Hell, at my work as a desktop tech, we used to be allowed to do a 15 minute good-faith effort on anything the customer asked for, without checking whether the app was corp. supported or not. Now, we have to get task numbers for everything. I got into the game to fix things; easy in, easy out. Now, they got too many forms and crap. It sucks.
For Teela, the actress who played the engineer on Firefly comes to mind.
Re:multiple sequels usually don't work too well
on
New Dune Movie Confirmed
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Niven's Ringworld would make a great movie. The plot is simple enough for regular folks (and even movie execs) to get (explorers crash land, need to escape), the visuals would be killer (floating buildings, fly cycles, the Ring, Kzinti) and Louis Wu would be a fun character to interpret. While many people may hate this, I see Bruce Willis (with a shave) as a possible candidate.
He also had his mother on the same national board of United Way. A vp from IBM, who was in charge of their PC division was sitting next to her at a meeting and mentioned needing to come up with an OS for a home computer. She told him her son was in computers and this guy should speak with him.
Also, Gate's father was a IP lawyer. He helped MS write the sweet deal contract they did with IBM.
Apple did not steal any code for Lisa/Mac OS. Apple purchased the right (with a large amount of stock) to look over Xerox Parc's work, hire some of their developers and then reverse engineer the GUI they saw there. One thing they got wrong is that when they saw Xerox's GUI, they thought they saw windows tiled over each other. Apple then had it's engineers go and figure out how this was done when Xerox actually didn't have that happening. Apple also came up with the idea of icons representing verbs or actions as opposed to just representing objects or data files. So yeah, they did build on what went before but they paid for the privilege. And the way Apple stock went up back in the 80's, Xerox did pretty well.
As for MS innovation, MS required Apple to give them their source code for Mac OS so that they could code up the first version of Excel. It wasn't until Windows 1 came out and Apple engineers poked around in it that they found Apple code used in Windows. That was finally settled with the $150M stock transfer back in the late 90's.
Sandia, Stirling Energy Systems set new world record for solar-to-grid conversion efficiency 31.25 percent efficiency rate topples 1984 record
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. --On a perfect New Mexico winter day -- with the sky almost 10 percent brighter than usual -- Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems (SES) set a new solar-to-grid system conversion efficiency record by achieving a 31.25 percent net efficiency rate. The old 1984 record of 29.4 percent was toppled Jan. 31 on SES's "Serial #3" solar dish Stirling system at Sandia's National Solar Thermal Test Facility.
Each dish unit consists of 82 mirrors formed in a dish shape to focus the light to an intense beam.
The solar dish generates electricity by focusing the sun's rays onto a receiver, which transmits the heat energy to a Stirling engine. The engine is a sealed system filled with hydrogen. As the gas heats and cools, its pressure rises and falls. The change in pressure drives the pistons inside the engine, producing mechanical power, which in turn drives a generator and makes electricity.
Damn it, they're using the old SAC symbol: gauntleted fist holding lightning and olive branch. The official slogan was Peace is our profession but within SAC it was subtexted with War is our Trade./Tanker, Buff crew chief
I started out with Wolfenstein 3D, and then Marathon 1,2,3 (still have floppy disks). By the time I got to Quake III, I was only able to play FP games for about 20 minutes at a time. I'd get killer headaches, right behind the eyes. Now days, if I just glance at my daughter's machine when she's playing any 3d game, it's a sharp pain behind the eyes. I'm stuck playing Civ/Alpha Centauri type games.
Mine still works. I bought it in '90, just before heading over for Desert Shield/Storm. I was on the ground the whole time and it worked fine, even with all the dust and grit. I left some regular batteries in it, around '98 and had to clean up the mess a couple years ago but after that, is still working ok. Had to get it working so I could introduce my daughter to it. After 6 months, she was bugging me for a DS.
Do you think a helmet or breastplate costs more to make? Which is heavier? Which is easier to store?
Body armor is easier to make and store than helms. Both my Greek Corinthian and spangen helms take up a fair amount of space on a shelf. My Greek Hoplite armor and Wisby coat of plates folds up pretty flat and hangs in the closet.
For making, I've made a spangen helm and it took a lot longer than the coat of plates and laminated linen body armor pieces. Is technically more difficult too.
You don't want to hear the tale of trying to replace the factory stereo-on-a-stick once it burnt out. If iPods had been around 10 years earlier, wouldn't have been such a big deal but back then, transitioning to cd players, it sucked. Devolved to a diskman outputting to an amp in the hatch, all secured with velcro. Pretty ugly.
But yeah, after having older cars (MGA, 69 Camaro, etc.) and finally getting a new-ish car (bought used, cheap, 'cause original owner didn't want to take it in to shop one more time), I was appalled at how stupid some of the visual design cues were in the dashboard. Looked like it was designed by some guy who'd worked on Logan's Run or Space 1999.
A lot of times, software designers will try their stuff out with other tech minded folk. After doing tech support for 15 years, I've realized that tech types have a different way of approaching problems, that seems to involve a little more experimentation than non-tech types. Was really impressed here at my work, where the ticket software team decided to test their stuff not just with the tech support folks who will be using the software but also with office admins and such. One major thing the admins caught was that all the text list fields did not default sort the same way. While a small thing, once it was fixed, tech users reported things seemed 'smoother'.
I went to school for industrial design because I hated the '85 Camaro Berlineta dashboard layout. Not only was it visually confusing, it was physically painful, with sharp edges projecting out to gouge knees.
After a couple years, I dropped out, when I realized the teachers there were teaching 'teh shiny' over useful design.
your Baby's First Spoon is innovative and useful, but you need to make it sexy! Make it look like it should be on Star Trek. (Next Gen at the time) I went and sculpted a woman's nude torso into the handle. Design teacher was not amused but fine arts sculpture prof liked it. I left after that.
What a lot of designers and engineers fail to realize is that, just because something works for them, that does not mean it will work for a majority of users. There seems to be a certain egotism in some folk: if it's good for them, it should be good for everyone. It's like they want their perception of the world to be paramount, even while they celebrate their iconoclastic tastes as a geek. WTF?!!!
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Hell, at my work as a desktop tech, we used to be allowed to do a 15 minute good-faith effort on anything the customer asked for, without checking whether the app was corp. supported or not. Now, we have to get task numbers for everything. I got into the game to fix things; easy in, easy out. Now, they got too many forms and crap. It sucks.
Damn it! Forgot to take my pills today. No idea what you're saying.
For Teela, the actress who played the engineer on Firefly comes to mind.
Niven's Ringworld would make a great movie. The plot is simple enough for regular folks (and even movie execs) to get (explorers crash land, need to escape), the visuals would be killer (floating buildings, fly cycles, the Ring, Kzinti) and Louis Wu would be a fun character to interpret. While many people may hate this, I see Bruce Willis (with a shave) as a possible candidate.
So, how would ya'll cast Ringworld, the Movie?
Also, Apple claimed first to use mouse on personal computer.
Darn you Tom. Darn you to HECK!
Oh yeah, I hated those nylon laces. Had to go to hiking store to find good cotton ones.
Low member number in my case?
He also had his mother on the same national board of United Way. A vp from IBM, who was in charge of their PC division was sitting next to her at a meeting and mentioned needing to come up with an OS for a home computer. She told him her son was in computers and this guy should speak with him.
Also, Gate's father was a IP lawyer. He helped MS write the sweet deal contract they did with IBM.
It's all who you know...
(I know drunks and reprobates. Sigh.)
Apple did not steal any code for Lisa/Mac OS. Apple purchased the right (with a large amount of stock) to look over Xerox Parc's work, hire some of their developers and then reverse engineer the GUI they saw there. One thing they got wrong is that when they saw Xerox's GUI, they thought they saw windows tiled over each other. Apple then had it's engineers go and figure out how this was done when Xerox actually didn't have that happening. Apple also came up with the idea of icons representing verbs or actions as opposed to just representing objects or data files. So yeah, they did build on what went before but they paid for the privilege. And the way Apple stock went up back in the 80's, Xerox did pretty well.
As for MS innovation, MS required Apple to give them their source code for Mac OS so that they could code up the first version of Excel. It wasn't until Windows 1 came out and Apple engineers poked around in it that they found Apple code used in Windows. That was finally settled with the $150M stock transfer back in the late 90's.
31.25 percent efficiency rate topples 1984 record ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. --On a perfect New Mexico winter day -- with the sky almost 10 percent brighter than usual -- Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems (SES) set a new solar-to-grid system conversion efficiency record by achieving a 31.25 percent net efficiency rate. The old 1984 record of 29.4 percent was toppled Jan. 31 on SES's "Serial #3" solar dish Stirling system at Sandia's National Solar Thermal Test Facility.
Each dish unit consists of 82 mirrors formed in a dish shape to focus the light to an intense beam.
The solar dish generates electricity by focusing the sun's rays onto a receiver, which transmits the heat energy to a Stirling engine. The engine is a sealed system filled with hydrogen. As the gas heats and cools, its pressure rises and falls. The change in pressure drives the pistons inside the engine, producing mechanical power, which in turn drives a generator and makes electricity.
I've imagined an immersive 3D game where one wore a power loader and moved 4'x8' lego blocks around. That would be cool!
Based on your age, height, and weight, House cannot legally allow you to put on those clothes. How about a pair of sweat pants or a mu-mu?
Where's the google link?
These phrases won't search themselves!
Damn it, they're using the old SAC symbol: gauntleted fist holding lightning and olive branch. The official slogan was Peace is our profession but within SAC it was subtexted with War is our Trade. /Tanker, Buff crew chief
My Newton 2100 runs on a 162 Mhz processor. Is still plenty fast.
Martha will never know what hit her!
I started out with Wolfenstein 3D, and then Marathon 1,2,3 (still have floppy disks). By the time I got to Quake III, I was only able to play FP games for about 20 minutes at a time. I'd get killer headaches, right behind the eyes. Now days, if I just glance at my daughter's machine when she's playing any 3d game, it's a sharp pain behind the eyes. I'm stuck playing Civ/Alpha Centauri type games.
Her cups and gloves both look too big for her. Sigh.
Mine still works. I bought it in '90, just before heading over for Desert Shield/Storm. I was on the ground the whole time and it worked fine, even with all the dust and grit. I left some regular batteries in it, around '98 and had to clean up the mess a couple years ago but after that, is still working ok. Had to get it working so I could introduce my daughter to it. After 6 months, she was bugging me for a DS.
Do you think a helmet or breastplate costs more to make? Which is heavier? Which is easier to store?
Body armor is easier to make and store than helms. Both my Greek Corinthian and spangen helms take up a fair amount of space on a shelf. My Greek Hoplite armor and Wisby coat of plates folds up pretty flat and hangs in the closet.
For making, I've made a spangen helm and it took a lot longer than the coat of plates and laminated linen body armor pieces. Is technically more difficult too.
...due east of East Anglia in England.
I thought East Anglia was a car?
I thought East Anglia was a car?
...Not kawaii at all!
You don't want to hear the tale of trying to replace the factory stereo-on-a-stick once it burnt out. If iPods had been around 10 years earlier, wouldn't have been such a big deal but back then, transitioning to cd players, it sucked. Devolved to a diskman outputting to an amp in the hatch, all secured with velcro. Pretty ugly.
But yeah, after having older cars (MGA, 69 Camaro, etc.) and finally getting a new-ish car (bought used, cheap, 'cause original owner didn't want to take it in to shop one more time), I was appalled at how stupid some of the visual design cues were in the dashboard. Looked like it was designed by some guy who'd worked on Logan's Run or Space 1999.
A lot of times, software designers will try their stuff out with other tech minded folk. After doing tech support for 15 years, I've realized that tech types have a different way of approaching problems, that seems to involve a little more experimentation than non-tech types. Was really impressed here at my work, where the ticket software team decided to test their stuff not just with the tech support folks who will be using the software but also with office admins and such. One major thing the admins caught was that all the text list fields did not default sort the same way. While a small thing, once it was fixed, tech users reported things seemed 'smoother'.
I went to school for industrial design because I hated the '85 Camaro Berlineta dashboard layout. Not only was it visually confusing, it was physically painful, with sharp edges projecting out to gouge knees.
After a couple years, I dropped out, when I realized the teachers there were teaching 'teh shiny' over useful design.
your Baby's First Spoon is innovative and useful, but you need to make it sexy! Make it look like it should be on Star Trek. (Next Gen at the time) I went and sculpted a woman's nude torso into the handle. Design teacher was not amused but fine arts sculpture prof liked it. I left after that.
What a lot of designers and engineers fail to realize is that, just because something works for them, that does not mean it will work for a majority of users. There seems to be a certain egotism in some folk: if it's good for them, it should be good for everyone. It's like they want their perception of the world to be paramount, even while they celebrate their iconoclastic tastes as a geek. WTF?!!!