I have to disagree. I am 24, and remember growing up with the simpsons. It is an amazingly layered show, or was. As a kid, the focus was on bart and lisa....., but growing up with the simpsons, you tend to notice the adult storylines and slowly understand and find funny or emphasize with their points of views and stories.
To me, this has always been the mark of great art. Enjoyable by and appropriate for a child on one level, and then with deeper layers for more mature viewers that keep it interesting at all ages. Pixar are past masters at this. Take their latest film, UP. From a kid's point of view it's YAY BALOONS YAY AFRICA YAY TALKING DOGS, but it's also an incredibly poignant look at the life of an old man desperately trying to salvage the lost dreams of his youth.
Erm, don't you? Every place I've worked (as a permanent employee, rather than a contractor), unscheduled days off come out of your accrued leave and your pay for the week is unaltered. If you run out of accrued leave and you're still taking random days off, then you're more likely to be fired for chronic absenteeism rather than just losing some pay.
Actually it does work like that but you have to calculate your continuous, rather than peak, earnings per hour. If you get paid $50/hr and you work 8 hours a day, you're only actually earning $16.70/hour. For it to be a genuine saving to take the helicopter, you'd have to save more than 12 extra hours in the 'copter on that $200 trip.
There's a reason we fly rather than drive when we're travelling long distance.
This guy, though: He's like a professional, career-oriented brick mason, who sits around watching his 150-year-old red brick house crumble around him, while loudly proclaiming "I don't do masonry in my free time. So suck it, fellas!"
Erm, what? No, he's more like a brickie who gets home from his week at work and sits down in front of the TV with a beer instead of immediately running out to the back yard, mixing cement, and starting to build some random piece of wall just because he's got nothing better to do than try pointless exercises with different types of brick he's never used before and, god dammit, will almost certainly never use again. He's the brickie that gets home from work and actually relaxes and spends some time off because he knows that, while there're always new things to learn, he's mastered the basics and some of the advanced techniques in his job and that he's well enough equipped to perform his work well.
Programming for fun is great if you've got nothing better to do. But once you're doing 40+ hours of something productive a week it starts to lose its shine compared with activities which were actually designed from the start to be fun.
I think he was pointing out that the body probably evolved in part to depend on the peak pressure reached during pulses. Then again, I can see your point about lower peak pressures reducing risk of aneurysms and soforth.
What I'd really be worried about with this sort of technology is how long it will take for athletes to start using this sort of augmentation to boost performance. Cyborg Olympics anyone? When someone takes 2 seconds off the 400 meters' world record because they had an 'overclock' button on their aftermarket heart, it'll become just another "well you have to do it to compete" thing.
Agreed! Kind of like Junkyard Wars for kids. Get them to actually make something that does something.
I'd suggest going to a car scrapyard rather than pulling apart household appliances, though. The thought of a classroom full of kids doing 240V wiring (cmon, Real Men don't use 110V:P ) is kinda scary. Cars are full of fun things that run off 12v... and they even include the battery to run them!
This 446C temperature is not likely to be reached in the absence of other heat related destructive events, regardless of how tight your jeans are.
Well... unless you count lithium battery fires...:P Although I suppose they'd count as 'destructive events'.
Kidding aside, thanks for the rundown. It now makes sense.:) One thing I don't understand, though, is the write cycle life. Does the phase change substance gradually settle into a third state? Or does the heating mechanism 'wear out'?
From my point of view, everyone who signed up to invade Afghanistan and Iraq betrayed me, betrayed the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, and betrayed the citizens of his respective nation. When it comes to randomly invading countries, I am a pacifist to the extreme.
Woah, that was a work of art! 11/10, will flame angrily even on third repost.
Cue the guy at the start of The Diamond Age who had nanotech implants that constantly flexed his muscles, giving him a body builder physique with zero effort...
Good point. I guess I tend to just not be so worried about things like that. I look at money saving as an optimisation problem, if you will - I accept that I can save 90% of my expenditure by reducing the most expensive 10% of my activities. So I don't go to weekend track days or spend $100+ a night on drinks when I go out. Then when I have small expenses I just don't bother with them.
When compared to a carton of beer a week, buying a $0.90 incandescent bulb every six months isn't worth worrying about. Plus, I like incandescent light. Our eyes evolved in light that comes from things that are very hot. I'd be happy with gas lights if it weren't for the inconvenience.
Correct. Unfortunately, CFLs and LEDs are much more expensive upfront. Since I get approximately zero savings for 6 months of the year, the time to recoup is doubled (or, with a fixed horizon, the price differential at the critical point is halved).
Also, consider people in rental accommodation. There's no way in hell I'm spending $50 on a light bulb that'll last 20 years if I'm moving out at the end of the month.
Slashdot Mirror
I have to disagree. I am 24, and remember growing up with the simpsons. It is an amazingly layered show, or was. As a kid, the focus was on bart and lisa....., but growing up with the simpsons, you tend to notice the adult storylines and slowly understand and find funny or emphasize with their points of views and stories.
To me, this has always been the mark of great art. Enjoyable by and appropriate for a child on one level, and then with deeper layers for more mature viewers that keep it interesting at all ages. Pixar are past masters at this. Take their latest film, UP. From a kid's point of view it's YAY BALOONS YAY AFRICA YAY TALKING DOGS, but it's also an incredibly poignant look at the life of an old man desperately trying to salvage the lost dreams of his youth.
this is slashdot not a website that talks about grooming
Apparently so.
The video of the probe in the intestine, and the 'pill cam' he holds up at 1:25 in the video, remind me waaaay too much of the 'bug' in The Matrix.
This is exactly what I meant.
Erm, don't you? Every place I've worked (as a permanent employee, rather than a contractor), unscheduled days off come out of your accrued leave and your pay for the week is unaltered. If you run out of accrued leave and you're still taking random days off, then you're more likely to be fired for chronic absenteeism rather than just losing some pay.
Actually it does work like that but you have to calculate your continuous, rather than peak, earnings per hour. If you get paid $50/hr and you work 8 hours a day, you're only actually earning $16.70/hour. For it to be a genuine saving to take the helicopter, you'd have to save more than 12 extra hours in the 'copter on that $200 trip. There's a reason we fly rather than drive when we're travelling long distance.
This guy, though: He's like a professional, career-oriented brick mason, who sits around watching his 150-year-old red brick house crumble around him, while loudly proclaiming "I don't do masonry in my free time. So suck it, fellas!"
Erm, what? No, he's more like a brickie who gets home from his week at work and sits down in front of the TV with a beer instead of immediately running out to the back yard, mixing cement, and starting to build some random piece of wall just because he's got nothing better to do than try pointless exercises with different types of brick he's never used before and, god dammit, will almost certainly never use again. He's the brickie that gets home from work and actually relaxes and spends some time off because he knows that, while there're always new things to learn, he's mastered the basics and some of the advanced techniques in his job and that he's well enough equipped to perform his work well.
Programming for fun is great if you've got nothing better to do. But once you're doing 40+ hours of something productive a week it starts to lose its shine compared with activities which were actually designed from the start to be fun.
What sites? I'm poor. Help a brother out.
Yo dawg I herd you like Google so I put a Google in your Google so you can Google while u Google.
...seriously, "book name pdf download" will get you a link to a full digital copy of many books within the first couple of pages.
I think he was pointing out that the body probably evolved in part to depend on the peak pressure reached during pulses. Then again, I can see your point about lower peak pressures reducing risk of aneurysms and soforth.
What I'd really be worried about with this sort of technology is how long it will take for athletes to start using this sort of augmentation to boost performance. Cyborg Olympics anyone? When someone takes 2 seconds off the 400 meters' world record because they had an 'overclock' button on their aftermarket heart, it'll become just another "well you have to do it to compete" thing.
Not just with a valve to route the blood out of the body, all Harkonnen style?
If you want to take the scariness away, make sure there're no high-voltage capacitors on the things you disassemble. Yow!
Agreed! Kind of like Junkyard Wars for kids. Get them to actually make something that does something.
:P ) is kinda scary. Cars are full of fun things that run off 12v... and they even include the battery to run them!
I'd suggest going to a car scrapyard rather than pulling apart household appliances, though. The thought of a classroom full of kids doing 240V wiring (cmon, Real Men don't use 110V
Some of that will be difficult to teach in just 30 minute sessions. Stick to the basics.
Lastly, drop a 747 off the same roof, and see how much damage it suffers
It still hasn't come down. :(
Aye, lad! Tar and feathers! HAAAARRR!!
So you'd say that this new technology is perfect for storing pirated media? Avast thar!
This 446C temperature is not likely to be reached in the absence of other heat related destructive events, regardless of how tight your jeans are.
Well... unless you count lithium battery fires... :P Although I suppose they'd count as 'destructive events'.
:) One thing I don't understand, though, is the write cycle life. Does the phase change substance gradually settle into a third state? Or does the heating mechanism 'wear out'?
Kidding aside, thanks for the rundown. It now makes sense.
What, no whale ride? :(
The person who modded this flamebait exhibits the Dunning-Kruger effect in context of his code-reading skills.
From my point of view, everyone who signed up to invade Afghanistan and Iraq betrayed me, betrayed the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, and betrayed the citizens of his respective nation. When it comes to randomly invading countries, I am a pacifist to the extreme.
Woah, that was a work of art! 11/10, will flame angrily even on third repost.
Yes? No? Yes? No!?
Dude it's about parallel processing, not quantum computers.
Activision Blizzard and Marvel Disney, what's next? Googlesoft?
Well, according to EPIC 2014 it's going to be Googlezon!
Tubes are corroding? Stop downloading Julian Lennon songs or use a sacrificial anode.
:P
That aside, did anyone else have an immediate temptation to tag this story 'coolstorybro'?
Cue the guy at the start of The Diamond Age who had nanotech implants that constantly flexed his muscles, giving him a body builder physique with zero effort...
Good point. I guess I tend to just not be so worried about things like that. I look at money saving as an optimisation problem, if you will - I accept that I can save 90% of my expenditure by reducing the most expensive 10% of my activities. So I don't go to weekend track days or spend $100+ a night on drinks when I go out. Then when I have small expenses I just don't bother with them.
When compared to a carton of beer a week, buying a $0.90 incandescent bulb every six months isn't worth worrying about. Plus, I like incandescent light. Our eyes evolved in light that comes from things that are very hot. I'd be happy with gas lights if it weren't for the inconvenience.
Correct. Unfortunately, CFLs and LEDs are much more expensive upfront. Since I get approximately zero savings for 6 months of the year, the time to recoup is doubled (or, with a fixed horizon, the price differential at the critical point is halved).
Also, consider people in rental accommodation. There's no way in hell I'm spending $50 on a light bulb that'll last 20 years if I'm moving out at the end of the month.