What happens with global warming is killing us?
What happens when we get into a nuclear war?
What happens when earth starts naturally changing it's weather pattern to something that threatens or survival?
Well, I think in each case, we can still find a cheaper and easier way to perpetuate the species right here on Earth, rather than 30 million miles away on Mars, in an environment that would be less hospital to humans than even a post nuclear war ice age Earth.
Like, "Oh no, thanks to a nuclear winter the average temperature on Earth has dropped 20 degrees! Hey, I know, lets go colonize Mars, with an average temperate 100 degrees less than ours! And guess what? There's hardly any oxygen either! Yeah, it's gonna be great!":)
Personally, I think we should focus our efforts on keeping the planet we live on viable. If some big rock later undoes the hard work, so be it.
Couldn't agree more.
How much would it cost to create a colony on Mars? What would we be able to do on own planet for the same amount of money? It seems to me that for the same amount of money we could develop a way to protect all of humanity from an asteroid strike, rather than send off a select few to the new home of humanity in the stars.
Besides, is colonizing Mars really any easier or better than colonizing a post-apocalyptic Earth? I would think a self contained biosphere built on Earth would be hella cheaper than one built on Mars. I would guess that Earth after a worst case asteroid scenario would still be more habitable than Mars. If nothing else, the "colonists" will sure have a ton of biomater to subsist on for awhile.
Personally, these arguements that we need to colonize space because we're trashing Earth sound a bit to me like someone who wants to buy a new house because they don't feel like cleaning their perfectly good existing house. Yeah, the new house may be more fun and exciting, but any way you rationalize it, you're still just rationalizing it.
Now, take the data and put up some nice animations...
Indeed, I see lots of interesting possibilities for mapping and animating data like this on the web.
In fact, after the last election I had a nifty idea to create some sort of animated map of the US showing how political affiliations have geographically shifted over the years (primarily, the North slowly turning blue and the South slowly turning red). Then I started to think about extending that to a generic web app to display and animate various demographic data. Basically, a very dumbed down and animated online GIS.
It really would've been somewhat trivial to throw together with Flash, pulling in XML data streams. My biggest stumbling block ended up being finding a nice raw map of the US in vector format, either at the county level or even state level.
Anyone happen to know of a good source for free vector maps that can be easily imported into Flash?
There is a reason that both the Abram's tank and the Hummer are wide flat vehicles.
And just to add to that, all the robots in Robot Wars "evolved" into those wide, flat wedges for pretty much the same reason.
Wide, flat wedges may be boring, but they make a hell of a better fighting vehicle than a tall biped presenting a nice tall target, with very little stability. Mechs look awesome, but from a military point of view, you'd have to admit they're pretty rediculous.
That's an even more amazing find. Thanks. I can't believe how many planes they have mothballed out there.
I assume they're there mainly for spare parts? Or "just in case" we need thousands of planes for some huge conflict? Or because it's just cheaper to abandon them there?
The iritation from that one tiny discoloured dot alone is enough to wipe out any satisfaction to be had from owning that product.
Exactly. I returned my first PSP because it had something like 3 stuck pixels and 4 dead ones. I told myself, "hey, it's just a game machine, you'll get used to it." Hell no. As soon as you notice those pixels, especially the stuck ones, you just can't ignore them.
So I took it back and swapped it out for another. This one is better, only one stuck pixel, but still 3 or 4 dead ones. I really thought I could live with that, but no, this one is going back too, and I won't be exchanging it for another.
Besides the dead pixels, I'm already bored with the two games I bought (Wipeout and Ridge Racer) and I realized I could get some pretty freakin' sweet gadgets for the $350 I spent on the PSP and two games.
I may think about picking one up again once they've upped their QA on the screens. I have a feeling they were so rushed to produce enough for launch they just bypassed the whole dead pixel QA process on the screens. I can think of no other explanation. A few dead pixels really seems to be the norm on these, and as others have pointed out, that's just insanely unacceptable for such a small screen. I've never had a dead pixel on any PDA or phone I've owned. I've had a few on notebooks, but those had 10x the pixels.
Oh great, just when I thought I could stop designing for 640x480.:)
Seriously though, complaining about web sites that are too wide for your 320x240 screen is a bit like complaining about parking spots that are too small for your Winnebago.
I've done plenty of browsing on my phone or PDA. I just take it as a given that most sites are going to look like complete crap and it has never crossed my mind to blame the web site. You just find a few usable sites that you might need when you're away from your computer, and stick to those.
However, it would be nice to serve up a seperate version of your site to those browsing on smalls screens (perhaps just swapping the CSS). I've never looked into it, but I assume you can probably figure it out by looking at the user agent or platform. Anyone have any experience with this they can share?
The word "addiction" in this context is merely used to make geeks look more pathetic.
I will agree with you about the use of the word "addiction", but probably for different reasons.
I really do wish people doing these studies would stop using the word "addiction", or just stop asking themselves whether the MMO players are displaying addictive behavior. Rather, I wish they'd just look more at how these types of games affect the typical player's mental health, or their social behavior more generally.
Personally, I've cycled between long periods of "abstaining" from these types of games, and long periods of "addiction". I'm sure it's a cycle familiar to many around here. I'll find myself with maybe an abundance of free time, a bit bored, and figure I'll pick up a new computer game to entertain myself. A particular MMO might grab my attention, and I'll play casually for a month or two. Then the "addiction" kicks in, and I'll become obsessed with the game. Maybe for a period of 6 months or so. Then, eventually, I get pretty bored with the game after realizing I'm doing the same thing over and over, not unlike some lab rat hammering a lever to get his cheese.
I'm "between games" again at the moment, and looking back, I've realized there are aspects of my personaly that change drastically, consciously or subconsciously, while I'm "addicted":
I find myself avoiding taking vacations with my wife, because I know a vacation is a time when I won't get to play.
When we do plan a trip, I try to find excuses to keep the trip as short as possible.
I avoid going out on the weekends, or doing just about anything sociable with friends. After all, Fri and Sat are the nights I get to stay up all night playing.
On a related note, I quickly find myself with a severe sleep deficit, which I can deal with ok, until I end up sick from a lack of sleep.
My hobby, making music, becomes completely ignored.
Etc, etc...
In short, my life starts to revolve around "the game", and I don't like it (and neither does my wife, of course:).
Now that I'm not playing anything, I've been productive as hell with my free time, cranking out new music, and keeping my site up-to-date.
I guess my point is that even though these games may not be "addictive" in any medical sense of the word, some people may need to occasionally open their eyes and take a hard look at how the game has affected their lives.
Broadband is ephemeral, flakey, and not something you can neatly package up to hold, stare at, and share. I think there's something ingrained in our human DNA that demands we're able to hold something we call 'mine'.
I've become addicted to buying DVD sets as presents for just about any occasion. It seems there's a DVD set out there perfectly tailored for just about everyone I know. There's just something awesome about buying someone a complete season of a show they love, nicely packaged up with liner notes and all.
I'm Jason Cluts, the one who supposedly pointed out to HP that the display is only 12-bit.
I just wanted to note here that I wasn't necessarily the one who pointed out to them the Jornada was only 12-bit. I think we can all assume that HP knew this well before I brought it to their attention. All I did was rant on a public message board about how the display was obviously not 16-bit.
According to someone I spoke with at HP, it was only after reading these comments that they looked into the matter and discovered the Jornada was only 12-bit. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that's what I was told. Personally, I think they realized they weren't going to get away with marketing it as 16-bit after reading my comments.
Of course, that's probably just a small part of the whole story. If nothing else, the story I was told by them was just a convenient way to own up to a rather embarrassing situation. Maybe we'll get some further insight into the whole matter when HP makes their official statement tomorrow. I somehow doubt it though.
I still have the Jornada but I'm relatively sure that I'll swapping it in for a Palm in the coming weeks. HP will have to come up with something really good to keep me from dumping the thing.
As others have noted, this is showing very poor taste on the part of Loki in sharing this kind of customer information in a public forum. Especially since the obvious intent is to ridicule this customer. I sure hope I never have a reason to call Loki tech support.
Slashdot Mirror
What happens with global warming is killing us?
:)
What happens when we get into a nuclear war?
What happens when earth starts naturally changing it's weather pattern to something that threatens or survival?
Well, I think in each case, we can still find a cheaper and easier way to perpetuate the species right here on Earth, rather than 30 million miles away on Mars, in an environment that would be less hospital to humans than even a post nuclear war ice age Earth.
Like, "Oh no, thanks to a nuclear winter the average temperature on Earth has dropped 20 degrees! Hey, I know, lets go colonize Mars, with an average temperate 100 degrees less than ours! And guess what? There's hardly any oxygen either! Yeah, it's gonna be great!"
Personally, I think we should focus our efforts on keeping the planet we live on viable. If some big rock later undoes the hard work, so be it.
Couldn't agree more.
How much would it cost to create a colony on Mars? What would we be able to do on own planet for the same amount of money? It seems to me that for the same amount of money we could develop a way to protect all of humanity from an asteroid strike, rather than send off a select few to the new home of humanity in the stars.
Besides, is colonizing Mars really any easier or better than colonizing a post-apocalyptic Earth? I would think a self contained biosphere built on Earth would be hella cheaper than one built on Mars. I would guess that Earth after a worst case asteroid scenario would still be more habitable than Mars. If nothing else, the "colonists" will sure have a ton of biomater to subsist on for awhile.
Personally, these arguements that we need to colonize space because we're trashing Earth sound a bit to me like someone who wants to buy a new house because they don't feel like cleaning their perfectly good existing house. Yeah, the new house may be more fun and exciting, but any way you rationalize it, you're still just rationalizing it.
Now, take the data and put up some nice animations...
Indeed, I see lots of interesting possibilities for mapping and animating data like this on the web.
In fact, after the last election I had a nifty idea to create some sort of animated map of the US showing how political affiliations have geographically shifted over the years (primarily, the North slowly turning blue and the South slowly turning red). Then I started to think about extending that to a generic web app to display and animate various demographic data. Basically, a very dumbed down and animated online GIS.
It really would've been somewhat trivial to throw together with Flash, pulling in XML data streams. My biggest stumbling block ended up being finding a nice raw map of the US in vector format, either at the county level or even state level.
Anyone happen to know of a good source for free vector maps that can be easily imported into Flash?
There is a reason that both the Abram's tank and the Hummer are wide flat vehicles.
And just to add to that, all the robots in Robot Wars "evolved" into those wide, flat wedges for pretty much the same reason.
Wide, flat wedges may be boring, but they make a hell of a better fighting vehicle than a tall biped presenting a nice tall target, with very little stability. Mechs look awesome, but from a military point of view, you'd have to admit they're pretty rediculous.
That's an even more amazing find. Thanks. I can't believe how many planes they have mothballed out there.
I assume they're there mainly for spare parts? Or "just in case" we need thousands of planes for some huge conflict? Or because it's just cheaper to abandon them there?
Pretty cool to look at any rate.
Good enough to see SR-71s parked on a tarmac:
l l=34.952788,-117.884331&spn=0.006480,0.006738&t=k& hl=en
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Kramer+Junction,CA&
Scroll east to see a huge compass rose painted in desert.
The iritation from that one tiny discoloured dot alone is enough to wipe out any satisfaction to be had from owning that product.
Exactly. I returned my first PSP because it had something like 3 stuck pixels and 4 dead ones. I told myself, "hey, it's just a game machine, you'll get used to it." Hell no. As soon as you notice those pixels, especially the stuck ones, you just can't ignore them.
So I took it back and swapped it out for another. This one is better, only one stuck pixel, but still 3 or 4 dead ones. I really thought I could live with that, but no, this one is going back too, and I won't be exchanging it for another.
Besides the dead pixels, I'm already bored with the two games I bought (Wipeout and Ridge Racer) and I realized I could get some pretty freakin' sweet gadgets for the $350 I spent on the PSP and two games.
I may think about picking one up again once they've upped their QA on the screens. I have a feeling they were so rushed to produce enough for launch they just bypassed the whole dead pixel QA process on the screens. I can think of no other explanation. A few dead pixels really seems to be the norm on these, and as others have pointed out, that's just insanely unacceptable for such a small screen. I've never had a dead pixel on any PDA or phone I've owned. I've had a few on notebooks, but those had 10x the pixels.
Oh great, just when I thought I could stop designing for 640x480. :)
Seriously though, complaining about web sites that are too wide for your 320x240 screen is a bit like complaining about parking spots that are too small for your Winnebago.
I've done plenty of browsing on my phone or PDA. I just take it as a given that most sites are going to look like complete crap and it has never crossed my mind to blame the web site. You just find a few usable sites that you might need when you're away from your computer, and stick to those.
However, it would be nice to serve up a seperate version of your site to those browsing on smalls screens (perhaps just swapping the CSS). I've never looked into it, but I assume you can probably figure it out by looking at the user agent or platform. Anyone have any experience with this they can share?
I will agree with you about the use of the word "addiction", but probably for different reasons.
I really do wish people doing these studies would stop using the word "addiction", or just stop asking themselves whether the MMO players are displaying addictive behavior. Rather, I wish they'd just look more at how these types of games affect the typical player's mental health, or their social behavior more generally.
Personally, I've cycled between long periods of "abstaining" from these types of games, and long periods of "addiction". I'm sure it's a cycle familiar to many around here. I'll find myself with maybe an abundance of free time, a bit bored, and figure I'll pick up a new computer game to entertain myself. A particular MMO might grab my attention, and I'll play casually for a month or two. Then the "addiction" kicks in, and I'll become obsessed with the game. Maybe for a period of 6 months or so. Then, eventually, I get pretty bored with the game after realizing I'm doing the same thing over and over, not unlike some lab rat hammering a lever to get his cheese.
I'm "between games" again at the moment, and looking back, I've realized there are aspects of my personaly that change drastically, consciously or subconsciously, while I'm "addicted":
- I find myself avoiding taking vacations with my wife, because I know a vacation is a time when I won't get to play.
- When we do plan a trip, I try to find excuses to keep the trip as short as possible.
- I avoid going out on the weekends, or doing just about anything sociable with friends. After all, Fri and Sat are the nights I get to stay up all night playing.
- On a related note, I quickly find myself with a severe sleep deficit, which I can deal with ok, until I end up sick from a lack of sleep.
- My hobby, making music, becomes completely ignored.
- Etc, etc...
In short, my life starts to revolve around "the game", and I don't like it (and neither does my wife, of courseNow that I'm not playing anything, I've been productive as hell with my free time, cranking out new music, and keeping my site up-to-date.
I guess my point is that even though these games may not be "addictive" in any medical sense of the word, some people may need to occasionally open their eyes and take a hard look at how the game has affected their lives.
Broadband is ephemeral, flakey, and not something you can neatly package up to hold, stare at, and share. I think there's something ingrained in our human DNA that demands we're able to hold something we call 'mine'.
I've become addicted to buying DVD sets as presents for just about any occasion. It seems there's a DVD set out there perfectly tailored for just about everyone I know. There's just something awesome about buying someone a complete season of a show they love, nicely packaged up with liner notes and all.
I'm Jason Cluts, the one who supposedly pointed out to HP that the display is only 12-bit.
I just wanted to note here that I wasn't necessarily the one who pointed out to them the Jornada was only 12-bit. I think we can all assume that HP knew this well before I brought it to their attention. All I did was rant on a public message board about how the display was obviously not 16-bit.
According to someone I spoke with at HP, it was only after reading these comments that they looked into the matter and discovered the Jornada was only 12-bit. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that's what I was told. Personally, I think they realized they weren't going to get away with marketing it as 16-bit after reading my comments.
Of course, that's probably just a small part of the whole story. If nothing else, the story I was told by them was just a convenient way to own up to a rather embarrassing situation. Maybe we'll get some further insight into the whole matter when HP makes their official statement tomorrow. I somehow doubt it though.
I still have the Jornada but I'm relatively sure that I'll swapping it in for a Palm in the coming weeks. HP will have to come up with something really good to keep me from dumping the thing.
As others have noted, this is showing very poor taste on the part of Loki in sharing this kind of customer information in a public forum. Especially since the obvious intent is to ridicule this customer. I sure hope I never have a reason to call Loki tech support.