How about that for a major engineering disaster? A rocket that was destroyed (actually, blew itself up deliberatly when its computer realised it was breaking up) because of an overflow error.
The engineering reason though, were that a component had been reused from Ariane 4 incorrectly, and the testing was inadequate - both of which seem to be common themes here.
This is so true, and I'm happy that there is someone else out there who realises this.
I have aspergers, which is apparantly a mental disability. I consider this rather funny as most of the people telling me my mind doesnt work properly have 50 fewer IQ points than me (Im aware IQ isnt the be all and end all of intelligence, but I'm sure that I am smarter than these people in most testable ways).
When I was young, I believed this lie however. I also believed the people who were telling me that I was stupid, socially inept, ugly etc. But as I grew up I realised that this was just the way Normal humans are - vindictively putting others down in a fruitless quest to make themselves feel better or look more desirable to the opposite sex.
I tried for a long time to fit in with normal humans, but I never could. Then I realised that I shoulnd't try to copy the behaviour of these people. I am now a lot happier being myself, being different, and I no longer allow myself to be hurt by the daily attacks I receive from normals.
However I cannot be as forgiving as you are towards them. Every time I meet new people I give them a chance, but every time they turn out to be carbon copies of all the mindless apes that I've met before. One of the reasons I do not have many friends is that most people I meet I consider disposable. Why bother making an effort with someone when you can walk into a pub and meet someone exactly the same as them and start afresh?
To be blunt, normal people are vindictive, intollerant of even the slightest deviation from the norm, stupid and unimaginative. I refuse to accept that the better aspecets of modern society were created by these short-sighted, selfish individuals. Instead I suspect that civilisation has been guided by people like us, who spent their lives desperatley trying to drag the sluggish minds of the general populace to a higher level. And now it seems society has been shaped such that aspergers syndrome is more common. Normal people consider this a bad thing of course, but then again most animals flee from what they dont understand.
Playing is a natural thing for children to do, it helps them develop skills they will need as an adult.
Violent toys are sold because there is demand for them. Theres demand for them because young boys like playing in what the people who wrote this website would consider a violent way. They seem to be in denial of the fact the male children have natural tendancies towards violence (look at a school playground for an example of this). Buying nice fluffy non-violent toys for children will not change their natures.
Because we live in a civilised society that frowns on and punishes violence, by the time a male has reached adulthood they no longer express their aggression through physical violence. Of course, some people cannot control their aggression and become dangerously violent adults.
Violent children are not dangerous, violent adults are. Toys that have a violent theme do not turn children into violent adults, what does is an inabilty to accept the rules society imposes on our natures.
The people who wrote this website, it seems to me, are looking for a quick fix to the problem of a disruptive child. I believe they are deluding themselves - there is no substitute for real parenting.
NB Not sure if this applies to girls, having never been one, but I doubt that it does.
I got the impression that Microsoft don't want Windows XP users altering this file themselves, rather the setup program for an ISP can replace this file with one of their own.
This doesn't really make what MS are doing any better, the copyright issue still applies whoever is choosing where the smart tags lead to.
MS are not yet able to censor everything Windows XP users see on the web (Maybe thats going to be in service pack 1) but they can still almost garuntee XP users will visit one of their approved websites. Such websites will have a huge number of hits and therefore be able to generate very nice advertising revenues for MS.
Personally, I'm not going to let Windows XP near my computer - it's not so much an operating system as a client for MSN.
I think you are missing a major point here. The problem here is not particulally that DVDs are overpriced, but that the prices of DVDs are different for Americans than they are for Europeans. Bascially the movie companies are saying 'We like Americans, so they can have DVDs cheaper, we don't really like Europeans that much, so we will charge them a little extra so the Americans can have DVDs cheaper'
A free market, where everyone charges what they can, is a good thing, but whats happening here is a company giving discounts to a group of people because of their nationality, which is simply not on.
It's nice to see that they are applying an AI solution to what is clearly an AI problem.
I used to live in a city in the UK called Scunthorpe, and many netnanny type programs wouldn't let people access many of the local websites. Hopefully this solution will prove a little smarter.
If this rocket fails (he'll almost certainly die if it doess) then all thats happened is some fool has blown himself up trying to be a rocket scientist.
On the other hand, his plan may very well work. He has spent a lot of time on this, and seeing as hes going to be sitting on this rocket when it fires I'd assume he's put quite a lot of thought into safety (He may not mind dying in the attempt, but I guess he'd rather not).
If his rocket is a success, it'll be great news for him. He'll be famous(ish) and accomplished a lifelong dream. His acheivement though, will mean next to nothing to most other people.
Sure, he may inspire a few others to repeat the feat, but they aren't going to acheive anything beyond personal satisfaction either. And most of the people who try to copy him are going to put a lot less though into this and die.
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How about that for a major engineering disaster? A rocket that was destroyed (actually, blew itself up deliberatly when its computer realised it was breaking up) because of an overflow error.
The engineering reason though, were that a component had been reused from Ariane 4 incorrectly, and the testing was inadequate - both of which seem to be common themes here.
Why do people keep making the same mistakes?
This is so true, and I'm happy that there is someone else out there who realises this.
I have aspergers, which is apparantly a mental disability. I consider this rather funny as most of the people telling me my mind doesnt work properly have 50 fewer IQ points than me (Im aware IQ isnt the be all and end all of intelligence, but I'm sure that I am smarter than these people in most testable ways).
When I was young, I believed this lie however. I also believed the people who were telling me that I was stupid, socially inept, ugly etc. But as I grew up I realised that this was just the way Normal humans are - vindictively putting others down in a fruitless quest to make themselves feel better or look more desirable to the opposite sex.
I tried for a long time to fit in with normal humans, but I never could. Then I realised that I shoulnd't try to copy the behaviour of these people. I am now a lot happier being myself, being different, and I no longer allow myself to be hurt by the daily attacks I receive from normals.
However I cannot be as forgiving as you are towards them. Every time I meet new people I give them a chance, but every time they turn out to be carbon copies of all the mindless apes that I've met before. One of the reasons I do not have many friends is that most people I meet I consider disposable. Why bother making an effort with someone when you can walk into a pub and meet someone exactly the same as them and start afresh?
To be blunt, normal people are vindictive, intollerant of even the slightest deviation from the norm, stupid and unimaginative. I refuse to accept that the better aspecets of modern society were created by these short-sighted, selfish individuals. Instead I suspect that civilisation has been guided by people like us, who spent their lives desperatley trying to drag the sluggish minds of the general populace to a higher level. And now it seems society has been shaped such that aspergers syndrome is more common. Normal people consider this a bad thing of course, but then again most animals flee from what they dont understand.
Playing is a natural thing for children to do, it helps them develop skills they will need as an adult.
Violent toys are sold because there is demand for them. Theres demand for them because young boys like playing in what the people who wrote this website would consider a violent way. They seem to be in denial of the fact the male children have natural tendancies towards violence (look at a school playground for an example of this). Buying nice fluffy non-violent toys for children will not change their natures.
Because we live in a civilised society that frowns on and punishes violence, by the time a male has reached adulthood they no longer express their aggression through physical violence. Of course, some people cannot control their aggression and become dangerously violent adults.
Violent children are not dangerous, violent adults are. Toys that have a violent theme do not turn children into violent adults, what does is an inabilty to accept the rules society imposes on our natures.
The people who wrote this website, it seems to me, are looking for a quick fix to the problem of a disruptive child. I believe they are deluding themselves - there is no substitute for real parenting.
NB Not sure if this applies to girls, having never been one, but I doubt that it does.
I got the impression that Microsoft don't want Windows XP users altering this file themselves, rather the setup program for an ISP can replace this file with one of their own.
This doesn't really make what MS are doing any better, the copyright issue still applies whoever is choosing where the smart tags lead to.
MS are not yet able to censor everything Windows XP users see on the web (Maybe thats going to be in service pack 1) but they can still almost garuntee XP users will visit one of their approved websites. Such websites will have a huge number of hits and therefore be able to generate very nice advertising revenues for MS.
Personally, I'm not going to let Windows XP near my computer - it's not so much an operating system as a client for MSN.
I think you are missing a major point here. The problem here is not particulally that DVDs are overpriced, but that the prices of DVDs are different for Americans than they are for Europeans. Bascially the movie companies are saying 'We like Americans, so they can have DVDs cheaper, we don't really like Europeans that much, so we will charge them a little extra so the Americans can have DVDs cheaper'
A free market, where everyone charges what they can, is a good thing, but whats happening here is a company giving discounts to a group of people because of their nationality, which is simply not on.
It's nice to see that they are applying an AI solution to what is clearly an AI problem. I used to live in a city in the UK called Scunthorpe, and many netnanny type programs wouldn't let people access many of the local websites. Hopefully this solution will prove a little smarter.
If this rocket fails (he'll almost certainly die if it doess) then all thats happened is some fool has blown himself up trying to be a rocket scientist. On the other hand, his plan may very well work. He has spent a lot of time on this, and seeing as hes going to be sitting on this rocket when it fires I'd assume he's put quite a lot of thought into safety (He may not mind dying in the attempt, but I guess he'd rather not). If his rocket is a success, it'll be great news for him. He'll be famous(ish) and accomplished a lifelong dream. His acheivement though, will mean next to nothing to most other people. Sure, he may inspire a few others to repeat the feat, but they aren't going to acheive anything beyond personal satisfaction either. And most of the people who try to copy him are going to put a lot less though into this and die.