Then again, what about the energy to manufacture and distribute these discs?
Say for sake of argument that the typical blockbuster DVD rental disc is rented out 100 times before it is put in the 'previously viewed' bin. Now, instead of people renting that one disc and driving it back and fourth to their homes, blockbuster stocks and sells 100 discs. (Ok, so there are obviously more than one copy of a given title and the number of times each is rented over its lifetime may be well 100, but you get my point.)
What is the total environmental impact of these 99 extra discs being manufactured, shipped to various locations and being discarded (along with packaging)?
Given that most people probably don't make a special trip just to return videos (I know I don't), I'm not sure I buy this 'reduction in vehicale pollution' argument.
So, how does a Flexplay disc get to your house, by magic?
Or, is the study only concerned with the return trip? I wonder what assumptions they used in making these estimations.
I don't know about the majority of people, but I don't make (many) trips where the sole purpose is to return a video. Blockbuster now gives you till noon or something to return rentals, I usually drop them off on my way to the office in the morning, so these 'throw away' discs wouldn't save me any gas, just a couple of minutes it takes to pull up to the curbside drop box, though I s'pose most people don't do this.
Just seems like you'd have to make all kinds of assumptions in figuring out how much gas is saved, I'm wondering how much these assumptions were validated?
I'd be willing to bet that somewhere the NASCAR organization has some membership bylaws that the
driver/racing team signs to get in and be allowed to race. I'd guess there are probably some limitations on what you can do with the trophy and any other NASCAR names, images, logos, etc if you want to stay in good standing (and get to race next year).
Maybe NASCAR isn't that great of an analogy. What are the terms of service when you sign up to play DAoC? If it says that you aren't allowed to buy/sell/trade in-game items, why would anyone sue when Mythic tries to step in and put a stop to it?
I'm missing something, right?
Re:complexity of supercomputers approaching brain
on
Arguing A.I.
·
· Score: 1
>How many psychics with precognition predicted September 11th
I never thought of that! Geez, what a massive condemnation of the whole psychic industry that not one of those frauds made even the vaguest prediction of some catastrophic event involving terrorists, planes, skyscrapers or New York. I'm not saying they had to predict what would happen down to the time and place, just that the massive psychic vibrations that should have eminated from something of that magnitude *should* have been picked up at some point!
I see death, raining from the sky... a large city on the east coast...
Sheesh, not a peep, eh?:-)
Re:complexity of supercomputers approaching brain
on
Arguing A.I.
·
· Score: 1
I keep forgetting about this until someone mentions it again. 3D Realms has had a press-blackout for what, over a year now? Seems like it was 2-3 years ago that DNF development was switched from the Quake 2 engine to the Unreal engine. Now Q3A and UT have come and gone, Unreal 2 and a new Doom are on the horizon and still DNF is MIA.
Either that is going to be one hell of a game or they've had to start over a couple of times? How can you ever hope to sell enough copies of a game to make back what has been spent in development this many years?
When a Florida phone-sex worker developed carpal tunnel syndrome in each of her busy hands, she took the case to court. Now she gets her satisfaction from workers' compensation checks.
...and they say the american legal system doesn't work anymore!
I agree, but I'm the only one in my home that is able to see them, apparently. I record most of my shows on high or best because it drives me nuts when I see all that fuzzy, pixelated crap around quick-motion frames. I bitch and moan about it and my wife looks at me like I'm deranged (well, I *am* most of the time, but that's besides the point).
She doesn't see it. Fine. I've set the default to normal, so anything she records looks like crap to me, but she says it's fine. Same goes for the kids, they don't have a clue. Stuff like junkyard wars or voyager I can record at medium and watch it fine because I'll delete it right after I watch it.
Things like Alias, Enterprise or movies that I'm going to save to tape I record on best. I have a 30 hour that I added a second drive to. I have yet to have to make a compromise on quality based on limited space.
>cut back to the booth so they can make some sexual innuendo about her one line
Yahknow, I'm up for a good double-entendre as much as the next guy, but these are forced and unfunny. Plus, I like to watch this show with my kids, and I crindge now everytime they cut to Carmen.
Notice how they cut to her a lot and she doesn't have anything interesting to say? She 'interviews' the contenstants after the bout:
So, you guys really 'creamed' them, didn't you *wink,wink*?
Heh, yah... he's a really good driver, and we just tried to keep_
> I don't like this having the 'junkyard wars' name attached to it
Aside from the/. headline, the only "attachment" appears to be that it is the same producers. The name is 'Ultimate Machine Combat' and it doesn't seem to borrow/lean on the junkyard concept much at all, at least from the info on the website.
Your team builds offsite, no apparent requirement to use scrap at all. I agree that this is closer to a battlebot concept. I've always though CC focused too much on the 'sports arena' aspect of the competition. I've wanted to see a little more on how the bots are designed and built, less on Bill Dwyer's witty comments and the Taco Bell instant replays of the action.
I think this show might give me what I'm interested in. Show me the teams designing their machines, building them, interacting to overcome unexpected problems and *then* go to the competition.
Course, there is a big difference too in that these appear to be manned vehicles that will be engaging in some kind of all-terain test, rather than remote-controlled machines that are pitted against each other.
I'll have to go back and watch the Lucas interview on my RoTJ tape tonight. I am almost positive he says that he had wookies in mind originally for the ground battle on Endor.
A wide area network (WAN) is a geographically dispersed telecommunications network. The term distinguishes a broader telecommunication structure from a local area network ( ). A wide area network may be privately owned or rented, but the term usually connotes the inclusion of public (shared user) networks. An intermediate form of network in terms of geography is a metropolitan area network (MAN).
I've always considered the distinction to be when private LANs are interlinked over some 3rd network. At my company, we have "WAN" links between our network and our client's networks. That may be incorrect terminology, but that is what the network people call it. We lease private lines from AT&T and there are firewalls on each end where our network interconnect.
Oh, exactly. Leia seems to be the only one they have ever hit (and then they had to use a wide-dispersal stun gun at close range).
Precision my @ss. Obi-Wan was a funny guy.
Sand People are expert marksmen compared to Stormtroopers (remember they bounced one off Anakin's speeding pod from a high cliff?) I'd like to see a stormtrooper do that. The standard issue ST rifle is wildly inaccurate. Every play JKII? The empire obviously traded off rate of fire for any kind of accuracy.
Of course, when you have millions of troopers on a battlefield, who cares how accurate any one soldier is, right?
>the Empire choose a severly retarded guy to clone
My theory was that the only way the empire was able to succees in mass cloning viable humans was to do serious modification to the genes to make them more resistant to mutations, disease, uprisings, etc. Unfortunately, the trade off is that they are incredibly thick, have slow reflexes and terrible aim (not to mention that being hit on the head with a rock easily incapacitates them).
Err, exactly. The entire rise of the Empire has always ridden on the idea of a clone army. Ever wonder why every stormtrooper has exactly the same voice? The emperor himself is rumored to be a clone.
I think we all knew that this episode and the next would be dealing with the fall of the republic at the hands of Palpatine, aided by the army of clones, and Anakin's eventual transformation into Vader.
Ewoks. Lucas' original vision for Endor was supposedly Wookies, but the concept of a tall, hairy, lanky co-pilot for Solo was so appealing, he brought the Wookie forward to ANH. When he got to RoTJ he "couldn't" do Wookies, so he "cut them in half" and made them Ewoks.
Now, he could have probably made that work. I'm sorry, but the way they ended up looking like stuffed teddy bears with spears really was dissapointing.
I thought the basic benefit was going to a IP transmission method for voice? The video is a 'gee-whiz' consumer gadget aspect, but evolving the network from analog (1st gen) to digital (2g cdma/tdma/gsm) to now a 3rd generation IP network was the real appeal.
Granted, the underlying transport is/should be transparent to the user. Moving the wireless networks further away from circuit-switched technologies should be the real attraction, not postage-stamp-sized videos of HBO previews, right?
Yup, the two of them used to drag race and were constantly trying to up-mod their rigs to beat each other. I think you can still find blurbs in Carmack's.plan about his car. (seem to remember he had four at one point, gave one of them away - also gave away a dead piston for some contest too, I think)
Reminds me of a good quote by Romero - something like 'my mom used to rag on me to get a real job. after i bought my second ferrari she stopped complaining.'
AUDI - Automobile Unsafe Designs, Inc.
BUICK - Big, Ugly, Import Car Killer
CHEVROLET - Constantly Having Every Vehicle Recalled Over Lousy
Engineering Techniques
CHEVROLET - Can Hear Every Valve Rattle On Long Extended Trips
CHEVY - Charged HEaVilY
CHEVY - Cheapest Heap Envisioned Yet
CHEVY NOVAS:- (are actually designed by Toyota: Chevota or Toyolet?)
DATSUN - Disgraceful Auto That Stalls UNceasingly
DODGE - Driven Only During Grey Evenings
DODGE - Drips Oil, Drips Gas Everywhere
FIAT - Fails In Attempted Turns
FIAT - Fix It Again Tony
FIAT - Fine Italian Automotive Technology
FORD - Fought Off Recall Demands
FORD - Found On Road Dead
FORD LTD - Found on road dying, Left to die.
FORD - F___er Only Runs Downhill
FORD - Fix Or Repair Daily
FORD - First On Race Day
FORD - First On Rust Development
FORD - Fork Over Repair Dough
FORD - Founded On Reservation Dump
GEO - Good Engineering Overlooked
GEO - Gets Eventually Over 50
GMC - Gets More Chicks
GMC - Garage Mechanic's Companion
JEEP - Junk Engineered Executed Poorly
LTD - Laughable Trash Dump
MAZDA - My! Another Zany Detroit Assassin!
OLDS - Old Ladies Driving Slowly
OLDSMOBILE - Old Ladies Drive Slow - Mostly Over Bridges Into Lake Erie
PINTO - Paid Inspector Nicely To Overlook
PLYMOUTH - Police Laugh, Young Men Ogle, all Underestimating This Heap
PONTIAC - Penniless Old Nicaraguan Thinks It's a Cadillac
PONTIAC - Poor Old Nick Thinks It's A Cadillac
PONTIAC - Pours Out Noxious Toxins In American Cities
PORSCHE - Proof Only Rich Suckers Can Have Everything
SAAB - Sad Attempt At Beauty
SAAB - Sorry Auto, Always Broken
SUBARU - Screwed up beyond all repair usually.
TRIUMPH - This Really Is Unreliable Man, Please Help!
TRIUMPH - Tried Repairing It Until My Parts Hurt!
TRIUMPH - The Risk In Useless Machinery Pays Heavily
TOYOTA - Toyauto
TOYOTA - Towed Often, Yearly Overrunning Triple A
Slashdot Mirror
Then again, what about the energy to manufacture and distribute these discs?
Say for sake of argument that the typical blockbuster DVD rental disc is rented out 100 times before it is put in the 'previously viewed' bin. Now, instead of people renting that one disc and driving it back and fourth to their homes, blockbuster stocks and sells 100 discs. (Ok, so there are obviously more than one copy of a given title and the number of times each is rented over its lifetime may be well 100, but you get my point.)
What is the total environmental impact of these 99 extra discs being manufactured, shipped to various locations and being discarded (along with packaging)?
Given that most people probably don't make a special trip just to return videos (I know I don't), I'm not sure I buy this 'reduction in vehicale pollution' argument.
Then you are less wasteful (and probably healthier) than 99.9999% of the movie-renting american public in the first place.
So, how does a Flexplay disc get to your house, by magic?
Or, is the study only concerned with the return trip? I wonder what assumptions they used in making these estimations.
I don't know about the majority of people, but I don't make (many) trips where the sole purpose is to return a video. Blockbuster now gives you till noon or something to return rentals, I usually drop them off on my way to the office in the morning, so these 'throw away' discs wouldn't save me any gas, just a couple of minutes it takes to pull up to the curbside drop box, though I s'pose most people don't do this.
Just seems like you'd have to make all kinds of assumptions in figuring out how much gas is saved, I'm wondering how much these assumptions were validated?
www.sun.com wasn't responding for a looong time, now seems to be just perky.
java.sun.com is still not responding, though
Doesn't that defeat the point of x86? (cheap, plentiful commodity hardware).
I'm not sure how I'd feel about Sun manufacturing intel-based hardware using their own "architecture extensions".
I thought the point here was to still sell sparc machines, just offer an alternative to slowlaris, anyway?
Are you sure?
I'd be willing to bet that somewhere the NASCAR organization has some membership bylaws that the
driver/racing team signs to get in and be allowed to race. I'd guess there are probably some limitations on what you can do with the trophy and any other NASCAR names, images, logos, etc if you want to stay in good standing (and get to race next year).
Maybe NASCAR isn't that great of an analogy. What are the terms of service when you sign up to play DAoC? If it says that you aren't allowed to buy/sell/trade in-game items, why would anyone sue when Mythic tries to step in and put a stop to it?
I'm missing something, right?
>How many psychics with precognition predicted September 11th
:-)
I never thought of that! Geez, what a massive condemnation of the whole psychic industry that not one of those frauds made even the vaguest prediction of some catastrophic event involving terrorists, planes, skyscrapers or New York. I'm not saying they had to predict what would happen down to the time and place, just that the massive psychic vibrations that should have eminated from something of that magnitude *should* have been picked up at some point!
I see death, raining from the sky... a large city on the east coast...
Sheesh, not a peep, eh?
That's funny because it is a reference to Johnny Mnemonic
>the never-to-be-released Duke Nukem Forever
I keep forgetting about this until someone mentions it again. 3D Realms has had a press-blackout for what, over a year now? Seems like it was 2-3 years ago that DNF development was switched from the Quake 2 engine to the Unreal engine. Now Q3A and UT have come and gone, Unreal 2 and a new Doom are on the horizon and still DNF is MIA.
Either that is going to be one hell of a game or they've had to start over a couple of times? How can you ever hope to sell enough copies of a game to make back what has been spent in development this many years?
Crippled masturbator sues and wins!
When a Florida phone-sex worker developed carpal tunnel syndrome in each of her busy hands, she took the case to court. Now she gets her satisfaction from workers' compensation checks.
...and they say the american legal system doesn't work anymore!
>Very visible compression artifacts
I agree, but I'm the only one in my home that is able to see them, apparently. I record most of my shows on high or best because it drives me nuts when I see all that fuzzy, pixelated crap around quick-motion frames. I bitch and moan about it and my wife looks at me like I'm deranged (well, I *am* most of the time, but that's besides the point).
She doesn't see it. Fine. I've set the default to normal, so anything she records looks like crap to me, but she says it's fine. Same goes for the kids, they don't have a clue. Stuff like junkyard wars or voyager I can record at medium and watch it fine because I'll delete it right after I watch it.
Things like Alias, Enterprise or movies that I'm going to save to tape I record on best. I have a 30 hour that I added a second drive to. I have yet to have to make a compromise on quality based on limited space.
Here, where'd you get those coconuts?
>cut back to the booth so they can make some sexual innuendo about her one line
Yahknow, I'm up for a good double-entendre as much as the next guy, but these are forced and unfunny. Plus, I like to watch this show with my kids, and I crindge now everytime they cut to Carmen.
Notice how they cut to her a lot and she doesn't have anything interesting to say? She 'interviews' the contenstants after the bout:
So, you guys really 'creamed' them, didn't you *wink,wink*?
Heh, yah... he's a really good driver, and we just tried to keep_
OK, thanks! Back to you, Bill!
Give me Cathy Rogers *any* day.
> I don't like this having the 'junkyard wars' name attached to it
/. headline, the only "attachment" appears to be that it is the same producers. The name is 'Ultimate Machine Combat' and it doesn't seem to borrow/lean on the junkyard concept much at all, at least from the info on the website.
Aside from the
Your team builds offsite, no apparent requirement to use scrap at all. I agree that this is closer to a battlebot concept. I've always though CC focused too much on the 'sports arena' aspect of the competition. I've wanted to see a little more on how the bots are designed and built, less on Bill Dwyer's witty comments and the Taco Bell instant replays of the action.
I think this show might give me what I'm interested in. Show me the teams designing their machines, building them, interacting to overcome unexpected problems and *then* go to the competition.
Course, there is a big difference too in that these appear to be manned vehicles that will be engaging in some kind of all-terain test, rather than remote-controlled machines that are pitted against each other.
I'll have to go back and watch the Lucas interview on my RoTJ tape tonight. I am almost positive he says that he had wookies in mind originally for the ground battle on Endor.
A wide area network (WAN) is a geographically dispersed telecommunications network. The term distinguishes a broader telecommunication structure from a local area network ( ). A wide area network may be privately owned or rented, but the term usually connotes the inclusion of public (shared user) networks. An intermediate form of network in terms of geography is a metropolitan area network (MAN).
according to whatis
I've always considered the distinction to be when private LANs are interlinked over some 3rd network. At my company, we have "WAN" links between our network and our client's networks. That may be incorrect terminology, but that is what the network people call it. We lease private lines from AT&T and there are firewalls on each end where our network interconnect.
Oh, exactly. Leia seems to be the only one they have ever hit (and then they had to use a wide-dispersal stun gun at close range).
Precision my @ss. Obi-Wan was a funny guy.
Sand People are expert marksmen compared to Stormtroopers (remember they bounced one off Anakin's speeding pod from a high cliff?) I'd like to see a stormtrooper do that. The standard issue ST rifle is wildly inaccurate. Every play JKII? The empire obviously traded off rate of fire for any kind of accuracy.
Of course, when you have millions of troopers on a battlefield, who cares how accurate any one soldier is, right?
>the Empire choose a severly retarded guy to clone
My theory was that the only way the empire was able to succees in mass cloning viable humans was to do serious modification to the genes to make them more resistant to mutations, disease, uprisings, etc. Unfortunately, the trade off is that they are incredibly thick, have slow reflexes and terrible aim (not to mention that being hit on the head with a rock easily incapacitates them).
Err, exactly. The entire rise of the Empire has always ridden on the idea of a clone army. Ever wonder why every stormtrooper has exactly the same voice? The emperor himself is rumored to be a clone.
I think we all knew that this episode and the next would be dealing with the fall of the republic at the hands of Palpatine, aided by the army of clones, and Anakin's eventual transformation into Vader.
Oh, that is *so* inviting a good flamewar!
Ewoks. Lucas' original vision for Endor was supposedly Wookies, but the concept of a tall, hairy, lanky co-pilot for Solo was so appealing, he brought the Wookie forward to ANH. When he got to RoTJ he "couldn't" do Wookies, so he "cut them in half" and made them Ewoks.
Now, he could have probably made that work. I'm sorry, but the way they ended up looking like stuffed teddy bears with spears really was dissapointing.
Oh yeah, wasn't there a way to get ntfs support?
or is this something different?
I thought the basic benefit was going to a IP transmission method for voice? The video is a 'gee-whiz' consumer gadget aspect, but evolving the network from analog (1st gen) to digital (2g cdma/tdma/gsm) to now a 3rd generation IP network was the real appeal.
Granted, the underlying transport is/should be transparent to the user. Moving the wireless networks further away from circuit-switched technologies should be the real attraction, not postage-stamp-sized videos of HBO previews, right?
Yeah, they usually give up though when I finally tell them I code in FORTRAN. ;-)
Yup, the two of them used to drag race and were constantly trying to up-mod their rigs to beat each other. I think you can still find blurbs in Carmack's .plan about his car. (seem to remember he had four at one point, gave one of them away - also gave away a dead piston for some contest too, I think)
Reminds me of a good quote by Romero - something like 'my mom used to rag on me to get a real job. after i bought my second ferrari she stopped complaining.'
AUDI - Automobile Unsafe Designs, Inc.
BUICK - Big, Ugly, Import Car Killer
CHEVROLET - Constantly Having Every Vehicle Recalled Over Lousy
Engineering Techniques
CHEVROLET - Can Hear Every Valve Rattle On Long Extended Trips
CHEVY - Charged HEaVilY
CHEVY - Cheapest Heap Envisioned Yet
CHEVY NOVAS:- (are actually designed by Toyota: Chevota or Toyolet?)
DATSUN - Disgraceful Auto That Stalls UNceasingly
DODGE - Driven Only During Grey Evenings
DODGE - Drips Oil, Drips Gas Everywhere
FIAT - Fails In Attempted Turns
FIAT - Fix It Again Tony
FIAT - Fine Italian Automotive Technology
FORD - Fought Off Recall Demands
FORD - Found On Road Dead
FORD LTD - Found on road dying, Left to die.
FORD - F___er Only Runs Downhill
FORD - Fix Or Repair Daily
FORD - First On Race Day
FORD - First On Rust Development
FORD - Fork Over Repair Dough
FORD - Founded On Reservation Dump
GEO - Good Engineering Overlooked
GEO - Gets Eventually Over 50
GMC - Gets More Chicks
GMC - Garage Mechanic's Companion
JEEP - Junk Engineered Executed Poorly
LTD - Laughable Trash Dump
MAZDA - My! Another Zany Detroit Assassin!
OLDS - Old Ladies Driving Slowly
OLDSMOBILE - Old Ladies Drive Slow - Mostly Over Bridges Into Lake Erie
PINTO - Paid Inspector Nicely To Overlook
PLYMOUTH - Police Laugh, Young Men Ogle, all Underestimating This Heap
PONTIAC - Penniless Old Nicaraguan Thinks It's a Cadillac
PONTIAC - Poor Old Nick Thinks It's A Cadillac
PONTIAC - Pours Out Noxious Toxins In American Cities
PORSCHE - Proof Only Rich Suckers Can Have Everything
SAAB - Sad Attempt At Beauty
SAAB - Sorry Auto, Always Broken
SUBARU - Screwed up beyond all repair usually.
TRIUMPH - This Really Is Unreliable Man, Please Help!
TRIUMPH - Tried Repairing It Until My Parts Hurt!
TRIUMPH - The Risk In Useless Machinery Pays Heavily
TOYOTA - Toyauto
TOYOTA - Towed Often, Yearly Overrunning Triple A
>The picture on top is scary.
Has anyone mirrored the image (the site exceeded its bandwidth limit, can't get it at all now)?