Considering both the prez and the vice prez might have the same problem (okay... first names, too), you're in... uh... elite company (I hesitate to use the word "good" univocally)
The plugs with the thicker pins are probably the German ones. They look similar to the Swiss & Italian ones, but as you say - they're too thick to fit in the Swiss & Italian sockets. A sidenote on the subtle differences between the Swiss and Italian plugs (no, of course they couldn't make them identical): The pins of Swiss two-pin plugs used to be allowed to be all-metal. So you plug them half the way in to a flush socket, and have half of a live pin exposed. My anectodal questionnaire resulted in more than half the people who grew up in Switzerland having rather stunning first-hand experience of this "feature". They're always metal-tip, plastic-shaft nowadays.
... come to think of it, I have some devices with German plugs around... hammer, you say? Intriguing...
Yeah right. AAC support on MP3 players? Since when? Can you point out one player?
The teensy-weensy Panasonics that came out a while ago, with wrist straps etc. ("wearables") and 64+ MB SD cards. And boy, do they suck. To load the stuff on there you need to use a propriatary extension to the "Real Jukebox" which transcodes everything to AAC, which takes about 1/2 - 2/3 of the final playtime. Have to admit they sound good (64kb AAC ~= 128 kb MP3), but I've stopped using mine because I don't want to wait 45 mins to load it, and don't want to use the piece of shit Jukebox to fuck up (a.k.a. "manage") my MP3 collection.
Since it appears that the Penny-Arcade parody critizes not "Strawberry Shortcake", but American McGee, they cannot use copyrighted "Strawberry Shortcake" images to make their point.
I disagree. I would say that PS is taking the piss out of both, and in quite a clever manner... if you know them both (I didn't).
McGee takes something innocent and almost by-definition bloodless, then adds blood, blades & gore (... I agree with PA... "very clever, I'm sure"). As to the other... my computer's sound card is not hooked up, for which I am occasionally thankful. Viewing the original SS @ AG was one of these times. I was surprised. It's so saccarine sweet that it surpases even the Teletubbies in screaming "take the piss out of me! Please!, i.e. perfect fodder for McGee.
Now - I'm speaking in the understanding that I got the correct SS @ AG, and visually, they have little in common with PA's toons. That is, PA is not using the original SS to take the piss out of McGee, but rather taking the piss out of both of them at the same time.
My point? As far as I know, it is no less legitimate to poke fun at several cultural icons / trademarks / brand names / whatever at the same time than it is to do so at a single one. Call it "crossover humour" if you will. Some brands are just screaming for it, too. E.g.: "Nike(TM) sneakers - $215... Nike(TM) sweatshirt - $110... Nike(TM) shades - $185... accepting life's lesson that inspite of all the ads promising instant coolness you're still a pimply faced dork who can't get laid to save his life - priceless"... who am I taking the piss out of? Nike(TM) for their innane ads, or mastercard for theirs?
Hmm... on my keyboard, capitalising "/." results in "/:"... I wouldn't mention it, but it just seems so apt:) (and my keyboard is the way it is, because yes, I do need all those "äöüàéè" et al)
Just to make a list of the ones that jumped at me: - Eminem - Nirvana - Garbage - No Doubt - Rammstein - T.A.T.U. - U2 - The Who
Then, also two opera biggies: - Luciano Pavarotti - Placido Domingo
And a couple of others *everyone* has heard of: - B.B. King - Beck - Bee Gees - Bloodhound Gang - Bon Jovi - Bryan Adams - Chumbawamba - Counting Crows - Cranberries - George Strait - Elvis Costello - Guns N' Roses - Jimi Hendrix - Leonard Bernstein - Limp Bizkit - Lynyrd Skynyrd - Nine Inch Nails - Peter Gabriel - Sonic Youth - Sum 41 - Suzanne Vega - Texas - Willie Nelson
...that alone is quite a bunch, that, copyright extensions being what they are, will be a cash cow for decades.
Ahhh... compared to Calvin & Hobbes, it's for a different age group, too. That is, it already was originally. C'mon - there are some gems in there that couldn't be re-created in another strip even if anyone wanted to. My all-time favourite is Opus running up to "Point Resolve" close to year's end with a big roll of paper, snapping it out over the cliff, looking at the reader and going "I had a bad year.". Or Opus playing assistant to Steve Dallas, trying to motivate him to get up. Goes something like "Hup! Hup! Off to fight the good fight, protect the innocent (yadda yadda)". In the end he scowls, and just goes "$$Dough."... whereupon Steve is instantly alert. And so on. Just off the top of my head, you understand.
... OK, I'm a die-hard fan, I confess. I still have a "Don't blame me - I voted for Bill 'n Opus" tee-shirt somewhere, and all:)
A) so does money laundering, organised extortion, illegal dealing with weapons, and so on - only more so. B) and they would know, wouldn't they. Yes, software & media companies are the best judges on funding of international terrorism, I'm sure. C) one more excellent reason to use open source, live concerts, local talent etc. etc. and open source. Did I mention open source? Good.
"The problem is that it takes about 377 lbs of lead-acid batteries to equal the energy stored in a pound of gasoline"
(your quote of the original article) I was sceptical when I read that, too - what I suppose he means is the energy density, which is of course irrelevant in the real world. An electric motor will probably get >90% efficiency, whereas a combustion motor has a theoretical maximum efficiency of around 35% AFAIK, and a practical one of what, 30%? 25%? Then, it's a 2-stroke with x% unburned fuel in the exhaust... and you end up comparing 377 lbs of batteries (lead-acid... I won't even go into newer battery tech... not least because I wouldn't want to pay for it:) with [1 lb of gas] x [factor 5, 10, maybe 15]
... is what I want to know. These guys wouldn't know their elbows from their asses, the way it sounds. "It's all in the wrist" is a rule well-known to tennis players, golfers, and come to think of it, other, uh... sportsmen. Um.
Ravagin - thanks. I'm kicking myself now, of course: Dark Side of the Sun and Foundation... kind of obvious (even for me, but I do need someone to point it out). Also - ha - the original question is probably moot anyway, with all the interviews and stuff I haven't read. Oh well. I'll go read the (your?) site you linked now. (May be I should have phrased the original question differently... something like "Do you think that 'Strata' is better than 'Ringworld'?"... a legitimate question, considering the two are so similar)
Huh? It's obvious that there are similarities, but that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't have any aspect of a rip-off. I have the impression that one of the things Terry Pratchett was saying with that particular novel is something along the lines of "No Larry - *this* is how it should go". "Dark Side of the Sun" is, as far as I know, as original as it gets. Discworld, ditto, with shades of Jonathan Swift, albeit more in intent that content. The "Johnny" series - original, as far as I can tell. "Turning it up to 11 and seeing what breaks" is a nice turn of phrase, and something I agree Terry Pratchett does - but "similar milieu"? What are the other connections to other milieus I am missing? Under that aspect, "Strata" stands out like a sore thumb... ... and with this post I am guilty of bad form - asking one author about another, but gosh, I do wonder what Larry Niven thinks about this "homage".
Dear Larry Niven - I regard this/.-item as a real opportunity. A question I have had in my mind for a couple of years now: have you read Terry Pratchett's novel "Strata"? If no, you might find it interesting... if yes, what is your opinion? Blatant rip-off of your ringworld universe, or homage? And, what is you opinion of how it compares to your ringworld series?
Valdrax - thanks. I only spent about twenty minutes staring at it before giving up and posting a question. I like the arithmetic... [+]+[+]=[+-] and [-]+[-]=[-+] (apart from the obvious). Did you make this up?
"We would like to see customers migrate away from floppies as quickly as possible, because there are better alternative technologies out there," said Mark Vena, director of product marketing for Dell's Dimension desktop PCs.
I disagree: there is no replacement I am aware of out there yet that I can trust to be as reliable, ubiquitous and cheap as floppies. CDR/Ws don't cut it because they take too long to burn, and USB thingies are, however neat they are, too expensive: I can't just give them away willy-nilly.
[Shrugs] I'll just be one of the people ordering the "deluxe upgrade: include 1.44 MB floppy drive" then.
My main question is: where the heck does Dell get off making this strategic decision for their customers? Seems like a picturebook example of something the market would be old & wise enough to decide on it's own (for once).
I remember designing BBS menubar interfaces using 'The Draw' way back in 1995
Dude, 1995 isn't "way back".
I was doing the same thing in 1987, and I was pretty late in the game.
AC-Dude - send that to the museumtour.com guys in question (just not anonymously). For you, it's trivial - for them, it may be just the thing to add to their portfolio of prior art (which should be splitting at the seams by now, but who knows.)
Do something! I can't... I was waaaaay late in the game:)
For those who couldn't face downloading the oodles of movies, this is the best scene: Toward the end of the movie, he's demo-ing the prototype, standing in front of a bulletin board, and copying a *big* map onto the *small* screen of his Sony Clio. Quite impressive. But I did feel like going "Psssst. Use the built-in cam."
Slashdot Mirror
Considering both the prez and the vice prez might have the same problem (okay ... first names, too), you're in ... uh ... elite company (I hesitate to use the word "good" univocally)
The plugs with the thicker pins are probably the German ones. They look similar to the Swiss & Italian ones, but as you say - they're too thick to fit in the Swiss & Italian sockets.
... hammer, you say? Intriguing ...
A sidenote on the subtle differences between the Swiss and Italian plugs (no, of course they couldn't make them identical): The pins of Swiss two-pin plugs used to be allowed to be all-metal. So you plug them half the way in to a flush socket, and have half of a live pin exposed. My anectodal questionnaire resulted in more than half the people who grew up in Switzerland having rather stunning first-hand experience of this "feature". They're always metal-tip, plastic-shaft nowadays.
... come to think of it, I have some devices with German plugs around
/ -1, offtopic. You know you want to do it.
I can only say how it is pronounced in German (and SuSE is a German company, after all): sooz-eh
... go figure ... )
(... which makes it look Canadian
/yesOfCourseThisIsImportant
- Yeah right. AAC support on MP3 players? Since when? Can you point out one player?
The teensy-weensy Panasonics that came out a while ago, with wrist straps etc. ("wearables") and 64+ MB SD cards.And boy, do they suck. To load the stuff on there you need to use a propriatary extension to the "Real Jukebox" which transcodes everything to AAC, which takes about 1/2 - 2/3 of the final playtime.
Have to admit they sound good (64kb AAC ~= 128 kb MP3), but I've stopped using mine because I don't want to wait 45 mins to load it, and don't want to use the piece of shit Jukebox to fuck up (a.k.a. "manage") my MP3 collection.
But yeah, they do exist.
I'm from the eighties :)
An example use: "Are you just taking the piss (making fun of me) because I used the expression repeatedly?"
Maybe it died and was replaced with someting better. I think my mojo is in hibernation.
- Since it appears that the Penny-Arcade parody critizes not "Strawberry Shortcake", but American McGee, they cannot use copyrighted "Strawberry Shortcake" images to make their point.
I disagree. I would say that PS is taking the piss out of both, and in quite a clever mannerMcGee takes something innocent and almost by-definition bloodless, then adds blood, blades & gore (
As to the other
Now - I'm speaking in the understanding that I got the correct SS @ AG, and visually, they have little in common with PA's toons. That is, PA is not using the original SS to take the piss out of McGee, but rather taking the piss out of both of them at the same time.
My point? As far as I know, it is no less legitimate to poke fun at several cultural icons / trademarks / brand names / whatever at the same time than it is to do so at a single one. Call it "crossover humour" if you will. Some brands are just screaming for it, too. E.g.:
"Nike(TM) sneakers - $215
Ah, but then the developper would have enabled "consistent ACL", and "user may not create agents".
:)
And any users who have the Notes-Fu to use API calls to disable the ACL flag you hire into the Notes dev team.
It's win-win
[...] DAMM YOU ?> !!!! /. in capitals)
... on my keyboard, capitalising "/." results in "/:" ... I wouldn't mention it, but it just seems so apt :)
(?> ==
Hmm
(and my keyboard is the way it is, because yes, I do need all those "äöüàéè" et al)
Just to make a list of the ones that jumped at me:
- Eminem
- Nirvana
- Garbage
- No Doubt
- Rammstein
- T.A.T.U.
- U2
- The Who
Then, also two opera biggies:
- Luciano Pavarotti
- Placido Domingo
And a couple of others *everyone* has heard of:
- B.B. King
- Beck
- Bee Gees
- Bloodhound Gang
- Bon Jovi
- Bryan Adams
- Chumbawamba
- Counting Crows
- Cranberries
- George Strait
- Elvis Costello
- Guns N' Roses
- Jimi Hendrix
- Leonard Bernstein
- Limp Bizkit
- Lynyrd Skynyrd
- Nine Inch Nails
- Peter Gabriel
- Sonic Youth
- Sum 41
- Suzanne Vega
- Texas
- Willie Nelson
...that alone is quite a bunch, that, copyright extensions being what they are, will be a cash cow for decades.
Thanks for your post. Now *that's* the kind of info I want to see in the /. writeup-blurb.
:)
I'd write "mods! mod up the parent!", but hey - you're already @ 5
Does the slashdot crowd have a new size benchmark for small sizes?
Sure: the library of Alexandria on a thumbnail.
Plus, in a flame-retardent case, please.
- In terms of preciseness [...]
"Precision".(Sorry, couldn't resist
Ahhh ... compared to Calvin & Hobbes, it's for a different age group, too. That is, it already was originally. C'mon - there are some gems in there that couldn't be re-created in another strip even if anyone wanted to. My all-time favourite is Opus running up to "Point Resolve" close to year's end with a big roll of paper, snapping it out over the cliff, looking at the reader and going "I had a bad year.". Or Opus playing assistant to Steve Dallas, trying to motivate him to get up. Goes something like "Hup! Hup! Off to fight the good fight, protect the innocent (yadda yadda)". In the end he scowls, and just goes "$$Dough." ... whereupon Steve is instantly alert. And so on. Just off the top of my head, you understand.
:)
... OK, I'm a die-hard fan, I confess. I still have a "Don't blame me - I voted for Bill 'n Opus" tee-shirt somewhere, and all
A) so does money laundering, organised extortion, illegal dealing with weapons, and so on - only more so.
B) and they would know, wouldn't they. Yes, software & media companies are the best judges on funding of international terrorism, I'm sure.
C) one more excellent reason to use open source, live concerts, local talent etc. etc. and open source. Did I mention open source? Good.
- "The problem is that it takes about 377 lbs of lead-acid batteries to equal the energy stored in a pound of gasoline"
(your quote of the original article)I was sceptical when I read that, too - what I suppose he means is the energy density, which is of course irrelevant in the real world. An electric motor will probably get >90% efficiency, whereas a combustion motor has a theoretical maximum efficiency of around 35% AFAIK, and a practical one of what, 30%? 25%? Then, it's a 2-stroke with x% unburned fuel in the exhaust
Anyway. I think Mr. Katsaros prefers hyperbole
... is what I want to know. ... sportsmen. Um.
These guys wouldn't know their elbows from their asses, the way it sounds. "It's all in the wrist" is a rule well-known to tennis players, golfers, and come to think of it, other, uh
I'll stop my rant there, I think.
Ravagin - thanks. I'm kicking myself now, of course: Dark Side of the Sun and Foundation ... kind of obvious (even for me, but I do need someone to point it out). Also - ha - the original question is probably moot anyway, with all the interviews and stuff I haven't read. Oh well. I'll go read the (your?) site you linked now. ... something like "Do you think that 'Strata' is better than 'Ringworld'?" ... a legitimate question, considering the two are so similar)
(May be I should have phrased the original question differently
Huh? It's obvious that there are similarities, but that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't have any aspect of a rip-off. I have the impression that one of the things Terry Pratchett was saying with that particular novel is something along the lines of "No Larry - *this* is how it should go". ...
"Dark Side of the Sun" is, as far as I know, as original as it gets. Discworld, ditto, with shades of Jonathan Swift, albeit more in intent that content. The "Johnny" series - original, as far as I can tell.
"Turning it up to 11 and seeing what breaks" is a nice turn of phrase, and something I agree Terry Pratchett does - but "similar milieu"? What are the other connections to other milieus I am missing? Under that aspect, "Strata" stands out like a sore thumb
... and with this post I am guilty of bad form - asking one author about another, but gosh, I do wonder what Larry Niven thinks about this "homage".
Dear Larry Niven - I regard this /.-item as a real opportunity. ... if yes, what is your opinion? Blatant rip-off of your ringworld universe, or homage? And, what is you opinion of how it compares to your ringworld series?
A question I have had in my mind for a couple of years now: have you read Terry Pratchett's novel "Strata"?
If no, you might find it interesting
Valdrax - thanks. I only spent about twenty minutes staring at it before giving up and posting a question. I like the arithmetic ... [+]+[+]=[+-] and [-]+[-]=[-+] (apart from the obvious).
Did you make this up?
2 (base 10) would be '+-', or 8 -> '+0-', etc.
...)
wouldn't 8 (base 10) be '+--' ?
(counting 0-10: '+' '+0' '+-' '+0+' '+00' '+0-' '+-+' '+-0' '+--' '+0++' '+0+0'
... or am I being geek-impaired?
- "We would like to see customers migrate away from floppies as quickly as possible, because there are better alternative technologies out there," said Mark Vena, director of product marketing for Dell's Dimension desktop PCs.
I disagree: there is no replacement I am aware of out there yet that I can trust to be as reliable, ubiquitous and cheap as floppies. CDR/Ws don't cut it because they take too long to burn, and USB thingies are, however neat they are, too expensive: I can't just give them away willy-nilly.[Shrugs] I'll just be one of the people ordering the "deluxe upgrade: include 1.44 MB floppy drive" then.
My main question is: where the heck does Dell get off making this strategic decision for their customers? Seems like a picturebook example of something the market would be old & wise enough to decide on it's own (for once).
The dude should fold, and change the project name to "Oh Bell Icks", just out of pure bloodymindedness.
"That different enough for you, huh? Huh?"
- I remember designing BBS menubar interfaces using 'The Draw' way back in 1995
Dude, 1995 isn't "way back".I was doing the same thing in 1987, and I was pretty late in the game.
AC-Dude - send that to the museumtour.com guys in question (just not anonymously).
... I was waaaaay late in the game :)
For you, it's trivial - for them, it may be just the thing to add to their portfolio of prior art (which should be splitting at the seams by now, but who knows.)
Do something! I can't
For those who couldn't face downloading the oodles of movies, this is the best scene:
Toward the end of the movie, he's demo-ing the prototype, standing in front of a bulletin board, and copying a *big* map onto the *small* screen of his Sony Clio. Quite impressive. But I did feel like going "Psssst. Use the built-in cam."