involves the x86 instruction set.
If Google (or Microsoft, or Apple, or..) doesn't patent every single idea they come up with now, someone else will sue them for it later on. If you were sued as often as Google, you'd learn to CYA every chance you could get. Such insanity is the price of doing business in the USA.
So owning patents (frivolous or not) is neutral. Releasing patents to the public is good. Suing others over frivolous patents is evil.
Google may not be doing "good", but they're still following their mantra.
Of all the search engines, Google was the best name to use as a verb.
I disagree. Imagine the conversations if Microsoft's service had caught on:
"Dude, have you seen Japanese tentacle rape?"
"Yeah, I Lived it!"
...he's leaving to work on Python.
I mean, the PSF needs good, experienced developers, and, um, that's all.
Maybe there is!
Maybe they made us forget!
Does anyone else think that benchmarking early builds is useless? Of course they're not particularly efficient yet - premature optimization and all that. Wake me when the final builds roll around.
(Of course, that brings up another issue: What the rest of the world calls "Version 3.0", Google calls "Beta". And what the rest of the world calls "Beta", Microsoft calls "Version 3.0".)
Blasphemer! Repent your false god and return to the holy mucus of our Great Green Arkleseizure!
Crysis: 6GB
The Orange Box: 8GB
BioShock: 6GB
Windows: 600MB-3.5GB
SQL Server: 1.5GB
Office 2007: 600MB-3GB
Total: 22.5-28 GB. Downloading all the Windows updates four times might bring you up to 25-30 GB.
250GB goes a long way.
Truly we should sing their praises!
...And Steve Jobs is dead.
You're worried about your video habits? To reach the limit, you'd have to watch Amazon Unbox video for 8 hours a day, every day. That's eleven or so hour-long programs, sans commercials.
If you're doing that, you don't need a faster connection - you need a life.
s/megs/gigs/
...I could never figure out why every sci-fi show has super-advanced computerized binoculars, even when they can't seem to do anything but enlarge an image (and show numbers and blinking lights).
That's not entirely correct, from a programming standpoint.
In most old games, "physics" were limited to jumping (and, occasionally, explosions knocking players around). Rather than try to simulate ballistic trajectories for every object in the game, rockets and other projectiles were simply moved forward a certain distance for every "tick" of game time.
So the transporter didn't preserve the rocket's momentum - it just put the rocket at a new location, and the game then resumed moving the rocket forward.
Square kilometers = measure of geographic area.
The "Ziggurat" is a city. Cities are measured by their geographic area, not the sum of all the floors in all their buildings.
And a mother.
So how's life in Flatland?
Money.
Somehow being a greedy criminal is OK as long as you're dumb enough to wind up as the victim in the attempt.
Well, that's how it works on TV.