SETI versus CETI. I believe the article proposes that gravitational or neutrino signals would be ways for us to detect advanced civilizations as byproducts of their existence, but just detection... not communication. The implication is that it would have a much longer lifespan as a viable detection methodology when compared to radio.
David Brin mentioned this idea (that Earth may be weirdly dry compared to most life-bearing worlds) briefly in "The Great Silence", published Sep 1983 in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. If true, maybe many intelligent species never develop much tool use, or even conceive of radio or interstellar travel.
I used to work at the Franklin Institute, so my recommendations are based on that.
I'd like to say that while I love the American Museum of Natural History in New York, it doesn't have the same kind of interactivity.
The Exploratorium in San Francisco does, although I don't remember it being as large at the Franklin Institute. It did have some very cool unique exhibits I hadn't seen elsewhere.
I quite liked the Boston Museum of Science - very similar to the Franklin Institute in many ways, so your husband may like it a lot.
The Liberty Science Center in New Jersey was opened by ex-Franklin Instituters, I believe, but the last time I went (admittedly, something like nine years ago), many of the exhibits were in terrible disrepair.
I believe the following is the earliest example of a popular (at the time) site that received a Cease-and-Desist letter and responded by posting it for everyone to see:
Of course, posting such letters has been the standard response ever since. Interesting that it took this long for someone to try copyrighting their letter to try to prevent this...
The funny thing is that the record company themselves (Sony BMG) is ALSO selling this same exact track DRM-free.
Well, actually, they are giving it away with purchase of a CD. You buy the CD (which doesn't come out until August 29) and you get to download the MP3 of this same song Yahoo is selling, for free, immediately.
What if it wasn't about sales at all, but advertising?
Imagine a GMusic player where you can listen to the track you want to listen to... for free. This would be a desktop-PC only system (e.g. no downloads to a portable player, so Google could say that GMusic isn't competing with iTunes... they always claims their services don't compete with established players) but why complain when it is free?
Think of it as similar to a streaming online radiostation, except that YOU determine the playlist. The stream would contain audio advertisements which could be directly targetted to you (unlike in real radio, where ads are targetted towards the general audience) because Google knows your playlists and since you'll probably need a Google account, they have access to your email, searches, etc.
Also, the player itself could have clickable text-ads located on it somewhere.
The ideal eBook - please let me know when it's available:
1. Is a blank 400-page paperback book with eInk. 2. Plugs into some sort of dock where you can download a book file onto the blank pages. 3. The book files themselves are unencumbered by DRM, cost less than a physical book, are widely available, and have a library of millions of titles. 4. Ideally, the eInk paperback book itself would have enough memory to store several books, which you could switch the entire book between via controls on the cover without having to plug it back in.
This would give all of the advantages of a physical book, combined with the advantages of digital distribution.
There was a website a few years ago from a group of students who did a musical version of the original Star Wars in high school. They had online video and audio clips and it looked pretty funny/good. It was also based on rewriting the lyrics for songs from existing musicals (e.g. Andrew Lloyd Weber, etc).
It was performed May 24 and 25 (in 1996) at the Palos Verdes Peninsula High School Performing Arts Center in Rolling Hills, California. Book and Lyrics by Kevin Bayuk, Garrin Hajeian, and John Zuckerman.
I still have an archived copy of the site, including media files.
I'd say 17 pounds is on the edge of being too big, you're right.
We had two cats, one that was skittish. Both of them got used to it, but it took a week or two (you leave the old litterbox next to it during the transition, but don't clean it... eventually the cats switch).
This is very different from the Littermaid... much simpler mechanically (although from the picture it may not look that way).
Our big problem was that one of our two cats had kidney problems and used the litterbox a LOT. It meant having to empty the Litter Robot every day (or else taking the chance that some cat waste would get gummed up in the works). Of course, that's still better than cleaning a normal litter box two or three times a day. But it doesn't really show off the capabilities of the Litter Robot. Sadly, the ill cat is gone, but with the remaining healthy cat I truly appreciate the LR: I only empty its bin once every week or two now. It's great. And the cat gets a clean box every time it uses it.
Is the next generation model the "Discovery"? Or is something else coming? I see that the Discovery has a better battery and a larger bin, but I didn't find anything about whether it's better at picking up hair without it getting all wound up around the brushes or not (my #3 item)... my upright vacuum doesn't have that problem.
Battery has nasty memory-effect... didn't use the Roomba for a while, and now it will only keep a charge for 10-15 minutes.
Can't return to base station to charge itself. This apparently was fixed in later generations.
Pet and human hair clogs it too easily. I need to remove the wheels and brushes after EVERY use and clean them. The charging station should also have a "clean" cycle, like some electric razors have these days.
Collection bin is too small. It needs to be able to empty its collection bin at the charging station (into, say, a larger recepticle that only needs to be emptied once a week) and set onto a daily program so that you can completely forget about it. Each day it vacuums, charges and empties itself and then you empty the main bin on Sunday afternoons. This would make the whole system totally automatic, and would probably solve the battery memory-effect problem, too, since it will get consistent usage.
When they get all this fixed, let me know and I'll get another one. Not until then.
It's interesting, this got me thinking about some of the other difference between music and TV shows.
For example, why don't I watch video from my DVD collections of things like Futurama more often? I certainly enjoy them, and I watch Futurama on the Cartoon Network many nights.
The first thing that came to mind is that I like to click my IPod onto "shuffle" rather than play specific music from my collection. I like the surprise. But to an extent, sometimes I prefer to watch TV than watching a DVD simply because I don't have to specifically decide what to watch (i.e. watching Futurama from Cartoon Network instead of my DVDs). This makes me think that a really interesting future "killer app" for a set-top box would be a "suffle" feature for TV shows (and movies).
So, for example, I could come home from work and hit "shuffle" and get a randomized evening lineup from my collection, without deciding specifically what to watch. I get a combination of the benefits of a DVD collection and no-thought programming.
Of course, this requires either a very big harddrive or a DVD jukebox, but of course that sort of thing will become more common in the future.
I realize that video shuffle already exists for some PC media players, but ideally it would be in a set-top box like TiVo or MythTV, so it would be brain-dead simple to use. And perhaps you could set up genre nights (i.e. Thursday nights I want to see a few hours shuffled from my comedy collection of TV episodes and movies, but on Monday night I want to see dramas, etc)...
Presumably he meant the problem would be that NASA would not survive another fatal shuttle accident, not the mere not-their-fault loss of an empty orbiter on the ground.
Slashdot Mirror
SETI versus CETI. I believe the article proposes that gravitational or neutrino signals would be ways for us to detect advanced civilizations as byproducts of their existence, but just detection... not communication. The implication is that it would have a much longer lifespan as a viable detection methodology when compared to radio.
David Brin mentioned this idea (that Earth may be weirdly dry compared to most life-bearing worlds) briefly in "The Great Silence", published Sep 1983 in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. If true, maybe many intelligent species never develop much tool use, or even conceive of radio or interstellar travel.
Absolutely agree.
I used to work at the Franklin Institute, so my recommendations are based on that. I'd like to say that while I love the American Museum of Natural History in New York, it doesn't have the same kind of interactivity. The Exploratorium in San Francisco does, although I don't remember it being as large at the Franklin Institute. It did have some very cool unique exhibits I hadn't seen elsewhere. I quite liked the Boston Museum of Science - very similar to the Franklin Institute in many ways, so your husband may like it a lot. The Liberty Science Center in New Jersey was opened by ex-Franklin Instituters, I believe, but the last time I went (admittedly, something like nine years ago), many of the exhibits were in terrible disrepair.
I believe the following is the earliest example of a popular (at the time) site that received a Cease-and-Desist letter and responded by posting it for everyone to see:
http://www.ibiblio.org/elvis/manatt.html
Also see the following articles which mention it:
http://home.earthlink.net/~barefootjim/writing/websight/websight1.html
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1997/web.whatnext/hit.miss/hit06.html
Of course, posting such letters has been the standard response ever since. Interesting that it took this long for someone to try copyrighting their letter to try to prevent this...
The Brin & Benford book "Heart of the Comet" also mentions spacesuits like this in the later part of the novel.
The funny thing is that the record company themselves (Sony BMG) is ALSO selling this same exact track DRM-free.
Well, actually, they are giving it away with purchase of a CD. You buy the CD (which doesn't come out until August 29) and you get to download the MP3 of this same song Yahoo is selling, for free, immediately.
The website is: http://jessicasimpson.com/preorder/
What if it wasn't about sales at all, but advertising?
Imagine a GMusic player where you can listen to the track you want to listen to... for free. This would be a desktop-PC only system (e.g. no downloads to a portable player, so Google could say that GMusic isn't competing with iTunes... they always claims their services don't compete with established players) but why complain when it is free?
Think of it as similar to a streaming online radiostation, except that YOU determine the playlist. The stream would contain audio advertisements which could be directly targetted to you (unlike in real radio, where ads are targetted towards the general audience) because Google knows your playlists and since you'll probably need a Google account, they have access to your email, searches, etc.
Also, the player itself could have clickable text-ads located on it somewhere.
Please read the EFF FAQ regarding the settlement.
. php#8
If you participate in this, you are NOT giving up your right to sue for damage to a computer or network!
Even if you get the small amount from this claim, you can still go on to sue for actual damages, should you have them.
http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/Sony-BMG/settlement_faq
The ideal eBook - please let me know when it's available:
1. Is a blank 400-page paperback book with eInk.
2. Plugs into some sort of dock where you can download a book file onto the blank pages.
3. The book files themselves are unencumbered by DRM, cost less than a physical book, are widely available, and have a library of millions of titles.
4. Ideally, the eInk paperback book itself would have enough memory to store several books, which you could switch the entire book between via controls on the cover without having to plug it back in.
This would give all of the advantages of a physical book, combined with the advantages of digital distribution.
Ok, sorry for so many follow ups. Last one from me.
Here's an article about this older Star Wars Musical (with a few photos)...
http://www.insidebaltimore.com/starwars/copy/starw arsmusical.shtml
A bit of Googling and I found the lyrics (to this older version)!
http://libretto.musicals.ru/text.php?textid=324&la nguage=1
There was a website a few years ago from a group of students who did a musical version of the original Star Wars in high school. They had online video and audio clips and it looked pretty funny/good. It was also based on rewriting the lyrics for songs from existing musicals (e.g. Andrew Lloyd Weber, etc).
It was performed May 24 and 25 (in 1996) at the Palos Verdes Peninsula High School Performing Arts Center in Rolling Hills, California. Book and Lyrics by Kevin Bayuk, Garrin Hajeian, and John Zuckerman.
I still have an archived copy of the site, including media files.
Here's the wayback machine link: http://web.archive.org/web/19990218201534/newdream .net/StarWars/.
I'm assuming this new version is unrelated.
Here is David Mackenzie's website (mentioned in the WSJ article, but not linked), which shows a lot of examples:
http://lyris-lite.net/dnr.htmlI'd say 17 pounds is on the edge of being too big, you're right.
We had two cats, one that was skittish. Both of them got used to it, but it took a week or two (you leave the old litterbox next to it during the transition, but don't clean it... eventually the cats switch).
This is very different from the Littermaid... much simpler mechanically (although from the picture it may not look that way).
Our big problem was that one of our two cats had kidney problems and used the litterbox a LOT. It meant having to empty the Litter Robot every day (or else taking the chance that some cat waste would get gummed up in the works). Of course, that's still better than cleaning a normal litter box two or three times a day. But it doesn't really show off the capabilities of the Litter Robot. Sadly, the ill cat is gone, but with the remaining healthy cat I truly appreciate the LR: I only empty its bin once every week or two now. It's great. And the cat gets a clean box every time it uses it.
Is the next generation model the "Discovery"? Or is something else coming? I see that the Discovery has a better battery and a larger bin, but I didn't find anything about whether it's better at picking up hair without it getting all wound up around the brushes or not (my #3 item)... my upright vacuum doesn't have that problem.
If you have a cat and a litter box, get the Litter Robot. It changed my life. Seriously. It's expensive, but worth it.
http://www.litter-robot.com/
I'm not kidding.
I own a first-generation Roomba.
Problems:
When they get all this fixed, let me know and I'll get another one. Not until then.
See:
You can view the article at:http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9901322
Here is the direct link to the Malin Space Science Systems page with the data and images.
In addition to MPL, they have found Viking 2.
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/05/inCool stuff.
Buzz Aldrin is also a big proponent of lotteries for the "regular joe" to be able to get a flight on private space cruises.
For example: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3077906/
For example, why don't I watch video from my DVD collections of things like Futurama more often? I certainly enjoy them, and I watch Futurama on the Cartoon Network many nights.
The first thing that came to mind is that I like to click my IPod onto "shuffle" rather than play specific music from my collection. I like the surprise. But to an extent, sometimes I prefer to watch TV than watching a DVD simply because I don't have to specifically decide what to watch (i.e. watching Futurama from Cartoon Network instead of my DVDs). This makes me think that a really interesting future "killer app" for a set-top box would be a "suffle" feature for TV shows (and movies).
So, for example, I could come home from work and hit "shuffle" and get a randomized evening lineup from my collection, without deciding specifically what to watch. I get a combination of the benefits of a DVD collection and no-thought programming.
Of course, this requires either a very big harddrive or a DVD jukebox, but of course that sort of thing will become more common in the future.
I realize that video shuffle already exists for some PC media players, but ideally it would be in a set-top box like TiVo or MythTV, so it would be brain-dead simple to use. And perhaps you could set up genre nights (i.e. Thursday nights I want to see a few hours shuffled from my comedy collection of TV episodes and movies, but on Monday night I want to see dramas, etc)...
Anyway, just some random ramblings.
Presumably he meant the problem would be that NASA would not survive another fatal shuttle accident, not the mere not-their-fault loss of an empty orbiter on the ground.
My theory is that, eventually, everything will cost $19.95... whether it is a computer.... or a gallon of gasoline... or a first class stamp.
See "On Venus Have We Got A Rabbi" by William Tenn in the story collection called Wandering Stars. Or hear it at this link.