I keep hearing that (some of) the Animatrix shorts are supposed to be released on the web this month. Anybody know anything about this?
I found this page. Some of the shorts have release dates listed (one of which is February 4) but others don't. Are release dates scheduled for these, or are they out already, and if so, where can I download them (if possible)?
Re:Shania was lip syncing, I'm sure of it.
on
Superbowl XXXVII
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· Score: 1
Did you notice that even when she walked into the crowd, you couldn't hear any cheering? Seems like her mike would have picked some up, had it been on.
When No Doubt came on, on the other hand, you could clearly hear the crowd.
Does anyone know where I can find a record of the game (i.e. the list of moves made), ideally in plain text or PGN? The Wired site seems to be entirely Flash, which I can't handle.
But the Hubble telescope is 375 miles from earth, while the moon is 240,000 miles from earth. If it can only resolve a 1-cm object at 50 miles, then the smallest object it can resolve at this distance is about 50 km (30 miles). I seem to recall the lunar landers are a little smaller than this.
Absolute Zero Gravity
on
Science Askew
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· Score: 2, Funny
On a similar note, I highly recommend the book Absolute Zero Gravity, another book of science and math jokes, as well as anecdotes about famous scientists, by Betsy Devine and Joel E. Cohen. Full of some very funny jokes, and only $15 US.
You can get it from your local bookstore or favorite online site (ISBN 0671740601).
Here are a couple of my favorites (from memory):
Q: What do you get when you cross a mosquito with a mountain climber?
A: Nothing. You can't cross a vector with a scaler.
A group of gamblers wanted to try to make horse racing pay by studying it scientifically. So they hired three teams of scientists: a team of biologists, a team of mathematicians, and a team of physicists.
After six months, the teams were called in to give their reports. The biologists, who had spent the most money, went first. They told the gamblers, "We've solved the problem completely. We can set up a selective breeding and genetic engineering program to breed the perfect racehorse within 20 years, at a cost of only $200 million per year."
That seemed a bit steep to the gamblers, so they called in the mathematicians, who had the longest paper. The head of the team told them, "We're happy to announce we have a complete solution to your problem. We've been able to prove that every race is won by at least one horse. In fact, we've gone further and shown uniqueness: every race is won by exactly one horse!"
That didn't satisfy the gamblers either, and the physicists were called in. They, too, assured the gamblers that their troubles were over. "We've performed a complete physical analysis of horse racing and understand it completely. However, we've had to make a few simplifying assumptions. First, let each horse be a perfect rolling sphere..."
Re:but is the GPL source available?
on
Xandros 1.0
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· Score: 1
But of course, those people could turn around and give away the source, if they were so inclined.
We want something that is uniform. If I am disabled, I want to know what will be available when I go to a restaurant, or post office, or other public place. Since common sense will not give the same results for different people, I don't see any other approach than legislation to enforce availability of accomodations for the disabled. And if Congress doesn't set down specifics, courts will.
Okay, I agree that it isn't reasonable to require that your information be somehow "accessible" to everybody.
But physical access isn't everything. This case is about access to a service. It doesn't do someone any good to be able to get into my restaurant if they won't be able to get any food once they're in. So I have to accomodate them in such a manner that they can use the service, not just the space, menus in braille and such. This is where the Southwest website starts to look analogous.
I also agree that it isn't reasonably possible to be accessible to everybody. For businesses, the ADA and associated regulations describe exactly what accomodations are required, and which are not. I have to provide a ramp so wheelchair customers can get into my restaurant, but I don't have to provide a silent booth for those who are hypersensitive to noise, or feeding tubes for those who can't swallow, or waiters who understand sign language. A line has to be drawn, and Congress has drawn it.
Do you object to the ADA in general, then? Stairs and ramps can be considered technology as well. If I am opening a restaurant ("creating content", in a sense), is it "completely idiotic" to require me to make the entrance wheelchair-accessible (a wheelchair is an "accessibility device"), print a braille menu, and put grab bars near the toilet? I'm curious where you stand on this.
It's a difficult issue. One way, the government is imposing requirements on businesses to cater to clients that they may not feel are worth catering to. The alternative is to make a difficult life even more difficult for the disabled.
And btw, somebody else posted that ALT tags are required by an RFC. However, I don't believe that RFC compliance itself should be mandated by law.
I used WordStar up until about 5 years ago. It worked fine. I know someone who use it to this day. Version 4, no less... later versions added color, thesauri, and all manner of such crap that he doesn't want. It's a perfectly good text editor.
WordStar for Windows, however, was a piece of shit.
Get a large bottle (those 5 gallon water cooler jugs work well). Swirl a little alcohol around inside, so it evaporates. Then light the top. You should get a nice ring of flame travelling down in the bottle, then back up.
I don't know what this demonstrates, but it looks cool.
I've seen this done with aluminum tubing and cow magnets. It didn't work very well. Cow magnets aren't very powerful, and you can't see the magnet inside the tube.
Something that works better: Get an aluminum plate (I think we used one about 1/4 inch thick) and a very strong magnet, like a hard drive magnet. Demonstrate that the two do not attract each other. Now hold the plate at an angle and slide the magnet down it. You'll notice that it slides much slower than you expect, especially since both surfaces are smooth.
Dropping bits of sodium metal in water fizzes nicely, and demonstrates how alkali metals can break the H-OH bonds in water (IIRC). However, be very careful how much you use. A teacher of mine once did this, using larger and larger bits of sodium each time, until finally one bit was just a little too big and made an explosion that destroyed the dish and glass shield, and showered the front row with shards:)
Hmm, that first one seems more likely to be static electricity than gravity. If you have a 1 kg bag of paper and a 100 kg student 1 cm apart, the gravitational force is only about 7*10^-5 N, or about one millionth of the force of gravity on the newspaper. The breeze caused the student walking by is a much, much greater force.
Sure, if the shill wins, there is a small cost to the seller. But if the shill doesn't win, then whoever did has paid a lot more than they otherwise would, which is a big (unfair) win to the seller. Yes, it is a big deal, and it should be.
Porn isn't a good example. Multicast only works for sending the same data to a lot of people at the same time. Since your average porn site has thousands of files, it's not likely that too many people will be watching "Animal Antics Number 69.mpg" at once.
Also, it sounds like html and static images were quite enough to overwhelm sites on 9/11 without even getting into video.
Not to defend standardized tests, but memorization is certainly not all they test. Have you looked at the General GRE? The Analytic section in particular is mostly logic puzzles, for which memorization would do you no good. And as far as verbal, memorizing lists of words might help, but I don't think it can substitute for simply having a large vocabulary.
Also, you said:
I fail to see how paying for a test prep school, which use old tests for practice is different from kids posting the questions for free.
The difference is that test prep schools use old tests which ETS has officially released. The questions on those tests have (presumably) been phased out, so they won't just give away the answers to questions on the real test. On the other hand, when students distribute questions from tests that are still in use, that is undeniably cheating.
Slashdot Mirror
ITYM "Lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, laywers..."
HTH, HAND, etc.
I found this page. Some of the shorts have release dates listed (one of which is February 4) but others don't. Are release dates scheduled for these, or are they out already, and if so, where can I download them (if possible)?
Found one. Thanks migstradamus.
Did you notice that even when she walked into the crowd, you couldn't hear any cheering? Seems like her mike would have picked some up, had it been on.
When No Doubt came on, on the other hand, you could clearly hear the crowd.
Yep, good call on that one.
Does anyone know where I can find a record of the game (i.e. the list of moves made), ideally in plain text or PGN? The Wired site seems to be entirely Flash, which I can't handle.
But the Hubble telescope is 375 miles from earth, while the moon is 240,000 miles from earth. If it can only resolve a 1-cm object at 50 miles, then the smallest object it can resolve at this distance is about 50 km (30 miles). I seem to recall the lunar landers are a little smaller than this.
You can get it from your local bookstore or favorite online site (ISBN 0671740601).
Here are a couple of my favorites (from memory):
Q: What do you get when you cross a mosquito with a mountain climber?
A: Nothing. You can't cross a vector with a scaler.
A group of gamblers wanted to try to make horse racing pay by studying it scientifically. So they hired three teams of scientists: a team of biologists, a team of mathematicians, and a team of physicists.
After six months, the teams were called in to give their reports. The biologists, who had spent the most money, went first. They told the gamblers, "We've solved the problem completely. We can set up a selective breeding and genetic engineering program to breed the perfect racehorse within 20 years, at a cost of only $200 million per year."
That seemed a bit steep to the gamblers, so they called in the mathematicians, who had the longest paper. The head of the team told them, "We're happy to announce we have a complete solution to your problem. We've been able to prove that every race is won by at least one horse. In fact, we've gone further and shown uniqueness: every race is won by exactly one horse!"
That didn't satisfy the gamblers either, and the physicists were called in. They, too, assured the gamblers that their troubles were over. "We've performed a complete physical analysis of horse racing and understand it completely. However, we've had to make a few simplifying assumptions. First, let each horse be a perfect rolling sphere..."
But of course, those people could turn around and give away the source, if they were so inclined.
We want something that is uniform. If I am disabled, I want to know what will be available when I go to a restaurant, or post office, or other public place. Since common sense will not give the same results for different people, I don't see any other approach than legislation to enforce availability of accomodations for the disabled. And if Congress doesn't set down specifics, courts will.
Okay, I agree that it isn't reasonable to require that your information be somehow "accessible" to everybody.
But physical access isn't everything. This case is about access to a service. It doesn't do someone any good to be able to get into my restaurant if they won't be able to get any food once they're in. So I have to accomodate them in such a manner that they can use the service, not just the space, menus in braille and such. This is where the Southwest website starts to look analogous.
I also agree that it isn't reasonably possible to be accessible to everybody. For businesses, the ADA and associated regulations describe exactly what accomodations are required, and which are not. I have to provide a ramp so wheelchair customers can get into my restaurant, but I don't have to provide a silent booth for those who are hypersensitive to noise, or feeding tubes for those who can't swallow, or waiters who understand sign language. A line has to be drawn, and Congress has drawn it.
Do you object to the ADA in general, then? Stairs and ramps can be considered technology as well. If I am opening a restaurant ("creating content", in a sense), is it "completely idiotic" to require me to make the entrance wheelchair-accessible (a wheelchair is an "accessibility device"), print a braille menu, and put grab bars near the toilet? I'm curious where you stand on this.
It's a difficult issue. One way, the government is imposing requirements on businesses to cater to clients that they may not feel are worth catering to. The alternative is to make a difficult life even more difficult for the disabled.
And btw, somebody else posted that ALT tags are required by an RFC. However, I don't believe that RFC compliance itself should be mandated by law.
AFAIK, this isn't universally true, but there are some prices which are only offered online. So phone can be more expensive.
Furthermore, tickets bought online are worth double frequent flyer credit. This makes a substantial difference (4 flights to get a free one versus 8.)
I didn't see any evidence of this. Can you point me to a quote?
Kindly explain to me how broadcasting other people's music is a form of expressing oneself.
I used WordStar up until about 5 years ago. It worked fine. I know someone who use it to this day. Version 4, no less... later versions added color, thesauri, and all manner of such crap that he doesn't want. It's a perfectly good text editor.
WordStar for Windows, however, was a piece of shit.
^K^X
Yes, it was mail merge.
Get a large bottle (those 5 gallon water cooler jugs work well). Swirl a little alcohol around inside, so it evaporates. Then light the top. You should get a nice ring of flame travelling down in the bottle, then back up.
I don't know what this demonstrates, but it looks cool.
That is a fun one. And if you tap the superconductor with a toothpick, you can make it spin...
I've seen this done with aluminum tubing and cow magnets. It didn't work very well. Cow magnets aren't very powerful, and you can't see the magnet inside the tube.
Something that works better: Get an aluminum plate (I think we used one about 1/4 inch thick) and a very strong magnet, like a hard drive magnet. Demonstrate that the two do not attract each other. Now hold the plate at an angle and slide the magnet down it. You'll notice that it slides much slower than you expect, especially since both surfaces are smooth.
Dropping bits of sodium metal in water fizzes nicely, and demonstrates how alkali metals can break the H-OH bonds in water (IIRC). However, be very careful how much you use. A teacher of mine once did this, using larger and larger bits of sodium each time, until finally one bit was just a little too big and made an explosion that destroyed the dish and glass shield, and showered the front row with shards :)
Hmm, that first one seems more likely to be static electricity than gravity. If you have a 1 kg bag of paper and a 100 kg student 1 cm apart, the gravitational force is only about 7*10^-5 N, or about one millionth of the force of gravity on the newspaper. The breeze caused the student walking by is a much, much greater force.
Any evidence for this?
Sure, if the shill wins, there is a small cost to the seller. But if the shill doesn't win, then whoever did has paid a lot more than they otherwise would, which is a big (unfair) win to the seller. Yes, it is a big deal, and it should be.
Porn isn't a good example. Multicast only works for sending the same data to a lot of people at the same time. Since your average porn site has thousands of files, it's not likely that too many people will be watching "Animal Antics Number 69.mpg" at once.
Also, it sounds like html and static images were quite enough to overwhelm sites on 9/11 without even getting into video.
Also, you said:
I fail to see how paying for a test prep school, which use old tests for practice is different from kids posting the questions for free.
The difference is that test prep schools use old tests which ETS has officially released. The questions on those tests have (presumably) been phased out, so they won't just give away the answers to questions on the real test. On the other hand, when students distribute questions from tests that are still in use, that is undeniably cheating.