The while colouration of species that don't live in light may have more to do with preventing heat loss. Black things absorb and radiate heat very well, which is why heatsinks are black. White radiates and absorbs heat relatively poorly. If you live in a cave with no heat sources, what colour do you want to be?
I haven't been following this news too closely, so could someone please tell me if they've found any planets that are the size of earth? not 13 earth masses, but somewhere between 0.5 and 2 earth masses would be nice. I know that life can exist outside of conditions found on the earth, but it would be really cool to find intelligent life like ourselves. I'm not sure what evolution did on other planets, but I'd like to see what kind of muscles developed on organisms that lived on a planet with 13 times the mass of the earth.
Given the same mean density of the Earth, a planet of 13 Earth-masses would only have a surface gravity of 2.35 times ours.
That's not an insurmountable obstacle to Earth-evolved life. Fish wouldn't give a damn. High strength/low weight creatures like ants would be just peachy. Most plants would be just fine. Anything else could probably adapt over a reasonably short time.
(Where "reasonably short time" == 10,000's of years)
My point being, if we can conceive of Earth life existing under those conditions, then alien life attuned to such conditions need not be fundamentally different due to those circumstances.
Any player should be able to ask, at any time, "Well, why can't I do this?" and receive a better answer than "Because you're not supposed to do it that way" (e.g. "Because you won't fit there" or "Because you'll die"). Being blocked by an invisible wall for no apparently good reason is frustrating and insulting. Put some thought into it and make a game that we can get into.
Case in point - Splinter Cell has these infra-red sensitive automatic turrets - basically machine guns on tripods. They look as though you could just push them over if you approach from the right angle. Except you can't. You're standing right next to it, on one side of its field of fire, needing to get to the other side. You can't pick it up, turn it around, push it over, creep under it, over it, put something over the sensor, jam the mechanism, or otherwise affect something that looks reasonably accessible, especially to the super-spy that you're playing.
That was the only flaw of this type that comes to mind in an otherwise good game, but it drove me nuts!
Someone please explain this to me. I get how there are two discrete images. I get that it is caused by the combination of the constant angular velocity of the camera and the steadily decreasing angular velocity of the receding satellite. I don't get why the images of the satellite don't seem to be mirror reflected!
It aught to be like passing one of those old handheld scanners back and forth over the same image. You'd get two mirror reflected images.
Thought Thieves is about people stealing and profiting from your GPL'd creation or innovation. Think about it: how would you feel if you saw your hard work being passed off as the closed-source property of someone else? What would you do?
We want to know!
Send us your short film on GPL violations by 1st July 2005 for your chance to win £2,000 worth of film and video equipment vouchers. And finalists will be invited to attend a special screening of their films and presentation ceremony in London.
I recently had to facilitate translation of our (C++) instrumentation software into 5(!) different languages, including simplified Chinese. Luckily, almost all the strings in the project were in resources. Unluckily, there was no unicode support.
Surprisingly, it didn't take that long to write in unicode support and fix up the few remaining string literals. One thing is paramount - make sure that the code is separated from the language specific stuff. Do Not Fork! You should be able to make changes to the code and produce up-to-date English/Japanese versions at will.
I keep each language's resources in a separate DLL. At runtime, the main exe will search for any language DLL in the same dir, and load resources from the first one it finds. If no dlls are found, it falls back on the English resources in the main exe. The installer copies in the right language dll (if needed).
I can't vouch for the difficulty involved in translating the resource strings, though I understand it's a Pain In The Arse. Happily, it's a non-software specific PITA which you might be able to palm off onto a non-developer. I did.
Evolution is a FACT. Just look at the fossil record. Talk to breeders. Things evolve. FACT!
It is Evolution by Natural Selection that is the theory, here. In other words, not the observations, but the explanations.
Frankly, I don't see why the Creationalists don't just say "Things evolve via natural selection according to God's plan." Simple, unprovable, and everyone is happy!
Us getting it is pretty much dependant on you giving it.
Re:Surely you must be joking Mr Feynman
on
Steel Bolt Hacking
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· Score: 1
Most people working at Los Alamos had safes for their work. They would arrive at the office, open the safe, get their work, and leave the empty safe open.
The safes had a weakness in that the combinations could be twiddled out of them if left open. Feynman was a habitual "twiddler" - when he entered the office of a colleague to chat, he'd absently fiddle with the combination lock of the open safe. To the colleague, it looked harmless. Feynman was actually collecting combinations.
This came in very handy on occasions, such as absent people leaving needed documents in their safes. Feynman would grab his toolbox, go sit in the closed office reading magazines for ten minutes (to build up tension), then spend thirty seconds opening the safe. This helped his reputation as a master lockpicker no end:)
Feynman ended up suggesting to the General that everyone keep their safes closed at all times, even when nothing is in them, even when they're personally in their office with their open safe.
The Generals' solution was to get everyone to change their combinations and to keep Feynman out of their offices! The security situation didn't improve.
A device that harnesses energy from nuclear decay is a nuclear reactor? Fine. Then a device that harnesses energy from nuclear fusion is also a nuclear reactor.
I have absolutely no legal background (that statement goes way beyond IANAL), but I'm sort of thinking that benefitting from a crime must be illegal. If the RIAA considers filetrading (of their copyrighted files) to be illegal, and the legal system agrees, then nobody should be using that data to then profit.
Throwing a brick through a store window to swipe stuff is certainly illegal. Should glaziers provide their services for free?
Heh, seconded. The fight rocked, but the mood was perfect. The music had a degree of pathos such that you knew that there wasn't going to be a happy ending, however it resolved. It felt like the two warriors weren't "good/evil" but rather fighting for political powers. Any other time but now they may have been as brothers.
Yes, I know they were brothers. You know what I mean.
Re:That forgotten god from American Gods..
on
Ask Neil Gaiman
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· Score: 1
I haven't read the book in question, but the answer seems obvious enough to me on the surface. If he was modelled after an existing god whom everyone forgets after meeting him, how on earth would that god be remembered?
Looks like GCT are trying to gain legitimacy by association - if the X-Prize accepted their proposal, it would look like a vindication of their claims. Makes it easier to gull investors.
Slashdot Mirror
Sol's mass is 1.98892 × 10^30 kilograms, not 10^32 (courtesy of Google). Likewise, Jupiter masses 1.8987 × 10^27 kilograms (not 10^29)
The while colouration of species that don't live in light may have more to do with preventing heat loss. Black things absorb and radiate heat very well, which is why heatsinks are black. White radiates and absorbs heat relatively poorly. If you live in a cave with no heat sources, what colour do you want to be?
Given the same mean density of the Earth, a planet of 13 Earth-masses would only have a surface gravity of 2.35 times ours.
That's not an insurmountable obstacle to Earth-evolved life. Fish wouldn't give a damn. High strength/low weight creatures like ants would be just peachy. Most plants would be just fine. Anything else could probably adapt over a reasonably short time.
(Where "reasonably short time" == 10,000's of years)
My point being, if we can conceive of Earth life existing under those conditions, then alien life attuned to such conditions need not be fundamentally different due to those circumstances.
Have the Mythbusting team tried to take over the world themselves? If not, how would you do it? If so, what went wrong?
Case in point - Splinter Cell has these infra-red sensitive automatic turrets - basically machine guns on tripods. They look as though you could just push them over if you approach from the right angle. Except you can't. You're standing right next to it, on one side of its field of fire, needing to get to the other side. You can't pick it up, turn it around, push it over, creep under it, over it, put something over the sensor, jam the mechanism, or otherwise affect something that looks reasonably accessible, especially to the super-spy that you're playing.
That was the only flaw of this type that comes to mind in an otherwise good game, but it drove me nuts!
He pronounced it "ten".
It aught to be like passing one of those old handheld scanners back and forth over the same image. You'd get two mirror reflected images.
I smell a hoax! :) (Puts on tinfoil hat)
We want to know!
Send us your short film on GPL violations by 1st July 2005 for your chance to win £2,000 worth of film and video equipment vouchers. And finalists will be invited to attend a special screening of their films and presentation ceremony in London.
Surprisingly, it didn't take that long to write in unicode support and fix up the few remaining string literals. One thing is paramount - make sure that the code is separated from the language specific stuff. Do Not Fork! You should be able to make changes to the code and produce up-to-date English/Japanese versions at will.
I keep each language's resources in a separate DLL. At runtime, the main exe will search for any language DLL in the same dir, and load resources from the first one it finds. If no dlls are found, it falls back on the English resources in the main exe. The installer copies in the right language dll (if needed).
I can't vouch for the difficulty involved in translating the resource strings, though I understand it's a Pain In The Arse. Happily, it's a non-software specific PITA which you might be able to palm off onto a non-developer. I did.
Good account of the wargaming - sounds fun!
See how the bounce frequency goes up as the ball bearing loses energy?
Someone call Homeland Security!
It is Evolution by Natural Selection that is the theory, here. In other words, not the observations, but the explanations.
Frankly, I don't see why the Creationalists don't just say "Things evolve via natural selection according to God's plan." Simple, unprovable, and everyone is happy!
If the angles sum to 360 degrees, p4 is within the triangle. If they sum to 0, it is not.
Us getting it is pretty much dependant on you giving it.
The safes had a weakness in that the combinations could be twiddled out of them if left open. Feynman was a habitual "twiddler" - when he entered the office of a colleague to chat, he'd absently fiddle with the combination lock of the open safe. To the colleague, it looked harmless. Feynman was actually collecting combinations.
This came in very handy on occasions, such as absent people leaving needed documents in their safes. Feynman would grab his toolbox, go sit in the closed office reading magazines for ten minutes (to build up tension), then spend thirty seconds opening the safe. This helped his reputation as a master lockpicker no end :)
Feynman ended up suggesting to the General that everyone keep their safes closed at all times, even when nothing is in them, even when they're personally in their office with their open safe.
The Generals' solution was to get everyone to change their combinations and to keep Feynman out of their offices! The security situation didn't improve.
Like, um, trees.
Windows XP crashed
I am the blue screen of death
No-one hears your screams
After all, what North American wouldn't want their very own star-mangled spanner?
Throwing a brick through a store window to swipe stuff is certainly illegal. Should glaziers provide their services for free?
Yes, I know they were brothers. You know what I mean.
[Looks around at something]
Er, where was I?...
Looks like GCT are trying to gain legitimacy by association - if the X-Prize accepted their proposal, it would look like a vindication of their claims. Makes it easier to gull investors.
That is 10 to the 10 to the 1.42, which is significantly longer.
Are you kidding? Politician brains should fetch a good price as they tend to have very low mileage, so to speak ;)