The other one is the lunar orbit coinciding perfectly with the lunar rotation, so that the same side of the moon always faces Earth.
Not as spectacular, but certainly a coincidence with consequences.
That's not really so much of a coincidence. It's a result of the Earth's gravity. Given enough time, any satellite will end up like that (or possibly in some other kind of resonance, like Mercury's 2/3 day and year or whatever it is).
What's more, the effect works in reverse too. The Earth's gravity is speeding up the Moon's orbit as the Moon's gravity slows down the Earth's rotation. Theoretically our day and month will be the same length of time and the Moon will be locked in one position in the sky. It will end up further away from us, though, so no more total eclipses of the Sun. But IIRC this process won't be finished before the Sun goes red giant.
Needless to say, there won't be any solar eclipses then, either!
But the end result is still the same. The President would still be GWB.
Perhaps not - there were enough Nader voters in Florida that, had they put Gore in as second choice, an instant runoff voting system might have had Gore winning the state.
Even with greater funding these candidates are not likely to actually win the presidency as most people will rank the center parties #1.
I'll grant that moderate candidates are more likely to be elected, but the third (fourth, fifth) parties would get more votes - if not as #1 choices, then as #2 choices. Even if they didn't win the elections, increasing their visibility and viability could go a long way towards creating a political discourse with more substance than the Democrats calling the Republicans rich Nazi bastards and the Republicans calling the Democrats tree-hugging hippy Communists.
As soon as we solve one problem (what created the universe) another takes its place (what created the creator of the universe). There is no way to reach the "end", because the "end" doesn't exist.
That still doesn't prove the existence of a higher power. In fact, there's no guarantee that we won't eventually have a scientific theory that explains everything, and no questions left unanswered. Even if we never reach that point, that only proves that we don't know everything. It doesn't prove that there's a mystical being that does know everything.
Well, that 3660 is a little better, I could probably live with that, especially in the silver color. I assume it'll be iSync-able?
The killer phone to me, though, would be an updated color-screen iSync-able Bluetooth-standards-compliant version of my 6310i (maybe with Symbian, although that's not a necessity) at a lower price point. I don't want to pay for a camera I'll never use - I have a 5.1MP Olympus and a 35mm SLR for taking pictures. When it comes right down to it, even the color screen is unnecessary.
If 5% of the population are supporters of the marxist-lenninst party and would pick the green party second and the marajuana party third; they are going to be just as marginalized by a ranking system as they are currently.
Well, I think that's true.
It is very unlikely that people will give even a third or fourth place to any parties that are even slightly to the left or right of center. The end result is a system that elects the same parties that have always gotten in.
Not necessarily true. To use the 2000 election as an example, a lot more people might have voted for Nader if they could have put Gore second to prevent Bush from winning. Not enough to get him elected, but maybe enough to get the 5% he needed to be eligible for matching funds the next go-round. Incidentally, the real shame in that situation is that basically the two current parties control the political process to the point that no third party can even get their views heard by the majority of voters.
So you don't see a problem with putting a president in office that is not supported by 79% of the population? Because I think most people will.
But that wouldn't happen. The person who goes in wouldn't be the first choice of 79% of the voters, but he would need to be at least "supported" by a large plurality.
The ONLY good thing about Dean (Score:0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 12, @02:27PM (#7704033) is that the NRA gives him an A grade...other than that he is a blow hard loser
Fat Sexless Socialy Inept CowboyNeil Endorses Dean (Score:0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 12, @02:33PM (#7704107) pathetic how SlashDot bows down before that blow hard loser DEAN
So, why did you wait five minutes between posts? Did it take you that long to come up with the CowboyNeil angle?
imagine what would happen if there were 10 parties and the winner received only 20% of the electoral or popular vote.
It's called a runoff. Either take the top two (or maybe three) candidates and have a second vote, or use instant runoff voting, which gets the voter's second and third choices (and so forth) up front. Surely a true Slashdotter would prefer such a system - the more choices the better, right?
It would certainly be nice if political discourse in this nation had more aspects to it than left vs. right. I think ten parties would be great, although realistically four or five are about all that the average voter could keep straight anyway. Some would inevitably be rather marginal, but still could shift the course of an election.
What's really funny is that I'm sure they rearranged the center cluster to save space. But then, they wasted that space and more with the huge expanse of darker plastic on which they've put five tiny buttons, a rocker, and a wheel.
That's like the epitome of bad design, but it's not just Microsoft. All the "internet keyboards" have similar idiocies. I guess that's why I still use an IBM Model M at home.
Yeah, I'm thinking of buying a refurb iBook or PowerBook with my Christmas bonus (yes, they do still exist, it surprised me too!). I love my 6310i, but it's not iSync compatible. It looks like the only affordable Nokias that are, have goofy keypad configurations. Why oh why do companies screw up a good thing just to be "different"? I don't think I could handle another brand, I'm on my third (or fourth?) Nokia and they just feel natural - anytime I use someone else's phone I'm lost.
The only real problem with Nokia phones is that they pay more attention to the sound quality of ringtones then to the sound quality of a phone conversation.
I think you have the 6310i confused with another Nokia. Its ringtones most assuredly suck, but the quality of phone conversation on it is second to none.
I have a Sony-Erricson T39m for over 2 years now, and it may not have a color screen (why would I need one, that is what my bluetooth equiped PDA is for) and its ringtones are less 'nice' then the ones of modern Nokias..
But, its triband gsm, lasts almost 2 weeks on a full battery, does GPRS, bluetooth, and has a host of builtin clients for internet use.
Huh, you just described my 6310i as well. It doesn't have a color screen, its ringtones aren't as nice as newer phones, it's triband, lasts 2 weeks on a full battery, does GPRS and Bluetooth, has builtin clients (that I never use, I also have a Tungsten T). So what was your point?
Offtopic, but we already have proof that God (or some higher power) exists: infinity.
Um, no. The existence of infinite numbers (there are more than one) doesn't prove the existence of anything.
Human beings will never find a "solution" for infinity (a "reason" behind it) because infinity never ends.
I guess you've never delved into the study of the inifinite numbers, but there are plenty of "solutions" there that are well within human comprehension. If you're saying we can't count to inifinity, yes, you're obviously right. But that has nothing to do with God, it's just a fact of mathematics. The only "reason" behind infinity is that no matter how big a number gets, you can always add one to make it bigger. So, there is no biggest number, and therefore there is a need for a concept to represent a set with no upper bound.
Yep, anyone can store their kid's cord blood for future use. It costs a fair bit of money for the storage though. You can probably do a quick Google for "cord blood storage" to find more info.
I doubt that 98% of the world has demonstrated any amount of reasonability. Certainly not in America.
Well, since only 5% of the world lives in America, it would be pretty hard for 98% of the world to demonstrate reasonability in America. Let's hope they don't decide to visit to do so either - it might get a bit crowded.
now, i might be STUPID and IGNORANT and a FOOL, but in my world half the mem, half the harddrive, suckier gfx card.. they don't really count as tons of more.
The memory is definitely an issue, there's no question that the G5 should come with 512MB minimum. The hard disk space - well, depends on the user. Unless you're a hardcore gamer, the gfx card is fine. If you are a hardcore gamer, you're probably not going to buy a G5 anyway.
You also neglected to mention that the G5 does have FireWire (including one FireWire 800 port) and USB 2.0, although you did mention them on the eMachines box.
Now, for the "tons more" on the G5. It has next-generation PCI-X slots. It has gigabit ethernet built in. It has optical digital audio in and out. It has Superdrive, which is a CD/DVD burner. And, (ducking to avoid flames) it has a real operating system, not a Microsoft toy.
No they can't; programs like WireTap easily "defeat" their current DRM.
If that doesn't stop them from selling songs, it shouldn't stop them from offering previews. Sure, the hardcore pirate will find a way around it, but their current DRM isn't designed to be impenetrable anyway. It's just like using a lock to keep the honest people out.
Hey, here's a thought: Jobs doesn't think movie downloading is a viable market... but, do ya think people would pay a couple bucks for a downloadable music video with SVCD or DVD quality? It shouldn't be too horrible of a download (no worse than an album) and it wouldn't be that much work for iTunes to add support for videos, preferably with a "burn to VCD/DVD" option.
Alien Ant Farm's cover of "Smooth Criminal" kinda sucks without the video, you know?
Ooh, yeah, heaven forbid that your kids hear Nemo and his buddies mistakenly call a boat a "butt", or see an air bubble come up next to a pelican, causing another pelican to think he farted. Those sorts of experiences would surely scar them for life.
Unless one's next door and it's summer out and there's no line up (ie: 99% of people, 99% of the time), you have to get a coat, get in the car, drive who knows how far....
You need a coat just because it's not summer? Just move to Alabama. You'll only need a coat an average of ten days per year!
Do you honestly think that modern speakers are going to attempt to play something outside of their frequency range? Stop falling for the hype.
Most speakers don't "attempt" to play at all. The input signal is just fed directly to the speaker's voice coil. There's rarely, if ever, any sort of filtering circuitry in a mid-priced computer speaker, and it wouldn't be hard to create a sound that would damage them when played at high volumes. That said, I think the idea is more to annoy the piss out of the listener than to damage the speakers.
Use NetFlix. Go to your mailbox, get three DVDs, rip them, put them back in the mail the next morning. A few days later, three more DVDs are in your mailbox. Lather, rinse, repeat. Assuming you keep your queue full and the post office is reasonably quick, you can probably get five or six sets of three ripped in a month, for $20.
That reminds me... I still haven't watched Matrix Reloaded....
They didn't have Messiaen, Slint, Merzbow, Captain Beefheart, Xenakis, Steve Reich, Schoenberg, Stravinksy, or, wait for it, John Cage! No fucking John Cage!
Unit 706122, please report for entertainment reprogramming. Your circuits have become damaged, and are interfering with your ability to integrate into society. Never fear, you will be listening to Brittney and watching Friends again in no time.
What I do have a problem with, and I'm glad Jobs pointed this out, is paying for a full album, only to find out all of the tunes but one completely blow.
Yes, that sucks. Unfortunately, iTunes doesn't really have a good way to avoid it either. You can just get the songs you like, but you might be missing out on the other cool tracks. What you need is to be able to decide whether there are more or less than 10 cool tracks on the CD.
Now, you can listen to 30-second previews, but sometimes that's not enough to tell. They ought to let you preview the whole song/album, but use more compression so that no one would bother recording the audio from their sound card to avoid paying. Alternately, they could use their DRM tech to create a downloadable preview that would only play once or twice and couldn't be burned to disc.
Of course, you can still make analog dubs to your heart's content, so there's really not much motivation to crack it. Sure, it would be neat to get the MLP 24bit/96kHz stream onto your PC, but so few PC sound systems could do it justice.
I wonder how useful the revocation feature is, anyway. Suppose someone cracks, let's say, Denon's DVD-A digital link. Do you think the Powers That Be would really utilize the revocation? If I understand it correctly, the revocation system allows for future DVD-A releases to refuse to play on the revoked hardware. If I'm a Denon customer who can no longer play new discs because one hacker cracked the system, I'm gonna be pissed off and looking for someone to sue!
Slashdot Mirror
The other one is the lunar orbit coinciding perfectly with the lunar rotation, so that the same side of the moon always faces Earth.
Not as spectacular, but certainly a coincidence with consequences.
That's not really so much of a coincidence. It's a result of the Earth's gravity. Given enough time, any satellite will end up like that (or possibly in some other kind of resonance, like Mercury's 2/3 day and year or whatever it is).
What's more, the effect works in reverse too. The Earth's gravity is speeding up the Moon's orbit as the Moon's gravity slows down the Earth's rotation. Theoretically our day and month will be the same length of time and the Moon will be locked in one position in the sky. It will end up further away from us, though, so no more total eclipses of the Sun. But IIRC this process won't be finished before the Sun goes red giant.
Needless to say, there won't be any solar eclipses then, either!
But the end result is still the same. The President would still be GWB.
Perhaps not - there were enough Nader voters in Florida that, had they put Gore in as second choice, an instant runoff voting system might have had Gore winning the state.
Even with greater funding these candidates are not likely to actually win the presidency as most people will rank the center parties #1.
I'll grant that moderate candidates are more likely to be elected, but the third (fourth, fifth) parties would get more votes - if not as #1 choices, then as #2 choices. Even if they didn't win the elections, increasing their visibility and viability could go a long way towards creating a political discourse with more substance than the Democrats calling the Republicans rich Nazi bastards and the Republicans calling the Democrats tree-hugging hippy Communists.
As soon as we solve one problem (what created the universe) another takes its place (what created the creator of the universe). There is no way to reach the "end", because the "end" doesn't exist.
That still doesn't prove the existence of a higher power. In fact, there's no guarantee that we won't eventually have a scientific theory that explains everything, and no questions left unanswered. Even if we never reach that point, that only proves that we don't know everything. It doesn't prove that there's a mystical being that does know everything.
Well, that 3660 is a little better, I could probably live with that, especially in the silver color. I assume it'll be iSync-able?
The killer phone to me, though, would be an updated color-screen iSync-able Bluetooth-standards-compliant version of my 6310i (maybe with Symbian, although that's not a necessity) at a lower price point. I don't want to pay for a camera I'll never use - I have a 5.1MP Olympus and a 35mm SLR for taking pictures. When it comes right down to it, even the color screen is unnecessary.
If 5% of the population are supporters of the marxist-lenninst party and would pick the green party second and the marajuana party third; they are going to be just as marginalized by a ranking system as they are currently.
Well, I think that's true.
It is very unlikely that people will give even a third or fourth place to any parties that are even slightly to the left or right of center. The end result is a system that elects the same parties that have always gotten in.
Not necessarily true. To use the 2000 election as an example, a lot more people might have voted for Nader if they could have put Gore second to prevent Bush from winning. Not enough to get him elected, but maybe enough to get the 5% he needed to be eligible for matching funds the next go-round. Incidentally, the real shame in that situation is that basically the two current parties control the political process to the point that no third party can even get their views heard by the majority of voters.
So you don't see a problem with putting a president in office that is not supported by 79% of the population? Because I think most people will.
But that wouldn't happen. The person who goes in wouldn't be the first choice of 79% of the voters, but he would need to be at least "supported" by a large plurality.
Hey, if the files contain no content, they can be losslessly compressed to zero bytes. That should save oodles on bandwidth!
The ONLY good thing about Dean (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 12, @02:27PM (#7704033)
is that the NRA gives him an A grade...other than that he is a blow hard loser
Fat Sexless Socialy Inept CowboyNeil Endorses Dean (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 12, @02:33PM (#7704107)
pathetic how SlashDot bows down before that blow hard loser DEAN
So, why did you wait five minutes between posts? Did it take you that long to come up with the CowboyNeil angle?
imagine what would happen if there were 10 parties and the winner received only 20% of the electoral or popular vote.
It's called a runoff. Either take the top two (or maybe three) candidates and have a second vote, or use instant runoff voting, which gets the voter's second and third choices (and so forth) up front. Surely a true Slashdotter would prefer such a system - the more choices the better, right?
It would certainly be nice if political discourse in this nation had more aspects to it than left vs. right. I think ten parties would be great, although realistically four or five are about all that the average voter could keep straight anyway. Some would inevitably be rather marginal, but still could shift the course of an election.
What's really funny is that I'm sure they rearranged the center cluster to save space. But then, they wasted that space and more with the huge expanse of darker plastic on which they've put five tiny buttons, a rocker, and a wheel.
That's like the epitome of bad design, but it's not just Microsoft. All the "internet keyboards" have similar idiocies. I guess that's why I still use an IBM Model M at home.
Yeah, I'm thinking of buying a refurb iBook or PowerBook with my Christmas bonus (yes, they do still exist, it surprised me too!). I love my 6310i, but it's not iSync compatible. It looks like the only affordable Nokias that are, have goofy keypad configurations. Why oh why do companies screw up a good thing just to be "different"? I don't think I could handle another brand, I'm on my third (or fourth?) Nokia and they just feel natural - anytime I use someone else's phone I'm lost.
The only real problem with Nokia phones is that they pay more attention to the sound quality of ringtones then to the sound quality of a phone conversation.
I think you have the 6310i confused with another Nokia. Its ringtones most assuredly suck, but the quality of phone conversation on it is second to none.
I have a Sony-Erricson T39m for over 2 years now, and it may not have a color screen (why would I need one, that is what my bluetooth equiped PDA is for) and its ringtones are less 'nice' then the ones of modern Nokias..
But, its triband gsm, lasts almost 2 weeks on a full battery, does GPRS, bluetooth, and has a host of builtin clients for internet use.
Huh, you just described my 6310i as well. It doesn't have a color screen, its ringtones aren't as nice as newer phones, it's triband, lasts 2 weeks on a full battery, does GPRS and Bluetooth, has builtin clients (that I never use, I also have a Tungsten T). So what was your point?
Offtopic, but we already have proof that God (or some higher power) exists: infinity.
Um, no. The existence of infinite numbers (there are more than one) doesn't prove the existence of anything.
Human beings will never find a "solution" for infinity (a "reason" behind it) because infinity never ends.
I guess you've never delved into the study of the inifinite numbers, but there are plenty of "solutions" there that are well within human comprehension. If you're saying we can't count to inifinity, yes, you're obviously right. But that has nothing to do with God, it's just a fact of mathematics. The only "reason" behind infinity is that no matter how big a number gets, you can always add one to make it bigger. So, there is no biggest number, and therefore there is a need for a concept to represent a set with no upper bound.
Yep, anyone can store their kid's cord blood for future use. It costs a fair bit of money for the storage though. You can probably do a quick Google for "cord blood storage" to find more info.
I doubt that 98% of the world has demonstrated any amount of reasonability. Certainly not in America.
Well, since only 5% of the world lives in America, it would be pretty hard for 98% of the world to demonstrate reasonability in America. Let's hope they don't decide to visit to do so either - it might get a bit crowded.
now, i might be STUPID and IGNORANT and a FOOL, but in my world half the mem, half the harddrive, suckier gfx card.. they don't really count as tons of more.
The memory is definitely an issue, there's no question that the G5 should come with 512MB minimum. The hard disk space - well, depends on the user. Unless you're a hardcore gamer, the gfx card is fine. If you are a hardcore gamer, you're probably not going to buy a G5 anyway.
You also neglected to mention that the G5 does have FireWire (including one FireWire 800 port) and USB 2.0, although you did mention them on the eMachines box.
Now, for the "tons more" on the G5. It has next-generation PCI-X slots. It has gigabit ethernet built in. It has optical digital audio in and out. It has Superdrive, which is a CD/DVD burner. And, (ducking to avoid flames) it has a real operating system, not a Microsoft toy.
No they can't; programs like WireTap easily "defeat" their current DRM.
If that doesn't stop them from selling songs, it shouldn't stop them from offering previews. Sure, the hardcore pirate will find a way around it, but their current DRM isn't designed to be impenetrable anyway. It's just like using a lock to keep the honest people out.
video (that can stream right inside iTunes)
Hey, here's a thought: Jobs doesn't think movie downloading is a viable market... but, do ya think people would pay a couple bucks for a downloadable music video with SVCD or DVD quality? It shouldn't be too horrible of a download (no worse than an album) and it wouldn't be that much work for iTunes to add support for videos, preferably with a "burn to VCD/DVD" option.
Alien Ant Farm's cover of "Smooth Criminal" kinda sucks without the video, you know?
Ooh, yeah, heaven forbid that your kids hear Nemo and his buddies mistakenly call a boat a "butt", or see an air bubble come up next to a pelican, causing another pelican to think he farted. Those sorts of experiences would surely scar them for life.
Unless one's next door and it's summer out and there's no line up (ie: 99% of people, 99% of the time), you have to get a coat, get in the car, drive who knows how far....
You need a coat just because it's not summer? Just move to Alabama. You'll only need a coat an average of ten days per year!
Do you honestly think that modern speakers are going to attempt to play something outside of their frequency range? Stop falling for the hype.
Most speakers don't "attempt" to play at all. The input signal is just fed directly to the speaker's voice coil. There's rarely, if ever, any sort of filtering circuitry in a mid-priced computer speaker, and it wouldn't be hard to create a sound that would damage them when played at high volumes. That said, I think the idea is more to annoy the piss out of the listener than to damage the speakers.
Use NetFlix. Go to your mailbox, get three DVDs, rip them, put them back in the mail the next morning. A few days later, three more DVDs are in your mailbox. Lather, rinse, repeat. Assuming you keep your queue full and the post office is reasonably quick, you can probably get five or six sets of three ripped in a month, for $20.
That reminds me... I still haven't watched Matrix Reloaded....
They didn't have Messiaen, Slint, Merzbow, Captain Beefheart, Xenakis, Steve Reich, Schoenberg, Stravinksy, or, wait for it, John Cage! No fucking John Cage!
Unit 706122, please report for entertainment reprogramming. Your circuits have become damaged, and are interfering with your ability to integrate into society. Never fear, you will be listening to Brittney and watching Friends again in no time.
What I do have a problem with, and I'm glad Jobs pointed this out, is paying for a full album, only to find out all of the tunes but one completely blow.
Yes, that sucks. Unfortunately, iTunes doesn't really have a good way to avoid it either. You can just get the songs you like, but you might be missing out on the other cool tracks. What you need is to be able to decide whether there are more or less than 10 cool tracks on the CD.
Now, you can listen to 30-second previews, but sometimes that's not enough to tell. They ought to let you preview the whole song/album, but use more compression so that no one would bother recording the audio from their sound card to avoid paying. Alternately, they could use their DRM tech to create a downloadable preview that would only play once or twice and couldn't be burned to disc.
Of course, you can still make analog dubs to your heart's content, so there's really not much motivation to crack it. Sure, it would be neat to get the MLP 24bit/96kHz stream onto your PC, but so few PC sound systems could do it justice.
I wonder how useful the revocation feature is, anyway. Suppose someone cracks, let's say, Denon's DVD-A digital link. Do you think the Powers That Be would really utilize the revocation? If I understand it correctly, the revocation system allows for future DVD-A releases to refuse to play on the revoked hardware. If I'm a Denon customer who can no longer play new discs because one hacker cracked the system, I'm gonna be pissed off and looking for someone to sue!
That's OK - my daughter sometimes tries to slide DVDs into the VCR. If I wasn't quick, I'd have probably lost a few already.