The one used to fake the Moon landing will not be big enough, probably.
a return craft
This is the tricky part. Whatever craft they use to return has to escape Mars gravity with all crewmembers and be big enough to support them during the trip back home.
I guess they could leave the return craft in orbit and use landing modules.
They will also be somewhat far to expect prompt rescue should anything go wrong. Better keep those poison pills handy;-)
I'm surprised that no email spammer has been killed yet.
We might be fed up with spam, but we have not yet reached the point where we can simply take action and consequences be damned. Killing a spammer will get you in prison. I don't think a court would admit it as legitimate defense or buy a story of temporary insanity on account of spamming.
So, the most we will do is yell, bitch and blacklist, until a solution is reached. We will not succeed in convincing spammers to stop spamming. In the end, we might have to kill anonymous e-mail (that is, from non-validated servers).
Has anybody killed a telemarketer (for telemarketing)?
In meatspace there are ways to with certainty say Joe is Joe
Actually, in meatspace there are ways to impersonate someone. If you are holding something to be delivered only to Joe, Jake can get ahold of fake ids and a convincing story and make you believe he is Joe (unless you personally know Joe, that is).
Why is it that we have this never ending need for more powerlines and more electricity rather than looking for alternatives with any real conviction?
What would the alternatives be? Household generated power? As long as your electricity is generated centrally (regardless of the source), you will always need powerlines. And as long as the population keeps growing, the demand for more power will require more powerlines.
Considering the ringworld idea was one of the primary sci-fi influences of Halo, this should be pretty cool.
Now that you mention it... besides the obvious ring around the planet in Halo, both have weird ship names. Ringworld had "Lying Bastard" and "Hot Needle of Inquiry" and Halo had "Pillar of Autumn" and "Truth and Reconciliation".
(I liked Ringworld and Ringworld throne. Ringworld eng. was boooring).
Heck, I almost read it as Make Your Own Pr0n Costume...
Easy... a mullet, a large moustache and an ill-fitting pilot uniform. Bonus points for carryng a tape recorder with the appropiate soundtrack and for going comando.
Here's Bob Gale IMDB page. IMHO, other than Back to the Future, he has only flops to his credits. "Bordello of Blood"?? Crappy even by Tales of the Crypt standards (and I did like Demon Knight).
But how is it rude when I'm specifically asking for this
Because you are probably a practical person. I know I am. Some people feel this is going against the grain, no matter how much you tell them otherwise. Maybe that's the way they were brought up or somesuch. It's hard to get rid of the ways of one's childhood. Myself, I eat buffalo wings with fork and knife (yet I have no trouble eating pizza with my bare hands).
As much as I hate to sound sexist, women are specially bad at being practical when it comes to gifts (for men).
It dosen't even register when you ask them to give money instead of some useless trinkets
Because it is considered rude to show the exact value of a gift. That's why stores that gift-wrap remove the stickers with the price (usually).
The exception, of course, are gift certificates.
My sister and I have an arrangement for xmas: we each assume that we will give each other the same amount in cash and not actually give each other anything. She can buy whatever she wants with the money she was going to use and so do I.
I hate gift giving. I never know what to buy so I end up buying the wrong thing (I have *offended* a lot of people with clothing) so now my gf does the gift shopping for me. When I need to buy her something, I recruit her best friend. Makes sense and saves aggravation. All I have to do is put up the money.
At home, it's my current search engine of choice: Google. this might change since I'm now using the Google Toolbar.
It used to be Excite and then Internet Movie Database (which I keep on a quick link button along with Slashdot, Fark, Dictionary.com).
The browsers I use on my FreeBSD box start with a blank page since I usually run them remotely (headless machine) and I don't want to waste time waiting for them.
At work, a custom made page with frames to our trouble ticket system as well as a couple of monitoring tools that give me an birds eye of view as to the general health of our systems.
"Who's watching all these ''reality'' TV shows? Nobody admits to watching them. Everybody agrees they're even stupider than those infomercials wherein Ron Popeil spends 30 minutes liquefying vegetables to the rapturous delight of a live, if half-witted, audience. And yet ''reality'' shows keep getting ratings. Who are the viewers? Have houseplants learned to operate remote controls?"
Totally OT here... but I actually spent a while blinking at that sentence. I thought you were going to crack one of those lame riddles. Like "who is my father's son that is not my brother..." and such.
At the same time, software is perhaps the only industry where everyone is a friggin expert. Most people (in the US anyway) happily pay someone $25 to change their oil. How many are willing to pay someone $25 to install a new sound card in their PC and load drivers?
With the newer systems and OS, installing a sound card is a simple plug and play affair, and still, I know many people who prefer to pay someone to install it.
An oil change, on the other hand, sometimes involves tools the user might not have, and a mistake might mean a 30K car seriously damaged (sometimes with damages to third parties).
Plus, some people just don't like to get their hands dirty (I still haven't managed to get that damned filter out without splashing myself).
I had 4 technicians from Cox over at my house yesturday because my parents couldn't figure out what was wrong with the cable modem. They were the most filthy, disgusting bunch I have ever seen and were dressed more like gas station attendants than professionals. Why? because that sort of work has become blue-collar and low-rent.
I'm not a Cox customer nor I work for them, but I've had some experience with cable modems.
If the techs on the company believed that the problem was a on the transmission line or the modem itself, it is likely that they sent the guys who do the actual physical installation on site (inc, laying tge cable, drilling walls, if necesary, etc). That is a blue collar job (nothing wrong with that, it is skilled work) with very little to none programming skill required, and they usually wear overalls, like gas station attendants. Why they were so many? Usually those guys work in crews (I think it's a safety requirement) and were probably in contact with the people at the NOC who were doing the actual troubleshooting.
Just like every other proffession, there's very little available work that is creative or glamorous. Most of the available positions are for keyboard jokeys or tech support or somesuch, and almost every guy/girl you'll meet will probably think they know better than everybody else.
For what it's worth, a couple of pieces of advice:
1. Study hard and don't, even if you think the subject at hand is beneath you. But make sure you do some "social networking". Not only will it make things more bearable, but often knowing the right person can help you get the foot on the door for a job.
2. Take care with what you say out loud. That "filthy...blue collar...gas station attendant" kind of comment might get people to think you are a bigot/classist/whatever, even if they are taking you out of context.
You might be underestimating the younger generation.
They do not know better and unless something horrific happens, I doubt they will within the next 25 years
On the other hand, they might be able to take unbiased decision regarding nuclear power. When you and I think of nukes, we remember the fear and that might keep us from viable nuclear solutions (it's not just bombs, you know) to a number of today's problems.
Today's youth takes this fore granted. I saw a comment on here a few days back along the lines of "Well, let's throw a few nukes at one spot on Mars and see what happens."
Every generation has jackasses. Ours has it, our parent's has (had?) it. And they usually are the ones that speak louder and without thinking. Not having a reference to the original post, however, I cannot comment further without knowing the context.
Now, if only we could rid our Windows systems of that pile of shit IE as well. I hate the way Media Player phones home every time I play a media file, and I hate my inability to remove the retarded IE from my system without resorting to potentially dangerous removal toolkits.
I used to think along those lines, then I resigned myself to simply ignore them.
Media Player will not try to call home if I don't use it, and while I might never get rid of IE (I use it to access windowsupdate) I can simply launch Opera and ignore IE.
Wasted disk space, maybe, but not that much given the size of HDD these days.
Slashdot Mirror
You forgot "a big-ass soundstage".
;-)
The one used to fake the Moon landing will not be big enough, probably.
a return craft
This is the tricky part. Whatever craft they use to return has to escape Mars gravity with all crewmembers and be big enough to support them during the trip back home.
I guess they could leave the return craft in orbit and use landing modules.
They will also be somewhat far to expect prompt rescue should anything go wrong. Better keep those poison pills handy
Then why can't I find a single pair of pants that don't have those fucking ridiculous "stonewashed" bleach stains all over them?
Cause you are not looking hard enough. Get out of the GAP and you might find plenty of denims in normal colors.
I'm surprised that no email spammer has been killed yet.
We might be fed up with spam, but we have not yet reached the point where we can simply take action and consequences be damned. Killing a spammer will get you in prison. I don't think a court would admit it as legitimate defense or buy a story of temporary insanity on account of spamming.
So, the most we will do is yell, bitch and blacklist, until a solution is reached. We will not succeed in convincing spammers to stop spamming. In the end, we might have to kill anonymous e-mail (that is, from non-validated servers).
Has anybody killed a telemarketer (for telemarketing)?
How much money do you think one of these could make if it looked like a soda machine, only the buttons said:
Don't forget the little red light: "Use exact change when lit".
In meatspace there are ways to with certainty say Joe is Joe
Actually, in meatspace there are ways to impersonate someone. If you are holding something to be delivered only to Joe, Jake can get ahold of fake ids and a convincing story and make you believe he is Joe (unless you personally know Joe, that is).
For beginners, streaking has totally gotta come back in style.
Do you really want to see the average MIT geek running naked around campus?
Why is it that we have this never ending need for more powerlines and more electricity rather than looking for alternatives with any real conviction?
What would the alternatives be? Household generated power? As long as your electricity is generated centrally (regardless of the source), you will always need powerlines. And as long as the population keeps growing, the demand for more power will require more powerlines.
Considering the ringworld idea was one of the primary sci-fi influences of Halo, this should be pretty cool.
Now that you mention it... besides the obvious ring around the planet in Halo, both have weird ship names. Ringworld had "Lying Bastard" and "Hot Needle of Inquiry" and Halo had "Pillar of Autumn" and "Truth and Reconciliation".
(I liked Ringworld and Ringworld throne. Ringworld eng. was boooring).
Heck, I almost read it as Make Your Own Pr0n Costume...
Easy... a mullet, a large moustache and an ill-fitting pilot uniform. Bonus points for carryng a tape recorder with the appropiate soundtrack and for going comando.
For more info you can go here.
Here's Bob Gale IMDB page. IMHO, other than Back to the Future, he has only flops to his credits. "Bordello of Blood"?? Crappy even by Tales of the Crypt standards (and I did like Demon Knight).
... it would be a lot more useful if they cracked down on domain-owners not having valid postmaster@ and webmaster@-accounts.
Are they required? What if a domain does not have any MX records? What if it's not used for web purposes?
As someone who gets a copy of both webmaster@ and postmaster@ for about 500 domains let me tell you, all I ever get there is SPAM.
But how is it rude when I'm specifically asking for this
Because you are probably a practical person. I know I am. Some people feel this is going against the grain, no matter how much you tell them otherwise. Maybe that's the way they were brought up or somesuch. It's hard to get rid of the ways of one's childhood. Myself, I eat buffalo wings with fork and knife (yet I have no trouble eating pizza with my bare hands).
As much as I hate to sound sexist, women are specially bad at being practical when it comes to gifts (for men).
It dosen't even register when you ask them to give money instead of some useless trinkets
Because it is considered rude to show the exact value of a gift. That's why stores that gift-wrap remove the stickers with the price (usually).
The exception, of course, are gift certificates.
My sister and I have an arrangement for xmas: we each assume that we will give each other the same amount in cash and not actually give each other anything. She can buy whatever she wants with the money she was going to use and so do I.
I hate gift giving. I never know what to buy so I end up buying the wrong thing (I have *offended* a lot of people with clothing) so now my gf does the gift shopping for me. When I need to buy her something, I recruit her best friend. Makes sense and saves aggravation. All I have to do is put up the money.
Cobol isn't dead. . .
... it just smells that way!
*rimshot*
At home, it's my current search engine of choice: Google. this might change since I'm now using the Google Toolbar.
It used to be Excite and then Internet Movie Database (which I keep on a quick link button along with Slashdot, Fark, Dictionary.com).
The browsers I use on my FreeBSD box start with a blank page since I usually run them remotely (headless machine) and I don't want to waste time waiting for them.
At work, a custom made page with frames to our trouble ticket system as well as a couple of monitoring tools that give me an birds eye of view as to the general health of our systems.
Did you read "2003 a Dave Barry Odyssey"
Quoting from the aritcle:
I guess the same applies here.
My moms once husbands son
Totally OT here... but I actually spent a while blinking at that sentence. I thought you were going to crack one of those lame riddles. Like "who is my father's son that is not my brother..." and such.
Ok, run along now.
At the same time, software is perhaps the only industry where everyone is a friggin expert. Most people (in the US anyway) happily pay someone $25 to change their oil. How many are willing to pay someone $25 to install a new sound card in their PC and load drivers?
With the newer systems and OS, installing a sound card is a simple plug and play affair, and still, I know many people who prefer to pay someone to install it.
An oil change, on the other hand, sometimes involves tools the user might not have, and a mistake might mean a 30K car seriously damaged (sometimes with damages to third parties).
Plus, some people just don't like to get their hands dirty (I still haven't managed to get that damned filter out without splashing myself).
I had 4 technicians from Cox over at my house yesturday because my parents couldn't figure out what was wrong with the cable modem. They were the most filthy, disgusting bunch I have ever seen and were dressed more like gas station attendants than professionals. Why? because that sort of work has become blue-collar and low-rent.
I'm not a Cox customer nor I work for them, but I've had some experience with cable modems.
If the techs on the company believed that the problem was a on the transmission line or the modem itself, it is likely that they sent the guys who do the actual physical installation on site (inc, laying tge cable, drilling walls, if necesary, etc). That is a blue collar job (nothing wrong with that, it is skilled work) with very little to none programming skill required, and they usually wear overalls, like gas station attendants. Why they were so many? Usually those guys work in crews (I think it's a safety requirement) and were probably in contact with the people at the NOC who were doing the actual troubleshooting.
Just like every other proffession, there's very little available work that is creative or glamorous. Most of the available positions are for keyboard jokeys or tech support or somesuch, and almost every guy/girl you'll meet will probably think they know better than everybody else.
For what it's worth, a couple of pieces of advice:
1. Study hard and don't, even if you think the subject at hand is beneath you. But make sure you do some "social networking". Not only will it make things more bearable, but often knowing the right person can help you get the foot on the door for a job.
2. Take care with what you say out loud. That "filthy...blue collar...gas station attendant" kind of comment might get people to think you are a bigot/classist/whatever, even if they are taking you out of context.
if they arn't readable, well, what good are they?
Dang... Mod: "-1 Didn't get it" (insert wooshing noises)
How can you recover someone's data from an unbootable HD?
/mbr"?
I dunno what gets erased, but, can't it be fixed with a boot floppy and "fdisk
Or if NTFS, you can try to boot with Win2k or WinXP in recovery console and FIXBOOT/FIXMBR.
You might be underestimating the younger generation.
They do not know better and unless something horrific happens, I doubt they will within the next 25 years
On the other hand, they might be able to take unbiased decision regarding nuclear power. When you and I think of nukes, we remember the fear and that might keep us from viable nuclear solutions (it's not just bombs, you know) to a number of today's problems.
Today's youth takes this fore granted. I saw a comment on here a few days back along the lines of "Well, let's throw a few nukes at one spot on Mars and see what happens."
Every generation has jackasses. Ours has it, our parent's has (had?) it. And they usually are the ones that speak louder and without thinking. Not having a reference to the original post, however, I cannot comment further without knowing the context.
Cheap Solar Cooling Solution?
What the hell would you want to cool the sun for?
(... had to be said... *ducks*)
Now, if only we could rid our Windows systems of that pile of shit IE as well. I hate the way Media Player phones home every time I play a media file, and I hate my inability to remove the retarded IE from my system without resorting to potentially dangerous removal toolkits.
I used to think along those lines, then I resigned myself to simply ignore them.
Media Player will not try to call home if I don't use it, and while I might never get rid of IE (I use it to access windowsupdate) I can simply launch Opera and ignore IE.
Wasted disk space, maybe, but not that much given the size of HDD these days.
There was a space-themed MMOG?
Yup. Everquest in space. At least that was the impression it gave me during the brief time I played during the Beta.
Maybe the final version was different. I dunno.