Yeah, I don't buy it. There are so many things wrong with this story that make it implausible, the least of which is that epoxy-filled devices are not intended to ever be serviced, as it is nearly impossible to do so without damaging them even more.
Assuming that your friend was telling you the truth, I bet it's probably more a case of him falling prey to a form of "greenhorn" joke, similar to what an apprentice or new construction worker would have to endure on the job site until they proved themselves, like "get me a left-handed hammer" or "go get me a bucket of spots for the spot welder".
Well duh, the next logical step is obviously to add sound by modulating the movement of the print head somehow (sort of like how you could on old HP ScanJet scanners in order to play music). Who'd want to play doom on their printer unless it also had sound?
Not sure if the one you watched was "WWII in Colour" (by the History channel) on Netflix or not, but I watched that one and it was absolutely amazing, both in terms of its content, as well as the video production. Some of the film clips were still of poor quality even after restoration, (IIRC, a lot of clips they would have gotten from Russian archives were really bad), but in general the quality was phenomenal, all things concerned. You can also watch it for free online, apparently. Definitely worth your time, and I also plan on (re) watching this with my kids when they get a little older, too.
On the other hand... I just bought a monitor that Tigerdirect advertised as 22", but when it was delivered the box says 21.5", and I don't think that's really worth paying my lawyer $250/hr to handle.
I wonder if that sort of thing harkens back to the CRT days, when you were usually quoted the tube size (not the actual visible size). For example, the brand new, large-screen 24" TV you bought back in the 90's probably only had a 22" viewing size if you were to actually measure it. In your case, I wonder if Tigerdirect online was quoting the LCD panel size, while the box the monitor came in was referring to the viewing size...
Harpoons in space...for those as confused as I about what the hell the "Apollo 12 Rum Incident" was all about. Hint: probably some kind of "noodle incident"
Totally OT, I'm afraid, but the "bigdata" tag reminded me of this music video for Big Data Shoes that I discovered just yesterday. It's funny. Watch it.
Couldn't he have just displayed a Goatse and have been done with it? What he did was in poor taste; don't security researchers have any professionalism any more? Seriously, there should be a law against this sort of thing...
I believe that effect is also called "Timbit drag"; discovered by the great Canadian scientist Tim Horton. Incidentally, he was also the individual who discovered the effect of non-uniform doughnut hole decay; that is, the tendency of old fashioned plain doughnut hole variants to persist for hours or even days after the glazed or chocolatey variants have long since disappeared.
This post made me remember an old short-story (whose name I've now forgotten) written by Larry Niven. The gist of the story was that some time way in the future when humans had colonized space and things were so peaceful and hunky-dory that they no longer fought wars or weaponized their spaceships, a human spacecraft came upon an alien ship manned by an unknown aggressive and warlike species (the Kzin, maybe), which began to attack them without warning. Despite lacking any weapons with which to defend themselves, the humans were nonetheless able to win the battle and return home to warn the rest of humanity by basically turning their ship around and allowing their thrusters (based on some sort of ion drive like you described in your post) to slice completely through the enemy ship like a giant laser.
Anyone else remember the name of the story or from what book it came from?
I bet you they could have improved voter turnout if they had introduced a negative vote button, like the "Thumbs Down" button on youtube. Sometimes you just don't know who to vote for, but would be glad to use your vote as a form of protest, and to send a well-deserved message to some cretinous politician or political party.
I've personally never gotten this response from anyone. On the couple of occasions in the past where I've challenged people regarding their poor use of the passing lane, the response I got was "but I was going above the speed limit!". These same people also seem to call the passing lane a "fast lane" and are firmly of the belief that if they travel even a little above the speed limit they should be in that lane, regardless of what the average speed of traffic is around them, because they are going "fast". Getting a response like "because I pay taxes and it's my right" would be an improvement as far as I'm concerned, because it shows that they understand what they are doing and are conscious of it, even if they are being complete jerks.
Around where I live, a lot of drivers already seem to be bosons... Especially the ones that camp out in the passing lane on the highway, oblivious to those that pass them on the right. Seriously, I wish those bosons would just get off the road already. Maybe having them all drive through a diffraction grating is a good idea after all...
No no, the answer is to cancel your own Comcast service and mooch off your neighbours who don't know any better. Unfortunately you'll be hurting your neighbours, but in return you'll be hitting Comcast where it hurts not once, but twice: once for having dropped your service, and once again for using essentially the same service you used to pay for via their new city-wide free WiFi.
Seriously, what idiot thought this would be a good idea? Punish your customers and give moochers, criminals and cheapskates free and anonymous internet. Brilliant...
Well, you're asking the wrong guy, because I'm not at all into comics. But since you asked, I do have fond memories of reading Astérix as a kid. Astérix was translated into English and many other languages, so even if you don't speak french, it shouldn't be a problem for you.
What? You were hoping for a suggestion involving some sort of masked, tight-wearing super-hero that obtained their superpowers because of a bite from an irradiated insect? Oh, please. Astérix may not be masked or tight-wearing, but he has a winged hat, a fantastic moustache, and is absolutely fearless in battle. Furthermore, his friend Obélisk does wear tights (or at least some kind of tightly fitting, blue and white striped half-body-tube thing), and I challenge you to find another super-hero that is as strong as him, as funny as him and who has as voracious an appetite as him. Seriously, all those DC comics are for chumps; you should read Astérix, or at the very least, buy the comics for your kids so that at least they will grow up having known a real hero....
I *do* have mod points, but can't mod him any higher, as he is already at 5. The most I could do is mod him down so that somebody else could come along and show how awesome his post is by modding him back up, but that doesn't seem like a very efficient use of mod points...
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I don't buy it. There are so many things wrong with this story that make it implausible, the least of which is that epoxy-filled devices are not intended to ever be serviced, as it is nearly impossible to do so without damaging them even more.
Assuming that your friend was telling you the truth, I bet it's probably more a case of him falling prey to a form of "greenhorn" joke, similar to what an apprentice or new construction worker would have to endure on the job site until they proved themselves, like "get me a left-handed hammer" or "go get me a bucket of spots for the spot welder".
This interesting mini-documentary by CGP Grey is totally relevant: Humans Need Not Apply.
Moley-moley-moley-moley-moley!
Ah man, I've got to watch Austin Powers again. What a classic!
And somehow the Dodge Viper made it in at #522 (5th from the bottom). What strange results...
Well duh, the next logical step is obviously to add sound by modulating the movement of the print head somehow (sort of like how you could on old HP ScanJet scanners in order to play music). Who'd want to play doom on their printer unless it also had sound?
Is it a linux VM? Or better yet, a VM that runs olde-tyme UNIX V7 on emulated PDP-11 hardware. Now that would be classic...
Most people are idiots.
You forgot to add "present company excluded"..., right?
Anyway, reminds me of a George Carlin quote that I saw in somebody's sig once:
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” -- George Carlin
Not sure if the one you watched was "WWII in Colour" (by the History channel) on Netflix or not, but I watched that one and it was absolutely amazing, both in terms of its content, as well as the video production. Some of the film clips were still of poor quality even after restoration, (IIRC, a lot of clips they would have gotten from Russian archives were really bad), but in general the quality was phenomenal, all things concerned. You can also watch it for free online, apparently. Definitely worth your time, and I also plan on (re) watching this with my kids when they get a little older, too.
touché!
On the other hand... I just bought a monitor that Tigerdirect advertised as 22", but when it was delivered the box says 21.5", and I don't think that's really worth paying my lawyer $250/hr to handle.
I wonder if that sort of thing harkens back to the CRT days, when you were usually quoted the tube size (not the actual visible size). For example, the brand new, large-screen 24" TV you bought back in the 90's probably only had a 22" viewing size if you were to actually measure it. In your case, I wonder if Tigerdirect online was quoting the LCD panel size, while the box the monitor came in was referring to the viewing size...
I'm totally just guessing here, but perhaps it's only communist for those who can't afford to grease the right palms...
Harpoons in space ...for those as confused as I about what the hell the "Apollo 12 Rum Incident" was all about. Hint: probably some kind of "noodle incident"
Totally OT, I'm afraid, but the "bigdata" tag reminded me of this music video for Big Data Shoes that I discovered just yesterday. It's funny. Watch it.
Couldn't he have just displayed a Goatse and have been done with it? What he did was in poor taste; don't security researchers have any professionalism any more? Seriously, there should be a law against this sort of thing...
I believe that effect is also called "Timbit drag"; discovered by the great Canadian scientist Tim Horton. Incidentally, he was also the individual who discovered the effect of non-uniform doughnut hole decay; that is, the tendency of old fashioned plain doughnut hole variants to persist for hours or even days after the glazed or chocolatey variants have long since disappeared.
Hey, that's it! Thanks man.
This post made me remember an old short-story (whose name I've now forgotten) written by Larry Niven. The gist of the story was that some time way in the future when humans had colonized space and things were so peaceful and hunky-dory that they no longer fought wars or weaponized their spaceships, a human spacecraft came upon an alien ship manned by an unknown aggressive and warlike species (the Kzin, maybe), which began to attack them without warning. Despite lacking any weapons with which to defend themselves, the humans were nonetheless able to win the battle and return home to warn the rest of humanity by basically turning their ship around and allowing their thrusters (based on some sort of ion drive like you described in your post) to slice completely through the enemy ship like a giant laser.
Anyone else remember the name of the story or from what book it came from?
Who cares? Isn't the critical question always what editor they should program with? Everyone knows that real programmers use vim. Long live vim!
Here: something to distract you while I go duck under a desk
I bet you they could have improved voter turnout if they had introduced a negative vote button, like the "Thumbs Down" button on youtube. Sometimes you just don't know who to vote for, but would be glad to use your vote as a form of protest, and to send a well-deserved message to some cretinous politician or political party.
I've personally never gotten this response from anyone. On the couple of occasions in the past where I've challenged people regarding their poor use of the passing lane, the response I got was "but I was going above the speed limit!". These same people also seem to call the passing lane a "fast lane" and are firmly of the belief that if they travel even a little above the speed limit they should be in that lane, regardless of what the average speed of traffic is around them, because they are going "fast". Getting a response like "because I pay taxes and it's my right" would be an improvement as far as I'm concerned, because it shows that they understand what they are doing and are conscious of it, even if they are being complete jerks.
Around where I live, a lot of drivers already seem to be bosons... Especially the ones that camp out in the passing lane on the highway, oblivious to those that pass them on the right. Seriously, I wish those bosons would just get off the road already. Maybe having them all drive through a diffraction grating is a good idea after all...
I wonder how many customers ask for extra anchovies on their pizza?
No no, the answer is to cancel your own Comcast service and mooch off your neighbours who don't know any better. Unfortunately you'll be hurting your neighbours, but in return you'll be hitting Comcast where it hurts not once, but twice: once for having dropped your service, and once again for using essentially the same service you used to pay for via their new city-wide free WiFi.
Seriously, what idiot thought this would be a good idea? Punish your customers and give moochers, criminals and cheapskates free and anonymous internet. Brilliant...
Well, you're asking the wrong guy, because I'm not at all into comics. But since you asked, I do have fond memories of reading Astérix as a kid. Astérix was translated into English and many other languages, so even if you don't speak french, it shouldn't be a problem for you.
What? You were hoping for a suggestion involving some sort of masked, tight-wearing super-hero that obtained their superpowers because of a bite from an irradiated insect? Oh, please. Astérix may not be masked or tight-wearing, but he has a winged hat, a fantastic moustache, and is absolutely fearless in battle. Furthermore, his friend Obélisk does wear tights (or at least some kind of tightly fitting, blue and white striped half-body-tube thing), and I challenge you to find another super-hero that is as strong as him, as funny as him and who has as voracious an appetite as him. Seriously, all those DC comics are for chumps; you should read Astérix, or at the very least, buy the comics for your kids so that at least they will grow up having known a real hero....
*ducks*
I *do* have mod points, but can't mod him any higher, as he is already at 5. The most I could do is mod him down so that somebody else could come along and show how awesome his post is by modding him back up, but that doesn't seem like a very efficient use of mod points...