What about using the desktop you like? I like using KDE 2 - it's a very nice looking desktop, and perfectly suited for browsing and other internet stuff. I prefer it to Windows, which is why I use it.
Quite frankly, neither XP or OSX offers the desktop I want. Both are too inflexible and lacking in power. I don't see why I should only have a choice between OSX and XP, just because they happen to be the most popular!
> Sorry to ruin your fun, but gun crime has gone
> up dramatically since guns were illegalised a
> few years ago.
Well, first I would say that 33 years was more than a "few years". Secondly, I would point you towards here for your ill-informed statement on gun crime going "up dramatically".
> So you want to cut down on them? I take it
> then you're not a frail old woman sitting in
> her house at 3am when a 8-foot 20st rapist
> breaks in.
A very plausible example - an 8 foot rapist after a frail woman, who fends off said criminal with a blast from her trusty uzi and army surplus machine gun. Even in such a case, surely a handgun would be much easier and less extreme than a uzi? When would you want to use a uzi for defense, short of stopping an invading army?
It's funny because it's so unrealistic. He isn't going to make it into space unless he happens to have a spare million or two tucked away - just for the fuel needed, let alone for the development and construction. If he does try it I just hope he has life insurance.
It's one thing to launch an 11m rocket some 5000ft, it's quite another to build a functioning spacecraft!
At the very minimum it would have to carry a ton of payload; most probably quite a bit more. To get an idea of the kinds of equipment involved, this link on the Delta II provides a good overview of the kind of sheer power and equipment needed to put even a relatively small 5 ton payload into space.
Even the new X-34 being developed by NASA for cheaper space-flight still estimates a $500'000 cost per launch, and that's not even including the construction costs!
That an amateur could attempt this at all is ridiculous, let alone be the first non-governmental outfit to achieve this. You have to wonder what's going on in this guy's head.
No, at the front of the book there is a note which says that there was a thoery that if the *Answer* was found, the Universe would immediately change into something even more complex. Hence the wrong question - it probably worked before.
> Ban all guns? Stupid old rhetoric tells us "If we criminalize guns, only criminals will have guns." Pretty simple concept.
To a certain extent, perhaps. However, in the UK guns are (more or less) illegal and there is a *lot* less gun crime there (and accidents involving guns are non-existant). However, I do recognise that in the US there are a lot of guns floating around already and it would take a long time to cut down the amount of these weapons. That said, doing nothing about it is worse than doing something, however small the short-term rewards. Banning Uzi's and the like would be a good start - after all, can you think of a reason a law-abiding citizen would need one?:)
Flamebait here, but after using Solaris I would *not* consider it a decent OS, nor the Sun machines decent hardware! And what's this with the "commodity crap that breaks down a few days after the warranty expires"?! The PC I'm using to write this is a 5+ year old P300 - the hardware works fine. In fact the only pieces of PC hardware that hasn't worked, in the past 10 years or so, was a faulty piece of RAM (which was instantly replaced) and a second-hand notebook (which was only a P75, and hardly counts). In that period I've bought 5-6 PCs and all the hardware upgrades to go with them. So PC hardware is very stable if you get it from the right people.
The problem is with dumping moveable windows altogether is that you lose immediate manual control. For instance if you want a specific window in a certain place, under the current system you can just drag it over. With a framed/fixed approach this wouldn't be as easy. However a mix of the two would certainly be nice, and to a certain extent, this is what is happening: the taskbar in Windows and KDE for instance, dock-apps in Windowmaker & co., apps embedded into the KDE kicker and so forth. But moveable windows still have their advantages, and will probably be around for a while yet (at least until we get cool 3D desktops like we see in the movies!)
The finding of primes is an NP complete problem isn't it? - So in theory such a black box *could* exist (well, no one's proved that there can't be yet:)
Slashdot Mirror
Neanderthal - very apt, considering the most likely reason for their extinction was their lack of ability to adapt.
4-bit? You mean I'm not safe with 2?!
What about using the desktop you like? I like using KDE 2 - it's a very nice looking desktop, and perfectly suited for browsing and other internet stuff. I prefer it to Windows, which is why I use it.
Quite frankly, neither XP or OSX offers the desktop I want. Both are too inflexible and lacking in power. I don't see why I should only have a choice between OSX and XP, just because they happen to be the most popular!
A portable device for storing mass?
Isn't that called a box?
This definately needs mod'ing up! I can't stop laughing now. Oh, where for art a moderator when one is needed? :)
Although rugby is less of a wussy game - argh! Stop being a hippocrite! Naughty Shade, naughty!
If you don't mind waiting a few seconds for decompression to a temporary bit of disk, you could always try zipping, gzipping or bzipping the CDs up :)
Ok, I stand corrected. :)
Ok, so both the question and answer would be wrong after that. Same arguement applies :)
> Sorry to ruin your fun, but gun crime has gone
> up dramatically since guns were illegalised a
> few years ago.
Well, first I would say that 33 years was more than a "few years". Secondly, I would point you towards here for your ill-informed statement on gun crime going "up dramatically".
> So you want to cut down on them? I take it
> then you're not a frail old woman sitting in
> her house at 3am when a 8-foot 20st rapist
> breaks in.
A very plausible example - an 8 foot rapist after a frail woman, who fends off said criminal with a blast from her trusty uzi and army surplus machine gun. Even in such a case, surely a handgun would be much easier and less extreme than a uzi? When would you want to use a uzi for defense, short of stopping an invading army?
Oh, and here's another classic quote:
"We are not planning any tests such as wind tunnel or vibration tests before we launch it. That is what the test flight is for."
I wonder if he'll apply the same principal on *his* first trip inside?
It's funny because it's so unrealistic. He isn't going to make it into space unless he happens to have a spare million or two tucked away - just for the fuel needed, let alone for the development and construction. If he does try it I just hope he has life insurance.
He doesn't qualify for the X-Prize though - he aims to go up 30 miles; the £7 million ($10 million) X-Prize is for 62 miles and above! :)
It's one thing to launch an 11m rocket some 5000ft, it's quite another to build a functioning spacecraft!
At the very minimum it would have to carry a ton of payload; most probably quite a bit more. To get an idea of the kinds of equipment involved, this link on the Delta II provides a good overview of the kind of sheer power and equipment needed to put even a relatively small 5 ton payload into space.
Even the new X-34 being developed by NASA for cheaper space-flight still estimates a $500'000 cost per launch, and that's not even including the construction costs!
That an amateur could attempt this at all is ridiculous, let alone be the first non-governmental outfit to achieve this. You have to wonder what's going on in this guy's head.
Agreed!
No, at the front of the book there is a note which says that there was a thoery that if the *Answer* was found, the Universe would immediately change into something even more complex. Hence the wrong question - it probably worked before.
It would be fairly ironic if I got flamed for this :)
Like when the US tries to enforce the DMCA on a certain Russian hacker?
Real men make their own voltmeter.
Nonsense - real men use cat to write their packets. Editors are only for people who make wussy mistakes.
I agree with you up to this point:
:)
> Ban all guns? Stupid old rhetoric tells us "If we criminalize guns, only criminals will have guns." Pretty simple concept.
To a certain extent, perhaps. However, in the UK guns are (more or less) illegal and there is a *lot* less gun crime there (and accidents involving guns are non-existant). However, I do recognise that in the US there are a lot of guns floating around already and it would take a long time to cut down the amount of these weapons. That said, doing nothing about it is worse than doing something, however small the short-term rewards. Banning Uzi's and the like would be a good start - after all, can you think of a reason a law-abiding citizen would need one?
Flamebait here, but after using Solaris I would *not* consider it a decent OS, nor the Sun machines decent hardware! And what's this with the "commodity crap that breaks down a few days after the warranty expires"?! The PC I'm using to write this is a 5+ year old P300 - the hardware works fine. In fact the only pieces of PC hardware that hasn't worked, in the past 10 years or so, was a faulty piece of RAM (which was instantly replaced) and a second-hand notebook (which was only a P75, and hardly counts). In that period I've bought 5-6 PCs and all the hardware upgrades to go with them. So PC hardware is very stable if you get it from the right people.
The problem is with dumping moveable windows altogether is that you lose immediate manual control. For instance if you want a specific window in a certain place, under the current system you can just drag it over. With a framed/fixed approach this wouldn't be as easy. However a mix of the two would certainly be nice, and to a certain extent, this is what is happening: the taskbar in Windows and KDE for instance, dock-apps in Windowmaker & co., apps embedded into the KDE kicker and so forth. But moveable windows still have their advantages, and will probably be around for a while yet (at least until we get cool 3D desktops like we see in the movies!)
> In fact, after a visit to sunfreeware.com, Solaris feels pretty much like Linux :-)
:)
Um, why not just use Linux then?
The finding of primes is an NP complete problem isn't it? - So in theory such a black box *could* exist (well, no one's proved that there can't be yet :)