Most digital logic has at least one repeating signal called a clock, which is used to sequence the logical changes (e.g. from 1 to 0) in the circuit. By limiting changes of state to a periodic time, you can simplify a digital design. One of the major challenges in digital design (besides errors in logic) is dealing with timing related issues such as race conditions. Race conditions occur when a logical operation uses the results of earlier operations. Because of the finite speed of signals inside a chip, sometimes a signal arrives too late for a proper operation to occur. Such an error considered to be a race condition.
Clocks help by allowing the designer to effectively freeze the state of the logical circuit on a regular basis. This way, all the signals in a chip can propagate to where they are supposed to go, then the logical operations occur. This process repeats on every clock pulse.
The problems with using clocks are pretty significant, however. First, you need to add a lot of additional circuitry to implement a clock. Another problem is that generally, A LOT of changes happen on every clock tick, which means a large spike in electical current (because you need to use the electrical current to actually change the state of all of the digital circuits). This spike also causes what is known as noise in electronics, and with higher frequency circuits, the noise can actually cause interference with other unconnected electronics (this is known as EMI). And another problem with a clock is that you generally need to keep it running all of the time for it to be useful, which means using electrical power even when no changes are occurring.
So, the asynchronous CPU is a significant engineering feat. It is very difficult to design, but it is probably much smaller and more efficient than any equivalent clocked ARM core. That said, I wonder how do you actually evaluate the performance? With synchronous CPUs, it is a simply a function of the clock speed and architecture. In addition, all of these devices need to be tested so that they are guaranteed to work - I wonder how they do that.
True Dat, but you can buy a 1G SD card for $33. And it will be much cheaper next year, and the year after that. I don't see that happening with the minidisks.
I have a Treo 600 (I'm old school), and the only reason that I don't use it as my regular MP3 player is because they don't have a standard size headphone adapter. Other than that, it is great - good sound fidelity (based of course on the quality of the MP3 file), and excellent battery life (more than 15 hours of playing time). The adapter that I have is too big, and the headphones that directly fit the input are too crappy.
Needless to say, the Treo is an excellent PDA, and it works fine as a phone. Some of the integration features are really neat. For example, you can look up a business with Google, then touch the phone number that Google conviently supplies, and the Treo will ask if you want to dial that number. Geek Heaven!
I hate the worship of Edison. He simply hired hordes of scientists and engineers, had them do the work, then took all the credit. I don't know if the story you tell is true, but I certainly can belive it.
The laws may break down in the black hole itself, but the event horizon is not really the "surface" of the black hole. The same rules apply between the event horizon and the black hole itself. Of course, I'm not a physicist, so I may be completely wrong here.
Everyone is talking about designing and fabing the chips. However, you also need to test them once they are fabbed. That is another big effort - you will need to generate the test vectors, then design an interface board, plus a whole lot of work. And the cost is also significant - it could easily cost $10000 for a loadboard. In fact, high end sockets for testing easily top $3000. Add $100/hour of equipment costs, and you start to get the idea.For the big semi houses, testing the manufactured chips costs more than the actual manufacturing.
Once you need more than a few hundred units, then you can consider going through all that effort.
Nice, but the donations from the Indian Tribes to Democrats and Republicans were legal. However, Abramoff scammed the Indian Tribes, and also illegally donated money to the Republicans. No Democrat legislator recieved money directly from Abramoff.
From the article: "Many people seem to have this misconception that somehow Christian means nonviolent.
However, there was this guy named Jesus who said: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:39-45 (King James Version).
So, it seems to me that these MOG guys are full of ####.
Well, ok, we are closing on on the fundamental disagreements.
My assertion is that the loopholes exist at least in part due to corporate influence on the legislative process. While the entire process may be completely legal: 1) influence legislature to pass favorable laws 2) reap benefits of new law 3) repeat
It does not mean it is 'right', nor fair, nor is what the majority of people want. But you really don't care about that. And economic growth is not the be-all and end-all of our civilization. At the very least, such matters as military defense, scientific exploration, and legal rights all matter. I at least expect you were upset about Supreme Court decision on Eminient Domain in New London, CT? That decision furthers economic growth.
I disagree with your assertion on taxation of corporations. In the past, corporate taxes were a much larger percentage of the Federal Budget, yet corporate growth was still solid. I also think that a fair level of taxes (which I pay a solid amount of, BTW) is fine. Does that mean I wish to pay more taxes than I do now? No - I want people to pay their fair share. When I see MS performing such tricks, I think it is BS, since such stunts are not available to everyone, only the large corporations.
But, I expect we are at an impass - I doubt that you will be swayed by any further arguements from me, and I'm sure that you are in the complementary position. But now we both know what the axioms are of this discussion.
Profit does not equal taxable income because of accounting games such as Round Island One Ltd., which I mentioned earlier.
In case you are link-adverse - "Round Island One provides a structure for Microsoft to radically reduce its corporate taxes in much of Europe, and similarly shields billions of dollars from U.S. taxation."
Do you think that is fair? If so, then I guess you have Leona Helmsley's take on taxes then - Only the little people pay taxes.
Microsoft enjoyed more than $12 billion in total tax breaks over the past five years. In fact, Microsoft actually paid no tax at all in 1999, despite $12.3 billion in reported U.S. profits. Microsoft's tax rate for the past two years was only 1.8 percent on $21.9 billion in pretax U.S. profits.
General Electric, America's most profitable corporation, reported $50.8 billion in U.S. profits over the past five years, but paid only 11.5 percent of that in federal income taxes. That low tax rate reflected almost $12 billion in corporate tax welfare for GE.
IBM reported $5.7 billion in U.S. profits in 2000, but paid only 3.4 percent of that in federal income taxes. In 1997, IBM reported $3.1 billion in U.S. profits, and instead of paying taxes, got an outright tax rebate. Over the past five years, IBM enjoyed a total of $4.7 billion in corporate tax welfare.
In the US, corporate taxes (state + federal) are about 40%! 40%! Maybe you meant 4%, not 40%?
even more... If big corporations actually paid 35 percent of their U.S. profits in federal income taxes, as the tax code ostensibly requires, corporate income taxes this year would total at least $308 billion. But actual corporate-tax payments this year are expected to be only $136 billion. In other words, this year (and next), for the first time since the early 1980S, corporate-tax loopholes will actually cost the U.S. Treasury more than the amount companies pay in income taxes.
Just because corporations cannot vote does not mean they do not influence the political process. Political power is in the hands of elected representatives. When was the last time that a political representative asked all (or even a modest percentage) of his constituants on a particular issue? If you think the DMCA was proposed and pushed by the grassroots, you are sorely mistaken. How about the criminalization of copyright violations? Or the copyright extensions? I just chose this area because it is easiest to highlight the discrepency between citizen interests and corporate interests. There are many other areas of interest, such as taxation.
Just in case you are among those who don't know what a corporation is (shamelessly ripped from nasd.com)...
Corporation: A legal entity, allowed by legislation, which permits a group of people, as shareholders (for-profit companies) or members (non-profit companies), to create an organization, which can then focus on pursuing set objectives, and empowered with legal rights which are usually only reserved for individuals, such as to sue and be sued, own property, hire employees or loan and borrow money. Also known as a "company." The primary advantage of for-profit corporations is that it provides its shareholders with a right to participate in the profits (by dividends) without any personal liability because the company absorbs the entire liability of the organization.
Well, then explain how Enron adheres to that view. Or Worldcom. Or Tyco, Aedelphi, and Global Crossing. But it's not just the scandals. Look into ADM (Archer Daniels Midland Corp) sometime. Halliburton and the no-bid contracts are another example. Hey, even Love Canal.
Next, take a look where all of the corporations are based - try Bermuda, which provides wonderful tax advantages. Look at how many companies are opening up facilities in Ireland, also for tax advantages.
And no, I don't feel 'alianated' (or even alienated, which is what I assume you meant). If you want to be pollyannaish about corporations, then go right ahead. Just don't expect me to buy into your foolish belief in the boundless benefits that corporations provide us.
Quite simply, corporations do not have much concerns about the people. Honestly, I am fine with that- corporations exist to make money. However, the large corporations are powerful enough to tilt the political and legal systems in their favor, to a level that is significantly greater than any average person - that is something that I don't think is fair.
I think that it should be illegal for corporation to lobby or influence the government in any way whatsoever. Why is that fair? From your own statement All public corporations in the US are owned by citizens. If a shareholder cares enough about an issue that affects a corporation he owns part of, then he can directly lobby the appropriate governmental agency on that matter. But I know that will never happen. But I won't be a sucker to your BS dogma that is being spread around either.
Corporations are here to save us! How come I never noticed that before?
This stuff is cool, but I think that the reason it works is because the virtual corporations still require player support. In the real world, corporations have managed to turn the tables on citizens, so that now the corporations interests supercepe that of citizens.
Actually, KD works on so many levels - you can even play it when *gasp* kids are around! It is even fun to simply watch someone else play the game. Even my 55 year old cousin liked watching it. I guess I never knew he was a fanboy.
The reason that you can't beat the price for the low end machines is because you probably care about the computer you are making. I have the same characteristic - I can't buy the cheapest components, because I know that even if they work, there will probably be a problems in the long run. Even on things like the keyboard, I would rather buy the $18 keyboard instead of the $8 one. Plus, if there any problems, you know that you will be the one fixing it.
But if you compare medium priced computers, you can definitely put together something better suited to how it is going to be used.
Well, I'm only going to disagree with you on a few notes - Steve Martin, for example. He was really funny. It's a shame he died and was replaced by a drone. George Carlin and Richard Pryor, also Chris Rock, the Daily Show are all great. So you can't knock all american humor (oh, humour).
AND as for the beer, you see, some of us Yanks found out about Beer. Only we call it "micro-brew". Why? I don't know. Maybe the term beer can only legally be applied to piss water in the US. But the "micro-brew" stuff is very good. AND, I need to say, Brit beer is really quite weak - the Germans and Belgians make great beer. The Brits, no, not really. The only context in which Brit beer is good is when compared to Miller or Bud.
I think that you could make a barbell-shaped tow. One end has most of the mass, and attached to it with a tether a few hundred feet long is the actual ion drive/whatever. That way you don't need to angle the thrust as much. Place the massive part very near the asteroid, and the ion drive pulls from 5 hundred feet away.
But, according to my calculations (assuming an asteroid mass of ~1e18kg), a 20ton rocket would take 20years or so to pull the asteroid 1/2 of the earth's radius. Let me try that again - I get ~1month/(meter away from the center of mass of the asteroid). So, if you could get 1m away from the center of mass, then it would take 1 month. But, since you can't get that close, lets pick 200meters (which is still very agressive, since the asteroid is 1000meters on its major axis). 200months-> ~17years.
The Helis are way overpowered, no doubt about it. It also keeps people from playing - you finally spawn (after the 10minute wait to finally join a game) and in 5 seconds a whoop-whoop-whoop helicopter sound is heard, and the screen goes red, and you die. That happens 30 seconds later when you spawn again. Then again. When you finally get into a tank, cool - now you're safe! Uh, no, actually you aren't...
A newbie can typically last longer than 30 secs in other multiplayer FPS games like Counterstrike, so I think the spawn campers are an especially vicious problem in Battlefield.
There needs to be a anti-air infantry unit to compensate for the Helis. The AntiAir platforms are too scarce to be useful.
But then again, this is my opinion after giving up on Battlefield 2 after a few attempts. It is a pretty cool game, but it's not easy to enjoy.
Oh yeah - show me how ID uses mathematics. And not just "Noah's ark was 100cubits long".
How about this - several years ago, some bacteria were found to be able to digest nylon. Evolution explains that nicely - there was no nylon available, so there was no need to develop the ability to digest it. Once nylon was invented, it then became an 'evolutionary force' (although I think that factor is a more approriate term). Some years pass, and eventually some bacteria, through random mutation, developed that ability to digest it.
So, how would ID explain the nylon eating bacteria?
Excellent point. But why would they not be dickheads about it, since SBC is basically dickheads about everything (to wit: reselling DSL lines, municipal WiFi)
If Google were to provide broadband to my house for less than twice what SBC charges, then I would be on GoogleBB in a heartbeat. Screw SBC with that kind of attitude. I figure that it would take Google at least 15 years to turn as evil as SBC, so I would worry about the threat of GooglEvil then.
Compare the original theatical release to the extended DVD version. There is no argument that the extended release version tells the story better.
OK - your first thought is "DUH - the theatical release was the longest you can make a movie, so some things had to get taken out".
But then look at what was IN the theatical release that must have been deemed more important than actually telling the story - yes, the "Stair jumping in the Mines of Moria", hopping from tumbling step to crumbling step. So 10 minutes of some stupid video game excerpt was more important than explaining how Isildur died.
There is a whole host of things, from Gimli in the comic relief role, to Sauruman being a servant of Sauron, which simply add nothing to the story.
This may surprise you, but the Elves at Helm's Deep didn't bother me. But the Elrond lying to his daughter - that subplot was lame. I guess you think that the original LOTR books should all be taken out and burned, so that only Peter Jackson's Masterpiece should be available for the masses.
Slashdot Mirror
Most digital logic has at least one repeating signal called a clock, which is used to sequence the logical changes (e.g. from 1 to 0) in the circuit. By limiting changes of state to a periodic time, you can simplify a digital design. One of the major challenges in digital design (besides errors in logic) is dealing with timing related issues such as race conditions. Race conditions occur when a logical operation uses the results of earlier operations. Because of the finite speed of signals inside a chip, sometimes a signal arrives too late for a proper operation to occur. Such an error considered to be a race condition.
Clocks help by allowing the designer to effectively freeze the state of the logical circuit on a regular basis. This way, all the signals in a chip can propagate to where they are supposed to go, then the logical operations occur. This process repeats on every clock pulse.
The problems with using clocks are pretty significant, however. First, you need to add a lot of additional circuitry to implement a clock. Another problem is that generally, A LOT of changes happen on every clock tick, which means a large spike in electical current (because you need to use the electrical current to actually change the state of all of the digital circuits). This spike also causes what is known as noise in electronics, and with higher frequency circuits, the noise can actually cause interference with other unconnected electronics (this is known as EMI). And another problem with a clock is that you generally need to keep it running all of the time for it to be useful, which means using electrical power even when no changes are occurring.
So, the asynchronous CPU is a significant engineering feat. It is very difficult to design, but it is probably much smaller and more efficient than any equivalent clocked ARM core. That said, I wonder how do you actually evaluate the performance? With synchronous CPUs, it is a simply a function of the clock speed and architecture. In addition, all of these devices need to be tested so that they are guaranteed to work - I wonder how they do that.
True Dat, but you can buy a 1G SD card for $33. And it will be much cheaper next year, and the year after that. I don't see that happening with the minidisks.
I have a Treo 600 (I'm old school), and the only reason that I don't use it as my regular MP3 player is because they don't have a standard size headphone adapter. Other than that, it is great - good sound fidelity (based of course on the quality of the MP3 file), and excellent battery life (more than 15 hours of playing time). The adapter that I have is too big, and the headphones that directly fit the input are too crappy.
Needless to say, the Treo is an excellent PDA, and it works fine as a phone. Some of the integration features are really neat. For example, you can look up a business with Google, then touch the phone number that Google conviently supplies, and the Treo will ask if you want to dial that number. Geek Heaven!
I hate the worship of Edison. He simply hired hordes of scientists and engineers, had them do the work, then took all the credit. I don't know if the story you tell is true, but I certainly can belive it.
The laws may break down in the black hole itself, but the event horizon is not really the "surface" of the black hole. The same rules apply between the event horizon and the black hole itself. Of course, I'm not a physicist, so I may be completely wrong here.
Yep - Digg is way better in that way also- articles get duped 4x there.
Everyone is talking about designing and fabing the chips. However, you also need to test them once they are fabbed. That is another big effort - you will need to generate the test vectors, then design an interface board, plus a whole lot of work. And the cost is also significant - it could easily cost $10000 for a loadboard. In fact, high end sockets for testing easily top $3000. Add $100/hour of equipment costs, and you start to get the idea .For the big semi houses, testing the manufactured chips costs more than the actual manufacturing.
Once you need more than a few hundred units, then you can consider going through all that effort.
Nice, but the donations from the Indian Tribes to Democrats and Republicans were legal. However, Abramoff scammed the Indian Tribes, and also illegally donated money to the Republicans. No Democrat legislator recieved money directly from Abramoff.
From the article: "Many people seem to have this misconception that somehow Christian means nonviolent.
However, there was this guy named Jesus who said:
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:39-45 (King James Version).
So, it seems to me that these MOG guys are full of ####.
Well, ok, we are closing on on the fundamental disagreements.
My assertion is that the loopholes exist at least in part due to corporate influence on the legislative process. While the entire process may be completely legal:
1) influence legislature to pass favorable laws
2) reap benefits of new law
3) repeat
It does not mean it is 'right', nor fair, nor is what the majority of people want. But you really don't care about that. And economic growth is not the be-all and end-all of our civilization. At the very least, such matters as military defense, scientific exploration, and legal rights all matter. I at least expect you were upset about Supreme Court decision on Eminient Domain in New London, CT? That decision furthers economic growth.
I disagree with your assertion on taxation of corporations. In the past, corporate taxes were a much larger percentage of the Federal Budget, yet corporate growth was still solid. I also think that a fair level of taxes (which I pay a solid amount of, BTW) is fine. Does that mean I wish to pay more taxes than I do now? No - I want people to pay their fair share. When I see MS performing such tricks, I think it is BS, since such stunts are not available to everyone, only the large corporations.
But, I expect we are at an impass - I doubt that you will be swayed by any further arguements from me, and I'm sure that you are in the complementary position. But now we both know what the axioms are of this discussion.
Profit does not equal taxable income because of accounting games such as Round Island One Ltd., which I mentioned earlier.
In case you are link-adverse - "Round Island One provides a structure for Microsoft to radically reduce its corporate taxes in much of Europe, and similarly shields billions of dollars from U.S. taxation."
Do you think that is fair? If so, then I guess you have Leona Helmsley's take on taxes then - Only the little people pay taxes.
Microsoft enjoyed more than $12 billion in total tax breaks over the past five years. In fact, Microsoft actually paid no tax at all in 1999, despite $12.3 billion in reported U.S. profits. Microsoft's tax rate for the past two years was only 1.8 percent on $21.9 billion in pretax U.S. profits.
General Electric, America's most profitable corporation, reported $50.8 billion in U.S. profits over the past five years, but paid only 11.5 percent of that in federal income taxes. That low tax rate reflected almost $12 billion in corporate tax welfare for GE.
IBM reported $5.7 billion in U.S. profits in 2000, but paid only 3.4 percent of that in federal income taxes. In 1997, IBM reported $3.1 billion in U.S. profits, and instead of paying taxes, got an outright tax rebate. Over the past five years, IBM enjoyed a total of $4.7 billion in corporate tax welfare.
In the US, corporate taxes (state + federal) are about 40%! 40%!
Maybe you meant 4%, not 40%?
even more...
If big corporations actually paid 35 percent of their U.S. profits in federal income taxes, as the tax code ostensibly requires, corporate income taxes this year would total at least $308 billion. But actual corporate-tax payments this year are expected to be only $136 billion. In other words, this year (and next), for the first time since the early 1980S, corporate-tax loopholes will actually cost the U.S. Treasury more than the amount companies pay in income taxes.
Check out for more examples.
How about this?
The more you learn!
Just because corporations cannot vote does not mean they do not influence the political process. Political power is in the hands of elected representatives. When was the last time that a political representative asked all (or even a modest percentage) of his constituants on a particular issue? If you think the DMCA was proposed and pushed by the grassroots, you are sorely mistaken. How about the criminalization of copyright violations? Or the copyright extensions? I just chose this area because it is easiest to highlight the discrepency between citizen interests and corporate interests. There are many other areas of interest, such as taxation.
Just in case you are among those who don't know what a corporation is (shamelessly ripped from nasd.com)...
Corporation: A legal entity, allowed by legislation, which permits a group of people, as shareholders (for-profit companies) or members (non-profit companies), to create an organization, which can then focus on pursuing set objectives, and empowered with legal rights which are usually only reserved for individuals, such as to sue and be sued, own property, hire employees or loan and borrow money. Also known as a "company." The primary advantage of for-profit corporations is that it provides its shareholders with a right to participate in the profits (by dividends) without any personal liability because the company absorbs the entire liability of the organization.
Well, then explain how Enron adheres to that view. Or Worldcom. Or Tyco, Aedelphi, and Global Crossing. But it's not just the scandals. Look into ADM (Archer Daniels Midland Corp) sometime. Halliburton and the no-bid contracts are another example. Hey, even Love Canal.
Next, take a look where all of the corporations are based - try Bermuda, which provides wonderful tax advantages. Look at how many companies are opening up facilities in Ireland, also for tax advantages.
And no, I don't feel 'alianated' (or even alienated, which is what I assume you meant). If you want to be pollyannaish about corporations, then go right ahead. Just don't expect me to buy into your foolish belief in the boundless benefits that corporations provide us.
Quite simply, corporations do not have much concerns about the people. Honestly, I am fine with that- corporations exist to make money. However, the large corporations are powerful enough to tilt the political and legal systems in their favor, to a level that is significantly greater than any average person - that is something that I don't think is fair.
I think that it should be illegal for corporation to lobby or influence the government in any way whatsoever. Why is that fair? From your own statement All public corporations in the US are owned by citizens. If a shareholder cares enough about an issue that affects a corporation he owns part of, then he can directly lobby the appropriate governmental agency on that matter. But I know that will never happen. But I won't be a sucker to your BS dogma that is being spread around either.
Corporations are here to save us! How come I never noticed that before?
This stuff is cool, but I think that the reason it works is because the virtual corporations still require player support. In the real world, corporations have managed to turn the tables on citizens, so that now the corporations interests supercepe that of citizens.
Actually, KD works on so many levels - you can even play it when *gasp* kids are around! It is even fun to simply watch someone else play the game. Even my 55 year old cousin liked watching it. I guess I never knew he was a fanboy.
unless...
the list is full shit!
The reason that you can't beat the price for the low end machines is because you probably care about the computer you are making. I have the same characteristic - I can't buy the cheapest components, because I know that even if they work, there will probably be a problems in the long run. Even on things like the keyboard, I would rather buy the $18 keyboard instead of the $8 one. Plus, if there any problems, you know that you will be the one fixing it.
But if you compare medium priced computers, you can definitely put together something better suited to how it is going to be used.
Well, I'm only going to disagree with you on a few notes - Steve Martin, for example. He was really funny. It's a shame he died and was replaced by a drone. George Carlin and Richard Pryor, also Chris Rock, the Daily Show are all great. So you can't knock all american humor (oh, humour).
AND as for the beer, you see, some of us Yanks found out about Beer. Only we call it "micro-brew". Why? I don't know. Maybe the term beer can only legally be applied to piss water in the US. But the "micro-brew" stuff is very good. AND, I need to say, Brit beer is really quite weak - the Germans and Belgians make great beer. The Brits, no, not really. The only context in which Brit beer is good is when compared to Miller or Bud.
But, well, the rest of it is spot on.
Form of A Supoena!
Shape of A Root Kit!
sorry, I tried...
Because it's rotating?
I think that you could make a barbell-shaped tow. One end has most of the mass, and attached to it with a tether a few hundred feet long is the actual ion drive/whatever. That way you don't need to angle the thrust as much. Place the massive part very near the asteroid, and the ion drive pulls from 5 hundred feet away.
But, according to my calculations (assuming an asteroid mass of ~1e18kg), a 20ton rocket would take 20years or so to pull the asteroid 1/2 of the earth's radius. Let me try that again - I get ~1month/(meter away from the center of mass of the asteroid). So, if you could get 1m away from the center of mass, then it would take 1 month. But, since you can't get that close, lets pick 200meters (which is still very agressive, since the asteroid is 1000meters on its major axis). 200months-> ~17years.
The Helis are way overpowered, no doubt about it. It also keeps people from playing - you finally spawn (after the 10minute wait to finally join a game) and in 5 seconds a whoop-whoop-whoop helicopter sound is heard, and the screen goes red, and you die. That happens 30 seconds later when you spawn again. Then again. When you finally get into a tank, cool - now you're safe! Uh, no, actually you aren't...
A newbie can typically last longer than 30 secs in other multiplayer FPS games like Counterstrike, so I think the spawn campers are an especially vicious problem in Battlefield.
There needs to be a anti-air infantry unit to compensate for the Helis. The AntiAir platforms are too scarce to be useful.
But then again, this is my opinion after giving up on Battlefield 2 after a few attempts. It is a pretty cool game, but it's not easy to enjoy.
Oh yeah - show me how ID uses mathematics. And not just "Noah's ark was 100cubits long".
How about this - several years ago, some bacteria were found to be able to digest nylon. Evolution explains that nicely - there was no nylon available, so there was no need to develop the ability to digest it. Once nylon was invented, it then became an 'evolutionary force' (although I think that factor is a more approriate term). Some years pass, and eventually some bacteria, through random mutation, developed that ability to digest it.
So, how would ID explain the nylon eating bacteria?
Excellent point. But why would they not be dickheads about it, since SBC is basically dickheads about everything (to wit: reselling DSL lines, municipal WiFi)
If Google were to provide broadband to my house for less than twice what SBC charges, then I would be on GoogleBB in a heartbeat. Screw SBC with that kind of attitude. I figure that it would take Google at least 15 years to turn as evil as SBC, so I would worry about the threat of GooglEvil then.
Let me provide an example:
Compare the original theatical release to the extended DVD version. There is no argument that the extended release version tells the story better.
OK - your first thought is "DUH - the theatical release was the longest you can make a movie, so some things had to get taken out".
But then look at what was IN the theatical release that must have been deemed more important than actually telling the story - yes, the "Stair jumping in the Mines of Moria", hopping from tumbling step to crumbling step. So 10 minutes of some stupid video game excerpt was more important than explaining how Isildur died.
There is a whole host of things, from Gimli in the comic relief role, to Sauruman being a servant of Sauron, which simply add nothing to the story.
This may surprise you, but the Elves at Helm's Deep didn't bother me. But the Elrond lying to his daughter - that subplot was lame. I guess you think that the original LOTR books should all be taken out and burned, so that only Peter Jackson's Masterpiece should be available for the masses.