Considering the amount of hit games they have put out, I'm sure they have a sizable warchest of dough.
The only thing that comes to mind in terms of failures for Blizzard is Warcraft Adventures, which was supposed to be some animated Warcraft adventure game where you play an Orc slave. I forget exactly what happened, but the game was canceled.
But otherwise, all of their other games have been amazing fun and were devoloped for both Windoze and Macs.
Ohhh yeah, I have seen the quality pages with the black backgrounds and hot pink titles that people have made of their custom home page portals.
It's called a brand, and considering the amount of work down to improve the underlying content, you can't expect much more for a fairly minor number release.
After all, you have to assume that with the equipment/manpower/intelligence the goverment has it is capable of breaking most popular encryptian methods. So obscurity would be a benefit when researching a method to encrypt. But obscurity doesn't always mean security, as unless you have in-depth knowledge of the encryptian method you can't be sure its safe.
But it would certainly be cool to have that box from sneakers....
Hey, I didn't mean to insult this guys work. It's pretty damn cool that he got a pulse jet to drive a go-cart. My perspective was if you want to build a Jet powered go-cart using off the shelf components would be fastest and the most effecient.
Geez. Excuse me.
I was just posting a comment on what my jet powered go cart would be. Honestly, the reason I didn't post more info was that my dial-up connection decided to drop down to speeds below 1k/sec last night. And considering the hits on this guys homepage at the time of the posting, I didn't have much chance of getting through.
Building it from the ground up, well then yes a pulse jet makes sense. It's simple, has few moving parts, and doesn't require too many advanced parts. My idea was from the perspective of putting one together with as little work as necessary.
cheers
Well obviously. I was just throwing in an idea. Honestly, you might actually be able to get a few engines in bulk that were out of service for relatively cheap. From that you could probably put together a functional model. And granted, being older it would be less effecient but even if there was a 50% power loss going to the wheels that still would be a 200 hp go-cart!
I meant to put the link to their page in my comment, but my dial-up connection was slower then molasses last night, so I just threw it together from what I remembered of the 250 model. Newer models actually generate almost 700 shp! Of course, if you didn't want to pay the big bucks you would have to find an older model. And with a used engine, using some backyard engineered gearing system, it would probably cut the amount of horsepower to the wheels, but it sure would be fast!
I work in the aviation industry, and I can think of a better type of Jet engine to use.
Just from memory, the Allison 250 comes to mind. It is small enough to fit behind the seat of a go-cart, prolific enough to find used parts and engines cheap enough. It's also used in helicopters, so all you would have to do is hook up some time of gearing system to the rear axle, since it already has a power output shaft. Not to mention one or two people could easily lift it and move it about. I think it weighs around a hundred pounds or so. And it generates over 400 shaft horsepower!
Now that would be a go-cart worthy of a GLH designation. GOES LIKE HELL!
Why would Egyptian engineers bother developing such outlandish methods of construction when they could use the most available resource in any advanced society- human labor. Considering the influence of religion in their society and the intelligence levels of the common workers, when the Pharaoh (who was considered a God) gives the command for an oversized grave marker, people get to work.
The most promising explanation on how the Pyramids were built I've seen was by an archeologist who discovered some wooden models. These models were 2 flat pieces of wood, each shaped into a half circle, and then attached together by wooden pillars. He theorized that these were models of the equipment used to move the 6,900 lb. blocks of stone. By standing the rectangular stone on its shorter end, and then attaching these half circle units to each longer side with thick rope, the stone block was now the shape of a circle. This could easily be done with enough human hands.
Now, with enough human labor these mammoth blocks could now be rolled with relative ease to their position. To raise the blocks up to the top of the pyramid he suggested the ramp method which had been theorized by other scientists. This basically was a dirt ramp that was built around the sides of the pyramid as it got higher, which allowed the stones to be dragged in place, or in this case, rolled into place. Given enough slaves, every block could be moved into position in a timely manner- allowing the pyramid to be completed in the relatively short time of 20 years.
All of this could be done with some of the most readily available resources: willing human labor, wood, rope and dirt.
If they did use kites for their construction of the pyramids, it must have been one dangerous job. Imagine what would happen if a sudden gust of wind heaved this rock in the general direction of some workers. SPLAT! I suppose it is possible, but must have been quite an affair to get this all set-up. And even though the Egyptians were a very advanced society, how could they make rope that could withstand the pressures of a huge rock being thrown around in the wind?
A tombstone to outlast all tombstones?
Well, lets see if we set some rather lofty goals:
+Lasts 10,000+ years
+Over that period it retains its structural integrity.
+Any inscriptions/designs/etc should still be intact (And perhaps a "rosettas stone" of sorts, for future civilizations)
+And since this marking your grave, a method for retaining your remains/mementos/etc in an air-tight containter so they last as long as the tombstone.
The only feasible solution I can think of is to avoid the ever changing Earth and simply be blasted into space.
This method allows for you to be placed in any form of container (within reason- it has to fit in the rocket) and of most types of materials (as long as you are incased in something to protect you from the hazards of space- your actual tomb could be inside this casing). You could even be aimed in a direction that avoids as much objects as possible- You might even be able to go for millenia undisturbed!
Think about it: Some alien race may find your capsule and decide to place you in their museum! Or they could just decide to eat you, but at least you lasted that long!
As far as I know, this is actually something that was planned to be available to the public, instead you would blast your cremated remains into space in a small rocket. I vaguely remember hearing about Gene Roddenbury's widow planning to blast some of his cremated remains into outer space. I don't know whether the company that was offering it ever actually succeeded in doing this, but it was planned.
So, I suppose that if you had enough money you could possibly have your physical form and your tombstone (of sorts) to last for billions of years in the vastness of space.
I also have found the 8.3 world pointless and stupid for any consumer product. Obviously, legacy coding is a factor since the computer world tends to move slowly when it comes to major OS upgrades. So I suppose, that in some cases it is necessary to remain 8.3
However, any professional IT person who is primarily a Mac user can tell you that when they sit down in fornt of a windoze pc the agony of attempting to decipher what the hell is going on is generally derived from the fact that nothing is named in a way that eases system maintenance.
It is not just the Mac's physical interface that makes it superior to the windoze pc, but the underpinnings. Open up the C:/WINDOWS/ folder and try to figure out what is what from the extremely cryptic setup. Now open the Macintosh HD:System Folder and look at that! Real-world naming! What a concept! I shouldn't have to learn how the OS was made in order to figure out how it works. With a pc, you need a stack of manuals, books, etc, to figure out how to be effecient. With a Mac it's just common sense.
So buy a Mac, and enjoy.
Slashdot Mirror
Considering the amount of hit games they have put out, I'm sure they have a sizable warchest of dough.
The only thing that comes to mind in terms of failures for Blizzard is Warcraft Adventures, which was supposed to be some animated Warcraft adventure game where you play an Orc slave. I forget exactly what happened, but the game was canceled.
But otherwise, all of their other games have been amazing fun and were devoloped for both Windoze and Macs.
Ohhh yeah, I have seen the quality pages with the black backgrounds and hot pink titles that people have made of their custom home page portals.
It's called a brand, and considering the amount of work down to improve the underlying content, you can't expect much more for a fairly minor number release.
Too Many Secrets...
After all, you have to assume that with the equipment/manpower/intelligence the goverment has it is capable of breaking most popular encryptian methods. So obscurity would be a benefit when researching a method to encrypt. But obscurity doesn't always mean security, as unless you have in-depth knowledge of the encryptian method you can't be sure its safe.
But it would certainly be cool to have that box from sneakers....
Hey, I didn't mean to insult this guys work. It's pretty damn cool that he got a pulse jet to drive a go-cart. My perspective was if you want to build a Jet powered go-cart using off the shelf components would be fastest and the most effecient.
Geez. Excuse me. I was just posting a comment on what my jet powered go cart would be. Honestly, the reason I didn't post more info was that my dial-up connection decided to drop down to speeds below 1k/sec last night. And considering the hits on this guys homepage at the time of the posting, I didn't have much chance of getting through. Building it from the ground up, well then yes a pulse jet makes sense. It's simple, has few moving parts, and doesn't require too many advanced parts. My idea was from the perspective of putting one together with as little work as necessary. cheers
Well obviously. I was just throwing in an idea. Honestly, you might actually be able to get a few engines in bulk that were out of service for relatively cheap. From that you could probably put together a functional model. And granted, being older it would be less effecient but even if there was a 50% power loss going to the wheels that still would be a 200 hp go-cart!
Hey thanks.
I meant to put the link to their page in my comment, but my dial-up connection was slower then molasses last night, so I just threw it together from what I remembered of the 250 model. Newer models actually generate almost 700 shp! Of course, if you didn't want to pay the big bucks you would have to find an older model. And with a used engine, using some backyard engineered gearing system, it would probably cut the amount of horsepower to the wheels, but it sure would be fast!
I work in the aviation industry, and I can think of a better type of Jet engine to use.
Just from memory, the Allison 250 comes to mind. It is small enough to fit behind the seat of a go-cart, prolific enough to find used parts and engines cheap enough. It's also used in helicopters, so all you would have to do is hook up some time of gearing system to the rear axle, since it already has a power output shaft. Not to mention one or two people could easily lift it and move it about. I think it weighs around a hundred pounds or so. And it generates over 400 shaft horsepower!
Now that would be a go-cart worthy of a GLH designation. GOES LIKE HELL!
Human labor.
Why would Egyptian engineers bother developing such outlandish methods of construction when they could use the most available resource in any advanced society- human labor. Considering the influence of religion in their society and the intelligence levels of the common workers, when the Pharaoh (who was considered a God) gives the command for an oversized grave marker, people get to work.
The most promising explanation on how the Pyramids were built I've seen was by an archeologist who discovered some wooden models. These models were 2 flat pieces of wood, each shaped into a half circle, and then attached together by wooden pillars. He theorized that these were models of the equipment used to move the 6,900 lb. blocks of stone. By standing the rectangular stone on its shorter end, and then attaching these half circle units to each longer side with thick rope, the stone block was now the shape of a circle. This could easily be done with enough human hands.
Now, with enough human labor these mammoth blocks could now be rolled with relative ease to their position. To raise the blocks up to the top of the pyramid he suggested the ramp method which had been theorized by other scientists. This basically was a dirt ramp that was built around the sides of the pyramid as it got higher, which allowed the stones to be dragged in place, or in this case, rolled into place. Given enough slaves, every block could be moved into position in a timely manner- allowing the pyramid to be completed in the relatively short time of 20 years.
All of this could be done with some of the most readily available resources: willing human labor, wood, rope and dirt.
If they did use kites for their construction of the pyramids, it must have been one dangerous job. Imagine what would happen if a sudden gust of wind heaved this rock in the general direction of some workers. SPLAT! I suppose it is possible, but must have been quite an affair to get this all set-up. And even though the Egyptians were a very advanced society, how could they make rope that could withstand the pressures of a huge rock being thrown around in the wind?
A tombstone to outlast all tombstones?
Well, lets see if we set some rather lofty goals:
+Lasts 10,000+ years
+Over that period it retains its structural integrity.
+Any inscriptions/designs/etc should still be intact (And perhaps a "rosettas stone" of sorts, for future civilizations)
+And since this marking your grave, a method for retaining your remains/mementos/etc in an air-tight containter so they last as long as the tombstone.
The only feasible solution I can think of is to avoid the ever changing Earth and simply be blasted into space.
This method allows for you to be placed in any form of container (within reason- it has to fit in the rocket) and of most types of materials (as long as you are incased in something to protect you from the hazards of space- your actual tomb could be inside this casing). You could even be aimed in a direction that avoids as much objects as possible- You might even be able to go for millenia undisturbed!
Think about it: Some alien race may find your capsule and decide to place you in their museum! Or they could just decide to eat you, but at least you lasted that long!
As far as I know, this is actually something that was planned to be available to the public, instead you would blast your cremated remains into space in a small rocket. I vaguely remember hearing about Gene Roddenbury's widow planning to blast some of his cremated remains into outer space. I don't know whether the company that was offering it ever actually succeeded in doing this, but it was planned.
So, I suppose that if you had enough money you could possibly have your physical form and your tombstone (of sorts) to last for billions of years in the vastness of space.
I also have found the 8.3 world pointless and stupid for any consumer product. Obviously, legacy coding is a factor since the computer world tends to move slowly when it comes to major OS upgrades. So I suppose, that in some cases it is necessary to remain 8.3
However, any professional IT person who is primarily a Mac user can tell you that when they sit down in fornt of a windoze pc the agony of attempting to decipher what the hell is going on is generally derived from the fact that nothing is named in a way that eases system maintenance.
It is not just the Mac's physical interface that makes it superior to the windoze pc, but the underpinnings. Open up the C:/WINDOWS/ folder and try to figure out what is what from the extremely cryptic setup. Now open the Macintosh HD:System Folder and look at that! Real-world naming! What a concept! I shouldn't have to learn how the OS was made in order to figure out how it works. With a pc, you need a stack of manuals, books, etc, to figure out how to be effecient. With a Mac it's just common sense.
So buy a Mac, and enjoy.