The slightly older and briefer BBC article makes no reference to killer bees, merely honeybees. Possibly CNN needed a spin for their article. I guess the only way to know for sure is to read (and understand!) the Nature article in question. Any entomologists out there want to enlighten us?
or maybe open source is your thing. blender all the way.
Blender is not open source. Blender was a very nice, free-as-in-beer modelling app. Definitely not open source, and if you wanted some of the really cutting edge features, you needed to pay for a license key. But if all you wanted was a really good modeller/renderer for free, it was great (although the interface took a while to learn).
However, NaN, the parent company of Blender, recently went belly up. Aside - the linked article has lots of calls for Blender to release its code to the OS community... Which lead to some rather interesting commentary...
So in conclusion, Blender ain't open source, and isn't even really around anymore. Be nice if it was opened up, but it would (IMO) be nicer if NaN got back on its feet.
BTW, personally, I like RenderMan as a format - but that's because it's really complicated, and more like a language than a file format. (=
I only have a very fragile Watchers Of The Dark. If I ever see another title I'll probably buy it (as well as a replacement for WOTD of course).
He actually wrote three sequels, of which I only have the first (worse luck - although the lead article's subject may soon change that). However, I've got a few of his other works, and I'd particularly recommend the Cultural Survey duplet and The Light that Never Was (see above link), where his love of art is very apparent. His short stories are also well worth tracking down, particularly the collections The Rule of the Door and The Metallic Muse.
Same goes for Eric Frank Russell too.
Yes, another of the more obscure authors - I've only managed to find a couple of his, although I did discover his Wasp in my Dad's collection. BTW, if you've not already done so, you may like to try some Clifford D. Simak. I find his work fits well in the same "mood" as Russell and Biggle Jr. I'd particularly recommend The Goblin Reservation.
As for disposing of books and duplicates, a book has to be pretty poor for me to sell/get rid of it, and duplicates I keep so that I can give them away, which leads to the situation that for my latest b'day, I got two sets of bookcases... (=
Personally I find it amazing that anyone would want to buy a used book... The damage and wear that multiple reads, shipping, selling, etc puts on books in my opinion ruins them.
And that's why you find it amazing. You don't understand the love of secondhand books.
Good secondhand bookstores are their own microcosm of wonder - especially the ones with creaky wooden floors, three cramped stories packed with floor to ceiling shelves, and overstuffed leather armchairs in odd places. There's a magic about prowling through the slightly yellowed rows of golden age SciFi looking for that one special novel that will complete your obscure author collection (Lloyd Biggle jr, anyone?), and if you don't understand that magic, well, I'm sorry for you. Used/old books have a certain smell and feel that is unique, and I'll guarantee that the great majority of good authors frequent second-hand bookstores.
Keeping books in "perfect condition" is a nice ideal - you should take care of books. My personal peeve is people who mark their place by leaving the book open, face down (Fire and Hemlock's fault). But keeping them in mint condition is unecessarily picky. Books are made to be read, and signs of wear are the marks of a good book. My (third) copy of LOTR is battered, creased, dogeared, and still perfectly readable. I can throw it in my backpack or overcoat pocket for reading on long bus trips, or up on a hill at Uni. Maybe, if it survives further multiple readings, I'll be able to lend it to someone else to love.
And by lend, I usually mean give - I don't try particularly hard to get back really good books that I can easily get another copy of secondhand, which is the whole point of second-hand books. Good books are to be read and shared. Not kept in vacuum storage for their preservation.
My mate with DSL has just finished grabbing the Open Office sources for me - he had to use up his bandwidth allowance because he was moving, so asked me if there was anything I wanted. Silly question... (=
Anyway, huge accolades to all the porters - I've been watching that little "broken" icon on freshports wistfully for many a month now. (And, finally, I can let my gf use my computer! KDE3 and OO, what more does a Mac user need?)
(Possibly posting anony-mouse because/. doesn't seem to like me reading the BSD section logged in...)
The problem with using one battery where another is required is that a memory effect can develop.
The author of the article might take issue with that statement. He recently penned a rant about the whole memory effect issue for the magazine he works for, which unfortunately isn't on line. I did find this paragraph, though:
Nor, by the way, do I intend to in order to "maintain the pack?s capacity", because I do not subscribe to the myth of "memory effect". If you think your camera, laptop, cellular phone or cordless drill battery suffers from memory effect, you are wrong. Check out http://www.repairfaq.org/ELE/ F_NiCd_Memory.html and the full NiCd Battery Frequently Asked Questions file at http://www.repairfaq.org/ELE/F_NiCd_Battery.html before you flame me about this.
I don't know enough about it myself to comment, but I'd suspect that Dan would be willing to indulge in a heartily technical discussion were you to email him about it...
Very true - and naturally, David Brin has already written about this. He describes a computer interface called a subvocaliser, which reads your unspoken pre-speech impulses in the larynx before they actually get to the word stage, and is the nearest thing to a direct brain interface you can get.
From my well-thumbed copy of Earth:
"Even the tiniest signal to her jaw or larynx might be interpreted as a command... Few people used subvocals, for the same reason few ever became street jugglers. Not many could operate the delicate systems without tipping into chaos. Any normal mind kept intruding with apparent irrelevancies, many ascending to the level of muttered or almost-spoken words the outer consciousness hardly noticed, but which the device manifested visibly and in sound.
... When invented, the subvocal had been hailed as a boon to pilots - until high-performance jets began plowing into the ground. We experience ten thousand impulses for every one we allow to become action. Accelerating the choice and decision process did more than speed reaction time. It also shortcut judgement. ...If they ever really developed a true brain-to-computer interface, the chaos would be even worse. ... Imagine giving a machine like this to young, libidinous, hormone-drenched male pilots! Of all the silly things to do."
Written in 1988, set in 2038, Earth is probably the best 50 year prediction of the future I've ever read. Brin actually extrapolated from the state of usenet at the time of writing to predict something that looks very much like our present www (only with more discussion and less ads. He was out by about 45 years there...).
While much of the novel may well turn out to be inaccurate, and (much to my concern) overly optimistic, it covers many issues that are just beginning to be recognized as important - privacy, globalization, eco-crimes, and so-on. I'm convinced that his "Sea State" - a floating, multi-boat/raft 'nation' of asylum seekers and the like - is only a matter of time (no, Stephenson wasn't first with this idea - although Brin probably wasn't either).
Of course, the subvocaliser is the nearest Brin actually gets to any of the above-mentioned eight. Instead, there's a heavy focus on Gaia theory - very popular at the time of writing. He also invents a new branch of gravitational science, which I won't spoil for you by expanding upon.
Finally, the book has an excellent postscript in which Brin discusses his basis for many of his extrapolations, and issues he considers likely to arise in the next few decades. Those wanting some entertainment along with their speculation upon the next thirty-six years could do far worse than chasing up a copy of Earth.
(My, that wandered a bit. But it's all relevant. Honest.)
Mark is modestly neglecting to mention that the company he works for is at the forefront of the fight to get a better deal from Tel$tra, and is one of the good guys. Internode (the company in question) do provide adsl, but like everyone else, they have to rent their bandwidth from Tel$tra, who charges them stupidly high prices to discourage competition. Yes, this is illegal, and the local Competion watchdog have taken Tel$tra to task for this. Unfortunately, this hasn't really changed things much.
(Unabashed praise from satisfied user follows...) Unlike a lot of ISPs, Internode has a high percentage of geeks at most levels of their infrastructure, and do their best to provide for all users, not just the average (how many other ISPs do you know that have a FreeBSD section on their support pages?). The management of Internode also are quick to respond to online concerns - f'rinstance, there was a concern raised over their adsl Terms of Use a while back on an Australian tech site. Internode's manager responded personally, and the offending section was revised within hours of the initial news posting.
When I eventually decide I really do need adsl, I know who I'll be going through...
Dammit, I should be going to sleep, but I can't resist chipping in here.
Firstly, the Oans reference is new to me, and a lovely little piece of derivation too. I'm going to have to go and look that one up. (Aside - Niven's one of my personal geek-type heroes, and not just for Ringworld, either.)
The main thing, however, is that I concluded many years ago that the basis of Supe's powers had to be psychic from one single picture. Said image was of the boy from Krypton flying out of the sea, holding a large battle-ship over his head. Now, I followed the chain of logic that, as most of DC's physics were reasonably faithful, lifting a battle ship up with no more support that two hand size areas was impossible (he'd just punch a neat hole thru' the ship). He possibly could have been using his super-breath to create an air-cushion to support the whole of the ship, but he was looking down, plus which super breath wasn't inferred from the drawing (no puffed cheeks, lines from mouth, etc). Thus, the large area of support needed to lift the ship was being provided by some other agency, ergo Superman must have psychic powers.
Now, it's quite possible that DC had some much better explanation, or have already covered all this, but I've never been more than an occasional reader, and this satisfied me (I was young at the time..).
Much later, this little episode made me realise how odd the mechanism of suspension of disbelief is - we'll accept some hugely outrageous things, and choke on one tiny detail, without even noticing another equally implausible but unimportant thing. Still, it's what works that counts...
Tripe, cheese and moons.
on
Rare Earth
·
· Score: 2
Purely in response to your second point, I'm reminded of Niven's "One Way Street" (I'm surprised no-one else has mentioned it yet). I'll not diminish the story by summarisation, but one of the points made is that without the Terra-Luna system to stir the atmosphere and makes tides, our planet would be a lot more like Venus - covered in clouds and victim of a greenhouse effect to melt lead. Niven's description is wonderfully evocative - "an eternal searing black calm".
Now, whilst I don't take issue with your objection to the 'massive moon vital for life' view, I do think it's important to note that our particular system does seem to be a rather odd freak of fate that has strong bearing on our existance. Perhaps the more correct view would be that a large moon is necessary for Earth-like life to develop. This is, as others have pointed out, rather like evaluating the probability of the factors that led to your own birth (eg, my father dropped a screwdriver on my mother's head - would I be here if he hadn't?).
Personally, while I find the argument fascinating, I consider the implications to be more metaphysical in scope than scientific. This is probably why it attracts so much emotive argument...
Liberalism is seldom associated with increased surveilance and invasions of personal liberties: Quite the opposite in fact. Most "soccer moms" who call for greater and greater restraints and government controls are conservatives. A liberal approach to things is live and let live. A conservative approach to things is "live the way we see as the best way to live".
Unfortunately, to the confusion of all concerned, the political party currently in power here is called the Liberal Party, thus the previous poster's comment. The Liberal Party should actually be called the "Rich Conservative Bastards" party, which would cover most of their points of view.
The current leader of our lucky country is a man named John Howard (you seppos might have seen him on your tvs recently, trying to act like Australia was actually important to the rest of the world - most of us aren't under such illusions). Little Johnnie is of the opinion that Australia would be entirely better off if we were to wind the morals and values of the society as a whole back to 1950 - eg, he opposed single women orlesbian couples getting IVF. Not a proper family he said, ignoring the thousands upon thousands of broken homes that fuck the kids up far worse...
Anyway, it's not like anyone here really cares about Australian politics. Most of us aussies don't, why should you? (=
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission do a similar thing in print publications. They run
bogus investment ads, including Geep - the amazing Sheep/Goat hybrid and Jellyfish Farms. The numbers actually put you in contact with ASIC, who'll tell you to be more careful with your money.
I admit, these are a little easier to spot than the SEC ones...
For those of you who missed the (as yet un-modded) AC above, this comment isn't the real Jordan Hubbard, and is thoroughly deserving of any Troll moderations it recieves.
It's a pretty damn good troll, though. Well crafted and subtle.
Re:Where do guys like you come from?
on
Monsanto and PCBs
·
· Score: 2
Without getting involved in the pending flamefest here, my Dad's a GP. He recently read something about aspertane being toxic, and promptly went and had a gander at Merck's index.
Basically, he said that the person claiming toxicity had confused one form of chemical grouping with a similar, much more toxic one.
Not being a fraction as knowledgable about organic chemistry as my father, I couldn't offhand tell you what these were, but I'm sure you'd be able to find out by following that medline link from the above linked snopes page.
And the thing about Medline is that it is part of a proffessional publication, with peer reviewed articles. Peer review is something that companies like Monsanto don't submit to. Thus, implying that the aforementioned snopes page is Corporate Propaganda(tm) is rather misleading, to say the least.
That was a most informative little read, that link was. I've been wondering about where those cute little pictures came from since I recently started using.9.6 (along with Opera).
Although, I must say that with tabs enabled (and who could blame them for copying this from Opera =), the slashdot icon really doesn't look that different from the default green slashy thing...
Anyway, I know I'll be moving up to.9.7 as soon as the FreeBSD port of it happens. Opera, for all its benefits, doesn't seem to handle popunders as elegantly. (To be fair, though, I am using their 6.0 beta release).
..if Australia didn't export beer that has already been through the kidney!
Heh heh heh. Silly international person. We export that stuff because only people overseas are foolish enough to drink it. We keep our best beer for ourselves.
Anyway, (to stay vaguely on topic) maybe this game actually got banned because you couldn't buy a decent beer in it...
Funny I couldn't find much documentation beyond the FBSD handbook. Yes there are several email lists and Usenet groups - but when you're looking for an answer to what should be pretty simple problems, it should be pretty easy to find - after all, it's been asked thousands of times in the years since FBSD was started, right?
So why is it that literally hundreds of searches on Google, manual sifting through Usenet, and searching through freebsd.org's mail archives don't turn up answers?
<Sigh>... Sadly, your experiences are all too common. Particularly the impatience of the poster whom you responded to. In general, *bsd users are no more or less arrogant than *linux users. However, it's the outspoken minority that cause troubles.
I've said it before, but it bears repeating: the single most valuable resource you can get when installing/trying out a new OS is access to a friendly expert who doesn't mind you asking potentially dumb questions - and who'll let you repay them with a few beers or equivalent.
I, too, have struggled with the -questions archive, searching for answers. Eventually, I found them, either in the archives or in sections of the documentation. But it wasn't easy. Nowadays, I just drop a line to one of my mates who knows lots about FreeBSD, and make a note to thank them later in some tangible form.
If you've not got a similar friend, some of the IRC channels may help. FreeBSD-questions tends to be rather overwhelming, although there aren't too many arrogant answers there.
Personally, I find FreeBSD to be a useful OS and a rewarding learning experience. But I doubt I'll stop asking dumb questions of my friends any time soon. I hope you'll find some similar form of help, and not be discouraged by a few terse lines from a less patient person...
Admittedly, it's prolly not as big as the one Kerry's planning.
Re:Includes a built-in camera?
on
New Nokia Phone
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· Score: 2
How the hell am I supposed to lie to my wife about my whereabouts now?
It was bad enough having to do 'busy office', 'stuck in traffic' and 'on the train' sound effects - and now this!
Easy: sure, it's got MMS (like SMS, only with an M!) - but you can save the requisite bits of multimedia, and use them to strengthen your excuse. Even better, with WAP, you can download them as needed! Just imagine it - an online, WAP- (and other buzzword)-enabled database of excuses for spouses on the road... You could even bookmark your favourites: "Sorry, honey I'm <bip beep bip> stuck in traffic - see?"
...gee, I'm glad my s.o. doesn't read slashdot. (=
Sunday evening, myself and gf drove up to my parent's small (60 acre) property specifically for this. Dad woke us up at 3:20 CST, and we sat outside on swags with hot cocoa for the next hour and a half getting stiff necks.
This was definitely something I'm glad I saw. Other people have written great descriptions of what the shower looked like, but nothing compared to the feeling of actually being there, watching the sky being traced with trails of light. One really impressively bright meteorite left a trail that persisted for almost half a minute!
My Grandfather was there too, and he'd seen the 1933 show - which he thought had been better, but then he didn't stay for long (cold!!).
The predicted peaks were sort of noticable, in that there was a definite increase and then gradual decrease in the number coming in, but there really wasn't more than a minute in the whole time where none were visible.
My dad took a few long exposure photos, which will be a nice reminder. If you missed it this time, make sure you're in a good spot in 2034 for the next really good show - it's well worth it...
I think I'll be trying for the Nullarbor Plains, myself.
Slashdot Mirror
The slightly older and briefer BBC article makes no reference to killer bees, merely honeybees. Possibly CNN needed a spin for their article. I guess the only way to know for sure is to read (and understand!) the Nature article in question. Any entomologists out there want to enlighten us?
Blender is not open source. Blender was a very nice, free-as-in-beer modelling app. Definitely not open source, and if you wanted some of the really cutting edge features, you needed to pay for a license key. But if all you wanted was a really good modeller/renderer for free, it was great (although the interface took a while to learn).
However, NaN, the parent company of Blender, recently went belly up. Aside - the linked article has lots of calls for Blender to release its code to the OS community... Which lead to some rather interesting commentary...
So in conclusion, Blender ain't open source, and isn't even really around anymore. Be nice if it was opened up, but it would (IMO) be nicer if NaN got back on its feet.
BTW, personally, I like RenderMan as a format - but that's because it's really complicated, and more like a language than a file format. (=
He actually wrote three sequels, of which I only have the first (worse luck - although the lead article's subject may soon change that). However, I've got a few of his other works, and I'd particularly recommend the Cultural Survey duplet and The Light that Never Was (see above link), where his love of art is very apparent. His short stories are also well worth tracking down, particularly the collections The Rule of the Door and The Metallic Muse.
Yes, another of the more obscure authors - I've only managed to find a couple of his, although I did discover his Wasp in my Dad's collection. BTW, if you've not already done so, you may like to try some Clifford D. Simak. I find his work fits well in the same "mood" as Russell and Biggle Jr. I'd particularly recommend The Goblin Reservation.
As for disposing of books and duplicates, a book has to be pretty poor for me to sell/get rid of it, and duplicates I keep so that I can give them away, which leads to the situation that for my latest b'day, I got two sets of bookcases... (=
Personally I find it amazing that anyone would want to buy a used book ... The damage and wear that multiple reads, shipping, selling, etc puts on books in my opinion ruins them.
And that's why you find it amazing. You don't understand the love of secondhand books.
Good secondhand bookstores are their own microcosm of wonder - especially the ones with creaky wooden floors, three cramped stories packed with floor to ceiling shelves, and overstuffed leather armchairs in odd places. There's a magic about prowling through the slightly yellowed rows of golden age SciFi looking for that one special novel that will complete your obscure author collection (Lloyd Biggle jr, anyone?), and if you don't understand that magic, well, I'm sorry for you. Used/old books have a certain smell and feel that is unique, and I'll guarantee that the great majority of good authors frequent second-hand bookstores.
Keeping books in "perfect condition" is a nice ideal - you should take care of books. My personal peeve is people who mark their place by leaving the book open, face down (Fire and Hemlock's fault). But keeping them in mint condition is unecessarily picky. Books are made to be read, and signs of wear are the marks of a good book. My (third) copy of LOTR is battered, creased, dogeared, and still perfectly readable. I can throw it in my backpack or overcoat pocket for reading on long bus trips, or up on a hill at Uni. Maybe, if it survives further multiple readings, I'll be able to lend it to someone else to love.
And by lend, I usually mean give - I don't try particularly hard to get back really good books that I can easily get another copy of secondhand, which is the whole point of second-hand books. Good books are to be read and shared. Not kept in vacuum storage for their preservation.
My mate with DSL has just finished grabbing the Open Office sources for me - he had to use up his bandwidth allowance because he was moving, so asked me if there was anything I wanted. Silly question... (=
/. doesn't seem to like me reading the BSD section logged in...)
Anyway, huge accolades to all the porters - I've been watching that little "broken" icon on freshports wistfully for many a month now. (And, finally, I can let my gf use my computer! KDE3 and OO, what more does a Mac user need?)
(Possibly posting anony-mouse because
The author of the article might take issue with that statement. He recently penned a rant about the whole memory effect issue for the magazine he works for, which unfortunately isn't on line. I did find this paragraph, though:
I don't know enough about it myself to comment, but I'd suspect that Dan would be willing to indulge in a heartily technical discussion were you to email him about it...
From my well-thumbed copy of Earth:
Written in 1988, set in 2038, Earth is probably the best 50 year prediction of the future I've ever read. Brin actually extrapolated from the state of usenet at the time of writing to predict something that looks very much like our present www (only with more discussion and less ads. He was out by about 45 years there...).
While much of the novel may well turn out to be inaccurate, and (much to my concern) overly optimistic, it covers many issues that are just beginning to be recognized as important - privacy, globalization, eco-crimes, and so-on. I'm convinced that his "Sea State" - a floating, multi-boat/raft 'nation' of asylum seekers and the like - is only a matter of time (no, Stephenson wasn't first with this idea - although Brin probably wasn't either).
Of course, the subvocaliser is the nearest Brin actually gets to any of the above-mentioned eight. Instead, there's a heavy focus on Gaia theory - very popular at the time of writing. He also invents a new branch of gravitational science, which I won't spoil for you by expanding upon.
Finally, the book has an excellent postscript in which Brin discusses his basis for many of his extrapolations, and issues he considers likely to arise in the next few decades. Those wanting some entertainment along with their speculation upon the next thirty-six years could do far worse than chasing up a copy of Earth.
(My, that wandered a bit. But it's all relevant. Honest.)
Co-ops are great for fresh food, but are you going to be able to keep up with the demand for fresh brains?
Easy.
(Thankyou, goats.)
Mark is modestly neglecting to mention that the company he works for is at the forefront of the fight to get a better deal from Tel$tra, and is one of the good guys. Internode (the company in question) do provide adsl, but like everyone else, they have to rent their bandwidth from Tel$tra, who charges them stupidly high prices to discourage competition. Yes, this is illegal, and the local Competion watchdog have taken Tel$tra to task for this. Unfortunately, this hasn't really changed things much.
(Unabashed praise from satisfied user follows...) Unlike a lot of ISPs, Internode has a high percentage of geeks at most levels of their infrastructure, and do their best to provide for all users, not just the average (how many other ISPs do you know that have a FreeBSD section on their support pages?). The management of Internode also are quick to respond to online concerns - f'rinstance, there was a concern raised over their adsl Terms of Use a while back on an Australian tech site. Internode's manager responded personally, and the offending section was revised within hours of the initial news posting.
When I eventually decide I really do need adsl, I know who I'll be going through...
Dammit, I should be going to sleep, but I can't resist chipping in here.
Firstly, the Oans reference is new to me, and a lovely little piece of derivation too. I'm going to have to go and look that one up. (Aside - Niven's one of my personal geek-type heroes, and not just for Ringworld, either.)
The main thing, however, is that I concluded many years ago that the basis of Supe's powers had to be psychic from one single picture. Said image was of the boy from Krypton flying out of the sea, holding a large battle-ship over his head. Now, I followed the chain of logic that, as most of DC's physics were reasonably faithful, lifting a battle ship up with no more support that two hand size areas was impossible (he'd just punch a neat hole thru' the ship). He possibly could have been using his super-breath to create an air-cushion to support the whole of the ship, but he was looking down, plus which super breath wasn't inferred from the drawing (no puffed cheeks, lines from mouth, etc). Thus, the large area of support needed to lift the ship was being provided by some other agency, ergo Superman must have psychic powers.
Now, it's quite possible that DC had some much better explanation, or have already covered all this, but I've never been more than an occasional reader, and this satisfied me (I was young at the time..).
Much later, this little episode made me realise how odd the mechanism of suspension of disbelief is - we'll accept some hugely outrageous things, and choke on one tiny detail, without even noticing another equally implausible but unimportant thing. Still, it's what works that counts...
Now I'm done.
(Not that I use sudo, but it's there for completeness)
There. I feel much safer now.
Purely in response to your second point, I'm reminded of Niven's "One Way Street" (I'm surprised no-one else has mentioned it yet). I'll not diminish the story by summarisation, but one of the points made is that without the Terra-Luna system to stir the atmosphere and makes tides, our planet would be a lot more like Venus - covered in clouds and victim of a greenhouse effect to melt lead. Niven's description is wonderfully evocative - "an eternal searing black calm".
Now, whilst I don't take issue with your objection to the 'massive moon vital for life' view, I do think it's important to note that our particular system does seem to be a rather odd freak of fate that has strong bearing on our existance. Perhaps the more correct view would be that a large moon is necessary for Earth-like life to develop. This is, as others have pointed out, rather like evaluating the probability of the factors that led to your own birth (eg, my father dropped a screwdriver on my mother's head - would I be here if he hadn't?).
Personally, while I find the argument fascinating, I consider the implications to be more metaphysical in scope than scientific. This is probably why it attracts so much emotive argument...
... there goes one of the last objections to my intraveneous caffiene drip!
Unfortunately, to the confusion of all concerned, the political party currently in power here is called the Liberal Party, thus the previous poster's comment. The Liberal Party should actually be called the "Rich Conservative Bastards" party, which would cover most of their points of view.
The current leader of our lucky country is a man named John Howard (you seppos might have seen him on your tvs recently, trying to act like Australia was actually important to the rest of the world - most of us aren't under such illusions). Little Johnnie is of the opinion that Australia would be entirely better off if we were to wind the morals and values of the society as a whole back to 1950 - eg, he opposed single women orlesbian couples getting IVF. Not a proper family he said, ignoring the thousands upon thousands of broken homes that fuck the kids up far worse...
Anyway, it's not like anyone here really cares about Australian politics. Most of us aussies don't, why should you? (=
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission do a similar thing in print publications. They run
bogus investment ads, including Geep - the amazing Sheep/Goat hybrid and Jellyfish Farms. The numbers actually put you in contact with ASIC, who'll tell you to be more careful with your money.
I admit, these are a little easier to spot than the SEC ones...
For those of you who missed the (as yet un-modded) AC above, this comment isn't the real Jordan Hubbard, and is thoroughly deserving of any Troll moderations it recieves.
It's a pretty damn good troll, though. Well crafted and subtle.
Without getting involved in the pending flamefest here, my Dad's a GP. He recently read something about aspertane being toxic, and promptly went and had a gander at Merck's index.
Basically, he said that the person claiming toxicity had confused one form of chemical grouping with a similar, much more toxic one.
Not being a fraction as knowledgable about organic chemistry as my father, I couldn't offhand tell you what these were, but I'm sure you'd be able to find out by following that medline link from the above linked snopes page.
And the thing about Medline is that it is part of a proffessional publication, with peer reviewed articles. Peer review is something that companies like Monsanto don't submit to. Thus, implying that the aforementioned snopes page is Corporate Propaganda(tm) is rather misleading, to say the least.
That was a most informative little read, that link was. I've been wondering about where those cute little pictures came from since I recently started using .9.6 (along with Opera).
.9.7 as soon as the FreeBSD port of it happens. Opera, for all its benefits, doesn't seem to handle popunders as elegantly. (To be fair, though, I am using their 6.0 beta release).
Although, I must say that with tabs enabled (and who could blame them for copying this from Opera =), the slashdot icon really doesn't look that different from the default green slashy thing...
Anyway, I know I'll be moving up to
I look forward to reading the finalised article.
..if Australia didn't export beer that has already been through the kidney!
Heh heh heh. Silly international person. We export that stuff because only people overseas are foolish enough to drink it. We keep our best beer for ourselves.
Anyway, (to stay vaguely on topic) maybe this game actually got banned because you couldn't buy a decent beer in it...
Funny I couldn't find much documentation beyond the FBSD handbook. Yes there are several email lists and Usenet groups - but when you're looking for an answer to what should be pretty simple problems, it should be pretty easy to find - after all, it's been asked thousands of times in the years since FBSD was started, right?
So why is it that literally hundreds of searches on Google, manual sifting through Usenet, and searching through freebsd.org's mail archives don't turn up answers?
<Sigh>... Sadly, your experiences are all too common. Particularly the impatience of the poster whom you responded to. In general, *bsd users are no more or less arrogant than *linux users. However, it's the outspoken minority that cause troubles.
I've said it before, but it bears repeating: the single most valuable resource you can get when installing/trying out a new OS is access to a friendly expert who doesn't mind you asking potentially dumb questions - and who'll let you repay them with a few beers or equivalent.
I, too, have struggled with the -questions archive, searching for answers. Eventually, I found them, either in the archives or in sections of the documentation. But it wasn't easy. Nowadays, I just drop a line to one of my mates who knows lots about FreeBSD, and make a note to thank them later in some tangible form.
If you've not got a similar friend, some of the IRC channels may help. FreeBSD-questions tends to be rather overwhelming, although there aren't too many arrogant answers there.
Personally, I find FreeBSD to be a useful OS and a rewarding learning experience. But I doubt I'll stop asking dumb questions of my friends any time soon. I hope you'll find some similar form of help, and not be discouraged by a few terse lines from a less patient person...
We've already got one...
Admittedly, it's prolly not as big as the one Kerry's planning.
It was bad enough having to do 'busy office', 'stuck in traffic' and 'on the train' sound effects - and now this!
Easy: sure, it's got MMS (like SMS, only with an M!) - but you can save the requisite bits of multimedia, and use them to strengthen your excuse. Even better, with WAP, you can download them as needed! Just imagine it - an online, WAP- (and other buzzword)-enabled database of excuses for spouses on the road... You could even bookmark your favourites: "Sorry, honey I'm <bip beep bip> stuck in traffic - see?"
...gee, I'm glad my s.o. doesn't read slashdot. (=
Sunday evening, myself and gf drove up to my parent's small (60 acre) property specifically for this. Dad woke us up at 3:20 CST, and we sat outside on swags with hot cocoa for the next hour and a half getting stiff necks.
This was definitely something I'm glad I saw. Other people have written great descriptions of what the shower looked like, but nothing compared to the feeling of actually being there, watching the sky being traced with trails of light. One really impressively bright meteorite left a trail that persisted for almost half a minute!
My Grandfather was there too, and he'd seen the 1933 show - which he thought had been better, but then he didn't stay for long (cold!!).
The predicted peaks were sort of noticable, in that there was a definite increase and then gradual decrease in the number coming in, but there really wasn't more than a minute in the whole time where none were visible.
My dad took a few long exposure photos, which will be a nice reminder. If you missed it this time, make sure you're in a good spot in 2034 for the next really good show - it's well worth it...
I think I'll be trying for the Nullarbor Plains, myself.
Quick hint: use the source, Luke (Of the original
Søren
Presto!