Salon has a piece analyzing Bush's approval rating. Dubya's approval rating has only increased in three months, Sept 2001, the month the war started, and the month they captured Saddam (who hasn't been seen much). The other 30+ months, his approval rating has decresed between.6 and 1.6 points, bringing it down to the current 45%. The only obvious event that would jack his rating back up is capturing Osama. They have seven months to do it.
"the faster you spin the trackball, the further the ball goes"
Not true. When Golden Tee Fore came out in 2001, they changed how trackball speed translated into club speed. Before that, people would beat the hell out of the machines and break them. The in-game announcers still say "He's breaking out the Rusty" in reference to an old tournament player that could outdrive everyone else with the unrestricted trackball (over 400 yards regularly). 400 yard drives are still doable, but you need the perfect hole with 13+ mph wind behind you. An average "slam" drive is now 340-360 yards. The guys that hit it the hardest (mostly using technique, not power) get 5-10 yards farther than average. That can make the difference between the green and the water, but not enough to drive a par 5 or anything.
Yes, you can backspin any club, and even hit a 3 wood out of the sand. But backspin greatly decreases in strength as you go to longer clubs and the rougher the lie. It's based on real golf, but changed to be more fun and competetive.
I am involved in the Golden Tee community. One of my best friends runs GoldenTeePlayers.com and I've known about this scandal since it happened a few months ago. The way these guys got caught is because on the national tournament results it shows your name, score, and longest drive distance, which is the third tie breaker. All seven of the top scores had an identical long drive distance. We figured they had opened their home machines, unplugged the trackball, and plugged in some kind of signal generator to create perfectly repeatable, exact shots. Apparently other people assumed that because it's mentioned in the story write up. The real story is much dumber. The trackball has two rollers, one for X and Y movement. If you unplug the Y roller, you hit a pefectly straight shot. That's all they were doing. It's obviously still against the rules and they were all banned for life. But it's not like they were Lex Luthor. There were two rule changes as a result. The 50 to 75 people who owned machines in their home have been forced to place them in bars. Also, the tournament conditions now change every 4 hours instead of every day. Yes, those seven guys won several thousand bucks by cheating, but there were still 3000 other prizes awarded each month. It sucked, but we're still playing.
As the other reply notes, "third world" is a relic from the cold war. The current term is "developing nation", which describes the situation pretty well.
Don't judge India's economy based on metrics used by Western countries. When you divide thier GDP by a billion to get per capita GDP, it's not going to look good. Rural India has very little involvement in the modern economy. But all of those sustenance farmers are counted in median income statistics.
India and China are both becoming major players in the world economy. We can either bitch about it or we can actually live by the free trade and capitalist ideas we say the US is based on.
I've read a few articles about the Grand Challenge and they all seem to focus on CMU, the favorite. From what I understood, pretty much all of that $2M-$3.5M cost figure came in the form of free stuff from Intel, Boeing, and many others. It's not like the grad students are writing $150,000 personal checks to buy parts.
The students probably can't pocket any prize cash anyway because of ethics rules. If they win, the students will get a rocking party and even more top notch equipment in their labs.
It's not a race to prove you're better than the other teams and get prize money. It's a race to advance the state of a specific technology. Do you think people are going to get rich winning the X-prize?
I saw articles about the race in several magazines. It seems like everyone is bashing CMU and thier big expensive Hummer. It's not very elegent, but nobody says it has to be. The challenge is 250 miles over desert terrain in 10 hours. That's nasty no matter how many loopholes you find.
All I want is a highway autopilot in my car. Maybe it will take 8 or 10 years to get there, but I want a damn autopilot.
Either find a source for Bill Gate's "640K is more memory than anyone will ever need" or concede that it's a geek urban legend and let it go. Considering that nobody has sited a source in the 20 years since he supposedly said it, I doubt one will be found.
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,1484,00.h tm l
That got canceled because the show cost a fortune and the director was leaving to make movies. They made a dozen relationship-based reality shows the price of one Fastlane episode. I do miss Tiffany Amber. Mmmmm....Kelly Kepowski....
I wouldn't say that DS9 was a lot darker than TNG. What I liked about DS9 was the fact that there was always conflict. Between the Cardassians and the Delta Quadrant folks, someone was always blowing up someone. That's probably what you were getting at with "gritty". In TNG, most of the episodes where humanitarian or exploration missions. That would fit with the flagship of the Federation. But DS9 was an outpost in an area of conflict. With a little better writing and acting, I think DS9 could have been great.
Seeing the article made me want to buy the DVD set. I liked the concept of the show a lot, but didn't catch many of them. In Star Trek, everyone has neatly groomed hair and they're always nice to each other. Firefly seemed to be about normal, flawed people who happen to fly around in space.
Anyway, I go to BestBuy.com to see how much it costs. Only 40 bucks is a good deal. Here's the messed up part. On the web site, and presumably on the store shelves, the Firefly DVD set is listed under "Horror". Their subgroups under horror are "Comedies, Occult, Vampires, Zombies, and General Horror". At least it's not under Zombies.
IIRC, BraveStarr involved space-age stuff but was set in a western, Earth-based setting. Didn't the action figures have some cool electronic abilities? Was that the cartoon with "Eyes of the hawk, ears of the wolf, stregth of the bear...speed of the puma"?
Soon after John Ashcroft took office, he had both Lady Justice and her male counterpart (who wears a loin cloth) in the Justice Department lobby covered in blue curtains. Both have been on display for 80 years. He was apparently terrified that his picture would be on the front page with an aluminium tit over his shoulder. The symbolism of shrouding Lady Justice is obviously lost on him.
Why is it that the lameness filter objects to my short, witty retorts, but lets this garbage right through? You might want to look at that code again. If there are 100 consecutive characters with no slashes to indicate a file name or URL, it's probably junk.
That would be a very difficult lawsuit. I think you have to prove malicious intent by SCO. The people that sent SCO money deserve to lose it. If SCO never produces a shred of evidence they will probably have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees that IBM racked up to defend a baseless lawsuit. I would love to see what their stock price does that week.
Rearranging the Soup of the Day sign at diners never gets old. There was a big bookstore across the street from my high school. They only built the sign 10 or 12 feet off the ground. I used to stand on top of my car and change the sign all the time. Having 2000 of your peers greeted in the morning with a sign that reads "Eat More Cock" was great.
Hint for young pranksters: Steal a page from the movie Sneakers. Recreate the target sign using Scrabble tiles. Rearrange the letters in private. Standing in front of a sign trying to think of a clever phrase will get you busted.
What about the other power companies that see a potential 10 billion dollar market in broadband? They might spare some lawyers. Especially juicy is the idea that they may be the only high speed option for rural houses. Unless Johnny Cochran has a 40 ft antenna in his yard, I think the HAM people will lose this one.
If I was an astronaut, I would smuggle on a philly steak, float next to one end of the module, and see if I could cut a huge fart and shoot across the room. Actually, it must get pretty boring on a space flight. I'll bet those guys do it all the time. There are certainly fart propelled speed records for several spacecraft. Definately for MIR.
I used to sell software at OfficeDepot back in 94-95, right before Microsoft and others left the standard number versioning system. I would ask people what version of software they were running and maybe 30% knew. Also, versioning only works with single product development. When modern software comes in several varieties aimed at different users, markety cute names like XP and Light are useful for regular consumers.
Slashdot Mirror
1) VC pressure. They invested in a gold mine. They want thier dumptruck full of cash now.
2) They want to buy something BIG. Lots of rumors but nothing solid.
-B
Salon has a piece analyzing Bush's approval rating. Dubya's approval rating has only increased in three months, Sept 2001, the month the war started, and the month they captured Saddam (who hasn't been seen much). The other 30+ months, his approval rating has decresed between .6 and 1.6 points, bringing it down to the current 45%. The only obvious event that would jack his rating back up is capturing Osama. They have seven months to do it.
-B
Not true. When Golden Tee Fore came out in 2001, they changed how trackball speed translated into club speed. Before that, people would beat the hell out of the machines and break them. The in-game announcers still say "He's breaking out the Rusty" in reference to an old tournament player that could outdrive everyone else with the unrestricted trackball (over 400 yards regularly). 400 yard drives are still doable, but you need the perfect hole with 13+ mph wind behind you. An average "slam" drive is now 340-360 yards. The guys that hit it the hardest (mostly using technique, not power) get 5-10 yards farther than average. That can make the difference between the green and the water, but not enough to drive a par 5 or anything.
Yes, you can backspin any club, and even hit a 3 wood out of the sand. But backspin greatly decreases in strength as you go to longer clubs and the rougher the lie. It's based on real golf, but changed to be more fun and competetive.
Check out GolenTeePlayers.com for several good FAQs.
-B
-Barry
As the other reply notes, "third world" is a relic from the cold war. The current term is "developing nation", which describes the situation pretty well.
Don't judge India's economy based on metrics used by Western countries. When you divide thier GDP by a billion to get per capita GDP, it's not going to look good. Rural India has very little involvement in the modern economy. But all of those sustenance farmers are counted in median income statistics.
India and China are both becoming major players in the world economy. We can either bitch about it or we can actually live by the free trade and capitalist ideas we say the US is based on.
-B
-B
In night-vision, Paris Hilton looks like a slutty racoon. That girl needs to eat some cheeseburgers, too.
-B
I've read a few articles about the Grand Challenge and they all seem to focus on CMU, the favorite. From what I understood, pretty much all of that $2M-$3.5M cost figure came in the form of free stuff from Intel, Boeing, and many others. It's not like the grad students are writing $150,000 personal checks to buy parts.
The students probably can't pocket any prize cash anyway because of ethics rules. If they win, the students will get a rocking party and even more top notch equipment in their labs.
It's not a race to prove you're better than the other teams and get prize money. It's a race to advance the state of a specific technology. Do you think people are going to get rich winning the X-prize?
-B
I saw articles about the race in several magazines. It seems like everyone is bashing CMU and thier big expensive Hummer. It's not very elegent, but nobody says it has to be. The challenge is 250 miles over desert terrain in 10 hours. That's nasty no matter how many loopholes you find.
All I want is a highway autopilot in my car. Maybe it will take 8 or 10 years to get there, but I want a damn autopilot.
-B
And what have we learned today, children?
Do not attempt to scam people who have the power to throw you in jail. The elderly are a much better target.
Thank you and goodnight.
-B
Dear Slashdotters,
h tm l
Either find a source for Bill Gate's "640K is more memory than anyone will ever need" or concede that it's a geek urban legend and let it go. Considering that nobody has sited a source in the 20 years since he supposedly said it, I doubt one will be found.
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,1484,00.
-B
That got canceled because the show cost a fortune and the director was leaving to make movies. They made a dozen relationship-based reality shows the price of one Fastlane episode. I do miss Tiffany Amber. Mmmmm....Kelly Kepowski....
-B
I wouldn't say that DS9 was a lot darker than TNG. What I liked about DS9 was the fact that there was always conflict. Between the Cardassians and the Delta Quadrant folks, someone was always blowing up someone. That's probably what you were getting at with "gritty". In TNG, most of the episodes where humanitarian or exploration missions. That would fit with the flagship of the Federation. But DS9 was an outpost in an area of conflict. With a little better writing and acting, I think DS9 could have been great.
-B
Seeing the article made me want to buy the DVD set. I liked the concept of the show a lot, but didn't catch many of them. In Star Trek, everyone has neatly groomed hair and they're always nice to each other. Firefly seemed to be about normal, flawed people who happen to fly around in space.
Anyway, I go to BestBuy.com to see how much it costs. Only 40 bucks is a good deal. Here's the messed up part. On the web site, and presumably on the store shelves, the Firefly DVD set is listed under "Horror". Their subgroups under horror are "Comedies, Occult, Vampires, Zombies, and General Horror". At least it's not under Zombies.
-B
IIRC, BraveStarr involved space-age stuff but was set in a western, Earth-based setting. Didn't the action figures have some cool electronic abilities? Was that the cartoon with "Eyes of the hawk, ears of the wolf, stregth of the bear...speed of the puma"?
-B
Interesting offtopic anecdote:
Soon after John Ashcroft took office, he had both Lady Justice and her male counterpart (who wears a loin cloth) in the Justice Department lobby covered in blue curtains. Both have been on display for 80 years. He was apparently terrified that his picture would be on the front page with an aluminium tit over his shoulder. The symbolism of shrouding Lady Justice is obviously lost on him.
-B
Hey Slashmonkeys,
Why is it that the lameness filter objects to my short, witty retorts, but lets this garbage right through? You might want to look at that code again. If there are 100 consecutive characters with no slashes to indicate a file name or URL, it's probably junk.
-B
Wow. Almost four times normal volume too. Maybe people are catching on. They're still a $160M company.
Both are correct. Every geek I've heard say it uses the word "skow". Business people probably say "S.C.O."
-B
That would be a very difficult lawsuit. I think you have to prove malicious intent by SCO. The people that sent SCO money deserve to lose it. If SCO never produces a shred of evidence they will probably have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees that IBM racked up to defend a baseless lawsuit. I would love to see what their stock price does that week.
-B
Of the top group of pictures, the girl in the lower left is the best of the used up bunch. I would like to make her GUI.
-B
Rearranging the Soup of the Day sign at diners never gets old. There was a big bookstore across the street from my high school. They only built the sign 10 or 12 feet off the ground. I used to stand on top of my car and change the sign all the time. Having 2000 of your peers greeted in the morning with a sign that reads "Eat More Cock" was great.
Hint for young pranksters: Steal a page from the movie Sneakers. Recreate the target sign using Scrabble tiles. Rearrange the letters in private. Standing in front of a sign trying to think of a clever phrase will get you busted.
-B
What about the other power companies that see a potential 10 billion dollar market in broadband? They might spare some lawyers. Especially juicy is the idea that they may be the only high speed option for rural houses. Unless Johnny
Cochran has a 40 ft antenna in his yard, I think the HAM people will lose this one.
-B
Hmmm...A long legal battle between amateur radio operators and a power company. Can I bet on it?
-B
If I was an astronaut, I would smuggle on a philly steak, float next to one end of the module, and see if I could cut a huge fart and shoot across the room. Actually, it must get pretty boring on a space flight. I'll bet those guys do it all the time. There are certainly fart propelled speed records for several spacecraft. Definately for MIR.
-B
I used to sell software at OfficeDepot back in 94-95, right before Microsoft and others left the standard number versioning system. I would ask people what version of software they were running and maybe 30% knew. Also, versioning only works with single product development. When modern software comes in several varieties aimed at different users, markety cute names like XP and Light are useful for regular consumers.
-B