Heh, I doubt it. I tried to convince her to buy a larger cinema display to plug into the mac, but she would have none of that. She feels that a 30" display is overkill.
I'm still not buying one, but boy am I trying to get my relatives to buy them -- no more PC support questions for me, thanks.
I told my Mom to buy a 20" iMac to replace her aged Win 95/Pentium 200. Instead she bought at 17" intel dual core, but all my tech support calls just went away apart from getting email setup (the server settings).
Then, visiting home I showed her how to use the iMac as a DVD player, and when she saw this, and how it was better than her regular TV and DVD combo, she ran out and bought the 20" on the spot! So, I ended up with a 17" intel iMac that she no longer needed. I have not touched Mac OS X for years (apart from Darwin in a server environment) but all I can say is "wow". Aqua for 10.4 is how X11 should work for Linux. Everything you need is at your fingertips, and almost every mistake I have made has been because I was over thinking a solution. Mac OS just works, and is simple to use.
And then, for us Unix geeks, there is Terminal, which brings the Bash shell and the assorted Unix tools one expects. And the GUI even has a port scanner, finger and whois built into the network settings, so you don't even need to open the terminal for those functions.
So, IMO, tell your family to get iMac's to get rid of the tech support issues, but then try one yourself. If you like Unix, Aqua shows you a Unix GUI done right.
(one caveat, the version of iMac I have before patching had a keyboard issue, so that is the first bug I have dealt with, fixed in the updates though.)
We need to start working on carbon sequestration right now, unless you want 140 degree summers across the entire midwest belt. And we need to use carbon taxes as our main source of governmental revenue, not stupid things like employment taxes.
Hey, I live in Canada... Up here global warming sounds like kind of a nice idea, unless you like shoveling snow...;)
Ironically, I read an article about a guy who started shorting all the spam stocks that he got, and made $8000 in 2 weeks worth of trading. Personally I would neither short nor buy any stock I heard about from spam.
The Joad kids lived on a farm all their life and have never seen a 'real' toilet and when they flush one, they actually thought they broke it. Steinbeck wasn't dramatizing anything, people in the 1920's (and even today) have never seen a flush toilet or any of the other marvels of technology that we take for granted.
After spending 3 weeks in Northern Ontario with Outward Bound when I was 17, I came home and used a toilet for the first time since I had left. For a split second after flushing the thought went through my head: "Oh fuck, I forget how to turn this thing off!"
I would agree that it is a dry sport... with a drytop. However, I find that moves (in my larger boats) like enders and such often result in a required roll (unless you can get the sweep in to land on your butt) - and when working on space godzillas, and big air moves, you are very likely to end up getting thrashed - not to mention mystery moves.
I agree that you should have both a good high and low brace, and be able to avoid rolling in the first place, but it is sometimes unavoidable. True, you should never require it on flatwater, but on whitewater it is mandatory as soon as you go above II+/III or so. I have managed some great runs on IV+ such as the Ashnola river without flipping once (what a fantastic day that was). However, in the ocean, I am far far more willing to trust my roll than I am the other rescue techniques such as paddle floats etc, as if you end up flipping in the ocean, odds are you are in some heavy seas or bad tidal narrows, and the paddle float rescue techniques are not going to help you much.
As for the hand roll, I finish mine in a forward position, but I can do the back deck one. One of my friends always back deck finishes his hand rolls. And, strangely enough, my Dagger Super Ego rolls MUCH easier in a sweep roll as the edges are so hard and high that a brace roll (c-to-c) is hard to perform correctly (paddle starts of deeply buried). I also find the roll handy after being thumped in a hole - or out here, while surfing ~30 foot breakers at Long Beach (Vancouver Island) that when one breaks on top of you, you are probably going to need to roll out of it... once you get yourself into the trough behind the wake.
Where they beat the whitewater guys is speed (they roll over as quickly as possible in a set amount of time) and variety. Most whitewater kayakers only really use two or three different rolls and a hand roll or two regularly. Those Greenlanders have an amazing array of techniques that they use.
True - in fact when our club had a speed-rolling contest I consistently came in last. However, on the river, out of the beginners (before I became an instructor) I swam the least out of the group (45 people). In whitewater it is more about the reliablity of the roll than the type.
I generally use the Sweep, the C-to-C (my preffered roll) and the rodeo roll, however, I am able to manage a variety of others (and have only rarely had to use the handroll - but I actually find it easier in certain rare conditions.)
In whitewater you can use many of the more esoteric rolls, but some of them don't work when trapped on eddy lines, or when you are moving at a different speed relative to the water, you may find that certain roll types are impossible, or that you can only roll on one side.
However, of all the rolls, the "hip-flick" is nearly always prevalent (there are a few that don't use it, but I don't recomend them, unless your hip/torso mobility is such that you cannot use them.) The rest of the movement is how you react with your torso, and them paddle esoterics. In reality the "multitude" of roll types are really the same things, with a different looking finish, however, they are fun to watch! But the "trick rolls" are really mostly the same.
However, if you want to see a really good trick roll, search out the "From Zero to Hero" move that is only possible in a low volume whitewater boat.:)
Heh, I have had this helmet/sticker combo since 1997, here is my first chance to use it on slashdot!: Any kayak can run linux!
You just need the right stuff from thinkgeek!;)
(On a side note, I had that helmet on while paddling the Chilliwack river once, and another paddler got really mad at me because he came up to paddle from the States. And apparently he was an employee of Microsoft. I thought it was funny that the tux logo on my helmet bothered him...)
In any case, those who compete in Greenland's water sports competitions nowadays are arguably some of the best "eskimo rollers".
Heh, well as a whitewater kayaker as well, I would foster that ability on the whitewater guys. After all, you use your roll a GREAT deal while on whitewater.
But then again, I have also taught about 150 people or so how to roll a kayak too...:)
But yes, I have heard that the roll came from Greenland, but most of the greenland kayaks I have seen (original, seal skin) would be VERY hard to roll. More modern ones (narrower) are easier.
From my understanding, kayaks originated with the Inuit people of the far north (arctic ocean). None of the Inuit kayaks I have seen (in person or in photos/films) look anything like a canoe. They are all closed topped with an opening for the kayaker.
That is correct. The Inuit kayaks were nothing like canoes, they were very wide with flat bottoms and very stable, and the Inuit *DID NOT* "eskimo" roll them. Indeed, I remember a traditional Greenlander Inuit who paddled a sealskin kayak being asked: "What would you do if you flipped upside down?"
(Keep in mind the incredibly low temperatures of the water, and the artic conditions.)
The Inuit thought, for some time and answered: "Drown."
I am a certified ACA Whitewater/Sea Kayak instructor, and I have recently started racing K1's for use in adventure racing, where any craft that uses paddles (and non-locked oars) is allowed to compete in the water section. I thought that the Tieken Stealth K1 (flatwater K1, 5.2 meters long) I paddled was a fast boat, or the Carbon Fibre Necky Lookshaw II 20 feet by 20 inch beam (now no longer in production) were fast boats, but a foil....
Jeebus.
I have my doubts about the little wing, I don't live that far away from their headquarters, I would like to see it, but I have been looking for a used Necky Lookshaw II as a sea kayak for racting/touring use.
But dear god, would I love to have a flier in an adventure race - providing the water is fairly calm (rough water can cause problems for foil craft - and yes, it is for adventure races, I said *ROUGH* water)
As an avid kayaker, I must say I am just incredibly pleased that this topic appeared on slashdot, because many of the links here are to craft I have never heard of.
Best slashdot story all year IMO, and your post with this link is the pinnacle.
Ok so in the United States, porn is basically not legal to buy by a minor. The store can't sell it to you, and you can't rent it.
And hell, NC-17 movies exist, as do R movies (which require a parent).
So why do games not have similar levels of preventative measures?
A better question to ask might be, why is PORN not legal for minors to buy? After all, I am willing to bet most people here have had sex more than they have gone on shooting rampages (Ok, well this *IS* slashdot... but I digress). Yet, it is ok to show violence on TV, it is OK to show Violence in the news and Movies - But Games? They get people killed! And don't even start about hot coffee mods...
The fact that porn is not legal for minors to buy is stupid - as sexual education is a good thing, ignorance, is a bad thing. The irony is that the internet will have certanly changed that. After all, porn may still be illegal for minors to purchase, but it is free on the internet.
Personally, I would love to see government get the hell out of my way and allow me to make my own choices, which is funny, because I technically live in a less free society than the U.S. I live in Canada, but we can have boobies and swearing on tv... So, the question is, is there a nanny state? Why is it up to the state to decide what we consider our rights?
Not true. Windows NT 3.5 and 4.0 were fully supported on Alpha. MS even shipped a beta of Win2k before cancelling it. Granted, the first thing I did with my first Alpha was blow off NT and install Linux.
Oh yeah, good point, I totally forgot all about NT. Course, I never saw NT running on an Alpha, and my first experience with Unix was on an Alpha box... I can't even remember which *nix it was now... Something Sys V... So I forget all about 64 bit NT.:p
(I don't think it was Slowaris, and it MIGHT have been SCO... But it was so long ago I have since forgotten.)
The Alpha had true 64 bit for a long time, but you had to be some level of a Unix user to use it, and you never found a DEC alpha on the store shelves at big box stores. The same goes for the intel Itanic. It is a 64 bit chip, but ran x86 instructions poorly.
What AMD did is get an x86 chip out with 64bit extensions, that, at the time of its release were usless to the public at large. However, consumers thought "OMG! 64 is better than 32! ZOMG!!!" I know, because I was selling computers for a short period when the AMD 64 came out, and consumers were all about the 64bit. Even if they were planning on running XP 32 bit on the machine...
Do most chip sales happen at the release date, or do most people wait for the competitors product to come out spurring price drops to compete? I know I seldom buy anything at the alpha-expensive stage, usually preferring to wait a few months for the inevitable price drop.
It is not a question of inital chipsales, it is more a question of marketing. Back when both companies were trying to hit the 1 Ghz mark, AMD got there first. That was a big win for them, as consumers could now say 1000 Mhz! WOW! Even though intel quickly came out with faster chips thereafter. It was a win for AMD because the name AMD got into the minds of customers. The same thing with the 64 bit. Now, most people here on slashdot know what a 64 bit chip is, and does, and does not do. But the public does not. And since AMD had the 64 bit chip out first, consumers wanted it, even if it had no real benifit for them initally.
The same goes with this technology. Whomever gets it out of the gate first wins the "mindshare war" as we call it now. IIRC, the book "Predatory Marketing" covers how this works in detail - but they don't use the "mindshare" term in it.
Proteins without useful functions tend not to stay around in populations. Chances are that this protein is important for something. Good candidates are fighting off various parasitic infections, or dealing with some kind of physiological stresses. Those conditions may not arise much in Western lifestyles, and hence getting rid of aP2 may be a good idea for us, but the protein almost certainly has some kind of useful function under some conditions.
Or, it is like the appendix, or some othe holdover. It could be something that once was useful somewhere in other species, and is now not harmful to a individual until later in life, after reproduction years are passed. However, I agree with you, it most likely performs some function that is now likely obselete in our lifestyle, however, I always try to spin more than one hypothesis on any given idea. (The question is, do all species in kindom Mamimalia have this protien?)
Any good capitalist will trumpet their value based on supply and demand. Then when someone decides to give something away they'll cry like babies. Remember the banks suing the credit unions.
You are maliging capitalists here unfairly. In a free market, if someone wishes to release something free of charge, they can. Anyone who whines and cries out for "regulation" or about "unfair competition" is not really into capitalisim. However, what you illustrate by that example, is not capitalists crying foul, but people just acting in their own best interests, and that is patently human.
For a better reference check out Milton Friedmans "Free to Choose" it is a very good documentary on the free market system and Economics.
Re:I can still remember Quake 1 being released
on
Quake is 10
·
· Score: 1
When QuakeWorld came out, you could play with others anywhere at 600 ping and still be o.k with it. There was a few seconds delay, but you would essentially predict what you wanted to do. I remember I would turn, grapple against a wall, let go, and shoot hoping I was able to hit something. I don't remember broadband back in the day.
I remember that well, I started deathmatching with DOOM - indeed, I setup my first LAN with college buddies just to play DOOM over the network (yet we could only ever have a max of a 3 player game - 4 players always caused a lockup, no idea why)
I just fired up Half Life 2 deathmatch the other night, not having played DM in about a year. Within about 5 min I was being accused of "HAX! FLIBBLE HAX!!!" I guess the experience of Quakeworld on a 14.4, then 33.6 modem helped hone skills as broadband progressed. I guess it helps to have a good base in the old games? Or maybe just experience in DM? I dunno, but it is funny that I can leave DM for about a year, and get accused of using "HAX" within minutes of joining a game...
I remember the days when the only "Hax" were the not-widely known "features" like strafe jumping, advanced sizzlefry, and the rocket jump.
The association that Blu-Ray is a Sony proprietary technology is, as far as I can tell, plain wrong. It is proprietary to a large group which Sony happens to be a member of. I'm not convinced that the constant association with Sony is anything but deliberate FUD. All but two hardware makers on the DVD forum collaborated on the Blu-Ray standard.
Joke n.
- a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter; "he told a very funny joke"; "he knows a million gags"; "thanks for the laugh"; "he laughed unpleasantly at his own jest"; "even a schoolboy's jape is supposed to have some ascertainable point"
- jest: activity characterized by good humor
- antic: a ludicrous or grotesque act done for fun and amusement
- tell a joke; speak humorously; "He often jokes even when he appears serious"
- a triviality not to be taken seriously; "I regarded his campaign for mayor as a joke"
For instance, in gravity, we have Newtons law. We also have Einsteins theory.
That would be one of the examples actually. Newtons work was called "law" because of when it was discovered. Einsteins is a "Theory" because it came out in the 1900's.
A scientific theory, even one that has been granted the vaunted title of a "law"
I am not going to disagree with anything you say here because I would say it is all entirely correct. However, from what I remember of my history of science, nothing gets the label of "law" anymore, only "Theory". Law was the original name used to signify scientific "laws" in the 1700s-1800s IIRC.
It was changed to "Theory" in the 1900's as some "laws" had been disproven. So, in fact, the term "Law" is depricated, and has been replaced by theory.
This of course, causes consternation for scientists when creationists decry evolution as a "theory" and not a "law".
(Sorry for the lack of exact date ranges, I don't remember the specifics from history of science, and of course, I have none of the material at hand at the moment.)
> Nothing really wrong with that as it is just a standard business practice.
And that, my friends, is one of many things that are wrong with Western civilization today.
Perhaps. However, we don't really have a true free market economy here in North America. There are far too many laws that prevent the proper operation of a free market, and ironically, what is going on with P2P is a prime example of that market in action.
How corporations work can be benificial if governments control the cases of market failure, and otherwise leave the systems the hell alone. But that, of course is not what happens.
A great view on this is Milton Friedman's Free To Choose. You can either buy it, or again, get it via P2P networks.
So, I don't value this as something "wrong" with Western Civilization, but rather, it can actually be benificial if left to a real free market. But then, that is just my opinion.
Slashdot Mirror
Well...humans have done other things for a long time that were none too healthy. A few examples:
;)
Next thing you know Trip, we will find out that posting often to slashdot is none too healty...
Heh, I doubt it. I tried to convince her to buy a larger cinema display to plug into the mac, but she would have none of that. She feels that a 30" display is overkill.
I'm still not buying one, but boy am I trying to get my relatives to buy them -- no more PC support questions for me, thanks.
I told my Mom to buy a 20" iMac to replace her aged Win 95/Pentium 200. Instead she bought at 17" intel dual core, but all my tech support calls just went away apart from getting email setup (the server settings).
Then, visiting home I showed her how to use the iMac as a DVD player, and when she saw this, and how it was better than her regular TV and DVD combo, she ran out and bought the 20" on the spot! So, I ended up with a 17" intel iMac that she no longer needed. I have not touched Mac OS X for years (apart from Darwin in a server environment) but all I can say is "wow". Aqua for 10.4 is how X11 should work for Linux. Everything you need is at your fingertips, and almost every mistake I have made has been because I was over thinking a solution. Mac OS just works, and is simple to use.
And then, for us Unix geeks, there is Terminal, which brings the Bash shell and the assorted Unix tools one expects. And the GUI even has a port scanner, finger and whois built into the network settings, so you don't even need to open the terminal for those functions.
So, IMO, tell your family to get iMac's to get rid of the tech support issues, but then try one yourself. If you like Unix, Aqua shows you a Unix GUI done right.
(one caveat, the version of iMac I have before patching had a keyboard issue, so that is the first bug I have dealt with, fixed in the updates though.)
We need to start working on carbon sequestration right now, unless you want 140 degree summers across the entire midwest belt. And we need to use carbon taxes as our main source of governmental revenue, not stupid things like employment taxes.
;)
Hey, I live in Canada... Up here global warming sounds like kind of a nice idea, unless you like shoveling snow...
Short TMXO now!
Ironically, I read an article about a guy who started shorting all the spam stocks that he got, and made $8000 in 2 weeks worth of trading. Personally I would neither short nor buy any stock I heard about from spam.
The Joad kids lived on a farm all their life and have never seen a 'real' toilet and when they flush one, they actually thought they broke it. Steinbeck wasn't dramatizing anything, people in the 1920's (and even today) have never seen a flush toilet or any of the other marvels of technology that we take for granted.
After spending 3 weeks in Northern Ontario with Outward Bound when I was 17, I came home and used a toilet for the first time since I had left. For a split second after flushing the thought went through my head: "Oh fuck, I forget how to turn this thing off!"
I would agree that it is a dry sport... with a drytop. However, I find that moves (in my larger boats) like enders and such often result in a required roll (unless you can get the sweep in to land on your butt) - and when working on space godzillas, and big air moves, you are very likely to end up getting thrashed - not to mention mystery moves.
I agree that you should have both a good high and low brace, and be able to avoid rolling in the first place, but it is sometimes unavoidable. True, you should never require it on flatwater, but on whitewater it is mandatory as soon as you go above II+/III or so. I have managed some great runs on IV+ such as the Ashnola river without flipping once (what a fantastic day that was). However, in the ocean, I am far far more willing to trust my roll than I am the other rescue techniques such as paddle floats etc, as if you end up flipping in the ocean, odds are you are in some heavy seas or bad tidal narrows, and the paddle float rescue techniques are not going to help you much.
As for the hand roll, I finish mine in a forward position, but I can do the back deck one. One of my friends always back deck finishes his hand rolls. And, strangely enough, my Dagger Super Ego rolls MUCH easier in a sweep roll as the edges are so hard and high that a brace roll (c-to-c) is hard to perform correctly (paddle starts of deeply buried). I also find the roll handy after being thumped in a hole - or out here, while surfing ~30 foot breakers at Long Beach (Vancouver Island) that when one breaks on top of you, you are probably going to need to roll out of it... once you get yourself into the trough behind the wake.
Where they beat the whitewater guys is speed (they roll over as quickly as possible in a set amount of time) and variety. Most whitewater kayakers only really use two or three different rolls and a hand roll or two regularly. Those Greenlanders have an amazing array of techniques that they use.
:)
True - in fact when our club had a speed-rolling contest I consistently came in last. However, on the river, out of the beginners (before I became an instructor) I swam the least out of the group (45 people). In whitewater it is more about the reliablity of the roll than the type.
I generally use the Sweep, the C-to-C (my preffered roll) and the rodeo roll, however, I am able to manage a variety of others (and have only rarely had to use the handroll - but I actually find it easier in certain rare conditions.)
In whitewater you can use many of the more esoteric rolls, but some of them don't work when trapped on eddy lines, or when you are moving at a different speed relative to the water, you may find that certain roll types are impossible, or that you can only roll on one side.
However, of all the rolls, the "hip-flick" is nearly always prevalent (there are a few that don't use it, but I don't recomend them, unless your hip/torso mobility is such that you cannot use them.) The rest of the movement is how you react with your torso, and them paddle esoterics. In reality the "multitude" of roll types are really the same things, with a different looking finish, however, they are fun to watch! But the "trick rolls" are really mostly the same.
However, if you want to see a really good trick roll, search out the "From Zero to Hero" move that is only possible in a low volume whitewater boat.
Yeah, but can it run Linux?
;)
That is the real question.
Heh, I have had this helmet/sticker combo since 1997, here is my first chance to use it on slashdot!:
Any kayak can run linux!
You just need the right stuff from thinkgeek!
(On a side note, I had that helmet on while paddling the Chilliwack river once, and another paddler got really mad at me because he came up to paddle from the States. And apparently he was an employee of Microsoft. I thought it was funny that the tux logo on my helmet bothered him...)
In any case, those who compete in Greenland's water sports competitions nowadays are arguably some of the best "eskimo rollers".
:)
Heh, well as a whitewater kayaker as well, I would foster that ability on the whitewater guys. After all, you use your roll a GREAT deal while on whitewater.
But then again, I have also taught about 150 people or so how to roll a kayak too...
But yes, I have heard that the roll came from Greenland, but most of the greenland kayaks I have seen (original, seal skin) would be VERY hard to roll. More modern ones (narrower) are easier.
From my understanding, kayaks originated with the Inuit people of the far north (arctic ocean). None of the Inuit kayaks I have seen (in person or in photos/films) look anything like a canoe. They are all closed topped with an opening for the kayaker.
That is correct. The Inuit kayaks were nothing like canoes, they were very wide with flat bottoms and very stable, and the Inuit *DID NOT* "eskimo" roll them. Indeed, I remember a traditional Greenlander Inuit who paddled a sealskin kayak being asked: "What would you do if you flipped upside down?"
(Keep in mind the incredibly low temperatures of the water, and the artic conditions.)
The Inuit thought, for some time and answered: "Drown."
WOW! Thats just fantastic!
I am a certified ACA Whitewater/Sea Kayak instructor, and I have recently started racing K1's for use in adventure racing, where any craft that uses paddles (and non-locked oars) is allowed to compete in the water section. I thought that the Tieken Stealth K1 (flatwater K1, 5.2 meters long) I paddled was a fast boat, or the Carbon Fibre Necky Lookshaw II 20 feet by 20 inch beam (now no longer in production) were fast boats, but a foil....
Jeebus.
I have my doubts about the little wing, I don't live that far away from their headquarters, I would like to see it, but I have been looking for a used Necky Lookshaw II as a sea kayak for racting/touring use.
But dear god, would I love to have a flier in an adventure race - providing the water is fairly calm (rough water can cause problems for foil craft - and yes, it is for adventure races, I said *ROUGH* water)
As an avid kayaker, I must say I am just incredibly pleased that this topic appeared on slashdot, because many of the links here are to craft I have never heard of.
Best slashdot story all year IMO, and your post with this link is the pinnacle.
Ok so in the United States, porn is basically not legal to buy by a minor. The store can't sell it to you, and you can't rent it.
And hell, NC-17 movies exist, as do R movies (which require a parent).
So why do games not have similar levels of preventative measures?
A better question to ask might be, why is PORN not legal for minors to buy? After all, I am willing to bet most people here have had sex more than they have gone on shooting rampages (Ok, well this *IS* slashdot... but I digress). Yet, it is ok to show violence on TV, it is OK to show Violence in the news and Movies - But Games? They get people killed! And don't even start about hot coffee mods...
The fact that porn is not legal for minors to buy is stupid - as sexual education is a good thing, ignorance, is a bad thing. The irony is that the internet will have certanly changed that. After all, porn may still be illegal for minors to purchase, but it is free on the internet.
Personally, I would love to see government get the hell out of my way and allow me to make my own choices, which is funny, because I technically live in a less free society than the U.S. I live in Canada, but we can have boobies and swearing on tv... So, the question is, is there a nanny state? Why is it up to the state to decide what we consider our rights?
Not true. Windows NT 3.5 and 4.0 were fully supported on Alpha. MS even shipped a beta of Win2k before cancelling it. Granted, the first thing I did with my first Alpha was blow off NT and install Linux.
:p
Oh yeah, good point, I totally forgot all about NT. Course, I never saw NT running on an Alpha, and my first experience with Unix was on an Alpha box... I can't even remember which *nix it was now... Something Sys V... So I forget all about 64 bit NT.
(I don't think it was Slowaris, and it MIGHT have been SCO... But it was so long ago I have since forgotten.)
The Alpha had true 64 bit for a long time, but you had to be some level of a Unix user to use it, and you never found a DEC alpha on the store shelves at big box stores. The same goes for the intel Itanic. It is a 64 bit chip, but ran x86 instructions poorly.
What AMD did is get an x86 chip out with 64bit extensions, that, at the time of its release were usless to the public at large. However, consumers thought "OMG! 64 is better than 32! ZOMG!!!" I know, because I was selling computers for a short period when the AMD 64 came out, and consumers were all about the 64bit. Even if they were planning on running XP 32 bit on the machine...
Do most chip sales happen at the release date, or do most people wait for the competitors product to come out spurring price drops to compete? I know I seldom buy anything at the alpha-expensive stage, usually preferring to wait a few months for the inevitable price drop.
It is not a question of inital chipsales, it is more a question of marketing. Back when both companies were trying to hit the 1 Ghz mark, AMD got there first. That was a big win for them, as consumers could now say 1000 Mhz! WOW! Even though intel quickly came out with faster chips thereafter. It was a win for AMD because the name AMD got into the minds of customers. The same thing with the 64 bit. Now, most people here on slashdot know what a 64 bit chip is, and does, and does not do. But the public does not. And since AMD had the 64 bit chip out first, consumers wanted it, even if it had no real benifit for them initally.
The same goes with this technology. Whomever gets it out of the gate first wins the "mindshare war" as we call it now. IIRC, the book "Predatory Marketing" covers how this works in detail - but they don't use the "mindshare" term in it.
Proteins without useful functions tend not to stay around in populations. Chances are that this protein is important for something. Good candidates are fighting off various parasitic infections, or dealing with some kind of physiological stresses. Those conditions may not arise much in Western lifestyles, and hence getting rid of aP2 may be a good idea for us, but the protein almost certainly has some kind of useful function under some conditions.
Or, it is like the appendix, or some othe holdover. It could be something that once was useful somewhere in other species, and is now not harmful to a individual until later in life, after reproduction years are passed. However, I agree with you, it most likely performs some function that is now likely obselete in our lifestyle, however, I always try to spin more than one hypothesis on any given idea. (The question is, do all species in kindom Mamimalia have this protien?)
3) Nobody is tracking the larger space junk.
i ct_war/norad/
NORAD - from 1968. Yes, the space junk is still tracked today.
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDCC-1-71-1552-10481/confl
Or were you using the sarcasm tag? I could not tell.
Any good capitalist will trumpet their value based on supply and demand. Then when someone decides to give something away they'll cry like babies. Remember the banks suing the credit unions.
You are maliging capitalists here unfairly. In a free market, if someone wishes to release something free of charge, they can. Anyone who whines and cries out for "regulation" or about "unfair competition" is not really into capitalisim. However, what you illustrate by that example, is not capitalists crying foul, but people just acting in their own best interests, and that is patently human.
For a better reference check out Milton Friedmans "Free to Choose" it is a very good documentary on the free market system and Economics.
When QuakeWorld came out, you could play with others anywhere at 600 ping and still be o.k with it. There was a few seconds delay, but you would essentially predict what you wanted to do. I remember I would turn, grapple against a wall, let go, and shoot hoping I was able to hit something. I don't remember broadband back in the day.
I remember that well, I started deathmatching with DOOM - indeed, I setup my first LAN with college buddies just to play DOOM over the network (yet we could only ever have a max of a 3 player game - 4 players always caused a lockup, no idea why)
I just fired up Half Life 2 deathmatch the other night, not having played DM in about a year. Within about 5 min I was being accused of "HAX! FLIBBLE HAX!!!" I guess the experience of Quakeworld on a 14.4, then 33.6 modem helped hone skills as broadband progressed. I guess it helps to have a good base in the old games? Or maybe just experience in DM? I dunno, but it is funny that I can leave DM for about a year, and get accused of using "HAX" within minutes of joining a game...
I remember the days when the only "Hax" were the not-widely known "features" like strafe jumping, advanced sizzlefry, and the rocket jump.
Ah, those were the days.
Joke n.
- a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter; "he told a very funny joke"; "he knows a million gags"; "thanks for the laugh"; "he laughed unpleasantly at his own jest"; "even a schoolboy's jape is supposed to have some ascertainable point"
- jest: activity characterized by good humor
- antic: a ludicrous or grotesque act done for fun and amusement
- tell a joke; speak humorously; "He often jokes even when he appears serious"
- a triviality not to be taken seriously; "I regarded his campaign for mayor as a joke"
- act in a funny or teasing way
It remains to be seen if the Beta-Ra*COUGH* blu-ray has any merit.
Please forgive me. I seem to have caught a cold. It has persisted since, oh, about 1983 or so...
For instance, in gravity, we have Newtons law. We also have Einsteins theory.
That would be one of the examples actually. Newtons work was called "law" because of when it was discovered. Einsteins is a "Theory" because it came out in the 1900's.
A scientific theory, even one that has been granted the vaunted title of a "law"
I am not going to disagree with anything you say here because I would say it is all entirely correct. However, from what I remember of my history of science, nothing gets the label of "law" anymore, only "Theory". Law was the original name used to signify scientific "laws" in the 1700s-1800s IIRC.
It was changed to "Theory" in the 1900's as some "laws" had been disproven. So, in fact, the term "Law" is depricated, and has been replaced by theory.
This of course, causes consternation for scientists when creationists decry evolution as a "theory" and not a "law".
(Sorry for the lack of exact date ranges, I don't remember the specifics from history of science, and of course, I have none of the material at hand at the moment.)
> Nothing really wrong with that as it is just a standard business practice.
And that, my friends, is one of many things that are wrong with Western civilization today.
Perhaps. However, we don't really have a true free market economy here in North America. There are far too many laws that prevent the proper operation of a free market, and ironically, what is going on with P2P is a prime example of that market in action.
How corporations work can be benificial if governments control the cases of market failure, and otherwise leave the systems the hell alone. But that, of course is not what happens.
A great view on this is Milton Friedman's Free To Choose. You can either buy it, or again, get it via P2P networks.
So, I don't value this as something "wrong" with Western Civilization, but rather, it can actually be benificial if left to a real free market. But then, that is just my opinion.