You're absolutely right. The Club of Rome has been predicting the imminent depletion of our resources for quite some time now, yet their predictions never come to pass. The reason? They don't take technological innovation into account. Paul Zane Pilzer has a lot to say on that subject.
Technological advances will continue to buy us "just a little bit more time" until nanotechnology kicks in. After that, I imagine that the only practical limitations on physical resources will be artificial- the haves deliberately keeping the have nots from having access to the means of fabrication and the freedom to use it.
It's gonna be a hell of a ride, folks. Hope that organizations like the Foresight Institute succeed in intelligently shaping policy before it's too late.
Your idea of just force-pulling Anakin and Obi Wan is exactly what ran through my head while watching the movie (both times!). After some thought, however, it seems that the best course of action (from a preserve-the-Republic standpoint, not a storytelling standpoint) would've been to let them both get crushed.
Think about it- Yoda could've then finished off Dooku (is there any doubt about who would've won had the fight continued?), thereby destroying Sideous' right hand and link to the separtist movement, as well as preventing the Death Star plans from falling into the Sith's hands.
Additionally, the loss of Anakin would mean the "loss" of Vader, the benefit of which to the galaxy as a whole is obvious.
Cost benefit analysis: Cost: Obi Wan, no continuation of the Skywalker line, and a few sleepless nights for our little green friend.
Benefit: Throws the Sith's plans into (possibly unrecoverable) chaos, preservation of the Jedi order (we know from Ep IV that Vader is instrumental in the eradication of the Jedi), prevention of the rise of the Empire, and the sparing of the lives of countless rebels and the *entire populace of Alderaan*!
All this from a single decision in the heat of battle.
Preservation of the Old Republic could be argued as either a pro or a con depending on your perspective. If you view the Republic as being inherently corrupt and impotent then it's a bad thing, but from my perspective it's Government That Really Works (tm) corrupted by the Sith influence (much like corporate influence in our own government).
Maybe it wouldn't have stopped Sideous permanently, but it certainly would've screwed his plans up royally.
Speaking of screwing royals, though, now that I think about it this would've also eliminated any chance of Episode III being the NC-17 Natalie Portman sextravaganza that I feel it should rightly be.
Hmmmm... Anyone wanna buy some beachfront property on Alderaan?
First off, I'm not a programmer, so if I come across sounding like I don't know what I'm talking about it's because I don't.
That said, it's been my experience (or maybe I've been listening to too much M$ FUD) that a significant percentage of Windows' instability is the result of different programs installing different (and somewhat incompatible) versions of the same.dll. This always struck me as a silly idea. Sure, you're saving HD space by sharing libraries between programs, but you're also creating an environment where one program can easily break another.
It also results in the files for a particular program being scattered around the filesystem. If I choose to install FuMaker 2.0 and later decide to remove it, I have to use the (unreliable) uninstaller. I can't just delete c:\progra~1\fumaker2 `cause then I end up leaving a bunch of.dlls in the c:\windoze\system directory and God knows where else. Does this strike anyone else as a Bad Thing?
I was surprised when I started playing with Linux and learned that it also uses shared libraries. The way I see it there are two solutions: have programs install their own.dlls into their own directories and live with the extra 10-20% increase in size (which I'm willing to accept) or require that if you create a different version of a.dll then you give it a new name. It is a different library, after all.
If someone could explain the error in my reasoning here I'd greatly appreciate it.
My girlfriend graduated from high school just over a year ago, and I got to see how this works first hand.
One of her senior classes was "Computers." I thought that this was great- she had an interest in technology and I was looking forward to sharing in her growing computer literacy.
"Computers" turned out to be "MS Office." The class was divided into four units: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Access. No discussion of hardware other than which end of the floppy goes in first, and no discussion of operating systems beyond how to start the individual apps. Even a basic overview of what a directory structure is and how it works was absent. As far as I know that's as far into the subject as that school's curriculum goes.
It's as though educators have given up on computer technology and decided that it's arcane lore outside the reach of mere mortals. To them Office savvy equals computer literacy, and the idea that it's possible for someone to know more or even (gasp!) *program* a computer doesn't even register on their radar.
In the long run, I think that this mindset will prove to be as great a barrier to quality computer education as people's lack of awareness of viable alternatives to Windoze.
Neal Stephenson is right. It's becoming the Morlocks vs the Eloi.
Obviously getting the thread back onto the topic of Micro$oft products.
Guys, step one is to let them know that they don't have to break up with you to enjoy another female. It worked for me- they're both sleeping in the other room right now.
So why the hell am I sitting here reading Slashdot???
Just as a quick FYI, Marathon (marathoncomputer.com) makes rack cases that mount G4s nicely. You can pull the guts straight out of a G4 tower and drop them into the rack case. I'm transferring a system on the workbench behind me right now.
OK, after 3 years I have to confess. I was at a CompUSA in another city back when they had in-store demos of satellite net access. The demo machine was towards the back of the store, and it was almost closing time, so I downloaded some porn (for bandwidth testing purposes, of course;] ). After finding a rather nice picture of a pair of amorous young ladies, I set it as the desktop, minimized all windows, engaged the screen saver, and headed for the door. Sure, it's goofy and tasteless, but for me this was a major act of insurrection.
Copying in-store software isn't new. I knew a kid back in the early 80's that brought a blank 5.25" disk and a copy of Disk Nibbler into a K-Mart and copied a game (Beach Head, I believe) straight off of the Commodore 64 they had set up as a display unit. The employees had no clue what he was doing.
I never nicked software that way, but I did like to bang out a quick program on C-64s that would disable the Run/Stop-Restore key combination (equivalent to ctrl-alt-del) and make the screen flash silly messages like "Coleco ADAM Sucks!"
Tracking the effectiveness of advertising in normal media (print, outdoor, broadcast, etc.) is a well-established science. For novel media like video games and the like I don't see how they can collect enough measurable data to reliably dismiss the media as a profitable advertising venue.
As an example, in 1986 electronic punk band Sigue Sigue Sputnik decided to sell advertising on their album 'Flaunt It'. Yes, there are actually commercials between some of the songs!
It was a bold and brash move, but well executed. The ads and products (Studio Line hair gel, i-D Magazine, etc.) fit in well with the overall style of the album, and there were some fake ads as well that were humorous and flowed well with the album.
It's easy to measure how many copies were sold (bootlegging aside), but how do you measure the actual number of effective exposures per album, or the time frame? Personally, to this day I still use exclusively Studio Line, and I'm not ashamed to admit that it's because they had the balls to advertise on one of my favorite albums. No doubt I'm an outlier, but how do you quantify the success of a single advertisement that's still moving product >16 years after it ran?
As another example, my first exposure to Red Bull was while playing Wipeout XL on the Playstation, almost 2 years before I ever saw the product on store shelves. I freaked when I realized that it was a real drink, and immediately picked some up (good stuff!). Again, it's hard to measure the longevity of new advertising forms.
On Friday a coworker of mine brought in a DVD he got from Hong Kong called "Shaolin Soccer". We used it to "test" a defective laptop, and got no real work done for the next hour or so because we couldn't stop laughing.
In a nutshell, the movie is about a group of Shaolin monks who become a soccer (or football, if you prefer) team. Now, I pretty much hate anything sports-related, but that didn't deter my enjoyment of the movie at all. It manages to successfully spoof just about every martial arts cliche in the book, with some direct pokes at Bruce Lee and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
There's nothing deep in this flick- it's pure light-hearted fun. They make great use of special effects and the acting is perfect for a movie of this type. It's in Chinese (with English subtitles available), but most of the comedy is visual.
It's going to be released in the US as "Kung-Fu Soccer".
Oh, as far as Godzilla 2000 goes, I agree with the parent post- if you went in expecting to see a cheesy, campy giant monster movie on the big screen it was a lot of fun.
>That brings up another question, how does the armor effectively deal with the space junk, without creating more junk out there after absorbing the impact?
I couldn't agree more. Like the t-shirt sez, "Space: No cute robots, no friendly aliens, no holodecks, NO MERCY!"
It had its share of first season flaws, but they were much fewer and far between than the first seasons of ANY of the Trek series. The characters were also fleshed out much more, and the series as a whole displayed far superior storytelling.
I tend to favor darker plots, and some episodes of Space were disturbingly grim. These also tended to be the episodes where the show really shined.
Besides, Vansen was a babe (Co-ed bunks? Works for me!) and the fighters looked totally badass.
>It's surprising to see how anti-law enforcement the/. crowd really is. The only thing that's keeping you, your families and your property
>safe is a robust law enforcement system. Without law enforcement your precious computers and consoles would be stolen in no time.
Not in my house. My family and I are good, honest people. We don't steal, cheat, lie, or cause harm to others, and we don't trust the government or the police to do a damn thing for us.
The only thing that's keeping me, my family, and our property safe is our alert neighbors. And the locks on our doors. And our (legally owned) weapons weapons with which we are all proficient. And one large, surly cat that doesn't like to share his toys.
I don't know what country you live in, but here in the US cops are bad news- even to decent, law-abiding citizens. Anyone who depends on the police as their sole protection is a fool and a slave.
I'm *SO* glad that I'm not the only one out there who saw "Zeitgeist" and immediately thought of Deus Ex! I finished the game months ago and it this little bit of trivia still immediately came to mind. Spectacular game.
To whoever moderated the above post as Offtopic- it isn't- it's an obscure but on-topic joke. This post, on the other hand, *is* off topic, so feel free to mod me down.
This is no joke. A cop once threatened to arrest me because I had a FLASHLIGHT in my car. After detaining me for almost an hour and searching my car they let me go. They'd initially pulled me over because I'd made a wrong turn down a dead-end street in a bad neighborhood and was "driving suspiciously" trying to get back on the main road.
Incidentally, this was in Tampa, home of the PoliceCam. And they wonder why I don't trust the cops.
The Sci-Fi Channel used to carry a show called 'Mysteries From Beyond the Other Dominion' with Dr. Franklin Ruehl. It was like 'In Search Of...', except that it didn't take itself seriously. Ruehl was a trip- the stereotypical nerdy scientist sitting behind a desk covered with toys talking about alien abduction and spontaneous human combustion.
The show was pure camp and a lot of fun. I always wondered why it vanished overnight. Maybe the new 'In Search Of...' can do an episode about it.;)
It affects Outlook Express also. I got a "please help me with my home PC" voice mail from one of our users on Friday. He's using OE and got hit with it. The virus associated.exe files with itself and he has no virus scanning software, leaving me with the unenviable task of either blowing him off or talking him through Regedit over the phone.
For anyone who lives in Tampa and is even mildly aware of local politics, the answer is obvious.
Tampa is a police state.
The Tampa City Council uses its position to impose it's members' morality upon us ignorant heathens. Case in point: Tampa is an adult entertainment mecca. Not too long ago (just in time for the SuperBowl) lap dancing was banned in our fair city despite overwhelming protests from citizens from all walks of life. Regardless of your stance on lap dancing, their rationale was laughable: that lap dancing spreads STDs, even through denim jeans.
Our mayor, Dick Greco, has overtly used the police as his personal brute squad. Case in point: When his car was booted (immobilized) for being illegally parked, he didn't pay a fine like the rest of us do. He called in his thugs to "deal with this guy" (his words) and intimidate the owner of the parking lot into letting him go. The press picked up on this story briefly, but the mayor was completely unrepentant and they let the whole issue drop. Now I'm no fan of the parking lot attendants in Tampa, and their rates amount to theft, but this was clearly an abuse of power.
Just two examples off the top of my head. There are many, many more.
You've hit the nail on the head. I was in Ybor last Friday, and right now I feel like throwing up.
I saw this coming when the cameras were first installed. I saw this coming when the software was used during the StuporBowl. My inability to actually *DO* anything about it is giving me a Cassandra complex.
I vote in local elections. I've attended Tampa City Council meetings only to be horrified by what a mockery of representative government they are. I speak out whenever I find an opportunity to do so. Yet it seems that, in the end, I am powerless. I don't believe in the initiation of force, so I'm left dumbfounded wondering what more I can do to stop the erosion of my rights.
After being raised to belive that America is the "land of the free", I now realize that, in fact, I live in a police state.
I've got news for you. The cops *STILL* treat it as ground zero, only now their numbers are bolstered by Centro Ybor's security goons.
I was in Ybor last Friday night, and only found out about the software this morning. I feel physically ill right now at the thought of this.
Not long ago, Ybor's culture had a unique duality- during the day it was the respectable "historic district", and by night it was a no-holds-barred party district, and a haven for oft-persecuted subcultures. True, it was a little seedy at night, but it was also a fascinating showcase of how different groups could (mostly) co-exist and still be themselves.
Centro Ybor came in with their "more culture, less subculture" campaign and wrecked shop, turning the place into an oppressed shadow of it's former self. Sure, I don't feel as likely to be mugged by some ruffian, but now I have to worry about me or my wife being detained by the cops or security guards because we choose to wear predominantly black leather when we go out clubbing, which is significantly less often now.
Have you seen the rules for Centro Ybor? They're posted in several locations. In short, if you aren't spending money or moving to a store for the purpose of spending money, you're loitering (for those not familiar with the area, CY is situated such that it's rather difficult to get from most of the parking to most of the main establishments without going through it). If security doesn't like what you're wearing (their sole discretion), you're outta there. A group of 5 people under the age of 18 constitute an obstruction for foot traffic, while 50 senior citizens loafing about would not. Whats more, Centro Ybor security has decided that their jurisdiction includes not just their complex, but the streets adjacent to it. Read the Weekly Planet. They've made a habit of chasing people off for "loitering" in areas that CY doesn't even own, and of course the city cops have no problem with this.
These are weak examples I'm providing. There are much better ones, but I must admit to being a bit flustered by this all. I could go on and on, but I'll spare everyone a full-blown rant. Suffice it to say that the cameras installed along 7th Ave last year are utterly offensive, and the inclusion of face-recognition software is even more egregious.
Independance Day is in two days, but I must admit I'm not feeling particularly patriotic lately, or particularly free.
-Cybrex
Re:This shouldn't happen again
on
Tito In Space
·
· Score: 1
Wasn't there a congressman or senator (other than John Glenn) who went up on a shuttle mission way back when- before the Challenger accident? I can't recall exactly.
If I *am* thinking of Glenn, I'd still say that, given that he had long since retired from the astronaut business and moved on to politics, his going was an entirely politically-motivated stunt. Let me know if I'm wrong here.
10 for x=1 to 16
20 poke 53280,x
30 poke 53281,x
40 next x
50 goto 10
It's so gratifying to know that I'm not the only one in the world who still remembers stuff like this! I used to use C-64 memory addresses for voice mail passwords 'till they increased the minimum password size to 6 digits. Sigh... I bet I can still type '64738' faster than anyone else on the planet!:)
Oh, on topic: I remember reading StarBridge's home page a while back, and wondered when these things were going to actually start showing up in the real world. It's about damned time!
You're dead on the money. Anyone who's read "Entering Space" by Robert Zubrin should have seen this coming.
Lockheed-Martin should never have gotten the X-33 contract, simply because they have a *huge* incentive to maintain the status quo! Lockheed-Martin is the manufacturer of the majority of the US's single-use launch vehicles. They make the Atlas and Titan boosters, as well as the LMLV and MSLS series. To create a reusable launch vehicle would be to slaughter their cash cow, and they're simply not going to do that.
Furthermore, through the United Space Alliance they also get a share of Rockwell's pie from shuttle launches. Again, despite the whiz-bang technology that they've developed in the past, they're motivated by *profit*, not progress. It's simply in their best interest to stifle these new technologies.
Now that NASA has finally gotten their head out of their ass and pulled the plug on a program that was set up to fail, hopefully they won't make the same mistake twice. Lockheed-Martin's stalling tactic has wasted a half a decade. Perhaps now we can begin making up some of that time. Is it too late to resurrect the Delta Clipper?
Slashdot Mirror
You're absolutely right. The Club of Rome has been predicting the imminent depletion of our resources for quite some time now, yet their predictions never come to pass. The reason? They don't take technological innovation into account. Paul Zane Pilzer has a lot to say on that subject.
Technological advances will continue to buy us "just a little bit more time" until nanotechnology kicks in. After that, I imagine that the only practical limitations on physical resources will be artificial- the haves deliberately keeping the have nots from having access to the means of fabrication and the freedom to use it.
It's gonna be a hell of a ride, folks. Hope that organizations like the Foresight Institute succeed in intelligently shaping policy before it's too late.
-Cybrex
Your idea of just force-pulling Anakin and Obi Wan is exactly what ran through my head while watching the movie (both times!). After some thought, however, it seems that the best course of action (from a preserve-the-Republic standpoint, not a storytelling standpoint) would've been to let them both get crushed.
Think about it- Yoda could've then finished off Dooku (is there any doubt about who would've won had the fight continued?), thereby destroying Sideous' right hand and link to the separtist movement, as well as preventing the Death Star plans from falling into the Sith's hands.
Additionally, the loss of Anakin would mean the "loss" of Vader, the benefit of which to the galaxy as a whole is obvious.
Cost benefit analysis:
Cost: Obi Wan, no continuation of the Skywalker line, and a few sleepless nights for our little green friend.
Benefit: Throws the Sith's plans into (possibly unrecoverable) chaos, preservation of the Jedi order (we know from Ep IV that Vader is instrumental in the eradication of the Jedi), prevention of the rise of the Empire, and the sparing of the lives of countless rebels and the *entire populace of Alderaan*!
All this from a single decision in the heat of battle.
Preservation of the Old Republic could be argued as either a pro or a con depending on your perspective. If you view the Republic as being inherently corrupt and impotent then it's a bad thing, but from my perspective it's Government That Really Works (tm) corrupted by the Sith influence (much like corporate influence in our own government).
Maybe it wouldn't have stopped Sideous permanently, but it certainly would've screwed his plans up royally.
Speaking of screwing royals, though, now that I think about it this would've also eliminated any chance of Episode III being the NC-17 Natalie Portman sextravaganza that I feel it should rightly be.
Hmmmm... Anyone wanna buy some beachfront property on Alderaan?
-Cybrex
First off, I'm not a programmer, so if I come across sounding like I don't know what I'm talking about it's because I don't.
.dll. This always struck me as a silly idea. Sure, you're saving HD space by sharing libraries between programs, but you're also creating an environment where one program can easily break another.
.dlls in the c:\windoze\system directory and God knows where else. Does this strike anyone else as a Bad Thing?
.dlls into their own directories and live with the extra 10-20% increase in size (which I'm willing to accept) or require that if you create a different version of a .dll then you give it a new name. It is a different library, after all.
That said, it's been my experience (or maybe I've been listening to too much M$ FUD) that a significant percentage of Windows' instability is the result of different programs installing different (and somewhat incompatible) versions of the same
It also results in the files for a particular program being scattered around the filesystem. If I choose to install FuMaker 2.0 and later decide to remove it, I have to use the (unreliable) uninstaller. I can't just delete c:\progra~1\fumaker2 `cause then I end up leaving a bunch of
I was surprised when I started playing with Linux and learned that it also uses shared libraries. The way I see it there are two solutions: have programs install their own
If someone could explain the error in my reasoning here I'd greatly appreciate it.
-Cybrex
My girlfriend graduated from high school just over a year ago, and I got to see how this works first hand.
One of her senior classes was "Computers." I thought that this was great- she had an interest in technology and I was looking forward to sharing in her growing computer literacy.
"Computers" turned out to be "MS Office." The class was divided into four units: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Access. No discussion of hardware other than which end of the floppy goes in first, and no discussion of operating systems beyond how to start the individual apps. Even a basic overview of what a directory structure is and how it works was absent. As far as I know that's as far into the subject as that school's curriculum goes.
It's as though educators have given up on computer technology and decided that it's arcane lore outside the reach of mere mortals. To them Office savvy equals computer literacy, and the idea that it's possible for someone to know more or even (gasp!) *program* a computer doesn't even register on their radar.
In the long run, I think that this mindset will prove to be as great a barrier to quality computer education as people's lack of awareness of viable alternatives to Windoze.
Neal Stephenson is right. It's becoming the Morlocks vs the Eloi.
-Cybrex
Obviously getting the thread back onto the topic of Micro$oft products.
Guys, step one is to let them know that they don't have to break up with you to enjoy another female. It worked for me- they're both sleeping in the other room right now.
So why the hell am I sitting here reading Slashdot???
-Cybrex
Just as a quick FYI, Marathon (marathoncomputer.com) makes rack cases that mount G4s nicely. You can pull the guts straight out of a G4 tower and drop them into the rack case. I'm transferring a system on the workbench behind me right now.
-Cybrex
OK, after 3 years I have to confess. I was at a CompUSA in another city back when they had in-store demos of satellite net access. The demo machine was towards the back of the store, and it was almost closing time, so I downloaded some porn (for bandwidth testing purposes, of course ;] ). After finding a rather nice picture of a pair of amorous young ladies, I set it as the desktop, minimized all windows, engaged the screen saver, and headed for the door. Sure, it's goofy and tasteless, but for me this was a major act of insurrection.
Copying in-store software isn't new. I knew a kid back in the early 80's that brought a blank 5.25" disk and a copy of Disk Nibbler into a K-Mart and copied a game (Beach Head, I believe) straight off of the Commodore 64 they had set up as a display unit. The employees had no clue what he was doing.
I never nicked software that way, but I did like to bang out a quick program on C-64s that would disable the Run/Stop-Restore key combination (equivalent to ctrl-alt-del) and make the screen flash silly messages like "Coleco ADAM Sucks!"
Damn I'm getting old.
-Cybrex
Pretty ugly list of options, if you ask me.
Perhaps Natalie Portman as the maid of honor, with hot grits to be served at the reception.
-Cybrex
I think it's "Be Bold!", not "Behold!", but yup, that's the one! :)
-Cybrex
Tracking the effectiveness of advertising in normal media (print, outdoor, broadcast, etc.) is a well-established science. For novel media like video games and the like I don't see how they can collect enough measurable data to reliably dismiss the media as a profitable advertising venue.
As an example, in 1986 electronic punk band Sigue Sigue Sputnik decided to sell advertising on their album 'Flaunt It'. Yes, there are actually commercials between some of the songs!
It was a bold and brash move, but well executed. The ads and products (Studio Line hair gel, i-D Magazine, etc.) fit in well with the overall style of the album, and there were some fake ads as well that were humorous and flowed well with the album.
It's easy to measure how many copies were sold (bootlegging aside), but how do you measure the actual number of effective exposures per album, or the time frame? Personally, to this day I still use exclusively Studio Line, and I'm not ashamed to admit that it's because they had the balls to advertise on one of my favorite albums. No doubt I'm an outlier, but how do you quantify the success of a single advertisement that's still moving product >16 years after it ran?
As another example, my first exposure to Red Bull was while playing Wipeout XL on the Playstation, almost 2 years before I ever saw the product on store shelves. I freaked when I realized that it was a real drink, and immediately picked some up (good stuff!). Again, it's hard to measure the longevity of new advertising forms.
-Cybrex
On Friday a coworker of mine brought in a DVD he got from Hong Kong called "Shaolin Soccer". We used it to "test" a defective laptop, and got no real work done for the next hour or so because we couldn't stop laughing.
In a nutshell, the movie is about a group of Shaolin monks who become a soccer (or football, if you prefer) team. Now, I pretty much hate anything sports-related, but that didn't deter my enjoyment of the movie at all. It manages to successfully spoof just about every martial arts cliche in the book, with some direct pokes at Bruce Lee and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
There's nothing deep in this flick- it's pure light-hearted fun. They make great use of special effects and the acting is perfect for a movie of this type. It's in Chinese (with English subtitles available), but most of the comedy is visual.
It's going to be released in the US as "Kung-Fu Soccer".
Oh, as far as Godzilla 2000 goes, I agree with the parent post- if you went in expecting to see a cheesy, campy giant monster movie on the big screen it was a lot of fun.
-Cybrex
'BS'
A 33% improvement over your already impressive compression!
-Cybrex
>That brings up another question, how does the armor effectively deal with the space junk, without creating more junk out there after absorbing the impact?
:)
Armor them with duct tape, of course.
-Cybrex
I couldn't agree more. Like the t-shirt sez, "Space: No cute robots, no friendly aliens, no holodecks, NO MERCY!"
It had its share of first season flaws, but they were much fewer and far between than the first seasons of ANY of the Trek series. The characters were also fleshed out much more, and the series as a whole displayed far superior storytelling.
I tend to favor darker plots, and some episodes of Space were disturbingly grim. These also tended to be the episodes where the show really shined.
Besides, Vansen was a babe (Co-ed bunks? Works for me!) and the fighters looked totally badass.
-Cybrex
>It's surprising to see how anti-law enforcement the /. crowd really is. The only thing that's keeping you, your families and your property
>safe is a robust law enforcement system. Without law enforcement your precious computers and consoles would be stolen in no time.
Not in my house. My family and I are good, honest people. We don't steal, cheat, lie, or cause harm to others, and we don't trust the government or the police to do a damn thing for us.
The only thing that's keeping me, my family, and our property safe is our alert neighbors. And the locks on our doors. And our (legally owned) weapons weapons with which we are all proficient. And one large, surly cat that doesn't like to share his toys.
I don't know what country you live in, but here in the US cops are bad news- even to decent, law-abiding citizens. Anyone who depends on the police as their sole protection is a fool and a slave.
-Cybrex
I'm *SO* glad that I'm not the only one out there who saw "Zeitgeist" and immediately thought of Deus Ex! I finished the game months ago and it this little bit of trivia still immediately came to mind. Spectacular game.
To whoever moderated the above post as Offtopic- it isn't- it's an obscure but on-topic joke. This post, on the other hand, *is* off topic, so feel free to mod me down.
Oh well, time for another orange soda.
-Cybrex
This is no joke. A cop once threatened to arrest me because I had a FLASHLIGHT in my car. After detaining me for almost an hour and searching my car they let me go. They'd initially pulled me over because I'd made a wrong turn down a dead-end street in a bad neighborhood and was "driving suspiciously" trying to get back on the main road.
Incidentally, this was in Tampa, home of the PoliceCam. And they wonder why I don't trust the cops.
-Cybrex
The Sci-Fi Channel used to carry a show called 'Mysteries From Beyond the Other Dominion' with Dr. Franklin Ruehl. It was like 'In Search Of...', except that it didn't take itself seriously. Ruehl was a trip- the stereotypical nerdy scientist sitting behind a desk covered with toys talking about alien abduction and spontaneous human combustion.
;)
The show was pure camp and a lot of fun. I always wondered why it vanished overnight. Maybe the new 'In Search Of...' can do an episode about it.
-Cybrex
It affects Outlook Express also. I got a "please help me with my home PC" voice mail from one of our users on Friday. He's using OE and got hit with it. The virus associated .exe files with itself and he has no virus scanning software, leaving me with the unenviable task of either blowing him off or talking him through Regedit over the phone.
-Cybrex
For anyone who lives in Tampa and is even mildly aware of local politics, the answer is obvious.
Tampa is a police state.
The Tampa City Council uses its position to impose it's members' morality upon us ignorant heathens. Case in point: Tampa is an adult entertainment mecca. Not too long ago (just in time for the SuperBowl) lap dancing was banned in our fair city despite overwhelming protests from citizens from all walks of life. Regardless of your stance on lap dancing, their rationale was laughable: that lap dancing spreads STDs, even through denim jeans.
Our mayor, Dick Greco, has overtly used the police as his personal brute squad. Case in point: When his car was booted (immobilized) for being illegally parked, he didn't pay a fine like the rest of us do. He called in his thugs to "deal with this guy" (his words) and intimidate the owner of the parking lot into letting him go. The press picked up on this story briefly, but the mayor was completely unrepentant and they let the whole issue drop. Now I'm no fan of the parking lot attendants in Tampa, and their rates amount to theft, but this was clearly an abuse of power.
Just two examples off the top of my head. There are many, many more.
-Cybrex
You've hit the nail on the head. I was in Ybor last Friday, and right now I feel like throwing up.
I saw this coming when the cameras were first installed. I saw this coming when the software was used during the StuporBowl. My inability to actually *DO* anything about it is giving me a Cassandra complex.
I vote in local elections. I've attended Tampa City Council meetings only to be horrified by what a mockery of representative government they are. I speak out whenever I find an opportunity to do so. Yet it seems that, in the end, I am powerless. I don't believe in the initiation of force, so I'm left dumbfounded wondering what more I can do to stop the erosion of my rights.
After being raised to belive that America is the "land of the free", I now realize that, in fact, I live in a police state.
Happy 4th of July.
-Cybrex
I've got news for you. The cops *STILL* treat it as ground zero, only now their numbers are bolstered by Centro Ybor's security goons.
I was in Ybor last Friday night, and only found out about the software this morning. I feel physically ill right now at the thought of this.
Not long ago, Ybor's culture had a unique duality- during the day it was the respectable "historic district", and by night it was a no-holds-barred party district, and a haven for oft-persecuted subcultures. True, it was a little seedy at night, but it was also a fascinating showcase of how different groups could (mostly) co-exist and still be themselves.
Centro Ybor came in with their "more culture, less subculture" campaign and wrecked shop, turning the place into an oppressed shadow of it's former self. Sure, I don't feel as likely to be mugged by some ruffian, but now I have to worry about me or my wife being detained by the cops or security guards because we choose to wear predominantly black leather when we go out clubbing, which is significantly less often now.
Have you seen the rules for Centro Ybor? They're posted in several locations. In short, if you aren't spending money or moving to a store for the purpose of spending money, you're loitering (for those not familiar with the area, CY is situated such that it's rather difficult to get from most of the parking to most of the main establishments without going through it). If security doesn't like what you're wearing (their sole discretion), you're outta there. A group of 5 people under the age of 18 constitute an obstruction for foot traffic, while 50 senior citizens loafing about would not. Whats more, Centro Ybor security has decided that their jurisdiction includes not just their complex, but the streets adjacent to it. Read the Weekly Planet. They've made a habit of chasing people off for "loitering" in areas that CY doesn't even own, and of course the city cops have no problem with this.
These are weak examples I'm providing. There are much better ones, but I must admit to being a bit flustered by this all. I could go on and on, but I'll spare everyone a full-blown rant. Suffice it to say that the cameras installed along 7th Ave last year are utterly offensive, and the inclusion of face-recognition software is even more egregious.
Independance Day is in two days, but I must admit I'm not feeling particularly patriotic lately, or particularly free.
-Cybrex
Wasn't there a congressman or senator (other than John Glenn) who went up on a shuttle mission way back when- before the Challenger accident? I can't recall exactly.
If I *am* thinking of Glenn, I'd still say that, given that he had long since retired from the astronaut business and moved on to politics, his going was an entirely politically-motivated stunt. Let me know if I'm wrong here.
-Cybrex
Mmmmmm... flashback...
:)
10 for x=1 to 16
20 poke 53280,x
30 poke 53281,x
40 next x
50 goto 10
It's so gratifying to know that I'm not the only one in the world who still remembers stuff like this! I used to use C-64 memory addresses for voice mail passwords 'till they increased the minimum password size to 6 digits. Sigh... I bet I can still type '64738' faster than anyone else on the planet!
Oh, on topic: I remember reading StarBridge's home page a while back, and wondered when these things were going to actually start showing up in the real world. It's about damned time!
-Cybrex
You're dead on the money. Anyone who's read "Entering Space" by Robert Zubrin should have seen this coming.
Lockheed-Martin should never have gotten the X-33 contract, simply because they have a *huge* incentive to maintain the status quo! Lockheed-Martin is the manufacturer of the majority of the US's single-use launch vehicles. They make the Atlas and Titan boosters, as well as the LMLV and MSLS series. To create a reusable launch vehicle would be to slaughter their cash cow, and they're simply not going to do that.
Furthermore, through the United Space Alliance they also get a share of Rockwell's pie from shuttle launches. Again, despite the whiz-bang technology that they've developed in the past, they're motivated by *profit*, not progress. It's simply in their best interest to stifle these new technologies.
Now that NASA has finally gotten their head out of their ass and pulled the plug on a program that was set up to fail, hopefully they won't make the same mistake twice. Lockheed-Martin's stalling tactic has wasted a half a decade. Perhaps now we can begin making up some of that time. Is it too late to resurrect the Delta Clipper?
-Cybrex