I'm in the same position-- on a list that got transferred to Yahoo, and thus I can't even find out what my "ID", email, password, etc is supposed to be. So I couldn't "opt out", and of course they don't have a customer support email, only their impenetrable labyrinth of useless help wizards.
I even emailed their webmaster to try and get it forwarded, it failed. It's tempting to sue them for misappropriation of info (if only I had the free time!)
If you ever find a way to find out who we ourselves are (i.e. find a clueful techie at Yahoo), let me know (hcaulfield@ghostlibrary.com)
So how do we contribute to Judge Steven's election campaign, and get rid of the other 8?
Oh, wait, they're appointed. Rats. His point on how this means sites would have to cater to the least permissive denominator is darn insightful.
Clearly, in most cases there's going to be a lag between internet-saavy judges and reality, even moreso with politicians (as politicians cycle through quicker than high-level justices).
Most of the ideas you mention (reins to steer, rudder to steer) _were_ tried in the early automotive days. Likewise, 'break on left, gas on right' wasn't the original concept, each car had a different method and often used levers or such for throttles instead of pedals. Also, there is lineage-- bikes used handlebars, so some cars tried that, too.
The current layout came mostly from a small handful of manufacturers suddenly making very standardized cars, and became the default setup.
Like any good mechanical design, the final layout succeeded because it:
* was mechanically feasible
* mapped well to the problem
* effectively represented the function (i.e. wheel turns = car turns, as opposed to, oh, push level forward=left).
So design isn't just "people are used to it", there are (*gasp*) actual thought processes behind it.
AbiWord beats SO and Word, better fallback
on
AbiWord 1.0.1 Released
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Actually, I use AbiWord now for all my Word translation. I get a lot of submissions that (according to our writer's guidelines) should be 'ordinary plain (ASCII) text', naturally people send Word DOC files or RTFs or PDFs (argh!)
Anyway, AbiWord is the _only_ tool that's successfully opened up everything I've thrown at it. In particular, stuff from Mac Word tends to choke StarOffice and, oh, MS Word (gotta love that 'standard', as you note sometimes it can't handle its own stuff!)
And their 'automatic detection' kicks ass. I _hate_ the concept that I have to figure out which version of Word something was created in-- hello, isn't that the programs job?
My guess is the AbiWord people implemented good fallback/failsafe stuff, so that format trouble is 'guessed at and warned' rather than simple core dumped.
Given AbiWord, I've now weaned myself entirely off MS products (including Windows) for everything except my big dumb game box in the basement (ooh, Serious Sam II!)
MS should buy AbiWord and just replace their product with it:)
>Now they have 114 million more dollars to suppress your rights.
Not really-- remember, no movie ever has made a profit, so we're safe That's why the studios are so endangered-- they can't even make a (paper) profit! Poor Hollywood, so poor, so poor.
This is even more ridiculous for anything newspaper like, i.e. that updates over time.
If there's a good reference article, is that article _really_ going to be linked off their home/front page a week from now? Well, duh, no.
So your choice is either link to the article (so a day, a week, a month from now people can read it), or pray that it is findable from the site. Net result-- loss of readers.
Imagine if you could only tell people "Hey, I read something on Slashdot, go look it up off their home page". (And this site is fairly clueful in indexing...)
The second is "nonsensitive" information, and among that will include your name, address, and records of anything you buy or surf on the Internet.
Oh, like all the stuff in the real world that requires a subpeona currently (e.g. book-buying habits) is now "non-sensitive"?
Eek! Bye bye, civil liberties!
Programming is a job. Ideally, you entered into it because you kinda like doing it. You often start out with maintaining or adding to other people's code or doing highly specified stuff. As you progress, you get more input into the design aspects, and perhaps even the direction. What could be better?
It's work, folks. It's not always going to be writing slashcode while sipping vodka in the Bahamas, but as jobs go it has a hell of a lot more growth and creativity than coal mining or clerking. I'm happy to be in the programming field. It beats gutting fish (an earlier job of mine).
Woo hoo! We've arrived! Linux is only successful when it's used for generic crap, and not just high-end cutting edge stuff.
Seriously. I forget which feminist icon mentioned that women were only equal when a woman schmo had the same chance of promotion as a man schmo. Same principal here.
"P-T: What do you think about the attempted hiring of a successful cracker of the Warcraft III Beta by Blizzard?
Vivendi Rep: Hiring your largest threat is one easy way to get rid of the threat of piracy"
"Hey, I hear the best way to score a game programming job is to publically pirate their games!"
Wrong lessons-- Katz isn't "joe author" on /.
on
Dog Bites Website
·
· Score: 2
Unfortunately, this whole article has a major flaw. Jon Katz isn't "joe author", a general unknown author, on/. He is, in essence, part of the publisher.
That he has access to/. really biases things. It's like saying "hey, if you help create a website that reaches 20 million people, you too can be a simple, ordinary starting author and sell your book via the web."
Next news flash: Oprah's humble novel career gets a boost when, by some mad coincidence, she gets mentioned on Oprah's Book Club. And this could happen to you!!! [after the heat death of the universe].
The real lesson here is that, in order to sell via the net, you have do the people-networking thing-- get in good with a central site or two, so you can then have access to make a plug.
Which is no different from 'get in good with a print publisher, so they'll push your book'. But it is easier for techies like us to get in with a website, than to get in with a print corporation.
So there are lessons here, but probably not the ones Jon intended:)
There is also direct application. Stars are one of the big testbeds for modern physics, because they are extreme cases of long-term high temperature high pressure activity. If our physics applies to stars, we can have confidence in them in general.
For example, right now there's this Dark Matter bit... we can use modern physics to explain everything except, oh, 99% of the universe. So clearly better understanding of the universe (on astronomical and sub-atomic) scales is needed.
Last time there was a major understanding of the sun, it was probably 'hey, stars are powered by hydrogen fusion'. Which helped nuclear research.
So think of sun/star research as 'really big remote lab work' and it makes sense. It's not just abstract, it's "applied, big scale".
Pure research always pays, you just can't tell in advance how, when, and to whom:)
I tend to favor the main brands (Toshiba, Acer, IBM Thinkpad). You'll find that most Linux-ready laptops are also the better-made onee. I think this is because the linux laptop FAQ is weighted towards laptops that use decent hardware that has drivers available, so you get less off-brand internals.
After 8 laptops (varios purchases, various sources), my two recommendations are:
1) Make sure it has a 3 months warrenty. Most problems happen immediately (manufacturer flaws that appear during the first days of use). Most accidents happen during the first month (while you learn the 'stresses' your laptop can handle).
2) Never get reconditioned (or used) laptops unless they include a new battery-- battery replacement is expensive.
Mr. Gates says "that for a few percent of the price of the PC you can buy a commercial operating system". Last I checked prices, we were buying computers for NASA or for the university at $1000-$1500 each. Assuming a low $70 license fee for Windows, that's 5-10%. So his 'few percent' is a bit too fuzzy for my tastes.
_Maybe_ that's a few percent. But add in any useful software (Office, say) and suddenly, you're starting to have a software budget that is at least 50% of the computer cost. And you know, computers do need software to do anything.
And if you buy MS's suggested levels of support, you're spending more than 5% on just the OS. He doesn't mention that, but they have their sales force push it. So we'll count that as hypocrisy, on top of fuzzy numbers and inaccurate statement of what computers need.
So it's disingenious for him to first get vendors to bundle in Windows and pass the cost along to the consumer as a hidden fee, then suddenly say "the OS is just a few percent" and neglect the utility of the entire computer.
That's okay, for a while White was the new Beige. Briefly, it looked like Purple might be the new Beige, and if you consult my young daughter, green-bug-shaped is her idea of the new Beige. No doubt barbie-Pink will be the new Beige for some subset of computing.
And, in about six months, there will be a retro trend, and Beige will be heralded as the new Beige!
Ah, fashion, you have arrived in the techie world!
proposal of a draft of a framework?
on
GeekPAC
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
So there's a proposal of a draft to consider a position statement about creating a framework for moving towards forming a possible entity. Wow! They have the political process down pat! Lots of action words and nothing real yet!
Seriously, it is a good thing, I just love these early, tentative stages. I'll likely pledge. I do think taking 'geekpac' as a contact name will be negative PR, even though "reclaiming geekhood" is trendy now.
There are distinct styles of gaming, which come into vogue at different times depending on whether any GOOD games of that type are out.
Loosely, consider them "Simulation", "Narrative", and "Gamist". Simulations are things like Flight Sims and Racing Games-- the accuracy is as important as the gameplay. Narrative are our old favorite, adventure games, things like Myst, etc. Gamist are what people usually think of when they think "video game", i.e. tetris, most FPS, arcade-style racing games, etc.
The better games tend to be those which fit more than one category. Metal Gear Solid was touted for being a good game (Gamist) while also having a great story (Narrative) and wonderful realism in the graphics (touching into the simulationist camp). Half Life was a good game with, again, a great story. [Insert your favorite game here] also did that sort of thing.
And, of course, once a good game is popular, that particular school of gaming tends to become popular because everyone comes out with their entry into that genre. And thus the cycles change.
I think there should be a new reality TV Show, "Small Court of Sanity". Unlike current People's Court/Judge Judy TV shows, where individuals do small claims, this would be the first case where any lawsuit by a multimillion dollar company vs a much smaller entity would be aired.
Yep, the big companies would _have_ to use this court before the case was allowed to go (via appeal) to the usual federal courts. No lawyers, just like small court-- just the 2 sides presenting their case to a telegenic judge. Shown publically, to expose how ludicrious this is.
Court costs would, of course, be covered by advertising. The rest would go to the US gov't (thus probably wiping out the national debt in just 3 seasons...)
And hey, once the corps realized that the negative PR cost of being displayed as total loons on daytime TV cost more than nuking some pitiful NPO or individual, maybe fewer would be filed.
At least moving these things away from the horrible, horrible process that is our modern judiciary would give some recourse to individuals and small entities. You know it's bad when I'm recommending jerry springer-like exposure over the court system.
"it would leave $10,000,000 for the company doing the development, equivilant to 40 salaried employees for five years at $50,000/yr ... That's my bid."
Well, get a project manager and an accountant and refine it, it might work. Here's one tip: double the salary cost to get the actual worker cost (once you factor in HR costs, payroll processing, matching social security, managerial/paperwork overhead, and hiring costs), i.e.a $50k employee costs the company $100k.
Which goes to show that operating a business isn't something that we comp sci folks are necessarily the best at. But (like you) we can do a good job specing out a project and then let someone modify our numbers!
(Running a business is always more expensive than it looks. Heck, just _filing_ an IPO is a half-million dollar cost!)
After you _try_ to go through security, civil liberties get weird. You can't walk through with a gun, get caught, and say "oh, never mind, I just won't fly today". By then, there is suspicion of criminal behavior and you are, alas, in the mighty grasp of the underpaid, overworked, bitter security forces. Just walking away is no longer an option.
But don't worry-- they only use their powers against terrorists and bad guys, right?
"vulnerabilities found in Windows and all Linux flavors combined are almost the same"
So if I am running RedHat, Mandrake, SUSE, and Debian simultaneously, I have the same number of flaws as a single run of Win2k?
They should either use the average (among linux dists) or the max (ditto), vs Win. Or sum across all current Win flavors (ME, Win2k. maybe NT) to compare against all linux flavors (summed).
It's anime-like because, in combat, the two sides will simply hang back and stare at each other for a while. Then both will fire off everything they have with explosive fury. When the dust settles... both sides will still be standing, but the collateral damage to the area will be _huge_ and there will be massive civilian casualties.
Oh, wait, that's how modern military actions are now. Alas.
Hollywood has gotten Congress to propose a law that will force you to have to buy new VCRs, CD players, and computers. If you keep your old ones, any new CDs or movies you buy won't work! If you buy a new one, any old CDs or movies won't work! Either way, we're in trouble! Also, forget about taking home videos-- you'll need to go to a professional place if you want to make copies for your folks. This little surprise is called SSSCA and is being slipped in by the hollywood movie moguls so they can make more $$$ and force us to buy the same stuff twice. Anyway, I'm passing this along to everyone I know, it'd be great if you did the same. I guess you could fax your congressman or complain at your local Best Buy on this.
Heh... while I'll bet Gary wishes he has a staff, alas he does not. He does get the occassional Futurama gig, but even mighty D&D does not create enough groupies and inquiries to allow for staff.
For better or for worse, Gary is 100% Gary, and definitely one of the more approaschable creators.
Nuclear does scare folks. The medical imaging of NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) got changed to MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) because people were freaking out about the 'nuclear' part. Even though it was passive reading of nuclear states, not actively nuking patients.
There's a good writeup on:
http://www.urbanlegends.com/science/mri_not_nucl ea r.html
The "nuclear rocket" folks could take a page from their book. Call this "water rockets" or such and downplay the nuke, upplay the 'tea kettle' method (or what have you).
Slashdot Mirror
I'm in the same position-- on a list that got transferred to Yahoo, and thus I can't even find out what my "ID", email, password, etc is supposed to be. So I couldn't "opt out", and of course they don't have a customer support email, only their impenetrable labyrinth of useless help wizards.
I even emailed their webmaster to try and get it forwarded, it failed. It's tempting to sue them for misappropriation of info (if only I had the free time!)
If you ever find a way to find out who we ourselves are (i.e. find a clueful techie at Yahoo), let me know (hcaulfield@ghostlibrary.com)
So how do we contribute to Judge Steven's election campaign, and get rid of the other 8?
Oh, wait, they're appointed. Rats. His point on how this means sites would have to cater to the least permissive denominator is darn insightful.
Clearly, in most cases there's going to be a lag between internet-saavy judges and reality, even moreso with politicians (as politicians cycle through quicker than high-level justices).
Most of the ideas you mention (reins to steer, rudder to steer) _were_ tried in the early automotive days. Likewise, 'break on left, gas on right' wasn't the original concept, each car had a different method and often used levers or such for throttles instead of pedals. Also, there is lineage-- bikes used handlebars, so some cars tried that, too.
The current layout came mostly from a small handful of manufacturers suddenly making very standardized cars, and became the default setup.
Like any good mechanical design, the final layout succeeded because it:
* was mechanically feasible
* mapped well to the problem
* effectively represented the function (i.e. wheel turns = car turns, as opposed to, oh, push level forward=left).
So design isn't just "people are used to it", there are (*gasp*) actual thought processes behind it.
Actually, I use AbiWord now for all my Word translation. I get a lot of submissions that (according to our writer's guidelines) should be 'ordinary plain (ASCII) text', naturally people send Word DOC files or RTFs or PDFs (argh!)
:)
Anyway, AbiWord is the _only_ tool that's successfully opened up everything I've thrown at it. In particular, stuff from Mac Word tends to choke StarOffice and, oh, MS Word (gotta love that 'standard', as you note sometimes it can't handle its own stuff!)
And their 'automatic detection' kicks ass. I _hate_ the concept that I have to figure out which version of Word something was created in-- hello, isn't that the programs job?
My guess is the AbiWord people implemented good fallback/failsafe stuff, so that format trouble is 'guessed at and warned' rather than simple core dumped.
Given AbiWord, I've now weaned myself entirely off MS products (including Windows) for everything except my big dumb game box in the basement (ooh, Serious Sam II!)
MS should buy AbiWord and just replace their product with it
>Now they have 114 million more dollars to suppress your rights.
Not really-- remember, no movie ever has made a profit, so we're safe That's why the studios are so endangered-- they can't even make a (paper) profit! Poor Hollywood, so poor, so poor.
And I like your 3rd choice of art movies
This is even more ridiculous for anything newspaper like, i.e. that updates over time.
If there's a good reference article, is that article _really_ going to be linked off their home/front page a week from now? Well, duh, no.
So your choice is either link to the article (so a day, a week, a month from now people can read it), or pray that it is findable from the site. Net result-- loss of readers.
Imagine if you could only tell people "Hey, I read something on Slashdot, go look it up off their home page". (And this site is fairly clueful in indexing...)
Oh, like all the stuff in the real world that requires a subpeona currently (e.g. book-buying habits) is now "non-sensitive"? Eek! Bye bye, civil liberties!
Programming is a job. Ideally, you entered into it because you kinda like doing it. You often start out with maintaining or adding to other people's code or doing highly specified stuff. As you progress, you get more input into the design aspects, and perhaps even the direction. What could be better?
It's work, folks. It's not always going to be writing slashcode while sipping vodka in the Bahamas, but as jobs go it has a hell of a lot more growth and creativity than coal mining or clerking. I'm happy to be in the programming field. It beats gutting fish (an earlier job of mine).
>Whatta piece of wasteful pop pablum.
Woo hoo! We've arrived! Linux is only successful when it's used for generic crap, and not just high-end cutting edge stuff.
Seriously. I forget which feminist icon mentioned that women were only equal when a woman schmo had the same chance of promotion as a man schmo. Same principal here.
Vivendi Rep: Hiring your largest threat is one easy way to get rid of the threat of piracy"
"Hey, I hear the best way to score a game programming job is to publically pirate their games!"
Unfortunately, this whole article has a major flaw. Jon Katz isn't "joe author", a general unknown author, on /. He is, in essence, part of the publisher.
/. really biases things. It's like saying "hey, if you help create a website that reaches 20 million people, you too can be a simple, ordinary starting author and sell your book via the web."
:)
That he has access to
Next news flash: Oprah's humble novel career gets a boost when, by some mad coincidence, she gets mentioned on Oprah's Book Club. And this could happen to you!!! [after the heat death of the universe].
The real lesson here is that, in order to sell via the net, you have do the people-networking thing-- get in good with a central site or two, so you can then have access to make a plug.
Which is no different from 'get in good with a print publisher, so they'll push your book'. But it is easier for techies like us to get in with a website, than to get in with a print corporation.
So there are lessons here, but probably not the ones Jon intended
There is also direct application. Stars are one of the big testbeds for modern physics, because they are extreme cases of long-term high temperature high pressure activity. If our physics applies to stars, we can have confidence in them in general.
:)
For example, right now there's this Dark Matter bit... we can use modern physics to explain everything except, oh, 99% of the universe. So clearly better understanding of the universe (on astronomical and sub-atomic) scales is needed.
Last time there was a major understanding of the sun, it was probably 'hey, stars are powered by hydrogen fusion'. Which helped nuclear research.
So think of sun/star research as 'really big remote lab work' and it makes sense. It's not just abstract, it's "applied, big scale".
Pure research always pays, you just can't tell in advance how, when, and to whom
I tend to favor the main brands (Toshiba, Acer, IBM Thinkpad). You'll find that most Linux-ready laptops are also the better-made onee. I think this is because the linux laptop FAQ is weighted towards laptops that use decent hardware that has drivers available, so you get less off-brand internals.
After 8 laptops (varios purchases, various sources), my two recommendations are:
1) Make sure it has a 3 months warrenty. Most problems happen immediately (manufacturer flaws that appear during the first days of use). Most accidents happen during the first month (while you learn the 'stresses' your laptop can handle).
2) Never get reconditioned (or used) laptops unless they include a new battery-- battery replacement is expensive.
Mr. Gates says "that for a few percent of the price of the PC you can buy a commercial operating system". Last I checked prices, we were buying computers for NASA or for the university at $1000-$1500 each. Assuming a low $70 license fee for Windows, that's 5-10%. So his 'few percent' is a bit too fuzzy for my tastes.
_Maybe_ that's a few percent. But add in any useful software (Office, say) and suddenly, you're starting to have a software budget that is at least 50% of the computer cost. And you know, computers do need software to do anything.
And if you buy MS's suggested levels of support, you're spending more than 5% on just the OS. He doesn't mention that, but they have their sales force push it. So we'll count that as hypocrisy, on top of fuzzy numbers and inaccurate statement of what computers need.
So it's disingenious for him to first get vendors to bundle in Windows and pass the cost along to the consumer as a hidden fee, then suddenly say "the OS is just a few percent" and neglect the utility of the entire computer.
His talk is scary propaganda.
That's okay, for a while White was the new Beige. Briefly, it looked like Purple might be the new Beige, and if you consult my young daughter, green-bug-shaped is her idea of the new Beige. No doubt barbie-Pink will be the new Beige for some subset of computing.
And, in about six months, there will be a retro trend, and Beige will be heralded as the new Beige!
Ah, fashion, you have arrived in the techie world!
So there's a proposal of a draft to consider a position statement about creating a framework for moving towards forming a possible entity. Wow! They have the political process down pat! Lots of action words and nothing real yet!
Seriously, it is a good thing, I just love these early, tentative stages. I'll likely pledge. I do think taking 'geekpac' as a contact name will be negative PR, even though "reclaiming geekhood" is trendy now.
There are distinct styles of gaming, which come into vogue at different times depending on whether any GOOD games of that type are out.
Loosely, consider them "Simulation", "Narrative", and "Gamist". Simulations are things like Flight Sims and Racing Games-- the accuracy is as important as the gameplay. Narrative are our old favorite, adventure games, things like Myst, etc. Gamist are what people usually think of when they think "video game", i.e. tetris, most FPS, arcade-style racing games, etc.
The better games tend to be those which fit more than one category. Metal Gear Solid was touted for being a good game (Gamist) while also having a great story (Narrative) and wonderful realism in the graphics (touching into the simulationist camp). Half Life was a good game with, again, a great story. [Insert your favorite game here] also did that sort of thing.
And, of course, once a good game is popular, that particular school of gaming tends to become popular because everyone comes out with their entry into that genre. And thus the cycles change.
I think there should be a new reality TV Show, "Small Court of Sanity". Unlike current People's Court/Judge Judy TV shows, where individuals do small claims, this would be the first case where any lawsuit by a multimillion dollar company vs a much smaller entity would be aired.
Yep, the big companies would _have_ to use this court before the case was allowed to go (via appeal) to the usual federal courts. No lawyers, just like small court-- just the 2 sides presenting their case to a telegenic judge. Shown publically, to expose how ludicrious this is.
Court costs would, of course, be covered by advertising. The rest would go to the US gov't (thus probably wiping out the national debt in just 3 seasons...)
And hey, once the corps realized that the negative PR cost of being displayed as total loons on daytime TV cost more than nuking some pitiful NPO or individual, maybe fewer would be filed.
At least moving these things away from the horrible, horrible process that is our modern judiciary would give some recourse to individuals and small entities. You know it's bad when I'm recommending jerry springer-like exposure over the court system.
"it would leave $10,000,000 for the company doing the development, equivilant to 40 salaried employees for five years at $50,000/yr
...
That's my bid."
Well, get a project manager and an accountant and refine it, it might work. Here's one tip: double the salary cost to get the actual worker cost (once you factor in HR costs, payroll processing, matching social security, managerial/paperwork overhead, and hiring costs), i.e.a $50k employee costs the company $100k.
Which goes to show that operating a business isn't something that we comp sci folks are necessarily the best at. But (like you) we can do a good job specing out a project and then let someone modify our numbers!
(Running a business is always more expensive than it looks. Heck, just _filing_ an IPO is a half-million dollar cost!)
After you _try_ to go through security, civil liberties get weird. You can't walk through with a gun, get caught, and say "oh, never mind, I just won't fly today". By then, there is suspicion of criminal behavior and you are, alas, in the mighty grasp of the underpaid, overworked, bitter security forces. Just walking away is no longer an option.
But don't worry-- they only use their powers against terrorists and bad guys, right?
Argh! Bad statistics alert!
"vulnerabilities found in Windows and all Linux flavors combined are almost the same"
So if I am running RedHat, Mandrake, SUSE, and Debian simultaneously, I have the same number of flaws as a single run of Win2k?
They should either use the average (among linux dists) or the max (ditto), vs Win. Or sum across all current Win flavors (ME, Win2k. maybe NT) to compare against all linux flavors (summed).
Argh!
It's anime-like because, in combat, the two sides will simply hang back and stare at each other for a while. Then both will fire off everything they have with explosive fury. When the dust settles... both sides will still be standing, but the collateral damage to the area will be _huge_ and there will be massive civilian casualties.
Oh, wait, that's how modern military actions are now. Alas.
Okay, here you go:
Congress and Hollywood to make you pay
Hollywood has gotten Congress to propose a law that will force you to have to buy new VCRs, CD players, and computers. If you keep your old ones, any new CDs or movies you buy won't work! If you buy a new one, any old CDs or movies won't work! Either way, we're in trouble! Also, forget about taking home videos-- you'll need to go to a professional place if you want to make copies for your folks. This little surprise is called SSSCA and is being slipped in by the hollywood movie moguls so they can make more $$$ and force us to buy the same stuff twice. Anyway, I'm passing this along to everyone I know, it'd be great if you did the same. I guess you could fax your congressman or complain at your local Best Buy on this.
>(or at least his staff)
Heh... while I'll bet Gary wishes he has a staff, alas he does not. He does get the occassional Futurama gig, but even mighty D&D does not create enough groupies and inquiries to allow for staff.
For better or for worse, Gary is 100% Gary, and definitely one of the more approaschable creators.
Nuclear does scare folks. The medical imaging of NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) got changed to MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) because people were freaking out about the 'nuclear' part. Even though it was passive reading of nuclear states, not actively nuking patients.
l ea r.html
There's a good writeup on:
http://www.urbanlegends.com/science/mri_not_nuc
The "nuclear rocket" folks could take a page from their book. Call this "water rockets" or such and downplay the nuke, upplay the 'tea kettle' method (or what have you).