Hmmm, dual screen or not, I'd love to have a basic graphic rogue or nethack on the gameboy.
My Take (GTD as a methodology)
on
Getting Things Done?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
After reading this thread the other day, I went out at lunch and bought the book. I read it skeptically, but really liked many of the ideas, so I decided to give it a try. Went out the next day and bought office supplies.
I'm finished with my office at work and I'm going to tackle my house probably over the weekend. Cleaned and sorted 1000+ e-mails, dumped my filing cabinet and started over, did a lot of brainstorming and planning. If I don't do anything else, I've actually accomplished quite a bit.
While I understand the criticisms of (a) management fads, (b) self-help seminar sales, and (c) silver-bullet, one size fits all plans, what I don't understand is why people fail to look at this the same way they look at, e.g., software development methodologies.
Sure, (a), (b), and (c) above all apply to software methodologies (waterfall, extreme programming, etc.), but you don't hear as many people saying you don't need to read or follow any of these, it's just common sense. Or, just do it.
I'm looking at GTD as the equivalent to a software engineering methodology for processing all of the tasks and information that I have to deal with. I don't expect it to be perfect. I don't expect to have the discipline to follow it religiously. I do hope to keep it up for a while and follow the principles.
The thing that impresses me the most is that it attempts to be streamlined. The reason I need some help is the fact that I am undisciplined, so following a few habits that are designed to be quick and easy and don't require double-entry bookkeeping or writing down every single thing that I do seems to be a good idea. So far, so good -- I hope I keep it up.
I walked in when this puzzle flashed on the screen and I said, "Senator Barry Goldwater" and it was. No letters at all.
Back in high school I was captain of my school's Scholar's Bowl team. In our championship game, we were really nervous and had too much caffeine before the match. The moderator started the game:
"Toss up number one: Sher..."
My finger slipped and I pressed my button. We had to answer or the other team could hear the entire question. So I said, "Robin Hood" and got it right. We won the match -- I think the other team got a bit demoralized.
Didn't know that (I borrowed the download from a friend).
I don't suppose it had all of the extras, a nice printed disk, and a nice printed DVD case to go on my bookshelf of DVDs, did it?
In the big scheme of things, DVDs are really cheap. Most movies, if you get them on the first week or so of release (or wait a while for lesser titles) are under $20 (US), a little less if you buy used (which I rarely do, I can scratch up disks on my own). If you go to the movies with two people and buy food, you are looking at a minimum of $30. If I take the family (2 kids), it's more like $50.
I did all three of those things for LOTR:TTT and LOTR:ROTK (watched it multiple times at the theater, bought the DVD, and bought/waiting for the extended edition DVD).
I *also* watched a download to tide me over until the DVD releases. The download was crappy and was no substitute for the theatrical print or the real DVDs.
If the MPAA wants to keep my butt in a theater seat, they need to employ the guys with night vision scopes and listening devices to kick out the obnoxious patrons who talk, kick seats, throw things, and talk on their cell phones during a movie that I paid $50 (family + concession stand) to see.
I used to work at a theater and we had a manager with a real knack for remembering faces. If he ever kicked you out of a movie (and he did so frequently), he would go get you out of line a month later and tell you that you still weren't welcome in his theater. Yes, he was a jerk, but he wouldn't let some punk ruin a movie for everyone.
I really like going to a theater and I love seeing movies with crowds that appreciate a film (cheering and laughing), but with the prices, I should just stay home and buy the DVD -- it's cheaper, my HDTV and surround sound are great, I don't have any guilt over stealing, etc.
Minor Spiderman 2 spoilers ahead:
I went to see Spidey 2 again last night with my wife since she was out of town when I saw it the first time. The guy behind me spent the whole movie doing the Commentary for the Mentally Disabled. Some scenes and quotes:
Peter's vision goes bad. "He can't see without his glasses. He must be losing his powers."
Peter's vision gets better. "He can't see with them glasses on no more."
The wedding. "She stood him up. He ain't happy 'bout that!"
I would prefer a semi-universal tipping system based on micropayments. I hate subscriptions and have only subscribed to maybe one or two sites and I would hate to think that everytime I visit or refresh a page, I'm being charged for it.
But, if I read a good article or blog post, or find a really useful website, or even a funny or creative one, I would definitely use a service that allowed me to tip.
There are problems with this, of course. The big one being that unless everyone agreed to use the same tipping system, then there would be chaos and users and content providers would have to subscribe (aargh) to several different tipping services.
If the systems were compatible, I could provide content on my page, hopefully accumulate tips, then use the tip money in that account to tip other sites, only recieving the actual cash upon request or when the amount reached a certain level. Then it become something like whuffie (sp?) from "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom".
Unlike the damned videogame magazines that have enclosed CD's with "HALF-LIFE 2!!!!!" on them in 2" letters, then, in small print, "new gameplay videos".
Would this in any way be considered fraud on your part? I like the idea (a lot), but I'd hate to get countersued (or stuck with the cost of penis enlargement pills:-)
I threatened to contest a charge to a local merchant once (he sold me defective merchandise, looked up *on his computer* my purchase info, then refused to exchange or refund because I didn't have my receipt). Just the threat was enough because it doesn't take many complaints before you lose the ability to accept credit cards at all -- dooming most businesses and almost all online ones.
As long as you used disposable credit card numbers, such as the ones Discover and others provided, so you can't be stuck with charges due to card theft, I'd think about giving it a try...
The best 2600 (and, subsequently, C-64) joystick was the Wico Command Control. I've still got one that I don't want to get rid of even though I don't have anything to use it with.
Just a followup on my own post -- don't know if anyone cares or not...
I decided to not run the cat5 and instead upgraded to 802.11g and rearranged my setup. Video streaming is working great so far, even when someone is watching TV or browsing on the server computer. The MediaMVP UI still sucks, but it does what it needs to do and the picture quality on my 42" rear projection HDTV is acceptible (not archive quality, but definitely watchable quality). Any problems with quality are purely due to the source recordings and not to the MediaMVP box as the same files burned to DVD look exactly the same.
I also set-up the Internet radio functions with a random selection of stations found on Shoutcast and was quite impressed with the audio quality, but then I'm no audiofile and am easy to please. They certainly sound better through my surround sound system than they do on my PC speakers. It can't handle RealAudio streams and the station must have a single URL that directly accesses the stream (which can be hard to find for some stations, the Shoutcast ones you can just right-click on play or listen and add the station to the MMVP favorites share).
A few more gripes about the MediaMVP UI. There are no useful status indicators (connecting, buffering, etc.), so when you select a radio station, you just have to wait 5-30 seconds to see if it connects. If it doesn't, you never know, you just have to try another one. Secondly, the beta SW I'm running has hung up twice and got in a weird state once (could navigate, but couldn't play anything). Power on/off "fixed" it both times. The colors and contrast are a bit harsh, too, so I worry a bit about burn-in. It does have a screensaver, but I'm paranoid. When listening to MP3 or Internet radio, I just start it playing, then turn off the TV...
I just bought the Hauppage MediaMVP yesterday and tested it on my 802.11b network. It works fine that way for music and pictures, but, of course, that isn't quite enough bandwidth for video, so my MPEG-2 video recorded by my TV card stutters.
I *might* be able to get it to work decently if I upgrade to 802.11g (which I'm planning to do anyway, soon), but instead I'm going to run cat5 from my computer room to living room which I thought I would never have to do since I went wireless.
I used the out-of-the-box software for the MediaMVP just long enough to get really annoyed by it (about 10 minutes), then went to their website and downloaded the latest beta. Tons of improvement, but it still has quite a ways to go. As the parent poster said, navigating mp3's is a real pain -- if you are 75% down a long list of directories, open a subdirectory, then hit back, you are at the top of the long list again. One thing they added in the beta was using the numeric buttons as percentages of the list, so the '8' key moves you 80% of the way down the list. Better, but a "remember where you were" would be so much nicer.
I suppose that what I really need to do is spend some time on my PC organizing directories and playlists so they can be easily navigated remotely.
I haven't tried the Internet radio feature in the beta, but I'm dragging cable this weekend so I can give the video streaming a good test.
For the record, I am using an ATI TV Wonder card on my PC hooked up to basic cable and the Beyond TV 3 PVR software for recording and I'm very happy with that setup.
Coincidentally, I just set this (Beyond TV 3) up last night. I haven't opened the port to access it outside my home, but I can watch TV anywhere in the house on my laptop via the wireless LAN.
The software is fairly user-friendly (as in "non-technical user"), but you have to dig around a lot to get to the technical settings (directories, ports, video and audio quality settings, etc.).
It has decent PVR functions (which is actually why I bought it). It doesn't do TiVo like prediction, but you can easily set it to record any program in the next two weeks, search TV listings, record all new episodes of shows, record all episodes of shows, pause and rewind live TV, and a lot of other neat functions.
I intend on using it with a 802.11 receiver hooked to my downstairs TV so I can watch the PVR'ed shows without sitting in my computer room, but I haven't bought that part yet. Any suggestions on good ones?
Our biggest problems with our apps and web pages is that we can get by with laying out the pages so that nothing is crowded at 1024x768 (they do dynamically and gracefully resize, but our useability target is for 1024x768 to have adequate workspace and not much scrolling), but we keep running into situations where we have to train or demo our products with older projectors that don't do more than 800x600.
Evidently, as long as the bulb doesn't burn out, most places don't upgrade their projectors.
If there is cell phone coverage, there are several companies that sell GPS devices that used a celluar modem to periodically transmit location data, usually to a central server (read: subscription fee) where you can either access dynamic maps with vehicle location or download streams of location info (using webservices or XML).
In the U.S., I know of at least one company (Cloudberry) that uses a dual celluar/satellite technology (use celluar if there is a connection, if not, use a satellite uplink).
These services are priced by the number of updates you want -- if you just want every 10 minutes X hours per day it's a lot cheaper than every 10 seconds 24 hours a day.
Again, given celluar coverage, you might be able to homebrew a system using a GPSr that outputs NMEA combined with a celluar modem and a bit of hardware/software hacking for autodialling. You would still be stuck with celluar charges, but the calls can be short and only as frequent as you like. I suppose you could also set it up to call the bus/car whatever and "ask" it where it is via software.
All of these suggestions could be implemented using radio carriers if the criteria of the parent poster are met (repeaters, etc.).
We looked into these technologies for some of our clients and the dual celluar/satellite system seemed to work best with a small initial investment and a reasonable subscription fee. The radio solutions are cheaper in the long run with no subscription fees, but require a higher intitial investment for the radio infrastructure -- really best suited for urban environments with a relatively small geographical area.
There are many open source GIS packages for mapping the results.
If we were to send extrasolar probes out in the near future on really long missions to other stars, would we make them roundtrip or would they go to, say, Alpha Centauri, take a bunch of readings, then try to send a big radio burst back with the info? Is this feasible?
Again, saying we did send out probes, would we be more interested in what they find, the fact that we could do it, or in trying to contact ET's?
What I'm getting at is: suppose there are non-landing probes send by ET's to our solar system. If they don't land, we've only had the technology for ~100 years (conservatively) to detect them. If they are/were observational, is it reasonable to assume they would come into the solar system using a lot of their power to broadcast "I am here!" messages, or would they cruise around quietly, perhaps returning or sending back info on a tight-beam? Assuming one landed on Earth sometime in the last 1,000,000 years, there is a good chance that it was buried, destroyed, biodegraded, or just hasn't been found yet. Our planetary probes, while low-tech, are only designed for function for a year or so (usually less). We can imagine that some super high tech might make a probe that lasts thousands or millions of years, but accidents happen.
The solar system may be crawling with probes right now for all we know. There may be ones on the moon or on mars. They may have cruised by during an ice age or pre-human industrial society and seen nothing interesting (some plants and animals, but for all we know, that might be boring to them).
What is life is so common that if the probes didn't find a space-faring civilization, they just said, "Oh, another planet teeming with non-intelligent life, we'll check back in a few million years..."?
Hmm, I just saw a painting at a public exhibition in Washington, D.C. (in Union Station) that qualified. It was an ultra-realistic self portrait that definitely fit into the category of creepy because it was so realistic. From across the room, it looked photographic, but when you got close, you could see the brush technique.
It was a picture of a shirtless Asian man holding a glass bottle if you happen to go through there...
I think Scott Adams said that the holodeck would be the last human invention -- after that everyone would dissapear into them and never come out again.
I see that Forry is an advisor, but I didn't find anything in a quick RTFM that says how much of his collection made it into the museum. Does anyone know?
I know that he had to sell off some due to health and legal costs and it destroyed my dream of visiting the Ackermansion, which I'd wanted to do since reading Famous Monsters starting about 30 years ago.
We used to play poker regularly in college, but I haven't played in years. We usually played with $10-$20 starting money (usually raiding our change jars). We had a lot of fun unless my dad came down to visit, then he took all of our money.
Oh yeah, since I'm jumping all over the place, playing online is OK, but I'm not going to use real money for it and 2/3 of the game is gone if you don't have a money stake in it. Why not go for that inside straight after a $25 dollar raise if it's just imaginary money?
Here is another great use of this kind of database. We used the pagesjaunes.fr site when we were going to Paris. We were using Go-Today travel, which listed a dozen or so hotels in an increasing price scale. They had links to details about the hotels, but, not knowing the city, you couldn't tell much about where they were.
So, we looked up the hotels by address and "strolled" down the streets on either side. Two were in a really undesirable looking neighborhoods. The one we picked was on a nice side street with cafes and stores on either side. Very useful.
One of the hotels must have been recently renovated. The pictures online were dated and were only a year or so old at the time, but the address of the hotel was an abandoned building:-)
Hmm, I'm definitely in the "old fart" category (I'm 37), but I really enjoy playing DDR, but I mostly do it at home because I feel really stupid playing it at the arcade (even though the arcade is more fun and I get better scores than on my modded home pad).
I'm not stuck in the 80's or anything, but the thing I *don't* like about DDR is the music. There are a few songs I genuinely like, but the rest just grate on my nerves. I really need to look into Stepmania so I can add some decent music.
As for the weight loss, a 30 minute workout with DDR is definitely as aerobic as 30 minutes on a treadmill or elliptical machine and is a whole lot more fun. I've lost 50+ pounds over the last year, but I can't attribute that to DDR -- I've been dieting, hiking, biking, working out at the gym, and playing DDR and I can say that DDR is a nice alternative workout.
Oops on the oil company link -- I was in a hurry:-)
My point, if I actually had one back there, is that any issue worth discussion (that is, it is not just "cut and dried") will bring out extremist wackos from one side or the other who will distort facts and statistics and ignore information that doesn't fit their case. It is just basic human nature. Sometimes they get so far extreme that they wrap around, such as anti-abortionists commiting murder or left wingers so rabid about free speech that they want to censor opposing viewpoints.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmmm, dual screen or not, I'd love to have a basic graphic rogue or nethack on the gameboy.
After reading this thread the other day, I went out at lunch and bought the book. I read it skeptically, but really liked many of the ideas, so I decided to give it a try. Went out the next day and bought office supplies.
I'm finished with my office at work and I'm going to tackle my house probably over the weekend. Cleaned and sorted 1000+ e-mails, dumped my filing cabinet and started over, did a lot of brainstorming and planning. If I don't do anything else, I've actually accomplished quite a bit.
While I understand the criticisms of (a) management fads, (b) self-help seminar sales, and (c) silver-bullet, one size fits all plans, what I don't understand is why people fail to look at this the same way they look at, e.g., software development methodologies.
Sure, (a), (b), and (c) above all apply to software methodologies (waterfall, extreme programming, etc.), but you don't hear as many people saying you don't need to read or follow any of these, it's just common sense. Or, just do it.
I'm looking at GTD as the equivalent to a software engineering methodology for processing all of the tasks and information that I have to deal with. I don't expect it to be perfect. I don't expect to have the discipline to follow it religiously. I do hope to keep it up for a while and follow the principles.
The thing that impresses me the most is that it attempts to be streamlined. The reason I need some help is the fact that I am undisciplined, so following a few habits that are designed to be quick and easy and don't require double-entry bookkeeping or writing down every single thing that I do seems to be a good idea. So far, so good -- I hope I keep it up.
My best Wheel of Fortune guess was:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
(person)
I walked in when this puzzle flashed on the screen and I said, "Senator Barry Goldwater" and it was. No letters at all.
Back in high school I was captain of my school's Scholar's Bowl team. In our championship game, we were really nervous and had too much caffeine before the match. The moderator started the game:
"Toss up number one: Sher..."
My finger slipped and I pressed my button. We had to answer or the other team could hear the entire question. So I said, "Robin Hood" and got it right. We won the match -- I think the other team got a bit demoralized.
Didn't know that (I borrowed the download from a friend).
I don't suppose it had all of the extras, a nice printed disk, and a nice printed DVD case to go on my bookshelf of DVDs, did it?
In the big scheme of things, DVDs are really cheap. Most movies, if you get them on the first week or so of release (or wait a while for lesser titles) are under $20 (US), a little less if you buy used (which I rarely do, I can scratch up disks on my own). If you go to the movies with two people and buy food, you are looking at a minimum of $30. If I take the family (2 kids), it's more like $50.
As mentioned on Slashdot, there is a new version of Code Complete out now and I would second (or nth) the recommendation.
My list would also include:
The Design of Everyday Things
Goedel, Escher, Bach
The Soul of a New Machine
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
oddball SF choices:
Permutation City by Greg Egan
Neuromancer
I did all three of those things for LOTR:TTT and LOTR:ROTK (watched it multiple times at the theater, bought the DVD, and bought/waiting for the extended edition DVD).
I *also* watched a download to tide me over until the DVD releases. The download was crappy and was no substitute for the theatrical print or the real DVDs.
If the MPAA wants to keep my butt in a theater seat, they need to employ the guys with night vision scopes and listening devices to kick out the obnoxious patrons who talk, kick seats, throw things, and talk on their cell phones during a movie that I paid $50 (family + concession stand) to see.
I used to work at a theater and we had a manager with a real knack for remembering faces. If he ever kicked you out of a movie (and he did so frequently), he would go get you out of line a month later and tell you that you still weren't welcome in his theater. Yes, he was a jerk, but he wouldn't let some punk ruin a movie for everyone.
I really like going to a theater and I love seeing movies with crowds that appreciate a film (cheering and laughing), but with the prices, I should just stay home and buy the DVD -- it's cheaper, my HDTV and surround sound are great, I don't have any guilt over stealing, etc.
Minor Spiderman 2 spoilers ahead:
I went to see Spidey 2 again last night with my wife since she was out of town when I saw it the first time. The guy behind me spent the whole movie doing the Commentary for the Mentally Disabled. Some scenes and quotes:
Peter's vision goes bad.
"He can't see without his glasses. He must be losing his powers."
Peter's vision gets better.
"He can't see with them glasses on no more."
The wedding.
"She stood him up. He ain't happy 'bout that!"
and so on...
I would prefer a semi-universal tipping system based on micropayments. I hate subscriptions and have only subscribed to maybe one or two sites and I would hate to think that everytime I visit or refresh a page, I'm being charged for it.
But, if I read a good article or blog post, or find a really useful website, or even a funny or creative one, I would definitely use a service that allowed me to tip.
There are problems with this, of course. The big one being that unless everyone agreed to use the same tipping system, then there would be chaos and users and content providers would have to subscribe (aargh) to several different tipping services.
If the systems were compatible, I could provide content on my page, hopefully accumulate tips, then use the tip money in that account to tip other sites, only recieving the actual cash upon request or when the amount reached a certain level. Then it become something like whuffie (sp?) from "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom".
Unlike the damned videogame magazines that have enclosed CD's with "HALF-LIFE 2!!!!!" on them in 2" letters, then, in small print, "new gameplay videos".
Would this in any way be considered fraud on your part? I like the idea (a lot), but I'd hate to get countersued (or stuck with the cost of penis enlargement pills :-)
I threatened to contest a charge to a local merchant once (he sold me defective merchandise, looked up *on his computer* my purchase info, then refused to exchange or refund because I didn't have my receipt). Just the threat was enough because it doesn't take many complaints before you lose the ability to accept credit cards at all -- dooming most businesses and almost all online ones.
As long as you used disposable credit card numbers, such as the ones Discover and others provided, so you can't be stuck with charges due to card theft, I'd think about giving it a try...
The best 2600 (and, subsequently, C-64) joystick was the Wico Command Control. I've still got one that I don't want to get rid of even though I don't have anything to use it with.
Maybe I'll use it for a Mame controller...
Just a followup on my own post -- don't know if anyone cares or not...
I decided to not run the cat5 and instead upgraded to 802.11g and rearranged my setup. Video streaming is working great so far, even when someone is watching TV or browsing on the server computer. The MediaMVP UI still sucks, but it does what it needs to do and the picture quality on my 42" rear projection HDTV is acceptible (not archive quality, but definitely watchable quality). Any problems with quality are purely due to the source recordings and not to the MediaMVP box as the same files burned to DVD look exactly the same.
I also set-up the Internet radio functions with a random selection of stations found on Shoutcast and was quite impressed with the audio quality, but then I'm no audiofile and am easy to please. They certainly sound better through my surround sound system than they do on my PC speakers. It can't handle RealAudio streams and the station must have a single URL that directly accesses the stream (which can be hard to find for some stations, the Shoutcast ones you can just right-click on play or listen and add the station to the MMVP favorites share).
A few more gripes about the MediaMVP UI. There are no useful status indicators (connecting, buffering, etc.), so when you select a radio station, you just have to wait 5-30 seconds to see if it connects. If it doesn't, you never know, you just have to try another one. Secondly, the beta SW I'm running has hung up twice and got in a weird state once (could navigate, but couldn't play anything). Power on/off "fixed" it both times. The colors and contrast are a bit harsh, too, so I worry a bit about burn-in. It does have a screensaver, but I'm paranoid. When listening to MP3 or Internet radio, I just start it playing, then turn off the TV...
I just bought the Hauppage MediaMVP yesterday and tested it on my 802.11b network. It works fine that way for music and pictures, but, of course, that isn't quite enough bandwidth for video, so my MPEG-2 video recorded by my TV card stutters.
I *might* be able to get it to work decently if I upgrade to 802.11g (which I'm planning to do anyway, soon), but instead I'm going to run cat5 from my computer room to living room which I thought I would never have to do since I went wireless.
I used the out-of-the-box software for the MediaMVP just long enough to get really annoyed by it (about 10 minutes), then went to their website and downloaded the latest beta. Tons of improvement, but it still has quite a ways to go. As the parent poster said, navigating mp3's is a real pain -- if you are 75% down a long list of directories, open a subdirectory, then hit back, you are at the top of the long list again. One thing they added in the beta was using the numeric buttons as percentages of the list, so the '8' key moves you 80% of the way down the list. Better, but a "remember where you were" would be so much nicer.
I suppose that what I really need to do is spend some time on my PC organizing directories and playlists so they can be easily navigated remotely.
I haven't tried the Internet radio feature in the beta, but I'm dragging cable this weekend so I can give the video streaming a good test.
For the record, I am using an ATI TV Wonder card on my PC hooked up to basic cable and the Beyond TV 3 PVR software for recording and I'm very happy with that setup.
Coincidentally, I just set this (Beyond TV 3) up last night. I haven't opened the port to access it outside my home, but I can watch TV anywhere in the house on my laptop via the wireless LAN.
The software is fairly user-friendly (as in "non-technical user"), but you have to dig around a lot to get to the technical settings (directories, ports, video and audio quality settings, etc.).
It has decent PVR functions (which is actually why I bought it). It doesn't do TiVo like prediction, but you can easily set it to record any program in the next two weeks, search TV listings, record all new episodes of shows, record all episodes of shows, pause and rewind live TV, and a lot of other neat functions.
I intend on using it with a 802.11 receiver hooked to my downstairs TV so I can watch the PVR'ed shows without sitting in my computer room, but I haven't bought that part yet. Any suggestions on good ones?
It would give you plus points if I was interviewing you.
I think I would amend to question to "What is the last technical book you read?" and "What is the last book of any kind that you read?"
Our biggest problems with our apps and web pages is that we can get by with laying out the pages so that nothing is crowded at 1024x768 (they do dynamically and gracefully resize, but our useability target is for 1024x768 to have adequate workspace and not much scrolling), but we keep running into situations where we have to train or demo our products with older projectors that don't do more than 800x600.
Evidently, as long as the bulb doesn't burn out, most places don't upgrade their projectors.
If there is cell phone coverage, there are several companies that sell GPS devices that used a celluar modem to periodically transmit location data, usually to a central server (read: subscription fee) where you can either access dynamic maps with vehicle location or download streams of location info (using webservices or XML).
In the U.S., I know of at least one company (Cloudberry) that uses a dual celluar/satellite technology (use celluar if there is a connection, if not, use a satellite uplink).
These services are priced by the number of updates you want -- if you just want every 10 minutes X hours per day it's a lot cheaper than every 10 seconds 24 hours a day.
Again, given celluar coverage, you might be able to homebrew a system using a GPSr that outputs NMEA combined with a celluar modem and a bit of hardware/software hacking for autodialling. You would still be stuck with celluar charges, but the calls can be short and only as frequent as you like. I suppose you could also set it up to call the bus/car whatever and "ask" it where it is via software.
All of these suggestions could be implemented using radio carriers if the criteria of the parent poster are met (repeaters, etc.).
We looked into these technologies for some of our clients and the dual celluar/satellite system seemed to work best with a small initial investment and a reasonable subscription fee. The radio solutions are cheaper in the long run with no subscription fees, but require a higher intitial investment for the radio infrastructure -- really best suited for urban environments with a relatively small geographical area.
There are many open source GIS packages for mapping the results.
If we were to send extrasolar probes out in the near future on really long missions to other stars, would we make them roundtrip or would they go to, say, Alpha Centauri, take a bunch of readings, then try to send a big radio burst back with the info? Is this feasible?
Again, saying we did send out probes, would we be more interested in what they find, the fact that we could do it, or in trying to contact ET's?
What I'm getting at is: suppose there are non-landing probes send by ET's to our solar system. If they don't land, we've only had the technology for ~100 years (conservatively) to detect them. If they are/were observational, is it reasonable to assume they would come into the solar system using a lot of their power to broadcast "I am here!" messages, or would they cruise around quietly, perhaps returning or sending back info on a tight-beam? Assuming one landed on Earth sometime in the last 1,000,000 years, there is a good chance that it was buried, destroyed, biodegraded, or just hasn't been found yet. Our planetary probes, while low-tech, are only designed for function for a year or so (usually less). We can imagine that some super high tech might make a probe that lasts thousands or millions of years, but accidents happen.
The solar system may be crawling with probes right now for all we know. There may be ones on the moon or on mars. They may have cruised by during an ice age or pre-human industrial society and seen nothing interesting (some plants and animals, but for all we know, that might be boring to them).
What is life is so common that if the probes didn't find a space-faring civilization, they just said, "Oh, another planet teeming with non-intelligent life, we'll check back in a few million years..."?
Hmm, I just saw a painting at a public exhibition in Washington, D.C. (in Union Station) that qualified. It was an ultra-realistic self portrait that definitely fit into the category of creepy because it was so realistic. From across the room, it looked photographic, but when you got close, you could see the brush technique.
It was a picture of a shirtless Asian man holding a glass bottle if you happen to go through there...
I think Scott Adams said that the holodeck would be the last human invention -- after that everyone would dissapear into them and never come out again.
I see that Forry is an advisor, but I didn't find anything in a quick RTFM that says how much of his collection made it into the museum. Does anyone know?
I know that he had to sell off some due to health and legal costs and it destroyed my dream of visiting the Ackermansion, which I'd wanted to do since reading Famous Monsters starting about 30 years ago.
Only if you start at an hour before sunrise?
We used to play poker regularly in college, but I haven't played in years. We usually played with $10-$20 starting money (usually raiding our change jars). We had a lot of fun unless my dad came down to visit, then he took all of our money.
Oh yeah, since I'm jumping all over the place, playing online is OK, but I'm not going to use real money for it and 2/3 of the game is gone if you don't have a money stake in it. Why not go for that inside straight after a $25 dollar raise if it's just imaginary money?
Here is another great use of this kind of database. We used the pagesjaunes.fr site when we were going to Paris. We were using Go-Today travel, which listed a dozen or so hotels in an increasing price scale. They had links to details about the hotels, but, not knowing the city, you couldn't tell much about where they were.
:-)
So, we looked up the hotels by address and "strolled" down the streets on either side. Two were in a really undesirable looking neighborhoods. The one we picked was on a nice side street with cafes and stores on either side. Very useful.
One of the hotels must have been recently renovated. The pictures online were dated and were only a year or so old at the time, but the address of the hotel was an abandoned building
Hmm, I'm definitely in the "old fart" category (I'm 37), but I really enjoy playing DDR, but I mostly do it at home because I feel really stupid playing it at the arcade (even though the arcade is more fun and I get better scores than on my modded home pad).
I'm not stuck in the 80's or anything, but the thing I *don't* like about DDR is the music. There are a few songs I genuinely like, but the rest just grate on my nerves. I really need to look into Stepmania so I can add some decent music.
As for the weight loss, a 30 minute workout with DDR is definitely as aerobic as 30 minutes on a treadmill or elliptical machine and is a whole lot more fun. I've lost 50+ pounds over the last year, but I can't attribute that to DDR -- I've been dieting, hiking, biking, working out at the gym, and playing DDR and I can say that DDR is a nice alternative workout.
Oops on the oil company link -- I was in a hurry :-)
My point, if I actually had one back there, is that any issue worth discussion (that is, it is not just "cut and dried") will bring out extremist wackos from one side or the other who will distort facts and statistics and ignore information that doesn't fit their case. It is just basic human nature. Sometimes they get so far extreme that they wrap around, such as anti-abortionists commiting murder or left wingers so rabid about free speech that they want to censor opposing viewpoints.
Thanks for the discussion!