This information has put me in shock and awe, so to speak. I had no idea we had already stooped so low.
Doesn't the US government realize that any form of torture is ultimately self-defeating?
Doesn't the US government realize that positive reinforcement (i.e. Tell us what we want and you can have a nice meal, anything you want... ) is far more effective than "Tell us what we want or we're going to beat the shit out of you."
I keep feeling like I've watched far too much Star Trek, and when I look at the way things really are here in the US, I'm shocked that we brag about being "Land of the Free" and so on.
Yes, PNG is a good idea for now... but how long before some greedy corporation that has no other way to make a profit slips some sort of patent through on PNG?
I wouldn't say it's impossible, either. Especially when you consider some of extremly broad software patents that have made it, such as the JPEG one.
Patents are not doing anything close to the original intended function, unless that was to provide a revenue stream for worthless companies that can't make a buck on their own merits.
If you're one of the people that writes software that spews out messages like, "Would you like me to save this file?" And "I'm sorry, but there was an error." etc...
PLEASE, STOP DOING IT NOW!
Every time I see it I'm positive my computer has become a sentient being, and will somehow find a way to launch nukes like Skynet did in order to kill 3 billion people, then build terminators to finish off the rest.
ALL because you programmers think you're SOOOO funny. Sheesh.
The whole 2003 instead of 1973 thing in this article makes me wonder how this submission gets accepted, and my submissions, which are spell-checked and fact-checked don't get accepted.
Oh, that's right, this is SLASHDOT! These aren't the droids you're looking for... move along, move along...
Heh, did you know that the reason the movie A.I. was titled "A.I. - Artificial Intelligence" was because test audiences thought the I looked like a 1, and Spielberg didn't want movie-goers to think it was about the steak sauce! HAH!
Having watched A.I. and Terminator 2 more times than is mentally healthy, I can safely say I know absolutely nothing relevant about A.I. However, this is Slashdot, so that won't stop me from clicking the Post button.
Anyway, I'll leave you with a quote... "If a machine, a terminator, can learn the value of human life... maybe we can, too." heh,...riiiiight...;)
Can anyone tell me if there is a way to configure moz to display ALT tags when I mouse over images? I thought maybe there's an option in that jungle of "secret settings" via about:config.
I know I can see the ALT tags by doing properties on the images, but I'd rather be able to simply see them on mouse over.
On the whole ATI vs nVidia thing...
on
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I'd like to point out what one of the developers said on Croteam's Website. They developed the Serious Sam games, which use a remarkable engine.
Here's the text I'm refering to below.
----
Pipelines, pipelines... February 25, 2003
Hello, world.
Just wanted to write a word or two regarding the issue raised couple of days ago. Seems like the whole Internet community wants to crucify nVidia about the controversy of how many rendering pipelines GeForceFX realy has. Is it 8 pipelines with 1 texture unit, or 4 with 2, or... uh... I don't know anymore. And it really DOESN'T matter that much!
The only thing that matters is how fast and how good it can render pixels. And both GeForceFX and Radeon9700 are great products, the kind of hardware that developers long for. So, personally, I don't care much what's "under the hood".
Don't get me wrong, I am into 3D-graphic hardware, but this pipeline thing really went out of proportion. Number of pipelines is a good hardware information, and that's all there's to it. It really doesn't need to reflect the speed of the hardware directly. Come to think of it... currently, there are no games that utilize even 1/3rd of nifty features these two boards have.
Oh, before I forget... I'm not "nVidiot" (and I'm not "fanATIc", either). I'm just a game developer who wants good and fast technology for the future. And both ATI and nVidia have it now!
I took a hammer to a K6-2. After a few swings, it was in a few chunks. I was amazed at how much it looked like an Athlon underneath the metal plate. It had the same colors, the little raised core.
Anyway, I haven't tried putting all the little fragments back into a Socket7 board, mainly because I do not have one. But if I ever do this, and it works, I'll let everyone know.;)
I also plugged a printer into one of my old machines while both the printer and the system were on. ZAAP! My smoke alarm went off, and the monitor went blank. I shut the system off, and opened it up real quick. It smelled like burnt rubber on the inside, but I couldn't see any damage. I turned the thing back on, both the printer and system worked fine.
Lastly, I had an old 500 MB Maxtor that I used to use to swap files with other people. This thing was dropped many times, and even thrown across a room in a fit of rage, and still worked great, with maybe 2K of bad sectors to show for it.;)
In closing, I'd just like to say, it will never cease to amaze me what some men will do for their pr0n. Err, I mean, sharing a lot Linux distros in p2p networks?;)
ASCII version of pictures
on
Snowflake Photos
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· Score: 5, Funny
*
and my personal favorite
* *
* *
The above one makes a great desktop for the graphically challenged.
Sorry if this sounds a little trollish, but I have to ask... With the new "Better, Faster, Cheaper" theme, is NASA up to the task of having a probe last that long, especially when a lot of their current attention is still focused on the shuttle disaster?
Personally, I'd rather see more money spent on human spaceflight, such as the necessary refitting/redesigning of the shuttles. Probes are great, but Pluto just isn't that exciting to me. It's a small, cold rock. Then again, I guess we don't know for sure until we get a better look at it.
The thing has been going longer than it was ever intended to anyway. It's really cold and really far away, so it's not too shocking that it finally quit.
Has SETI given up on it, too? I know they would do an informal test on their equipment by looking for the Pioneer 10 signal. SETI has been having problems tracking it for a few years at least... here's something Jill Tarter wrote about it.
If a nuclear war or asteroid or other event destroys all of humanity, probes like this will be our only legacy...
Umm... I'm just curious... No reason, really. I just want to know. I mean, just in case I'd ever make, you know, an extended visit.;)
It's kind of sad that the government actually needs more power than what's provided by the first Patriot Act. It's also ironic that it was called the Patriot Act, because it doesn't make me feel very patriotic...
Think of all the Opera users trying to go to MSN.com! Umm... wait a minute. An Opera user... trying to go to MSN.com? That'd be ironic.
In other news, for a long time MS has required IE for Windows Update. It makes sense that they'd start pulling the same trick with other Web servicies.
Of course, this is totally unfair... And so unlike MS to do something like this...;)
Will this lead to a cure? The article, which I read for once, doesn't say...
Check the Guinness book of world records... there's a guy who has had the hiccups for 60 years or so... Oh, the poor soul. C'mon scientists, he's waiting on you!;)
It could just be that, perhaps, maybe... I'm not sure now... I don't want to jump to any conclusions... but well... the fans could have felt a little, say, burned, by Star Trek: Insurrection - aka Star Trek: Worf Gets a Zit. But this is going WAY out on a limb here, so don't take my word for it...
Oh, and our good friend Wil Wheaton ended up on the cutting room floor.
Yeah, we've all heard that MS leans toward bloatware. Well, rightly so... the target market for Word XP is computers with more than enough disk space for 20K files.
But here's a song from back in the day... It may be out of date in the technical aspects, but its message rings clear.;)
Nine-tenths of a gig,
Biggest ever seen,
God this program's big:
MS Word 15!
Comes on 10 CD's,
And requires -- Damn!
Word is fine, but jeez:
60 megs of RAM!?
Oh, Microsoft, Microsoft, bloatware all the way!
I've sat here installing Word since breakfast yesterday.
Oh, Microsoft, Microsoft, moderation please!
Guess you hadn't noticed -- 4-gig drives don't grow on trees!
Did you really ship one of your children via FedEx?;)
You even said in that article, "and you think I'm kidding" so... all I have to say to that is, well, apparently, children are much more durable than computer hardware.
Do you think we should make computer hardware out of children?
Slashdot Mirror
I have to wonder though, did he pick Astroturtle because it seems like light is pretty fsking slow when it travels across interstellar distances? ;)
Or maybe he just likes turtles?
I got it... maybe when he was a kid he attached small turtles to model rockets and sent them off into the wild blue yonder... thus... ASTROTURTLE!
OK, a little more OT...
These pics are neat and I'm sure astronomers are all happy with them, but I think they aren't really eye candy like some of the other ones.
Doesn't the US government realize that any form of torture is ultimately self-defeating?
Doesn't the US government realize that positive reinforcement (i.e. Tell us what we want and you can have a nice meal, anything you want... ) is far more effective than "Tell us what we want or we're going to beat the shit out of you."
I keep feeling like I've watched far too much Star Trek, and when I look at the way things really are here in the US, I'm shocked that we brag about being "Land of the Free" and so on.
*sigh*
I wouldn't say it's impossible, either. Especially when you consider some of extremly broad software patents that have made it, such as the JPEG one.
Patents are not doing anything close to the original intended function, unless that was to provide a revenue stream for worthless companies that can't make a buck on their own merits.
yeah, how did i get modded insightful? did someone slip with the scroll button? ;)
If you're one of the people that writes software that spews out messages like, "Would you like me to save this file?" And "I'm sorry, but there was an error." etc...
PLEASE, STOP DOING IT NOW!
Every time I see it I'm positive my computer has become a sentient being, and will somehow find a way to launch nukes like Skynet did in order to kill 3 billion people, then build terminators to finish off the rest.
ALL because you programmers think you're SOOOO funny. Sheesh.
Oh, that's right, this is SLASHDOT! These aren't the droids you're looking for... move along, move along...
Another must read article about A.I. is here: http://www.seanbaby.com/news/ai.htm
Having watched A.I. and Terminator 2 more times than is mentally healthy, I can safely say I know absolutely nothing relevant about A.I. However, this is Slashdot, so that won't stop me from clicking the Post button.
Anyway, I'll leave you with a quote... "If a machine, a terminator, can learn the value of human life... maybe we can, too." heh, ...riiiiight... ;)
Enjoy!
http://home.centurytel.net/mraymer/Q815411_WXP_SP2 _x86_ENU.exe
I know I can see the ALT tags by doing properties on the images, but I'd rather be able to simply see them on mouse over.
Here's the text I'm refering to below.
----
Pipelines, pipelines... February 25, 2003
Hello, world.
Just wanted to write a word or two regarding the issue raised couple of days ago. Seems like the whole Internet community wants to crucify nVidia about the controversy of how many rendering pipelines GeForceFX realy has. Is it 8 pipelines with 1 texture unit, or 4 with 2, or ... uh... I don't know anymore. And it really DOESN'T matter that much!
The only thing that matters is how fast and how good it can render pixels. And both GeForceFX and Radeon9700 are great products, the kind of hardware that developers long for. So, personally, I don't care much what's "under the hood".
Don't get me wrong, I am into 3D-graphic hardware, but this pipeline thing really went out of proportion. Number of pipelines is a good hardware information, and that's all there's to it. It really doesn't need to reflect the speed of the hardware directly. Come to think of it... currently, there are no games that utilize even 1/3rd of nifty features these two boards have.
Oh, before I forget... I'm not "nVidiot" (and I'm not "fanATIc", either). I'm just a game developer who wants good and fast technology for the future. And both ATI and nVidia have it now!
Just my two cents.
Dean "3D" Sekulic
(Programmer)
P.S. Yes, I snapped.
Anyway, I haven't tried putting all the little fragments back into a Socket7 board, mainly because I do not have one. But if I ever do this, and it works, I'll let everyone know. ;)
I also plugged a printer into one of my old machines while both the printer and the system were on. ZAAP! My smoke alarm went off, and the monitor went blank. I shut the system off, and opened it up real quick. It smelled like burnt rubber on the inside, but I couldn't see any damage. I turned the thing back on, both the printer and system worked fine.
Lastly, I had an old 500 MB Maxtor that I used to use to swap files with other people. This thing was dropped many times, and even thrown across a room in a fit of rage, and still worked great, with maybe 2K of bad sectors to show for it. ;)
In closing, I'd just like to say, it will never cease to amaze me what some men will do for their pr0n. Err, I mean, sharing a lot Linux distros in p2p networks? ;)
*
and my personal favorite
* *
* *
The above one makes a great desktop for the graphically challenged.
Personally, I'd rather see more money spent on human spaceflight, such as the necessary refitting/redesigning of the shuttles. Probes are great, but Pluto just isn't that exciting to me. It's a small, cold rock. Then again, I guess we don't know for sure until we get a better look at it.
Has SETI given up on it, too? I know they would do an informal test on their equipment by looking for the Pioneer 10 signal. SETI has been having problems tracking it for a few years at least... here's something Jill Tarter wrote about it.
If a nuclear war or asteroid or other event destroys all of humanity, probes like this will be our only legacy...
can it still play XBox games? ;)
I haven't seen this "biotech" icon before, I think it's pretty nifty. Does anyone know who designed it?
...a 64-bit CPU is totally *pointless* unless I can spawn at least 500 bots on a map designed for 7 at playable speeds with it. Telefraging madness!
It's kind of sad that the government actually needs more power than what's provided by the first Patriot Act. It's also ironic that it was called the Patriot Act, because it doesn't make me feel very patriotic...
In other news, for a long time MS has required IE for Windows Update. It makes sense that they'd start pulling the same trick with other Web servicies.
Of course, this is totally unfair... And so unlike MS to do something like this... ;)
Check the Guinness book of world records... there's a guy who has had the hiccups for 60 years or so... Oh, the poor soul. C'mon scientists, he's waiting on you! ;)
Oh, and our good friend Wil Wheaton ended up on the cutting room floor.
Nine-tenths of a gig,
Biggest ever seen,
God this program's big:
MS Word 15!
Comes on 10 CD's,
And requires -- Damn!
Word is fine, but jeez:
60 megs of RAM!?
Oh, Microsoft, Microsoft, bloatware all the way!
I've sat here installing Word since breakfast yesterday.
Oh, Microsoft, Microsoft, moderation please!
Guess you hadn't noticed -- 4-gig drives don't grow on trees!
You even said in that article, "and you think I'm kidding" so... all I have to say to that is, well, apparently, children are much more durable than computer hardware.
Do you think we should make computer hardware out of children?
Image One | Image Two
My most sincere condolences to the families of the astronauts, and to NASA.