Are you that worried about the neighbor kid's health? Three millimeters' worth of plastic shielding absorbs beta particles (hell, even human skin blocks it from hitting your vital organs, if I remember my Emergency Care textbook correctly), so maybe the walls in your house or apartment complex (which I hope to Ghod are thicker than 3mm) might keep you from getting dosed?
Besides, the way the kids' fashion trends are going these days, in five years he'll probably be wearing plutonium studs through his eyelids and a big fucking uranium Prince Albert piercing. The batteries are the least of your worries.
Yes, but since he's now dead at age 54 (but that's all I know -- there "weren't any more details"), he should be just fine on display. Matter of fact, we could just toss Ol' Vladimir Ily'ch himself out and stick Steve-o in that case! I'm sure that Lenin, that nasty old shit, would burn pretty well once his suit caught, so we could have a nice eternal (well, 45-minute) flame in remembrance of Author Steven King, Dead at 54.:)
I wouldn't worry folks, one would imagine that in a few years the technology to take space shuttle up and get Bruce Willis to blow the sun will be available.
I imagine that it would be difficult to shield Bruce's lips from the intense heat...(rimshot)
That kind of makes me feel bad for Buzz -- not only was he the second person to set foot on the moon, he was second to set fist on Bart Sibrel. You think he feels any resentment towards Neil for always having to be first?:)
I can't speak for FedEx, and when I say that I'm speaking "for UPS," it is not the official view of my employer, my country, my neighbor, or that guy in the lobby of my apartment building who talks to the wall.
That said, speaking for UPS, we use the DIAD III (Delivery Information Acquisition Device, revision III) for delivery scans, signature tracking, and even communication with the package car drivers. The DIAD runs off a Motorola processor (couldn't tell you model number off the top of my head, but I think it's a custom job and not commodity) and a custom-built OS designed by the good folks at Corporate Technology Support Group headquarters in Mahwah, New Jersey. They've already got built-in signature pads, cellular modems, and bar-code readers, but no touch screen.
Rumor from our corporate cognoscenti has it that the DIAD IV will be similar to a tablet, running a bastardized version of MS Pocket PC 2002, and exchanging the keypad currently present for a touch screen. Also in the works are integrated two-way GPS support (broadcasting the location back to the delivery center and receiving driving directions in return for unfamiliar addresses) and two-way voice communications to replace the text messaging currently used. Net result should be a better tool for the drivers to get packages delivered more reliably.
Speaking of reliability, in the two years I've worked in the Northern Plains hub building, I've never seen the DIAD Control System software package fail, despite the fact that it was originally written for OS/2. Pretty robust code.
Wow. CowboyNeal is workin' hard at 0300 Central time, unless they've got a script to hit first post attempts. Anyway, I had to try for the FP, because I've never even been remotely early on an article. C'est la vie, I guess.
You know, for that one post alone, one out of every seven words or so was "fuck" or some variant thereof. What I can't figure out is, why the use of the abbreviation in the last sentence? Worried about offending someone with that extra "fuck?":-)
If memory serves, they didn't even slag an American satellite in The Cardinal of the Kremlin.
They mention a few U.S. reconsats having their optics dazzled, but Cobra Belle or Cobra Ball (I forget which) actually records the metldown of Kosmos 1810, a Soviet bird.
Giving "unchecked power to big corporations" may well be against the ideals of a certain percentage of voters. It is not, unfortunately, against the ideals of the big corporations who are thrusting fat sacks of cash into Berman's election warchest.
Because I've been on a bit of a P.J. O'Rourke kick lately, I'll quote him for the third time in as many days: "Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." Same goes for giving political lobbying influence to people with lots of money.
I'll stop myself here, before this becomes a rant.
My apologies. I misunderstood...well, several things along the way, obviously. However, I could give a damn about being modded. A few points up or down won't make my day better or worse (although, because it snowed here today, very little could ruin my happy outlook anyway:).
As for the moderators themselves, it's a known fact around here that they couldn't find their own asses with both hands, a map, and a sniffing-nose dog. I should know. I'm occasionally one of them; QED.
(Posting with the +1 bonus because my original, erroneous comment was likewise posted, not because I think this comment has an inherent importance).
Y'know, as I scrolled down to this comment, I really hoped that it would lead in to the The Moon: A Ridiculous Liberal Myth troll. It's a personal favorite, and it hasn't been posted much recently. Anybody got the full text handy? I'm too damn lazy to search old/. posts.
But since L4 and L5 are farther from Earth than L1 is, it takes more time and energy to get there from LEO.
There's also the additional complication of 2002 AA29, which is in companion orbit to the Earth around L4 and L5. Forget radiation shielding problems, the big-ass rock shielding problem would become the real issue.:-)
Like I said, I couldn't remember the exchange rate off the top of my head. However, it wouldn't surprise me if I were wrong by an order of magnitude. Probably was USD400 or 500.
Only on Slashdot could we have Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage, dinner making, and EverQuest all rolled into one. If only you could have worked in how Adam Smith's "invisible hand" makes EverQuest more fun because he and his mother trade dinner for garbage (essentially inputs and outputs, when you think about it).
Again paraphrasing P.J. O'Rourke, I don't know whether to shit or go blind.:-)
The key to the entire system is the ASSUMPTION that money is scarce.
Unfortunately, that assumption, when taken to its logical end (i.e., that a national or world economy is a zero-sum game), is responsible for a great deal of the childish and dangerous class hatred in the world.
My monetary success does not mean somebody else has to fail so I can continue to make money. Likewise, my monetary failure does not guarantee that someone has succeeded where I should have. Or, to paraphrase P.J. O'Rourke, people assume that an economy is a pizza and, if you have too many slices, I have to eat the box.
And regarding the Lira, a couple years back one of the local radio stations here in Omaha had a game: "Who Wants to Be an Italian Millionaire?" If you answered three questions right (or something like that), then you got that day's equivalent of IL1,000,000, which if I remember correctly worked out to about forty or fifty dollars when you performed the "neon-bumwad --> real actual money" conversion.
The Lira is still, as far as I know, the basic currency unit of Turkey. Turkey's hyperinflation in the mid-'90's puts Italy's plain-old everyday inflation to shame. The last time I remember checking the exchange rate ('95, when I had to know the D-mark rate daily so I could actually live on the German economy), it was over 1,000,000 Turkish Lira to the dollar.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you that worried about the neighbor kid's health? Three millimeters' worth of plastic shielding absorbs beta particles (hell, even human skin blocks it from hitting your vital organs, if I remember my Emergency Care textbook correctly), so maybe the walls in your house or apartment complex (which I hope to Ghod are thicker than 3mm) might keep you from getting dosed?
Besides, the way the kids' fashion trends are going these days, in five years he'll probably be wearing plutonium studs through his eyelids and a big fucking uranium Prince Albert piercing. The batteries are the least of your worries.
You're French, aren't you?
Yes, but since he's now dead at age 54 (but that's all I know -- there "weren't any more details"), he should be just fine on display. Matter of fact, we could just toss Ol' Vladimir Ily'ch himself out and stick Steve-o in that case! I'm sure that Lenin, that nasty old shit, would burn pretty well once his suit caught, so we could have a nice eternal (well, 45-minute) flame in remembrance of Author Steven King, Dead at 54. :)
I wouldn't worry folks, one would imagine that in a few years the technology to take space shuttle up and get Bruce Willis to blow the sun will be available.
I imagine that it would be difficult to shield Bruce's lips from the intense heat...(rimshot)
[W]e had one of the first microwave ovens in town, he put it together as a Heathkit. :-)
Okay, I have to ask: how many {extra|missing} body parts do you and your siblings have? Any special powers? :)
That kind of makes me feel bad for Buzz -- not only was he the second person to set foot on the moon, he was second to set fist on Bart Sibrel. You think he feels any resentment towards Neil for always having to be first? :)
I can't speak for FedEx, and when I say that I'm speaking "for UPS," it is not the official view of my employer, my country, my neighbor, or that guy in the lobby of my apartment building who talks to the wall.
That said, speaking for UPS, we use the DIAD III (Delivery Information Acquisition Device, revision III) for delivery scans, signature tracking, and even communication with the package car drivers. The DIAD runs off a Motorola processor (couldn't tell you model number off the top of my head, but I think it's a custom job and not commodity) and a custom-built OS designed by the good folks at Corporate Technology Support Group headquarters in Mahwah, New Jersey. They've already got built-in signature pads, cellular modems, and bar-code readers, but no touch screen.
Rumor from our corporate cognoscenti has it that the DIAD IV will be similar to a tablet, running a bastardized version of MS Pocket PC 2002, and exchanging the keypad currently present for a touch screen. Also in the works are integrated two-way GPS support (broadcasting the location back to the delivery center and receiving driving directions in return for unfamiliar addresses) and two-way voice communications to replace the text messaging currently used. Net result should be a better tool for the drivers to get packages delivered more reliably.
Speaking of reliability, in the two years I've worked in the Northern Plains hub building, I've never seen the DIAD Control System software package fail, despite the fact that it was originally written for OS/2. Pretty robust code.
I humbly accept my loss, and I congratulate you on the speed of your nimble fingers and quick wit.
Incidentally, how did you know that I am indeed queer? Just a good guess on your part, or an attempted insult?
Wow. CowboyNeal is workin' hard at 0300 Central time, unless they've got a script to hit first post attempts. Anyway, I had to try for the FP, because I've never even been remotely early on an article. C'est la vie, I guess.
First Mufuggin' Post!
In response to your sig, I'm sick of all this EIA/TIA 568b bigotry! I want to see some EIA/TIA 568a equality here! :)
Could I go to a movie, record the whole thing on my camcorder, and talk through it, saying what I thought, and then distribute the end product?
I think you just described the business plan for Mystery Science Theater 3000 .
I'd bet my life on nasa [sic] never have [sic] landing [sic...ah, hell, the whole sentence is a cock-up grammatically anyway] on the moon.
Y'know, if you call up Buzz Aldrin, I'm sure he'll be more than happy to take you up on that wager.
You know, for that one post alone, one out of every seven words or so was "fuck" or some variant thereof. What I can't figure out is, why the use of the abbreviation in the last sentence? Worried about offending someone with that extra "fuck?" :-)
<Über-pedantry>
If memory serves, they didn't even slag an American satellite in The Cardinal of the Kremlin.
They mention a few U.S. reconsats having their optics dazzled, but Cobra Belle or Cobra Ball (I forget which) actually records the metldown of Kosmos 1810, a Soviet bird.</Über-pedantry>
But what about tax avoision?
Giving "unchecked power to big corporations" may well be against the ideals of a certain percentage of voters. It is not, unfortunately, against the ideals of the big corporations who are thrusting fat sacks of cash into Berman's election warchest.
Because I've been on a bit of a P.J. O'Rourke kick lately, I'll quote him for the third time in as many days: "Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." Same goes for giving political lobbying influence to people with lots of money.
I'll stop myself here, before this becomes a rant.
<simpsons_quote reference="A Burns for All Seasons">Truly you are the King of Kings!</simpsons_quote>
Thank you, O Inebriated One.
My apologies. I misunderstood...well, several things along the way, obviously. However, I could give a damn about being modded. A few points up or down won't make my day better or worse (although, because it snowed here today, very little could ruin my happy outlook anyway :).
As for the moderators themselves, it's a known fact around here that they couldn't find their own asses with both hands, a map, and a sniffing-nose dog. I should know. I'm occasionally one of them; QED.
(Posting with the +1 bonus because my original, erroneous comment was likewise posted, not because I think this comment has an inherent importance).
Y'know, as I scrolled down to this comment, I really hoped that it would lead in to the The Moon: A Ridiculous Liberal Myth troll. It's a personal favorite, and it hasn't been posted much recently. Anybody got the full text handy? I'm too damn lazy to search old /. posts.
But since L4 and L5 are farther from Earth than L1 is, it takes more time and energy to get there from LEO.
There's also the additional complication of 2002 AA29, which is in companion orbit to the Earth around L4 and L5. Forget radiation shielding problems, the big-ass rock shielding problem would become the real issue. :-)
Like I said, I couldn't remember the exchange rate off the top of my head. However, it wouldn't surprise me if I were wrong by an order of magnitude. Probably was USD400 or 500.
Only on Slashdot could we have Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage, dinner making, and EverQuest all rolled into one. If only you could have worked in how Adam Smith's "invisible hand" makes EverQuest more fun because he and his mother trade dinner for garbage (essentially inputs and outputs, when you think about it).
Again paraphrasing P.J. O'Rourke, I don't know whether to shit or go blind. :-)
The key to the entire system is the ASSUMPTION that money is scarce.
Unfortunately, that assumption, when taken to its logical end (i.e., that a national or world economy is a zero-sum game), is responsible for a great deal of the childish and dangerous class hatred in the world.
My monetary success does not mean somebody else has to fail so I can continue to make money. Likewise, my monetary failure does not guarantee that someone has succeeded where I should have. Or, to paraphrase P.J. O'Rourke, people assume that an economy is a pizza and, if you have too many slices, I have to eat the box.
And regarding the Lira, a couple years back one of the local radio stations here in Omaha had a game: "Who Wants to Be an Italian Millionaire?" If you answered three questions right (or something like that), then you got that day's equivalent of IL1,000,000, which if I remember correctly worked out to about forty or fifty dollars when you performed the "neon-bumwad --> real actual money" conversion.
The Lira is still, as far as I know, the basic currency unit of Turkey. Turkey's hyperinflation in the mid-'90's puts Italy's plain-old everyday inflation to shame. The last time I remember checking the exchange rate ('95, when I had to know the D-mark rate daily so I could actually live on the German economy), it was over 1,000,000 Turkish Lira to the dollar.