You know, with enough R&D, these screens could send back to central control an image of the livingroom audience watching the show. And AC Neilsen might find it quite useful to see you watching the TV shows you say you are watching, which is most likely different from the reponses to the survey you sent in.
Now, if TV central can watch the audience, imagine a future where all your internet-connected appliance display screens keep an eye on you as well.
I predict there will be a run on funny-nose glasses if this future comes about.
Yes, because NASA never installed any sensors backwards, thus never indicating when to pop open a drag 'chute.
No need to install the sensor backwards, when you mistakenly conflate english and metric units during the very intense design process (including multiple levels of peer review) such that your craft has no possibility of hitting its target and deploying a parachute.
Not that I'm not a fan of NASA. I am. I own the Space Shuttle Operators Manual, and when I was 11 (when I got it) I probably could have flown the shuttle, or at least co-piloted that darn thing.
From one fanboy to another, reading the operators manual qualifies you to walk through the NASA gift shop, not board the shuttle, bub. Maybe, if you were very lucky, you could have attended Space Camp when you were 11. Although it appears, as luck would have it, being an alcoholic would not keep you from boarding a space shuttle.
Now, you wanna talk RIGHT STUFF astronautics, then you talk tin-can Apollo capsules where you could die right there on the launch pad, well before lift-off. Yesiree, and we assembled models of the moon lander that had tiny little landing gear parts and spikey stuff that poked out all over. MUCH more difficult to make than that snap-together streamlined bird they fly today. (Raise it up a level! Make kids glue all the heat shield tiles on individually!)
A 100% efficient solar cell would be HOT, man! It would heat up the solar market to a blazing furnace of fiscal activity, that's what it would bring.
Physically, it would probably actually be warm to the touch, because the 100% efficient material is under a protective layer of glass, which will retain some heat. Plus, exposed frame and roof will raise the temperature as well.
Let this be a lesson to all young couples--there are much better things to film with your video cam, and lots of places on the internet to share your footage.
I should hope you edit your footage before placing it on the internet, though. All young people should learn to work video editing software. Heck, video editing software should be part of every cell phone--probably will be in a couple years.
In the meantime, young ppl can use free online video editing services, like Eyespot, Jumpcut or MotionBox.
When "Bennie and the Jets" was all the rage on the air back in the mid-70's, we used to say the same thing about his music, that it was ruining rock. How ironic that Elton should now be worried about his legacy!
Seriously, how can we afford to have this debate when we've got only a few billion years until our expanding sun makes the argument moot?
At least let's agree to develop the instruments now that will make the bridge of our first starship generate ceaseless pingy sonar-sounding effects loud enough to be heard throughout the bridge.
I think that is a vision of the future we can all support today!
What cable or satellite company sells their HD DVR units? None. They all rent them out.
And thank goodness for that! All the HD DVRs I've rented turned to shit in a few months. Shows stopped recording reliably. Units had to be swapped out. And by leaning on the sales staff, there's not up-front cost for the box--that's the joy of competition.
I like the DVRs from cable or satellite because it's seamless plug and play. No messing around trying to fit a Tivo to the set-top box. So, what does Tivo add to the HD equation?
One improvement I'd request of the DVR makers--can't you shut the box off? That thing runs continually, unless you pull the plug. There is no excuse for spinning the disk all damn day--the box should have enough smarts to wake itself up to record a show, then shut back down.
Maybe TiVO shuts down completely. Or it will soon...
Top scientific researchers today announced that analysis of the video content at popular sharing site YouTube has proven the theory that if you collect enough smarmy videos in one location, you can collect a swarm of randy young people that attracts a big, fat Sugar Daddy.
At the rate we're going, what with news of Congress living up to their name (opposite of progress) with regard to exploration the exploration of Mars, we won't escape the fate of our solar system.
Oh, you'll have to explore a lot further away than Mars to escape the fate of our solar system. Trouble is, after Mars, there is nothing worth reaching for unless it is beyond our solar system. So, sinking effort into Mars and the Moon is dead-end thinking.
And investing--now--in habitats and space trucks is a waste of effort and resource. Skip the transport of wetware completely and focus effort on development of robotics, nanotech, AI and propulsion. Master every corner of this solar system, without any human presence at all. Solve the tech problems here on earth, then export solutions--not problems--to other regions.
And while you wait--free rides in the vomit comet for everyone!
Stick a $1 billion prize into an investment fund and hand it over to anyone who can get people on to Mars and back alive. Do same for moon base. Close NASA down. Billions saved and lots of highly motivated businesses and individuals will do their damnest to earn that cash.
NASA has a valuable role to play in science and it should be freed of 1969-era thinking about putting humans on other planets or on our moon. Yeah, I know you grew up with the moon landing on your TV, but that was then, this is now. Building another space truck for hauling humans doesn't advance anything but truck engineering, and that's not a scientific goal.
And if truck engineering were a significant goal, then GM could adapt a Hummer and shoot it into space on its own nickle. But they won't because no one really wants to send humans to other rocks except for baby boomers entering second childhood.
To hell with them (us!). Invest in nanotechnology, robotics, space drives and AI--this is a new millennium and it is time to honor the past and move forward. Ground the shuttle fleet and mothball the ISS! And let's give rise to a flotilla of space exploration robotics.
Good riddance to Bush's 1969-throwback Mars program. Humans should not approach another planet until that orb has a functional orbital network, and a ground-based network of rover/robots.
Money spent figuring out how to keep wetware alive to pick up a bag of rocks is better spent investing in robotics, nanotechnology and the AI to fully explore any spot in our solar system we so choose. And, having learned how to do so, expand that robotic/AI/nanobot presence to neighboring systems, whether they have earthlike planets or not.
Learning how to live on the Moon is a great waste of time, as is the ISS. These things drain resources from the interesting and progressive sciences and projects. Tell me, what are the top results from the ISS project? A whole lot of nothing, is what.
Humans to the Moon and Mars is just an extension of the dead-end thinking that you can't go anywhere if you don't drive there yourself. Free yourself from that particular transport-bound thinking and the world's space science programs will blossom and knowledge will accelerate.
So, humans should remain earthbound only to send huge fleets of robotic servants everywhere in the solar system and beyond. Let the results from a vast array of interplanetary cameras and analyzers and comm equipment drive human imagination. And if you really need to feel a freakin' rock, send a thousand errandbots to fetch the best ones from any point--not just those available to a chucklehead on a golf cart.
I work in cartridge world and lexmark are the dearest and a big crap people call them toy printers HP or Canon is a good choice and I guarantee that any franchise of CW can reman or refill 99% of any f-in inkjet or laser supplies on the market there is a few we cannot because of manufacturers and other crap
Yeah, I had my fill of Cartridge World when the wrong color ink went into my cartridges.
What the time travelers discovered in 1857 (yes!) was that you don't get space travel for free. And because the earth moves through space, the first time travel experiments sent slugs and mice and eventually some monkeys into the void of space the earth had passed through.
Realizing this limit, the first human time traveler attempted to project himself onto the earth at a point 6 months in the past, so that he would arrive on a physical earth. His power calculations were off by half and he went back in time only 3 months and found himself in the center of the Sun.
This is the real crux of Scientology, BTW.
Oh, and the Tunguska impact? That was an errant visitor from our future.
From the Nasa site: "The node provides to the NASA planetary science community the digital image archives, necessary ancillary data sets, software tools, and technical expertise necessary to fully utilize the vast collection of digital planetary imagery."
OK, so the images will eventually be available to me once the Arizona site recovers, but where are the necessary ancillary data sets? I was expecting the necessary ancillary data sets!
I probably need a healthy dose of technical expertise, too. Anyone out there got a Planetary Geology CBT?
Dang! Waited decades since the first moonshot for easy access to NASA data, and now I discover I should have studied geology when I had the chance.
Oh, well. Maybe I can breathe life into the screensaver business...
For immediate release -- Google today announced the public beta release of new toolbar functionality designed to detect tiny depictions of human gonads and block them from view in the results to the newly expanded Google Search, which automatically includes searches of Google's Images database. The expanded search capability meant that searches frequently return thumbnail images of naked human bodies.
"People are being bushwhacked by the number of sexual images displayed as thumbnails," said Sergei Brin, who is on his honeymoon and sounded a little tuckered out. "To head off any public outcry and class-action lawsuits, we released 'Nad Blocker for our toolbar. It detects pubic hair, and skin-toned cylinders and crevices, among other things," Brin explained. "We've also developed an areola algorithm that is so good it doesn't get thrown off by piercings."
It's not like it was his entire remains. They shot up only a fraction of his ashes. I'm certain there is plenty oof Mr. Doohan left to spread around...
Oh, sure, it's easy to dismiss three slow-moving rocket boosters, even if the engineers who worked on it were known to add their own "special payload" to the payload, if you know what I mean. 'Cuz, yeah, they were *rocket scientists* who figured out long ago that these boosters would carry their juice into the stars.
But enough of that. Time for a thought exercise:
What if tomorrow's/. carried the story that astronomers have observed an unidentified booster-shaped lump of metal drifting through our solar system? Would you lobby for a mission to intercept it? Would we bring it to earth, or park it in orbit and send robots to do experiments? Would we study it then toss it toward the sun?
Slashdot Mirror
You know, with enough R&D, these screens could send back to central control an image of the livingroom audience watching the show. And AC Neilsen might find it quite useful to see you watching the TV shows you say you are watching, which is most likely different from the reponses to the survey you sent in.
Now, if TV central can watch the audience, imagine a future where all your internet-connected appliance display screens keep an eye on you as well.
I predict there will be a run on funny-nose glasses if this future comes about.
Bitch is Cissy Yost
Naive Girl-next-Door is Kai
Surfer Dude is Butchie Yost
Homosexual is Steady Freddie Lopez
Playa is John Monad
Joe Schmoe is Meyer Dickstein
Drama Queen is Linc Stark
There, that was easy. Huh? It's cancelled?
crap...
No need to install the sensor backwards, when you mistakenly conflate english and metric units during the very intense design process (including multiple levels of peer review) such that your craft has no possibility of hitting its target and deploying a parachute.
From one fanboy to another, reading the operators manual qualifies you to walk through the NASA gift shop, not board the shuttle, bub. Maybe, if you were very lucky, you could have attended Space Camp when you were 11. Although it appears, as luck would have it, being an alcoholic would not keep you from boarding a space shuttle.
Now, you wanna talk RIGHT STUFF astronautics, then you talk tin-can Apollo capsules where you could die right there on the launch pad, well before lift-off. Yesiree, and we assembled models of the moon lander that had tiny little landing gear parts and spikey stuff that poked out all over. MUCH more difficult to make than that snap-together streamlined bird they fly today. (Raise it up a level! Make kids glue all the heat shield tiles on individually!)
A 100% efficient solar cell would be HOT, man! It would heat up the solar market to a blazing furnace of fiscal activity, that's what it would bring.
Physically, it would probably actually be warm to the touch, because the 100% efficient material is under a protective layer of glass, which will retain some heat. Plus, exposed frame and roof will raise the temperature as well.
Nice pipe dream, though!
Proctologists using the new nanoparticle will discover the sun really does shine out your ass.
Let this be a lesson to all young couples--there are much better things to film with your video cam, and lots of places on the internet to share your footage.
I should hope you edit your footage before placing it on the internet, though. All young people should learn to work video editing software. Heck, video editing software should be part of every cell phone--probably will be in a couple years.
In the meantime, young ppl can use free online video editing services, like Eyespot, Jumpcut or MotionBox.
When "Bennie and the Jets" was all the rage on the air back in the mid-70's, we used to say the same thing about his music, that it was ruining rock. How ironic that Elton should now be worried about his legacy!
If I do it right, like in John from Cincinnati, I'll have my lawyer right behind me when that stupid floor trips me up.
What silicon compound could be used instead of Carbon, you ask.
Why, glass, of course!
Seriously, how can we afford to have this debate when we've got only a few billion years until our expanding sun makes the argument moot?
At least let's agree to develop the instruments now that will make the bridge of our first starship generate ceaseless pingy sonar-sounding effects loud enough to be heard throughout the bridge.
I think that is a vision of the future we can all support today!
What cable or satellite company sells their HD DVR units? None. They all rent them out.
And thank goodness for that! All the HD DVRs I've rented turned to shit in a few months. Shows stopped recording reliably. Units had to be swapped out. And by leaning on the sales staff, there's not up-front cost for the box--that's the joy of competition.
I like the DVRs from cable or satellite because it's seamless plug and play. No messing around trying to fit a Tivo to the set-top box. So, what does Tivo add to the HD equation?
One improvement I'd request of the DVR makers--can't you shut the box off? That thing runs continually, unless you pull the plug. There is no excuse for spinning the disk all damn day--the box should have enough smarts to wake itself up to record a show, then shut back down.
Maybe TiVO shuts down completely. Or it will soon...
Top scientific researchers today announced that analysis of the video content at popular sharing site YouTube has proven the theory that if you collect enough smarmy videos in one location, you can collect a swarm of randy young people that attracts a big, fat Sugar Daddy.
Oh, you'll have to explore a lot further away than Mars to escape the fate of our solar system. Trouble is, after Mars, there is nothing worth reaching for unless it is beyond our solar system. So, sinking effort into Mars and the Moon is dead-end thinking.
And investing--now--in habitats and space trucks is a waste of effort and resource. Skip the transport of wetware completely and focus effort on development of robotics, nanotech, AI and propulsion. Master every corner of this solar system, without any human presence at all. Solve the tech problems here on earth, then export solutions--not problems--to other regions.
And while you wait--free rides in the vomit comet for everyone!
...you can make a career out of predicting the death of one particular star...
NASA has a valuable role to play in science and it should be freed of 1969-era thinking about putting humans on other planets or on our moon. Yeah, I know you grew up with the moon landing on your TV, but that was then, this is now. Building another space truck for hauling humans doesn't advance anything but truck engineering, and that's not a scientific goal.
And if truck engineering were a significant goal, then GM could adapt a Hummer and shoot it into space on its own nickle. But they won't because no one really wants to send humans to other rocks except for baby boomers entering second childhood.
To hell with them (us!). Invest in nanotechnology, robotics, space drives and AI--this is a new millennium and it is time to honor the past and move forward. Ground the shuttle fleet and mothball the ISS! And let's give rise to a flotilla of space exploration robotics.
Good riddance to Bush's 1969-throwback Mars program. Humans should not approach another planet until that orb has a functional orbital network, and a ground-based network of rover/robots.
Money spent figuring out how to keep wetware alive to pick up a bag of rocks is better spent investing in robotics, nanotechnology and the AI to fully explore any spot in our solar system we so choose. And, having learned how to do so, expand that robotic/AI/nanobot presence to neighboring systems, whether they have earthlike planets or not.
Learning how to live on the Moon is a great waste of time, as is the ISS. These things drain resources from the interesting and progressive sciences and projects. Tell me, what are the top results from the ISS project? A whole lot of nothing, is what.
Humans to the Moon and Mars is just an extension of the dead-end thinking that you can't go anywhere if you don't drive there yourself. Free yourself from that particular transport-bound thinking and the world's space science programs will blossom and knowledge will accelerate.
So, humans should remain earthbound only to send huge fleets of robotic servants everywhere in the solar system and beyond. Let the results from a vast array of interplanetary cameras and analyzers and comm equipment drive human imagination. And if you really need to feel a freakin' rock, send a thousand errandbots to fetch the best ones from any point--not just those available to a chucklehead on a golf cart.
Crap is relative, no?
Save a hundred bucks! We all have earliest ancestors from Africa. Apparently one small tribe of ppl is the source of all human DNA today.
Seems to me that if you have that much time to fritter away on WoW, you must not be much older than 11 yourself.
/. .
Oh, wait, now I'm a pot calling the kettle black. I just frittered away 45 seconds on
Stupid guilty pleasures...
What the time travelers discovered in 1857 (yes!) was that you don't get space travel for free. And because the earth moves through space, the first time travel experiments sent slugs and mice and eventually some monkeys into the void of space the earth had passed through.
Realizing this limit, the first human time traveler attempted to project himself onto the earth at a point 6 months in the past, so that he would arrive on a physical earth. His power calculations were off by half and he went back in time only 3 months and found himself in the center of the Sun.
This is the real crux of Scientology, BTW.
Oh, and the Tunguska impact? That was an errant visitor from our future.
Predators were quick to move into the Chernobyl area because of the favorable night hunting, where prey animals glow in the dark.
Sure, the price they pay is that they can't bear viable young, but to live free without human intervention? Priceless!
I probably need a healthy dose of technical expertise, too. Anyone out there got a Planetary Geology CBT?
Dang! Waited decades since the first moonshot for easy access to NASA data, and now I discover I should have studied geology when I had the chance.
Oh, well. Maybe I can breathe life into the screensaver business...
For immediate release -- Google today announced the public beta release of new toolbar functionality designed to detect tiny depictions of human gonads and block them from view in the results to the newly expanded Google Search, which automatically includes searches of Google's Images database. The expanded search capability meant that searches frequently return thumbnail images of naked human bodies.
"People are being bushwhacked by the number of sexual images displayed as thumbnails," said Sergei Brin, who is on his honeymoon and sounded a little tuckered out. "To head off any public outcry and class-action lawsuits, we released 'Nad Blocker for our toolbar. It detects pubic hair, and skin-toned cylinders and crevices, among other things," Brin explained. "We've also developed an areola algorithm that is so good it doesn't get thrown off by piercings."
It's not like it was his entire remains. They shot up only a fraction of his ashes. I'm certain there is plenty oof Mr. Doohan left to spread around...
Oh, sure, it's easy to dismiss three slow-moving rocket boosters, even if the engineers who worked on it were known to add their own "special payload" to the payload, if you know what I mean. 'Cuz, yeah, they were *rocket scientists* who figured out long ago that these boosters would carry their juice into the stars.
/. carried the story that astronomers have observed an unidentified booster-shaped lump of metal drifting through our solar system? Would you lobby for a mission to intercept it? Would we bring it to earth, or park it in orbit and send robots to do experiments? Would we study it then toss it toward the sun?
But enough of that. Time for a thought exercise:
What if tomorrow's