Doctor: ROBOSPIDER YOU SHOULD BE IN THE COLON NOW. WHAT DO YOU SEE?
Robospider: IT'S SO DAMN DARK IN HERE I CAN'T SEE MY CLAW BEFORE MY FACE. HANG ON A SEC. LET ME GET MY LIGHTER.
Doctor: OK. WHAT? LIGHTER? NO DON'T
(SIGNAL LOST.)
...the day before the rocket and satellite guys are about to slam an $80M hunk of metal into the moon - to find water. Isn't that conveeeeenient. Someone worried about being slighted on next year's budget maybe?
Interesting theory, but it doesn't quite pass Occam's razor. It's kinda hard to do a self-portrait of one's backside, and the Venus of Willendorf has a big girl's butt, alright. And the belly looks way more fat than pregnant. It's a lot easier to picture a Paleolithic man making carving a fantasy figurine in his spare time, rather than a woman in the late stage of pregnancy taking time out to do it.
And besides which - the Venus of Willendorf is hot.;-)
How hard would it be to make frameless or very-minimally-framed monitors designed for stacking together like this?
Or at least a set of monitors with the bulk of the framing only on particular edges?
If you ever wonder why people view the privacy of your records in the hand of third parties is important, and don't just hop on the "privacy is dead" bandwagon, this is the sort of scenario they have in mind.
Mother Earth was an anarchist journal that described itself as "A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature," edited by Emma Goldman. Alexander Berkman, another well-known anarchist, was the magazine's editor from 1907 to 1915. It published longer articles on a variety of anarchist topics including the labor movement, education, literature and the arts, state and government control, and women's emancipation, sexual freedom, and was an early supporter of birth control. Its subscribers and supporters formed a virtual "who's who" of the radical left in America in the years prior to 1920.
In 1917, Mother Earth began to openly call for opposition to American entry into World War I and specifically to disobey government laws on conscription and registration for the military draft. On June 15, 1917, Congress passed the Espionage Act. The law set punishments for acts of interference in foreign policy and espionage. The Act authorized stiff fines and prison terms of up to 20 years for anyone who obstructed the military draft or encouraged "disloyalty" against the U.S. government. After Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman continued to advocate against conscription, Goldman's offices at Mother Earth were thoroughly searched, and volumes of files and detailed subscription lists from Mother Earth, along with Berkman's journal The Blast, were seized. As a Justice Department news release reported:
"A wagon load of anarchist records and propaganda material was seized, and included in the lot is what is believed to be a complete registry of anarchy's friends in the United States. A splendidly kept card index was found, which the Federal agents believe will greatly simplify their task of identifying persons mentioned in the various record books and papers. The subscription lists of Mother Earth and The Blast, which contain 10,000 names, were also seized."
Mother Earth remained in monthly circulation until August 1917.[1] Berkman and Goldman were found guilty of violating the Espionage Act, (imprisoned for two years) and were later deported.
Possibly a light fog would make it "possible" but the practicalities behind getting a controlled, smooth fog to hover in mid-air aren't worth the effort.
The one possible way that occurred to me would be a cloud of nanomolecular real-life "voxels" that self-assemble into a three-dimensional grid, drawing power and image data inductively. The image would be generated by the cloud itself and not from a projection. (Whether such a thing would be physically possible is another question though.)
I'm thinking the N900 is going to be my next phone. But I'm on Verizon, so it'll be time to switch carriers.
Any recommendations as to who'd be the best carrier for it, based on:
- letting me use the phone and all its features, with minimal hacking/jailbreaking (if any)
- network coverage / availability / reliability
- transfer speeds
- price & contracts (if the service works-works I don't mind paying for it.)
(I'd use it in the NYC metro area 99% of the time, if that applies.)
Will we ever have that trope of nearly every near-future sci-fi story - the true volumetric display with an image that appears in midair like a living statue made out light, no eyeglasses, panes of glass, contact lenses, volatile gases, or brain implants required? Is there anything in the labs today that make this a true definitely-maybe-keep-your-hopes-up-sure-to-have-it-twenty-years-from-now technology, like fusion reactors?
We went on a Duck boat tour of Baltimore once. The tour guide had "personality" - he called himself Captain America and wore a Captain America jacket and baseball cap. Along with those annoying-as-fuck duck calls, he insisted we respond "Gee Captain America, I didn't know that!" whenever he gave us a Baltimore factoid. Which led to us muttering under our breath -
- Gee Captain America, I didn't know that! (you wear ladies underwear..)
- Gee Captain America, I didn't know that! (you wet the bed..)
- Gee Captain America, I didn't know that! (insanity runs in your family..)
- Gee Captain America, I didn't know that! (you're still a virgin..)
With the rules, prerecorded commercial telemarketing robocalls will be prohibited, unless the telemarketer has obtained permission in writing from consumers who want to receive such calls.
Ah.
You can expect the "permission" to be buried in the fine print of phone contracts, software licenses, and the like. And be sure to remember to uncheck that "share your information with third parties" box.
They'll have found correlations between obesity and overeating to heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, infertility, catching the flu, VD, hepatitis, cancer, dementia, erectile disfunction, athlete's feet, constipation, diarrhea, sunburn, oversleeping, undersleeping, fridgidity, sexual promiscuity, anxiety, hyperactivity, laziness, depression, bad breath, sharp toenails, agoraphobia, bad taste, being accident prone, tendency to drive too fast, tendency to drive too slow, failure in business, failure in relationships, stupidity, reading gossip web sites, obsessive collecting, loneliness, excessive video game playing, unsociability, dressing unfashionably, bad credit, no credit, inability to hold a job, as well as feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness. And the correlation with feeling hopeless and worthless seems to keep getting stronger.
By 2040, new body/mind/environment computer simulations determine that feeling hopeless and worthless was actually what was helping cause all the other conditions. Fat people who feel happy and optimistic in the long run are actually no worse off than their thinner counterparts. The key to this is apparently treating fat people like thin people, preferably starting at an early age, but it helps at any point in their lives.
The UN World Obesity Study Group, in it's final press release, stated "We had a good run. Our bad. Sorry for all the trouble. Who's up for Dave and Buster's?"
Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clocks!
Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clocks!
Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clocks!
Hi, I'm Al Hvorostovsky, President and CEO of Al Hvorostovsky's Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clock Emporium and Warehouse! Thanks to massive Soviet-era overproduction, I am now currently overstocked on Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clocks, and I am passing the savings on to you!!!
Create that retro look in your living room! Makes a great night lite for the baby's room!* A great gift for steampunks! "Hunt for Red October" re-enactments! Have an EMP-proof clock for your bomb shelter! Whatever your Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clock needs are! So come on down to Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clock Emporium and Warehouse! Just of the main road in Chernyshevsk.
Les Paul and his trio played (every?) Monday nights at the Iridium Jazz Club here in NYC. Every once in awhile I'd see the ad for it and think "I gotta check that out sometime. After all, he won't be around forever."
Not to knock golf, fishing, spoiling the grandkids or catching the early-bird special, but I could think of worse ways of spending one's retirement time than editing and writing articles for an encyclopedia.
A game that allows you to send your opponent home crying for his/her mama simply by know more than he/she does would provide some serious learning incentive. "I'll show you! (sniff) I'm gonna memorize the periodic table, Maxwell's equations and the US Constitution, and then you'll be sorry!"
It's a handheld wireless printer/scanner that prints directly onto boxes, no labels required. Pretty slick.
These were developed for UPS but anyone can buy them (if you have the money to burn.)
No mention of Linux drivers, etc. however.
There's unlimited supply *
And there is no reason why
I tell you it was all a frame
They only did it 'cos of fame
Who?
E.M.I. E.M.I. E.M.I.
Too many people had the suss
Too many people support us
An unlimited amount
Too many outlets in and out
Who?
E.M.I E.M.I E.M.I
And sir and friends are crucified
A day they wished that we had died
We are an addition
We are ruled by none
Never ever never
And you thought that we were faking
That we were all just money making
You do not believe we're for real
Or you would lose your cheap appeal?
Don't judge a book just by the cover
Unless you cover just another
And blind acceptance is a sign
Of stupid fools who stand in line
Like
E.M.I E.M.I E.M.I
Unlimted edition
With an unlimited supply
That was the only reason
We all had to say goodbye
Unlimited supply (E.M.I)
There is no reason why (E.M.I)
I tell you it was all a frame (E.M.I)
They only did it 'cos of fame (E.M.I)
I do not need the pressure (E.M.I)
I can't stand those useless fools (E.M.I)
Unlimited supply (E.M.I)
Hello E.M.I
Goodbye A & M
* apparently not! - RW
Re:Why do the credentials matter?
on
Tetraktys
·
· Score: 1
Quite right (although I wouldn't see Transformers even on a dare.)
Better examples:
- William Gibson gleaned the "cyberspace" concept used in Neuromancer from a PBS special he saw on the future of computing.
- Kate Bush was inspired to write her groundbreaking hit "Wuthering Heights" after seeing the second-half of a BBC adaptation of the book (she read the book afterwords just to fact-check.)
Who in the industry decided to call it "piracy"? Piracy sounds cool. In many (most?) fictional depictions the pirates are the good guys. (Modern-day piracy notwithstanding.) Why don't they push to call it "software theft" or "computer mugging" or something?
Slashdot Mirror
Doctor: ROBOSPIDER YOU SHOULD BE IN THE COLON NOW. WHAT DO YOU SEE?
Robospider: IT'S SO DAMN DARK IN HERE I CAN'T SEE MY CLAW BEFORE MY FACE. HANG ON A SEC. LET ME GET MY LIGHTER.
Doctor: OK. WHAT? LIGHTER? NO DON'T
(SIGNAL LOST.)
...the day before the rocket and satellite guys are about to slam an $80M hunk of metal into the moon - to find water. Isn't that conveeeeenient. Someone worried about being slighted on next year's budget maybe?
There are people who still use MySpace?
Interesting theory, but it doesn't quite pass Occam's razor. It's kinda hard to do a self-portrait of one's backside, and the Venus of Willendorf has a big girl's butt, alright. And the belly looks way more fat than pregnant. It's a lot easier to picture a Paleolithic man making carving a fantasy figurine in his spare time, rather than a woman in the late stage of pregnancy taking time out to do it.
;-)
And besides which - the Venus of Willendorf is hot.
How hard would it be to make frameless or very-minimally-framed monitors designed for stacking together like this? Or at least a set of monitors with the bulk of the framing only on particular edges?
If you ever wonder why people view the privacy of your records in the hand of third parties is important, and don't just hop on the "privacy is dead" bandwagon, this is the sort of scenario they have in mind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Earth_(magazine)
Mother Earth was an anarchist journal that described itself as "A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature," edited by Emma Goldman. Alexander Berkman, another well-known anarchist, was the magazine's editor from 1907 to 1915. It published longer articles on a variety of anarchist topics including the labor movement, education, literature and the arts, state and government control, and women's emancipation, sexual freedom, and was an early supporter of birth control. Its subscribers and supporters formed a virtual "who's who" of the radical left in America in the years prior to 1920.
In 1917, Mother Earth began to openly call for opposition to American entry into World War I and specifically to disobey government laws on conscription and registration for the military draft. On June 15, 1917, Congress passed the Espionage Act. The law set punishments for acts of interference in foreign policy and espionage. The Act authorized stiff fines and prison terms of up to 20 years for anyone who obstructed the military draft or encouraged "disloyalty" against the U.S. government. After Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman continued to advocate against conscription, Goldman's offices at Mother Earth were thoroughly searched, and volumes of files and detailed subscription lists from Mother Earth, along with Berkman's journal The Blast, were seized. As a Justice Department news release reported:
"A wagon load of anarchist records and propaganda material was seized, and included in the lot is what is believed to be a complete registry of anarchy's friends in the United States. A splendidly kept card index was found, which the Federal agents believe will greatly simplify their task of identifying persons mentioned in the various record books and papers. The subscription lists of Mother Earth and The Blast, which contain 10,000 names, were also seized."
Mother Earth remained in monthly circulation until August 1917.[1] Berkman and Goldman were found guilty of violating the Espionage Act, (imprisoned for two years) and were later deported.
Possibly a light fog would make it "possible" but the practicalities behind getting a controlled, smooth fog to hover in mid-air aren't worth the effort.
The one possible way that occurred to me would be a cloud of nanomolecular real-life "voxels" that self-assemble into a three-dimensional grid, drawing power and image data inductively. The image would be generated by the cloud itself and not from a projection. (Whether such a thing would be physically possible is another question though.)
I'm thinking the N900 is going to be my next phone. But I'm on Verizon, so it'll be time to switch carriers.
Any recommendations as to who'd be the best carrier for it, based on:
- letting me use the phone and all its features, with minimal hacking/jailbreaking (if any)
- network coverage / availability / reliability
- transfer speeds
- price & contracts (if the service works-works I don't mind paying for it.)
(I'd use it in the NYC metro area 99% of the time, if that applies.)
Will we ever have that trope of nearly every near-future sci-fi story - the true volumetric display with an image that appears in midair like a living statue made out light, no eyeglasses, panes of glass, contact lenses, volatile gases, or brain implants required? Is there anything in the labs today that make this a true definitely-maybe-keep-your-hopes-up-sure-to-have-it-twenty-years-from-now technology, like fusion reactors?
Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!
We went on a Duck boat tour of Baltimore once. The tour guide had "personality" - he called himself Captain America and wore a Captain America jacket and baseball cap. Along with those annoying-as-fuck duck calls, he insisted we respond "Gee Captain America, I didn't know that!" whenever he gave us a Baltimore factoid. Which led to us muttering under our breath -
- Gee Captain America, I didn't know that! (you wear ladies underwear..)
- Gee Captain America, I didn't know that! (you wet the bed..)
- Gee Captain America, I didn't know that! (insanity runs in your family..)
- Gee Captain America, I didn't know that! (you're still a virgin..)
With the rules, prerecorded commercial telemarketing robocalls will be prohibited, unless the telemarketer has obtained permission in writing from consumers who want to receive such calls.
Ah.
You can expect the "permission" to be buried in the fine print of phone contracts, software licenses, and the like. And be sure to remember to uncheck that "share your information with third parties" box.
This is more than just wishful thinking - Case in point:
http://www.alternet.org/story/142232/reverse_aging%3A_easier_than_you_think/?page=entire
They'll have found correlations between obesity and overeating to heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, infertility, catching the flu, VD, hepatitis, cancer, dementia, erectile disfunction, athlete's feet, constipation, diarrhea, sunburn, oversleeping, undersleeping, fridgidity, sexual promiscuity, anxiety, hyperactivity, laziness, depression, bad breath, sharp toenails, agoraphobia, bad taste, being accident prone, tendency to drive too fast, tendency to drive too slow, failure in business, failure in relationships, stupidity, reading gossip web sites, obsessive collecting, loneliness, excessive video game playing, unsociability, dressing unfashionably, bad credit, no credit, inability to hold a job, as well as feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness. And the correlation with feeling hopeless and worthless seems to keep getting stronger.
By 2040, new body/mind/environment computer simulations determine that feeling hopeless and worthless was actually what was helping cause all the other conditions. Fat people who feel happy and optimistic in the long run are actually no worse off than their thinner counterparts. The key to this is apparently treating fat people like thin people, preferably starting at an early age, but it helps at any point in their lives.
The UN World Obesity Study Group, in it's final press release, stated "We had a good run. Our bad. Sorry for all the trouble. Who's up for Dave and Buster's?"
Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clocks!
Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clocks!
Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clocks!
Hi, I'm Al Hvorostovsky, President and CEO of Al Hvorostovsky's Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clock Emporium and Warehouse! Thanks to massive Soviet-era overproduction, I am now currently overstocked on Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clocks, and I am passing the savings on to you!!!
Create that retro look in your living room! Makes a great night lite for the baby's room!* A great gift for steampunks! "Hunt for Red October" re-enactments! Have an EMP-proof clock for your bomb shelter! Whatever your Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clock needs are! So come on down to Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clock Emporium and Warehouse! Just of the main road in Chernyshevsk.
*Keep out of the reach of children and pets.
..along with alcohol and weed to the list of "things to ply a potential sexual partner with during a date."
Les Paul and his trio played (every?) Monday nights at the Iridium Jazz Club here in NYC. Every once in awhile I'd see the ad for it and think "I gotta check that out sometime. After all, he won't be around forever."
Of course, I never did.
Not to knock golf, fishing, spoiling the grandkids or catching the early-bird special, but I could think of worse ways of spending one's retirement time than editing and writing articles for an encyclopedia.
A game that allows you to send your opponent home crying for his/her mama simply by know more than he/she does would provide some serious learning incentive. "I'll show you! (sniff) I'm gonna memorize the periodic table, Maxwell's equations and the US Constitution, and then you'll be sorry!"
http://www.google.com/search?q=HP+sp400
It's a handheld wireless printer/scanner that prints directly onto boxes, no labels required. Pretty slick.
These were developed for UPS but anyone can buy them (if you have the money to burn.)
No mention of Linux drivers, etc. however.
EMI
There's unlimited supply *
And there is no reason why
I tell you it was all a frame
They only did it 'cos of fame
Who?
E.M.I. E.M.I. E.M.I.
Too many people had the suss
Too many people support us
An unlimited amount
Too many outlets in and out
Who?
E.M.I E.M.I E.M.I
And sir and friends are crucified
A day they wished that we had died
We are an addition
We are ruled by none
Never ever never
And you thought that we were faking
That we were all just money making
You do not believe we're for real
Or you would lose your cheap appeal?
Don't judge a book just by the cover
Unless you cover just another
And blind acceptance is a sign
Of stupid fools who stand in line
Like
E.M.I E.M.I E.M.I
Unlimted edition
With an unlimited supply
That was the only reason
We all had to say goodbye
Unlimited supply (E.M.I)
There is no reason why (E.M.I)
I tell you it was all a frame (E.M.I)
They only did it 'cos of fame (E.M.I)
I do not need the pressure (E.M.I)
I can't stand those useless fools (E.M.I)
Unlimited supply (E.M.I)
Hello E.M.I
Goodbye A & M
* apparently not! - RW
Quite right (although I wouldn't see Transformers even on a dare.)
Better examples:
- William Gibson gleaned the "cyberspace" concept used in Neuromancer from a PBS special he saw on the future of computing.
- Kate Bush was inspired to write her groundbreaking hit "Wuthering Heights" after seeing the second-half of a BBC adaptation of the book (she read the book afterwords just to fact-check.)
There's to be sure loads of others.
Who in the industry decided to call it "piracy"? Piracy sounds cool. In many (most?) fictional depictions the pirates are the good guys. (Modern-day piracy notwithstanding.) Why don't they push to call it "software theft" or "computer mugging" or something?
60-52-62 (an hourglass figure that lasts 180 minutes!)
Well, since the 21st century's just getting started, and women keep getting bigger, the smartass will probably be right.
;-) ]
[ That's how I'm hoping things will turn out, anyway