I know I saw something like this at the Discovery Store, Natural Wonders, or one of those similar mall stores that always has huge geodes and stuff in it. You know the kind of store I'm talking about. Their model was pre-assembled, and the LEDs (not LCDs) oscilated back and forth on a light-weight transparent wand. This gave a much more realistic illusion of floating numbers.
Related--in college I discoverd that an ordinary LED clock, when combined with a strobe light, could be used to create an illusion. Just move the clock slowly back and forth, and it looks like the numbers are sliding off the clock. No psychoactive substances are required to view this illusion.
In a related story, a washed-up con recently transfered from Lorton Federal Penetentary was quoted as saying:
"I have to wear an orange jumpsuit with a serial number on it. At first I didn't like it, but now I do. I never have to worry about what I am going to wear, and people always recognize me. When they greet me in the yard, they say 'hey 2355232 whasup?'. When it's time for lights out, the gaurd just punches my number into his Palm Pilot and they know that I'm safely in my cell. I think every American should be issued an orange jump suit with a number on it. It would be great for the country."
I value Mitnik's remarks about as much as I value the remarks of this fictional convict.
Please stop worshiping at the altar of this tired-out loser. Karma to spare. Do your worst.
There was an episode of the Simpsons, where Ned Flanders' house got blown away in a storm. He didn't carry any insurance because he considered it a form of gambling. It was funny on the Simpsons; it's ludicrous here.
Insurance companies do their best to make sure that you don't recieve a "windfall". Generally, you submit the bill to repair the damage to the insurance company, and they pay that. Insurance doesn't get you ahead, it just prevents you from falling ridiculously far behind.
This is an open letter, which you are welcome to use as you wish. I want as many people as possible to know that Sun is unable to see any issue in a broad perspective or from more than one side. Read on, gentle reader, and hear what I have to say. Sun not only lies, but it brags about its lying to its spokesmen. When the war against reason is backed by a large cadre of uneducated protestors, the results are even more loathsome. Now that that's cleared up, I'll continue with what I was saying before, that its prank phone calls serve only to safeguard its own power and privilege. If, after hearing facts like that, you still believe that without its superior guidance, we will go nowhere, then there is decidedly no hope for you.
To say otherwise would be oppressive. Is it not positively the distinguishing feature of Sun's activities to descend to character assassination and name calling? There is no inconsistency here; a central fault line runs through each of Sun's statements. Specifically, the law is not just a moral stance. It is the consensus of society on our minimum standards of behavior. I find Sun's policies rather immature, don't you? Of all of Sun's exaggerations and incorrect comparisons, one in particular stands out: "Nonrepresentationalism is a noble goal." I don't know where it came up with this, but its statement is dead wrong.
According to the laws of probability, we were put on this planet to be active, to struggle, and to justify condemnation, constructive criticism, and ridicule of Sun and its huffy reinterpretations of historic events. We were not put here to excoriate attempts to bring questions of emotionalism into the (essentially apolitical) realm of pedagogy in language and writing, as Sun might feel. Words fail me in describing my pure distaste for Sun's positions and abhorrent assertions. I put that observation into this letter just to let you see that Sun should think about how its double standards lead uncompromising vexatious provocateurs to pander to our worst fears. If Sun doesn't want to think that hard, perhaps it should just keep quiet. Sun has stated that the sky is falling. That's just pure hooliganism. Well, in Sun's case, it might be pure ignorance, seeing that Sun frequently avers its support of democracy and its love of freedom. But one need only look at what Sun is doing -- as opposed to what it is saying -- to understand its true aims. I'd like to finish with a quote from a private e-mail message sent to me by a close friend of mine: "Sun believes that everyone and everything discriminates against it -- including the writing on the bathroom stalls -- only because it has a need to believe that".
When I was shopping for an electric heater to put in my drafty college apartment, I got a real kick out of something. Some of the boxes that the heaters came in were proudly labeled "100% efficient". I guess they made a safe bet that most consumers don't know anything about thermondynamics, and that those who do would simply chuckle.
As many have pointed out, this is a written invitation for corporate eugenics. What may not have been pointed out are some of the complexities involved.
Take sicle cell anemia, for instance. The same gene that causes this painful blood disease also inhibits malaria. So, if we eliminate genes like sicle cell, the population may get wiped out by malaria. This is just one example. Surely there are other genes that produce proteins with both positive and negative effects.
In the case of this insurance, we would be selecting for individuals that don't put a burden on the health care system. Well, right now the health care system may be more oriented towards physical health rather than mental health. How much burden does the typical psycho-killer put on the health care system? He might put a burden on the criminal and mental system, but only if caught. How much burden does the typical musician, poet, or artist put on the system? Maybe more, since drinking and smoking seem to be more common in the arts.
Do you see what I'm getting at here? In the short run, the English may save a buck and weed out some sicklings. In the long run, they may breed a bland, milktoast, jock, face-man sort of society with a dull sort of sameness about it. They may breed out creativity, and some other traits that aren't so apparent. This is eugenic's fatal flaw.
The survival of a nation depends less on the health of individuals, and more on the ability of the nation to function as a collective whole. Can anybody really begin to fathom the importance of the less healthy individuals to the health of the nation as a whole? Just consider Winston Churchill--who was addicted to tobacco and suffered from depression. Would England have endured WWII without his leadership?
If totalitarianism arises from Europe once again, it may be greeted by an army full of beautiful bodies who are nevertheless, dull specimens; strapping young men with chiseled physiques--and no creative officers to lead them.
The other thing I find fucked up about many people is that they, in one way or another, live in utter terror of whatever society or community they belong to. There are less and less people willing to stand up for themselves or speak their mind. So many people are afraid of what will happen if they don't toe the line. Ugh. I can't live that way. I need the freedom to live my life as I choose.
Interviewers have asked me: "What do you consider the ideal job?".
I have always wanted to answer: "The one where I do nothing and get payed the entire Gross Domestic Product.". (or Gross International Product, if such a metric exists).
I assume you mean 10W, since 10W/hr is not something you see very often. A Watt is a measure of energy per unit time, and can be broken down into Joules / Second. A Volt can be broken down into Joules / Coulomb, and an Ampere (the measure of current) is Coulombs / Second. Power (which is what Watts measure) is voltage times current (P=VI) and the units cancel thusly: (Joules/Coulomb)*(Coulombs/Second)=Joules/Second.
Joules/Second/Second, or Joules/Second^2 would indicate an accelerating energy consumption.
Have you ever read a patenet? The more *claims* the better. Also, you need to word your claims such that they will be incomprehensible to normal human beings. That way, they will rubber-stamp the patent rather than drive themselves insane trying to figure out what you really mean. Allow me to demonstrate:
Claim 1: In a cocaine delivery system, where the drug (cocaine) is mixed with other substances.
Claim 2: In said cocaine delivery system mentioned in claim 1, where the ingrediants mixed are baking soda, water, or any other ingrediants. Notwithstanding claims on mixing of baking soda and water, also any other substance, mixed with said drug (cocaine) and baked.
Claim 3: In a drug mixture, the application of heat to the drug or a mixture of the drug and some other substance.
Claim 4: The formation of a solid substrate aggregate of cocaine and other substances as described in prior claims (see claims 1 through 3) and the breaking of said solid substrate into cubes or any other regular geometric solid, or any irregular geometric solid smaller than the original aggregate solid.
Claim 5: Subsequent application of heat to the aggregate and/or chunks of said aggregate in a glass vessel using any method of heating to include (but not restricted to) lighters, matches, blow torches, candles, or other sources of heat.
Claim 6: Inhalation of vapors arising from subsequent heating of said aggregate in said glass vessel, and implements used to enhance, concentrate or facilitte the inhalation of said vapors.
...is that this hoax is believable. Precedants such as the Communications Decency Act and other obviously unconstitutional laws get passed, so why wouldn't this be proposed?
I mean, look at the congressional response to the OK City bombing. They passed "domestic terrorism legislation". Well Hello!!! The last time I checked, it was already illegal to set off a bomb and kill over 100 people. What do we need these laws for?
I swear, if by some quirk of fate I ever end up in congress, I will *never* vote for such a stupid, idiotic, redundant POS. If anybody asks me why, I'll just smile and say that there was heavy pressure from the pro domestic terrorism lobbying groups.
Ok... actually, now that I come to think of it... it was probably a rider on some other bill which was important. That's the cruddy thing about just about all bills. They are all like... Mozilla. Can't just have a browser bill, gotta attach an LDAP rider, a news clause, and some additional mail legislation.
So, I couldn't vote against the bill; but I'd make a scene on C-SPAN.
Either you don't have enough spit, or your monitor is too dirty. It has to be *squeaky* clean. Works fine on my Philips Magnavox. Clean your monitor and get your finger really wet. Rub hard. Hold the outer frame of the monitor still (but only touch the CRT with your wet finger). If it still doesn't work, call Sony and ask for a replacement. Oh.. umm.. you are rubbing it accross the surface of the CRT, right? Rubbing accross the outer casing makes no music at all. Also, I can't overstress the importance of cleanliness. If there are any abrasive dust particles, it could damage the surface of your monitor. When done properly, it makes a pleasant sound akin to the ringing you get when you play a brandy snifter.
This is a test of GPLTrans. I wonder if it's better than Babelfish. Mary had a little lamb, it's fleece was white as snow. Everywhere that mary went, the lamb was shure to grok.
Dieses ist eines Test über gPLTrans. I Wunder wenn it's besser als babelfish. Mary hatte eines wenig Lamm, it's fleece wurde weiß wie schneien. überall dies mary gingen, die Lamm wurde shure zu grok.
When I tried to translate this back to English, I got an internal server error.
It seems to handle nonsense words and proper names by passing them through (what else could it do). Contractions don't appear to work well, unless ``it's'' is valid German.
I'm not sanguine about the GPL either, but as long as there is more than one option, I think we should know about it. Is anybody aware of any other on-line translation services?
I'd like to see some larger scale consumer robotic products
Would you like to spend some larger scale money for them?
Right now, a robot like you describe is a tough mass market sell. At least with the PC, we could convince the parents that you could balance the checkbook with it. Junior knew what it was really for.
With the robot, "it'll annoy the pets" won't justify much of an outlay. It will have to be able to do something useful that would otherwise consume a lot of time, and it will have to do it reliably.
Right now, there are no general purpose robots in the consumer price range that can be trusted to take out the garbage, load the dishwasher, mow the lawn, pick up dirty clothes, water the plants and vaccuum the rugs on a weekly basis. Are there even any research 'bots that can do that?
I agree though, BASIC is lame. Maybe the underlying machine code is open so that gcc can be ported.
A brief search failed to turn up any confirmation of 747 loop-de-loops, but I can believe it. The "vomit commet" used by NASA for 0-g flights is a pretty big plane, and the parabolic cycle probably puts every bit as much stress on an airframe as a loop. Maybe more.
My question would be whether or not Ti is flexible enough. Fighter jets have shorter wings than passenger jets. Ever watched the wings of a 727 during heavy turbulence? They flex quite noticeably. Would Ti stand up to that day in and day out for 20 years or more?
I would be all in favor of a separate word for malicions vs. non malicious hackers, but "cracker" is already too overloaded.
A cracker is something you eat. A cracker is the theme for a Christmas ballet. A cracker is used to refine petroleum. A cracker is derogitory slang used by people of color to refer to whites.
Whenever I hear people call hackers crackers, I always think of the first overloaded definition--Shades of Ich bin ein Berliner. Yes, we can tell the difference based on context, just as the Berliners could, but there is no city named Crack. It just doesn't sound right.
Actually, the phrase "black hat" is widely used, and not terribly overloaded. Yes, the bad guys in westerns wore black hats, but they were not *called* black hats. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, the phrase "black hat" is not used this way in any other context.
To See A Naked Lady, Turn To Page 57. So began the first Open Source program I ever encountered. It was in a text book... probably in the 2nd grade. Granted, it was not well structured (usually it was just a series of GOTO statements) and practicly never executed properly.
However, it had many of the features of a modern Internet based Open Source project. First, it was collaboratively developed, as each new boy picked up on the idea and added additional features. Secondly, its primary purpose was to excite the curiousities of young boys, often in the direction of pr0n--much like the modern internet. Finally, it was frowned upon by the establishment and viewed as a threat to copyrighted material. There were even fines and punishments involved.
I saw this in the early 70s, but I suspect the practice predates me by many years. It probably predates RMS, ESR, and all the other 3-initial guys too.
The serious point here, if any, is that in order to find the first Open Source program, you must first define "program".
Daughter: Take a look at this news archive site. That's us they're talking about.
Son: Is not.
Daughter: Is to. The only reason they had you is so they could save me. Otherwise they never would have had you.
Son: (to father) Dad, is this true?
Father: Well...
And from that day forward, little Johnny had to live with the knowledge that were it not for some quirk of fate, his parents wouldn't have had him.
It's hard to say exactly what the psychological impact of this will be on Johnny, or whatever his name is. I think it's safe to say it won't be positive.
The thing has mirrors and stuff spinning at high RPMs. Unless they put some really sophisticated accoustic damping on it, it's going to have an annoying audio output of some kind.
Sure it's cool, but it's really a brute force electro-mechanical approach. It's probably very expensive too.
Maybe someone will come along and figure out a way to precisely position electro-magnetic disturbances within plasma, Neon, or other gas in a sealed vessel.
Actually, I've been thinking that nano-projectors would really be the way to do this--ie, dynamic holography, something solid state. Each "projexel" would project a complete image. In fact, we could do this now. Just make a movie projector that fits within the volume of the lens. Cover a Jumbo-tron sized wall with them (yes, it would be very expensive).
From a distance, you would see a *much* larger than life 3d image. The trick is building cheap solid-state nano-projectors so you can fit it in your living room. Is anybody working on that?
Yes it does. What the hell is the meaning of the word "free". The Linux OS you gave me is mine, and I'll do whatever the hell I please with it, including using it in proprietary applications. If you didn't want me to be able to do that, you shouldn't have given me the source code.
Keyword search for "nitinol". I don't think it would be too hard to build tentacles using nitinol wires as the "muscles", but it might be expensive, and it might consume too much power. If that's the case, then I would probably go for a multi-joint spine with a wire to each joint, and control all the wires with a camshaft in the body to give an authentic "wriggling".
BTW, I had no interest in PDAs until I saw the Handspring. Modules rule!!! The only drawback I've heard of is that the Handspring supposedly can't be upgraded, as it has no flash memory. Maybe they'll add flash or a socketed ROM in rev2. If they come out with a better camera module, the Handspring may make my Christmas wish-list.
Slashdot Mirror
I know I saw something like this at the Discovery Store, Natural Wonders, or one of those similar mall stores that always has huge geodes and stuff in it. You know the kind of store I'm talking about. Their model was pre-assembled, and the LEDs (not LCDs) oscilated back and forth on a light-weight transparent wand. This gave a much more realistic illusion of floating numbers.
Related--in college I discoverd that an ordinary LED clock, when combined with a strobe light, could be used to create an illusion. Just move the clock slowly back and forth, and it looks like the numbers are sliding off the clock. No psychoactive substances are required to view this illusion.
In a related story, a washed-up con recently transfered from Lorton Federal Penetentary was quoted as saying:
"I have to wear an orange jumpsuit with a serial number on it. At first I didn't like it, but now I do. I never have to worry about what I am going to wear, and people always recognize me. When they greet me in the yard, they say 'hey 2355232 whasup?'. When it's time for lights out, the gaurd just punches my number into his Palm Pilot and they know that I'm safely in my cell. I think every American should be issued an orange jump suit with a number on it. It would be great for the country."
I value Mitnik's remarks about as much as I value the remarks of this fictional convict.
Please stop worshiping at the altar of this tired-out loser. Karma to spare. Do your worst.
There was an episode of the Simpsons, where Ned Flanders' house got blown away in a storm. He didn't carry any insurance because he considered it a form of gambling. It was funny on the Simpsons; it's ludicrous here.
Insurance companies do their best to make sure that you don't recieve a "windfall". Generally, you submit the bill to repair the damage to the insurance company, and they pay that. Insurance doesn't get you ahead, it just prevents you from falling ridiculously far behind.
It looks like this troll used the automatic complaint letter generator. It gives different results every time. When I put in Sun, I got this:
This is an open letter, which you are welcome to use as you wish. I want as many people as possible to know that Sun is unable to see any issue in a broad perspective or from more than one side. Read on, gentle reader, and hear what I have to say. Sun not only lies, but it brags about its lying to its spokesmen. When the war against reason is backed by a large cadre of uneducated protestors, the results are even more loathsome. Now that that's cleared up, I'll continue with what I was saying before, that its prank phone calls serve only to safeguard its own power and privilege. If, after hearing facts like that, you still believe that without its superior guidance, we will go nowhere, then there is decidedly no hope for you.
To say otherwise would be oppressive. Is it not positively the distinguishing feature of Sun's activities to descend to character assassination and name calling? There is no inconsistency here; a central fault line runs through each of Sun's statements. Specifically, the law is not just a moral stance. It is the consensus of society on our minimum standards of behavior. I find Sun's policies rather immature, don't you? Of all of Sun's exaggerations and incorrect comparisons, one in particular stands out: "Nonrepresentationalism is a noble goal." I don't know where it came up with this, but its statement is dead wrong.
According to the laws of probability, we were put on this planet to be active, to struggle, and to justify condemnation, constructive criticism, and ridicule of Sun and its huffy reinterpretations of historic events. We were not put here to excoriate attempts to bring questions of emotionalism into the (essentially apolitical) realm of pedagogy in language and writing, as Sun might feel. Words fail me in describing my pure distaste for Sun's positions and abhorrent assertions. I put that observation into this letter just to let you see that Sun should think about how its double standards lead uncompromising vexatious provocateurs to pander to our worst fears. If Sun doesn't want to think that hard, perhaps it should just keep quiet. Sun has stated that the sky is falling. That's just pure hooliganism. Well, in Sun's case, it might be pure ignorance, seeing that Sun frequently avers its support of democracy and its love of freedom. But one need only look at what Sun is doing -- as opposed to what it is saying -- to understand its true aims. I'd like to finish with a quote from a private e-mail message sent to me by a close friend of mine: "Sun believes that everyone and everything discriminates against it -- including the writing on the bathroom stalls -- only because it has a need to believe that".
When I was shopping for an electric heater to put in my drafty college apartment, I got a real kick out of something. Some of the boxes that the heaters came in were proudly labeled "100% efficient". I guess they made a safe bet that most consumers don't know anything about thermondynamics, and that those who do would simply chuckle.
As many have pointed out, this is a written invitation for corporate eugenics. What may not have been pointed out are some of the complexities involved.
Take sicle cell anemia, for instance. The same gene that causes this painful blood disease also inhibits malaria. So, if we eliminate genes like sicle cell, the population may get wiped out by malaria. This is just one example. Surely there are other genes that produce proteins with both positive and negative effects.
In the case of this insurance, we would be selecting for individuals that don't put a burden on the health care system. Well, right now the health care system may be more oriented towards physical health rather than mental health. How much burden does the typical psycho-killer put on the health care system? He might put a burden on the criminal and mental system, but only if caught. How much burden does the typical musician, poet, or artist put on the system? Maybe more, since drinking and smoking seem to be more common in the arts.
Do you see what I'm getting at here? In the short run, the English may save a buck and weed out some sicklings. In the long run, they may breed a bland, milktoast, jock, face-man sort of society with a dull sort of sameness about it. They may breed out creativity, and some other traits that aren't so apparent. This is eugenic's fatal flaw.
The survival of a nation depends less on the health of individuals, and more on the ability of the nation to function as a collective whole. Can anybody really begin to fathom the importance of the less healthy individuals to the health of the nation as a whole? Just consider Winston Churchill--who was addicted to tobacco and suffered from depression. Would England have endured WWII without his leadership?
If totalitarianism arises from Europe once again, it may be greeted by an army full of beautiful bodies who are nevertheless, dull specimens; strapping young men with chiseled physiques--and no creative officers to lead them.
The other thing I find fucked up about many people is that they, in one way or another, live in utter terror of whatever society or community they belong to. There are less and less people willing to stand up for themselves or speak their mind. So many people are afraid of what will happen if they don't toe the line. Ugh. I can't live that way. I need the freedom to live my life as I choose.
That's why NT rules and Linux Sucks.
Interviewers have asked me: "What do you consider the ideal job?".
I have always wanted to answer: "The one where I do nothing and get payed the entire Gross Domestic Product.". (or Gross International Product, if such a metric exists).
I assume you mean 10W, since 10W/hr is not something you see very often. A Watt is a measure of energy per unit time, and can be broken down into Joules / Second. A Volt can be broken down into Joules / Coulomb, and an Ampere (the measure of current) is Coulombs / Second. Power (which is what Watts measure) is voltage times current (P=VI) and the units cancel thusly: (Joules/Coulomb)*(Coulombs/Second)=Joules/Second.
Joules/Second/Second, or Joules/Second^2 would indicate an accelerating energy consumption.
--Steve, BSEE UVa 1993.
Have you ever read a patenet? The more *claims* the better. Also, you need to word your claims such that they will be incomprehensible to normal human beings. That way, they will rubber-stamp the patent rather than drive themselves insane trying to figure out what you really mean. Allow me to demonstrate:
Claim 1: In a cocaine delivery system, where the drug (cocaine) is mixed with other substances.
Claim 2: In said cocaine delivery system mentioned in claim 1, where the ingrediants mixed are baking soda, water, or any other ingrediants. Notwithstanding claims on mixing of baking soda and water, also any other substance, mixed with said drug (cocaine) and baked.
Claim 3: In a drug mixture, the application of heat to the drug or a mixture of the drug and some other substance.
Claim 4: The formation of a solid substrate aggregate of cocaine and other substances as described in prior claims (see claims 1 through 3) and the breaking of said solid substrate into cubes or any other regular geometric solid, or any irregular geometric solid smaller than the original aggregate solid.
Claim 5: Subsequent application of heat to the aggregate and/or chunks of said aggregate in a glass vessel using any method of heating to include (but not restricted to) lighters, matches, blow torches, candles, or other sources of heat.
Claim 6: Inhalation of vapors arising from subsequent heating of said aggregate in said glass vessel, and implements used to enhance, concentrate or facilitte the inhalation of said vapors.
Ensign Kim I'm picking up something on sensors.
Tuvok On Screen
Janeway Oh no! It's the Kayzon! They've come to take our ad revenue.
Tuvok It's only one ship. We may be able fight them off.
Janeway What do you have in mind?
Tuvok Ensign Kim, arm the quickies. Include that pornographic link that Belona installed yesterday.
Janeway You may fire when ready.
Tuvok Fire... Direct hit. No damage, but their shields are down to 50%.
Janeway Evasive maneuver Intel-4!!!
Tuvok It's no use. Captain, might I suggest...
Janeway I know what your thinking, but I hate to do it.
Tuvok Hate is illogical. It is our only course of action.
Janeway Very well then. Arm the Microsoft article...
...is that this hoax is believable. Precedants such as the Communications Decency Act and other obviously unconstitutional laws get passed, so why wouldn't this be proposed?
I mean, look at the congressional response to the OK City bombing. They passed "domestic terrorism legislation". Well Hello!!! The last time I checked, it was already illegal to set off a bomb and kill over 100 people. What do we need these laws for?
I swear, if by some quirk of fate I ever end up in congress, I will *never* vote for such a stupid, idiotic, redundant POS. If anybody asks me why, I'll just smile and say that there was heavy pressure from the pro domestic terrorism lobbying groups.
Ok... actually, now that I come to think of it... it was probably a rider on some other bill which was important. That's the cruddy thing about just about all bills. They are all like... Mozilla. Can't just have a browser bill, gotta attach an LDAP rider, a news clause, and some additional mail legislation.
So, I couldn't vote against the bill; but I'd make a scene on C-SPAN.
Either you don't have enough spit, or your monitor is too dirty. It has to be *squeaky* clean. Works fine on my Philips Magnavox. Clean your monitor and get your finger really wet. Rub hard. Hold the outer frame of the monitor still (but only touch the CRT with your wet finger). If it still doesn't work, call Sony and ask for a replacement. Oh.. umm.. you are rubbing it accross the surface of the CRT, right? Rubbing accross the outer casing makes no music at all. Also, I can't overstress the importance of cleanliness. If there are any abrasive dust particles, it could damage the surface of your monitor. When done properly, it makes a pleasant sound akin to the ringing you get when you play a brandy snifter.
OK, I triedGPLTrans just now:
This is a test of GPLTrans. I wonder if it's better than Babelfish. Mary had a little lamb, it's fleece was white as snow. Everywhere that mary went, the lamb was shure to grok.
Dieses ist eines Test über gPLTrans. I Wunder wenn it's besser als babelfish. Mary hatte eines wenig Lamm, it's fleece wurde weiß wie schneien. überall dies mary gingen, die Lamm wurde shure zu grok.
When I tried to translate this back to English, I got an internal server error.
It seems to handle nonsense words and proper names by passing them through (what else could it do). Contractions don't appear to work well, unless ``it's'' is valid German.
I'm not sanguine about the GPL either, but as long as there is more than one option, I think we should know about it. Is anybody aware of any other on-line translation services?
I'd like to see some larger scale consumer robotic products
Would you like to spend some larger scale money for them?
Right now, a robot like you describe is a tough mass market sell. At least with the PC, we could convince the parents that you could balance the checkbook with it. Junior knew what it was really for.
With the robot, "it'll annoy the pets" won't justify much of an outlay. It will have to be able to do something useful that would otherwise consume a lot of time, and it will have to do it reliably.
Right now, there are no general purpose robots in the consumer price range that can be trusted to take out the garbage, load the dishwasher, mow the lawn, pick up dirty clothes, water the plants and vaccuum the rugs on a weekly basis. Are there even any research 'bots that can do that?
I agree though, BASIC is lame. Maybe the underlying machine code is open so that gcc can be ported.
A brief search failed to turn up any confirmation of 747 loop-de-loops, but I can believe it. The "vomit commet" used by NASA for 0-g flights is a pretty big plane, and the parabolic cycle probably puts every bit as much stress on an airframe as a loop. Maybe more.
My question would be whether or not Ti is flexible enough. Fighter jets have shorter wings than passenger jets. Ever watched the wings of a 727 during heavy turbulence? They flex quite noticeably. Would Ti stand up to that day in and day out for 20 years or more?
Despite having slowed in recent years, the US national debt is still several trillion dollars.
Do you know how much a trillion dollars is? It's so much, that if you stacked it up using $20 bills, the stack would probably fall over.
That moderator must be drunk too.
I would be all in favor of a separate word for malicions vs. non malicious hackers, but "cracker" is already too overloaded.
A cracker is something you eat. A cracker is the theme for a Christmas ballet. A cracker is used to refine petroleum. A cracker is derogitory slang used by people of color to refer to whites.
Whenever I hear people call hackers crackers, I always think of the first overloaded definition--Shades of Ich bin ein Berliner. Yes, we can tell the difference based on context, just as the Berliners could, but there is no city named Crack. It just doesn't sound right.
Actually, the phrase "black hat" is widely used, and not terribly overloaded. Yes, the bad guys in westerns wore black hats, but they were not *called* black hats. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, the phrase "black hat" is not used this way in any other context.
Out of all the direct responses, yours was the most intriguing.
To See A Naked Lady, Turn To Page 57. So began the first Open Source program I ever encountered. It was in a text book... probably in the 2nd grade. Granted, it was not well structured (usually it was just a series of GOTO statements) and practicly never executed properly.
However, it had many of the features of a modern Internet based Open Source project. First, it was collaboratively developed, as each new boy picked up on the idea and added additional features. Secondly, its primary purpose was to excite the curiousities of young boys, often in the direction of pr0n--much like the modern internet. Finally, it was frowned upon by the establishment and viewed as a threat to copyrighted material. There were even fines and punishments involved.
I saw this in the early 70s, but I suspect the practice predates me by many years. It probably predates RMS, ESR, and all the other 3-initial guys too.
The serious point here, if any, is that in order to find the first Open Source program, you must first define "program".
Daughter: Mommy and Daddy love me more than you.
Son: Do Not!!!
Daughter: Do Too!!!
Son: Prove it.
Daughter: Take a look at this news archive site. That's us they're talking about.
Son: Is not.
Daughter: Is to. The only reason they had you is so they could save me. Otherwise they never would have had you.
Son: (to father) Dad, is this true?
Father: Well...
And from that day forward, little Johnny had to live with the knowledge that were it not for some quirk of fate, his parents wouldn't have had him.
It's hard to say exactly what the psychological impact of this will be on Johnny, or whatever his name is. I think it's safe to say it won't be positive.
The thing has mirrors and stuff spinning at high RPMs. Unless they put some really sophisticated accoustic damping on it, it's going to have an annoying audio output of some kind.
Sure it's cool, but it's really a brute force electro-mechanical approach. It's probably very expensive too.
Maybe someone will come along and figure out a way to precisely position electro-magnetic disturbances within plasma, Neon, or other gas in a sealed vessel.
Actually, I've been thinking that nano-projectors would really be the way to do this--ie, dynamic holography, something solid state. Each "projexel" would project a complete image. In fact, we could do this now. Just make a movie projector that fits within the volume of the lens. Cover a Jumbo-tron sized wall with them (yes, it would be very expensive).
From a distance, you would see a *much* larger than life 3d image. The trick is building cheap solid-state nano-projectors so you can fit it in your living room. Is anybody working on that?
Yes it does. What the hell is the meaning of the word "free". The Linux OS you gave me is mine, and I'll do whatever the hell I please with it, including using it in proprietary applications. If you didn't want me to be able to do that, you shouldn't have given me the source code.
links on building robotic tentacles
Keyword search for "nitinol". I don't think it would be too hard to build tentacles using nitinol wires as the "muscles", but it might be expensive, and it might consume too much power. If that's the case, then I would probably go for a multi-joint spine with a wire to each joint, and control all the wires with a camshaft in the body to give an authentic "wriggling".
BTW, I had no interest in PDAs until I saw the Handspring. Modules rule!!! The only drawback I've heard of is that the Handspring supposedly can't be upgraded, as it has no flash memory. Maybe they'll add flash or a socketed ROM in rev2. If they come out with a better camera module, the Handspring may make my Christmas wish-list.