There was a time when Fox was a cutting edge network. They moved faster, and kept up with the times better than any of the Dinosaurs (ABC, NBC, CBS).
Remember when the Simpsons debuted?
Fox still has some fast-movers, like MadTV (which is hands-down better than the current SnL), but it's lost it's way. The edge has gone dull on crap like COPS and 9021blow. retch!
There are still SOME good shows out there, but they're spread out all over the channel spectrum, and often at inopportune times.
Looks like I'll be treating myself to a TiVo or ReplayTV. Now, about getting bigger HD in those puppies...
WRT generic retail salespeople, I agree wholeheartedly.
I've worked as a retail sales cleark during my early college years. There was really not much to the 'sales' part of the job, but the store I worked in (software and game hardware) had an outstanding staff. We were all friends and we took interest in what we sold. This made a huge difference between our little group and the register-jockeys at Wal-Mart.:P
But, I'd caution against considering all people who sell things as being under the same 'retail salesman' umbrella. Throughout Europe, much more than here in the States, salespeople are often craftsmen selling their own products. These folks take pride in their stock because it is their handiwork (not the product of an assembly line robot) and it is their reputation.
You are right-on in the statement that retail salespeople are seen as little more than automatons, and often malicious pushers of junk, in other countries. But in these same countries, carftsmen who sell their work are respected and often treasured - much more so than here in the US. Here, anyone selling anything is seen as a retailer. Often, craftsmen are reduced to that leve, without deserving it.
A neighborhood baker, for example, is a staple of most smaller European towns, and every 'burb has a selection of specialized shops where folks go to get things repaired or replaced.
In the US, with a Wal-Mart and a McDonald's on every corner, the worth of a craftsman is reduced to rubble, while the opportunity to be a 'salesperson' is almost the de-facto entry point into the work force. I'm afraid that after everyone has worked their first job as a salesperson, it gives that 'profession' undue credibility. It's a stepping stone for the young - to learn the discipline of working for a living. Choosing to 'sell', especially hard-sell a poor product (and most products are poor thanks to economies of scale) for a career is much like aspiring to being a leech.
You make some good points, the American public education system is a joke. Our students are the least capable in math and science out of all of the students from the industrialized world.
The American educational system does exactly what it is suppsed to do: Our public education systems churns out semi-literate, semi-educated consumeroids. However not all of us are beer bellied football junkies.
In other words, it separates that wheat from the chaff.. Those who want to learn, and to succeed, are given the chance to do so. The American educational system gives ample opportunity to rise to the challenge to learning HOW the world works.
But, for those people whose little heads hurt when they think a little too hard, there's the politically correct 'sheltered inner-child' track, where you get passing grades just for showing up. The products of this track go on to live paycheck to paycheck, feeding the economy with senseless spending of all things 'new and improved'.
Those who choose not to learn math and science (and that's what it is, a choice) are more easily led around by advertisers and used car salesmen - and those in turn work for people who DID pay attention in school.
America did not become a world economic leader by being a nation of scientists. It became a world leader by haveing the ideas of an enlightened few implemented by millions of factory workers.
As part of its effort to standardize the user interface and functionality of all Microsoft programs, Windows producer Microsoft has proposed the following guidelines. They will make your development strategy consistent with the development strategy at Microsoft.
1. Start by having your R&D staff search the net and other sources for popular applications until they find one that would look good in a box with the art division's latest logo.
2. The R&D staff must now completely replicate that product, changing the interface slightly and adding no less than 20,000 extra "features," at least 100 of which must really be bugs that they didn't feel like fixing.
3. Do NOT, under any circumstances, test the product. This is a waste of time and money. Ship the first beta that arrives on your desk. In fact, don't bother even getting it on your desk. Just ship every build that comes along. Users like upgrades. Besides, you can charge people for bug-fixes cleverly disguised as "service packages". Users love service packages.
4. Hopefully someone's written a user's manual. In fact, it's probably readable by a normal human being. This is unacceptable; perform a find and replace operation on random English words, replacing them with technical terms and acronyms. Users like acronyms; they add mystery to a product. Never tell what an acronym means; this is unprofessional. You may even wish to make up your own acronyms; again, don't tell what they mean. For every sensible sentence, you lose at least three calls to your $200-per-incident tech support line. Users love calling tech support, especially when there are fifty touch tone menus that all lead to the same two people.
5. Prepare for shipping. Have your team of 57 lawyers create a prefabricated license agreement. If you do not have 57 lawyers, hire or fire as necessary so that you do have 57 lawyers. Be sure that the license agreement includes a "by opening the box, you agree to this" statement. Then put it inside the box. Users will perceive this as a joke and laugh. Users love involuntarily binding themselves to legal agreements.
6. Before shipping, invest in shrink wrap. Shrink wrap the manual. Shrink wrap the CD. Shrink wrap each and every floppy disk separately. Shrink wrap the "getting started" card. Shrink wrap the registration card. Shrink wrap the card from your grandmother. Then dump the whole mess in a box and shrink wrap it. Pack several boxes inside a larger brown box with 5,637 non-decomposable foam peanuts (each one shrink wrapped individually, of course). Be sure the foam peanut count is exactly 5,637. Remove or add shrink-wrapped foam peanuts as necessary. Throw in a roll of bubble wrap because of its entertainment value.
7. Ship the product and move your entire R&D and art staff to the $200-per-incident tech support lines.
Actually, the orbit of the Moon already IS a slow, outward spiral. The Moon is moving away from Earth at the rate of 4"/year, IIRC.
This was explained in detail in a Discovery Channel show ("What If We Had No Moon?"). The main thrust of the show dealt with the Moon's creation, and this is how it came up on/. several weeks ago.
Detonating a few nukes on the Moon's far-side might slow or stop this, but we'd miss the light-show. Anyway, we shouldn't be moving furniture aroud the Solar System just yet.:)
In millions and millions of years, the Moon will be much farther away, and the tides will certainly be affected. Hopefully by then we will have moved out of our parents spare bedroom, rather than blown each other to smithereens over some mine-shaft gap.
It's one thing I haven't heard yet in this whole M$ vs./. fiasco.
Comments are owned by the poster.
Everyone was up in arms when/. reprinted people's comments in book form, for profit. Where are all those claimants now? Where are all the people who were so proud of being John Doe #whatever, in the DeCSS brew-ha-ha? Where are all the individuals, standing up for their words and rights, rearing to take on their oppressor?
M$ should be contacting BlueUnderwear directly, not bothering Roblimo with worthless drivvel.:)
And why doesn't M$ just outright BUY VA Linux Systems, and get this headache over with?
The ban on reprocessing may have been politically expedient (because it plays well to an ignorant public), but it has next to zero scientific foundation
Agreed, sadly. Doesn't this seem to be the norm of politics though? Placate the voters to vote for you again, and do the right thing when and if it's convenient - in that order.
Hearing statistical mutations used as 'evidence' in an election year drives me nuts. The unemployment rate will be 0 when we're all homeless; but most voters slept through high-school geometry, so nevermind rates and the rate at which they're changing.:)
The only ones who seem to have any appreciation of statistics (besides the scientists of course) are the economists, but they deal in weather futures and hedge funds as well.
As for research reactors, there may be a reason why they're not a bother to the DoD. The research is Federally funded, and as such, heavily controlled. Has anyone been able to bring one online without governmental 'aid'?
Alright, so I wasn't clear, and didn't bother to look up complete information.:)
How about this: The equipment needed to recycle spent nuclear fuel for reuse in power plants can also be used for enriching Plutonium for use in nuclear weapons. Keeping this equipment out of non-military hands is one of the reasons the NRC requires that highly radioactive spent fuel (after one fuel cycle) be expensively stored rather than enriched and reburned until less radioactive.
The point was the NRC regulation, not the military potential of the recycled fuel.
Actually, I think that there is huge promise for Space in nuclear power. Currently, the biggest supply of electricity for the Space Station is supposed to be solar. Great if it's adequate, but putting a Trident reactor on a detachable pylon, on a remote part of the station... Attaching an SRB to it to send the thing into the sun (should it malfunction)..
What about Mars? As I think of it, if a sub can stay self-sustaining for months, then this is promising technology for extended, remote space missions. We'd need water, but no need to carry too much of it. It can probably be dug up from the crust, or maybe snagged from orbit.
NASA would (and HAS I'm sure) learn a great deal from the submarine experience. Not just in the power generation and recycling departments, but also in the sociological ones. So many people, confined in a cramped space for a long time - sounds a lot like a trip to Mars to me.
Yeah, there's problems in all this, but the computing power on my desktop put Man on the Moon a few decades ago. That says that problems can be solved, once we put our collective mind to them.
As for the issue of the government controlling nuclear power; your points are well taken. It could not simply be a transplantation of military mentality. But, there are enough civil programs in place to make for an interesting hybrid - especially with the TVA now in history books.:)
Gibson came up with some neat stuff, but the 'transparent' stuff of Neuromancer is what the future is made of.
Specifically what comes to mind is the Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority. A Federally controlled electrical power infrastructure.
We've all seen nuclear power fail, when handled by private electrical companies; but the government has been making it work wonders in submarine and carrier applications for decades.
The reason there is radio-active waste is NRC regulation, since 'recycling' waste results in weapons-grade nuclear fuel.
The reason there is a bad reputation in the nuke industry is cost-cutting, pure and simple. Running equipment to the point of failure, minimal staffing, letting inspections slide... It's all been done to recoup some of the cost of building a plant, and to make a buck. The Fed thinks differently about these things, especially with a DoD presence involved.
Putting two and two together, giving the government control and responsibility for nuclear power accomplishes several things.
1. Spent fuel can be recycled and reburned until inert, since the DoD will be, in effect, in control of the weapons-grade producing technology.
2. It will be managed adequately. When was the last time the DoD/Fed cut corners on maintenance and beurocracy? Yeah, they screw the social programs and NASA, but they pay $400/USAF screw-driver.
3. A minimum level of power supply to the national grid will be guaranteed. Privatization of power can be relegated to conventional and 'natural' sources, with a set of nuclear anchors bolstering the grid in times of peak demand - and selling the power abroad in low demand.
So, Gibson seems to have seen that this is a viable idea. Yeah, there's issues. The government being in control of weapons manufacturing capability will cause international problems. But these can be mediated with observers, or the selling of power and goods, dropping of tariffs; economics speaks louder than bombs these days.
Cyberspace aside, there's all the bio-tech Gibson brought (arguably not the first to do so, remember Bester?) to the scene, the Kaibatsu (Is that right? It's been years) multi-national corporations, the Virtual Light goggles that are now in college R&D labs (Georgetown?), the Island nations serving as data havens (or at least top-level domain whores today)...
The *splat* referred to the amount of follow-up to a story. There is much less discussion following a story posting, and the discussion doesn't seem to add much value.
Maybe that's just a function of the number of people on the site though. I'd be curious to know how many registered users, and daily visitors there are at K5.
When/. posts a story, there is huge follow-up. If the story is angled at a particular interest-group (KDE, Security, NASA) there is a lot of valuable information that is contributed by posters. If/. misfires and posts divvel or fluff, there is ample flamage to serve as entertainment.
Maybe I'm just not configuring K5 right just yet, but the comments on the stories tend to be opinions on wether the story is good and worth posting, or not. Seems moot, since I've already seen the story, right? Am I missing something?
Please educate me, preferably in the above URL forum, as I would like to see why so many 'K5 zealots' push it so hard. They post intelligently otherwise, so I must be missing something.
This week, a million fraternity brothers rushed to join NASA. The reason: scientists have discovered beer in space.
Well, not beer exactly. But they did find alcohol: ethyl alcohol, to be precise, the active ingredient in all major alcoholic drinks (antifreeze Jell-O shots, quite obviously, are exempted from this category). Three British scientists, Drs. Tom Millar, Geoffrey MacDonald and Rolf Habing, discovered this interstellar Everclear floating in a gas cloud in the contellation of Aquila (sign of the Eagle, the mascot of Anheuser-Busch! Hmmmmm).
Millar and his compatriots have estimated the size of this gas cloud at approximately 1,000 times the diameter of our own solar system; there's enough alcohol out there, they say, to make 400 trillion trillion pints of beer. These guys are British, mind you; if you were to translate this in terms of American beer (which the British, with some justification, regard as fermented club soda), the amount of potential brewski just about doubles.
In human terms: remember that double-keg party you threw at the end of your Junior year in college (the second Junior year)? Imagine throwing that same party, every eight hours, for the next 30 billion years. You'd STILL have beer left over. And boy, would YOUR bathroom be a mess! Simply put, no one could ever drink 400 trillion trillion pints of beer, except maybe Buffalo Bills fans.
The sheer volume of all this alcohol begs the question of how it managed to get out there in the first place. Despite the simplifying effect it has on the human brain, ethyl alcohol is a reasonably complex molecule: two carbon atoms, five hydrogen atoms, and a hydroxyl radical, all cavorting together in beery camaraderie. It's not a compund that is going to spontaneously arise out of the cold depths of space. It can lead to speculation: What is this cloud?
1.It's God's beer. After all, He worked for six days creating the universe, and on the seventh day, He rested. And after you've had a hard week at the office, don't YOU grab a beer? Since man is made in God's image, it could be that this cloud is the remaining evidence of the first, and best, Miller Time.
2.It's Purgatory ("400 trillion trillion bottles of beer on the wall, 400 trillion trillion bottles of beer! Take one down, pass it around, three hundred ninety-nine septillion, nine hundred ninety-nine sextillion, nine hundred ninety-nine quintillion, nine hundred ninety-nine quadrillion, nine hundred ninety-nine trillion, nine hundred ninety-nine billion, nine hundred ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine, bottles of beer on the wall!")
3.Proof of an undeniably highly advanced but chronically dipsomaniac alien society. This particular theory is shaky, however: it's reasonable to assume that if the aliens were going to construct a nebula of alcohol, they'd also have large clouds of Beer Nuts and pretzels nearby for snacking. Advanced spectral analysis has yet to locate them.
The truth of the matter, however, is far more prosaic. In the middle of this gas cloud is a young and no doubt quite inebriated star. As the star heats up and contracts, sucking the dust and gas of the cloud into a smaller area, complex molecules form as a result of greater interaction between the elements. Ethyl alcohol forms on small motes of dust in the cloud, and then, as the motes angle in closer towards the star and heat up, the alcohol is released from the motes in gaseous form. And there you have it: an alcohol cloud. Or, as Dave Bowman might say, "My God! It's full of booze!"
Enough with the science lesson, you say. Just tell me how to GET there! Sorry, Chuckles. You can't get there from here. The gas cloud (which, by the way, has the utterly romantic name of "G34.3") is 10,000 light years away: 58 quadrillion miles. Even if you hijacked the shuttle and headed out with thrusters on full, by the time you got there, the guy in Purgatory would be done with his tune. You'd have had time to work up a powerful thirst, but you'd also be, in a word, dead.
No, the Space Beer Cloud will have to wait for the far future, when men can leap through the universe at warp speed. One can only imagine what they will do when they get there:
Captain Kirk: My....GOD! Sulu! What....is....THAT? Sulu: It's a free floating cloud of alcohol, sir. Kirk: And we've just run out of Romulan Ale! Could it be a trap, Bones? Bones: Damn it, Jim! I'm a doctor, not a distiller of fine spirits! Kirk: We need that booze! But if we fly through that cloud, we'll be too drunk to drive! Spock: May I remind you, Captain, that I am a Vulcan. We are a race of designated drivers. Kirk: Well, all righty, then. Spock, drive us through! Bones and I will be out on the hull. With our mouths... open!
It is certainly News for Nerds, though I don't know if it's Stuff that Matters. After all, $10k for the 3x18" panels? I haven't got that kind of cash.
But I am getting a bit worn down by the Kuro5hin and theGEEK trolling. Slashdot has bigger and better news than either of those sites. Sorry.
K5 tends to have pretty obscure suff, and theGEEK isn't much better. Typically, those sites are either on/.'s heels with 'real' news, or they make a *splat* when they feature a 'hit'. At least on a slow day,/. makes a big old THUD.:)
Now, that's not saying that/. is fine, it's definitelly gotten very diluted since 'the buyout'. I'd love to know what our esteemed hosts do with their (paid for) time, since the content was much better back when it was all a labour of love. But at least/. is a lot more sophisticated than either of the two upstarts who keep trying to advertize in the trailing edge of people's posts here.
/me stops laughing, gets up off the floor and wipes tears from eyes.
You know, if Slashdot wasn't on CyberPatrol's black list before... it is now.
Thank you. It's about damn time we saw some serrated, edgy humour here again. It's too bad that's an AC post, really, you'd be on an elevator to Nirvana.
Heh! Reminds me of that early 80's film, Brainstorm (or was it Mindstorm) with Christopher Walken.
The essence of the film was that sensory perceptions could be recorded by one person, and replayed (relived) by another (a'la Gibson's sensorium).
The funny scene that comes to mind involved one of the researchers making a tight loop of sensory tape, to relive the moment of orgasm, for about 24 hours straight.
The thing with Katz would be the exact reverse of that.
Dihydrogen Monoxide considered harmful!
on
Silicon Hell
·
· Score: 2
Dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people every year. Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO, but the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide do not end there. Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHMO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance. For those who have become dependent, DHMO withdrawal means certain death.
Dihydrogen monoxide:
* is also known as hydroxyl acid, and is the major component of acid rain. * contributes to the greenhouse effect. * may cause severe burns. * contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape. * accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals. * may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes. * has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.
Contamination Is Reaching Epidemic Proportions!
Quantities of dihydrogen monoxide have been found in almost every stream, lake, and reservoir in America today. But the pollution is global, and the contaminant has even been found in Antarctic ice. DHMO has caused millions of dollars of property damage in the Midwest, and recently California. Despite the danger, dihydrogen monoxide is often used:
* as an industrial solvent and coolant. * in nuclear power plants. * in the production of Styrofoam. * as a fire retardant. * in many forms of cruel animal research. * in the distribution of pesticides. Even after washing, produce remains contaminated by this chemical. * as an additive in certain junk-foods and other food products.
Companies dump waste DHMO into rivers and the ocean, and nothing can be done to stop them because this practice is still legal. The impact on wildlife is extreme, and we cannot afford to ignore it any longer!
The Horror Must Be Stopped!
The American government has refused to ban the production, distribution, or use of this damaging chemical due to its importance to the economic health of this nation. In fact, the navy and other military organizations are conducting experiments with DHMO, and designing multi-billion dollar devices to control and utilize it during warfare situations. Hundreds of military research facilities receive tons of it through a highly sophisticated underground distribution network. Many store large quantities for later use.
It's Not Too Late!
Act *now* to prevent further contamination. Find out more about this dangerous chemical. What you don't know can hurt you and others throughout the world. Send e-mail to no_dhmo@circus.com or a SASE to:
Coalition to Ban DHMO 211 Pearl St. Santa Cruz CA 95060
Slashdot Mirror
Is it just me, or is there something terribly funny about the irony of this.
Even a 'feature' that no one wanted has bugs, and worse, security holes.
What's next? Playing the flight-sim Easter Egg in Excel gives you Administrator rights?
When will the US stop existing in a vacuum? The world does not revolve around Washington, DC.
"We clobbered you with our McCulture, and now will pummel you with our Puritanical sense of ethics!"
Aside: It's funny how racism only runs rampant in the one country that considers 'racial hatred' to be a protected, inalienable civil right.
There is nothing wrong with sex and nudity. There is nothing wrong with sex on television - it is the parent's responsibility to raise their kids.
The IS something wrong with sex in the Oval Office.
They ran out of Beatles songs to keep the product line going...
I mean, would YOU buy a AGP called "The Savory Truffle"?
Amen to that. And let's add to it.
There was a time when Fox was a cutting edge network. They moved faster, and kept up with the times better than any of the Dinosaurs (ABC, NBC, CBS).
Remember when the Simpsons debuted?
Fox still has some fast-movers, like MadTV (which is hands-down better than the current SnL), but it's lost it's way. The edge has gone dull on crap like COPS and 9021blow. retch!
There are still SOME good shows out there, but they're spread out all over the channel spectrum, and often at inopportune times.
Looks like I'll be treating myself to a TiVo or ReplayTV. Now, about getting bigger HD in those puppies...
That Matrix: The Musical is some sort of a cruel joke, isn't it?
Please, please take a look at Platrix! (http://www.mellow.de/platrix/index2.htm) It's what happens when you cross The Matrix with South Park.
A 25MB MPEG, but well worth the time...
WRT generic retail salespeople, I agree wholeheartedly.
:P
I've worked as a retail sales cleark during my early college years. There was really not much to the 'sales' part of the job, but the store I worked in (software and game hardware) had an outstanding staff. We were all friends and we took interest in what we sold. This made a huge difference between our little group and the register-jockeys at Wal-Mart.
But, I'd caution against considering all people who sell things as being under the same 'retail salesman' umbrella. Throughout Europe, much more than here in the States, salespeople are often craftsmen selling their own products. These folks take pride in their stock because it is their handiwork (not the product of an assembly line robot) and it is their reputation.
You are right-on in the statement that retail salespeople are seen as little more than automatons, and often malicious pushers of junk, in other countries. But in these same countries, carftsmen who sell their work are respected and often treasured - much more so than here in the US. Here, anyone selling anything is seen as a retailer. Often, craftsmen are reduced to that leve, without deserving it.
A neighborhood baker, for example, is a staple of most smaller European towns, and every 'burb has a selection of specialized shops where folks go to get things repaired or replaced.
In the US, with a Wal-Mart and a McDonald's on every corner, the worth of a craftsman is reduced to rubble, while the opportunity to be a 'salesperson' is almost the de-facto entry point into the work force. I'm afraid that after everyone has worked their first job as a salesperson, it gives that 'profession' undue credibility. It's a stepping stone for the young - to learn the discipline of working for a living. Choosing to 'sell', especially hard-sell a poor product (and most products are poor thanks to economies of scale) for a career is much like aspiring to being a leech.
You make some good points, the American public education system is a joke. Our students are the least capable in math and science out of all of the students from the industrialized world.
The American educational system does exactly what it is suppsed to do:
Our public education systems churns out semi-literate, semi-educated consumeroids. However not all of us are beer bellied football junkies.
In other words, it separates that wheat from the chaff.. Those who want to learn, and to succeed, are given the chance to do so. The American educational system gives ample opportunity to rise to the challenge to learning HOW the world works.
But, for those people whose little heads hurt when they think a little too hard, there's the politically correct 'sheltered inner-child' track, where you get passing grades just for showing up. The products of this track go on to live paycheck to paycheck, feeding the economy with senseless spending of all things 'new and improved'.
Those who choose not to learn math and science (and that's what it is, a choice) are more easily led around by advertisers and used car salesmen - and those in turn work for people who DID pay attention in school.
America did not become a world economic leader by being a nation of scientists. It became a world leader by haveing the ideas of an enlightened few implemented by millions of factory workers.
I'm a Morlock. Please pass the Eloi.
As part of its effort to standardize the user interface and functionality of all Microsoft programs, Windows producer Microsoft has proposed the following guidelines. They will make your development strategy consistent with the development strategy at Microsoft.
1. Start by having your R&D staff search the net and other sources for popular applications until they find one that would look good in a box with the art division's latest logo.
2. The R&D staff must now completely replicate that product, changing the interface slightly and adding no less than 20,000 extra "features," at least 100 of which must really be bugs that they didn't feel like fixing.
3. Do NOT, under any circumstances, test the product. This is a waste of time and money. Ship the first beta that arrives on your desk. In fact, don't bother even getting it on your desk. Just ship every build that comes along. Users like upgrades. Besides, you can charge people for bug-fixes cleverly disguised as "service packages". Users love service packages.
4. Hopefully someone's written a user's manual. In fact, it's probably readable by a normal human being. This is unacceptable; perform a find and replace operation on random English words, replacing them with technical terms and acronyms. Users like acronyms; they add mystery to a product. Never tell what an acronym means; this is unprofessional. You may even wish to make up your own acronyms; again, don't tell what they mean. For every sensible sentence, you lose at least three calls to your $200-per-incident tech support line. Users love calling tech support, especially when there are fifty touch tone menus that all lead to the same two people.
5. Prepare for shipping. Have your team of 57 lawyers create a prefabricated license agreement. If you do not have 57 lawyers, hire or fire as necessary so that you do have 57 lawyers. Be sure that the license agreement includes a "by opening the box, you agree to this" statement. Then put it inside the box. Users will perceive this as a joke and laugh. Users love involuntarily binding themselves to legal agreements.
6. Before shipping, invest in shrink wrap. Shrink wrap the manual. Shrink wrap the CD. Shrink wrap each and every floppy disk separately. Shrink wrap the "getting started" card. Shrink wrap the registration card. Shrink wrap the card from your grandmother. Then dump the whole mess in a box and shrink wrap it. Pack several boxes inside a larger brown box with 5,637 non-decomposable foam peanuts (each one shrink wrapped individually, of course). Be sure the foam peanut count is exactly 5,637. Remove or add shrink-wrapped foam peanuts as necessary. Throw in a roll of bubble wrap because of its entertainment value.
7. Ship the product and move your entire R&D and art staff to the $200-per-incident tech support lines.
The managers of web developers are.
They want it to have the latest wizz-bang 'features' of a half-dozen different browsers.
They want it to contain ALL 'pertinent' information on the front page, but be clear, concise and readable at a glance.
They want it to PRINT cleanly on an 8.5x11 sheet - or worse yet, on an A4 sheet.
They want it to be secure, and robust and stable, but only if they can have it done TODAY!
Actually, the orbit of the Moon already IS a slow, outward spiral. The Moon is moving away from Earth at the rate of 4"/year, IIRC.
/. several weeks ago.
:)
This was explained in detail in a Discovery Channel show ("What If We Had No Moon?"). The main thrust of the show dealt with the Moon's creation, and this is how it came up on
Detonating a few nukes on the Moon's far-side might slow or stop this, but we'd miss the light-show. Anyway, we shouldn't be moving furniture aroud the Solar System just yet.
In millions and millions of years, the Moon will be much farther away, and the tides will certainly be affected. Hopefully by then we will have moved out of our parents spare bedroom, rather than blown each other to smithereens over some mine-shaft gap.
It's one thing I haven't heard yet in this whole M$ vs. /. fiasco.
/. reprinted people's comments in book form, for profit. Where are all those claimants now? Where are all the people who were so proud of being John Doe #whatever, in the DeCSS brew-ha-ha? Where are all the individuals, standing up for their words and rights, rearing to take on their oppressor?
:)
Comments are owned by the poster.
Everyone was up in arms when
M$ should be contacting BlueUnderwear directly, not bothering Roblimo with worthless drivvel.
And why doesn't M$ just outright BUY VA Linux Systems, and get this headache over with?
The ban on reprocessing may have been politically expedient (because it plays well to an ignorant public), but it has next to zero scientific foundation
:)
Agreed, sadly. Doesn't this seem to be the norm of politics though? Placate the voters to vote for you again, and do the right thing when and if it's convenient - in that order.
Hearing statistical mutations used as 'evidence' in an election year drives me nuts. The unemployment rate will be 0 when we're all homeless; but most voters slept through high-school geometry, so nevermind rates and the rate at which they're changing.
The only ones who seem to have any appreciation of statistics (besides the scientists of course) are the economists, but they deal in weather futures and hedge funds as well.
As for research reactors, there may be a reason why they're not a bother to the DoD. The research is Federally funded, and as such, heavily controlled. Has anyone been able to bring one online without governmental 'aid'?
Alright, so I wasn't clear, and didn't bother to look up complete information. :)
How about this: The equipment needed to recycle spent nuclear fuel for reuse in power plants can also be used for enriching Plutonium for use in nuclear weapons. Keeping this equipment out of non-military hands is one of the reasons the NRC requires that highly radioactive spent fuel (after one fuel cycle) be expensively stored rather than enriched and reburned until less radioactive.
The point was the NRC regulation, not the military potential of the recycled fuel.
Actually, I think that there is huge promise for Space in nuclear power. Currently, the biggest supply of electricity for the Space Station is supposed to be solar. Great if it's adequate, but putting a Trident reactor on a detachable pylon, on a remote part of the station... Attaching an SRB to it to send the thing into the sun (should it malfunction)..
:)
What about Mars? As I think of it, if a sub can stay self-sustaining for months, then this is promising technology for extended, remote space missions. We'd need water, but no need to carry too much of it. It can probably be dug up from the crust, or maybe snagged from orbit.
NASA would (and HAS I'm sure) learn a great deal from the submarine experience. Not just in the power generation and recycling departments, but also in the sociological ones. So many people, confined in a cramped space for a long time - sounds a lot like a trip to Mars to me.
Yeah, there's problems in all this, but the computing power on my desktop put Man on the Moon a few decades ago. That says that problems can be solved, once we put our collective mind to them.
As for the issue of the government controlling nuclear power; your points are well taken. It could not simply be a transplantation of military mentality. But, there are enough civil programs in place to make for an interesting hybrid - especially with the TVA now in history books.
Gibson came up with some neat stuff, but the 'transparent' stuff of Neuromancer is what the future is made of.
Specifically what comes to mind is the Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority. A Federally controlled electrical power infrastructure.
We've all seen nuclear power fail, when handled by private electrical companies; but the government has been making it work wonders in submarine and carrier applications for decades.
The reason there is radio-active waste is NRC regulation, since 'recycling' waste results in weapons-grade nuclear fuel.
The reason there is a bad reputation in the nuke industry is cost-cutting, pure and simple. Running equipment to the point of failure, minimal staffing, letting inspections slide... It's all been done to recoup some of the cost of building a plant, and to make a buck. The Fed thinks differently about these things, especially with a DoD presence involved.
Putting two and two together, giving the government control and responsibility for nuclear power accomplishes several things.
1. Spent fuel can be recycled and reburned until inert, since the DoD will be, in effect, in control of the weapons-grade producing technology.
2. It will be managed adequately. When was the last time the DoD/Fed cut corners on maintenance and beurocracy? Yeah, they screw the social programs and NASA, but they pay $400/USAF screw-driver.
3. A minimum level of power supply to the national grid will be guaranteed. Privatization of power can be relegated to conventional and 'natural' sources, with a set of nuclear anchors bolstering the grid in times of peak demand - and selling the power abroad in low demand.
So, Gibson seems to have seen that this is a viable idea. Yeah, there's issues. The government being in control of weapons manufacturing capability will cause international problems. But these can be mediated with observers, or the selling of power and goods, dropping of tariffs; economics speaks louder than bombs these days.
Cyberspace aside, there's all the bio-tech Gibson brought (arguably not the first to do so, remember Bester?) to the scene, the Kaibatsu (Is that right? It's been years) multi-national corporations, the Virtual Light goggles that are now in college R&D labs (Georgetown?), the Island nations serving as data havens (or at least top-level domain whores today)...
Maps pretty well.
The *splat* referred to the amount of follow-up to a story. There is much less discussion following a story posting, and the discussion doesn't seem to add much value.
/. posts a story, there is huge follow-up. If the story is angled at a particular interest-group (KDE, Security, NASA) there is a lot of valuable information that is contributed by posters. If /. misfires and posts divvel or fluff, there is ample flamage to serve as entertainment.
Maybe that's just a function of the number of people on the site though. I'd be curious to know how many registered users, and daily visitors there are at K5.
When
Maybe I'm just not configuring K5 right just yet, but the comments on the stories tend to be opinions on wether the story is good and worth posting, or not. Seems moot, since I've already seen the story, right? Am I missing something?
Please educate me, preferably in the above URL forum, as I would like to see why so many 'K5 zealots' push it so hard. They post intelligently otherwise, so I must be missing something.
This week, a million fraternity brothers rushed to join NASA. The reason: scientists have discovered beer in space.
Well, not beer exactly. But they did find alcohol: ethyl alcohol, to be precise, the active ingredient in all major alcoholic drinks (antifreeze Jell-O shots, quite obviously, are exempted from this category). Three British scientists, Drs. Tom Millar, Geoffrey MacDonald and Rolf Habing, discovered this interstellar Everclear floating in a gas cloud in the contellation of Aquila (sign of the Eagle, the mascot of Anheuser-Busch! Hmmmmm).
Millar and his compatriots have estimated the size of this gas cloud at approximately 1,000 times the diameter of our own solar system; there's enough alcohol out there, they say, to make 400 trillion trillion pints of beer. These guys are British, mind you; if you were to translate this in terms of American beer (which the British, with some justification, regard as fermented club soda), the amount of potential brewski just about doubles.
In human terms: remember that double-keg party you threw at the end of your Junior year in college (the second Junior year)? Imagine throwing that same party, every eight hours, for the next 30 billion years. You'd STILL have beer left over. And boy, would YOUR bathroom be a mess! Simply put, no one could ever drink 400 trillion trillion pints of beer, except maybe Buffalo Bills fans.
The sheer volume of all this alcohol begs the question of how it managed to get out there in the first place. Despite the simplifying effect it has on the human brain, ethyl alcohol is a reasonably complex molecule: two carbon atoms, five hydrogen atoms, and a hydroxyl radical, all cavorting together in beery camaraderie. It's not a compund that is going to spontaneously arise out of the cold depths of space. It can lead to speculation: What is this cloud?
1.It's God's beer. After all, He worked for six days creating the universe, and on the seventh day, He rested. And after you've had a hard week at the office, don't YOU grab a beer? Since man is made in God's image, it could be that this cloud is the remaining evidence of the first, and best, Miller Time.
2.It's Purgatory ("400 trillion trillion bottles of beer on the wall, 400 trillion trillion bottles of beer! Take one down, pass it around, three hundred ninety-nine septillion, nine hundred ninety-nine sextillion, nine hundred ninety-nine quintillion, nine hundred ninety-nine quadrillion, nine hundred ninety-nine trillion, nine hundred ninety-nine billion, nine hundred ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine, bottles of beer on the wall!")
3.Proof of an undeniably highly advanced but chronically dipsomaniac alien society. This particular theory is shaky, however: it's reasonable to assume that if the aliens were going to construct a nebula of alcohol, they'd also have large clouds of Beer Nuts and pretzels nearby for snacking. Advanced spectral analysis has yet to locate them.
The truth of the matter, however, is far more prosaic. In the middle of this gas cloud is a young and no doubt quite inebriated star. As the star heats up and contracts, sucking the dust and gas of the cloud into a smaller area, complex molecules form as a result of greater interaction between the elements. Ethyl alcohol forms on small motes of dust in the cloud, and then, as the motes angle in closer towards the star and heat up, the alcohol is released from the motes in gaseous form.
And there you have it: an alcohol cloud. Or, as Dave Bowman might say, "My God! It's full of booze!"
Enough with the science lesson, you say. Just tell me how to GET there! Sorry, Chuckles. You can't get there from here. The gas cloud (which, by the way, has the utterly romantic name of "G34.3") is 10,000 light years away: 58 quadrillion miles. Even if you hijacked the shuttle and headed out with thrusters on full, by the time you got there, the guy in Purgatory would be done with his tune. You'd have had time to work up a powerful thirst, but you'd also be, in a word, dead.
No, the Space Beer Cloud will have to wait for the far future, when men can leap through the universe at warp speed. One can only imagine what they will do when they get there:
Captain Kirk: My....GOD! Sulu! What....is....THAT?
Sulu: It's a free floating cloud of alcohol, sir.
Kirk: And we've just run out of Romulan Ale! Could it be a trap, Bones?
Bones: Damn it, Jim! I'm a doctor, not a distiller of fine spirits!
Kirk: We need that booze! But if we fly through that cloud, we'll be too drunk to drive!
Spock: May I remind you, Captain, that I am a Vulcan. We are a race of designated drivers.
Kirk: Well, all righty, then. Spock, drive us through! Bones and I will be out on the hull. With our mouths... open!
To boldly drink what no man has drunk before.
Heh, I didn't think of it that way. :)
But then again, would anyone buy a VR system that didn't LOOK impressive? That's their whole point.
Ouch! I'm hurt. A put-down from someone without the spine to leave their name. I'll probably lose sleep over this.
Yeah, multiple screens. Nifty.
It's no Fakespace.
It is certainly News for Nerds, though I don't know if it's Stuff that Matters. After all, $10k for the 3x18" panels? I haven't got that kind of cash.
/.'s heels with 'real' news, or they make a *splat* when they feature a 'hit'. At least on a slow day, /. makes a big old THUD. :)
/. is fine, it's definitelly gotten very diluted since 'the buyout'. I'd love to know what our esteemed hosts do with their (paid for) time, since the content was much better back when it was all a labour of love. But at least /. is a lot more sophisticated than either of the two upstarts who keep trying to advertize in the trailing edge of people's posts here.
But I am getting a bit worn down by the Kuro5hin and theGEEK trolling. Slashdot has bigger and better news than either of those sites. Sorry.
K5 tends to have pretty obscure suff, and theGEEK isn't much better. Typically, those sites are either on
Now, that's not saying that
Caution and warning.
This trojan will propagate to FAX machines, if the machine is a contact in the Outlook address book.
It doesn't just eat bandwidth, it eats paper and phone connections too.
/me stops laughing, gets up off the floor and wipes tears from eyes.
You know, if Slashdot wasn't on CyberPatrol's black list before... it is now.
Thank you. It's about damn time we saw some serrated, edgy humour here again. It's too bad that's an AC post, really, you'd be on an elevator to Nirvana.
Heh! Reminds me of that early 80's film, Brainstorm (or was it Mindstorm) with Christopher Walken.
... "
The essence of the film was that sensory perceptions could be recorded by one person, and replayed (relived) by another (a'la Gibson's sensorium).
The funny scene that comes to mind involved one of the researchers making a tight loop of sensory tape, to relive the moment of orgasm, for about 24 hours straight.
The thing with Katz would be the exact reverse of that.
"Katz! retch! Katz! retch! Katz! retch! Katz! retch!
Dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people every year. Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO, but the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide do not end there.
Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHMO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance. For those who have become dependent, DHMO withdrawal means certain death.
Dihydrogen monoxide:
* is also known as hydroxyl acid, and is the major component of acid rain.
* contributes to the greenhouse effect.
* may cause severe burns.
* contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape.
* accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals.
* may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes.
* has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.
Contamination Is Reaching Epidemic Proportions!
Quantities of dihydrogen monoxide have been found in almost every stream, lake, and reservoir in America today. But the pollution is global, and the contaminant has even been found in Antarctic ice. DHMO has caused millions of dollars of property damage in the Midwest, and recently California. Despite the danger, dihydrogen monoxide is often used:
* as an industrial solvent and coolant.
* in nuclear power plants.
* in the production of Styrofoam.
* as a fire retardant.
* in many forms of cruel animal research.
* in the distribution of pesticides. Even after washing, produce remains contaminated by this chemical.
* as an additive in certain junk-foods and other food products.
Companies dump waste DHMO into rivers and the ocean, and nothing can be done to stop them because this practice is still legal.
The impact on wildlife is extreme, and we cannot afford to ignore it any longer!
The Horror Must Be Stopped!
The American government has refused to ban the production, distribution, or use of this damaging chemical due to its importance to the economic health of this nation. In fact, the navy and other military organizations are conducting experiments with DHMO, and designing multi-billion dollar devices to control and utilize it during warfare situations. Hundreds of military research facilities receive tons of it through a highly sophisticated underground distribution network. Many store large quantities for later use.
It's Not Too Late!
Act *now* to prevent further contamination. Find out more about this dangerous chemical. What you don't know can hurt you and others throughout the world. Send e-mail to no_dhmo@circus.com or a SASE to:
Coalition to Ban DHMO
211 Pearl St.
Santa Cruz CA 95060