The Ranger motto is Sua Sponte "Of Their Own Accord". Check out this site.
The US SEALs have a tradition of never leaving a man on the field of battle. I don't know about the Rangers, I'm pretty sure they've left plenty of men on the field of battle.
True, it was mostly hyperbole on my part. It just annoys me when I hear the someting I own and love is going to be discontinued. Visors are a good bit of design. I like my Visor Phone. I know that just because Handspring may not be making them in the near future doesn't mean I won't get any utility out of them.
I'm just saying that her remarks scared off more customer than it probably brought in as well as causing grave concern for the companies that make Springboard modules. But then again, that's somehow construed as flamebait (maybe just very tiny bit, this is/. after all;-)
In just a few simple words Dubinsky probably lost 20% of short term sales and pissed off every partner that makes Sprinboard modules.
Heck, I'm pissed off and I love my Visor Pro with Visor Phone. That the greatest combo of PDA/phone but it does what I need it to do. With her comments I'm thinking I bought a piece of crap instead of the useful device it really is.
I guess she's just like every other CEO these days. Stupid.
From reading the specs it looks to be the exact same system (Shuttle SV24 is the mobo and the case interior looks to be the same).The only thing changed is the exterior. Admittedly, the Pandora looks nicer to me than the SpaceWalker in my opinion.
Does this meen that Ben will lose the rights to use Bat Manuel, Captain Liberty, and any other characters specifice to the live action Tick? I would love to see more Tick (maybe picked up by USA, SciFi, Comedy Central) and I really kind of liked Bat Manuel. An interesting take on a Die Fledermaus (Euro-trash vs. Latin lover stereotypes).
I guess this means that Family Guy is probably going down, too. Why else would I watch TV Thursday night other than The Family Guy and The Tick?
To calculate fuel masses, here's the magic equation you need:
Delta_V = Isp * g * ln(Mo/Mf)
where:
Delta_V change in velocity, in units
compatible with the value you
use for g
Isp specific impulse, in seconds
g acceleration of gravity at the
earth's surface 32.174 ft/sec/sec
(9.805 m/sec/sec)
ln() natural logarithm function
Mo Mass before the burn
Mf Mass after the burn
What this basically means that if you can drop your mass before the burn you can have a bigger mass after the burn. But then again that's the point of the railgun, save on fuel so that a large mass can get into orbit.
Well-written code in, say, C++ will be more maintainable and accessible to other people you work with (and who have to touch your code in future).
I think the key is first well-written code. The language is more dependent upon whom is maintaining it than the language itself. FORTRAN is basically the standard for engineers/scientists so that it would be likely that any engineering apps would need to be written in it. However, if the maintainers are more familiar with C/C++ then it would be better to be in that language.
I would also add that it's good to use idioms of the language used. As a Perl programmer I read all the time about how bad it is to use Perl idioms. Well, if I'm writing a Perl program I expect it to be maintained by programmers that know Perl. Just as I would expect C, Ada, Forth, Lisp, etc programs to be maintained by individuals proficient in the language of the program (just my little soap box speech).
Re:Would also recommend Armor by John Steakley
on
The Forever War
·
· Score: 1
Very good read. It was very weird reading Armor, Starship Troopers, and The Forever War in roughly a year total between them and also being a teenager (this was several years ago).
Three very different and profound views on a protracted and brutal war setting. I would say that each tries to get a different message across.
Heinlein seemed to be going for the cultural and social effects (in the aggregate). Haldeman was very much going for how the individuals (the main character and the warriors in general) where personally affected. Steakley just seemed to focus on an individual trying to escape the horrors of the war.
All in all these three books, along with Ender's Game (I would toss in the Shadow books about Bean as well but not Speaker not Xenocide) belong in just about any hard core scifi collection.
A beautiful closeup of the Mona Lisa. Then a loud clang is heard as a steel shutter closes down over the scene.
The next is the opening page from a Tale of Two Cities (or some other text that the general public might get if they only read the first few words). Then another loud clang as another steel shutter blocks the view.
The camera pulls back to show a row of people standing/sitting at peep show booths. They are furiously pumping in coins to see more of a work of art or the next page in a book.
Just a quick seed of an idea for how the DMCA lets an artist/publish control how the content can be viewed (Region coding, protective encryption,etc). It's just a worst case scenario that all content will become one, giant peep show for consumers.
I wonder if there is a corollary to Moore's Law that might apply to how often the US government raises the theoretical computation limits for exported computers to Tier 3 nations.
I think that CmdrTaco needs to redo the headline. This organization is trying to get rid of violent toys. Dangerous is definitely a misnomer here.
I would agree that many of theses toys (and games) should not be marketed to small children yet many of them sell toys to kids under the recommended age for the games. A bit of sleaze but nothing that unusual for marketdroids.
Then the designers would have to contend with accelerations in the 100's of G's range. Satellites might be able to be designed to take that but I doubt it.
It might prove useful to send food and other materials into orbit but not much else.
Call me pedantic but I hate how the RIAA keeps calling the downloading of music files via p2p software piracy. It is copyright infringement. Period. It is closer to piracy what the RIAA does to "its" artists.
I know there are some artists trying to buck RIAA stranglehold but I'm waiting for the day when big artists (remember The Offspring's attempt to make _Conspiracy of One_ available for download?) get out from under the big studios and the RIAA.
Dungeon Keeper has to be about one of the coolest games to play late at night. Nothing quite like the computer telling you to go to bed or give up because it's late and your soft bed is calling.
There is even weirdness around special dates like the solstices and equinoxes. I haven't played it on Halloween in awhile but maybe I'll try it again tonight.
Linux should get a boost from companies looking to save money given the current economy. This article (and others sure to come) shows the value of Linux in a server situation.
Where Linux can make real strides is in the workstation market. While I think Linux isn't quite ready for the "primetime" of the mass desktop market it hasn't made the push into workstations. I'm not sure if it's a lack of a killer app or "marketing".
We know that Linux is used on high-end animation stations at many FX/animation studios but how many workstations running CAD/CAM/CAE, simulation, and other workstation like activities? That's were some major market share and cost savings can be had.
Other games rely on various AI levels and tactics. For example, with Dark Reign, a little know strategy game, you can set an indivudal units behavior. They can be brave, cowardly, or whatever. They can obey your orders exactly or have some sort independance and common sence, depending on a setting. How far they persue the enemy and the like are also configurable. This allows for well made ambushes. I had a handfull of units and defeated people with MUCH larger armies than myself becuase I made good use of terrain, defensive buildings, waypoints, and AI. If the game allows it, and there are more factors to the game, you can use them to your advantage. If you just have a lot of units that can either fly or stand, it is more a game of the numbers than of cunning.
I thoroughly enjoyed the tactical possibilities Dark Reign! Controlling unit behaviour and movement (I am a huge fan of waypoints in all RTT's) was an interesting feature. However, I didn't like the resource/economic mechanism.
I think what is lacking is a sufficient AI. Blitzes I think are an outgrowth of how the AI's have to behave in order for it to compete against a human. By that I mean in almost all RTT's the AI gets build bonuses in terms of economic and time factors. However, the biggest advantage is to be able to control all units virtually simultaneously.
I realize that the current state of the art for AI's almost forces this but I can dream of a better electronic opponent.:-)
Exceptions are mandatory for good programming, period. If the language you are using doesn't support exceptions (C, Perl, etc), you are going to have problems.
Well, you haven't seen Error.pm yet. It implements exceptions for Perl.
I'm not totally convinced that exceptions are necessary for good programming. A good programmer should know how to do error handling. It's nice to be able to call upon it when you need it but it should not be forced upon you, kind of like commenting your code.
It appears to me that Mr. Culp has misunderstood the purpose of the scientific method. The goal of which is to allow other researchers the ability to reproduce one's test/bug/experiment.
Programmers use code to share their experiments because it is the simplest, best, most consistent way to do so. Not asking security and programming experts not to share "blueprints" is like asking toxicologists not to share the chemical formulas for the compounds they're researching.
Mr. Culp needs to take a vacation away from the stress of his job and bone up on how to systemically approach problem solving and the sharing of information used to produce repeatable experiments/tests/exploits.
I knew I should do a quadruple check of anything I submit/post after 3am. Not to mention the fact it was a dupe (but I can sorta blame Michael for that. Ain't due diligence a bithc?;-)
Sounds to me like they got a good deal. DSL is not a long-term solution to broadband access provision, so you might immediately think "why would anyone voluntarily lumber themselves with a soon-to-be-obsolete infrastructure?".
An obsolete infrastructure? I suspect that DSL will be with us for a long time as will cable. Both aren't ideal solutions. Both use existing lines and one or the other is sometimes the only broadband technology available to some people. The same goes for cable. Satellite broadband is another solution for those folks deep in the rural setting but that is still a rather pricy way to get broadband.
...But I rather fear that too many customers have already got burned and will switch to cable, or wait for fibre, or even just wait to see what the market looks like in a years time (that's the attitute that *really* pisses off telcos!).
Those folks waiting are most likely unable to get broadband or can't afford it (and prices are going up). As for waiting for fiber...it will be a long time since infrastructure expenditures are going to be way, way doing with the current economic atmosphere.
I'm guessing you will get more of the same: 3rd party DSL providers getting squeezed by local telcos. The local telcos willing to absorb the pittance of a fine thrown at them for not opening up their lines (even when they do they aren't that helpful). There will be fewer and fewer 3rd party providers and a stagnation in the efforts to get fiber to close that Last Mile (heck even the Last Few Yards will be a big project).
I had a very IIS like service running on my box at work. I just happened to notice that my event log fill up with warnings about 404.htm not being found.
I promptly started looking for W3SVC and its ilk and stopped them.
Very interesting that IT departments don't at least know better to shutdown non-essential (whom needs a web server or web publishing services) running on their box?
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The Ranger motto is Sua Sponte "Of Their Own Accord". Check out this site.
The US SEALs have a tradition of never leaving a man on the field of battle. I don't know about the Rangers, I'm pretty sure they've left plenty of men on the field of battle.
I wasn't sure if he teaching "intro to perl" or "intro to functional programming".
It bugged me when he used map() in a void context (listing 3). It's even in the Perl FAQ that it's frowned upon.
I would call the article "idiomatic perl" instead.
True, it was mostly hyperbole on my part. It just annoys me when I hear the someting I own and love is going to be discontinued. Visors are a good bit of design. I like my Visor Phone. I know that just because Handspring may not be making them in the near future doesn't mean I won't get any utility out of them.
/. after all ;-)
I'm just saying that her remarks scared off more customer than it probably brought in as well as causing grave concern for the companies that make Springboard modules. But then again, that's somehow construed as flamebait (maybe just very tiny bit, this is
In just a few simple words Dubinsky probably lost 20% of short term sales and pissed off every partner that makes Sprinboard modules.
Heck, I'm pissed off and I love my Visor Pro with Visor Phone. That the greatest combo of PDA/phone but it does what I need it to do. With her comments I'm thinking I bought a piece of crap instead of the useful device it really is.
I guess she's just like every other CEO these days. Stupid.
From reading the specs it looks to be the exact same system (Shuttle SV24 is the mobo and the case interior looks to be the same).The only thing changed is the exterior. Admittedly, the Pandora looks nicer to me than the SpaceWalker in my opinion.
Does this meen that Ben will lose the rights to use Bat Manuel, Captain Liberty, and any other characters specifice to the live action Tick? I would love to see more Tick (maybe picked up by USA, SciFi, Comedy Central) and I really kind of liked Bat Manuel. An interesting take on a Die Fledermaus (Euro-trash vs. Latin lover stereotypes).
I guess this means that Family Guy is probably going down, too. Why else would I watch TV Thursday night other than The Family Guy and The Tick?
Sorry for not reading the post closer.
Geosynchronous orbit is at 42,245m...
I think you need to revise that number for geo. GEO is about 42,000 km from the center of the earth and about 35,000km from mean sea level.
Also, just to add some more math to the rocket equation.
To calculate fuel masses, here's the magic equation you need:
Delta_V = Isp * g * ln(Mo/Mf)
where:
Delta_V change in velocity, in units
compatible with the value you
use for g
Isp specific impulse, in seconds
g acceleration of gravity at the
earth's surface 32.174 ft/sec/sec
(9.805 m/sec/sec)
ln() natural logarithm function
Mo Mass before the burn
Mf Mass after the burn
What this basically means that if you can drop your mass before the burn you can have a bigger mass after the burn. But then again that's the point of the railgun, save on fuel so that a large mass can get into orbit.
Imagine a cable running from the top of a 50 km tower into geo-stationary Earth orbit.
I think you need to revise that number for geo. GEO is ~42,000 km from the center of the earth and about 35,000km from mean sea level.
However, a 50km beanstalk to LEO would be more reasonable.
Well-written code in, say, C++ will be more maintainable and accessible to other people you work with (and who have to touch your code in future).
I think the key is first well-written code. The language is more dependent upon whom is maintaining it than the language itself. FORTRAN is basically the standard for engineers/scientists so that it would be likely that any engineering apps would need to be written in it. However, if the maintainers are more familiar with C/C++ then it would be better to be in that language.
I would also add that it's good to use idioms of the language used. As a Perl programmer I read all the time about how bad it is to use Perl idioms. Well, if I'm writing a Perl program I expect it to be maintained by programmers that know Perl. Just as I would expect C, Ada, Forth, Lisp, etc programs to be maintained by individuals proficient in the language of the program (just my little soap box speech).
Very good read. It was very weird reading Armor, Starship Troopers, and The Forever War in roughly a year total between them and also being a teenager (this was several years ago).
Three very different and profound views on a protracted and brutal war setting. I would say that each tries to get a different message across.
Heinlein seemed to be going for the cultural and social effects (in the aggregate). Haldeman was very much going for how the individuals (the main character and the warriors in general) where personally affected. Steakley just seemed to focus on an individual trying to escape the horrors of the war.
All in all these three books, along with Ender's Game (I would toss in the Shadow books about Bean as well but not Speaker not Xenocide) belong in just about any hard core scifi collection.
How's this for an ad campaign idea:
A beautiful closeup of the Mona Lisa. Then a loud clang is heard as a steel shutter closes down over the scene.
The next is the opening page from a Tale of Two Cities (or some other text that the general public might get if they only read the first few words). Then another loud clang as another steel shutter blocks the view.
The camera pulls back to show a row of people standing/sitting at peep show booths. They are furiously pumping in coins to see more of a work of art or the next page in a book.
Just a quick seed of an idea for how the DMCA lets an artist/publish control how the content can be viewed (Region coding, protective encryption,etc). It's just a worst case scenario that all content will become one, giant peep show for consumers.
I guess Christ is Christ.
Please stop feeding peanuts to my deity.
I wonder if there is a corollary to Moore's Law that might apply to how often the US government raises the theoretical computation limits for exported computers to Tier 3 nations.
I think that CmdrTaco needs to redo the headline. This organization is trying to get rid of violent toys. Dangerous is definitely a misnomer here.
I would agree that many of theses toys (and games) should not be marketed to small children yet many of them sell toys to kids under the recommended age for the games. A bit of sleaze but nothing that unusual for marketdroids.
Then the designers would have to contend with accelerations in the 100's of G's range. Satellites might be able to be designed to take that but I doubt it.
It might prove useful to send food and other materials into orbit but not much else.
Call me pedantic but I hate how the RIAA keeps calling the downloading of music files via p2p software piracy. It is copyright infringement. Period. It is closer to piracy what the RIAA does to "its" artists.
I know there are some artists trying to buck RIAA stranglehold but I'm waiting for the day when big artists (remember The Offspring's attempt to make _Conspiracy of One_ available for download?) get out from under the big studios and the RIAA.
Dungeon Keeper has to be about one of the coolest games to play late at night. Nothing quite like the computer telling you to go to bed or give up because it's late and your soft bed is calling.
There is even weirdness around special dates like the solstices and equinoxes. I haven't played it on Halloween in awhile but maybe I'll try it again tonight.
Linux should get a boost from companies looking to save money given the current economy. This article (and others sure to come) shows the value of Linux in a server situation.
Where Linux can make real strides is in the workstation market. While I think Linux isn't quite ready for the "primetime" of the mass desktop market it hasn't made the push into workstations. I'm not sure if it's a lack of a killer app or "marketing".
We know that Linux is used on high-end animation stations at many FX/animation studios but how many workstations running CAD/CAM/CAE, simulation, and other workstation like activities? That's were some major market share and cost savings can be had.
Other games rely on various AI levels and tactics. For example, with Dark Reign, a little know strategy game, you can set an indivudal units behavior. They can be brave, cowardly, or whatever. They can obey your orders exactly or have some sort independance and common sence, depending on a setting. How far they persue the enemy and the like are also configurable. This allows for well made ambushes. I had a handfull of units and defeated people with MUCH larger armies than myself becuase I made good use of terrain, defensive buildings, waypoints, and AI. If the game allows it, and there are more factors to the game, you can use them to your advantage. If you just have a lot of units that can either fly or stand, it is more a game of the numbers than of cunning.
:-)
I thoroughly enjoyed the tactical possibilities Dark Reign! Controlling unit behaviour and movement (I am a huge fan of waypoints in all RTT's) was an interesting feature. However, I didn't like the resource/economic mechanism.
I think what is lacking is a sufficient AI. Blitzes I think are an outgrowth of how the AI's have to behave in order for it to compete against a human. By that I mean in almost all RTT's the AI gets build bonuses in terms of economic and time factors. However, the biggest advantage is to be able to control all units virtually simultaneously.
I realize that the current state of the art for AI's almost forces this but I can dream of a better electronic opponent.
Exceptions are mandatory for good programming, period. If the language you are using doesn't support exceptions (C, Perl, etc), you are going to have problems.
Well, you haven't seen Error.pm yet. It implements exceptions for Perl.
I'm not totally convinced that exceptions are necessary for good programming. A good programmer should know how to do error handling. It's nice to be able to call upon it when you need it but it should not be forced upon you, kind of like commenting your code.
Of course I love Perl and believe TMTOWTDI.
It appears to me that Mr. Culp has misunderstood the purpose of the scientific method. The goal of which is to allow other researchers the ability to reproduce one's test/bug/experiment.
Programmers use code to share their experiments because it is the simplest, best, most consistent way to do so. Not asking security and programming experts not to share "blueprints" is like asking toxicologists not to share the chemical formulas for the compounds they're researching.
Mr. Culp needs to take a vacation away from the stress of his job and bone up on how to systemically approach problem solving and the sharing of information used to produce repeatable experiments/tests/exploits.
I knew I should do a quadruple check of anything I submit/post after 3am. Not to mention the fact it was a dupe (but I can sorta blame Michael for that. Ain't due diligence a bithc? ;-)
Sounds to me like they got a good deal. DSL is not a long-term solution to broadband access provision, so you might immediately think "why would anyone voluntarily lumber themselves with a soon-to-be-obsolete infrastructure?".
...But I rather fear that too many customers have already got burned and will switch to cable, or wait for fibre, or even just wait to see what the market looks like in a years time (that's the attitute that *really* pisses off telcos!).
An obsolete infrastructure? I suspect that DSL will be with us for a long time as will cable. Both aren't ideal solutions. Both use existing lines and one or the other is sometimes the only broadband technology available to some people. The same goes for cable. Satellite broadband is another solution for those folks deep in the rural setting but that is still a rather pricy way to get broadband.
Those folks waiting are most likely unable to get broadband or can't afford it (and prices are going up). As for waiting for fiber...it will be a long time since infrastructure expenditures are going to be way, way doing with the current economic atmosphere.
I'm guessing you will get more of the same: 3rd party DSL providers getting squeezed by local telcos. The local telcos willing to absorb the pittance of a fine thrown at them for not opening up their lines (even when they do they aren't that helpful). There will be fewer and fewer 3rd party providers and a stagnation in the efforts to get fiber to close that Last Mile (heck even the Last Few Yards will be a big project).
That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
I had a very IIS like service running on my box at work. I just happened to notice that my event log fill up with warnings about 404.htm not being found.
I promptly started looking for W3SVC and its ilk and stopped them.
Very interesting that IT departments don't at least know better to shutdown non-essential (whom needs a web server or web publishing services) running on their box?