I think Zelazny *is* underrated because though while he is widely available, he never seems to be mentioned with other Sci-Fi "greats" like Heinlein (whoop-dee-doo).
At any rate, I've read the entire Amber series at least ten times. I love the sarcastic, first person style and Machiavellian politics.
I wonder if a website where people subscribed to artificial friends, shrinks, lovers would be a viable business model if it was as good at mimicking these things in conversations. An Eliza frontend on this Jeopardy beast might work. Plus Eliza was always giving questions as answers too!!
I'd rather talk to a computer program about certain things anyway......and this one *would* be connected to the internet and would hone into your tastes quickly.
They have to turn a profit. Look at how over-run youtube has become. It's pretty annoying, but they did it gradually which helped silent the complaints.
Twitter will do the same. Slowly but surely making it lamer than it already is. Look at its profit forecasts (from wikipedia):
"Some of Twitter's documents covering revenue and user growth were published on TechCrunch after they were retrieved by the hacker, Croll Hacker. These contained internal projections that in 2009 they would have revenues of $400,000 in the third quarter (Q3) and $4 million in the fourth quarter (Q4) along with 25 million users at the end of the year. The projections for the end of 2013 were $1.54 billion in revenue, $111 million in net earnings, and 1 billion users.[1] No information about how Twitter plans to achieve those numbers has been published. Biz Stone published a blog post suggesting legal action for revealing the details was a possibility.[28]"\
I don't see how they can ever reach such high estimates no matter what they do. But they will certainly try.
Does anyone on/. honest believe anything seriously juicy or even particularly interesting would *ever* be released to the public.
"Likelihood of Declassification – Factors include complexity of information, volume of tabs (exemptions, exclusions, referrals) and age of material. There are a number of lower level classified records which may lend themselves to quick turnaround, while other records contain classified information that must be protected under E.O. 13526 and will not result in significant public release."
This is from: "THE NATIONAL DECLASSIFICATION CENTER
Releasing All We Can, Protecting What We Must
National Declassification Center Prioritization Plan"
mmmk
But for many people the problem is NOT that they have something incriminating on their laptops, but the fact they are taken for soooooooooooo long and not returned. TrueCrypt folders or whatever would most likely cause the powers-that-be to keep the laptop even longer.
I always wondered why there can't be an electronic way to generate smells, such as how a speaker produces sounds. Is it theoretically possible to ever create a machine or device that can create a variety of scents based on some sort of scent-spectrum? Or are "cartridges loaded with BBQ fragrance oil" the best we'll ever do? (This is one of those questions I have always wondered but been afraid to ask!)
Maybe they wouldn't attract so much international heat if they changed their name to something innocuous like "Library Bay," but they like their bad boy image which only just fuels debate (and lawsuits) on both sides. If they described themselves as a library instead of as notorious sea-thieves, that might just take the edge off many arguments against them. (Wouldn't sell many t-shirts that said "Library Bay" tho...)
No kidding. They don't give sci-fi authors much budget or something..even at big publishing houses? I suddenly feel better about the one I did (almost) all by myself for my book on almost zero budget. Then again maybe Neal filmed this himself as well;-)
1. Light Stun - causes central nervous system impairement on humanoids, unconsciousnes for up to 5 minutes. Long exposure by several shots causes reversible neural damage.
2. Medium Stun - causes unconsciousnes from 5 to 15 minutes. Long exposure causes irreversible neural damage, along with damage to epithelial tissue.
3. Heavy Stun - causes unconsciousnes from 15 to 60 minutes depending on the level of biological resistance. Significantly heats up metals.
4. Thermal Effects - causes extensive neural damage to humanoids and skin burns limited to the outer layers. Causes metals to retain heat when applied for over five seconds.
5. Thermal Effects - causes severe outer layer skin burns. Can penetrate simple personal force fields after five seconds of application.
6. Disruption Effects - penetrates organic and structural materials. The thermal damage level decreases from this level onward.
7. Disruption Effects - due to widespread disruption effects, kills humanoids.
8. Disruption Effects - causes a cascade disruption that vaporizes humanoid organisms. Any unprotected material can be penetrated.
9. Disruption Effects - causes medium alloys and structural materials, over a meter thick, to exhibit energy rebound prior to vaporization.
10. Disruption Effects - causes heavy alloys and structural materials to absorb or rebound energy. There is a 0.55 second delay before the material vaporizes.
11. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes ultra-dense alloys and structural materials to absorb or rebound energy before vaporization. There is a 0.2 second delay before the material vaporizes. Approximately 10 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
12. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes ultra-dense alloys and structural materials to absorb or rebound energy before vaporization. There is a 0.1 second delay before the material vaporizes. Approximately 50 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
13. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes shielded matter to exhibit minor vibrational heating effects. Approximately 90 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
14. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes shielded matter to exhibit medium vibrational heating effects. Approximately 160 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
15. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes shielded matter to exhibit major vibrational heating effects. Approximately 370 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
16. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes shielded matter to exhibit light mechanical fracturing damage. Approximately 650 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
I have fond memories of my first boyfriend reading me the Watchmen, and many scenes in the trailer looked like they were taken right from the comic panels so I should be excited--but I don't know...
The Comedian didn't look like quite like the vicious rascal I had hoped he would (but I only saw him for a few seconds so we'll see.)
Ozymandius's costume looks completely different (I miss his purple one!), and Silk Spectre's costume is pretty generic looking.
Nite Owl looks too much like Batman. (Sure they are similar characters, but very different also. I feel Nite Owl is not a very "dark" character, and making him into a 2nd rate Batman would not be doing his character justice.)
Also I thought Rorshach's voice was a more distinctive monotone. He sounds just like any random guy whispering in this.
And they didn't show any footage of the "vintage" comic book characters (i.e. the first generation Watchmen) so bummer on that.
But based on the production clips it seems like the director is really trying to be true to the story and look of the comic, so as long as they don't change the ending I don't see that it could be THAT horrible, no matter if Alan Moore has already disowned it (he disowns like ALL his movie adaptations, doesn't he?)
That said, I still wish Darren Aronofsky had taken over the directorial reigns.
Btw, is Smashing Pumpkins doing the soundtrack or is that just for the trailer?
But will it make them automatically accelerate when they are driving 20 miles under the speed limit?
Also, windshields are expensive to replace already. I can only imagine how much this super-zowie windshield would cost to replace after a few stray pebbles dings it up on the freeway.
Also older people aren't really down with new technology--they would be the last people to adopt this.
However, most likely you could sell it to teenagers who want to watch youtube while they drive.
Sounds like legal semantics to me. I wasn't forcibly coerced. In fact, I daresay it's easy easier for a 15 year old girl to lure in a 20 year old man for sex than the other way around. The straight guys wouldn't stand much of a chance against a precocious girl. Who raped who?
Besides, my point kinda was that the laws ARE messed up to begin with. For thousands of generations marrying off daughters under age 15 was the norm--did the men wait until their new brides were 18 to have sex? Hardly.
So basically men HAVE the urge to look at child pornography. All men must--it's hardwired in to find a 16 year old nubile girl attractive. Are all you guys crying "Child porn is so awful!" really saying that if a hot young, busty and curvaceous 15 year old was standing naked in front of you, you wouldn't be aroused? So what makes it awful is searching for it on the internet? Or are we just talking about prepubescent child pornography? No body seems to want to make this clear, which bolsters my argument that all this is just another witch hunt used to control the masses.
The Chris Hansen approach rubs me the wrong way as well--too commercial, too manipulative, but a much better idea than what is proposed here.
Also men are biologically inclined to find girls who have gone through puberty attractive.
When I was 15 I wanted to have sex with older men...including as old as 21-22 (and even much older on on occasion). They wanted to have sex with me. So what? I hardly think they are pedophiles.
Someone needs to stop lumping all "child porn" into one category. A 20 year old man having sex with a consenting 15 year old is not nearly the same as a 40 year old having sex with an 8 year old.
This reminds me what they do with the war on drugs. Lump all drugs into one category, whether it be marijuana or crack cocaine.
Slashdot Mirror
I think Zelazny *is* underrated because though while he is widely available, he never seems to be mentioned with other Sci-Fi "greats" like Heinlein (whoop-dee-doo). At any rate, I've read the entire Amber series at least ten times. I love the sarcastic, first person style and Machiavellian politics.
I love all these "suddenoutbreakofcommonsense" stories.
I wonder if a website where people subscribed to artificial friends, shrinks, lovers would be a viable business model if it was as good at mimicking these things in conversations. An Eliza frontend on this Jeopardy beast might work. Plus Eliza was always giving questions as answers too!! I'd rather talk to a computer program about certain things anyway......and this one *would* be connected to the internet and would hone into your tastes quickly.
It's wedged in between the Tubgirl and Goatse displays.
They have to turn a profit. Look at how over-run youtube has become. It's pretty annoying, but they did it gradually which helped silent the complaints.
Twitter will do the same. Slowly but surely making it lamer than it already is. Look at its profit forecasts (from wikipedia):
"Some of Twitter's documents covering revenue and user growth were published on TechCrunch after they were retrieved by the hacker, Croll Hacker. These contained internal projections that in 2009 they would have revenues of $400,000 in the third quarter (Q3) and $4 million in the fourth quarter (Q4) along with 25 million users at the end of the year. The projections for the end of 2013 were $1.54 billion in revenue, $111 million in net earnings, and 1 billion users.[1] No information about how Twitter plans to achieve those numbers has been published. Biz Stone published a blog post suggesting legal action for revealing the details was a possibility.[28]"\
I don't see how they can ever reach such high estimates no matter what they do. But they will certainly try.
I've always had problems with my ipads leaking
This is from: "THE NATIONAL DECLASSIFICATION CENTER Releasing All We Can, Protecting What We Must National Declassification Center Prioritization Plan" mmmk
But for many people the problem is NOT that they have something incriminating on their laptops, but the fact they are taken for soooooooooooo long and not returned. TrueCrypt folders or whatever would most likely cause the powers-that-be to keep the laptop even longer.
I wonder if it has any Tauntauns!
iza
xoxo
iza
ends with the MPAA and RIAA suing you for your mp3s and .mpgs.
Google AND the Big Lebowski make the scene in that fateful year. Coincidence? Hmm.....
I don't know about Google, but the world is definitely a better place because of the Dude.
Thank god I can finally scratch that off my list of things to see before I die.
No kidding. They don't give sci-fi authors much budget or something..even at big publishing houses? I suddenly feel better about the one I did (almost) all by myself for my book on almost zero budget. Then again maybe Neal filmed this himself as well ;-)
2. Medium Stun - causes unconsciousnes from 5 to 15 minutes. Long exposure causes irreversible neural damage, along with damage to epithelial tissue.
3. Heavy Stun - causes unconsciousnes from 15 to 60 minutes depending on the level of biological resistance. Significantly heats up metals.
4. Thermal Effects - causes extensive neural damage to humanoids and skin burns limited to the outer layers. Causes metals to retain heat when applied for over five seconds.
5. Thermal Effects - causes severe outer layer skin burns. Can penetrate simple personal force fields after five seconds of application.
6. Disruption Effects - penetrates organic and structural materials. The thermal damage level decreases from this level onward.
7. Disruption Effects - due to widespread disruption effects, kills humanoids.
8. Disruption Effects - causes a cascade disruption that vaporizes humanoid organisms. Any unprotected material can be penetrated.
9. Disruption Effects - causes medium alloys and structural materials, over a meter thick, to exhibit energy rebound prior to vaporization.
10. Disruption Effects - causes heavy alloys and structural materials to absorb or rebound energy. There is a 0.55 second delay before the material vaporizes.
11. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes ultra-dense alloys and structural materials to absorb or rebound energy before vaporization. There is a 0.2 second delay before the material vaporizes. Approximately 10 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
12. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes ultra-dense alloys and structural materials to absorb or rebound energy before vaporization. There is a 0.1 second delay before the material vaporizes. Approximately 50 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
13. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes shielded matter to exhibit minor vibrational heating effects. Approximately 90 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
14. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes shielded matter to exhibit medium vibrational heating effects. Approximately 160 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
15. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes shielded matter to exhibit major vibrational heating effects. Approximately 370 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
16. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes shielded matter to exhibit light mechanical fracturing damage. Approximately 650 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
Now Robot Monster can be seen at home the way it always should have been!
I have fond memories of my first boyfriend reading me the Watchmen, and many scenes in the trailer looked like they were taken right from the comic panels so I should be excited--but I don't know...
The Comedian didn't look like quite like the vicious rascal I had hoped he would (but I only saw him for a few seconds so we'll see.)
Ozymandius's costume looks completely different (I miss his purple one!), and Silk Spectre's costume is pretty generic looking.
Nite Owl looks too much like Batman. (Sure they are similar characters, but very different also. I feel Nite Owl is not a very "dark" character, and making him into a 2nd rate Batman would not be doing his character justice.)
Also I thought Rorshach's voice was a more distinctive monotone. He sounds just like any random guy whispering in this.
And they didn't show any footage of the "vintage" comic book characters (i.e. the first generation Watchmen) so bummer on that.
But based on the production clips it seems like the director is really trying to be true to the story and look of the comic, so as long as they don't change the ending I don't see that it could be THAT horrible, no matter if Alan Moore has already disowned it (he disowns like ALL his movie adaptations, doesn't he?)
That said, I still wish Darren Aronofsky had taken over the directorial reigns.
Btw, is Smashing Pumpkins doing the soundtrack or is that just for the trailer?
Also, windshields are expensive to replace already. I can only imagine how much this super-zowie windshield would cost to replace after a few stray pebbles dings it up on the freeway.
Also older people aren't really down with new technology--they would be the last people to adopt this.
However, most likely you could sell it to teenagers who want to watch youtube while they drive.
But I hadn't realized it had become such a problem that someone had to invent a one-handed typing glove.
You guys mod this funny, but it's a little known fact that the terabyte was actually named after Tera Patrick in deference to her online body of work.
totally....first snails...now two months old news? is there somewhere to vote for worst news day ever?
That's my taxi-ride home. Thank Xenu!
Besides, my point kinda was that the laws ARE messed up to begin with. For thousands of generations marrying off daughters under age 15 was the norm--did the men wait until their new brides were 18 to have sex? Hardly.
So basically men HAVE the urge to look at child pornography. All men must--it's hardwired in to find a 16 year old nubile girl attractive. Are all you guys crying "Child porn is so awful!" really saying that if a hot young, busty and curvaceous 15 year old was standing naked in front of you, you wouldn't be aroused? So what makes it awful is searching for it on the internet? Or are we just talking about prepubescent child pornography? No body seems to want to make this clear, which bolsters my argument that all this is just another witch hunt used to control the masses.
Also men are biologically inclined to find girls who have gone through puberty attractive.
When I was 15 I wanted to have sex with older men...including as old as 21-22 (and even much older on on occasion). They wanted to have sex with me. So what? I hardly think they are pedophiles.
Someone needs to stop lumping all "child porn" into one category. A 20 year old man having sex with a consenting 15 year old is not nearly the same as a 40 year old having sex with an 8 year old.
This reminds me what they do with the war on drugs. Lump all drugs into one category, whether it be marijuana or crack cocaine.