But Americans don't consider those acceptable. You're talking about a situation where the public has been made to fear that if they don't do this, we'll lose 3000 more people to another Trade Center. Better to send troops to kill those nasty terrorists than risk getting blown up at the mall.
Watch some commercials. How many are telling people that 'if you don't buy our product, this -bad thing- might happen to you'. We scare people to sell things.
Nobody is afraid of space. So they aren't willing to pay to see someone blown up on national TV.
I don't think we will go anywhere until we kill the Shuttle. The $500 million launch cost is a complete waste. I read somewhere that it is around $35 million for a Soyuz. Granted, a shuttle is a combined passenger/payload launch, but you could do two launches, one of each, for less than $100 million. So how is this reusable shuttle saving money?
Until NASA takes a responsible fiscal approach to launches, I don't see how we are going to go much further.
FWIW, I support a usable space station. Particularly one that could be used as a collection point for Mars launches. (most of your fuel is used getting into orbit) I support robotic missions to the moon for scientific missions, mining, and manufacturing experiments. But not a manned mission unless we have a reason beyond 'sending a man to the moon.' And all this needs to be done before we can expect a successful manned mission to Mars.
Not necessary. Haven't you been watching the news from Iraq this week? And if you haven't been watching closely, you might not have noticed that things have picked up in Afganistan. And some of the experts on terrorism have been saying that the only thing we did to Al Qaeda is decentralize them.
All that is left is for CNN to send their 'War Correspondents'. Is it ratings week yet?
Here's one of the reasons I quit using mandrake. Software package management. They took KPackage off of the menu and replaced it with one of their own. And with theirs they call it from the menu with different parameters; one gets you the add program the other gets you the remove program. So if you want to check if something is installed or needs updated, you have to take the remove mode, search for the package, exit, load it in the add mode.
Starting with version 9 I started feeling like I do under windows when the system 'guesses' wrong. I end up fighting the system to put in what I KNOW are good configuration settings because the OS can't guess them correctly. Reminds me too much of Windows modem 'drivers' where you can't change your own init string.
If the same thing had happened in a U.S. civilian power reactor, the steam explosion would have been contained within the reactor containment building and there would have been no graphite to combust.
There would be no graphite, but at TMI they were extremely worried that the hydrogen gas might explode and breach the containment dome. That is why the vented some of the steam/gas.
Well, as I've been told by several people now, the site itself is free. And, judgeing from her manner of dress and a $15,000 bike, my guess is that she isn't terribly in need to funds to continue.
I don't think her finances are relevant. The site makes an impact and is worthy of a donation. I'd dust off my paypal account if it encouraged more sites like this. Besides, Kawasaki, she obviously has good taste.:-)
Getting _further_ off topic: why do motorcycles, with limited one/two passenger capacity, make MORE noise that cars with 4-6 passenger capacity.
Muffle that fucking thing, Harley rider. It sounds like a flatulent anal-sex enthusiast.
They are under the impression that you are too busy with your head up your.... I mean on your cell phone to pay attention. So they want a bike that is loud enough that you will hear them. Motorcycles ran with their lights on before anyone ever considered doing it with cars. Yet the one accident I have had, any every near accident, has been because someone in a car didn't see me.
If you've never ridden, you probably don't realize how alert a safe biker must be. They don't have the luxury of talking on the phone, fiddling with the radio, eating lunch, or applying their makeup. Particularly if you're in an area that grows potholes.
On the other hand, the wildlife that's beginning to swarm in the Dead Zone is as dangerous to a biker as any cell-distracted SUVer.
As a biker myself, I have doubts that anything is as dangerous as an SUVer, distracted or otherwise. Ever had anyone tailgate you, nearly run you off the road passing you (he was straddling the double yellow), and then slam on their brakes in front of you because he was pissed that you were only driving the speed limit? Give me deer any day.
One of the most dangerous things you can do to a biker is tailgate them. And it happens to me every time I ride in traffic. Regardless of how much I'm exceeding the speedlimit.
Hungarian Notation is the most horrible concept ever because it always ends up lying. I bet that's why MS is so slow to fix buffer overflows.. in order to change a variable from an int to a long is an arduous process.
Sweet, Hungarian Notation is responsible for buffer overflows. And here I thought it was because they were using a compiler that doesn't enforce bounds checking (after all, that's a feature) and the programmers were too lazy to do it themself.
Of course, maybe it's taking so long because the programmers are trying change ints to longs. They should learn what it is they are trying to fix first.
And an even easier method would be to just let the two parties fight it out and decide for us.
We choose to have elections for a lot of different things. So a ballet tends to have a lot of different things to vote for.
To get to paper A or paper B, we could;
have elections every week and only vote on one thing at a time.
hand the voter 40+ pieces of paper when they walk in.
have 20+ lines for people to stand in to pick up each set of choices so they can fill them out one at a time.
or just say 'screw it, there are too many things to vote for. I don't need to vote whether my county can raise my property tax to buy all the county employees multi-colored widgets.'
Whether people care enough to vote isn't an issue, we have made the choice that it's our right to have a say in how our government works. Whether it's tax levies, referrendums, the president, or the local dog catcher. And Canada's or anyone else's system doesn't provide that capability. You can't hand count 20 races.
I think you missed the part about the ballots being scanned electronically.
Our system uses bubbles that you fill in with a marker, just like the tests you used to take in school.
The system he mentioned has something like "President --------" on the left and "-------- Bush" and "------- Kerry" on the right. You connect the stubby line next to president with the stubby line next to the candidate you want to vote for. Then the result is scanned. Seems pretty simple to me.
The optical scanning works just fine. In this instance the problem was in their process. If the votes tallied doesn't match the number of ballots handed out, there is a problem that needs investigating. And since the ballots only need to be rescanned to be recounted, the paper trail is there and everyone is happy.
BTW, something that politicians seem clueless about. Our polling place uses 1 (ONE!!!!) optical scanner. An article I read yesterday said they used 6 touch screen voting machines plus a controller just for one small precinct.
I downloaded the demo and played it. It has been a while, but from what I remember the graphics and gameplay were decent. I played daily over a long holiday weekend. The reasons I chose not to subscribe were several tedious aspects (warping and docking particularly) and it felt like there wasn't enough depth to the game. I also felt that character creation and the ability to leave your ship at stations hinted at capabilities that weren't there. Personally I would love to see a combination of E&B (or EVE) and Asheron's Call. Tired of this world, no problem, get on your ship and go to another one.
Forget about a MMORPG based on D&D, give me one based on Traveller.
Actually, all of those are second or third generation MMORPGs. Depending on what you consider your first generation. I personally look at MUDs as first generation, and those games defining the second generation. It takes more than a new GUI and a number after the name to make it a new generation. For example, I don't think anyone is going to say AC2 is an improvement on AC. We aren't going see a new generation for a while. We'll need to break away from the cookie cutter fantasy and licensed games first.
For a more detailed look at online gaming history:
BTW, something that makes it difficult quantify what belongs in a given generation is the fact that these are living games. The game I am most familiar with, Asheron's Call, would hardly be reconizable by someone who played it when it was first released.
For most of us, we only have to deal with one utility failure at a time. The only time I can remember our natural gas being unavailable is when they shut it off to replace a line.
But... the generator in the link can run on natural gas or propane. With propane giving a higher output. Other than zoning regulations, propane is easily obtained. I'm planning to get something similar when I build my new house. Since I'm using heat pump(s), I won't have natural gas service.
BTW, Generac is a good brand. Don't even consider the cheap ones (like coleman) that you'll see at Home Depot.
I see this as an apology for "The Spirits Within." This is pretty much what everyone wanted when they first heard Square was making a feature movie. Instead, we got this weird sci-fi trip that only relates to Final Fantasy if you look at the philosophical roots.
Maybe that's why I liked The Spirits Within, I've never even seen an FF game. But I was interested in the CGI and the production quality as much as the story line. I think if I was an actor, I'd be concerned about the advances in CGI and the power of PC clusters. Voice-over work won't pay near as well, and once the CGI is completely realistic, they'll probably start working on computer generated voices too.
After I watched the movie on the Sci-Fi channel, I went out and bought the DVD.
Sounds like you're doing awfully well. Wine and cheese, beaches and jungle, etc.
She never said anything about being dirt poor. She said she gave up a good paying job for a lifestyle with less money and more quality.
A landline is not a luxury, a cell phone could be argued to be. A laptop is also arguably a luxury.
Depends on perspective. For me, my cell is cheaper and more useful than a landline. So I have the former and not the latter.
And some might argue that a 6 year old laptop is not a luxury. I gave away my TP 765D to a friend. Even if I could have sold it, it was only worth $50.
And for some people, money and time are in short supply, so they can't spend the extra time looking for deals.
Quality of life. What is a better job, one that pays $25/hr for 20 hours or one that pays $20/hr for 40 hours?
If you rent all your life, you still have to pay rent, so you're on a small pension, with regular bills plus this never ending rent....that's just dumb.
Home ownership doesn't become free just because the mortgage is paid off. There are still significant taxes, homeowners insurance, maintenance. Try paying for that new roof with your pension.
Also, with renting you can size your residence to meet your needs. If it's just you and your SO, is it practical to own a 2000 sq/ft 4 bedroom house? Of course you could sell your big house and buy a smaller one, but closing costs make it rather expensive.
Slashdot Mirror
Hundreds of US soldiers have died in Iraq
But Americans don't consider those acceptable. You're talking about a situation where the public has been made to fear that if they don't do this, we'll lose 3000 more people to another Trade Center. Better to send troops to kill those nasty terrorists than risk getting blown up at the mall.
Watch some commercials. How many are telling people that 'if you don't buy our product, this -bad thing- might happen to you'. We scare people to sell things.
Nobody is afraid of space. So they aren't willing to pay to see someone blown up on national TV.
How can NASA set public expectations realistically when they expect to wage wars without casualties?
I don't think we will go anywhere until we kill the Shuttle. The $500 million launch cost is a complete waste. I read somewhere that it is around $35 million for a Soyuz. Granted, a shuttle is a combined passenger/payload launch, but you could do two launches, one of each, for less than $100 million. So how is this reusable shuttle saving money?
Until NASA takes a responsible fiscal approach to launches, I don't see how we are going to go much further.
FWIW, I support a usable space station. Particularly one that could be used as a collection point for Mars launches. (most of your fuel is used getting into orbit) I support robotic missions to the moon for scientific missions, mining, and manufacturing experiments. But not a manned mission unless we have a reason beyond 'sending a man to the moon.' And all this needs to be done before we can expect a successful manned mission to Mars.
Not necessary. Haven't you been watching the news from Iraq this week? And if you haven't been watching closely, you might not have noticed that things have picked up in Afganistan. And some of the experts on terrorism have been saying that the only thing we did to Al Qaeda is decentralize them.
All that is left is for CNN to send their 'War Correspondents'. Is it ratings week yet?
...defended a video store there against state charges that it was renting two obscene videotapes...
They reached the verdict in less than three hours
They would have taken longer, but the movies were short.
Hmm, I guess I now have a reason to watch the Stargate Channel again. But with my luck, it will probably star Shannon Doherty.
About terrible UI design, can you elaborate?
Here's one of the reasons I quit using mandrake. Software package management. They took KPackage off of the menu and replaced it with one of their own. And with theirs they call it from the menu with different parameters; one gets you the add program the other gets you the remove program. So if you want to check if something is installed or needs updated, you have to take the remove mode, search for the package, exit, load it in the add mode.
Starting with version 9 I started feeling like I do under windows when the system 'guesses' wrong. I end up fighting the system to put in what I KNOW are good configuration settings because the OS can't guess them correctly. Reminds me too much of Windows modem 'drivers' where you can't change your own init string.
Such bizarre moderation. Would someone like to explain how such a simple opinion gets moderated a Troll? And just yesterday I had mod points....
If the same thing had happened in a U.S. civilian power reactor, the steam explosion would have been contained within the reactor containment building and there would have been no graphite to combust.
There would be no graphite, but at TMI they were extremely worried that the hydrogen gas might explode and breach the containment dome. That is why the vented some of the steam/gas.
Well, as I've been told by several people now, the site itself is free. And, judgeing from her manner of dress and a $15,000 bike, my guess is that she isn't terribly in need to funds to continue.
:-)
I don't think her finances are relevant. The site makes an impact and is worthy of a donation. I'd dust off my paypal account if it encouraged more sites like this. Besides, Kawasaki, she obviously has good taste.
Getting _further_ off topic: why do motorcycles, with limited one/two passenger capacity, make MORE noise that cars with 4-6 passenger capacity.
Muffle that fucking thing, Harley rider. It sounds like a flatulent anal-sex enthusiast.
They are under the impression that you are too busy with your head up your.... I mean on your cell phone to pay attention. So they want a bike that is loud enough that you will hear them. Motorcycles ran with their lights on before anyone ever considered doing it with cars. Yet the one accident I have had, any every near accident, has been because someone in a car didn't see me.
If you've never ridden, you probably don't realize how alert a safe biker must be. They don't have the luxury of talking on the phone, fiddling with the radio, eating lunch, or applying their makeup. Particularly if you're in an area that grows potholes.
On the other hand, the wildlife that's beginning to swarm in the Dead Zone is as dangerous to a biker as any cell-distracted SUVer.
As a biker myself, I have doubts that anything is as dangerous as an SUVer, distracted or otherwise. Ever had anyone tailgate you, nearly run you off the road passing you (he was straddling the double yellow), and then slam on their brakes in front of you because he was pissed that you were only driving the speed limit? Give me deer any day.
One of the most dangerous things you can do to a biker is tailgate them. And it happens to me every time I ride in traffic. Regardless of how much I'm exceeding the speedlimit.
Hungarian Notation is the most horrible concept ever because it always ends up lying. I bet that's why MS is so slow to fix buffer overflows.. in order to change a variable from an int to a long is an arduous process.
Sweet, Hungarian Notation is responsible for buffer overflows. And here I thought it was because they were using a compiler that doesn't enforce bounds checking (after all, that's a feature) and the programmers were too lazy to do it themself.
Of course, maybe it's taking so long because the programmers are trying change ints to longs. They should learn what it is they are trying to fix first.
Buffer Overflow
And an even easier method would be to just let the two parties fight it out and decide for us.
We choose to have elections for a lot of different things. So a ballet tends to have a lot of different things to vote for.
To get to paper A or paper B, we could;
have elections every week and only vote on one thing at a time.
hand the voter 40+ pieces of paper when they walk in.
have 20+ lines for people to stand in to pick up each set of choices so they can fill them out one at a time.
or just say 'screw it, there are too many things to vote for. I don't need to vote whether my county can raise my property tax to buy all the county employees multi-colored widgets.'
Whether people care enough to vote isn't an issue, we have made the choice that it's our right to have a say in how our government works. Whether it's tax levies, referrendums, the president, or the local dog catcher. And Canada's or anyone else's system doesn't provide that capability. You can't hand count 20 races.
Anyone who suggests hand counts and "A fucking X" has no clue about the US election process.
Sample Ballot
You should get a clue before you slam American business ethics with your simpleton solution.
I think you missed the part about the ballots being scanned electronically.
Our system uses bubbles that you fill in with a marker, just like the tests you used to take in school.
The system he mentioned has something like "President --------" on the left and "-------- Bush" and "------- Kerry" on the right. You connect the stubby line next to president with the stubby line next to the candidate you want to vote for. Then the result is scanned. Seems pretty simple to me.
The optical scanning works just fine. In this instance the problem was in their process. If the votes tallied doesn't match the number of ballots handed out, there is a problem that needs investigating. And since the ballots only need to be rescanned to be recounted, the paper trail is there and everyone is happy.
BTW, something that politicians seem clueless about. Our polling place uses 1 (ONE!!!!) optical scanner. An article I read yesterday said they used 6 touch screen voting machines plus a controller just for one small precinct.
I downloaded the demo and played it. It has been a while, but from what I remember the graphics and gameplay were decent. I played daily over a long holiday weekend. The reasons I chose not to subscribe were several tedious aspects (warping and docking particularly) and it felt like there wasn't enough depth to the game. I also felt that character creation and the ability to leave your ship at stations hinted at capabilities that weren't there. Personally I would love to see a combination of E&B (or EVE) and Asheron's Call. Tired of this world, no problem, get on your ship and go to another one.
Forget about a MMORPG based on D&D, give me one based on Traveller.
Actually, all of those are second or third generation MMORPGs. Depending on what you consider your first generation. I personally look at MUDs as first generation, and those games defining the second generation. It takes more than a new GUI and a number after the name to make it a new generation. For example, I don't think anyone is going to say AC2 is an improvement on AC. We aren't going see a new generation for a while. We'll need to break away from the cookie cutter fantasy and licensed games first.
For a more detailed look at online gaming history:
Biting the Hand
BTW, something that makes it difficult quantify what belongs in a given generation is the fact that these are living games. The game I am most familiar with, Asheron's Call, would hardly be reconizable by someone who played it when it was first released.
Nope, even with Intel the MHz is irrelevant.
A 2g Celeron performs as fast a a 2g P4, right?
I think this train left the station a long time ago.
For most of us, we only have to deal with one utility failure at a time. The only time I can remember our natural gas being unavailable is when they shut it off to replace a line.
But... the generator in the link can run on natural gas or propane. With propane giving a higher output. Other than zoning regulations, propane is easily obtained. I'm planning to get something similar when I build my new house. Since I'm using heat pump(s), I won't have natural gas service.
BTW, Generac is a good brand. Don't even consider the cheap ones (like coleman) that you'll see at Home Depot.
Unfortunately, SciFi just kills any show that is decent and replaces them with things like Scare Tactics and horror movies.
SciFi Channel is irrelevant.
I see this as an apology for "The Spirits Within." This is pretty much what everyone wanted when they first heard Square was making a feature movie. Instead, we got this weird sci-fi trip that only relates to Final Fantasy if you look at the philosophical roots.
Maybe that's why I liked The Spirits Within, I've never even seen an FF game. But I was interested in the CGI and the production quality as much as the story line. I think if I was an actor, I'd be concerned about the advances in CGI and the power of PC clusters. Voice-over work won't pay near as well, and once the CGI is completely realistic, they'll probably start working on computer generated voices too.
After I watched the movie on the Sci-Fi channel, I went out and bought the DVD.
Sounds like you're doing awfully well. Wine and cheese, beaches and jungle, etc.
She never said anything about being dirt poor. She said she gave up a good paying job for a lifestyle with less money and more quality.
A landline is not a luxury, a cell phone could be argued to be. A laptop is also arguably a luxury.
Depends on perspective. For me, my cell is cheaper and more useful than a landline. So I have the former and not the latter.
And some might argue that a 6 year old laptop is not a luxury. I gave away my TP 765D to a friend. Even if I could have sold it, it was only worth $50.
And for some people, money and time are in short supply, so they can't spend the extra time looking for deals.
Quality of life. What is a better job, one that pays $25/hr for 20 hours or one that pays $20/hr for 40 hours?
If you rent all your life, you still have to pay rent, so you're on a small pension, with regular bills plus this never ending rent....that's just dumb.
Home ownership doesn't become free just because the mortgage is paid off. There are still significant taxes, homeowners insurance, maintenance. Try paying for that new roof with your pension.
Also, with renting you can size your residence to meet your needs. If it's just you and your SO, is it practical to own a 2000 sq/ft 4 bedroom house? Of course you could sell your big house and buy a smaller one, but closing costs make it rather expensive.