My paperwhite would be just the right size if it weren't for the half inch bezels. Keep the battery life, the optional backlight and the barely good enough touchscreen, and just make the screen bigger. I don't want another tablet; the only reason I have one of those is that sometimes I like to read a comic book.
A very, very long way. Autodocs were more about fully automated surgery and organ replacement rather than dispensing drugs. I particularly remember a case where one of the Wus is exposed to vacuum and the autodoc aboard ship replaces both lungs without any human intervention; one would have to assume that people are flying around with all manner of organs stored aboard just in case. Before we have anything like that I think we'll see something more like an automated pharmacy that takes blood samples, analyses them and manufactures/dispenses exactly what the patient needs... even medication for paranoid schizophrenics.
MMOs are one thing but twitch games hinge more on the controller than the device you happen to be playing on. PS4 and Xbox players may well be able to compete fairly, but putting keyboard+mouse into the mix is very much like throwing a cat among the pigeons. FIFA might be playable I suppose (I've never played any of them), but CoD not so much.
PC: Cross platform from day one And you don't have to pay extra for the privilege either.
The last cross-platform multiplayer experiment involving PCs that I remember was Quake III on the Dreamcast. It didn't end well.
I can compete with other PC users when I play on my PC, and I can play against other Xbox players with my Xbox. The only difference I've seen is that the Xbox users seem to be about twenty years younger than me, and seem to think that "faggot" and variations thereon are the height of wit.
The way I read it was along the lines of "not just any raptors, but bald eagles!". Americans do have a fascination with that particular species, more so than other eagles or raptors in general.
Not much plastic in a Delorean - the body of the car is sheet metal, unlike a lot of modern cars.
The plastic parts of a modern car body tend to be those that are the first to hit something (or someone), i.e. front and rear bumpers. Some people might say that's a good thing.
But it has swords, spacey ships, little toys, and fluffy teddy bears. That has to make up for the stilted dialogue, plots for simpletons (aka space cowboys), complete disregard for science in favour of space magic, and stupefying repetition.
You bought an Apple that broke. Welcome to the club, but surely you wouldn't expect your local Acer (or whatever) shop, assuming there is one, to replace a shell, mainboard, keyboard and optical drive with a two hour turnaround.
Back when George Lucas gave a crap, the story is that he sampled a number of languages for Star Wars. I think either the Ewoks (or maybe Jawas) are actually speaking a rare dialect from Mongolia and Nien Nunb (Lando's copilot) speaks a language usually heard in Kenya.
As for Klingon, the syntax was purposely designed to make it sound alien, and this is especially noticeable if you try to learn a few phrases. To most Western ears the word order is pretty much backwards; it's generally object-verb-subject, but for basic sentences the subject pronoun is often omitted making it object-subject-verb.* The sounds too were purposely chosen to sound alien, through use of sounds that are very rarely found in most languages. An example of this is the first letter in tlhIngan {Klingon}. tlh represents a single 'letter', the closest equivalent to which that I can think of is the double L found in Welsh.
One can be forgiven for bashing Trek, but no-one could deny that Marc Okrand has put considerable effort into developing a language used for perhaps only a few minute's worth of dialogue. It's not quite up there with Tolkien's work, some might say, but I've found learning it on and off a very interesting distraction even if it is mainly used for fleet MOTDs.
*For example, jaghpu' DIHIv maH is equivalent to jaghpu' DIHIv (jaghpu' {enemies} DIHiv {we attack them} maH {we}. The subject pronoun is redundant in this example and is usually only included if the phrase would be ambiguous without it, perhaps where the object of the sentence may or may not be plural (plurality is similarly normally determined by context).
tl;dr it's really for the nerds' benefit and a show of dedication to one's profession.
I was actually thinking of just using any waste heat for something useful; not that my remains would be useful for fuel. There was even a news story not so long ago where a municipal pool was partly heated by the exhaust from a nearby crematorium.
As for the post further down about space issues, there may be plenty of room in the US but for an extreme counter-example look at places like Japan where cremation is definitely the norm, in part because there just isn't the room for conventional burials. We're not quite at that stage in the UK but we have had problems locally with cemetaries getting increasingly cramped.
You are probably going to think that this is absurd but, I would rather die than be monitored 24/7.
Yes I do if by "monitored 24/7" you mean "my car calls an ambulance if it looks like I've crashed". I would think your loving family, assuming you have one, might also agree.
I even hate the "emergency dialer" on my god damned lock screen.
That's there so anyone can use any phone to call emergency services even if the owner happens to be incapacitated. How could you possibly think that's a bad thing?
This is pretty much what university students in the UK have had since the early 2000's, but without offering different terms for different fields. Instead, some career paths, e.g. nursing, are incentivised with bursaries.
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Can't say I'm a fan of laptop hinges that are a an inch or so from the edge.
I like this in a laptop. It moves the centre of gravity closer to the crotch when it's perched on one's lap.
My paperwhite would be just the right size if it weren't for the half inch bezels. Keep the battery life, the optional backlight and the barely good enough touchscreen, and just make the screen bigger. I don't want another tablet; the only reason I have one of those is that sometimes I like to read a comic book.
Just how far are we from Niven's autodocs now?
A very, very long way. Autodocs were more about fully automated surgery and organ replacement rather than dispensing drugs. I particularly remember a case where one of the Wus is exposed to vacuum and the autodoc aboard ship replaces both lungs without any human intervention; one would have to assume that people are flying around with all manner of organs stored aboard just in case. Before we have anything like that I think we'll see something more like an automated pharmacy that takes blood samples, analyses them and manufactures/dispenses exactly what the patient needs... even medication for paranoid schizophrenics.
MMOs are one thing but twitch games hinge more on the controller than the device you happen to be playing on. PS4 and Xbox players may well be able to compete fairly, but putting keyboard+mouse into the mix is very much like throwing a cat among the pigeons. FIFA might be playable I suppose (I've never played any of them), but CoD not so much.
PC: Cross platform from day one
And you don't have to pay extra for the privilege either.
The last cross-platform multiplayer experiment involving PCs that I remember was Quake III on the Dreamcast. It didn't end well.
I can compete with other PC users when I play on my PC, and I can play against other Xbox players with my Xbox. The only difference I've seen is that the Xbox users seem to be about twenty years younger than me, and seem to think that "faggot" and variations thereon are the height of wit.
At 2mph I wouldn't be surprised if the bus driver thought the Google car was stationary.
The way I read it was along the lines of "not just any raptors, but bald eagles!". Americans do have a fascination with that particular species, more so than other eagles or raptors in general.
Not much plastic in a Delorean - the body of the car is sheet metal, unlike a lot of modern cars.
The plastic parts of a modern car body tend to be those that are the first to hit something (or someone), i.e. front and rear bumpers. Some people might say that's a good thing.
The insurance company pays out less money. They pass on part of the savings.
Speaking as someone who has just had to shop around for their car insurance... no they don't. The one doesn't automatically follow from the other.
why would anyone NOT want to report it?
Blackmail for one.
It's either £ or GBP, take your pick.
Or indeed £. Preview is your friend, slashcode is not.
But it has swords, spacey ships, little toys, and fluffy teddy bears. That has to make up for the stilted dialogue, plots for simpletons (aka space cowboys), complete disregard for science in favour of space magic, and stupefying repetition.
Are you talking about SW VII or Trek 11?
Would any other manufacturer do that? Would the retail store that sold you any brand of laptop?
You bought an Apple that broke. Welcome to the club, but surely you wouldn't expect your local Acer (or whatever) shop, assuming there is one, to replace a shell, mainboard, keyboard and optical drive with a two hour turnaround.
Back when George Lucas gave a crap, the story is that he sampled a number of languages for Star Wars. I think either the Ewoks (or maybe Jawas) are actually speaking a rare dialect from Mongolia and Nien Nunb (Lando's copilot) speaks a language usually heard in Kenya.
As for Klingon, the syntax was purposely designed to make it sound alien, and this is especially noticeable if you try to learn a few phrases. To most Western ears the word order is pretty much backwards; it's generally object-verb-subject, but for basic sentences the subject pronoun is often omitted making it object-subject-verb.* The sounds too were purposely chosen to sound alien, through use of sounds that are very rarely found in most languages. An example of this is the first letter in tlhIngan {Klingon}. tlh represents a single 'letter', the closest equivalent to which that I can think of is the double L found in Welsh.
One can be forgiven for bashing Trek, but no-one could deny that Marc Okrand has put considerable effort into developing a language used for perhaps only a few minute's worth of dialogue. It's not quite up there with Tolkien's work, some might say, but I've found learning it on and off a very interesting distraction even if it is mainly used for fleet MOTDs.
*For example, jaghpu' DIHIv maH is equivalent to jaghpu' DIHIv (jaghpu' {enemies} DIHiv {we attack them} maH {we}. The subject pronoun is redundant in this example and is usually only included if the phrase would be ambiguous without it, perhaps where the object of the sentence may or may not be plural (plurality is similarly normally determined by context).
tl;dr it's really for the nerds' benefit and a show of dedication to one's profession.
qatlh Hol chenmoH, chonayta' chenmoHta' neHqu'.
Why create a language, something something you only married me?
I was actually thinking of just using any waste heat for something useful; not that my remains would be useful for fuel. There was even a news story not so long ago where a municipal pool was partly heated by the exhaust from a nearby crematorium.
As for the post further down about space issues, there may be plenty of room in the US but for an extreme counter-example look at places like Japan where cremation is definitely the norm, in part because there just isn't the room for conventional burials. We're not quite at that stage in the UK but we have had problems locally with cemetaries getting increasingly cramped.
I'd rather be cremated. Don't waste any valuable land on my remains, and if you can make use of the heat from my burning corpse feel free.
Funeral rites are for the living anyway.
When lame brainers can not think up original material they resort to theft.
We're talking about CBS here, not Disney.
You're thinking of the five stages of acquisition: infatuation, justification, appropriation, obsession, resale.
if it ain't broke....
...you carry on making it better.
You are probably going to think that this is absurd but, I would rather die than be monitored 24/7.
Yes I do if by "monitored 24/7" you mean "my car calls an ambulance if it looks like I've crashed". I would think your loving family, assuming you have one, might also agree.
I even hate the "emergency dialer" on my god damned lock screen.
That's there so anyone can use any phone to call emergency services even if the owner happens to be incapacitated. How could you possibly think that's a bad thing?
This is pretty much what university students in the UK have had since the early 2000's, but without offering different terms for different fields. Instead, some career paths, e.g. nursing, are incentivised with bursaries.
It might help you to bear in mind that the first person to portray the Emperor was a woman. Emphasis on "might".
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
So... Jesus is my autopilot?