Why even bother reinstalling it? If the only part visible from the exterior is a dark cone, just install a conical cap. Most of the hardware inside the shuttle such as computers, control panels, actuators etc is completely unnecessary for a museum piece. Just remove most of it and install dummy components.
Because it's about history and legacy, pal - not a tourist attraction. There will be a time when people will look at the shuttles trying to figure out how we did what we did - and a mockup won't tell them that.
To the best of my knowledge, the first time I heard anyone refer to an "app" was programmers referring to executables on the original Mac OS. All files had a type and creator code; for programs the type was "appl". The "l" was awkward to pronounce, so they were just called "apps".
Look, I WORK in schools (computer support). I see and hear of all kinds of stuff, personally, like the recent and very famous "laptop webcam" scandal. My kids are out of high school; but a few years ago when they were, each got a briefing from me about dealing with school officials. Clam up. Make no statements about guilt, innocence, or involvement. Politely refuse to co-operate in, and verbally protest, computer searches, physical searches, or drug tests. Ask for witnesses. If a recording device is available, attempt to use it, even if you aren't ultimately allowed to. CALL ME. Call the police yourself, if necessary.
Given the unprecedented power school officials have taken upon themselves - to damage your child's life and future prospects, with little hope of appeal, it's the only way. You must be on the defensive at all times. Isn't it wonderful that we've made this kind of attitude necessary?
I'm 100% on board with the seriousness of this, but not with the schools reaction. It's a matter for the courts, not the principal, unless the posts were done on school grounds with school equipment. And being "forced" to log onto the account while at school? That should be right out. When a libel case comes to court, the suspect has the opportunity to defend themselves; they MAY have reason to believe the person actually IS a pedophile, rapist or suffer from bipolar disorder. Seems unlikely, but you never know - and now we never will.
Full disclosure, I never thought the original three film were that exceptional. Bad science, mediocre acting, simplistic plot. At best, they were entertaining in a 30's movie serial sort of way; which I believe was what was originally intended. They did serve to popularize SF themes for the general public, and should have lead to higher quality fare.
UNFORTUNATELY, they were wildly successful, and lead to formulaic prequels. You can actually go through the fils making notes: "There to appeal to the pre-teens... there for the toy market... there to appeal to the tweens. And the overwhelming need to twist everything out of shape to sync with the 'later' films.
There are parts of the prequels that literally have me avert my eyes. Seeing them in 3D, and thus a DOUBLE headache, is something I'd pay to avoid. Hey, THERE'S a way to make some money from the franchise. "Send your PayPal donation to 'Stop Lucas now'..."
The issue is not that he was being tracked, per se. They could follow me around and watch where I went, and I won't have (much) trouble with that, though if I noticed I'd certainly want to know why. Any citizen could legally do the same; or at least where the new stalking laws are intelligently written.
To me the issue is that they invaded his personal space, concealing a device of unknown origin and purpose essentially within his car. A citizen most certainly could NOT do that; not without charges of trespass, vandalism, or whatever. I don't care how many decision are made that a warrant isn't required; it SHOULD be required.
Series of films, if planned that way, are OK. Sequels CAN be alright. Prequels and remakes are almost always terrible. In this case, we have a film long acknowledged to be a classic; the quick immersion and open-to interpretation ending neither require nor invite extension in either direction. Virtually none of the original actors (or anything else) can be re-used. So we'll have the typical Hollywood "grab the name and include a few hooks to the original' disaster.
If only there was a way to get people to STOP GOING to these wretched things; perhaps eventually the money people would return to allowing original works. Like a "Forbidden Planet" prequel. (GRIN).
I recall asking, almost pleading my cable company to add SciFi to their lineup. By the time they did, it was already in decline. But my philosophy was, I asked for it, I should watch it... so I slogged on, and on. I've probably watched twenty of their wretched made-for-TV movies, unable to believe there wasn't ONE that had redeeming value - I was wrong. The first couple of times I stumbled across "professional wrestling" I checked and re-checked the channel guide, sure a mistake had been made. The name change to something resembling (to me) a venereal disease was the final straw. Off my cable box's channel list, forever.
(y'know, the ones who scramble to spend all their money at the end of the year because next year's budget will be smaller if it turns out they didn't really need that much).
THAT has been going on for years, at every level of government. One of my jobs as a computer vendor was to find stuff for schools to buy at the end of the year, so as to use literally every single penny of their budget. "Now, what item in your catalog is closest to, but does not exceed, $22.50?"
I already tend to shy away from web pages that use mouseovers; nothing more annoying than having stuff pop up in your face when you're essentially just scanning the content. If I know they're actively tracking this trivia, I WILL find a way to block or spoof it.
Many do not. I work in schools, and have teenage nieces and nephews. I spoke to a 13-year old just this week who claimed never to have read a non-school book.
I spend a lot of time on automotive support forums. Obviously, people who ask for help have a vested interest in making their request as complete and readable as possible. They also have all the time, and all the characters, they want to do this. I'd say that up to 10% of requests, universally from younger posters, are incomprehensible.
The result is they GET no help; people won't take the trouble to figure out what they mean. Or worse yet, they get incorrect advice through people not understanding them. If you ask them to ask again, in a more understandable way, the arrogance and hostility is amazing. "This isn't f*cking english class, just HELP ME!"
Oh, for heaven's sake. We already have more than enough laws to cover any conceivable actual harm, and punish those responsible. What this does is help criminalize behaviour that has the POTENTIAL for harm, something we've been working on for quite a number of years. We're trying to stop crime before it occurs, and that's a really slippery slope - ask Phillip K. Dick.
They should call Amazon a special interest store
on
Amazon Censorship Expands
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
Amazon certainly has the right to sell whatever they want; but if they're going to target their inventory that way, they shouldn't hold themselves out as a general-interest bookstore. In fact, they enjoy the benefits of being considered the DEFINITION of a book store, when that's apparently becoming less true. Where I live, there are two local Christian bookstores, one new and one used. The latter just removed all science fiction titles from their shelves, presumably because management disagrees with the content. That's fine; I knew their bent when I went in there, and now know not to return.
The danger with such a definitive seller as Amazon dropping an entire class of titles is it implies those titles do not exist. THAT I consider a form of censorship.
I'm pretty sure Amazon sells Agatha Christie novels... does that make them "associated with" murder? How about Mein Kampf? Try thinking a little more clearly, please.
Oh, bosh. I had plenty of phones like that, and if I held it so that the antenna touched ANYTHING, it seriously attenuated the signal - sometimes to the point of dropping calls.
I recall reading a book about how to beat speeding tickets. Assuming you'd disposed of the radar evidence (officer improperly trained, device not calibrated recently - works about half the time, if you know what to ask) you get the officer to demonstrate his prowess in estimating speed. Almost NO ONE is good at this. The example used was dropping a pencil from shoulder height. The usual estimates were between 40 and 60 MPH; in actuality, it's less than 20.
Before radar, they typically had to pace you, time you on a marked bit of road, or use VASCAR (yes, I'm that old) Guessing wasn't considered evidence.
I've seen this phenomenon from just a few feet away. Immediately after a massive thunderstorm, a ball entered through my bedroom window, and exited through another at the bottom of the stairs. The hallucination theory is interesting, but doesn't explain two partially-melted window screens.
...and everything to do with misplaced national pride. IMHO, this and the Italian case are mostly about a smaller country getting off on pushing around a larger and presumably dominant one. Worldwide, there's considerable political sentiment against the ubiquity of American film and other media - this is an extension of that. If the world's preeminent search or media sharing sites were based in Brazil or Italy, it would be a different story.
C'mon - there's only so much you can do to ameliorate human stupidity. How can you possibly make "Left - STOP" and "Right - GO" any simpler? A much better solution to unintended acceleration is to permanently revoke the drivers license of anyone who experiences it.
Slashdot Mirror
Why even bother reinstalling it? If the only part visible from the exterior is a dark cone, just install a conical cap. Most of the hardware inside the shuttle such as computers, control panels, actuators etc is completely unnecessary for a museum piece. Just remove most of it and install dummy components.
Because it's about history and legacy, pal - not a tourist attraction. There will be a time when people will look at the shuttles trying to figure out how we did what we did - and a mockup won't tell them that.
To the best of my knowledge, the first time I heard anyone refer to an "app" was programmers referring to executables on the original Mac OS. All files had a type and creator code; for programs the type was "appl". The "l" was awkward to pronounce, so they were just called "apps".
>> No one who knows anything about electronics manufacturing thinks this. The $499 16GB iPad, by all estimations, costs under $250 to manufacture.
If it indeed costs about $250 to make, then after R&D and marketing costs... they might be breaking even.
Look, I WORK in schools (computer support). I see and hear of all kinds of stuff, personally, like the recent and very famous "laptop webcam" scandal. My kids are out of high school; but a few years ago when they were, each got a briefing from me about dealing with school officials. Clam up. Make no statements about guilt, innocence, or involvement. Politely refuse to co-operate in, and verbally protest, computer searches, physical searches, or drug tests. Ask for witnesses. If a recording device is available, attempt to use it, even if you aren't ultimately allowed to. CALL ME. Call the police yourself, if necessary. Given the unprecedented power school officials have taken upon themselves - to damage your child's life and future prospects, with little hope of appeal, it's the only way. You must be on the defensive at all times. Isn't it wonderful that we've made this kind of attitude necessary?
I'm 100% on board with the seriousness of this, but not with the schools reaction. It's a matter for the courts, not the principal, unless the posts were done on school grounds with school equipment. And being "forced" to log onto the account while at school? That should be right out. When a libel case comes to court, the suspect has the opportunity to defend themselves; they MAY have reason to believe the person actually IS a pedophile, rapist or suffer from bipolar disorder. Seems unlikely, but you never know - and now we never will.
Full disclosure, I never thought the original three film were that exceptional. Bad science, mediocre acting, simplistic plot. At best, they were entertaining in a 30's movie serial sort of way; which I believe was what was originally intended. They did serve to popularize SF themes for the general public, and should have lead to higher quality fare. UNFORTUNATELY, they were wildly successful, and lead to formulaic prequels. You can actually go through the fils making notes: "There to appeal to the pre-teens... there for the toy market... there to appeal to the tweens. And the overwhelming need to twist everything out of shape to sync with the 'later' films. There are parts of the prequels that literally have me avert my eyes. Seeing them in 3D, and thus a DOUBLE headache, is something I'd pay to avoid. Hey, THERE'S a way to make some money from the franchise. "Send your PayPal donation to 'Stop Lucas now'..."
The issue is not that he was being tracked, per se. They could follow me around and watch where I went, and I won't have (much) trouble with that, though if I noticed I'd certainly want to know why. Any citizen could legally do the same; or at least where the new stalking laws are intelligently written. To me the issue is that they invaded his personal space, concealing a device of unknown origin and purpose essentially within his car. A citizen most certainly could NOT do that; not without charges of trespass, vandalism, or whatever. I don't care how many decision are made that a warrant isn't required; it SHOULD be required.
Series of films, if planned that way, are OK. Sequels CAN be alright. Prequels and remakes are almost always terrible. In this case, we have a film long acknowledged to be a classic; the quick immersion and open-to interpretation ending neither require nor invite extension in either direction. Virtually none of the original actors (or anything else) can be re-used. So we'll have the typical Hollywood "grab the name and include a few hooks to the original' disaster. If only there was a way to get people to STOP GOING to these wretched things; perhaps eventually the money people would return to allowing original works. Like a "Forbidden Planet" prequel. (GRIN).
I recall asking, almost pleading my cable company to add SciFi to their lineup. By the time they did, it was already in decline. But my philosophy was, I asked for it, I should watch it... so I slogged on, and on. I've probably watched twenty of their wretched made-for-TV movies, unable to believe there wasn't ONE that had redeeming value - I was wrong. The first couple of times I stumbled across "professional wrestling" I checked and re-checked the channel guide, sure a mistake had been made. The name change to something resembling (to me) a venereal disease was the final straw. Off my cable box's channel list, forever.
(y'know, the ones who scramble to spend all their money at the end of the year because next year's budget will be smaller if it turns out they didn't really need that much).
THAT has been going on for years, at every level of government. One of my jobs as a computer vendor was to find stuff for schools to buy at the end of the year, so as to use literally every single penny of their budget. "Now, what item in your catalog is closest to, but does not exceed, $22.50?"
I already tend to shy away from web pages that use mouseovers; nothing more annoying than having stuff pop up in your face when you're essentially just scanning the content. If I know they're actively tracking this trivia, I WILL find a way to block or spoof it.
Probably better than the last design. Now, where's the option to go back to the old interface?
Sooo last decade. It's 2011, what's next?
BTW, it's well worth reading the short story which ostensibly inspired "Idiocracy" - "The Marching Morons", by C.M. Kornbluth.
Many do not. I work in schools, and have teenage nieces and nephews. I spoke to a 13-year old just this week who claimed never to have read a non-school book.
I spend a lot of time on automotive support forums. Obviously, people who ask for help have a vested interest in making their request as complete and readable as possible. They also have all the time, and all the characters, they want to do this. I'd say that up to 10% of requests, universally from younger posters, are incomprehensible. The result is they GET no help; people won't take the trouble to figure out what they mean. Or worse yet, they get incorrect advice through people not understanding them. If you ask them to ask again, in a more understandable way, the arrogance and hostility is amazing. "This isn't f*cking english class, just HELP ME!"
Oh, for heaven's sake. We already have more than enough laws to cover any conceivable actual harm, and punish those responsible. What this does is help criminalize behaviour that has the POTENTIAL for harm, something we've been working on for quite a number of years. We're trying to stop crime before it occurs, and that's a really slippery slope - ask Phillip K. Dick.
Amazon certainly has the right to sell whatever they want; but if they're going to target their inventory that way, they shouldn't hold themselves out as a general-interest bookstore. In fact, they enjoy the benefits of being considered the DEFINITION of a book store, when that's apparently becoming less true. Where I live, there are two local Christian bookstores, one new and one used. The latter just removed all science fiction titles from their shelves, presumably because management disagrees with the content. That's fine; I knew their bent when I went in there, and now know not to return. The danger with such a definitive seller as Amazon dropping an entire class of titles is it implies those titles do not exist. THAT I consider a form of censorship.
I'm pretty sure Amazon sells Agatha Christie novels... does that make them "associated with" murder? How about Mein Kampf? Try thinking a little more clearly, please.
As if the prequel films didn't ALREADY cause massive headaches...
Oh, bosh. I had plenty of phones like that, and if I held it so that the antenna touched ANYTHING, it seriously attenuated the signal - sometimes to the point of dropping calls.
I recall reading a book about how to beat speeding tickets. Assuming you'd disposed of the radar evidence (officer improperly trained, device not calibrated recently - works about half the time, if you know what to ask) you get the officer to demonstrate his prowess in estimating speed. Almost NO ONE is good at this. The example used was dropping a pencil from shoulder height. The usual estimates were between 40 and 60 MPH; in actuality, it's less than 20. Before radar, they typically had to pace you, time you on a marked bit of road, or use VASCAR (yes, I'm that old) Guessing wasn't considered evidence.
I've seen this phenomenon from just a few feet away. Immediately after a massive thunderstorm, a ball entered through my bedroom window, and exited through another at the bottom of the stairs. The hallucination theory is interesting, but doesn't explain two partially-melted window screens.
...and everything to do with misplaced national pride. IMHO, this and the Italian case are mostly about a smaller country getting off on pushing around a larger and presumably dominant one. Worldwide, there's considerable political sentiment against the ubiquity of American film and other media - this is an extension of that. If the world's preeminent search or media sharing sites were based in Brazil or Italy, it would be a different story.
C'mon - there's only so much you can do to ameliorate human stupidity. How can you possibly make "Left - STOP" and "Right - GO" any simpler? A much better solution to unintended acceleration is to permanently revoke the drivers license of anyone who experiences it.