Another article in the big end-of-year 2002 issue of the Economist had one paragraph in which they described a group developing GM bacteria that crack cellulose to sugar, or directly to alchohol. I've seen nothing about that groups since.
Would be wonderful if not Utopian, small family farms produce cornstalks or pine trees or (gasp) hemp, and small production sites turn it into fuel. Since hauling cellulose would be a major part of the cost, the producers would be local and small, and pretty green. Every carbon atom released came out of the air anyway, so no more global warming, no defending the Straights of Hormuz, no sulfer from dirty coal, and we get our V8 engined-landcruisers back.
I want to invest! Anybody seen other news about this effort?
"The Detroit project will replace 25,000 pounds of copper wire..."
We don't know what gauge wire they're replacing, but if its significant current carrying high tension lines then its somewhere between a few ounces to many pounds per linear foot. Likely, its 3/4 inch stranded wire, about a pound and a half per linear foot.
25000 lbs ~=~ 16666 feet, divide by three for the three phase power, my guestimate is 5555 feet of replacement. Round off to 5280, I believe these people are doing one (1) mile of cable.
Gentle Readers, this is a demo project, and the Knight-Ridder reporter is trying to make it out as an industrial use.
We've seen the spectacular results so far of the researchers finding Jovian sized planets orbiting at Mercury sized orbits. So far, they're detecting really elliptical orbits, and at least some of the speculation is that these planets formed further out and migrated in, cleaning up the dust and the little planets. Doesn't paint a happy picture for the [percentage of Sun-like stars that have an Earth like rocky planet in the water zone.] We may have a galaxy with lots of Sun-like stars but relatively few Earth-like planets.
Has anybody seen an article that relates the 50 or so found planets to the number of stars searched? Has anybody seen an article that extrapolates from this data to how what percentage of stars have nice round orbits with nice blue planets ruled out?
I had to phone a friend, who remembered the name, Dr Sokal.
http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/
I couldn't find it without my mnemonically gifted friend. Try typing "sociology published nothing" on google. www.Disinfo.com couldn't find it, www.mempool.com, news of the wierd, nothing.
Of course, after excluding jonkatz, I had to come back and see if I got moderated or replied to. Now that I think about that, I guess I'm guilty of trolling. Not a happy thought.
Sensemaking -- organizing and transmitting data via the distributed architecture of the Net -- is the big idea behind the rise of Open Media.
I think what he actually means of sensemaking is a little more focused than this initial definition. However, this article seems to be a parody of "sensemaking."
This reminds me of the sociologist who recently wrote a paper about nothing, but used the correct wording, got it peer reviewed successfully and published in a journal. It would not surprise me to find out that JonKatz is doing a similar self-referential joke.
Okay. I'm now setting my preferences to exclude JonKatz. Life is too short.
But we don't actually sell Windows 2000...
on
EU Web Tax Proposed
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· Score: 1
Consider this in light of the EULA agreement, where we're not actually buying a copy of Windoze, we're getting a license to use it for a little while, sort of.
I'm sure the EU is unfortunately aware of this and the full EU commission proposal allows for this.
Interesting mental picture: Red ants = EU suprafederal governmental entities, Black ants = Microsoft and associated lawyers, in the same glass jar, shaken.
Wow. Kind of invalidates my argument. Guess they just suck period.
When I read this article, my first reaction was to see if I had any games or wanted any games from Apoge_ee. I'm not going to be affected by this license agreement at all.
Had to read the page linked above just to believe it. Its kind of like those big gravel carrying dump trucks with the sign on the back, "NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR OBJECTS COMING FROM ROAD." I'm not going to take either at face value.
Try reading the list of games, 1992 to present, that they've published. Then sort by your definition of what was original/funny/playable at the time. My impression was that they had some early breakthroughs (Wolfenstein, Duh!) But, lately they've slipped over the edge into repetitive copy-cat titles. If any company wants to lawyer themselves up their own assh0les, Apogeee's not a big loss.
...explaining the 2nd phone line to a possible house buyer really impressed him and greatly helped sell the house to him. Of course, I live in South Carolina.
I'm a dinosaur now, 37 years old, writing code and very valuable because I can use Watcom 10.6 to make extended dos executables...
Otherwise, if I were in High School facing this kind of crap I'd do a Rodney King on them.
I hated high school, largely because of the student/student violence at every level. I got beaten up, and held my own a few times, but hated every second of it. 7.5% of my high school graduating class went on to higher education, and a higher percentage eventually went to jail. The threats and intimidations and violence were constant and completely un-checked by the administration.
I would strongly urge any North Carolina high school student to get a video camera with a good Zoom function and a directional mike, both fairly affordable now, especially if you're one of the bright kids from a stable home, aka "targets". Take some pictures, it won't be hard to find. Get a good set of tapes, and drop on the desk of any sleazy (aka "advertised") lawyer in town. This is the age of litigation, we'll just make sceaming "faggot" at a D&Der in the lunch line very very costly to a school district. With the right judge, although probably not with a jury trial, that sort of shit will be found as unacceptable as it really is.
I am one of the people horrified by the concept and implementation of WAVE, and had some slight posts previously. I appreciate the WAVE people reading this.
Consider the position of a parent/gaurdian when he hears that his son has been called in for questioning because of an anonymous tip. A) Did the kid actually give any threats or display trouble the parent should know about? B) Is my kid safe from the actual disturbed people? C) Okay, so it was bogus this time. Now how do I get my kid wiped from the records?
One of the checks and balances you need is a way of wiping out references to a kid. Completely. No lingering stuff. If you don't implement this, and if my kid came afoul of you, I would pursue all legal means to make it so and then extract actual and punitive damages.
Consider implementing, from the very first moment possible, a policy and method of deleting all info about any person that is not substantiated as an actual prosecutable threat. No dead files.
If this becomes a source of data for the Pinkerton corp, where they keep and own this database, that is a powerful tool of controlling people without checks and balances. The credit card rating people have commited abuses, but know that if too much of their data is wrong and uncorrectable, then the banks will stop using their services and begin using a rating company that is more acceptable. There is no similar restraint on the Pinkertons. If they are paid by the "counselling session" there will be lots of counseling sessions. If they are paid for each instance of a boot to the kidney, they will boot the kidney.
Even with this implementations discussed here in/., I will absolutely fight the existance of this program in my state. (South Carolina) No kidding, this whole concept is wrong in my opinion. I will begin by posting some information about the history of Pinkertons: How many freaking NORTH CAROLINIANS know that Mr Original Pinkerton got his start as a spy for Generals Grant and Sherman! Then for many decades their main business was hiring out as a private army for busting strikers or Indian tribes or farmers? Your corporate history does not make you people I would trust with the power to detain and question my children, ever.
Search engine for actual www.Pinkertons.com site. 1(800) 555 1212 for Pinkerton Detective Agency gives a number that is listed on the above site, so 99.999% sure that www.Pinkerton's isn't a hoax. Site map -> corporate directory -> North Carolina -> PSG-Pinkertons subsidiary, got above phone number. Dial it, and you get a starched shirt lady who is very concerned about "who are you?" I didn't try any subterfuge, I told her I was horrified at the program's existance and that I had gotten this number from corporate and I was just confirming that the program wasn't a hoax. She was rude and insistent to know who I was, but the program is real. Oh shit, folks, I wish I had found out something different.
I've built a series of arms and arm-shoulders, and some miserable stilt devices. These are all bicycle cable, wood, foam, and lots of prethreaded rod. The best arm-shoulder I've ever built gives me about a 54" reach instead of my usual 28" reach from shoulder socket to fingertip. When its well adjusted, I can light a match or pick up a dime, when its not well adjusted its like a chastity belt for my arm. Your shoulder/arm/hand has more degrees of freedom than Descent, and you use most of them. Somebody at a party WILL ask you to duplicate a Vulcan hand salute, and then tell you that Terminator 2 could do it. If my new hand can't bring a drink to my mouth, then 80% of the fun and usefullness goes away. Its surprisingly hard to get a useful range of motion with the elbow cocked and with the elbow extended. Making sure that theres no place in between where some joints become unconstrained is a real challenge. Every thing I've ever built or could build would only serve to get me killed or hurt quicker in a fight. Any fight. Much quicker. Get the weight to your torso. A shoulder blade mounted exo-arm is hugely superiour to a forearm mounted extension. Getting the weight down to your hips like a good backpack is the best. If I built a big powered Mech, I'd sit in the groin, not the head. The only external power I've ever built in was a servo inside an opposing finger/thumb, to crush beer bottles. It was worth it, despite the weight and battery life problems. I needed stilts to make the proportions right. My first attempts were miserable. Go now, to a used tool store, and buy sheetrock stilts. They work unbelievably well. Your next costume will disturb people. Having a really long reach is surprisingly useful. I've actually changed lightbulbs and other small tasks with my arms. (Total time saved)/(time spent building them) 0.001. I went to a party, with an arm, stomping around much bigger than life, and letting other people try it on. A good pair of married friends were looking at me without saying much, so I pulled it off of me and made her put it on. All she did was put the "hand" on his shoulder and look him straight in the eye, and the rest of us started sweating and stammering. They borrowed the arm for a few days and nothing else was ever said. I suspect the specialty civilian market is small but loyal
Slashdot Mirror
Another article in the big end-of-year 2002 issue of the Economist had one paragraph in which they described a group developing GM bacteria that crack cellulose to sugar, or directly to alchohol. I've seen nothing about that groups since.
Would be wonderful if not Utopian, small family farms produce cornstalks or pine trees or (gasp) hemp, and small production sites turn it into fuel. Since hauling cellulose would be a major part of the cost, the producers would be local and small, and pretty green. Every carbon atom released came out of the air anyway, so no more global warming, no defending the Straights of Hormuz, no sulfer from dirty coal, and we get our V8 engined-landcruisers back.
I want to invest! Anybody seen other news about this effort?
"The Detroit project will replace 25,000 pounds of copper wire..."
We don't know what gauge wire they're replacing, but if its significant current carrying high tension lines then its somewhere between a few ounces to many pounds per linear foot. Likely, its 3/4 inch stranded wire, about a pound and a half per linear foot. 25000 lbs ~=~ 16666 feet, divide by three for the three phase power, my guestimate is 5555 feet of replacement. Round off to 5280, I believe these people are doing one (1) mile of cable. Gentle Readers, this is a demo project, and the Knight-Ridder reporter is trying to make it out as an industrial use.
We've seen the spectacular results so far of the researchers finding Jovian sized planets orbiting at Mercury sized orbits. So far, they're detecting really elliptical orbits, and at least some of the speculation is that these planets formed further out and migrated in, cleaning up the dust and the little planets. Doesn't paint a happy picture for the [percentage of Sun-like stars that have an Earth like rocky planet in the water zone.] We may have a galaxy with lots of Sun-like stars but relatively few Earth-like planets. Has anybody seen an article that relates the 50 or so found planets to the number of stars searched? Has anybody seen an article that extrapolates from this data to how what percentage of stars have nice round orbits with nice blue planets ruled out?
http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/
I couldn't find it without my mnemonically gifted friend. Try typing "sociology published nothing" on google. www.Disinfo.com couldn't find it, www.mempool.com, news of the wierd, nothing.
Of course, after excluding jonkatz, I had to come back and see if I got moderated or replied to. Now that I think about that, I guess I'm guilty of trolling. Not a happy thought.
I think what he actually means of sensemaking is a little more focused than this initial definition. However, this article seems to be a parody of "sensemaking."
This reminds me of the sociologist who recently wrote a paper about nothing, but used the correct wording, got it peer reviewed successfully and published in a journal. It would not surprise me to find out that JonKatz is doing a similar self-referential joke.
Okay. I'm now setting my preferences to exclude JonKatz. Life is too short.
I'm sure the EU is unfortunately aware of this and the full EU commission proposal allows for this.
Interesting mental picture: Red ants = EU suprafederal governmental entities, Black ants = Microsoft and associated lawyers, in the same glass jar, shaken.
When I read this article, my first reaction was to see if I had any games or wanted any games from Apoge_ee. I'm not going to be affected by this license agreement at all.
Try reading the list of games, 1992 to present, that they've published. Then sort by your definition of what was original/funny/playable at the time. My impression was that they had some early breakthroughs (Wolfenstein, Duh!) But, lately they've slipped over the edge into repetitive copy-cat titles. If any company wants to lawyer themselves up their own assh0les, Apogeee's not a big loss.
...explaining the 2nd phone line to a possible house buyer really impressed him and greatly helped sell the house to him. Of course, I live in South Carolina.
Otherwise, if I were in High School facing this kind of crap I'd do a Rodney King on them.
I hated high school, largely because of the student/student violence at every level. I got beaten up, and held my own a few times, but hated every second of it. 7.5% of my high school graduating class went on to higher education, and a higher percentage eventually went to jail. The threats and intimidations and violence were constant and completely un-checked by the administration.
I would strongly urge any North Carolina high school student to get a video camera with a good Zoom function and a directional mike, both fairly affordable now, especially if you're one of the bright kids from a stable home, aka "targets". Take some pictures, it won't be hard to find. Get a good set of tapes, and drop on the desk of any sleazy (aka "advertised") lawyer in town. This is the age of litigation, we'll just make sceaming "faggot" at a D&Der in the lunch line very very costly to a school district. With the right judge, although probably not with a jury trial, that sort of shit will be found as unacceptable as it really is.
JonKatz, Awesome job! You've done well.
I am one of the people horrified by the concept and implementation of WAVE, and had some slight posts previously. I appreciate the WAVE people reading this.
Consider the position of a parent/gaurdian when he hears that his son has been called in for questioning because of an anonymous tip. A) Did the kid actually give any threats or display trouble the parent should know about? B) Is my kid safe from the actual disturbed people? C) Okay, so it was bogus this time. Now how do I get my kid wiped from the records?
One of the checks and balances you need is a way of wiping out references to a kid. Completely. No lingering stuff. If you don't implement this, and if my kid came afoul of you, I would pursue all legal means to make it so and then extract actual and punitive damages.
Consider implementing, from the very first moment possible, a policy and method of deleting all info about any person that is not substantiated as an actual prosecutable threat. No dead files.
If this becomes a source of data for the Pinkerton corp, where they keep and own this database, that is a powerful tool of controlling people without checks and balances. The credit card rating people have commited abuses, but know that if too much of their data is wrong and uncorrectable, then the banks will stop using their services and begin using a rating company that is more acceptable. There is no similar restraint on the Pinkertons. If they are paid by the "counselling session" there will be lots of counseling sessions. If they are paid for each instance of a boot to the kidney, they will boot the kidney.
Even with this implementations discussed here in /., I will absolutely fight the existance of this program in my state. (South Carolina) No kidding, this whole concept is wrong in my opinion. I will begin by posting some information about the history of Pinkertons: How many freaking NORTH CAROLINIANS know that Mr Original Pinkerton got his start as a spy for Generals Grant and Sherman! Then for many decades their main business was hiring out as a private army for busting strikers or Indian tribes or farmers? Your corporate history does not make you people I would trust with the power to detain and question my children, ever.
http://www.pinkertons.com/history/index.html
Typo: (800) 528-5745 [N/T]
Search engine for actual www.Pinkertons.com site. 1(800) 555 1212 for Pinkerton Detective Agency gives a number that is listed on the above site, so 99.999% sure that www.Pinkerton's isn't a hoax. Site map -> corporate directory -> North Carolina -> PSG-Pinkertons subsidiary, got above phone number. Dial it, and you get a starched shirt lady who is very concerned about "who are you?" I didn't try any subterfuge, I told her I was horrified at the program's existance and that I had gotten this number from corporate and I was just confirming that the program wasn't a hoax. She was rude and insistent to know who I was, but the program is real. Oh shit, folks, I wish I had found out something different.
I've built a series of arms and arm-shoulders, and some miserable stilt devices. These are all bicycle cable, wood, foam, and lots of prethreaded rod. The best arm-shoulder I've ever built gives me about a 54" reach instead of my usual 28" reach from shoulder socket to fingertip. When its well adjusted, I can light a match or pick up a dime, when its not well adjusted its like a chastity belt for my arm. Your shoulder/arm/hand has more degrees of freedom than Descent, and you use most of them. Somebody at a party WILL ask you to duplicate a Vulcan hand salute, and then tell you that Terminator 2 could do it. If my new hand can't bring a drink to my mouth, then 80% of the fun and usefullness goes away. Its surprisingly hard to get a useful range of motion with the elbow cocked and with the elbow extended. Making sure that theres no place in between where some joints become unconstrained is a real challenge. Every thing I've ever built or could build would only serve to get me killed or hurt quicker in a fight. Any fight. Much quicker. Get the weight to your torso. A shoulder blade mounted exo-arm is hugely superiour to a forearm mounted extension. Getting the weight down to your hips like a good backpack is the best. If I built a big powered Mech, I'd sit in the groin, not the head. The only external power I've ever built in was a servo inside an opposing finger/thumb, to crush beer bottles. It was worth it, despite the weight and battery life problems. I needed stilts to make the proportions right. My first attempts were miserable. Go now, to a used tool store, and buy sheetrock stilts. They work unbelievably well. Your next costume will disturb people. Having a really long reach is surprisingly useful. I've actually changed lightbulbs and other small tasks with my arms. (Total time saved)/(time spent building them) 0.001. I went to a party, with an arm, stomping around much bigger than life, and letting other people try it on. A good pair of married friends were looking at me without saying much, so I pulled it off of me and made her put it on. All she did was put the "hand" on his shoulder and look him straight in the eye, and the rest of us started sweating and stammering. They borrowed the arm for a few days and nothing else was ever said. I suspect the specialty civilian market is small but loyal