Seriously, that's one of the most important things to me - being able to have two side by side command line shells/text editor windows that fit comfortably on a screen.
Because, proportionally spaced fonts by their nature unalign everything, I am restricted to fixed space fonts (It would be great of all fonts could be toggled between proportionally spaced and fixed space). Any fixed space font less that 8x12 is too small and usually has a terrible aspect ratio. Anything bigger than 10 pixels across is too clunky, and won't allow two 80 columns windows to fit side by side.
With Windows, this leaves me with the "FixedSys" font, and maybe a couple of fonts in Linux.
There was a game called Dungeon Keeper that allowed you to train up various monsters (like nethack in reverse), but that may have just been gaining experience.
There was another game lost in the depths of time where you were the goal was to train spiders to explore an obstacle autonomously. The spider would be trained through a training course and rewarding with flies when it got individual obstacle right.
Then, once trained up, you set it loose on the real obstacle course.
But there are many God games that allow you to control the evolution of creatures, although I'm not sure if these allowed the player to train the AI.
Why bother with trying to keep stuff secretly installed on the system hard disk drives? You should use an external USB 2.5" hard drive enclosure case with a good laptop drive. For around $80, you get 60 Gigabytes of portable storage you can take anywhere and plug into any Linux or Windows computer with a spare USB port.
But with a cheap launch technology, it's the individuals who will truly explore space. Once we're out of Earth's gravity well, private explorers could pretty much go anywhere provided they stocked enough food. Solar cells will provide unlimited energy, and a solar sail the unlimited propulsion. Advanced recycling equipment will minimize the loss of water and other necessities, and a decent internet connection will keep the travelers from feeling too cut off.
Many of those problems have already been solved by the ocean liner industry. Under financial pressure to reduce operating costs, they have been working on ways of make cruise ships more fuel efficient (using azipods), along with working out ways to make life comfortable for passengers, the 'space ratio').
Some (the Queen Mary 2) even have their own planetarium.
If we could work out how to build or launch something like one of these liners in Earth orbit (using standard construction techniques), and add radiation shielding, we could cruise the solar system in style and safety.
The specification of an ocean liner read like something out of Star Trek.
Power consumption = 118 Megawatts, Propulsive power = 86 Megawatts Steering = 4 azipods (2 fixed, 2 directional) Decks = 15 Cabins = 1330 (all with Internet access) Passengers = 2620 Crew = 1310
Every city in the world has the same problem, even if the downtown core is only a few miles from the city boundaries and surrounded by 100+ miles of countryside. Residents still want to be able to live in the leafy green suburbs, drive the kids to school by car before going to work, and be able to drive out into the countryside during the weekends. Even in Scotland, we have the same issues:
The same thing is happening in Edinburgh by the Labour/LibDem alliance. They are constantly selling off playing fields and primary schools off in low income areas to the luxury flat developers (Victorian sized bedrooms are the most desirable housing feature). Their argument is that the sale of property allows them to build new mega-schools (how about 150 kids in a single day-care?), and this goes through even if it is against the wishes of the parents, day-care centre directors and the education board.
And amazingly the local residents will still vote for them, since all they care about are their social security payments.
No, it only works if the property seizing party can demonstrate they could generate more property tax that the existing owners.
However, it does offer the possibility of condominium developers buying out strip malls, and replacing them with office blocks on the lower floors and luxury apartments on the upper floors.
One proposal is that the compensation paid for the land should be for the rezoned purpose, and not four the current use.
Do a Google search for the case Kelo vs. New London. It has been subject to considerable discussion in many places.
For anyone considering moving states and buying a house, this is going to make them think very carefully about buying a home close to a business park, strip mall or hotel. I wonder if the city councils have considered how this is going to affect their property taxes.
I've seen the compactflash hard disk drive, and they are impressive in the way that a hard disk drive can be squished into the size of a flashcard.
But I was wondering if it would be possible to have a connector in the shape of a flashcard at one end, with a cable that could run to an external USB 2.0 2.5"hard disk drive
This would give access to 40-80 Gigabytes of storage for the cost of a laptop hard drive.
They were pushed out. It is just that the gas pressue of interstellar space is in equilibrium with the gas pressure of solar wind. Pushing didn't cease to exist all of sudden, you know?
I understood these particles formed a shockwave where they collided with the interstellar gas, which was static due to the gravitational force from the Sun and planets being neglibible.
Are there any cameras that can use 2.5" hard disk drives (maybe using a hard disk drive enclosure?) Or are there any interface cables that could emulate a flash card at one end (inside the camera) while emulating a USB cable at the other? Given that the circuitry for converting IDE to USB takes less than a stick of chewing gum, this would seem to be possible.
Read up on "interstellar space". There is a low density of hydrogen gas out there - it wasn't pulled in by the gravitational pull of the stars when they formed, and it wasn't pushed out by the solar wind when the star achieved fusion.
So when you're craft is going at 200,000 mph, every little hydrogen atom is going to blow a chunk out of your craft and slow down your velocity. So it would make sense to reduce the surface area of your craft, in the direction that it is travelling.
There were patent disputes in the early days of pinball (1930's) Expo 93.
After that, Dick told us, Moloney started Bally Manufacturing (named after the game) to produce it. He then told of the song Ray used at his booth at the show "What'll They Do in 32? - Play Ballyhoo!". Dick then said pinball games in 1932 were the hottest new thing to come along at that time.
Dick then told us that over 100 pingames were introduced in that year, with almost anyone who could build a game doing so. He then told of Gottlieb's game from that year, FIVE STAR FINAL, which was thought by some to be named that way because Dave Gottlieb thought it would be his last pin. In actuality, however, it was named for an edition of a Chicago Newspaper.
At that point Dick began telling of the many problems and lawsuits which plagued the pingame industry in those early years. He first told of a lawsuit by WHIFFLE inventor Earl Froom alleging patent infringement by the pingame industry. He said Mills Novelty finally bought the Froom Patents.
Another important court case, Dick told us, was Calison vs Gottlieb. He said it was thrown out of court, but if Gottlieb had lost the case it could have meant the end of that company. Dick ended by telling us "pinball lives and will endure!"
Bumber to Bumper With the incredible success of these games, the pinball industry exploded. Home to the majority of manufacturers, Chicago became the pinball capital of the world, a title it still holds. By the end of 1932, there were about 150 pinball manufacturers (many of them one- or two-man operations), creating hundreds of different games. The competition was fierce, with companies stealing ideas from each other faster than you could say "patent lawsuit." Of the 150 manufacturers in business in 1932, only 14 survived to 1934.
Are you sure? Those things are made of steel - I'd hate to be the person living on the South side of that block in Summer, unless there was air conditioning. And anyone living on the lower floors would hear the constant clanging of people going to and from their apartments.
This would be offset by the advantage of being able to mount a satellite dish.
Every piece of information any person or company who wants to dig a hole somewhere needs to know without electrocuting themselves, starting a flood, causing a gas explosion or disrupting communication between air traffic controllers and the airports (at least in theory).
Thus these databases not only store ground height information, contour lines, but the locations and addresses of buildings, offices, factories, power lines, substations, pylons, underground electricity cables, water supplies, gas pipes, sewerage system, reservoirs, waste dumps, fibre optic cables, underground streams, communication towers etc...
But nothing a person couldn't deduce by walking along a road and looking around or reading the labels on the manhole covers.
Patents are a great way to research old pinball machines. Many patents were developed during the creation of the game and the companies used the patent as a tool to protect their intellectual property.
Patents not only contain mechanical drawings but also wonderful descriptions by the engineers on what they expected from the game or the mechanism. Often schematics are included as well.
1999 - After just two Pinball 2000 releases, Williams Manufacturing (WMS) exits the pinball
machine business for good, but continues on as a maker of gaming devices for the
global gambling industry. Also in this year, Gary Stern buys Sega Pinball, renames
the combined firms Stern Pinball and continues on as the only pinball producer
in the world today (as of early 2004).
That's why outsourcing is good. We get a cheaper service, thus driving down the cost of doing business. Do some people lose their job? Yes, but at a lower wage, they will have MORE purchasing power with the cheaper goods.
Unfortunately, you seem to forget that the cost of houses (mortgages and rent) do not fall simply because one person loses their job. They remain priced at the price that the most well-paid and determined buyers are willing to buy.
Get a good astronomy monthly magazine (with a list of satellites), a torch, a shortwave radio, and go satellite hunting.
I thought my Dad was nuts to try this, but it was amazing to go outside at night (it was dark enough to see the Milky Way, but light enough for sunlight to be reflected), and actually see these faint points of light zipping across the sky, while making that electronic chirruping noise.
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously, that's one of the most important things to me - being able to have two side by side command line shells/text editor windows that fit comfortably on a screen.
Because, proportionally spaced fonts by their nature unalign everything, I am restricted to fixed space fonts (It would be great of all fonts could be toggled between proportionally spaced and fixed space). Any fixed space font less that 8x12 is too small and usually has a terrible aspect ratio. Anything bigger than 10 pixels across is too clunky, and won't allow two 80 columns windows to fit side by side.
With Windows, this leaves me with the "FixedSys" font, and maybe a couple of fonts in Linux.
There was a game called Dungeon Keeper that allowed you to train up various monsters (like nethack in reverse), but that may have just been gaining experience.
There was another game lost in the depths of time where you were the goal was to train spiders to explore an obstacle autonomously. The spider would be trained through a training course and rewarding with flies when it got individual obstacle right.
Then, once trained up, you set it loose on the real obstacle course.
But there are many God games that allow you to control the evolution of creatures, although I'm not sure if these allowed the player to train the AI.
There was a non-digital method : The TinkerToy Computer, based on spools and sticks that children could make models out of.
In the UK, thieves are now using Bluetooth enabled handsets to detect laptops and mobile phones hidden inside cars.
Why bother with trying to keep stuff secretly installed on the system hard disk drives? You should use an external USB 2.5" hard drive enclosure case with a good laptop drive. For around $80, you get 60 Gigabytes of portable storage you can take anywhere and plug into any Linux or Windows computer with a spare USB port.
But with a cheap launch technology, it's the individuals who will truly explore space. Once we're out of Earth's gravity well, private explorers could pretty much go anywhere provided they stocked enough food. Solar cells will provide unlimited energy, and a solar sail the unlimited propulsion. Advanced recycling equipment will minimize the loss of water and other necessities, and a decent internet connection will keep the travelers from feeling too cut off.
Many of those problems have already been solved by the ocean liner industry. Under financial pressure to reduce operating costs, they have been working on ways of make cruise ships more fuel efficient (using azipods), along with working out ways to make life comfortable for passengers, the 'space ratio').
Some (the Queen Mary 2) even have their own planetarium.
If we could work out how to build or launch something like one of these liners in Earth orbit (using standard construction techniques), and add radiation shielding, we could cruise the solar system in style and safety.
The specification of an ocean liner read like something out of Star Trek.
Power consumption = 118 Megawatts,
Propulsive power = 86 Megawatts
Steering = 4 azipods (2 fixed, 2 directional)
Decks = 15
Cabins = 1330 (all with Internet access)
Passengers = 2620
Crew = 1310
For comparision, the space shuttle can transport 200 tonnes back to Earth (landing weight), and consumes 7 - 12 Kilowatts of power for all of its electrical systems, while the booster rockets and main engines are rated at 11.7 GigaWatts
Every city in the world has the same problem, even if the downtown core is only a few miles from the city boundaries and surrounded by 100+ miles of countryside. Residents still want to be able to live in the leafy green suburbs, drive the kids to school by car before going to work, and be able to drive out into the countryside during the weekends. Even in Scotland, we have the same issues:
Roads revamp would be 'devastating' for charity
environment lobby hits at plans for 'power grab'
How much would an equivalent plot of land on the waterfront cost?
The same thing is happening in Edinburgh by the Labour/LibDem alliance. They are constantly selling off playing fields and primary schools off in low income areas to the luxury flat developers (Victorian sized bedrooms are the most desirable housing feature). Their argument is that the sale of property allows them to build new mega-schools (how about 150 kids in a single day-care?), and this goes through even if it is against the wishes of the parents, day-care centre directors and the education board.
And amazingly the local residents will still vote for them, since all they care about are their social security payments.
No, it only works if the property seizing party can demonstrate they could generate more property tax that the existing owners.
However, it does offer the possibility of condominium developers buying out strip malls, and replacing them with office blocks on the lower floors and luxury apartments on the upper floors.
Search for Kelo vs New London
One proposal is that the compensation paid for the land should be for the rezoned purpose, and not four the current use.
Do a Google search for the case Kelo vs. New London. It has been subject to considerable discussion in many places.
For anyone considering moving states and buying a house, this is going to make them think very carefully about buying a home close to a business park, strip mall or hotel. I wonder if the city councils have considered how this is going to affect their property taxes.
I've seen the compactflash hard disk drive, and they are impressive in the way that a hard disk drive can be squished into the size of a flashcard.
But I was wondering if it would be possible to have a connector in the shape of a flashcard at one end, with a cable that could run to an external USB 2.0 2.5"hard disk drive This would give access to 40-80 Gigabytes of storage for the cost of a laptop hard drive.
Some sellers in the UK seem to swap around the item price and postal delivery costs, especially for small items.
So a $10 gadget with a $2 delivery charge, suddenly becomes a $2 gadget with a $10 delivery charge.
They were pushed out. It is just that the gas pressue of interstellar space is in equilibrium with the gas pressure of solar wind. Pushing didn't cease to exist all of sudden, you know?
I understood these particles formed a shockwave where they collided with the interstellar gas, which was static due to the gravitational force from the Sun and planets being neglibible.
Are there any cameras that can use 2.5" hard disk drives (maybe using a hard disk drive enclosure?) Or are there any interface cables that could emulate a flash card at one end (inside the camera) while emulating a USB cable at the other? Given that the circuitry for converting IDE to USB takes less than a stick of chewing gum, this would seem to be possible.
Read up on "interstellar space". There is a low density of hydrogen gas out there - it wasn't pulled in by the gravitational pull of the stars when they formed, and it wasn't pushed out by the solar wind when the star achieved fusion.
So when you're craft is going at 200,000 mph, every little hydrogen atom is going to blow a chunk out of your craft and slow down your velocity. So it would make sense to reduce the surface area of your craft, in the direction that it is travelling.
There were patent disputes in the early days of pinball (1930's) Expo 93.
After that, Dick told us, Moloney started Bally Manufacturing (named after the game) to produce it. He then told of the song Ray used at his booth at the show "What'll They Do in 32? - Play Ballyhoo!". Dick then said pinball games in 1932 were the hottest new thing to come along at that time.
Dick then told us that over 100 pingames were introduced in that year, with almost anyone who could build a game doing so. He then told of Gottlieb's game from that year, FIVE STAR FINAL, which was thought by some to be named that way because Dave Gottlieb thought it would be his last pin. In actuality, however, it was named for an edition of a Chicago Newspaper.
At that point Dick began telling of the many problems and lawsuits which plagued the pingame industry in those early years. He first told of a lawsuit by WHIFFLE inventor Earl Froom alleging patent infringement by the pingame industry. He said Mills Novelty finally bought the Froom Patents.
Another important court case, Dick told us, was Calison vs Gottlieb. He said it was thrown out of court, but if Gottlieb had lost the case it could have meant the end of that company. Dick ended by telling us "pinball lives and will endure!"
Bumber to Bumper
With the incredible success of these games, the pinball industry exploded. Home to the majority of manufacturers, Chicago became the pinball capital of the world, a title it still holds. By the end of 1932, there were about 150 pinball manufacturers (many of them one- or two-man operations), creating hundreds of different games. The competition was fierce, with companies stealing ideas from each other faster than you could say "patent lawsuit." Of the 150 manufacturers in business in 1932, only 14 survived to 1934.
Are you sure? Those things are made of steel - I'd hate to be the person living on the South side of that block in Summer, unless there was air conditioning. And anyone living on the lower floors would hear the constant clanging of people going to and from their apartments.
This would be offset by the advantage of being able to mount a satellite dish.
Geographic Information System
Every piece of information any person or company who wants to dig a hole somewhere needs to know without electrocuting themselves, starting a flood, causing a gas explosion or disrupting communication between air traffic controllers and the airports (at least in theory).
Thus these databases not only store ground height information, contour lines, but the locations and addresses of buildings, offices, factories, power lines, substations, pylons, underground electricity cables, water supplies, gas pipes, sewerage system, reservoirs, waste dumps, fibre optic cables, underground streams, communication towers etc...
But nothing a person couldn't deduce by walking along a road and looking around or reading the labels on the manhole covers.
Look at the history of pinball machines to see what could happen to the entertainment software industry.
Patents are a great way to research old pinball machines. Many patents were developed during the creation of the game and the companies used the patent as a tool to protect their intellectual property.
Patents not only contain mechanical drawings but also wonderful descriptions by the engineers on what they expected from the game or the mechanism. Often schematics are included as well.
Seems a good idea, until you realise what happened to all the companies:
1999 - After just two Pinball 2000 releases, Williams Manufacturing (WMS) exits the pinball
machine business for good, but continues on as a maker of gaming devices for the
global gambling industry. Also in this year, Gary Stern buys Sega Pinball, renames
the combined firms Stern Pinball and continues on as the only pinball producer
in the world today (as of early 2004).
Server after a slashdotting
And they were able to recover the data off the hard disk drives.
Full story here
Even worse, in Holland, student accomodation is now being constructed out of sea containers.
That's why outsourcing is good. We get a cheaper service, thus driving down the cost of doing business. Do some people lose their job? Yes, but at a lower wage, they will have MORE purchasing power with the cheaper goods.
Unfortunately, you seem to forget that the cost of houses (mortgages and rent) do not fall simply because one person loses their job. They remain priced at the price that the most well-paid and determined buyers are willing to buy.
Get a good astronomy monthly magazine (with a list of satellites), a torch, a shortwave radio, and go satellite hunting.
I thought my Dad was nuts to try this, but it was amazing to go outside at night (it was dark enough to see the Milky Way, but light enough for sunlight to be reflected), and actually see these faint points of light zipping across the sky, while making that electronic chirruping noise.