I was going to say that an organised armed force of Palestinians would just be a convenient target for Israeli tanks and air-to-ground missiles. But the Israelis seem to be doing a fine job with the inconvenient civilian targets anyway.
After all, if it was patented, there wouldn't be any need to reverse engineer it, since the spec would be public. And it also wouldn't be covered by trade secret legislation in California.
You can avoid the German government by not going to Germany (unpleasantness in 1860-1871, 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 notwithstanding). It's a lot harder to avoid Microsoft.
1/6 G is still a hassle compared with 0 G on a space station at a Earth/Moon Lagrange point. The Moon may have other advantages, but for the 4 points you list, space station is better.
I read this a while back, and agree with pretty much everything the reviewer wrote. I'm not sure he covered quite how disturbing some of the ideas in the book are. The mix of magic and technology is quite well done. The machine they use to go to Hell (literally) and the technician's narrative sticks in my mind.
If you have a trade secret, and someone posts it to, e.g., Slashdot, that does not give every/. reader the right to republish it on their personal websites.
Now, if you have 400 trade secrets, and you burn them all onto a shiny metal disk, and you sell 20 million copies of that disk, and someone works out from one of those disks what the secrets are, your case is a lot weaker. Independent discovery is, AFAIK, a defense against trade secret violations (and copyright, too, but not patents or trademarks).
Actually, I would dispute all the examples above. Not that a robot has to be humanoid (R2D2?), but I think a robot has to be able to adapt the task it is doing to the environment it is in. A simple example would be a paint-spraying robot that can tell when the piece to be painted is in a different orientation than the piece before.
A robot that brings me beer would have to be able to find the beer even if it wasn't in the usual place in the beer cupboard (beer in fridges? [shudder]).
Name me another OS that freezes when an application attempts a divide by zero. Then tell me how many warships have that OS controlling their propulsion.
But that wasn't the thrust of the post I was replying to. That poster was arguing that we should kill a lot of Iraqis (although presumably as few as possible) in order to stop SH from using a nuke he doesn't have yet (although undoubtedly wants, and undoubtedly would use if he had one).
Just because it's serious and tragic doesn't mean that it can't, from a surreal viewpoint, be funny.
Oh, and when I mess up, my company loses money. When people's lives are at stake you need to think a little harder about why those Al-Qaeda terrorists have maple leaves on their packs.
While El Reg does love to bash Microsoft (one of the reasons I read it!) they also have a point here about the various companies different strategies for online gaming.
MS is building a theme park, and will charge a toll for players and (probably) for game companies too. Sony is staying out of the expensive business of physically connecting game players to game servers, and instead letting the game developers provide the servers. If the history of the Internet so far is any guide, Sony's approach is more likely to succeed.
Absolutely you can lose at the Sims. Like when you leave it running overnight and come back in the morning to find the husband dead (from a kitchen fire because you never had him study cooking) and all the furniture sold because the wife can't hold down a job because she's always out in the yard crying over the gravestone.
Slashdot Mirror
I was going to say that an organised armed force of Palestinians would just be a convenient target for Israeli tanks and air-to-ground missiles. But the Israelis seem to be doing a fine job with the inconvenient civilian targets anyway.
If you like women who can touch their knees together without their thighs touching, I suppose.
My wife got far more out of that scene than I did. She said she had no idea Englishmen had such nice bodies. And I'm English!
After all, if it was patented, there wouldn't be any need to reverse engineer it, since the spec would be public. And it also wouldn't be covered by trade secret legislation in California.
You can avoid the German government by not going to Germany (unpleasantness in 1860-1871, 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 notwithstanding). It's a lot harder to avoid Microsoft.
Apparently someone let antigames come into contact with some games, and the resulting explosion slashdotted their server.
Wake me up when Ford is the only company that is allowed to provide cars in my area.
Thanks for the link. Obviously many /.ers use Google - Natalie Portman is the #1 search term for the month!
1/6 G is still a hassle compared with 0 G on a space station at a Earth/Moon Lagrange point. The Moon may have other advantages, but for the 4 points you list, space station is better.
I read this a while back, and agree with pretty much everything the reviewer wrote. I'm not sure he covered quite how disturbing some of the ideas in the book are. The mix of magic and technology is quite well done. The machine they use to go to Hell (literally) and the technician's narrative sticks in my mind.
If you have a trade secret, and someone posts it to, e.g., Slashdot, that does not give every /. reader the right to republish it on their personal websites.
Now, if you have 400 trade secrets, and you burn them all onto a shiny metal disk, and you sell 20 million copies of that disk, and someone works out from one of those disks what the secrets are, your case is a lot weaker. Independent discovery is, AFAIK, a defense against trade secret violations (and copyright, too, but not patents or trademarks).
Ssh! The next thing you know there will be ads in books.
A record player has one arm.
Actually, I would dispute all the examples above. Not that a robot has to be humanoid (R2D2?), but I think a robot has to be able to adapt the task it is doing to the environment it is in. A simple example would be a paint-spraying robot that can tell when the piece to be painted is in a different orientation than the piece before.
A robot that brings me beer would have to be able to find the beer even if it wasn't in the usual place in the beer cupboard (beer in fridges? [shudder]).
Name me another OS that freezes when an application attempts a divide by zero. Then tell me how many warships have that OS controlling their propulsion.
Presumably it was AQ that the US thought they were bombing?
<rant>
Why formkeys? What kind of stupid category is that?
</rant>
But that wasn't the thrust of the post I was replying to. That poster was arguing that we should kill a lot of Iraqis (although presumably as few as possible) in order to stop SH from using a nuke he doesn't have yet (although undoubtedly wants, and undoubtedly would use if he had one).
... absolute power is even more fun!
That's why we lock up murderers before they commit the crime, right?
You are Tom Cruise and I clamin my five pounds.
I think for a living. I do not find the idea of being told I can't think for myself at all appealing. So I don't do it.
Not that I'm particularly knocking the Army's training methods. I just think I'm very poorly suited to being a soldier.
Just because it's serious and tragic doesn't mean that it can't, from a surreal viewpoint, be funny.
Oh, and when I mess up, my company loses money. When people's lives are at stake you need to think a little harder about why those Al-Qaeda terrorists have maple leaves on their packs.
No, that was deedle-dee doo, deedle-dee doo, deedle-dee doop dee-doo.
The Trumpton theme was the tune played out on the clock tower. I can't remember how that went either.
You refer to MSDE. It is the SQL server engine without the elves.
I'd be more impressed if the #2 result was "Deedle-dee doop dee deedly doo, deedly deedly deedly doo"
While El Reg does love to bash Microsoft (one of the reasons I read it!) they also have a point here about the various companies different strategies for online gaming.
MS is building a theme park, and will charge a toll for players and (probably) for game companies too. Sony is staying out of the expensive business of physically connecting game players to game servers, and instead letting the game developers provide the servers. If the history of the Internet so far is any guide, Sony's approach is more likely to succeed.
Absolutely you can lose at the Sims. Like when you leave it running overnight and come back in the morning to find the husband dead (from a kitchen fire because you never had him study cooking) and all the furniture sold because the wife can't hold down a job because she's always out in the yard crying over the gravestone.
I play the Sims when Gareth (6), Fiona (3) and Lisa (*cough* >21 *cough*) are asleep.