I tend to agree with the guys at Penny Arcade that Doom3 is great for a proof-of-concept, so to speak, but it's still just Doom. You can put all the detailing in the world on a '90 Civic, but that doesn't mean that driving it is going to be any more fun.
If you believe Gabe and Tycho from PA, and I do, the exciting thing about Doom3 is the possibilities its engine opens up for games that really push the envelope.
When I was a kid, a lot of my model rockets didn't have parachutes to slow them down: they had orange nylon streamers that would flap in the wind and slow the rocket down.
I can only imagine the forces acting on a 60 km long streamer. Isn't it a decent assumption to say that the massive amount of whipping action caused by ribbon free-falling to the earth would break it up into relatively small pieces? At that point, the "newspaper floating to the ground" analogy comes into play, because the broken-off pieces aren't fastened to anything anymore.
Re:Optimistic
on
Going Up?
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· Score: 2, Informative
Don't forget that initially they want to use rockets to launch a very thin ribbon into orbit. From one of their concept illustrations, it looks like the spacecraft would be equipped with a large spool. From the project summary on their website:
Initially, a small, carbon-nanotube-composite ribbon (10 to 20 cm wide and microns thick) capable of supporting 990 kg payloads would be deployed from geosynchronous orbit using four rockets and a magnetoplasmadynamic upper stage. Climbers (230) are sent up the initial ribbon (one every 3 to 4 days) adding small ribbons alongside the first to increase its strength. After 2.3 years a ribbon capable of supporting 20,000 kg climbers would be complete.
So, they get a tiny elevator in place, and use it to lift gradually larger loads of ribbon up into space. 2.3 years later, they've got the thing running at full capacity.
If you notice anything else in the project that doesn't quite make sense, rest assured that a wizard will take care of it.
Re:Good idea for nuclear waste?
on
Going Up?
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· Score: 1
Perhaps you could use a mass driver system to chuck portions of the waste back at Earth to provide the extra push necessary to get on course to the sun. You could even target certain areas of Earth, like France. Really, I don't see a down side.
My girlfriend actually managed to somehow get most of her Sims completely naked. She bought a dresser and then downloaded a bunch of different skins off the net. When she went to change clothes, then cycled through the different outfits, then canceled, the Sim was naked.
She managed to do this with two of the three female Sims in her house. She then promptly invited over all of the male sims in the neighborhood and had a big, naked, party. None of whom seemed to notice very much. Morons.
I have pictures. I'm not joking. I am, however, a sad waste of skin.
It seems that the internet has the power to render ineffective the claims of intellectual property holders, such as authors, musicians, and software developers. A large portion of people who download music, software, etc., wouldn't actually buy the CD or game if they didn't have access to it for free. They would just do without. And in several examples (Radiohead comes to mind) musicians have released their work in mp3 format and been quite successful at making money off of that data.
Do you believe that it would be accurate to say that not much money is actually being "lost" to the internet? If so, how would you go about proving this?
If you'd like to see a somewhat filtered synopsis of Lessig's ideas, you can see it in a Bruce Sterling speech linked by yesterday's/. Sterling mentions Lessig as the guy to pay attention to when it comes to the squelching of innovation by the establishment. If you missed it yesterday, and are interested in this topic, you should check it out as a primer to the issue.
Well, maybe. It all depends on whether or not there's anybody waiting in the wings to fill the vacuum when Excite moves out.
I work in the digital loop carrier industry, and the technology exists to extend DSL broadband to people outside of the normal DSL range of a mile or so from the phone company's Central Office. The company I work for makes a box that allows phone companies to send all their voice and data over fiber (or copper, or wireless) to a remote terminal, and then it's from THAT point that the 1 mile limitation kicks in.
The problem for John Q. Dialup is that the phone companies are just too big and slow to put this technology out in the field. Our stuff is just now going through testing in SBC, but how long it will be before a large number of people can live 10 miles from the Central Office and still get DSL is anybody's guess.
Right now, many of the people with the best broadband opportunities are actually rural customers! This technology I'm talking about is pretty attractive to smaller Mom & Pop phone companies because due to the low initial cost of this particular product.
I got lucky: my aparment complex just happens to fall into one of SBC Ameritech's DSL sweet spots. I think when I get around to getting a house, I'm going to be looking very closely at the DSL availability!
I'm a bit confused... if you signed up through AT&T for @Home access, does that mean you're losing your service with excite's expiration? My parents have AT&T@Home service, and I'm worried that this'll stop the flow of virally infected email that lets me know my Dad's still alive.
I'm no professional actor, and I don't produce TV shows. I program all day. But even I know that if you're trying to make a production centering around an already popular character, you have to understand what makes that character successful.
Looking at this new version of The Tick on Fox, you can easily tell that there just wasn't enough research done on the characters, and not enough creative control given to Mr. Edlund. The wide-eyed, child-like facination with JUSTICE, as if it were a shiny bauble, seems gone from the latest interpretation. Patrick Wharburton just doesn't seem to understand that Tick is not a macho squinty-eyed action hero, but an excitable, innocent imbecile who leaps into danger with a mile-wide grin and a giggle. And The Tick doesn't say "bitch", that's for damn sure.
So where's the research? Was there any? If so, what did it consist of? I get a strong feeling that the people who're truly in charge don't fully understand what makes The Tick popular, and it might already be too late. The show just isn't that good, and as much as I would LOVE to love it, I can't.
The disasterously low budget is obvious, too. How many times in this first run of episodes are we going to have to put up with the characters looking out a window or over the rooftops, pointing and screaming "OH MY GOD, LOOK AT THE AMAZING STUFF GOING ON OVER THERE OFF-CAMERA!" And instead of an important special effects sequence, we get to watch BatManuel picking his nose.
I've got to say, I'm upset. I'm really worried about this show. I wanted so badly for it to take off, for it to boost The Tick into the adult mainstream where he could so easily fit in, were he faithfully reproduced and properly interpreted. But, sadly, I don't think that's going to happen. This wonderful chance to bring one of my favorite characters ever to life is being blown by classic TV network ignorance right before my eyes.
Everybody, even Ben Edlund, says "We'll work all the kinks out in later episodes" and I truly hope that gets a chance to happen. I know the early Simpsons episodes were unbearably stupid, but they had the advantage of a nationally recognized symbol in Bart, so they eventually prospered and grew into the amazing institution they are. I can only pray that the same will happen to The Tick; that the show will somehow capitalize on The Tick's current recognition and attract the best, most talented writers, a killer budget, and multiple seasons.
But the point (I think I actually have one in here somewhere) is that NONE of this can happen if the people in charge and the people onscreen don't actually sit down and take some time to understand what characteristics put The Tick where he is now. It obviously hasn't been done correctly, because I like The Tick, and I don't like this. I SO wish that Edlund had the final cut, but barring that, the only thing that can save the show, in my opinion, is a deeper understanding of the character by those who DO have final cut.
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If you believe Gabe and Tycho from PA, and I do, the exciting thing about Doom3 is the possibilities its engine opens up for games that really push the envelope.
I can only imagine the forces acting on a 60 km long streamer. Isn't it a decent assumption to say that the massive amount of whipping action caused by ribbon free-falling to the earth would break it up into relatively small pieces? At that point, the "newspaper floating to the ground" analogy comes into play, because the broken-off pieces aren't fastened to anything anymore.
If you notice anything else in the project that doesn't quite make sense, rest assured that a wizard will take care of it.
Perhaps you could use a mass driver system to chuck portions of the waste back at Earth to provide the extra push necessary to get on course to the sun. You could even target certain areas of Earth, like France. Really, I don't see a down side.
She managed to do this with two of the three female Sims in her house. She then promptly invited over all of the male sims in the neighborhood and had a big, naked, party. None of whom seemed to notice very much. Morons.
I have pictures. I'm not joking. I am, however, a sad waste of skin.
Do you believe that it would be accurate to say that not much money is actually being "lost" to the internet? If so, how would you go about proving this?
If you'd like to see a somewhat filtered synopsis of Lessig's ideas, you can see it in a Bruce Sterling speech linked by yesterday's /. Sterling mentions Lessig as the guy to pay attention to when it comes to the squelching of innovation by the establishment. If you missed it yesterday, and are interested in this topic, you should check it out as a primer to the issue.
I work in the digital loop carrier industry, and the technology exists to extend DSL broadband to people outside of the normal DSL range of a mile or so from the phone company's Central Office. The company I work for makes a box that allows phone companies to send all their voice and data over fiber (or copper, or wireless) to a remote terminal, and then it's from THAT point that the 1 mile limitation kicks in.
The problem for John Q. Dialup is that the phone companies are just too big and slow to put this technology out in the field. Our stuff is just now going through testing in SBC, but how long it will be before a large number of people can live 10 miles from the Central Office and still get DSL is anybody's guess.
Right now, many of the people with the best broadband opportunities are actually rural customers! This technology I'm talking about is pretty attractive to smaller Mom & Pop phone companies because due to the low initial cost of this particular product.
I got lucky: my aparment complex just happens to fall into one of SBC Ameritech's DSL sweet spots. I think when I get around to getting a house, I'm going to be looking very closely at the DSL availability!
I'm a bit confused... if you signed up through AT&T for @Home access, does that mean you're losing your service with excite's expiration? My parents have AT&T@Home service, and I'm worried that this'll stop the flow of virally infected email that lets me know my Dad's still alive.
Looking at this new version of The Tick on Fox, you can easily tell that there just wasn't enough research done on the characters, and not enough creative control given to Mr. Edlund. The wide-eyed, child-like facination with JUSTICE, as if it were a shiny bauble, seems gone from the latest interpretation. Patrick Wharburton just doesn't seem to understand that Tick is not a macho squinty-eyed action hero, but an excitable, innocent imbecile who leaps into danger with a mile-wide grin and a giggle. And The Tick doesn't say "bitch", that's for damn sure.
So where's the research? Was there any? If so, what did it consist of? I get a strong feeling that the people who're truly in charge don't fully understand what makes The Tick popular, and it might already be too late. The show just isn't that good, and as much as I would LOVE to love it, I can't.
The disasterously low budget is obvious, too. How many times in this first run of episodes are we going to have to put up with the characters looking out a window or over the rooftops, pointing and screaming "OH MY GOD, LOOK AT THE AMAZING STUFF GOING ON OVER THERE OFF-CAMERA!" And instead of an important special effects sequence, we get to watch BatManuel picking his nose.
I've got to say, I'm upset. I'm really worried about this show. I wanted so badly for it to take off, for it to boost The Tick into the adult mainstream where he could so easily fit in, were he faithfully reproduced and properly interpreted. But, sadly, I don't think that's going to happen. This wonderful chance to bring one of my favorite characters ever to life is being blown by classic TV network ignorance right before my eyes.
Everybody, even Ben Edlund, says "We'll work all the kinks out in later episodes" and I truly hope that gets a chance to happen. I know the early Simpsons episodes were unbearably stupid, but they had the advantage of a nationally recognized symbol in Bart, so they eventually prospered and grew into the amazing institution they are. I can only pray that the same will happen to The Tick; that the show will somehow capitalize on The Tick's current recognition and attract the best, most talented writers, a killer budget, and multiple seasons.
But the point (I think I actually have one in here somewhere) is that NONE of this can happen if the people in charge and the people onscreen don't actually sit down and take some time to understand what characteristics put The Tick where he is now. It obviously hasn't been done correctly, because I like The Tick, and I don't like this. I SO wish that Edlund had the final cut, but barring that, the only thing that can save the show, in my opinion, is a deeper understanding of the character by those who DO have final cut.
Here's hoping.