Largest in terms of molecular size (i.e. number of atoms, molecular structure) or largest in terms of density (more heavy atoms like oxygen and carbon)? There is a difference, y'know.
It's density (i.e. density greater than molecular nitrogen) that would determine if it can be spread through the air, amongst other factors.
Attention: a funny comment has been posted. This means that the party referred to as the "Slashdot Moderators" has the immediate duty to cease the activity known as "the smoking of crack" and then to increment the scoring of this post until it attains the score of "5, Funny".
Once this duty has been successfully performed, the Slashdot Moderators may then return to "the smoking of crack" at their leisure.
What constantly stuns me about the American public is how much it seems that few remember their lessons from civics class on why and how the US was formed.
It is also sad that those serving in the American government have also forgot these lessons (of course maybe they "forgot" them intentionally). It makes you wonder where the wisdom of the founding fathers has gone (if you forgive them for slavery, that is).
Re:Believe it or not...
on
Dorm Storm?
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· Score: 1
The girl called you at 1:30 in the morning - she wanted to see you. Instead of looking down on her because she was high, you might have just tried to have some good discussion and be friendly.
A good discussion?!? Bullshit. If she couldn't even walk straight, she probably could barely even talk.
As someone who has had a lot of experience with people who use mood-altering substances, I'll say that people who are stoned usually say a bunch of annoying and stupid stuff that only other stoned people would find funny. It gets tired really, really fast. That's just something you have to understand about people who don't use mood-altering substances.
This girl may have issues with intimacy, and a little understanding in her favor may pay off, but it will probably end up as a wasted effort until she sobers up. Hope she would talk to you when she does.
I think he started favoring OpenGL in the days of Quake 1, about the time of the appearance of the Voodoo 1. To support that card (and future accelerators, of course), he attempted to port the Quake software renderer to both OpenGL and DirectX.
He succeeded with OpenGL in a single weekend. With DirectX, however, the API at the time (DirectX 1.0? 2.0?) was crap, or it was poorly documented. So he gave up on it.
I don't really know why he still doesn't use DirectX. Maybe he's just being consistent:)
Quick correction: the digits of PI are not random, by definition, since they can be computed out. You are correct (I think), though, that that sequence of bits will eventually occur, but it is because the digits of PI never repeat.
That doesn't provide a great incentive for people to spend $45 on the next version of Quake or Unreal...
And when nobody buys the next, even-more-hardware-demanding version of Quake or Unreal, nobody will feel an incentive to spend $400++ on a video card upgrade when the next generation comes out. Oops, Asus, should have thought of that in advance...
It's about a company showing no fucking respect to the gaming community and encouraging cheating to raise profits.
It's actually kind of funny. When a video card company encourages cheating, they do so to raise short term profits. At first, cheaters will jump at the chance to purchase these cards. Then, they will cheese all of the non-cheaters until they get frustrated and stop playing. Then the cheaters will stop playing because there will too few people playing to make the game interesting.
Eventually, there will be such a disillusionment for multiplayer games that people will stop trying to play them. Since less people are playing these games, there are less people who will feel the need to get the latest and greatest video cards from ASUS (and others, of course). Then what do you think will happen to their profits?
OK, it's a little more complicated than that. But how deep an analysis do you expect on Slashdot?
In the Apache gunship, a combat helicopter used extensively by the army, in-helmet sensors track the pilot's eye movements for hands free targeting.
I thought that the helmet only tracked head position. The weapon would be aimed by the direction the entire head was pointing, not by the direction the eye was pointing. Hence, the gunner could look at his controls and still fire at the target. At least, that was the impression I got from Gunship!, the old Commodore-64 game:)
Interesting idea. I'll just add that if this source of gravity is affecting Pioneer 10, then you would expect that it would also affect the outer planets.
The article mentions that Pioneer 10 is "well beyond Jupiter". I'm guessing that means that it is not quite as far out as some of the other planets, like Uranus and Neptune. So, if the mysterious source of gravity is the gas, then you would expect that that the gravity from the gas would have also affected the planets that Pioneer 10 has not gone past yet. The article seems to indicate, however, that NASA scientists have not observed such an effect.
Someday, a fully functional DC emulator may come. Maybe, then the back ups will be useful. They will probably be more useful than the originals, actually, since none of the computer CD drives I know of will read GD-ROMs (I heard rumors that there are Yamaha drives that can read them, but I never checked up on it).
Plus there is some good karma associated with the preservation of the games themselves, even if you can't directly play them.
Interesting idea. But it is an impossible scenario also because Sega is already leaving the game console business.
They could still try to kill revenues on the remaining games that are still and will be selling for the DC, but since Sega now makes games for the Playstation 2 (like Crazy Taxi), I doubt they would want to hurt one of their game developers.
Well, yes DD-Rs do have enough capacity (1.3GB) to fit the contents of a GD-ROM (1.0GB) so you can actually make back ups (notice no quotes).
However, if you want to use your "back ups (huh huh)", the Sega DC will need to be able to read these DD-Rs. What do you think the chance is that it is able? That's right. Very little.
It's the same reason they almost never had any aliens with 3+ legs (or less than 2). Of course, the legs thing probably would have also complicated Kirk's female "conquests", but Kirk was a pretty resourceful guy...
I doubt the parent poster will accept any of this as an excuse, though.
Seriously, though, I often marvel at the thought that all this automation, which presumably was supposed to free us all, has actually enslaved us, as we serve the machines we create, day in and day out.
Have you ever noticed that when a factory is updated so that all of the work is done by robots, the end result is a lot of grief because jobs are lost? These devices are supposed to save humans from labor, but we live in a country where being saved from labor is a bad thing.
They don't really believe in a God figure (Buddha isn't really a god in the Judeo-Christian sense), but, to make a very long and complex story short, they do believe in a lot of spiritual stuff. So their beliefs definitely make them relevant to this study.
Actually, I believe that the "light at the end of the tunnel" experience has an explanation that has something to do with loss of blood flow to the brain.
I recall seeing a TV special on the Discovery channel or somewhere which covered the experience that pilots were having during training. Specifically, when they were in the part of training that spins them really fast and subjects them to really high G forces, they would pass out as the blood rushed out of their heads. They reported having the experience of seeing "a light at the end of the tunnel" while they were passing out. I can't remember exactly what the show attrbuted the phenomenon to, but I think it had something to do with the visual system shutting down, which started with the loss of peripheral vision. Hence, the tunnel effect.
I couldn't come up with a link that backs this up, though. Sorry;)
I think there has been plenty of research measuring brain activity during specific tasks, and its possible that he saw his own work as an extension of that research.
Keep in mind that this was simply an article and not a detailed lab report or research paper. He may have had a control group (including people doing nothing, or doing "less spiritual" tasks) which simply wasn't mentioned.
Not that I would object to continued research. I believe that injecting people with radioactive fluid is a worthwhile cause in and of itself:)
This is such an excellent post. Who would think that something posted on Slashdot would be worth reading?:)
This reminds me of a concept I have recently discovered for myself. It's the event of having the pleasant feeling you get when you play a video game, watch a sitcom on TV, or eat a candy bar. I don't know what to call it, though. My best candidates are "short-term pleasure" (STP) and "brain sugar".
The idea is that STP or "brain sugar" is the pleasure you get from something that doesn't really accomplish anything. I.e., you get a bit of euphoria and then it's over. I don't mean to imply that that it is over quickly; it could last for hours, but in the end you have nothing to show for it. "Brain sugar" can be a movie, a song, or a set of nudie JPEGs. Also (to keep this post on topic), drugs can certainly serve as "brain sugar". A theory of mine is that "brain sugar" is why the Internet has such an MTV-ish feel to it. In many cases the only real cost of "brain sugar" is time, but it has a very masturbatory nature to it.
The problem, I believe, is that we have so much "brain sugar" available to us, that it is easy to not feel the need to do anything constructive and truly rewarding. E.g., we can just play video games or watch TV and never feel the need to do anything else. Another theory of mine is that this is the basis for addictions that don't (directly) involve a chemical dependency, like an addiction to video games; it is so pleasurable that the addict spends too much time on it, often neglecting such things as sleep and personal maintenance.
My personal experience with "brain sugar" was when I was a co-op (intern) a couple of years ago. After work every night I would do nothing but play several hours of Quakeworld. It was so fun for me that I just couldn't get enough of it. It felt like I could do it for the rest of my life and not get tired of it, and I didn't feel I needed to play any other games. I then realized that if I did nothing else but play Quakeworld for the rest of my life, I would die nothing more than a Quakeworld zombie. Even then it took time to break the habit. The problem was, if I got plenty of pleasure from it, even if I did it forever, then why quit (Exercise left to the reader)?
Of course it is not true that "brain sugar" is bad in every case. For example, it can serve as excellent stress relief. However, as always, "moderation is key"; too much "sugar" is not good for you.
Slashdot Mirror
Observation AND approximation.
Largest in terms of molecular size (i.e. number of atoms, molecular structure) or largest in terms of density (more heavy atoms like oxygen and carbon)? There is a difference, y'know.
It's density (i.e. density greater than molecular nitrogen) that would determine if it can be spread through the air, amongst other factors.
Once this duty has been successfully performed, the Slashdot Moderators may then return to "the smoking of crack" at their leisure.
What constantly stuns me about the American public is how much it seems that few remember their lessons from civics class on why and how the US was formed.
It is also sad that those serving in the American government have also forgot these lessons (of course maybe they "forgot" them intentionally). It makes you wonder where the wisdom of the founding fathers has gone (if you forgive them for slavery, that is).
The girl called you at 1:30 in the morning - she wanted to see you. Instead of looking down on her because she was high, you might have just tried to have some good discussion and be friendly.
A good discussion?!? Bullshit. If she couldn't even walk straight, she probably could barely even talk.
As someone who has had a lot of experience with people who use mood-altering substances, I'll say that people who are stoned usually say a bunch of annoying and stupid stuff that only other stoned people would find funny. It gets tired really, really fast. That's just something you have to understand about people who don't use mood-altering substances.
This girl may have issues with intimacy, and a little understanding in her favor may pay off, but it will probably end up as a wasted effort until she sobers up. Hope she would talk to you when she does.
can't remember what pissed him off about D3D
:)
I think he started favoring OpenGL in the days of Quake 1, about the time of the appearance of the Voodoo 1. To support that card (and future accelerators, of course), he attempted to port the Quake software renderer to both OpenGL and DirectX.
He succeeded with OpenGL in a single weekend. With DirectX, however, the API at the time (DirectX 1.0? 2.0?) was crap, or it was poorly documented. So he gave up on it.
I don't really know why he still doesn't use DirectX. Maybe he's just being consistent
I would be really surprised if Sony didn't completely endorse this technology. They probably have already extended their standard.
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Well, that's kinda what people are really concerned with... :)
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And doing goofy experiments with human ova is not sinful?
:)
Pray for the answer
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Quick correction: the digits of PI are not random, by definition, since they can be computed out. You are correct (I think), though, that that sequence of bits will eventually occur, but it is because the digits of PI never repeat.
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And when nobody buys the next, even-more-hardware-demanding version of Quake or Unreal, nobody will feel an incentive to spend $400++ on a video card upgrade when the next generation comes out. Oops, Asus, should have thought of that in advance...
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It's actually kind of funny. When a video card company encourages cheating, they do so to raise short term profits. At first, cheaters will jump at the chance to purchase these cards. Then, they will cheese all of the non-cheaters until they get frustrated and stop playing. Then the cheaters will stop playing because there will too few people playing to make the game interesting.
Eventually, there will be such a disillusionment for multiplayer games that people will stop trying to play them. Since less people are playing these games, there are less people who will feel the need to get the latest and greatest video cards from ASUS (and others, of course). Then what do you think will happen to their profits?
OK, it's a little more complicated than that. But how deep an analysis do you expect on Slashdot?
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I thought that the helmet only tracked head position. The weapon would be aimed by the direction the entire head was pointing, not by the direction the eye was pointing. Hence, the gunner could look at his controls and still fire at the target. At least, that was the impression I got from Gunship!, the old Commodore-64 game :)
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The article mentions that Pioneer 10 is "well beyond Jupiter". I'm guessing that means that it is not quite as far out as some of the other planets, like Uranus and Neptune. So, if the mysterious source of gravity is the gas, then you would expect that that the gravity from the gas would have also affected the planets that Pioneer 10 has not gone past yet. The article seems to indicate, however, that NASA scientists have not observed such an effect.
Neat theory, but it looks a little doubtful.
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Someday, a fully functional DC emulator may come. Maybe, then the back ups will be useful. They will probably be more useful than the originals, actually, since none of the computer CD drives I know of will read GD-ROMs (I heard rumors that there are Yamaha drives that can read them, but I never checked up on it).
Plus there is some good karma associated with the preservation of the games themselves, even if you can't directly play them.
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They could still try to kill revenues on the remaining games that are still and will be selling for the DC, but since Sega now makes games for the Playstation 2 (like Crazy Taxi), I doubt they would want to hurt one of their game developers.
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Currently it won't play on jack squat except for Sony's DD-R burner itself.
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However, if you want to use your "back ups (huh huh)", the Sega DC will need to be able to read these DD-Rs. What do you think the chance is that it is able? That's right. Very little.
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I doubt the parent poster will accept any of this as an excuse, though.
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Seriously, though, I often marvel at the thought that all this automation, which presumably was supposed to free us all, has actually enslaved us, as we serve the machines we create, day in and day out.
Have you ever noticed that when a factory is updated so that all of the work is done by robots, the end result is a lot of grief because jobs are lost? These devices are supposed to save humans from labor, but we live in a country where being saved from labor is a bad thing.
I guess it's just part of the big rat race.
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They don't really believe in a God figure (Buddha isn't really a god in the Judeo-Christian sense), but, to make a very long and complex story short, they do believe in a lot of spiritual stuff. So their beliefs definitely make them relevant to this study.
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Actually, I believe that the "light at the end of the tunnel" experience has an explanation that has something to do with loss of blood flow to the brain.
;)
I recall seeing a TV special on the Discovery channel or somewhere which covered the experience that pilots were having during training. Specifically, when they were in the part of training that spins them really fast and subjects them to really high G forces, they would pass out as the blood rushed out of their heads. They reported having the experience of seeing "a light at the end of the tunnel" while they were passing out. I can't remember exactly what the show attrbuted the phenomenon to, but I think it had something to do with the visual system shutting down, which started with the loss of peripheral vision. Hence, the tunnel effect.
I couldn't come up with a link that backs this up, though. Sorry
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I think there has been plenty of research measuring brain activity during specific tasks, and its possible that he saw his own work as an extension of that research.
:)
Keep in mind that this was simply an article and not a detailed lab report or research paper. He may have had a control group (including people doing nothing, or doing "less spiritual" tasks) which simply wasn't mentioned.
Not that I would object to continued research. I believe that injecting people with radioactive fluid is a worthwhile cause in and of itself
-----
This is such an excellent post. Who would think that something posted on Slashdot would be worth reading? :)
This reminds me of a concept I have recently discovered for myself. It's the event of having the pleasant feeling you get when you play a video game, watch a sitcom on TV, or eat a candy bar. I don't know what to call it, though. My best candidates are "short-term pleasure" (STP) and "brain sugar".
The idea is that STP or "brain sugar" is the pleasure you get from something that doesn't really accomplish anything. I.e., you get a bit of euphoria and then it's over. I don't mean to imply that that it is over quickly; it could last for hours, but in the end you have nothing to show for it. "Brain sugar" can be a movie, a song, or a set of nudie JPEGs. Also (to keep this post on topic), drugs can certainly serve as "brain sugar". A theory of mine is that "brain sugar" is why the Internet has such an MTV-ish feel to it. In many cases the only real cost of "brain sugar" is time, but it has a very masturbatory nature to it.
The problem, I believe, is that we have so much "brain sugar" available to us, that it is easy to not feel the need to do anything constructive and truly rewarding. E.g., we can just play video games or watch TV and never feel the need to do anything else. Another theory of mine is that this is the basis for addictions that don't (directly) involve a chemical dependency, like an addiction to video games; it is so pleasurable that the addict spends too much time on it, often neglecting such things as sleep and personal maintenance.
My personal experience with "brain sugar" was when I was a co-op (intern) a couple of years ago. After work every night I would do nothing but play several hours of Quakeworld. It was so fun for me that I just couldn't get enough of it. It felt like I could do it for the rest of my life and not get tired of it, and I didn't feel I needed to play any other games. I then realized that if I did nothing else but play Quakeworld for the rest of my life, I would die nothing more than a Quakeworld zombie. Even then it took time to break the habit. The problem was, if I got plenty of pleasure from it, even if I did it forever, then why quit (Exercise left to the reader)?
Of course it is not true that "brain sugar" is bad in every case. For example, it can serve as excellent stress relief. However, as always, "moderation is key"; too much "sugar" is not good for you.
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Ever seen the bumper sticker that says:
"My kid beat up your honor student"?
Depressing.
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