Not exactly. The competitor too CostCo, and ironically against Wal-Mart itself, is Sams Club. Oddly enough, Sams Club is sometimes cheaper than Wal-Mart and offers products far better than those available at WM. Most (if not all) losses can be written off with the yearly membership fees.
Wal-Mart recently announced they were planning to create a higher end store chain in more affluent areas, which strikes me as odd, since Sams has basically what many could consider the same thing, from furnishings to tech gear, clothing and food. Especially if you live in any area where Sams and WM are in the same town (or in my situation, less than 1/8 a mile apart).
I don't know about "cheap, lousy material", except, perhaps, if you count automobile manufacturers. Most of what we import for resale under US brand names are built in 3rd world countries and China, and resold in export under US branding.
The remainder of US manufacturing jobs are either underpaid, or soon to be laid off because they dare to ask for above minimum wage, are unionized, or because a CEO needs to buy another yacht. Of course, for the majority of Americans, if you knew you were one paycheck away from homelessness, would you aspire to put in the extra effort to compete with other businesses? Also, American businesses are known (from both anecdotal and personal experience) to punish those who perform above the duties their jobs call for. If Dilbert was actually funny, I'd say it was an apt description.
Hence why so many blue collar workers tend to shop at Wal-Mart. Ironic, yes?
I've had the same problem with hearing flyback coils on TVs and monitors since I was a child. Similarly, I could hear the ballasts on some older flourescent lamps, and the ticking of some ultrasonic sensors and jewelry cleaners (easier for some to hear, because the cleaning solution slows the ultrasonic sound enough to be barely audible).
In those cases, however, I believe it's due to some folks having a hearing range just slightly above the upper limits of human hearing(which is roughly 21 Khz, IIRC).
It isn't that improbable, it's similar to another category of "developed" senses are those where people can taste or smell a range of chemicals considerably more than the average person. I heard about them about a decade ago, I believe they were called "supertasters". A lot of companies pay out the nose (pun intended) for people with those skills, to test anything from coffee through cosmetics.
Obligatory "And it'll be on a zero bid contract"
on
US Plans Lunar Motel
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· Score: 1
Technically that first part is true, rockets DO explode on launch. Except it's supposed to be a really controlled explosion, which, ironically, is what causes 90% of, ummm, explosions on launch.
Not quite. Recall when Windows 2000 was being developed, that at first it was basically a heavily flawed attempt at a new version of NT4. Due to those flaws, they scrapped it and built much of the OS from scratch, with NT5 being the end result (along with its subsequent update to Windows XP).
That's about a 2 year period of coding, while the preliminary work was pretty much done between 1995 and 1998.
If such a vehicle is launched at an angle towards the Earth, it would have a gravitational assist, that, with steering motors, could be used for an inverted slingshot effect, to launch a payload at escape velocity, expending (and needing) less fuel than would be nessesary for orbit. It would have the effect of using a hypersonic ramp for launch.
Are there any real rocket scientists out there who can correct/disprove my hypothesis?
Don't forget Macross Zero, the OAV miniseries that sets up the whole Macross scenario, excellent CG animation, decent story and plot (which in turn kind of spells out how the human race is just a cargo cult for space aliens). Good character development as well (the early years of Roy Fokker and a few other related characters who came back in the TV series).
Tech geeks would soil their trousers watching the technical effects as well.
Just thought it was odd that they failed to mention Tron's "unofficial" sequel, which covered a lot of similar premises (almost every all of them). Since the series came out just barely 12 years after Tron, it's about as good as an homage as any.
LCD panels: Backlight runs off of a high voltage supply to power the cold cathode tube, relying on capacitance based power supplies, depending on the company making it, and how cheap the components are, can burst into flames.
Plasma: See above.
DLP: See above.
Television: Different tech, yes, but still see above.
The quality of your product is based on the quality of the products put into it. If they're sub par, don't be surprised if it doesn't melt into a pile of plastic and glass.
Ohhhhh, wait, you said calendar as in, erm, SCHEDULER. My error, the relevent news was slashdotted. Maybe they could have said scheduler or organizer to avoid confusion? I mean, there was that whole thing about 8 years back when Swatch tried establishing their own custom "time" standard.
Before we went to the Julian calendar, a lunar calendar more than sufficed. Just add a leap second for every 1200 years or so, to compensate for lunar drift.
Ironically, we wouldn't have had to deal with all of these end time religious types (who decided to ignore the difference between the two) today, since their end of the world prophecies would have been scheduled for at least a few hundred years from now, rather than based on the year 2000.
Missing Mars due to a glitch in converting imperial to metric is one thing, destroying the Earth to speed up various religious prophecies due to a glitch in calendar systems is another.
Frankly, biodiesel and such fuels have been around for a while. These kids have simply figured out how to apply such tech to a car that basically would have worked with (or without) it regardless. The only thing that makes this concept so unique, is that so far no high school students have done the same.
And even though I couldn't afford to buy into continuing the game, I can say it's definitely worth playing. Great voice acting, good amount of interactive material, overall a good game from the sampler alone.
Heh, is it just me, or did anyone else flash back on The Mosquito Coast when they read this?
(Brilliant inventor gets fed up with the 1st world's lack of insight, moves to South America to build a gigantic refrigerator, to provide the natives with ice for someodd reason, 3rd world rebels decide to try stealing it and instead not only destroy the fridge, but the local riverway's wildlife in the process.)
Seriously, it's a great idea if it can be implemented on a wide scale, considering how western civilization is viewed as the great boogeyman in everything else in the third world.
In the case of Apple's switch from SCSI to IDE, I believe it was more of a case of economics. SCSI (in all flavors) uses a proprietary controller, if I recall correctly, and of course, most of the drives had a fraction of the capacity of their cheaper IDE cousins. Even today, you can find 147 gb SCSI HDs with asking prices of $187 or higher, compared to 200 gb IDE HDs for $100 or less.
When Apple got around to the iMac, they were dead set on approaching the consumer market (whereas previously they were targeting a specialty niche market), which nessesitated lower costs on components. Ironically, up til that day, there were hardly any USB devices on the market, even though PCs were shipping with USB ports about 2 years prior.
Lets see, it plays video games, PSP format videos, MP3 audio, and if you know the nessesary hoops to leap through, you can make your own videos, and download emulators to run everything from Atari 2600 games up through Gameboy Advance.
Most consumers who buy the PSP know of the games, movies and mp3 capabilities. Are they confused by it? Hardly.
So how does adding two extra features to the PS3 make things any different?
Being awed by a PC, either AT&T or Texas Instruments, it was a long time back, around 1982. Anyway, it had a cool realtime animated face with a fully digitized voice introducing the system. It had a color display with (for me) was new, since at the time the best I could find was monochrome systems.
It was in computer stores about the same time as the Apple Lisa, before we had exclusive Apple VS. PC departments.
And of course, there were videogames that had those features as early as 1978.
Slashdot Mirror
And of course...
Do NOT taunt happy fun light saber!
Not exactly. The competitor too CostCo, and ironically against Wal-Mart itself, is Sams Club. Oddly enough, Sams Club is sometimes cheaper than Wal-Mart and offers products far better than those available at WM. Most (if not all) losses can be written off with the yearly membership fees.
Wal-Mart recently announced they were planning to create a higher end store chain in more affluent areas, which strikes me as odd, since Sams has basically what many could consider the same thing, from furnishings to tech gear, clothing and food. Especially if you live in any area where Sams and WM are in the same town (or in my situation, less than 1/8 a mile apart).
I don't know about "cheap, lousy material", except, perhaps, if you count automobile manufacturers. Most of what we import for resale under US brand names are built in 3rd world countries and China, and resold in export under US branding.
The remainder of US manufacturing jobs are either underpaid, or soon to be laid off because they dare to ask for above minimum wage, are unionized, or because a CEO needs to buy another yacht. Of course, for the majority of Americans, if you knew you were one paycheck away from homelessness, would you aspire to put in the extra effort to compete with other businesses? Also, American businesses are known (from both anecdotal and personal experience) to punish those who perform above the duties their jobs call for. If Dilbert was actually funny, I'd say it was an apt description.
Hence why so many blue collar workers tend to shop at Wal-Mart. Ironic, yes?
I've had the same problem with hearing flyback coils on TVs and monitors since I was a child. Similarly, I could hear the ballasts on some older flourescent lamps, and the ticking of some ultrasonic sensors and jewelry cleaners (easier for some to hear, because the cleaning solution slows the ultrasonic sound enough to be barely audible).
In those cases, however, I believe it's due to some folks having a hearing range just slightly above the upper limits of human hearing(which is roughly 21 Khz, IIRC).
It isn't that improbable, it's similar to another category of "developed" senses are those where people can taste or smell a range of chemicals considerably more than the average person. I heard about them about a decade ago, I believe they were called "supertasters". A lot of companies pay out the nose (pun intended) for people with those skills, to test anything from coffee through cosmetics.
... By Halliburton.
Technically that first part is true, rockets DO explode on launch. Except it's supposed to be a really controlled explosion, which, ironically, is what causes 90% of, ummm, explosions on launch.
I guarantee when he sees his cellmates for the first time, he'll make it an outbox (obligatory Black Vulcan "In his pants.").
Not quite. Recall when Windows 2000 was being developed, that at first it was basically a heavily flawed attempt at a new version of NT4. Due to those flaws, they scrapped it and built much of the OS from scratch, with NT5 being the end result (along with its subsequent update to Windows XP).
That's about a 2 year period of coding, while the preliminary work was pretty much done between 1995 and 1998.
If such a vehicle is launched at an angle towards the Earth, it would have a gravitational assist, that, with steering motors, could be used for an inverted slingshot effect, to launch a payload at escape velocity, expending (and needing) less fuel than would be nessesary for orbit. It would have the effect of using a hypersonic ramp for launch.
Are there any real rocket scientists out there who can correct/disprove my hypothesis?
That's what happened with The Star Wars Holiday Special. Are you sure you want that?
And I'll get the carbonite ready.
Don't forget Macross Zero, the OAV miniseries that sets up the whole Macross scenario, excellent CG animation, decent story and plot (which in turn kind of spells out how the human race is just a cargo cult for space aliens). Good character development as well (the early years of Roy Fokker and a few other related characters who came back in the TV series).
Tech geeks would soil their trousers watching the technical effects as well.
Just thought it was odd that they failed to mention Tron's "unofficial" sequel, which covered a lot of similar premises (almost every all of them). Since the series came out just barely 12 years after Tron, it's about as good as an homage as any.
LCD panels: Backlight runs off of a high voltage supply to power the cold cathode tube, relying on capacitance based power supplies, depending on the company making it, and how cheap the components are, can burst into flames.
Plasma: See above.
DLP: See above.
Television: Different tech, yes, but still see above.
The quality of your product is based on the quality of the products put into it. If they're sub par, don't be surprised if it doesn't melt into a pile of plastic and glass.
Ohhhhh, wait, you said calendar as in, erm, SCHEDULER. My error, the relevent news was slashdotted. Maybe they could have said scheduler or organizer to avoid confusion? I mean, there was that whole thing about 8 years back when Swatch tried establishing their own custom "time" standard.
Before we went to the Julian calendar, a lunar calendar more than sufficed. Just add a leap second for every 1200 years or so, to compensate for lunar drift.
Ironically, we wouldn't have had to deal with all of these end time religious types (who decided to ignore the difference between the two) today, since their end of the world prophecies would have been scheduled for at least a few hundred years from now, rather than based on the year 2000.
Missing Mars due to a glitch in converting imperial to metric is one thing, destroying the Earth to speed up various religious prophecies due to a glitch in calendar systems is another.
And ends with "Oops.".
Jeeze, they're going to need at least 20 Bruce Willises to mine that puppy. What a time for Bush to outlaw cloning.
Frankly, biodiesel and such fuels have been around for a while. These kids have simply figured out how to apply such tech to a car that basically would have worked with (or without) it regardless. The only thing that makes this concept so unique, is that so far no high school students have done the same.
And even though I couldn't afford to buy into continuing the game, I can say it's definitely worth playing. Great voice acting, good amount of interactive material, overall a good game from the sampler alone.
Heh, is it just me, or did anyone else flash back on The Mosquito Coast when they read this?
(Brilliant inventor gets fed up with the 1st world's lack of insight, moves to South America to build a gigantic refrigerator, to provide the natives with ice for someodd reason, 3rd world rebels decide to try stealing it and instead not only destroy the fridge, but the local riverway's wildlife in the process.)
Seriously, it's a great idea if it can be implemented on a wide scale, considering how western civilization is viewed as the great boogeyman in everything else in the third world.
In the case of Apple's switch from SCSI to IDE, I believe it was more of a case of economics. SCSI (in all flavors) uses a proprietary controller, if I recall correctly, and of course, most of the drives had a fraction of the capacity of their cheaper IDE cousins. Even today, you can find 147 gb SCSI HDs with asking prices of $187 or higher, compared to 200 gb IDE HDs for $100 or less.
When Apple got around to the iMac, they were dead set on approaching the consumer market (whereas previously they were targeting a specialty niche market), which nessesitated lower costs on components. Ironically, up til that day, there were hardly any USB devices on the market, even though PCs were shipping with USB ports about 2 years prior.
Lets see, it plays video games, PSP format videos, MP3 audio, and if you know the nessesary hoops to leap through, you can make your own videos, and download emulators to run everything from Atari 2600 games up through Gameboy Advance.
Most consumers who buy the PSP know of the games, movies and mp3 capabilities. Are they confused by it? Hardly.
So how does adding two extra features to the PS3 make things any different?
Is it just me, or does the little Star Trek "Corbomite Maneuver" head (used as Slashdot's Sci-Fi icon)look a little more surprised than usual?
Being awed by a PC, either AT&T or Texas Instruments, it was a long time back, around 1982. Anyway, it had a cool realtime animated face with a fully digitized voice introducing the system. It had a color display with (for me) was new, since at the time the best I could find was monochrome systems.
It was in computer stores about the same time as the Apple Lisa, before we had exclusive Apple VS. PC departments.
And of course, there were videogames that had those features as early as 1978.