I'd think that this is obvious, but my fav DIY guy/group has got to be Burt Rutan and the guys at Scaled Composites. I'm dying to see what they do for a follow-up to SpaceShipOne.
These were showcased during the Tour de France, as Oakley is one of Lance Armstrong's sponsors. I wasn't impressed then, and I'm not impressed now.
If Oakley wants to impress me, put a HUD inside my M-frame lenses, with a wireless link to my cyclecomputer, so I never have to take my eyes of the road to check my data.
Hi flametroll. Please re-examine my statement. Note that I did not say Linux clusters were superior to Crays in all aspects. I merely mentioned that Cray's marketshare was slipping and that, par for the IT course, the CTO came out and stroked his ego in public. In the future, please do not read into the statements of others.
Nothing like a CTO of a company that's got slipping marketshare coming out and masturbating in public to get more attention. But I guess that's the best they can do...
Also worth investigating is John C. Wright's The Golden Age Trilogy...I had bought the first book to read on my Vegas trip (honeymoon) next week. Already ripped through it. Set 10,000 years in the future, where the Singularity, if it hasn't already happened, is damned close.
The books (in order) are:
* The Golden Age * The Phoenix Exultant * The Golden Transcendence
That said, the first 50 pages of the first book are a little tough-going, given that Wright is painting a really alien picture and forcing you to catch up with his terminology, but in the end, it's worth it. Having just started the second book, I can tell you that one of the major themes is socialism vs. libertarianism, and as a subset of that personal responsibility to society.
You're posing a lot of the same questions a lot of other people have re: Armstrong and his comeback from cancer.
The thing is, before Armstrong had cancer, his body type was radically different -- broader shoulders, heavier upper body. Chemo destroyed most of his muscle mass, and as a result, when he rebuilt himself, he was able to focus on the muscle groups necessary to win Tours de France. Look at him now and he's got a scrawny upper body compared to the past. That translates into a HUGE advantage in the hills.
That said, the hormonal/chemical balance in his body would be very unlikely to be beneficial in this case. The man had cancer, which is not a favorable mutation. And chemo? It's poisonous, that's why it works. It's not mutagenic and isn't likely to have fuxored with his hormones/body chemistry. Armstrong was a genetic freak before cancer and was a very good bicycle racer before cancer -- he just made the most of a very bad situation and turned it into a huge positive. Cancer gave him a few advantages: he was able to rebuild himself to be more suited toward events like the Tour de France, he learned to endure horrible hardships and pain, and he learned the value of hard work.
That said, as an amateur cyclist, where can I get the LanceArmstrongGeneModPak(TM)?
Oh you could detect EPO back in the day. You just had to wait until the athlete dropped dead of a heart attack. (Nothing like having your heart try to pump something with the thickness of toothpaste.)
...and normally upon seeing some lame attempt at a keyboard replacement, such as this, I'd ask, "Gee, pre-orders? How much is shipping to Fantasyland?"
But then I realized, shipping would cost a dime, because they're already in Fantasyland.
You know, the ESA doesn't have to spend a dime. All they have to do is drop someone into my job -- it keeps me slowed down, makes me want to sleep, and destroys my motivation.
I mean, honestly...what's the big deal with Segways? They're nothing more than mopeds with an odd wheel-alignment. And their name seems to be a misspelling of Sewgay.
And it's funny how desperate their owners are for attention. I was standing on a corner in Minneapolis and there was this guy next to me (on the sidewalk!), and he says to me, "Hey, man cool iPod."
Amen. I had so many problems with the Dell I owned, bought on credit, that when it came time to send the last payment, I pulled the info off the hard drive and scavenged the RAM from the box.
Then I took it out in the street and ran my XTerra back and forth over it about five times. I took the remnants, dropped them into a box, included a check and the invoice for my final payment, and sent them off to Dell.
The check cleared in a few days. About a week and a half after that, I get a call from Dell. It went something like this:
Dell Rep: Mr. X, I'm calling about the computer you sent to us. Me: What about it? Rep: Sir, we cannot cover this computer under warranty. Me: Oh, no...that's quite alright! Rep: *sounds confused* Then, uh, why did you send this to us? Me: I wanted you guys to know exactly what I think of your product. Rep: Oh, um. Hmm. Is it, um, safe to say you were unhappy with the experience? Me: Your insight amazes me. Rep: Would you like to speak with a manager about this? Me: Not especially. Rep: Okay, Mr. X, we're sorry your experience was so bad. If there's nothing more I can help you with today, yadda yadda yadda....Thanks for choosing Dell! Me: Biggest mistake of my life. *hangs up*
A few weeks later, I get another call from our friends at Dell -- a very concerned-sounding guy with a soft voice.
New Rep: Mr. X, I'd like to talk to you about your past experience with Dell. Me: What of it? New Rep: Well, we're concerned. We'd really like to keep you as a Dell customer, and I'm calling to see what we can do to make that possible. Me: So what did you have in mind? New Rep: We're prepared to offer you a very generous discount on a new Dell computer. Me: Define generous. [I'm willing to entertain the idea, if for nothing more than a super-cheap box that I can eBay later at full-price.] New Rep: We can give you a 15% discount-- Me: *interrupting while trying not to laugh* Are you fucking kidding me? New Rep: That's the best I can offer, Mr. X. Did you have something else in mind? Me: Now that you mention it, I have a great idea! New Rep: What can we do? Me: I know! Howabout you guys sell yourselves to Apple for pennies on the dollar and let them run the show. They manage to have decent hardware and still provide good customer serv-- New Rep: *hangs up and never calls back*
...I read Slashdot during my morning shit. I combine the two greatest technological inventions in the history of man: wireless Ethernet, and indoor plumbing.
In 1999 two friends had Lasik done a week apart. Both went to experienced surgeons and both avoided the "budget" process. One is now permanently night-blind, and the other has permanent double-vision. Also, no one really knows what the long-term ramifications of the surgery are.
Unless you need coke-bottle lenses, just stick to glasses/contacts. They're you're fucking eyes, man. They're not worth fucking with for an unnecessary surgery. I mean, hell, would you risk your face falling off and leaving a bloody patch in exchange for the chance of a better-looking nose?
Yeah, gee, I wonder what SCO is paying Slashdot to post so many SCO lawsuit stories?...Oh wait! They're not! Slashdot is about technology and geekery and all things associated with it, including things like Intellectual Property and MP3 players and so on.
If you have some sort of evidence of Slashdot stories being paid placements, please share said information with the rest of us...otherwise, stop speculating in such a way as to call into question the ethics of the editors.
I was going to make some statement about using a Mac, but given his time at Xerox PARC, he knows 'em, if you follow...;-)
I don't know what fantasyland he lives in regarding personal computing and its uses -- my iBook has been used for learning -- programming languages, research for articles, etc. Creativity? Photoshop for web design and photo editing, MS Word for my writing, PHPWiki for keeping the notes/timeline/etc. organized for my future world setting (sci-fi). Oh, and communication -- email, AIM, IRC, etc. And entertainment -- NES emulator, Galactic Battlegrounds, pr0n^H^H^H^Hweb-surfing, iTunes, DVDs, etc.
So yeah. I think the PC has fulfilled Kay's original intentions.
Masking agents work great for anabolics -- steroids -- but not for things like EPO. Interestingly enough, even though there is a test for EPO, having a hematocrit over 50 will still result in a disqualification and suspension.
I am deeply suspicious that Lance's chemo and related drugs somehow altered his body to make him much stronger
You do understand that chemo is effective and has all the nasty side-effects, because it's POISONOUS, right? I'm sorry but chemo/recovery drugs are not going to do anything helpful for the biochemistry of a bike racer.
The incident you refer to is from 1998 (a year before Armstrong returned), which was a horrible year and was the incident that sparked the crackdown on doping in cycling. The fact of the matter is, Armstrong is the most tested athlete in the history of sports and unlike baseball players, he gets NO advanced warning that there's going to be a test. If Lance were doping, he'd have been caught by now.
"I have a dream that one day the state of Redmond, whose CEO's lips are presently dripping with the words of FUD and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little Linux boys and Linux girls will be able to join hands with little Microsoft boys and Microsoft girls and compute together as peers-to-peers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every bad GUI shall be exalted, every pricetag and TCO shall be made low, the open ports will be made closed, and the closed source will be made open, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all hardware shall see it together."
Slashdot Mirror
I'd think that this is obvious, but my fav DIY guy/group has got to be Burt Rutan and the guys at Scaled Composites. I'm dying to see what they do for a follow-up to SpaceShipOne.
These were showcased during the Tour de France, as Oakley is one of Lance Armstrong's sponsors. I wasn't impressed then, and I'm not impressed now.
If Oakley wants to impress me, put a HUD inside my M-frame lenses, with a wireless link to my cyclecomputer, so I never have to take my eyes of the road to check my data.
Hi flametroll. Please re-examine my statement. Note that I did not say Linux clusters were superior to Crays in all aspects. I merely mentioned that Cray's marketshare was slipping and that, par for the IT course, the CTO came out and stroked his ego in public. In the future, please do not read into the statements of others.
Nothing like a CTO of a company that's got slipping marketshare coming out and masturbating in public to get more attention. But I guess that's the best they can do...
Also worth investigating is John C. Wright's The Golden Age Trilogy...I had bought the first book to read on my Vegas trip (honeymoon) next week. Already ripped through it. Set 10,000 years in the future, where the Singularity, if it hasn't already happened, is damned close.
The books (in order) are:
* The Golden Age
* The Phoenix Exultant
* The Golden Transcendence
That said, the first 50 pages of the first book are a little tough-going, given that Wright is painting a really alien picture and forcing you to catch up with his terminology, but in the end, it's worth it. Having just started the second book, I can tell you that one of the major themes is socialism vs. libertarianism, and as a subset of that personal responsibility to society.
You're posing a lot of the same questions a lot of other people have re: Armstrong and his comeback from cancer.
The thing is, before Armstrong had cancer, his body type was radically different -- broader shoulders, heavier upper body. Chemo destroyed most of his muscle mass, and as a result, when he rebuilt himself, he was able to focus on the muscle groups necessary to win Tours de France. Look at him now and he's got a scrawny upper body compared to the past. That translates into a HUGE advantage in the hills.
That said, the hormonal/chemical balance in his body would be very unlikely to be beneficial in this case. The man had cancer, which is not a favorable mutation. And chemo? It's poisonous, that's why it works. It's not mutagenic and isn't likely to have fuxored with his hormones/body chemistry. Armstrong was a genetic freak before cancer and was a very good bicycle racer before cancer -- he just made the most of a very bad situation and turned it into a huge positive. Cancer gave him a few advantages: he was able to rebuild himself to be more suited toward events like the Tour de France, he learned to endure horrible hardships and pain, and he learned the value of hard work.
That said, as an amateur cyclist, where can I get the LanceArmstrongGeneModPak(TM)?
Oh you could detect EPO back in the day. You just had to wait until the athlete dropped dead of a heart attack. (Nothing like having your heart try to pump something with the thickness of toothpaste.)
Because they're children. We can't have them thinking that politicians are scumbags. Who will think of the children?
Howabout "Orrin the Ass-Burrowing Money Weasel"? It's got a nice ring to it. You gotta admit.
...and normally upon seeing some lame attempt at a keyboard replacement, such as this, I'd ask, "Gee, pre-orders? How much is shipping to Fantasyland?"
But then I realized, shipping would cost a dime, because they're already in Fantasyland.
You know, the ESA doesn't have to spend a dime. All they have to do is drop someone into my job -- it keeps me slowed down, makes me want to sleep, and destroys my motivation.
I mean, honestly...what's the big deal with Segways? They're nothing more than mopeds with an odd wheel-alignment. And their name seems to be a misspelling of Sewgay.
And it's funny how desperate their owners are for attention. I was standing on a corner in Minneapolis and there was this guy next to me (on the sidewalk!), and he says to me, "Hey, man cool iPod."
"Thanks man. Geigh Segway you've got there."
Amen. I had so many problems with the Dell I owned, bought on credit, that when it came time to send the last payment, I pulled the info off the hard drive and scavenged the RAM from the box.
Then I took it out in the street and ran my XTerra back and forth over it about five times. I took the remnants, dropped them into a box, included a check and the invoice for my final payment, and sent them off to Dell.
The check cleared in a few days. About a week and a half after that, I get a call from Dell. It went something like this:
Dell Rep: Mr. X, I'm calling about the computer you sent to us.
Me: What about it?
Rep: Sir, we cannot cover this computer under warranty.
Me: Oh, no...that's quite alright!
Rep: *sounds confused* Then, uh, why did you send this to us?
Me: I wanted you guys to know exactly what I think of your product.
Rep: Oh, um. Hmm. Is it, um, safe to say you were unhappy with the experience?
Me: Your insight amazes me.
Rep: Would you like to speak with a manager about this?
Me: Not especially.
Rep: Okay, Mr. X, we're sorry your experience was so bad. If there's nothing more I can help you with today, yadda yadda yadda....Thanks for choosing Dell!
Me: Biggest mistake of my life. *hangs up*
A few weeks later, I get another call from our friends at Dell -- a very concerned-sounding guy with a soft voice.
New Rep: Mr. X, I'd like to talk to you about your past experience with Dell.
Me: What of it?
New Rep: Well, we're concerned. We'd really like to keep you as a Dell customer, and I'm calling to see what we can do to make that possible.
Me: So what did you have in mind?
New Rep: We're prepared to offer you a very generous discount on a new Dell computer.
Me: Define generous. [I'm willing to entertain the idea, if for nothing more than a super-cheap box that I can eBay later at full-price.]
New Rep: We can give you a 15% discount--
Me: *interrupting while trying not to laugh* Are you fucking kidding me?
New Rep: That's the best I can offer, Mr. X. Did you have something else in mind?
Me: Now that you mention it, I have a great idea!
New Rep: What can we do?
Me: I know! Howabout you guys sell yourselves to Apple for pennies on the dollar and let them run the show. They manage to have decent hardware and still provide good customer serv--
New Rep: *hangs up and never calls back*
I cannot begin to tell you how good that felt.
...I read Slashdot during my morning shit. I combine the two greatest technological inventions in the history of man: wireless Ethernet, and indoor plumbing.
I am so 1.0, baby.
In 1999 two friends had Lasik done a week apart. Both went to experienced surgeons and both avoided the "budget" process. One is now permanently night-blind, and the other has permanent double-vision. Also, no one really knows what the long-term ramifications of the surgery are.
Unless you need coke-bottle lenses, just stick to glasses/contacts. They're you're fucking eyes, man. They're not worth fucking with for an unnecessary surgery. I mean, hell, would you risk your face falling off and leaving a bloody patch in exchange for the chance of a better-looking nose?
Like OneTalk? Or RingTalk? Or SauronTalk?
Yeah, gee, I wonder what SCO is paying Slashdot to post so many SCO lawsuit stories?...Oh wait! They're not! Slashdot is about technology and geekery and all things associated with it, including things like Intellectual Property and MP3 players and so on.
If you have some sort of evidence of Slashdot stories being paid placements, please share said information with the rest of us...otherwise, stop speculating in such a way as to call into question the ethics of the editors.
I was going to make some statement about using a Mac, but given his time at Xerox PARC, he knows 'em, if you follow... ;-)
I don't know what fantasyland he lives in regarding personal computing and its uses -- my iBook has been used for learning -- programming languages, research for articles, etc. Creativity? Photoshop for web design and photo editing, MS Word for my writing, PHPWiki for keeping the notes/timeline/etc. organized for my future world setting (sci-fi). Oh, and communication -- email, AIM, IRC, etc. And entertainment -- NES emulator, Galactic Battlegrounds, pr0n^H^H^H^Hweb-surfing, iTunes, DVDs, etc.
So yeah. I think the PC has fulfilled Kay's original intentions.
Masking agents work great for anabolics -- steroids -- but not for things like EPO. Interestingly enough, even though there is a test for EPO, having a hematocrit over 50 will still result in a disqualification and suspension.
I am deeply suspicious that Lance's chemo and related drugs somehow altered his body to make him much stronger
You do understand that chemo is effective and has all the nasty side-effects, because it's POISONOUS, right? I'm sorry but chemo/recovery drugs are not going to do anything helpful for the biochemistry of a bike racer.
The incident you refer to is from 1998 (a year before Armstrong returned), which was a horrible year and was the incident that sparked the crackdown on doping in cycling. The fact of the matter is, Armstrong is the most tested athlete in the history of sports and unlike baseball players, he gets NO advanced warning that there's going to be a test. If Lance were doping, he'd have been caught by now.
"How...about...global...thermonuclear...war?"
"I have a dream that one day the state of Redmond, whose CEO's lips are presently dripping with the words of FUD and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little Linux boys and Linux girls will be able to join hands with little Microsoft boys and Microsoft girls and compute together as peers-to-peers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every bad GUI shall be exalted, every pricetag and TCO shall be made low, the open ports will be made closed, and the closed source will be made open, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all hardware shall see it together."
This won't fly. I read about this stuff being built and working back in the late 90's.
Prior art, biatches.
Wouldn't that be spelled, "4h0y m4t3y, th4r 5h3 bL0WZ0RZ!"?
Why, yes, I believe we do! Small Internet. :-D