I'm not sure I see any real value in their research, but I am concerned about their methodology - that's an awfully small data set (only six monkeys, and only over one month) from which to draw any concrete conclusions...
Diablo II is a great game, definitely worth £30/$50/whatever of any gamer's money, but it's a shame that the online experience has been ruined for many fans by the ridiculous number of hacks that have spawned up since the game was released.
Credit to Blizzard, the game's another masterpiece that's playable way past the point where most games just become boring (yes, I know DII can be repetitive, but it's repetitive in a fun way) and it's done all it could to patch hacks, exploits, etc when they've surfaced, but all the duping, hacking of uber items, etc really spoilt a great game for many players.
I know that I, several friends and many others all stopped playing DII for that very reason.
I suppose, in a way, Blizzard should be flattered that so many people out there were so obsessed at having the best of everything that they were prepared to hack the game to death. Nobody writes hacks for awful games that are barely played. But that's scant consellation for those of us who's experiences have been soured by a small, mindless minority.
...#98 A piece of the Space Shuttle Columbia with NASA verification [155 points]...
Does anybody else think that this is in bad taste? Why not ask for shrapnel removed from a Iraqi bombing victim or one of the envelopes that anthrax spores were mailed in last year.
I appreciate that NASA may have given away or auctioned off parts of Columbia prior to the recent disaster but, legitimately acquired or not, why ask for a piece of that particular shuttle? Why not a piece of Atlantis, Discovery, Endeavour or even Enterprise?
I'm sorry but, even though I enjoy a good scavenger hunt as much as the next man, I can't see how anyone could possibly enjoy the 155 points they could get from a Columbia debris fragment. (And, clearly, getting hold of a debris fragment is the target goal here.)
Sick, sick, sick.
I'm surprised at the source
on
Shuttle Politics
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Given that Joe Barton represents the state of Texas, home of NASA, this is a major surprise.
Most Texans (and especially Houstonians) take extreme pride in the space programme. You only have to look at the name of Houston's NBA and MLB franchises - the Rockets and the Astros - to see how synonymous the words "Houston" and "space" have become. ("Houston" was even the first word spoken on the moon.)
But lets look at the rationale behind this "frank" admission.
The longer the shuttle fleet is grounded, the more likely it is that the fleet will be put through a series of expensive upgrades and overhauls. Furthermore, the more likely it is that serious amounts of money will be spent on looking at the next generation of NASA manned orbiters. (There's no way that George W. Bush, the former Governor of Texas, will want to go down in history as the President that mothballed NASA and destroyed a national symbol of pride - that's not the way he wants to be remembered.)
And just who'll benefit from all that extra money pouring into space research? Why, astronautical and aeronautical engineering companies, oil, power and chemical firms, big and small, especially those that are based in (yes, you guessed it) Texas.
Is grounding the shuttle fleet for the next ten years a good idea? Well, I don't have all the facts but the failure rate does suggest that the programme does need to be more closely examined.
Is a new orbiter the best way forward? Again, I'm not on the NASA payroll so I'm not the most informed individual but I'd argue that we need a reusable platform for getting to and from the International Space Station now, and a more modern, flexible and efficient replacement ASAP.
I don't know if his trademark application was successful (and, frankly, in this particular case, I almost don't care) but it's pretty damning of the USPTO if it did award a trademark for to someone for a domain name that belonged to a third party.
Maybe the paperwork that was filed with the application was fraudulent - it wouldn't surprise me, given the rest of the sordid history surrounding this domain name custody case - but I would hope that the USPTO would check just who owned a domain name before recognising someone's right to own a trademark based upon that name.
Because, if domain name ownership isn't a legal or moral requirement when applying for the relevant trademark, this will open the floodgates to a slew of tenuous and unfounded applications. Anyone could file for a trademark for business.com, shop.com, maps.com, tickets.com, or any other generic (non-company specific) domain name in the hope of fleecing the legitimate domain name owners in a civil courtroom.
Every way you look at it, this trademark application stinks. It should never be granted. Hopefully, the USPTO will see sense and learn something from this sad story.
The entire series of 9 short CG-Animatrion/Japanese Anime films will soon be available on DVD. Depending on your MPAA stance (and what day of the week it is) follow the white rabbit via one of the links below to pre-order your copy.
Being listed on the stock exchange hasn't lead to these companies (and many others like them) being denied defense contracts or them leaking military secrets so why should you expect that to be a problem for SAIC?
Any landing that you can walk away from is a good landing. Especially when you're talking about a manned re-entry vehicle.
Lest we forget, the last time an Earth-bound crew were returning from space their orbiter disintegrated and all seven astronauts were killed. Landing a couple of hundred miles off course and having to wait two hours for groundside assistance is a small price to pay for a safe return.
Ah, well, you've obviously only got the basic, economy model. I'd suggest that you ask for the deluxe, super-duper version but it's obviously a bit late for that - I don't think that retrogrades are available (yet).:=)
It's tightly integrated, I carry it around with me all the time, I never lose it and it's never crashed yet. It doesn't cost a thing and it comes as standard.
First of all, just so everyone can flame me for being a philistine, I'll list the various flavours of Star Trek in the order in which I rate them: DS9, TNG, Voyager, TOS, Enterprise.
Now, given that I find watching all but a handful of episodes of TOS a painful experience, that should give you some indication of how badly I think of Enterprise.
Granted, I've only watched about 8-10 episodes of this latest show, but it doesn't take more than that to see that this latest offering is dire, dire, dire.
It's not that the show predates all other Treks per se, it's just that putting it before all the others shows in the Trek universe timeline seriously limits the writers as to what they can and can't do with the characters, races and technology available to them. Putting your writers in a creative straightjacket, limiting their creative scope and presenting the viewers with a wider story that leads them somewhere that they've already been doesn't work very well - just look at the Star Wars prequels for evidence. (So that's yes to your first question; but not for the reasons that you were probably expecting.)
And it's not just that it rewrites Star Trek history on the fly (Klingons that look like TNG/DS9/Voyager versions, rather than TOS oneS, etc), rather that it does so so badly. (So that's a yes to your second question; it's not entirely faithful to the previously established Trek universe.)
But if I had to give just one reason why Enterprise sucks it would be that it's dull as dishwater. None of the characters seem to have any depth to them, and there isn't a single one that I can empathise or admire in the way that I do Data, Worf, Picard, Sisko, Odo, O'Brien, Chakotay or Spock.
Frankly, Enterprise seems like a one-dimensional show with a bunch of one-dimensional characters.
OK, that Amazon.co.uk link doesn't want to work any more (although it seemed fine when I previewed the post), so either follow the link and then search the kitchenware section for Porsche or try the following links for some visuals and specs:
Don't laugh, but their kettle, toaster, coffee maker and citrus press are all worthy of drooling over too.
Oh, and so is the Data Bank, a FireWire external hard disk drive that they designed for LaCie, that's styled to look like a silver ingot.
I'd link directly to their kitchen accessories but their flash-based site is annoying. If you're interested in viewing them, look at them here, courtesy of Amazon.co.uk.
Amen to that. The smart move here is to wait until after all three movies have been out on DVD for about a year and then buy the "ultimate, super-duper, this-is-the-one-that-you-really-want" box set that contains all three extended additions and tons of extras.
If you really need to see them on DVD before then either borrow a friend's copies or rent them out.
Anything less will only lead to disappointment, in the next life if not this one.
It seems like the USPTO will let you patent just about anything.
Sooner or later, someone's going to point out that all this excess patenting is going to stifle rather than encourage invention and innovation. I mean, why bother developing an idea from first thought to reality if some suit somewhere who's never spent more than a few minutes on a distantly- (if at all) related product or service can shut you down before you get off the ground and/or demand crippling royalties from you for the fruits of your labour?
In the case of the USPTO, the lunatics truly are running the asylum.
Seriously, we could talk about what if's all day long, whether about the internet, global politics, the SARS virus, or even the DH rule (I'm against it) but it won't change a damn thing.
Last time I checked, actions speak louder than words.
I'd love to see some action to seriously combat spam because, frankly, I think it's going to do some serious damage over the next few years if the current situation is allowed to continue unchecked.
When people stop checking their inboxes because finding genuine messages is like finding a needle in a haystack, and when 25 or even 50 percent of all internet traffic becomes spam, thus slowing down the entire system for everyone and (more importantly) costing infrastructure providers, ISPs and ultimately the end-user serious money, it'll be a bit late to address the problem.
Better that it's done today - I'd rather deal with the disease now rather than treat the symptoms later.
You think that GTA3 on the PC has been a big let down?
Well, I'm sorry, but I think you're in a very small minority.
Yes, the PC version is little more than a port of the PS2 game, but the ability to create your own radio station using any MP3s you've got lying around is fantastic.
There's nothing quite like racing around town listening to Radiohead, the Red Hot Chili Peppers,Eminem, or whatever takes your fancy.
It might not be massively multiplayer but it is fantastic fun.
Play Phone Booth (the movie) for real...
on
GTA3 Multiplayer
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· Score: 3, Funny
Just drop a nice weapon in a wide open space and pick off the other players with your sniper rifle when they go after it...
Firebird was the name of British Telecom's original software division. If I remember correctly, they published Elite on various 8-bit and 16-bit formats, Starglider on the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST, and various others.
There's prior art for you, and prior art in the computing field no less.
And now for something completely different...
on
Python in a Nutshell
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· Score: 3, Funny
You know, when I saw that title, I just knew that there was a joke in there involoving Monty Python, nuts and hell (nutshell, nuts hell).
If I had the time I'd come up with it, and I'm sure it would be the funniest joke in the world, much better than the German joke, "two peanuts were walking down the street and one was assorted".
Unfortunately, I have to go out for a silly walk, and then onto a mouse club, so I'll have to leave it to someone else to inject some much needed hilarity into these proceedings.
Let's see, to do the clinical tests correctly you'd first need to test the chemicals in their environment (against the appropriate type of target vegetation, temperatures, humidity, concentrations, etc.). So before using them in Vietnam I suppose we should have used them first in another country such as Cambodia or Laos, over a span of about a decade, so we could determine how safe it was.
What about that water and other humanitarian supplies we are trucking into Iraq? Do we really know the long-term safety of them on people in the Middle East? Before we send them any supplies, it would only be prudent to test the long-term safety of the food and water, say over the next five years, before we let them have it (after all, they are used to drinking their own water, how do we know if our water will be safe for them?). If they get sick off of our water we wouldn't want you to accuse the US of using chemical agents and attempting genocide.
1. Thanks for ignoring my question - I assume that you think that the US shouldn't take responsibility for the mess that its chemical agents cause? Just like the current US administration doesn't think that it should clean up the mess that the DU munitions fired in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq have caused?
2. Responsible testing can be carried out in a laboratory. You can duplicate any environment on Earth in a lab, and testing the effects of agents on flora and fauna isn't anything revolutionary. If cosmetic companies can do it, then so can governments.
3. Last time I checked, H20 was H20. Duh. And if you think that the US is spending even a tenth of what it spent on fighting this war on helping the Iraqi people get back on their feet now, then you're sadly mistaken. It was only when someone pointed out that failing to protect the hospitals was a violation of the Geneva Convention did the US forces even attempt to do the right thing.
Slashdot Mirror
This was research carried out by the University of Plymouth (that's Plymouth in the UK, not in the US) at the nearby Paignton Zoo.
And here's the original BBC News story.
I'm not sure I see any real value in their research, but I am concerned about their methodology - that's an awfully small data set (only six monkeys, and only over one month) from which to draw any concrete conclusions...
Diablo II is a great game, definitely worth £30/$50/whatever of any gamer's money, but it's a shame that the online experience has been ruined for many fans by the ridiculous number of hacks that have spawned up since the game was released.
Credit to Blizzard, the game's another masterpiece that's playable way past the point where most games just become boring (yes, I know DII can be repetitive, but it's repetitive in a fun way) and it's done all it could to patch hacks, exploits, etc when they've surfaced, but all the duping, hacking of uber items, etc really spoilt a great game for many players.
I know that I, several friends and many others all stopped playing DII for that very reason.
I suppose, in a way, Blizzard should be flattered that so many people out there were so obsessed at having the best of everything that they were prepared to hack the game to death. Nobody writes hacks for awful games that are barely played. But that's scant consellation for those of us who's experiences have been soured by a small, mindless minority.
...#98 A piece of the Space Shuttle Columbia with NASA verification [155 points]...
Does anybody else think that this is in bad taste? Why not ask for shrapnel removed from a Iraqi bombing victim or one of the envelopes that anthrax spores were mailed in last year.
I appreciate that NASA may have given away or auctioned off parts of Columbia prior to the recent disaster but, legitimately acquired or not, why ask for a piece of that particular shuttle? Why not a piece of Atlantis, Discovery, Endeavour or even Enterprise?
I'm sorry but, even though I enjoy a good scavenger hunt as much as the next man, I can't see how anyone could possibly enjoy the 155 points they could get from a Columbia debris fragment. (And, clearly, getting hold of a debris fragment is the target goal here.)
Sick, sick, sick.
Given that Joe Barton represents the state of Texas, home of NASA, this is a major surprise.
Most Texans (and especially Houstonians) take extreme pride in the space programme. You only have to look at the name of Houston's NBA and MLB franchises - the Rockets and the Astros - to see how synonymous the words "Houston" and "space" have become. ("Houston" was even the first word spoken on the moon.)
But lets look at the rationale behind this "frank" admission.
The longer the shuttle fleet is grounded, the more likely it is that the fleet will be put through a series of expensive upgrades and overhauls. Furthermore, the more likely it is that serious amounts of money will be spent on looking at the next generation of NASA manned orbiters. (There's no way that George W. Bush, the former Governor of Texas, will want to go down in history as the President that mothballed NASA and destroyed a national symbol of pride - that's not the way he wants to be remembered.)
And just who'll benefit from all that extra money pouring into space research? Why, astronautical and aeronautical engineering companies, oil, power and chemical firms, big and small, especially those that are based in (yes, you guessed it) Texas.
Is grounding the shuttle fleet for the next ten years a good idea? Well, I don't have all the facts but the failure rate does suggest that the programme does need to be more closely examined.
Is a new orbiter the best way forward? Again, I'm not on the NASA payroll so I'm not the most informed individual but I'd argue that we need a reusable platform for getting to and from the International Space Station now, and a more modern, flexible and efficient replacement ASAP.
I don't know if his trademark application was successful (and, frankly, in this particular case, I almost don't care) but it's pretty damning of the USPTO if it did award a trademark for to someone for a domain name that belonged to a third party.
Maybe the paperwork that was filed with the application was fraudulent - it wouldn't surprise me, given the rest of the sordid history surrounding this domain name custody case - but I would hope that the USPTO would check just who owned a domain name before recognising someone's right to own a trademark based upon that name.
Because, if domain name ownership isn't a legal or moral requirement when applying for the relevant trademark, this will open the floodgates to a slew of tenuous and unfounded applications. Anyone could file for a trademark for business.com, shop.com, maps.com, tickets.com, or any other generic (non-company specific) domain name in the hope of fleecing the legitimate domain name owners in a civil courtroom.
Every way you look at it, this trademark application stinks. It should never be granted. Hopefully, the USPTO will see sense and learn something from this sad story.
The book's called Wall Street Meat.
The reviewer's cost per page calculation is just there to help you work out exactly how much a pound of Wall Street flesh costs.
The entire series of 9 short CG-Animatrion/Japanese Anime films will soon be available on DVD. Depending on your MPAA stance (and what day of the week it is) follow the white rabbit via one of the links below to pre-order your copy.
Official web site
Amazon US: available 3 June
Amazon UK: available 2 June
This is one company that i certainly hope never IPO's...imagine taking decisions about secret technologies to the stock holders...
What, like these companies?
Boeing
Lockheed Martin
United Technologies
Being listed on the stock exchange hasn't lead to these companies (and many others like them) being denied defense contracts or them leaking military secrets so why should you expect that to be a problem for SAIC?
"...high-anxiety off-course landing..."
Any landing that you can walk away from is a good landing. Especially when you're talking about a manned re-entry vehicle.
Lest we forget, the last time an Earth-bound crew were returning from space their orbiter disintegrated and all seven astronauts were killed. Landing a couple of hundred miles off course and having to wait two hours for groundside assistance is a small price to pay for a safe return.
Ah, well, you've obviously only got the basic, economy model. I'd suggest that you ask for the deluxe, super-duper version but it's obviously a bit late for that - I don't think that retrogrades are available (yet). :=)
It's tightly integrated, I carry it around with me all the time, I never lose it and it's never crashed yet. It doesn't cost a thing and it comes as standard.
It's called a "brain".
First of all, just so everyone can flame me for being a philistine, I'll list the various flavours of Star Trek in the order in which I rate them: DS9, TNG, Voyager, TOS, Enterprise.
Now, given that I find watching all but a handful of episodes of TOS a painful experience, that should give you some indication of how badly I think of Enterprise.
Granted, I've only watched about 8-10 episodes of this latest show, but it doesn't take more than that to see that this latest offering is dire, dire, dire.
It's not that the show predates all other Treks per se, it's just that putting it before all the others shows in the Trek universe timeline seriously limits the writers as to what they can and can't do with the characters, races and technology available to them. Putting your writers in a creative straightjacket, limiting their creative scope and presenting the viewers with a wider story that leads them somewhere that they've already been doesn't work very well - just look at the Star Wars prequels for evidence. (So that's yes to your first question; but not for the reasons that you were probably expecting.)
And it's not just that it rewrites Star Trek history on the fly (Klingons that look like TNG/DS9/Voyager versions, rather than TOS oneS, etc), rather that it does so so badly. (So that's a yes to your second question; it's not entirely faithful to the previously established Trek universe.)
But if I had to give just one reason why Enterprise sucks it would be that it's dull as dishwater. None of the characters seem to have any depth to them, and there isn't a single one that I can empathise or admire in the way that I do Data, Worf, Picard, Sisko, Odo, O'Brien, Chakotay or Spock.
Frankly, Enterprise seems like a one-dimensional show with a bunch of one-dimensional characters.
Plain text advertising works in print media so why shouldn't it work online too?
I don't need to see a picture of a memory module to be interested in an add offering to sell me 512MB RAM at a good price.
Remember, content is king.
OK, that Amazon.co.uk link doesn't want to work any more (although it seemed fine when I previewed the post), so either follow the link and then search the kitchenware section for Porsche or try the following links for some visuals and specs:
Siemens Porsche Cordless Kettle
Siemens Porsche Coffe Maker
Siemens Porsche Cool Wall Toaster
Siemens Porsche Citrus Press
Siemens Porsche Blender
And for those of us with flowing locks:
Siemens Porsche Hair Dryer
Don't laugh, but their kettle, toaster, coffee maker and citrus press are all worthy of drooling over too.
Oh, and so is the Data Bank, a FireWire external hard disk drive that they designed for LaCie, that's styled to look like a silver ingot.
I'd link directly to their kitchen accessories but their flash-based site is annoying. If you're interested in viewing them, look at them here, courtesy of Amazon.co.uk.
Amen to that. The smart move here is to wait until after all three movies have been out on DVD for about a year and then buy the "ultimate, super-duper, this-is-the-one-that-you-really-want" box set that contains all three extended additions and tons of extras.
If you really need to see them on DVD before then either borrow a friend's copies or rent them out.
Anything less will only lead to disappointment, in the next life if not this one.
Jurassic Park? Seriously? A movie where a kid looks at an Apple desktop and says "This is a Unix system ... I know this!" to her brother?
Man, how as a card-carrying geek can you include a movie in which a kid describes a pre-OS X Apple Mac as a Unix system in your list?
(On the other hand, maybe this is where Steve Jobs and co got the idea for using Unix as the core to OS X from. But I kinda doubt it.)
Better choices for living up to the hype:
Terminator 2: Judgement Day - great special effects, consistent, well-told and well-paced story
Titanic - you knew it was going to sink, what you didn't know was how great it was going to look sinking
X-Men - immensly watchable from start to finish, even if the small budget meant a shorter than ideal film
Batman and Robin - I'm kidding. Can't you take a joke?
Minority Report - Wow. A great distopic view of the future that even Tom Cruise couldn't screw up.
There are others, but these four will suffice for now.
I'm guessing that it's Half-Life 2: Full Life.
Or Half-Life 2: How The Other Half Lives.
Or Half-Life 2: You Only Live Twice.
Or Half-Life 2: Life Begins At 2.
Or Half-Life 2: Half-Liberty. (With the third game to be called Half-Life 3: Half-Pursuit Of Happiness.)
It seems like the USPTO will let you patent just about anything.
Sooner or later, someone's going to point out that all this excess patenting is going to stifle rather than encourage invention and innovation. I mean, why bother developing an idea from first thought to reality if some suit somewhere who's never spent more than a few minutes on a distantly- (if at all) related product or service can shut you down before you get off the ground and/or demand crippling royalties from you for the fruits of your labour?
In the case of the USPTO, the lunatics truly are running the asylum.
Seriously, we could talk about what if's all day long, whether about the internet, global politics, the SARS virus, or even the DH rule (I'm against it) but it won't change a damn thing.
Last time I checked, actions speak louder than words.
I'd love to see some action to seriously combat spam because, frankly, I think it's going to do some serious damage over the next few years if the current situation is allowed to continue unchecked.
When people stop checking their inboxes because finding genuine messages is like finding a needle in a haystack, and when 25 or even 50 percent of all internet traffic becomes spam, thus slowing down the entire system for everyone and (more importantly) costing infrastructure providers, ISPs and ultimately the end-user serious money, it'll be a bit late to address the problem.
Better that it's done today - I'd rather deal with the disease now rather than treat the symptoms later.
You think that GTA3 on the PC has been a big let down?
Well, I'm sorry, but I think you're in a very small minority.
Yes, the PC version is little more than a port of the PS2 game, but the ability to create your own radio station using any MP3s you've got lying around is fantastic.
There's nothing quite like racing around town listening to Radiohead, the Red Hot Chili Peppers,Eminem, or whatever takes your fancy.
It might not be massively multiplayer but it is fantastic fun.
Just drop a nice weapon in a wide open space and pick off the other players with your sniper rifle when they go after it...
Firebird was the name of British Telecom's original software division. If I remember correctly, they published Elite on various 8-bit and 16-bit formats, Starglider on the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST, and various others.
There's prior art for you, and prior art in the computing field no less.
You know, when I saw that title, I just knew that there was a joke in there involoving Monty Python, nuts and hell (nutshell, nuts hell).
If I had the time I'd come up with it, and I'm sure it would be the funniest joke in the world, much better than the German joke, "two peanuts were walking down the street and one was assorted".
Unfortunately, I have to go out for a silly walk, and then onto a mouse club, so I'll have to leave it to someone else to inject some much needed hilarity into these proceedings.
Let's see, to do the clinical tests correctly you'd first need to test the chemicals in their environment (against the appropriate type of target vegetation, temperatures, humidity, concentrations, etc.). So before using them in Vietnam I suppose we should have used them first in another country such as Cambodia or Laos, over a span of about a decade, so we could determine how safe it was.
What about that water and other humanitarian supplies we are trucking into Iraq? Do we really know the long-term safety of them on people in the Middle East? Before we send them any supplies, it would only be prudent to test the long-term safety of the food and water, say over the next five years, before we let them have it (after all, they are used to drinking their own water, how do we know if our water will be safe for them?). If they get sick off of our water we wouldn't want you to accuse the US of using chemical agents and attempting genocide.
1. Thanks for ignoring my question - I assume that you think that the US shouldn't take responsibility for the mess that its chemical agents cause? Just like the current US administration doesn't think that it should clean up the mess that the DU munitions fired in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq have caused?
2. Responsible testing can be carried out in a laboratory. You can duplicate any environment on Earth in a lab, and testing the effects of agents on flora and fauna isn't anything revolutionary. If cosmetic companies can do it, then so can governments.
3. Last time I checked, H20 was H20. Duh. And if you think that the US is spending even a tenth of what it spent on fighting this war on helping the Iraqi people get back on their feet now, then you're sadly mistaken. It was only when someone pointed out that failing to protect the hospitals was a violation of the Geneva Convention did the US forces even attempt to do the right thing.