Why did most Canadians not use it? Well, (And this is a blatant opinion) in Canada, the internet is quite rampantly dirt cheap. You can walk down and pick up a Sympatico tm package and get a couple hours a month for about 15 bucks or so. Now that is substantially more than free, but the second thing is that the Government has regulated (or so I'm told) the high-speed internet sector and it costs less than 50 bucks a month for high speed. And when certain companies coughcoughSHAWcoughcough conveniently forget to charge for a couple months as they did to me, it's not that expensive. Plus, there's no ads.
And if you really want free dial-up (read, if you even want dial-up and have a choice) you can find free ISP's all over. The idea of a free ISP with ads just doesn't fly because for the most part there are much more reasonable ideas out there that aren't offered by Canada post
And why Canada Post? Let's just see. It takes a week to get a 1kg package from New Zealand Regina Saskatchewan. It also takes a week to get a letter from a place 5 hours away from Regina to Regina. This make sense? Not to me, but hey, they bring me my mail, so I can't complain since all it is is bills and junk mail from (blatant opinion) my idiot MP.
And the days of a mostly commercial-free near-earth orbit are drawing to a close. How much longer until we get private-sector funding on major NASA projects? Not that it's a bad thing, but there are huge problems just waiting to happen.
ISS v2.0 - Designed for Microsoft
Windows 2002. Flush the toilet when you're trying to calculate the next shuttle docking sequence and blue-screen the whole station.
ISS Brought to you by Jim "The Hammer" Shapiro
Hit from behind by a NEGLEGENT DRIVER looking at the ISS? I can make sure YOU get the MONEY YOU DESERVE from ANY AND ALL accidents involving the ISS!
The only other option is to hold a semi-annual pledge drive a la PBS
The ISS has been brought to you by the Carnegie Corporation and by Earth-bound suckers like you
Well, if there's any industry that could afford to send a film crew up it would be the porn industry. I mean, you have to have some money saved up from making thousands of movies a year on about fifteen scripts. And hiring cheesy actors? That's hardly even a dent in the 'ol budget.
They can afford to splurge and pay to get the first "actually in space" movie.
If it really does act on the principles of resonance, then it's an incredible design, although I, too, fail to see its application as far as space probes go. Would it work off of radio resonance, or is it something else?
Regardless, this is a major step forward for water propulsion especially in an energy crisis like today's.
Yea, as commented before, I'd love to use something else, but at the moment I'm slightly restricted to using M$ for some few reasons. Yes, I can almost put up with them trying to make me use their software, but automatically running software other than the manufacturers'? Not cool, Bill.
The day that I get paint starting up when I open my photoshop document? Oh yeah. Somebody's getting a cup of bees in the mail.
Back in the day when I ran a highly unsuccessful BBS in High School, we had a problem with certain users (well, a certain user) getting local access and deleting all the executables on the computer, severly crippling the whole system. Needless to say we set up a password sytem and just set the password to nothing. Since it was high school, it confused the hell out of people even if they managed to hear someone talking about it.
'course now it's just one of those that's rediculously easy in the real world. Oh well. maybe I'll just set mine to something nobody'll ever guess. asdf123 sounds pretty good. And nobody'll ever think of it!
With all honesty, I can recommend the few following series, many of which are available either (read: finally) to buy or as fansubs, which aren't really hard to come by:
Love Hina - Sure, it's got the whole "not really action oriented" thing going, but it's funny, and a really good show
Gatekeepers - It's another of the "team of superheroes save the world" but this one is quite good
Kenshin - Well, obviously
Perfect Blue - One of the best non-banned head trips money can buy
Escaflowne - Even though it's already been said, this one rules (but not the Fox butchering that is around)
Yes, this is a very cool idea. And if it were cheap ('cause I'm frequently broke) I'd get it. the waiting comment was (obviously) a joke, mostly due to the exponentially greater amount of problems wiring things directly into the brain rather than just wearing the laser display.
**Requisite cliche** We're one step closer to the wearable computer with this one.
While watching DW-TV (german station broadcast internationally (yay for the big satellite dishes!)) last night, they were running a story on alternate-fuel cars in Berlin, although they used the terms "natural gas" and "hydrogen" just about equally (and seemingly interchangably), so we were left wondering what they were using. If it is the case that this is hydrogen, then GM wouldn't be the first, but if it turns out to be natural gas, then it's another topic altogether.
As well, GM may do well to partner with Global Thermoelectric, based out of Calgary, which has been doing research into fuel cells for a few years now and has already released products (to the best of my knowledge) which employ their fuel-cell technology, one being a procedure to efficiently convert natural gas to usable hydrogen in fuel cells. (maybe that might explain the german report)
Either way, GM is taking a very large step in securing their position in the new power hierarchy (double-meaning intended), and hopefully it will succeed for the betterment of everybody.
And on a completely off-topic note, the special series they're running on NOVA on PBS this week rules. It's a series on lost technology and how modern engineers are working to revive some of them. Very good way to spend an hour a night.
Having had to give up a perfectly good @home cable account to move back out to the boonies after school was done for the semester, I personally can't wait until there's something around to get high-speed out to other unfortunate souls trying to get by on dialup. (when you're used to cable).
I wonder, however, if it wouldn't be more in the best interest of the government to look into the line-of-sight DSL that was discussed a few months back (can't remember the post, but I'm sure it can be found). A vast majority of the un-high-speed-accessible space in Canada is (and this is not completely true) flat as a breadboard.
Most of the prairies, the arctic, and any place that there's basically a working cellular network could be retrofitted for a working DSL network, I imagine. With some cash, I'm sure the range on the technology could be pumped up a bit, making satellite just about useless in comparison.
But that could be because I'm just bitter at losing a good connection in exchange for a crap connection
They just needed to go to South Africa and take a look at the "theft deterrent devices" many clever motorists have installed, like the flamethrowers along the bottom of both sides of the car activated with a foot pedal.
In all honesty, something like this would be incredible if it could succeed, but the biggest problem I can see even in 30 months is the fact that it is still not a simple task to get a person up in space. Astronauts still have to go through training to get through the launch, let alone the occasional retired astronaut or rich American billionaire. The hotel may be up and running, but without an easier way to get people there, won't you eliminate a lot of your clientelle simply because they are not in the requisite physical shape to make the journey?
It takes dedication to go through weeks of training just to go for a weekend (as well as a few hundred thousand a head to blow in transportation costs (but that's another post for another person))
Now, I'm not flooded with computer parts, but I do happen to have a couple of old systems kicking around (one of those being an Atari ST in working condition). Now when stuff breaks down, I just strip it to parts and decorate my house, car, etc. Nothing like old 32-pin SIMMs hanging off the rearview mirror to say "I'm a geek and proud of it".
It's also a great way to meet like-minded girls. They sit down and notice not only the "computer stuff" on the mirror, but that it's a 32-pin SIMM? Hold on like grim death, brother.
So basically, it's going to be hard as hell for the vast majority of the population to adapt to this. But then you think for a moment and realize that the vast majority of the population will not use something like this anyway, so that problem goes right away. Then you narrow it down to the people who actually use a palm-like device or a portable computer regularly. If they're using it that readily, then they probably know graffiti, and what-not. Now these people probably had a learning curve anyway, and if they're that dedicated, then they will be the people to buy this and enjoy it.
Now, if anyone actually decides to use this with a desktop PC, then they're probably irrevocably insane or just a sucker for technology, or possibly a person with only a left hand. In that respect, I think this is perfectly catering to that segment of the population.
Not that I think it's a bad idea, I just think that it is a very good idea to a small demographic.
. . ..now if they could only make one for the right hand, too, I could set them up on each arm of the ol' La-Z-Boy with an optical mouse and have the ultimate computer chair. . .
While researching this topic for a paper, I ran across another (very hopefully) theoretical drive for probes involving an extremely thick lead shield and a large quantity of nuclear devices. In the words of Dave Barry, "No, I am not making this up". This was actually a proposed type of propulsion, the idea being that once the ship was far enough away from earth, one would just detonate nuclear devices behind the ship and use the resulting shockwave to propel the craft.
Now I'm quite sure of the immediate reaction to this idea from the people at any space agency in the world, but when you look at that, doesn't Antimatter seem more plausible? I mean, we have the capability (rediculously limited, mind you) to create antimatter, plus the apparent Antimatter Fountains in the universe (I'm not saying we'll be able to use them, just that they are out there).
It's a far stretch, but I have a feeling that if the technlolgy advances as far as it has (think the first production of antimatter about 6 years ago) we could feasibly see antimatter drives within our lifetimes.
On the other hand, the nuclear drive does solve the problem of what to do with the combined nuclear arsenal of the world
I personally think that the plan to put something Canadian on Mars is a great idea, not only to enhance the reputation of Canada's space program on an international scene, but to also improve our facilities and techniques. Granted, I have serious doubts that it will be a manned mission for that kind of money, but the odds of possibly putting an unmanned probe on Mars are quite good, if only for a few reaons:
We are very used to the temperatures, in a country where the temperature can easily range anywhere from -40 to 40 in a single area of the country, and it can easily be colder or warmer elsewhere.
It's not like we're doing what Russia and the US did in the 60's. We have experience from all over the world to look back on and learn from.
If the Canadarm is any indication, Canadian space technology is fairly reliable.
No pesky conversions from/to metric.
The ability is there, just the funding is iffy.
It might just be talk, but then again, people thought that Kennedy was crazy when he promised a man on the moon.
Could it be that the RIAA is just now realizing that they can use the courts to keep anything that remotely resembles a breach of control away from the public? It seems that they're suing everybody that they can get their hands on that has anything even barely close to the "flames of anarchy" that Napster stood for.
Let's see. ..AIMster. They are almost like napster, but harder to track down. Looks like it's time to shut them down with a high-profile lawsuit. . ..Launchcast. . ..sue them because they aren't playing what we tell them to?! Now this is just ludicrous. This is almost as bad as making radio stations submit a playlist to the RIAA in order to keep from getting sued. If they can pull this lawsuit off, it's just paving the way for the complete RIAA control of anything even musically related on the Internet.
Maybe it's just my opinion, but isn't there something very wrong about using legal action to do what amounts to preventing individuals from listening to the music that they want? I know that it probably sells some more CD's if a person has to buy the music just so that they can hear something other than the (IMHO) plodding alt. rock / pop drivel that dominates the airwaves lately, but this is just wrong.
Before long they'll probably be suing recordable media manufacturers for "inticing consumers to pirate media".
But can you really be surprised since it's Fox? This isn't the first time they get a great show then just cancel it because it doesn't fit the apparent "standards" they set out. I'm specifically thinking of Escaflowne (which they butchered nontheless with their translation and story "fixing") but it's happened before and I don't have any doubt it'll happen again. At least they brought back the Family Guy (after they prematurely cancelled it, too).
It really fits that the last post was anonymous. I'd be ashamed to be known to be that racist and ethnocentric in today's society. Just because another country doesn't "do what you want them to"? It's thinking like that that causes most of the wars and serious violence in the world these days.
. .."Hmmmm. These foreigners are threatening our self-imposed world views. They should be destroyed before the defiance spreads. Why don't we kill everyone in their country!" "Good idea, man. Get the bio-weapons so we can make sure any survivors are hopelessly mutated and in constant pain. That'll learn 'em."
"Your security lies not in your OS, it's in your admin".
This is more true than anything else I've read today. Back in the day, I used to access a network where the admin was adamant about
security, always trying to make people follow the preset guidelines, yadda yadda, then ran an unpassworded version of PCAnywhere on the server. The worst part was that he ignored a friend of mine when he suggested that he put a password on it.
Which really just goes to show that it doesn't matter what system you run, if you're an idiot you deserve to get hacked. (or even HaXX0r3d, if you're that stupid to run something like PCAnywhere with no password)
It should be said that the Russians have a few things that they're quite good at, and bringing large space components out of orbit and not destroying anything is one of them. Apparently they've done quite a few controlled re-entries with the ships they used to bring down Mir. Plus, from what I've read here and there, they've already taken down a space station or two in the same way. I for one am quite confident in the abilities of the Russians to drop massive things out of orbit and not hit large populated areas.
Of course, if they wanted to hit large populated areas I bet they could probably do that, too.
Sure, the MPAA is going to look at using DIVX, but if a person looks, there's already places on the net to download great DIVX rips of all sorts of movies (and this can include movies on theatre release). Anyone with a half-decent TV-out video card and some time can get a new theatre release on video in under a week.
If the MPAA is serious about releasing movies for sale, they're going to have to do something soon, because it's probably not that long before people start finding all these videos and it's Napster all over again. I can only see that hurting the whole internet movie situation.
Slashdot Mirror
Why did most Canadians not use it? Well, (And this is a blatant opinion) in Canada, the internet is quite rampantly dirt cheap. You can walk down and pick up a Sympatico tm package and get a couple hours a month for about 15 bucks or so. Now that is substantially more than free, but the second thing is that the Government has regulated (or so I'm told) the high-speed internet sector and it costs less than 50 bucks a month for high speed. And when certain companies coughcoughSHAWcoughcough conveniently forget to charge for a couple months as they did to me, it's not that expensive. Plus, there's no ads.
And if you really want free dial-up (read, if you even want dial-up and have a choice) you can find free ISP's all over. The idea of a free ISP with ads just doesn't fly because for the most part there are much more reasonable ideas out there that aren't offered by Canada post
And why Canada Post? Let's just see. It takes a week to get a 1kg package from New Zealand Regina Saskatchewan. It also takes a week to get a letter from a place 5 hours away from Regina to Regina. This make sense? Not to me, but hey, they bring me my mail, so I can't complain since all it is is bills and junk mail from (blatant opinion) my idiot MP.
ISS v2.0 - Designed for Microsoft Windows 2002.
Flush the toilet when you're trying to calculate the next shuttle docking sequence and blue-screen the whole station.
ISS Brought to you by Jim "The Hammer" Shapiro
Hit from behind by a NEGLEGENT DRIVER looking at the ISS? I can make sure YOU get the MONEY YOU DESERVE from ANY AND ALL accidents involving the ISS!
The only other option is to hold a semi-annual pledge drive a la PBS
The ISS has been brought to you by the Carnegie Corporation and by Earth-bound suckers like you
Or maybe I'm just really bored at work.
Well, if there's any industry that could afford to send a film crew up it would be the porn industry. I mean, you have to have some money saved up from making thousands of movies a year on about fifteen scripts. And hiring cheesy actors? That's hardly even a dent in the 'ol budget.
They can afford to splurge and pay to get the first "actually in space" movie.
If it really does act on the principles of resonance, then it's an incredible design, although I, too, fail to see its application as far as space probes go. Would it work off of radio resonance, or is it something else?
Regardless, this is a major step forward for water propulsion especially in an energy crisis like today's.
Yea, as commented before, I'd love to use something else, but at the moment I'm slightly restricted to using M$ for some few reasons. Yes, I can almost put up with them trying to make me use their software, but automatically running software other than the manufacturers'? Not cool, Bill.
The day that I get paint starting up when I open my photoshop document? Oh yeah. Somebody's getting a cup of bees in the mail.
Back in the day when I ran a highly unsuccessful BBS in High School, we had a problem with certain users (well, a certain user) getting local access and deleting all the executables on the computer, severly crippling the whole system. Needless to say we set up a password sytem and just set the password to nothing. Since it was high school, it confused the hell out of people even if they managed to hear someone talking about it.
'course now it's just one of those that's rediculously easy in the real world. Oh well. maybe I'll just set mine to something nobody'll ever guess. asdf123 sounds pretty good. And nobody'll ever think of it!
XP stands for eXPerimental? I could have sworn it was eXtra Profits.
Love Hina - Sure, it's got the whole "not really action oriented" thing going, but it's funny, and a really good show
Gatekeepers - It's another of the "team of superheroes save the world" but this one is quite good
Kenshin - Well, obviously
Perfect Blue - One of the best non-banned head trips money can buy
Escaflowne - Even though it's already been said, this one rules (but not the Fox butchering that is around)
Hope that helps a bit
Yes, this is a very cool idea. And if it were cheap ('cause I'm frequently broke) I'd get it. the waiting comment was (obviously) a joke, mostly due to the exponentially greater amount of problems wiring things directly into the brain rather than just wearing the laser display.
**Requisite cliche** We're one step closer to the wearable computer with this one.
Laser beams right into my eyes? But I need those eyes to see! I'm just going to wait until they can implant the monitor directly into my brain.
While watching DW-TV (german station broadcast internationally (yay for the big satellite dishes!)) last night, they were running a story on alternate-fuel cars in Berlin, although they used the terms "natural gas" and "hydrogen" just about equally (and seemingly interchangably), so we were left wondering what they were using. If it is the case that this is hydrogen, then GM wouldn't be the first, but if it turns out to be natural gas, then it's another topic altogether.
As well, GM may do well to partner with Global Thermoelectric, based out of Calgary, which has been doing research into fuel cells for a few years now and has already released products (to the best of my knowledge) which employ their fuel-cell technology, one being a procedure to efficiently convert natural gas to usable hydrogen in fuel cells. (maybe that might explain the german report)
Either way, GM is taking a very large step in securing their position in the new power hierarchy (double-meaning intended), and hopefully it will succeed for the betterment of everybody.
And on a completely off-topic note, the special series they're running on NOVA on PBS this week rules. It's a series on lost technology and how modern engineers are working to revive some of them. Very good way to spend an hour a night.
Having had to give up a perfectly good @home cable account to move back out to the boonies after school was done for the semester, I personally can't wait until there's something around to get high-speed out to other unfortunate souls trying to get by on dialup. (when you're used to cable).
I wonder, however, if it wouldn't be more in the best interest of the government to look into the line-of-sight DSL that was discussed a few months back (can't remember the post, but I'm sure it can be found). A vast majority of the un-high-speed-accessible space in Canada is (and this is not completely true) flat as a breadboard.
Most of the prairies, the arctic, and any place that there's basically a working cellular network could be retrofitted for a working DSL network, I imagine. With some cash, I'm sure the range on the technology could be pumped up a bit, making satellite just about useless in comparison.
But that could be because I'm just bitter at losing a good connection in exchange for a crap connection
I can just imagine trying to get a modelling agency on board to supply the runway models:
.To get the consumers's attention so we can showcase all the, er, features of the, er, device
.. .. ..
Modelling Agency: And you want the models to wear what exactly?
Essential Reality: Our new 3D computer interface glove! It's going to revolutionize the thought paradigms about data manipulation!
MA: And you want them to do what?!
ER: Just a little. .
MA: We'll have to get back to you on this once we talk it over..
They just needed to go to South Africa and take a look at the "theft deterrent devices" many clever motorists have installed, like the flamethrowers along the bottom of both sides of the car activated with a foot pedal.
In all honesty, something like this would be incredible if it could succeed, but the biggest problem I can see even in 30 months is the fact that it is still not a simple task to get a person up in space. Astronauts still have to go through training to get through the launch, let alone the occasional retired astronaut or rich American billionaire. The hotel may be up and running, but without an easier way to get people there, won't you eliminate a lot of your clientelle simply because they are not in the requisite physical shape to make the journey?
It takes dedication to go through weeks of training just to go for a weekend (as well as a few hundred thousand a head to blow in transportation costs (but that's another post for another person))
Now, I'm not flooded with computer parts, but I do happen to have a couple of old systems kicking around (one of those being an Atari ST in working condition). Now when stuff breaks down, I just strip it to parts and decorate my house, car, etc. Nothing like old 32-pin SIMMs hanging off the rearview mirror to say "I'm a geek and proud of it".
It's also a great way to meet like-minded girls. They sit down and notice not only the "computer stuff" on the mirror, but that it's a 32-pin SIMM? Hold on like grim death, brother.
So basically, it's going to be hard as hell for the vast majority of the population to adapt to this. But then you think for a moment and realize that the vast majority of the population will not use something like this anyway, so that problem goes right away. Then you narrow it down to the people who actually use a palm-like device or a portable computer regularly. If they're using it that readily, then they probably know graffiti, and what-not. Now these people probably had a learning curve anyway, and if they're that dedicated, then they will be the people to buy this and enjoy it.
.now if they could only make one for the right hand, too, I could set them up on each arm of the ol' La-Z-Boy with an optical mouse and have the ultimate computer chair. . .
Now, if anyone actually decides to use this with a desktop PC, then they're probably irrevocably insane or just a sucker for technology, or possibly a person with only a left hand. In that respect, I think this is perfectly catering to that segment of the population.
Not that I think it's a bad idea, I just think that it is a very good idea to a small demographic.
. . .
While researching this topic for a paper, I ran across another (very hopefully) theoretical drive for probes involving an extremely thick lead shield and a large quantity of nuclear devices. In the words of Dave Barry, "No, I am not making this up". This was actually a proposed type of propulsion, the idea being that once the ship was far enough away from earth, one would just detonate nuclear devices behind the ship and use the resulting shockwave to propel the craft.
Now I'm quite sure of the immediate reaction to this idea from the people at any space agency in the world, but when you look at that, doesn't Antimatter seem more plausible? I mean, we have the capability (rediculously limited, mind you) to create antimatter, plus the apparent Antimatter Fountains in the universe (I'm not saying we'll be able to use them, just that they are out there).
It's a far stretch, but I have a feeling that if the technlolgy advances as far as it has (think the first production of antimatter about 6 years ago) we could feasibly see antimatter drives within our lifetimes.
On the other hand, the nuclear drive does solve the problem of what to do with the combined nuclear arsenal of the world
It might just be talk, but then again, people thought that Kennedy was crazy when he promised a man on the moon.
Could it be that the RIAA is just now realizing that they can use the courts to keep anything that remotely resembles a breach of control away from the public? It seems that they're suing everybody that they can get their hands on that has anything even barely close to the "flames of anarchy" that Napster stood for.
.AIMster. They are almost like napster, but harder to track down. Looks like it's time to shut them down with a high-profile lawsuit. . . .Launchcast. . . .sue them because they aren't playing what we tell them to?! Now this is just ludicrous. This is almost as bad as making radio stations submit a playlist to the RIAA in order to keep from getting sued. If they can pull this lawsuit off, it's just paving the way for the complete RIAA control of anything even musically related on the Internet.
Let's see. .
Maybe it's just my opinion, but isn't there something very wrong about using legal action to do what amounts to preventing individuals from listening to the music that they want? I know that it probably sells some more CD's if a person has to buy the music just so that they can hear something other than the (IMHO) plodding alt. rock / pop drivel that dominates the airwaves lately, but this is just wrong.
Before long they'll probably be suing recordable media manufacturers for "inticing consumers to pirate media".
But can you really be surprised since it's Fox? This isn't the first time they get a great show then just cancel it because it doesn't fit the apparent "standards" they set out. I'm specifically thinking of Escaflowne (which they butchered nontheless with their translation and story "fixing") but it's happened before and I don't have any doubt it'll happen again. At least they brought back the Family Guy (after they prematurely cancelled it, too).
It really fits that the last post was anonymous. I'd be ashamed to be known to be that racist and ethnocentric in today's society. Just because another country doesn't "do what you want them to"? It's thinking like that that causes most of the wars and serious violence in the world these days.
."Hmmmm. These foreigners are threatening our self-imposed world views. They should be destroyed before the defiance spreads. Why don't we kill everyone in their country!"
. .
"Good idea, man. Get the bio-weapons so we can make sure any survivors are hopelessly mutated and in constant pain. That'll learn 'em."
Makes me sick.
"Your security lies not in your OS, it's in your admin".
This is more true than anything else I've read today. Back in the day, I used to access a network where the admin was adamant about security, always trying to make people follow the preset guidelines, yadda yadda, then ran an unpassworded version of PCAnywhere on the server. The worst part was that he ignored a friend of mine when he suggested that he put a password on it.
Which really just goes to show that it doesn't matter what system you run, if you're an idiot you deserve to get hacked. (or even HaXX0r3d, if you're that stupid to run something like PCAnywhere with no password)
It should be said that the Russians have a few things that they're quite good at, and bringing large space components out of orbit and not destroying anything is one of them. Apparently they've done quite a few controlled re-entries with the ships they used to bring down Mir. Plus, from what I've read here and there, they've already taken down a space station or two in the same way. I for one am quite confident in the abilities of the Russians to drop massive things out of orbit and not hit large populated areas.
Of course, if they wanted to hit large populated areas I bet they could probably do that, too.
Sure, the MPAA is going to look at using DIVX, but if a person looks, there's already places on the net to download great DIVX rips of all sorts of movies (and this can include movies on theatre release). Anyone with a half-decent TV-out video card and some time can get a new theatre release on video in under a week. If the MPAA is serious about releasing movies for sale, they're going to have to do something soon, because it's probably not that long before people start finding all these videos and it's Napster all over again. I can only see that hurting the whole internet movie situation.