You kill two birds with one stone, first it would show Microsoft with a sense of humor, second it would probably give the hacker who hates Microsoft something to do other than hack Microsoft websites - like play Xbox.
Firstly the mass of a satellite would not generate enough of a gravity well to nudge any object off a crash course with the earth. Secondly, as the object in question will be travelling at around 12.8km/s (That's just under 8 miles per second if you are American). The sort of gravity needed to change that trajectory considerably would likely cause much much more problems than this little lump of rock could ever cause.
It's an asteroid while it's out floating in space. When it comes knocking on our atmosphere then it becomes a meteor. If it doesn't totally burn up on it's way down and hits the earth, it's a meteorite.
Don't even get me started on Kupier Belt Objects, Meteoroids or Comets!
Oh honestly, you green bottomed hairy hippie! Why plant trees that will cleanly and effectively remove the carbon from the air, when we can invent a MACHINE to do it that will use electricity and require parts and labour and all that? You greenies and your whacky nature ideas. Honestly! How exactly do trees generate jobs?
Someone mod the above post up, that's gold right there that is.
That sort of game would only be possibly topped by a Tetris MMO, where everyone gets to play a single block, has some control over where they are falling and you can do realm based combat as the blue blocks slug it out with those annoying perky red blocks. All the kiddies will pick the red blocks cause they have skimpier outfits and the red blocks will outnumber the blue ones by about a one to two ration, but all the good players will pick blue blocks because they don't want to be mixed in with the "red noobs". It's classic game 5 Star ratings material this!
The only "right" in this is that "it isn't right wing politics".
I am never ceased to be amazed at the price tags on some government bills. I would be prepared to wager just about anything that a report similar to the one here has been developed by each major telco/isp in the US to find fresh markets. I bet if you totalled up the cost of ALL those reports and put them together, it would be a fraction of this $40 million.
The best thing about being in government these days seems to be that no-one looks at any sort of efficiency.
Okay firstly, I won't be backing this up with links because I am generally too lazy this afternoon to bother, but here is what some of the story is.
The reason that old rocks are so important is as follows:
The earth, along with all the planets and sun in our solar system was formed from a disc of dust (same as any other sort of planetary system as anyone can tell). Our earth was initially formed WITHOUT a moon. About 4.something billion years ago, our planet hard some initial surface and crust and all that. About that time, an object around the size of Mars hit the earth. This had a number of causes:
1) It penetrated the surface of the planet (Duh!!) and caused a large amount of the core of our forming planet to get whacked out into orbit.
2) This made the moon if you needed clarification.
3) The force of the blast meant that the effective entire crust of the earth was again submerged into the insides of the earth.
The last part is the most important to this article, as there are very very few "rocks" that can survive that sort of hear/pressure without being changed beyond recognition. One of these is Zircon. So far, some of the oldest rocks to date have been dug up in Western Australia and are Zircon. The belief is that these were either formed on earth prior to the impact or came on the thing that hit us (I can't remember which).
Either way, there you have a small lesson, and also likely the longest post I have written on/.
Even if Australians used American-made toilets (with swirling motion), they still wouldn't spin backwards. How water spins down a drain is related to the design of the unit, not the earth's rotation. (urban legend).
Hey buddy! Learn your science! The location of the "American Made" toilet with the swirly water thing would spin in reverse in the southern hemisphere. It's called the Coriolis Force and you can read about it right here.
The funny thing is all the big FPS games that came before it that heralded the real dawn of FPS multiplayer. Quake II, Unreal then Unreal Tournament, Half Life, Counter-Strike just to name some of the big ones off the top of my head.
Yet NONE of those tried to make a MMO out of it. I dare say that most of the developers realized (quite rightly) that the stuff that generally makes for a good FPS has nothing to do with a good MMO. Making up the story/universe in an MMO is the easy part. Getting the gameplay and mechanics right.... that's the money-shot right there.
They also canned Citizen Zero which was being developed for X-Box Live here in Australia when things started to look a bit grim in their perceptions of how successful that console was going to be.
By using the ballistic spin torque reversal, potential MRAMs could be programmed by current pulses quicker than 1 nanosecond and subsequently, achieving write clock rates well above 1 GHz. Thus, high-density and non-volatile memory executing at the clock rates of the fastest volatile memories were enabled.
At the moment I like to go browse through my local JB HiFi and find a few DVD's that I want and generally find things that are on sale. When I can browse about and find the same BluRay flicks for $7-15 a pop I will very happily move over. Till then, I don't see any benefit to me. Especially not a benefit that costs me more up front for new gear and then costs me a lot more each time for new content.
If you need a professor to tell you to make good software to make good software, you aren't actually making good software and being told to do so likely won't change that. If being a professor is all about writing common sense articles like that, I got a bunch of them here for other business types:
Doctors: Please help your patients with their ailments.
Taxi-Drivers: Please take your fare to where they would like to go without taking too many detours.
Software Developers: Please make good software.
Slashdot Mirror
These are nerds we are talking about. I think the word PREMATURE likely is quite fitting.
WAAAAUUUGH!
I can't help but agree.
You kill two birds with one stone, first it would show Microsoft with a sense of humor, second it would probably give the hacker who hates Microsoft something to do other than hack Microsoft websites - like play Xbox.
Firstly the mass of a satellite would not generate enough of a gravity well to nudge any object off a crash course with the earth. Secondly, as the object in question will be travelling at around 12.8km/s (That's just under 8 miles per second if you are American). The sort of gravity needed to change that trajectory considerably would likely cause much much more problems than this little lump of rock could ever cause.
Amen to that space travelling alien who drops monsters into volcanoes!
Oh wait. I mean... Yeah, just drop him in!
It's an asteroid while it's out floating in space. When it comes knocking on our atmosphere then it becomes a meteor. If it doesn't totally burn up on it's way down and hits the earth, it's a meteorite.
Don't even get me started on Kupier Belt Objects, Meteoroids or Comets!
Let the jokes about the end of the world begin...
I don't think I have ever seen a thread modded more funny than this one. It's like all the mods were humor deprived today :)
Hey, this is the third post, and there hasn't been a flame yet! Has /. been redirected to a more Microsoft friendly audience today?
Hands up if you are reading via MSDN! Come on, admit it!
Oh honestly, you green bottomed hairy hippie! Why plant trees that will cleanly and effectively remove the carbon from the air, when we can invent a MACHINE to do it that will use electricity and require parts and labour and all that? You greenies and your whacky nature ideas. Honestly! How exactly do trees generate jobs?
I suppose you eat dolphin safe tuna as well?!
Someone mod the above post up, that's gold right there that is.
That sort of game would only be possibly topped by a Tetris MMO, where everyone gets to play a single block, has some control over where they are falling and you can do realm based combat as the blue blocks slug it out with those annoying perky red blocks. All the kiddies will pick the red blocks cause they have skimpier outfits and the red blocks will outnumber the blue ones by about a one to two ration, but all the good players will pick blue blocks because they don't want to be mixed in with the "red noobs". It's classic game 5 Star ratings material this!
The only "right" in this is that "it isn't right wing politics".
I am never ceased to be amazed at the price tags on some government bills. I would be prepared to wager just about anything that a report similar to the one here has been developed by each major telco/isp in the US to find fresh markets. I bet if you totalled up the cost of ALL those reports and put them together, it would be a fraction of this $40 million.
The best thing about being in government these days seems to be that no-one looks at any sort of efficiency.
Hmmmm there goes my ideas for making a nuclear apocalypse zombie game that was going to be titled "2010 - with glowing hearts!"
Damn you IOC, spoil my ideas for a zombie fps!
This is /.
Was there every any real question as to the first post?
Okay firstly, I won't be backing this up with links because I am generally too lazy this afternoon to bother, but here is what some of the story is.
/.
The reason that old rocks are so important is as follows:
The earth, along with all the planets and sun in our solar system was formed from a disc of dust (same as any other sort of planetary system as anyone can tell). Our earth was initially formed WITHOUT a moon. About 4.something billion years ago, our planet hard some initial surface and crust and all that. About that time, an object around the size of Mars hit the earth. This had a number of causes:
1) It penetrated the surface of the planet (Duh!!) and caused a large amount of the core of our forming planet to get whacked out into orbit.
2) This made the moon if you needed clarification.
3) The force of the blast meant that the effective entire crust of the earth was again submerged into the insides of the earth.
The last part is the most important to this article, as there are very very few "rocks" that can survive that sort of hear/pressure without being changed beyond recognition. One of these is Zircon. So far, some of the oldest rocks to date have been dug up in Western Australia and are Zircon. The belief is that these were either formed on earth prior to the impact or came on the thing that hit us (I can't remember which).
Either way, there you have a small lesson, and also likely the longest post I have written on
Lordy, that's more grammar nazi than most members of the third reich's grammar squads!
Somewhat agree though you picky picky bastard!
What are you trying to say? Cause if I look at the pic closely, the only joke that comes to mind is....
X Marks the spot? (Link to image in article)
Goodness me, I need coffee. I want to flame my own post for gramatical errors.
The sad untold truths about being a grammar-nazi.
Even if Australians used American-made toilets (with swirling motion), they still wouldn't spin backwards. How water spins down a drain is related to the design of the unit, not the earth's rotation. (urban legend).
Hey buddy! Learn your science! The location of the "American Made" toilet with the swirly water thing would spin in reverse in the southern hemisphere. It's called the Coriolis Force and you can read about it right here.
I suspect we'd be limited primarily to species that have a spore state.
It's not so much that it has a spore state, as much as it comes with SecuROM DRM.
:P
Sorry, was that in poor taste?
The funny thing is all the big FPS games that came before it that heralded the real dawn of FPS multiplayer. Quake II, Unreal then Unreal Tournament, Half Life, Counter-Strike just to name some of the big ones off the top of my head.
Yet NONE of those tried to make a MMO out of it. I dare say that most of the developers realized (quite rightly) that the stuff that generally makes for a good FPS has nothing to do with a good MMO. Making up the story/universe in an MMO is the easy part. Getting the gameplay and mechanics right.... that's the money-shot right there.
They also canned Citizen Zero which was being developed for X-Box Live here in Australia when things started to look a bit grim in their perceptions of how successful that console was going to be.
By using the ballistic spin torque reversal, potential MRAMs could be programmed by current pulses quicker than 1 nanosecond and subsequently, achieving write clock rates well above 1 GHz. Thus, high-density and non-volatile memory executing at the clock rates of the fastest volatile memories were enabled.
I concur.
At the moment I like to go browse through my local JB HiFi and find a few DVD's that I want and generally find things that are on sale. When I can browse about and find the same BluRay flicks for $7-15 a pop I will very happily move over. Till then, I don't see any benefit to me. Especially not a benefit that costs me more up front for new gear and then costs me a lot more each time for new content.
Okay, stop right there. This is the Common Sense Police! You are in breach of the daily allowance of Common Sense(tm).
Please back away quietly. Nothing to see here folks, nothing to see.
If you need a professor to tell you to make good software to make good software, you aren't actually making good software and being told to do so likely won't change that. If being a professor is all about writing common sense articles like that, I got a bunch of them here for other business types:
Doctors: Please help your patients with their ailments.
Taxi-Drivers: Please take your fare to where they would like to go without taking too many detours.
Software Developers: Please make good software.
Hey! I'm a professor!