"People certainly took notice of our performance this year. Achieving over 1,000 mpg is quite an accomplishment, especially for the first year,"
Um, no they didn't. Your toothpick and styrofoam "car" averaged 15mph and weighed a paltry 80lbs doing nothing but ovals. Maybe you're busting out cartwheels in academic la-la land, but out in the real world where people actually have to break, accelerate, turn, drive uphill, downhill in traffic with air conditioning, heating, other passengers and groceries, it means JACK SHIT. Their testing parameters are so far removed from reality that practical application isn't even a possibility, which makes this an even larger excercise in absurdity.
No, my car can't get 1,194 miles to the gallon, and there is a good reason why-- It's not limited to being eight feet long, 26 inches wide and weighed approximately 80 pounds running soley along a six laps proving ground (9.6 miles) while maintaining a minimum average speed of 15 miles per hour.
If this were a step foward, I'd be behind them all the way, but it's nothing but engineering masturbation-- Neato to accomplish but utterly fucking useless.
My biggest issue with laser tag is the lack of physical feedback. It doesn't even nessisarily have to hurt, but it's GOT to be something more substantial than a weak vibration. I'm thinking of adding big relays tied to the trigger that kick the gun with a nice solid thud or something everytime you fire. Likewise the vests when you get hit.
Of course, it can't be hard to design a vest that'll shock you everytime you get hit if you're looking for something more potent. Like those,a href="http://www.softwareandstuff.com/h_misc_super flyzap.html">Electric Fly Swatter Raquets. Seriously, those things BITE. Hell, with as cheap as they are, you can probably cannibalize the components and line the inside to the vest with mesh, tied to the relay that would normally indicate your hit with the buzz effect. And all it'd take is another could off AA batteries. AND the beefy relay to thud the vest.
Don't forget to ask me about my acid paintballs...
That's probably the thing I miss most when comparing paintball to airsoft... Paintball doesn't have anything CLOSE to realistic looking weapondry. I'd kill for a paintball version of a P90....Probably something to do with the toys/realistic looks parental movement or some other BS.
"Stalin did what's best for his people, too, just like Bush.
Ah yes, murdering millions of people. Enforcing a ruthless police state. Enusuring your political enemies disappear. Ruthlessly supressing all religion. Doing what's best for his people.
Yeah, it does have a sort of synergy about there, doesn't it?
""Each time a dust particle hit Cassini, the impact produced a puff of plasma--a tiny cloud of ionized gas. Cassini's Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument was able to count these clouds; there were as many as 680 puffs per second. "We converted these into audible sounds that resemble hail hitting a tin roof,."
Which means they could have also converted them into audible sounds that resembled a dog barking. Or maybe a cat meowing. Fuck, plasma puffs hitting the antenna could have resembled a Van Halen guitar solo for all we know.
Ok, but is there really a point to this story? I mean really. It's pretty common knowledge that corners were cut to get nuclear programs fielded in time and it's pretty well known that those involved didn't always come out unscathed. This isn't exactly news here. It hasn't been for a long time. Is there really anything beyond the "Ode to the victims of nuclear power" moral lesson I should be getting here, cuz I just ain't feeling it. If this stuff were still happening today I may give an extra shit or two, but the days of ignorance and nessecity are far, far behind us when it comes to the blind employment of nuclear testing and such.
Now why do I doubt that you'll never see a story posted here taking the opposite position-- The benefits of nuclear power and how it was instrumental in stopping Stalin, a real, hardcore mass murderer in check.
Corners were cut. People died due to ignorance. It's sad, but it's not news. In fact, it's been covered and documented in every possible way. But hey, what's a little more rehash between friends, right?
Is it just me or did the impact vehical rely entirely too much on the circumstantial positioning of other celestial bodies to build up its kill velocity? Given all the slingshotting, it also looks like it would take a considerable amount of forewarning to achieve the desired result. Given the average detection time we've been seeing lately, I'd feel better if we didn't have to send the damn thing around a the sun first, y'know?
And PLEASE, drop the Space Odessey soundtrack, already. You're killing an asteroid for cryin out loud. At least try the Black Hole suite or the theme for T2... ANYTHING but monoliths in space.
I forgot to add that this absolutely reeks of some attempt to repair the absolute crash and burn attempt Enterprise made at fleshing out the Star Trek history. it's as iff they reognize the fact that is so sucks as to make a clean break by featuring a movie that has nothing to do with any pre-existing failures...
So how will they make this fit with the Classic Trek episode Balance of Terror, in which we learned that no human ever saw the face of a Romulan during the Romulan Wars?"
The same way the rationalized the difference in warp speed between TOS and every series foward-- "It was actually a calculation error made back then. They forgot to carry the '1' and it turns out warp 9 was actually warp seven..." I've come to the sad realization that to expect serious continuity from Trek is an excerise in futility, especially given it's present state of affairs, which amounts to nothing more than swiss cheese.
That aside, are they seriously that desperate to actually push Rombulan Wars to the big screen? I mean, how good of an idea can it possibly be to totally seperate a movie from it's mythos by introducing a totally unknown plot, crew and ship into a meager two hour time frame???? I'm not saying it can't be done, but it's going to take a better cast, scripting and directing than the franchise has seen in literally a decade.
On the brighter side, this may just be the shotgun that puts the franchise out of it's misery.
"Still, I feel safer using Firefox since malicious persons are much more unlikely to target any vulnerabilites."
What? What was that??? Did he just validate the fact that IE vulnerabilities are in no small part due to the fact that more people use it and thus target it more??! Could it be that IE and Windows itself are not simply just shoddy products, but are actually under more scrutiny than their nearest competitors despite the fanboy rantings to the contrary????
I know. Mod me strait to hell for stating the obvious ^_^
The nagging 'profit losses due to software piracy' debate all rests on one very shakey assumption-- That the majority of people who pirate a given piece of software would have actually bought that piece of software to begin with. Key to understanding how overblown these stories are is the fact that you don't lose physical inventory to piracy. So not only do you have to assume that every pirate equals a sale, but now you have to assign a dubious dollar value to a product that can easily be duplicated over and over again for nothing and at no cost to the original creators.
I mean, let's take everybodyies favorite pirated software, Photoshop. Just because Fred downloads Photoshop from his local warez site doesn't mean Fred would have actually dropped the $300+ to buy a legit copy. Fred was and is a null value in terms of sales revenue. Not only that, but the company didn't lose physical inventory when Fred procurred the not-so-legit copy of PS. Now it might be a different story if Fred couldn't do his job without Photoshop since you sould prove actual revenue lost, but so far the company is out absolutely nothing. Even if the pirate resells a disk at $5 in Kowloon (you know where I'm talking about), the originating company only suffers a lose if the pirate customers would have bought or couldn't live without the software.
No, this isn't an endorsement for piracy, but this is another area that's just as distorted as anything the RIAA could dream up. You didn't lose billions simply because billions probably didn't need or would have bought your product to begin with.
hasn't Dell had some of the best customer satisfaction ratings (offically, not marketese) for a few years running? That's gotta be worth something. Especially as pretensious as Apple customer service can get sometimes (speaking from a few years hands on hardware repair experience), let alone the infamous battery debacle in which they had to be forced into helping people.
Don't see what the problem is here that people are having. Regardless of what you do with the rebate for a truly dead ipod, it's a good deal. they're betting you probably won't fork another large quantity of cash for a product with less space. Hell, they might even be right, regardless of how much you worship the fucking design already ^_^
Well, there's an overriding reason conbustables have been used for so long... It's cheap. It's reliable. If power goes out, you can still fire a gun, as opposed to building up the air then shooting it off, all of which relies on external (vulnerable) power. not only that, the space to energy release ratio is way out of porportion, requiring a large amount of plumbing and compression tanks to get the velocities military applications are going to need. Conventional shells are entirely self contained and are a fraction of the size.
Well, maybe have one connected to a jet turbine for compression, I guess. Still, cheap and easy is a huge draw.
"Warren Lieberfarb. The former chief of Warner Home Video deserved a round of cheers for doggedly pursuing his vision of the new format. Lieberfarb, more than any other person, merits credit for making the DVD a reality. He didn't invent the technology. More important, he saw its potential to transform the industry. So he cajoled, strong-armed and bargained with industry players around the world to set aside their parochial interests and sign on to a universal standard for the new format."
First, let's put things into perspective here: Lieberfarb is a salesman; nothing more, nothing less. He didn't make the DVD and he sure as heck isn't the father. THAT person is probably stuck in a lab somewhere getting a bigger shaft in this end of the deal than Lieberfarb on his worst day. What's more, Lieberwhatever got happily accepted his huge-ass bonus on top of his regular pay: Time Warner stock options once worth as much as $135 million. He obviously accepted it, so whose fault is it that he didn't cash out in time?? Uh-huh. It's the stock market, so accept the risks already. On top of that, he gets a cool 10M in severence. Why aren't I feeling sorry for this guy???
"Say Boss, I know I accepted that 135m in stock options and all, but I didn't cash out on time, so how about giving me lots more money it its place...?"...During tough financial times in Timewarner-ville even. And don't tell me that stock isn't worth anything. Go look up stock symbols TWX and TWTC. A former shadow of itself, sure, but it's still got market potential.
From every angle I look at this, it sounds like Lieberwhatsit nailed his own damn coffin. From pissing people off to letting himself get talked into unwise financial decision. And while I know corporations can be meat factories, you just don't off and fire somebody who made you tons of money unless he's being a serious ass in most cases.
This guy ain't the poor lackey under the thumb of a giant coporate comglomorate here as is being skewed here. He painted the pentagram on his forehead, danced with the demons and got his reward, promptly screwing himself over in the process. Judgement is for the defendant; One soul please.
"but they're also claiming a "storage fee" after a few months for maintaning the account in their records."
So where does that put ATM fees? If we're going to regulate meaningless bullshit, I'd rather have the state go after the meaningless bullshit that I encounter on a regular basis, not once or twice a freakin' year.
"Washington consumers can soon rest easy knowing that, for the most part, their gift certificates won't expire or be nibbled away by fees."
Awwwww, how cozy. But why is this being regulated by the state governemnt? Sure, expirations on gift certificates suck as do nibbling fees, but there is an easy solution to this-- DON'T FUCKING BUY THEM. Infact, if it pisses you off that much , don't buy anything from that company period. You'd be surprised how self regulating the marketplace is. Piss your consumers off and business goes elsewhere. If they keep buying, it's obviously not the issue some people think it is. Nobody is forcing you to buy a giftcard.
"The lack of standardization -- the absence of expiration dates, differing expiration dates, laws that don't specifically address gift cards -- in some cases has led to cat-and-mouse games."
OMFwortl33tehG!!! NO STANDARDIZATION!??!? WTF is up with the people trying to regulate this crap???? LAWS THAT DON'T SPECIFICALLY ADDRESS GIFT CARDS!??!? They are freakin certificates being offered by the store as a CONVINIENCE. The rules you buy under ARE THEIRS TO MAKE!!! Yes, that's what we need. Another state agency sucking more of my hard earned money to regulate a convinece nobody is being forced to buy and whose rules are normally written on or with the gift certificate. IT'S NOT EXACTLY THE LENGTH OF AN EULA AFTER ALL. And here's a revolutionary thought if you're an illiterate bastard-- ASK WHAT THE SALESPERSON WHAT THE RULES ARE!!!! GASP! I know. It's a tough world.
I'm sorry, regulating shit like this is nothing but a waste time, money and resources for people too lazy or stupid to do something as simple as voting with their wallet. If those rules aren't disclosed on the certificate or reciept itself, fine, hammer the company hard. But state regulation???????????? Come the fuck on. It's not that big of a problem. Ok, so 2 billion in certs went unclaimed last year. For the most part, that's called USER NEGLECT. IBM should service my HDD now because I didn't realize the warrenty ran out, right? RIGHT??? i'm sorry, but this is so seriously lame. this problem is so easily solved BY PAYING MORE FUCKING ATTENTION.
And lest we forget, this is also the same state government that wanted to tax coffee.
But whose coastal waters would those be again? How "offshore" is this thing going to be??? A quagmire any way you look at it, short of annexing a slice of the pacific outright...
You see, we've done this before... You know, the "monument of engineering in somebody else's country" thing? So where do we build this thingy along the equator??
Let's take a look:
Guatamala Honduras Congo Gabon Dem. Rep. Congo Uganda Kenya Somalia Indonesia
Are you fucking kidding me??????
Yes, I can see this one happening in the very near future. Just the places to plant a multi billion dollar space elevator, right? The only country I'd even consider building this thing would be in Singapore, depending on how much equatorial leeway we have to play with. I mean the science is one thing; Great yeah, we have the money and the technology, lets build this mama! But actually breaking ground on this thing is a political nightmare of epic proportions. Stability of the local governement is just as big, if not a bigger issue than "can we build it/how much?"
The fact that the builder is going to want to make money off it once it's built is another huge issue, severely limiting the number of sites. Unless you want to ship all your ultra high-tech parts halfway around the world to, say, Somolia?...Let alone defending the site from the world village idiots.
Price to build isn't the only thing the government is looking at here and Bradley is a fool if he thinks that's all that's stopping this from moving forward.
Probably not, but from the articles I've been reading, they're having one hellva time with barrel friction at this stage of development. Every shot is quite literally ripping the barrel apart. Once they nail that down , it'll just be a matter of inflight guidance. Other fun facts-- Did you know they will need to divert power from the engines to bring this thing online? Having Scotty divert power to the weapons has a whole new meaning ^_^
"here have been a lot of conversations in the company in the past two months about (how) . . . it's time for us to give something back....Which would imply they've taken something from everybody??? Yeah, that just gives me all kinds of warm fuzzies about gMail and their other future plans.
I'd have to say that number would be even greater now, actually. Think of it this way-- 62% of/. were willing go with a total unknown, where the chance of failure was just as high as the chance of success. Now you not only have a successful return, you have some major issues brought to ligh that will undoubtably be corrected before the next flight that will only raise the chances of success.
" Isn't hypersonic flight research better suited to the Air Force?
How about some hypersonic sub-orbital artillery with your fries, Sir? Granted that's the navy version, but whatcha wanna bet that the Army could put a land based platform to good use?
Slashdot Mirror
" People certainly took notice of our performance this year. Achieving over 1,000 mpg is quite an accomplishment, especially for the first year,"
Um, no they didn't. Your toothpick and styrofoam "car" averaged 15mph and weighed a paltry 80lbs doing nothing but ovals. Maybe you're busting out cartwheels in academic la-la land, but out in the real world where people actually have to break, accelerate, turn, drive uphill, downhill in traffic with air conditioning, heating, other passengers and groceries, it means JACK SHIT. Their testing parameters are so far removed from reality that practical application isn't even a possibility, which makes this an even larger excercise in absurdity.
No, my car can't get 1,194 miles to the gallon, and there is a good reason why-- It's not limited to being eight feet long, 26 inches wide and weighed approximately 80 pounds running soley along a six laps proving ground (9.6 miles) while maintaining a minimum average speed of 15 miles per hour.
If this were a step foward, I'd be behind them all the way, but it's nothing but engineering masturbation-- Neato to accomplish but utterly fucking useless.
My biggest issue with laser tag is the lack of physical feedback. It doesn't even nessisarily have to hurt, but it's GOT to be something more substantial than a weak vibration. I'm thinking of adding big relays tied to the trigger that kick the gun with a nice solid thud or something everytime you fire. Likewise the vests when you get hit.
,a href="http://www.softwareandstuff.com/h_misc_super flyzap.html">Electric Fly Swatter Raquets. Seriously, those things BITE. Hell, with as cheap as they are, you can probably cannibalize the components and line the inside to the vest with mesh, tied to the relay that would normally indicate your hit with the buzz effect. And all it'd take is another could off AA batteries. AND the beefy relay to thud the vest.
Of course, it can't be hard to design a vest that'll shock you everytime you get hit if you're looking for something more potent. Like those
Don't forget to ask me about my acid paintballs...
That's probably the thing I miss most when comparing paintball to airsoft... Paintball doesn't have anything CLOSE to realistic looking weapondry. I'd kill for a paintball version of a P90. ...Probably something to do with the toys/realistic looks parental movement or some other BS.
"Stalin did what's best for his people, too, just like Bush.
Ah yes, murdering millions of people. Enforcing a ruthless police state. Enusuring your political enemies disappear. Ruthlessly supressing all religion. Doing what's best for his people.
Yeah, it does have a sort of synergy about there, doesn't it?
Good call. i even remember that episode. not sure how I eneded up with only one though ^_^
""Each time a dust particle hit Cassini, the impact produced a puff of plasma--a tiny cloud of ionized gas. Cassini's Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument was able to count these clouds; there were as many as 680 puffs per second. "We converted these into audible sounds that resemble hail hitting a tin roof,."
Which means they could have also converted them into audible sounds that resembled a dog barking. Or maybe a cat meowing. Fuck, plasma puffs hitting the antenna could have resembled a Van Halen guitar solo for all we know.
Ok, but is there really a point to this story? I mean really. It's pretty common knowledge that corners were cut to get nuclear programs fielded in time and it's pretty well known that those involved didn't always come out unscathed. This isn't exactly news here. It hasn't been for a long time. Is there really anything beyond the "Ode to the victims of nuclear power" moral lesson I should be getting here, cuz I just ain't feeling it. If this stuff were still happening today I may give an extra shit or two, but the days of ignorance and nessecity are far, far behind us when it comes to the blind employment of nuclear testing and such.
Now why do I doubt that you'll never see a story posted here taking the opposite position-- The benefits of nuclear power and how it was instrumental in stopping Stalin, a real, hardcore mass murderer in check.
Corners were cut. People died due to ignorance. It's sad, but it's not news. In fact, it's been covered and documented in every possible way. But hey, what's a little more rehash between friends, right?
Is it just me or did the impact vehical rely entirely too much on the circumstantial positioning of other celestial bodies to build up its kill velocity? Given all the slingshotting, it also looks like it would take a considerable amount of forewarning to achieve the desired result. Given the average detection time we've been seeing lately, I'd feel better if we didn't have to send the damn thing around a the sun first, y'know?
And PLEASE, drop the Space Odessey soundtrack, already. You're killing an asteroid for cryin out loud. At least try the Black Hole suite or the theme for T2... ANYTHING but monoliths in space.
I forgot to add that this absolutely reeks of some attempt to repair the absolute crash and burn attempt Enterprise made at fleshing out the Star Trek history. it's as iff they reognize the fact that is so sucks as to make a clean break by featuring a movie that has nothing to do with any pre-existing failures...
So how will they make this fit with the Classic Trek episode Balance of Terror, in which we learned that no human ever saw the face of a Romulan during the Romulan Wars?"
The same way the rationalized the difference in warp speed between TOS and every series foward-- "It was actually a calculation error made back then. They forgot to carry the '1' and it turns out warp 9 was actually warp seven..." I've come to the sad realization that to expect serious continuity from Trek is an excerise in futility, especially given it's present state of affairs, which amounts to nothing more than swiss cheese.
That aside, are they seriously that desperate to actually push Rombulan Wars to the big screen? I mean, how good of an idea can it possibly be to totally seperate a movie from it's mythos by introducing a totally unknown plot, crew and ship into a meager two hour time frame???? I'm not saying it can't be done, but it's going to take a better cast, scripting and directing than the franchise has seen in literally a decade.
On the brighter side, this may just be the shotgun that puts the franchise out of it's misery.
"Still, I feel safer using Firefox since malicious persons are much more unlikely to target any vulnerabilites."
What? What was that??? Did he just validate the fact that IE vulnerabilities are in no small part due to the fact that more people use it and thus target it more??! Could it be that IE and Windows itself are not simply just shoddy products, but are actually under more scrutiny than their nearest competitors despite the fanboy rantings to the contrary????
I know. Mod me strait to hell for stating the obvious ^_^
The nagging 'profit losses due to software piracy' debate all rests on one very shakey assumption-- That the majority of people who pirate a given piece of software would have actually bought that piece of software to begin with. Key to understanding how overblown these stories are is the fact that you don't lose physical inventory to piracy. So not only do you have to assume that every pirate equals a sale, but now you have to assign a dubious dollar value to a product that can easily be duplicated over and over again for nothing and at no cost to the original creators.
I mean, let's take everybodyies favorite pirated software, Photoshop. Just because Fred downloads Photoshop from his local warez site doesn't mean Fred would have actually dropped the $300+ to buy a legit copy. Fred was and is a null value in terms of sales revenue. Not only that, but the company didn't lose physical inventory when Fred procurred the not-so-legit copy of PS. Now it might be a different story if Fred couldn't do his job without Photoshop since you sould prove actual revenue lost, but so far the company is out absolutely nothing. Even if the pirate resells a disk at $5 in Kowloon (you know where I'm talking about), the originating company only suffers a lose if the pirate customers would have bought or couldn't live without the software.
No, this isn't an endorsement for piracy, but this is another area that's just as distorted as anything the RIAA could dream up. You didn't lose billions simply because billions probably didn't need or would have bought your product to begin with.
hasn't Dell had some of the best customer satisfaction ratings (offically, not marketese) for a few years running? That's gotta be worth something. Especially as pretensious as Apple customer service can get sometimes (speaking from a few years hands on hardware repair experience), let alone the infamous battery debacle in which they had to be forced into helping people.
Don't see what the problem is here that people are having. Regardless of what you do with the rebate for a truly dead ipod, it's a good deal. they're betting you probably won't fork another large quantity of cash for a product with less space. Hell, they might even be right, regardless of how much you worship the fucking design already ^_^
Well, there's an overriding reason conbustables have been used for so long... It's cheap. It's reliable. If power goes out, you can still fire a gun, as opposed to building up the air then shooting it off, all of which relies on external (vulnerable) power. not only that, the space to energy release ratio is way out of porportion, requiring a large amount of plumbing and compression tanks to get the velocities military applications are going to need. Conventional shells are entirely self contained and are a fraction of the size.
Well, maybe have one connected to a jet turbine for compression, I guess. Still, cheap and easy is a huge draw.
"FreeDOS is ideal for anyone who wants to bundle a version of DOS without having to pay a royalty for use of DOS."
Wait.. People actually pay for DOS?? But that's like paying for Windows... o_O'
People actually DO that????
"Warren Lieberfarb. The former chief of Warner Home Video deserved a round of cheers for doggedly pursuing his vision of the new format. Lieberfarb, more than any other person, merits credit for making the DVD a reality. He didn't invent the technology. More important, he saw its potential to transform the industry. So he cajoled, strong-armed and bargained with industry players around the world to set aside their parochial interests and sign on to a universal standard for the new format."
...During tough financial times in Timewarner-ville even. And don't tell me that stock isn't worth anything. Go look up stock symbols TWX and TWTC. A former shadow of itself, sure, but it's still got market potential.
First, let's put things into perspective here: Lieberfarb is a salesman; nothing more, nothing less. He didn't make the DVD and he sure as heck isn't the father. THAT person is probably stuck in a lab somewhere getting a bigger shaft in this end of the deal than Lieberfarb on his worst day. What's more, Lieberwhatever got happily accepted his huge-ass bonus on top of his regular pay: Time Warner stock options once worth as much as $135 million. He obviously accepted it, so whose fault is it that he didn't cash out in time?? Uh-huh. It's the stock market, so accept the risks already. On top of that, he gets a cool 10M in severence. Why aren't I feeling sorry for this guy???
"Say Boss, I know I accepted that 135m in stock options and all, but I didn't cash out on time, so how about giving me lots more money it its place...?"
From every angle I look at this, it sounds like Lieberwhatsit nailed his own damn coffin. From pissing people off to letting himself get talked into unwise financial decision. And while I know corporations can be meat factories, you just don't off and fire somebody who made you tons of money unless he's being a serious ass in most cases.
This guy ain't the poor lackey under the thumb of a giant coporate comglomorate here as is being skewed here. He painted the pentagram on his forehead, danced with the demons and got his reward, promptly screwing himself over in the process. Judgement is for the defendant; One soul please.
"but they're also claiming a "storage fee" after a few months for maintaning the account in their records."
So where does that put ATM fees? If we're going to regulate meaningless bullshit, I'd rather have the state go after the meaningless bullshit that I encounter on a regular basis, not once or twice a freakin' year.
"Washington consumers can soon rest easy knowing that, for the most part, their gift certificates won't expire or be nibbled away by fees."
Awwwww, how cozy. But why is this being regulated by the state governemnt? Sure, expirations on gift certificates suck as do nibbling fees, but there is an easy solution to this-- DON'T FUCKING BUY THEM. Infact, if it pisses you off that much , don't buy anything from that company period. You'd be surprised how self regulating the marketplace is. Piss your consumers off and business goes elsewhere. If they keep buying, it's obviously not the issue some people think it is. Nobody is forcing you to buy a giftcard.
" The lack of standardization -- the absence of expiration dates, differing expiration dates, laws that don't specifically address gift cards -- in some cases has led to cat-and-mouse games."
OMFwortl33tehG!!! NO STANDARDIZATION!??!? WTF is up with the people trying to regulate this crap???? LAWS THAT DON'T SPECIFICALLY ADDRESS GIFT CARDS!??!? They are freakin certificates being offered by the store as a CONVINIENCE. The rules you buy under ARE THEIRS TO MAKE!!! Yes, that's what we need. Another state agency sucking more of my hard earned money to regulate a convinece nobody is being forced to buy and whose rules are normally written on or with the gift certificate. IT'S NOT EXACTLY THE LENGTH OF AN EULA AFTER ALL. And here's a revolutionary thought if you're an illiterate bastard-- ASK WHAT THE SALESPERSON WHAT THE RULES ARE!!!! GASP! I know. It's a tough world.
I'm sorry, regulating shit like this is nothing but a waste time, money and resources for people too lazy or stupid to do something as simple as voting with their wallet. If those rules aren't disclosed on the certificate or reciept itself, fine, hammer the company hard. But state regulation???????????? Come the fuck on. It's not that big of a problem. Ok, so 2 billion in certs went unclaimed last year. For the most part, that's called USER NEGLECT. IBM should service my HDD now because I didn't realize the warrenty ran out, right? RIGHT??? i'm sorry, but this is so seriously lame. this problem is so easily solved BY PAYING MORE FUCKING ATTENTION.
And lest we forget, this is also the same state government that wanted to tax coffee.
Hmm.. guess I was under the impression it actually had to be solidly anchored... But if it can float around, sure, why not I guess.
But whose coastal waters would those be again? How "offshore" is this thing going to be??? A quagmire any way you look at it, short of annexing a slice of the pacific outright...
You see, we've done this before... You know, the "monument of engineering in somebody else's country" thing? So where do we build this thingy along the equator??
...Let alone defending the site from the world village idiots.
Let's take a look:
Guatamala
Honduras
Congo
Gabon
Dem. Rep. Congo
Uganda
Kenya
Somalia
Indonesia
Are you fucking kidding me??????
Yes, I can see this one happening in the very near future. Just the places to plant a multi billion dollar space elevator, right? The only country I'd even consider building this thing would be in Singapore, depending on how much equatorial leeway we have to play with. I mean the science is one thing; Great yeah, we have the money and the technology, lets build this mama! But actually breaking ground on this thing is a political nightmare of epic proportions. Stability of the local governement is just as big, if not a bigger issue than "can we build it/how much?"
The fact that the builder is going to want to make money off it once it's built is another huge issue, severely limiting the number of sites. Unless you want to ship all your ultra high-tech parts halfway around the world to, say, Somolia?
Price to build isn't the only thing the government is looking at here and Bradley is a fool if he thinks that's all that's stopping this from moving forward.
Probably not, but from the articles I've been reading, they're having one hellva time with barrel friction at this stage of development. Every shot is quite literally ripping the barrel apart. Once they nail that down , it'll just be a matter of inflight guidance. Other fun facts-- Did you know they will need to divert power from the engines to bring this thing online? Having Scotty divert power to the weapons has a whole new meaning ^_^
How prophetic of me...
"here have been a lot of conversations in the company in the past two months about (how) . . . it's time for us to give something back. ...Which would imply they've taken something from everybody??? Yeah, that just gives me all kinds of warm fuzzies about gMail and their other future plans.
I'd have to say that number would be even greater now, actually. Think of it this way-- 62% of /. were willing go with a total unknown, where the chance of failure was just as high as the chance of success. Now you not only have a successful return, you have some major issues brought to ligh that will undoubtably be corrected before the next flight that will only raise the chances of success.
:D
I'd vote yes again
" Isn't hypersonic flight research better suited to the Air Force?
How about some hypersonic sub-orbital artillery with your fries, Sir? Granted that's the navy version, but whatcha wanna bet that the Army could put a land based platform to good use?