Perhaps the lightest moment in the day came when one voter standing at his machine asked in the most deadpan voice, "What do I do if it says it is rebooting?" Head judge Marie turned white, and Joy's mouth dropped. My heart started to beat quickly, when he laughed and said "just kidding."
Nah - you want to have this conversation with your 'olds' asap dude. While they are pissing their cash down the drain on slot machines and weeks travelling the far east they are spending the cash they SHOULD be saving for their retirement so YOU dont have to spend all day wiping the soup from their chins. They have their own special nurse Olga for that!
One of my old organic chemistry profs used to have to insert the end of a flask into his nostril, block the other, exhale, and draw a full lungful out of the flask in order to identify ANYTHING!!
Even scary obvious stuff like ether, esters, etc... were no match for his shagged out nasal receptors. You could drop the most amazing fart ever in his vicinity and he'd be immune!
I think he used HIS sense of smell a little too much. Maybe its like eating chillis!
At last - all duties towards ageing relatives can be transferred to a robot carer. The cost / benefit of these things could be HUGE.
To pay for relatively minimal care for an elderly relative - even just a daily visit for half an hour to make sure they havent puked into the TV costs 5 figures a year. Extend that to relatively hands on / live in care and your looking at a significant percentage of even the best salary. If your siblings can't chip in and there no insurance around you can be looking at well over a million by the time they pop their clogs.
So even at a hundred grand one of these robots would be astoundingly good value assuming it dies the job for a few years without needing to be replaced.
Certainly by the time most of us are unable to reach for the remote ourselves out kids wont be saving up to build the extension for us to live in - they'll be saving up for a big robot to be our friend!
My mum got stressed by Q-bert because the 'wee chap' looked 'so real' she felt bad when he fell off and plummetted to her death.
But for some reason she was happy as larry blasting the shit out of a huge number of centipedes.
Personally - I used to love Road Rash because I could whip another biker with a big chain and pull him (or her) off their bike. MUCH more fun than pitstop!
Not only short term, but not even free trade. There are so many trade agreements, barriers to trade, direct illegal embargoes and other 'not-at-all-free' elements to trade in and with USA, EU, ANY big market that to call it Free Trade is misleading.
Like calling McDonalds burgers beef - it might have come from a cow - but it aint beef! just look at the shape!
I think the lawyers will be able to buy a few extra cases of claret. Which sounds pretty good to me. They might even be able to afford that new Merc to drag the wine home in.
This kind of thing would be excellent fun - and have some pretty neat practical uses too.
Until it becomes part of one of the iApps on a Mac I doubt it will be at all intuitive to use - so it wont be!
My dream application of this kind of thing? Pan around with a video camera semi randomly within a scene for an arbitrary period of time and have a bit of software capture this and 3D model the scene so you can walk about in there with very high resolutions. Any blind spots could later be refined with new video from a new location in the scene.
THATS why I'll be buying my 20GHz PVIII with a TB of RAM.
given that, in laymans terms, the brain adapts to changes (people who get a lump of brain chopped out can adapt slowly over time to accomodate this sometimes) it may be possible to implant the very young with mini interfaces which supply a feed.
Now - feed simple messages such as 'food' or 'your mum' or 'barney' into this interface to train it to associate the feed with whats going on around it.
You never know - your brain may well start treating this as a new sense - and you would potentially have some more complex interactions with it - not just taking in text or video - the visual stuff we think in - but actual raw ASCII or morse.
Its the associations, surely, that lead to understanding. Just like when I hear people say things like 'in my ass' I know they actually mean 'not likely matey' not actually 'i have one in my ass'.
I'd volunteer my little people to receive such a thing. Just think - if it was two way you could type without typing - that would be fucking sweet!
Thats why being a dad is great - you can buy things for your spouse to 'show her how much you love her - think of all the cooking shows you can watch now'.
My dad once bought my mum a new AMP for valentines. Nothing to do with the fact his own amp had dies a week earlier of course. And hey - it had a red ribbon on it! Who says romance is dead
With newer games such as just about every fighting game after Mortal Kombat and racing games you need to A) sink $1.00+ into the machine to even play, B) read instructions on how to just do the most basic of moves, and C) you get about 3 minutes of playing time almost regardless of your previous skills with similar games.
The last time I went to a reasonably big arcade (about 12 months ago) was the first time for years. An hour in I found that I'd spent over 75 (whats that - 180 dollars with the fucked up exchange rate just now) on some mediocre games which I SUCKED at.
I then asked the spotty change dude if there was a corner full of shit old metal slug machines and spent the following hour having WAY more fun for just 15.
If only it were so. In fact Russias economy is pretty often described as 'putin-capitalism' as so many economic restrictions are placed on private companies - and when a company steps out of line it has a habit of being 'bought out' by one of putins 11 or 12 super rich ex-party cronies (it might be 10 now if he's decided to exile another like he did last year).
Capitalism requires freedom - ultra capitalism requires ultra freedom. The majority of russia isn't aware of the chechen war!
There are enough parallels to the current Bush administration that anyone could rip my arguement to shreds - but maybe that says more about Bush than russia.
If I've asked you to demo the link because I want to ship out data to my 250 locations in real time rather than overnight, or some other PITA time show me the link talking to >100 locations at once. Even if you're just sending through an arbritary file make sure its of the same order as the data they need to shift.
Show me that you understand what I need, I already assume you know what you have to sell. I need convincing that you know how to keep me happy.
And you can't assume I have ANY idea how much data is involved in sending HDTV or any other 'consumery' signal. I'd avoid TV as a demo at all costs! If my cable hookup and FREE set top box can handle it wtf does your big connection cost so much for???
giving people more room to live in you avert conflict
If only it were so. Forget the 'blank sheet of paper' utopia that you picture. I'm rich, I decide to move to the moon, I buy several acres of moon and build a big house in the middle of it surrounded by sculpted moon rock in the style of some random japanese designer.
I need a few staff, someone to wash my car, and people to cook my food when I go into town for a meal. Somehow I doubt that these people will also have a couple of acres of moon to live on. I assume they'll be in some high rise - its a cost thing.
My acres are quite near the moon base for handy commuting to meetings on earth, but far enough not to be troubled by the dust storms / pollution. The high rises are either _right next to_ the moon base or so far away the workers have to leave 2 hours before their shift starts.
The EU 'bit' is bigger than the africa 'bit' because the EU put in more money. The US 'bit' isn't delimited in itself - just by extraction of the other areas. Only the Isreally 'bit' can adopt new land from its neighbours without being bombed to shit back on earth and sent off-moon for bad behaviour.
Inhabitants of the Asian 'bit' keep breaking into the 'EU' bit to earn a better rate for washing peoples underwear than they did back home manufacturing their TVs.
Considering how vocal/.ers are with the edit of certain movies, the overall content of others, and the dasterdly characters in one in particular- I would think a collabauthored script by the whole of/. would turn out okay.
Start one up! Relentlessly post for ideas, and use your journal to suggest a plot outline - invite twists and geeky stuff.
My own contribution? That the geek hero is caught trying to lift a hot chicks skirt with one of these while his geekier friend gets all hyper because he just got this thing up to 1 million rpm. Oh - and she should be wearing these - and geek 1 should use the expression "That, my friend, if fuckin' bitchin'"
As a chemist I know I can achieve certain reactions in certain conditions - be it a certain temperature, concentration, pressure, etc...
My 'quantum' teaches me that 'quantummy effects' as I call them happen more readily at very low temperatures. 'very quantummy effects' only happen within a hens tooth of absolute zero.
There are so many 'quantummy effects' that have not been successfully observed at 'roomish temp' that superconductivity would be breaking new ground in a pretty wide field.
A number of recent summary articles from people in various related fields shows a distinct split between those falling on the side of the yay, and those on the nay with regards to the 'superconducting soon?' question - there simply is no concensus that 'the major barrier' has been broken.
Take that for the bunch of unsubstantiated assertions it is and stick it up your ass! You physics puppies always piss me off!
stupidly I was refering to the previous name without being explicit about this - now roughly 300 people have told me that Mr Adams is dead, a fact I know and feel bad about every time I think 'i didnt finish that dirk gently book' - i didnt finish it because neither did he!
Pratchett is funny - but with no disrespect to the man, Adams pisses all over his big funny hat!
Jesus - dont piss of the junior league physicists!!
I'm inviting a Chemist bashing here - but superconductivity seems to me to be more of a chemistry problem than a physics one - in that its new materials that are required to increase the temperature.
The current 'high temp' superconductors are, to me (and yes, its only an opinion) a dead end. More and more complex materials are being produced which are SCARY BASTARDS to share a lab with. I've done some lab work on similar materials and they are naasty stuff.
The model of superconductivity is weak at best - but its getting better and its an exciting 'new frontier' field which is far removed from room temp fusion pseudo science - but it ain't gonna be quick!
I've spent my fair share of time working with equations you need 2 or 3 sheets of paper to just write down - I have a bit of insight into the research - I read most of the crap that makes it into the popular science press, and the odd snippet of real papers.
Molecules and atoms are whizzing around at breakneck speed
If youd left this out of your post it would have had a bit more credibility. Even being a lab grunt didn't put me off too much - I got on quite well with lab grunts!
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps the lightest moment in the day came when one voter standing at his machine asked in the most deadpan voice, "What do I do if it says it is rebooting?" Head judge Marie turned white, and Joy's mouth dropped. My heart started to beat quickly, when he laughed and said "just kidding."
Who was it?? I know your reading this!!!
Nah - you want to have this conversation with your 'olds' asap dude. While they are pissing their cash down the drain on slot machines and weeks travelling the far east they are spending the cash they SHOULD be saving for their retirement so YOU dont have to spend all day wiping the soup from their chins. They have their own special nurse Olga for that!
One of my old organic chemistry profs used to have to insert the end of a flask into his nostril, block the other, exhale, and draw a full lungful out of the flask in order to identify ANYTHING!!
Even scary obvious stuff like ether, esters, etc... were no match for his shagged out nasal receptors. You could drop the most amazing fart ever in his vicinity and he'd be immune!
I think he used HIS sense of smell a little too much. Maybe its like eating chillis!
At last - all duties towards ageing relatives can be transferred to a robot carer. The cost / benefit of these things could be HUGE.
To pay for relatively minimal care for an elderly relative - even just a daily visit for half an hour to make sure they havent puked into the TV costs 5 figures a year. Extend that to relatively hands on / live in care and your looking at a significant percentage of even the best salary. If your siblings can't chip in and there no insurance around you can be looking at well over a million by the time they pop their clogs.
So even at a hundred grand one of these robots would be astoundingly good value assuming it dies the job for a few years without needing to be replaced.
Certainly by the time most of us are unable to reach for the remote ourselves out kids wont be saving up to build the extension for us to live in - they'll be saving up for a big robot to be our friend!
fun!
good chap! I should read my comment replies more often!
My mum got stressed by Q-bert because the 'wee chap' looked 'so real' she felt bad when he fell off and plummetted to her death.
But for some reason she was happy as larry blasting the shit out of a huge number of centipedes.
Personally - I used to love Road Rash because I could whip another biker with a big chain and pull him (or her) off their bike. MUCH more fun than pitstop!
Ultimately free trade works out well.
Not only short term, but not even free trade. There are so many trade agreements, barriers to trade, direct illegal embargoes and other 'not-at-all-free' elements to trade in and with USA, EU, ANY big market that to call it Free Trade is misleading.
Like calling McDonalds burgers beef - it might have come from a cow - but it aint beef! just look at the shape!
Quickshot 2
... longer than I thought I would live!
What has my life become that I havent heard, read, written or said "Quickshot 2" for
Debating the finer points of microswitches! fun!
Amazon sucks - cant find the story anywhere!
Im probably just unaware of a great site for tracking down short stories - which would save my time wasted searching amazon with +short or +anthology
I think the lawyers will be able to buy a few extra cases of claret. Which sounds pretty good to me. They might even be able to afford that new Merc to drag the wine home in.
This kind of thing would be excellent fun - and have some pretty neat practical uses too.
Until it becomes part of one of the iApps on a Mac I doubt it will be at all intuitive to use - so it wont be!
My dream application of this kind of thing? Pan around with a video camera semi randomly within a scene for an arbitrary period of time and have a bit of software capture this and 3D model the scene so you can walk about in there with very high resolutions. Any blind spots could later be refined with new video from a new location in the scene.
THATS why I'll be buying my 20GHz PVIII with a TB of RAM.
given that, in laymans terms, the brain adapts to changes (people who get a lump of brain chopped out can adapt slowly over time to accomodate this sometimes) it may be possible to implant the very young with mini interfaces which supply a feed.
Now - feed simple messages such as 'food' or 'your mum' or 'barney' into this interface to train it to associate the feed with whats going on around it.
You never know - your brain may well start treating this as a new sense - and you would potentially have some more complex interactions with it - not just taking in text or video - the visual stuff we think in - but actual raw ASCII or morse.
Its the associations, surely, that lead to understanding. Just like when I hear people say things like 'in my ass' I know they actually mean 'not likely matey' not actually 'i have one in my ass'.
I'd volunteer my little people to receive such a thing. Just think - if it was two way you could type without typing - that would be fucking sweet!
My dad has a TiVo (a gift for my mom...)
Thats why being a dad is great - you can buy things for your spouse to 'show her how much you love her - think of all the cooking shows you can watch now'.
My dad once bought my mum a new AMP for valentines. Nothing to do with the fact his own amp had dies a week earlier of course. And hey - it had a red ribbon on it! Who says romance is dead
With newer games such as just about every fighting game after Mortal Kombat and racing games you need to A) sink $1.00+ into the machine to even play, B) read instructions on how to just do the most basic of moves, and C) you get about 3 minutes of playing time almost regardless of your previous skills with similar games.
The last time I went to a reasonably big arcade (about 12 months ago) was the first time for years. An hour in I found that I'd spent over 75 (whats that - 180 dollars with the fucked up exchange rate just now) on some mediocre games which I SUCKED at.
I then asked the spotty change dude if there was a corner full of shit old metal slug machines and spent the following hour having WAY more fun for just 15.
Russia today is as ultra capitalist
If only it were so. In fact Russias economy is pretty often described as 'putin-capitalism' as so many economic restrictions are placed on private companies - and when a company steps out of line it has a habit of being 'bought out' by one of putins 11 or 12 super rich ex-party cronies (it might be 10 now if he's decided to exile another like he did last year).
Capitalism requires freedom - ultra capitalism requires ultra freedom. The majority of russia isn't aware of the chechen war!
There are enough parallels to the current Bush administration that anyone could rip my arguement to shreds - but maybe that says more about Bush than russia.
Communism it aint though
but he truly believes that youd have to line your theatre with stealth aircraft to dampen the field - at a cost of ... ooo ... meeelions of dollars!
Thats a world I want to live in! Stop being so sensible and let the guy dream
i loved that phrase too - I hope the thinkgeek T-shirt / mousemat / mug are flying towards the presses right now!
If I've asked you to demo the link because I want to ship out data to my 250 locations in real time rather than overnight, or some other PITA time show me the link talking to >100 locations at once. Even if you're just sending through an arbritary file make sure its of the same order as the data they need to shift.
Show me that you understand what I need, I already assume you know what you have to sell. I need convincing that you know how to keep me happy.
And you can't assume I have ANY idea how much data is involved in sending HDTV or any other 'consumery' signal. I'd avoid TV as a demo at all costs! If my cable hookup and FREE set top box can handle it wtf does your big connection cost so much for???
giving people more room to live in you avert conflict
If only it were so. Forget the 'blank sheet of paper' utopia that you picture. I'm rich, I decide to move to the moon, I buy several acres of moon and build a big house in the middle of it surrounded by sculpted moon rock in the style of some random japanese designer.
I need a few staff, someone to wash my car, and people to cook my food when I go into town for a meal. Somehow I doubt that these people will also have a couple of acres of moon to live on. I assume they'll be in some high rise - its a cost thing.
My acres are quite near the moon base for handy commuting to meetings on earth, but far enough not to be troubled by the dust storms / pollution. The high rises are either _right next to_ the moon base or so far away the workers have to leave 2 hours before their shift starts.
The EU 'bit' is bigger than the africa 'bit' because the EU put in more money. The US 'bit' isn't delimited in itself - just by extraction of the other areas. Only the Isreally 'bit' can adopt new land from its neighbours without being bombed to shit back on earth and sent off-moon for bad behaviour.
Inhabitants of the Asian 'bit' keep breaking into the 'EU' bit to earn a better rate for washing peoples underwear than they did back home manufacturing their TVs.
He has some hot neighbours who he subtly gave webcams to at Christmas and he wants to be in control of their web connections. Simple as that.
Tidy up the rack?? But I enjoy all the LEDs on my:
[ vinyl turntable ] [ laptop ]
[ vcr ] [ digital tv tuner ]
[ dvd ]
[ radio tuner ]
[ digital radio tuner ]
[ amp ]
If only i had the time to dig out all those old SNES / Ataris / Segas etc... to add into the mix I'd be a happier bunny.
Thats why USB is so cool - you get to SEE all those new toys!!
Considering how vocal /.ers are with the edit of certain movies, the overall content of others, and the dasterdly characters in one in particular- I would think a collabauthored script by the whole of /. would turn out okay.
Start one up! Relentlessly post for ideas, and use your journal to suggest a plot outline - invite twists and geeky stuff.
My own contribution? That the geek hero is caught trying to lift a hot chicks skirt with one of these while his geekier friend gets all hyper because he just got this thing up to 1 million rpm. Oh - and she should be wearing these - and geek 1 should use the expression "That, my friend, if fuckin' bitchin'"
As a chemist I know I can achieve certain reactions in certain conditions - be it a certain temperature, concentration, pressure, etc...
My 'quantum' teaches me that 'quantummy effects' as I call them happen more readily at very low temperatures. 'very quantummy effects' only happen within a hens tooth of absolute zero.
There are so many 'quantummy effects' that have not been successfully observed at 'roomish temp' that superconductivity would be breaking new ground in a pretty wide field.
A number of recent summary articles from people in various related fields shows a distinct split between those falling on the side of the yay, and those on the nay with regards to the 'superconducting soon?' question - there simply is no concensus that 'the major barrier' has been broken.
Take that for the bunch of unsubstantiated assertions it is and stick it up your ass!
You physics puppies always piss me off!
stupidly I was refering to the previous name without being explicit about this - now roughly 300 people have told me that Mr Adams is dead, a fact I know and feel bad about every time I think 'i didnt finish that dirk gently book' - i didnt finish it because neither did he!
Pratchett is funny - but with no disrespect to the man, Adams pisses all over his big funny hat!
Jesus - dont piss of the junior league physicists!!
I'm inviting a Chemist bashing here - but superconductivity seems to me to be more of a chemistry problem than a physics one - in that its new materials that are required to increase the temperature.
The current 'high temp' superconductors are, to me (and yes, its only an opinion) a dead end. More and more complex materials are being produced which are SCARY BASTARDS to share a lab with. I've done some lab work on similar materials and they are naasty stuff.
The model of superconductivity is weak at best - but its getting better and its an exciting 'new frontier' field which is far removed from room temp fusion pseudo science - but it ain't gonna be quick!
I've spent my fair share of time working with equations you need 2 or 3 sheets of paper to just write down - I have a bit of insight into the research - I read most of the crap that makes it into the popular science press, and the odd snippet of real papers.
Molecules and atoms are whizzing around at breakneck speed
If youd left this out of your post it would have had a bit more credibility. Even being a lab grunt didn't put me off too much - I got on quite well with lab grunts!