Heinlein also wrote "Blowups Happen" back ca. WWII (?) wherein he describes a nuclear reactor that might go critical and blow up with a nuclear blast, and the FBI paid him a visit to find out how he knew such a thing could happen.
I heartily agree about stereovision. With good stereovision games will quickly come gloves and other manipulators. A good head unit (ahem, so to speak) will do wonders for gaming immersion.
>> IMHO, gaming is horrible at anything less than
>> 60fps and disabling vsync is ugly.
>
> How can this be? Anything over 28 FPS is
> indistinguishable to mere humans.
Release this factoid to the garbage can where it belongs. I can tell an enormous difference between 60 fps and 30 fps.
Last time I checked, even monster machines have problems with Tribes II or being inside of cities in various online games like Anarchy Online and Dark Age of Camelot.
> Try 16 years. Windows 1.0 was announced in 1985,
> and released about a year later.
That was around the time Microsoft released Basic for Macs, complete with an open file "dialog" box that only had one field -- the field to type in the path and name of your basic file to open -- just like on the windowless PC! Pick and choose file system dialog? We don't need no pick and choose file system dialog.
> 2 things 3dfx was not making much progress towards
< sarcasm = "on"> Although the flagship ability in their last generation of cards, the ability to blur a high FPS scene until it looked like a 30 FPS movie, certainly made me want to rush out and buy the product! </sarcasm> Too bad they never finished their ReAntialiasBlockification(TM) technology.
And let's not forget the worst bottleneck on Macs of all: The lack of games "bottleneck".
I was a diehard Mac-o-phile all through the '80's and into the mid '90's. When it was time to move on from my ancient IIci with Radius Rocket 040 40 MHz upgrade, I moved to a PII 266 PC.
Why?
Games, and nothing more.
At home, I surf, can do equally well with same programs on either. Can use Office Suite on either, which is all I use. I program for PC's for a living (used to do Mac). What's left? Games, and that's it.
PII 266
PIII 450
And next, whatever the latest is + GeForce 4 + Duke Nukem 4Ever.
> Thank God that hilarious JarJar character was
> added to pull that movie out of the toilet.
No kidding! When the Gungadin's were being attacked and slaughtered en mass near the end of the movie, I laughted myself silly watching JarJar knock down still more of his friends swinging that blue ball around. If only he were present in the beginning of Saving Private Ryan, that movie wouldn't have sucked so much and he would have brought much needed comic relief to an otherwise overly stressful and serious scene.
I also liked how the king of the Gungadoos knew JarJar personally, and how the king's bodyguards let him hang out with the king in spite of being ostracized for thievery, gross destructive negligence bordering on treason, and what-not. That loveable ne'er-do-well!
On the other hand, I did complain that JarJar's leap into the water was pathetic looking, so they did have him do a Triple Lindy this time.
Well, what other solution is there to the Fermi Paradox than that there is imminent discovery of an easy-to-accidentally-do way to destroy the earth? Has to be any day now, nah, that ain't it. Nevermind.
Clearly there would be some civilzation of earth-level capacity that has developed self-sustaining space colonies that wouldn't be susceptible to destruction by some "goof".
> I thought the moon belonged to America?! I didn't
> see no Russian flag up there...wtf...its ours
> goddammit...add another star to the flag and lets
> appoint Gary Condit as the First Governor
Brilliant thinking, dude. The last thing we need it to put Condit somewhere where even 300 pound women are spinners.
Re:Lunar mining could change orbits and weather!
on
Mining On The Moon
·
· Score: 1
As the earth rotates faster than the moon revolves, the moon's gravity tugging on the water (tides) and land itself transfers energey from the earth to the moon. The earth's rotation slows, the moon gains energey, pushing it farther away. The system will stabilize when the moon revolves around the earth at the same rate the earth rotates. Earth's day will be as long as the lunar month.
Already the moon has completed the first step of this -- the gravitational effects by the earth on the moon have caused the moon's rotation speed to match the moon's revoloution (lunar month).
I remember an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, where, shortly after being stranded in the Delta Quadrant, they began to fuss about how to replenish their antimatter supply, produced much the same way, at a loss on the big planets for the purpose of powering spaceships.
It reminds me of this episode of Space: 1999, or maybe it was Sailor Moon, I forget, where the evil head ridge of the week...
Exactly. Molecules at room temperature on the earth are what, moving at about 1000 MPH? That's average, of course. Some faster, some slower.
On the moon, they only need go faster than the moon's escape velocity, then, if they don't hit another and happen to be pointed generally upward, bye bye Gracie.
Mars' atmosphere is theorized to have been lost this way.
Earth, fortunately, has a high enough escape velocity that the rate of leaving molecules doesn't exceed the arriving ones.
You're underestimating the power of the radical environmentalist to fantasize all sorts of things.
They're hooked on the crack that exciting, if dangerous and evil, things are happening as we "destroy" earth's environment, much like the way old retirees are hooked on the excitement of the Weather Channel.
Slashdot Mirror
> Arthur went back to the Patent Office. 'But, Mr
> Clarke,' they said, 'the satellite already exists.
> You should have come to us earlier.
It's one of the rare crimes that should be a capital offense, like murder and high treason.
You might be thinking of Nurse Chapel talking to some injured guest star, "This < whatever it was > has one word on it: EAT!"
I do find the little plug-and-play memory cards they used being a little prescient with floppies, swappable micro hard drives, and flash RAMs.
Damn. Someone beat me to this.
Heinlein also wrote "Blowups Happen" back ca. WWII (?) wherein he describes a nuclear reactor that might go critical and blow up with a nuclear blast, and the FBI paid him a visit to find out how he knew such a thing could happen.
I heartily agree about stereovision. With good stereovision games will quickly come gloves and other manipulators. A good head unit (ahem, so to speak) will do wonders for gaming immersion.
>> IMHO, gaming is horrible at anything less than
>> 60fps and disabling vsync is ugly.
>
> How can this be? Anything over 28 FPS is
> indistinguishable to mere humans.
Release this factoid to the garbage can where it belongs. I can tell an enormous difference between 60 fps and 30 fps.
Last time I checked, even monster machines have problems with Tribes II or being inside of cities in various online games like Anarchy Online and Dark Age of Camelot.
I had the Matrox M3D, the only card besides the Voodoo (1) and a professional Integraphics 3D monster card that could run a (mini) OpenGL'd Quake.
Then they started pushing the Millenium II, and that was sour grapes as it couldn't even do that much.
> Try 16 years. Windows 1.0 was announced in 1985,
> and released about a year later.
That was around the time Microsoft released Basic for Macs, complete with an open file "dialog" box that only had one field -- the field to type in the path and name of your basic file to open -- just like on the windowless PC! Pick and choose file system dialog? We don't need no pick and choose file system dialog.
> 2 things 3dfx was not making much progress towards
/sarcasm> Too bad they never finished their ReAntialiasBlockification(TM) technology.
< sarcasm = "on"> Although the flagship ability in their last generation of cards, the ability to blur a high FPS scene until it looked like a 30 FPS movie, certainly made me want to rush out and buy the product! <
And let's not forget the worst bottleneck on Macs of all: The lack of games "bottleneck".
I was a diehard Mac-o-phile all through the '80's and into the mid '90's. When it was time to move on from my ancient IIci with Radius Rocket 040 40 MHz upgrade, I moved to a PII 266 PC.
Why?
Games, and nothing more.
At home, I surf, can do equally well with same programs on either. Can use Office Suite on either, which is all I use. I program for PC's for a living (used to do Mac). What's left? Games, and that's it.
PII 266
PIII 450
And next, whatever the latest is + GeForce 4 + Duke Nukem 4Ever.
> Thank God that hilarious JarJar character was
> added to pull that movie out of the toilet.
No kidding! When the Gungadin's were being attacked and slaughtered en mass near the end of the movie, I laughted myself silly watching JarJar knock down still more of his friends swinging that blue ball around. If only he were present in the beginning of Saving Private Ryan, that movie wouldn't have sucked so much and he would have brought much needed comic relief to an otherwise overly stressful and serious scene.
I also liked how the king of the Gungadoos knew JarJar personally, and how the king's bodyguards let him hang out with the king in spite of being ostracized for thievery, gross destructive negligence bordering on treason, and what-not. That loveable ne'er-do-well!
On the other hand, I did complain that JarJar's leap into the water was pathetic looking, so they did have him do a Triple Lindy this time.
Why should we be concerned a couple of dirt grubbers who can't get to the moon anyway might be "esthetically displeased?"
I've been saying it for years. I am for the complete Trantorization of Earth.
In fact, I think I'll make a little change...
Actually, I see shitloads of oxygen in that list.
Well, what other solution is there to the Fermi Paradox than that there is imminent discovery of an easy-to-accidentally-do way to destroy the earth? Has to be any day now, nah, that ain't it. Nevermind.
Clearly there would be some civilzation of earth-level capacity that has developed self-sustaining space colonies that wouldn't be susceptible to destruction by some "goof".
> I thought the moon belonged to America?! I didn't
> see no Russian flag up there...wtf...its ours
> goddammit...add another star to the flag and lets
> appoint Gary Condit as the First Governor
Brilliant thinking, dude. The last thing we need it to put Condit somewhere where even 300 pound women are spinners.
New Kraft MoonCheese(TM)*
* Does not contain actual moon cheese.
As the earth rotates faster than the moon revolves, the moon's gravity tugging on the water (tides) and land itself transfers energey from the earth to the moon. The earth's rotation slows, the moon gains energey, pushing it farther away. The system will stabilize when the moon revolves around the earth at the same rate the earth rotates. Earth's day will be as long as the lunar month.
Already the moon has completed the first step of this -- the gravitational effects by the earth on the moon have caused the moon's rotation speed to match the moon's revoloution (lunar month).
Exactly.
I remember an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, where, shortly after being stranded in the Delta Quadrant, they began to fuss about how to replenish their antimatter supply, produced much the same way, at a loss on the big planets for the purpose of powering spaceships.
It reminds me of this episode of Space: 1999, or maybe it was Sailor Moon, I forget, where the evil head ridge of the week...
Exactly. Molecules at room temperature on the earth are what, moving at about 1000 MPH? That's average, of course. Some faster, some slower.
On the moon, they only need go faster than the moon's escape velocity, then, if they don't hit another and happen to be pointed generally upward, bye bye Gracie.
Mars' atmosphere is theorized to have been lost this way.
Earth, fortunately, has a high enough escape velocity that the rate of leaving molecules doesn't exceed the arriving ones.
It's not even blow, really.
It's really just a bunch of balls banging around against each other.
And, of course:
3) The universe certainly wasn't put here so we could sit in bearskin, sorry, woven grass tunics and talk about how great life could have been.
> The whole universe was not put here so that we
> could carefully destroy planets one at a time.
We've just cloned ourselves.
We're about to bring back to life extinct species.
We have robots that walk around your house just fine. Picking things up is a little way around the corner.
Go back to your flea-infested log cabin, dude, and leave the rest of us alone.
You're underestimating the power of the radical environmentalist to fantasize all sorts of things.
They're hooked on the crack that exciting, if dangerous and evil, things are happening as we "destroy" earth's environment, much like the way old retirees are hooked on the excitement of the Weather Channel.