Ahh yes, that reminds me of the time that I discovered that a kitten makes a poor antenna for an 802.11b connection, unless you need a vaguely kitty-shaped coverage footprint.
My cats prove this every day. Usually by insisting on curling up in my lap and thus covering the WiFi card's antenna with fur.
It only ran for a limited time and as far as I know they've never repeated it.
Fantasmic! premiered in 1992 at Disneyland in California and has been running ever since, barring a few months here and there for maintenance. It will be returning this Friday night from one of those breaks. An updated, expanded (and not as good) version of the show also runs at Disney-MGM Studios in Walt Disney World in Florida. The original show is still as fantastic as ever and I highly recommend seeing it.
Sure you can dig into iCab and Opera and fringe browsers but the above list is good enough (I can just hear the Opera user(s) priming their flamethrowers, sorry guys).
Not at all. If it's written to standards, Opera will render it. Opera will also do a decent job of rendering if it's written to Win32-IE.
No flamethrower needed.
Lucky has been removed from DCA. He will be making an appearance at the Natural History Museum tomorrow (Thursday) morning, and then he's "going home." We're not sure if "going home" means back to Glendale (Imagineering) or as rumored to the Animal Kingdom park in Florida. There are no more DCA appearances scheduled. This is all subject to change, but that's the latest as of today.
And here is the text of the article (only about half the article is about Lucky, the rest is a general Disneyland Resort update).
News and Views
What's green and walks on two legs?
If you visit the Disneyland Resort this week, keep your eyes peeled for the new creation from Imagineering: Lucky the Audio-Animatronic dinosaur is loose in Disney's California Adventure.
During this two-week trial, Lucky and his pal Chandler the Dinosaur Handler can be found roaming the Hollywood Backlot District, making a loop from Hollywood and Dine, down Hollywood Boulevard, and back around past Superstar Limo. The explanation for the odd appearance of a dinosaur in Hollywood is that Lucky and Chandler are going on some rides. Armed with a park map, the pair makes their way towards "Dinosaurin' Over California." Of course, they never quite get there, as Lucky gets tired and needs to head back for a nap.
Lucky stands about eight feet tall, and his head and neck can lift almost straight up. He walks on his two back legs and pulls a very large cart of silk flowers. Lucky and Chandler interact, but Chandler does not operate the character?Lucky is controlled by two discreet operators on the sidelines. Lucky grunts, groans and whines in reaction to Chandler's comments and events around him. He can blow his nose, wink, smile, and look around.
What is most impressive about Lucky is the degree of articulation in the head and neck, and the wide range of facial features. It's easy to believe that he is real as he ?talks? with Chandler, or whimpers when his balloon floats away, or smiles and winks at a shy child. Lucky's motions are incredibly smooth?he doesn't appear robotic in his steps, or the way his head moves around to take in the scenery.
During an appearance last Wednesday, the figure malfunctioned and was pushed off-stage. The creature was repaired on Thursday, and it performed again on Friday for a large crowd of delighed visitors. One cast member jokingly said, ?This is the largest crowd I've seen in Hollywood for months.?
Although it has been rumored that Lucky is heading to Florida's Animal Kingdom after this test, one of Lucky's handlers said on Friday that the character might be staying in Hollywood after all. Either way, it is fantastic to see a walking, grunting example of Disney creativity up close and in person.
Lucky is tentatively scheduled to appear today through Friday, August 29, at 10:15, 1:45, 3:45 and 5:45. Each appearance lasts about 30 minutes. NOTE: This schedule was updated on Tuesday, August 25. MousePlanet received two revisions to the schedule; just goes to show that these times are very much subject to change without notice. But this is the current plan.
See Lucky in action
Make sure your volume is turned on before you view these video MPEG files. The sound effects are impressive as well.
Hi, I work for MousePlanet. Sorry our bandwidth was unable to withstand a severe slashdotting. While we scrape up the remains of our main server, here are direct links to the photos and videos:
In an amazing show of spontaneity and interactivity, Chandler breaks from the script to point out a flying pteradactyl (a helicopter) to Lucky, who then lifts his head and gazes up into the sky (1.3MB MPG, 15 seconds).
"Now don't eat the balloon, it'll give you gas," Chandler says, as he offers a balloon to Lucky. Lucky shows surprising dexterity as he grasps the string with his mouth, only to cry out in sadness as he loses his grip and the balloon begins to float away (1.3MB MPG, 15 seconds).
All of the developers in my group have MSDN subscriptions, which means we all have.NET Passports, which means we have MSN Messenger accounts. It comes preinstalled on XP Pro, of course, but I've turned most of my group on to Trillian--which (if you don't know) speaks AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, and IRC as well as MSN, all at the same time.
I use SpamPal with the Bayesian filter as my client-side spam filter on Win2K. It works well enough but I'm always looking to improve things, so this article gave me the impetus to see if SpamPal could be made to use Trustic's DNSBL in addition to its preconfigured lists. The answer, at least for SpamPal Beta 1.295, is yes--using the "Extra DNSBL Definitions" section of the Options dialog. Here are the steps I used to add Trustic to the DNSBLs used by SpamPal:
Once you've verified your registration, go to Trustic's DNS Query Information page for your account and note the second DNS query address.
In SpamPal, open the Options dialog and drill down to the "Extra DNSBL Definitions" section. Click the "Extra DNSBL Instructions" button for information on adding a DNSBL to SpamPal. Read this text and then close the file.
Click the "Extra DNSBL Definitions" button. This opens "extra_dnsbl.txt". Add a new DNSBL entry as follows:
LIST Trustic
NAME Trustic DNSBL
TYPE STANDARD
WEBSITE http://www.trustic.com/
ZONE queryaddress
DESCRIPTION Trustic is a community-based block list that prevents untrusted servers from sending spam. It is a new approach to the spam problem, and it is better than existing solutions.
Substitute the personalized query address you saw in step 2 above for queryaddress.
Save and close "extra_dnsbl.txt", then exit SpamPal and relaunch it.
Open SpamPal's Options dialog and drill down to Spam-Detection, Blacklists, Public Blacklists. Trustic should now appear on the list. Select it and click Apply, OK.
That's it--SpamPal should now be checking Trustic's DNSBL for your incoming mail. Trustic may require additional RESULT_CODE settings--I'm waiting for a response from Trustic and will follow up if needed.
Douglas Adams showed that the odds of being trampled by zebras goes up considerably if you have just proved black equals white.
Not really. A "zebra crossing" in England is what they call a crosswalk with alternating black and white stripes. Thus when Man goes on to prove that black is white, he can presumably no longer distinguish black from white.
It actually doesn't have anything to do with zebras.
You mean like I can freely choose to not go to grocery stores that butt-rape you on price if you don't have one of their "savings cards"?
Well, no, I can't, because all the grocery stores in my town use them.
This, at least, is easy to defeat: Simply apply for a new card on every visit (with obviously fake data, of course). They give you the card right away and you can use it immediately.
You could even just keep and use a card with fake data. Who cares if they're collecting information if it can't be connected to you?
The topic is a soundtrack which Apple Computer has exclusive rights to distribute. I asked what effect that exclusivity would have on a settlement between Apple Computer and Apple Records. How is that offtopic?
How about concentrating on modding up, not down, just like the nice FAQ says.
Wasn't Apple Computer supposed to stay out of the music business? I can almost see iTunes alone as an exception, as they're only selling it not making it. But having exclusing distribution rights makes Apple Computer very nearly a record label. Wonder what Apple Records will have to say.
Slashdot Mirror
An updated, expanded (and not as good) version of the show also runs at Disney-MGM Studios in Walt Disney World in Florida.
The original show is still as fantastic as ever and I highly recommend seeing it.
No flamethrower needed.
Lucky has been removed from DCA. He will be making an appearance at the Natural History Museum tomorrow (Thursday) morning, and then he's "going home." We're not sure if "going home" means back to Glendale (Imagineering) or as rumored to the Animal Kingdom park in Florida. There are no more DCA appearances scheduled. This is all subject to change, but that's the latest as of today.
That's somewhat less than helpful considering that Google's last cache of the weekly update is dated December 27, 2002 - January 4, 2003.
Therefore...
2003-08-12 02:12:38 Jury orders Microsoft to pay $520 million (articles,patents) (rejected)
All of the developers in my group have MSDN subscriptions, which means we all have .NET Passports, which means we have MSN Messenger accounts. It comes preinstalled on XP Pro, of course, but I've turned most of my group on to Trillian--which (if you don't know) speaks AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, and IRC as well as MSN, all at the same time.
- Create a Trustic account
- Once you've verified your registration, go to Trustic's DNS Query Information page for your account and note the second DNS query address.
- In SpamPal, open the Options dialog and drill down to the "Extra DNSBL Definitions" section. Click the "Extra DNSBL Instructions" button for information on adding a DNSBL to SpamPal. Read this text and then close the file.
- Click the "Extra DNSBL Definitions" button. This opens "extra_dnsbl.txt". Add a new DNSBL entry as follows:Substitute the personalized query address you saw in step 2 above for queryaddress.
- Save and close "extra_dnsbl.txt", then exit SpamPal and relaunch it.
- Open SpamPal's Options dialog and drill down to Spam-Detection, Blacklists, Public Blacklists. Trustic should now appear on the list. Select it and click Apply, OK.
That's it--SpamPal should now be checking Trustic's DNSBL for your incoming mail. Trustic may require additional RESULT_CODE settings--I'm waiting for a response from Trustic and will follow up if needed.It actually doesn't have anything to do with zebras.
You could even just keep and use a card with fake data. Who cares if they're collecting information if it can't be connected to you?
Offtopic?
The topic is a soundtrack which Apple Computer has exclusive rights to distribute. I asked what effect that exclusivity would have on a settlement between Apple Computer and Apple Records. How is that offtopic?
How about concentrating on modding up, not down, just like the nice FAQ says.
Wasn't Apple Computer supposed to stay out of the music business?
I can almost see iTunes alone as an exception, as they're only selling it not making it. But having exclusing distribution rights makes Apple Computer very nearly a record label.
Wonder what Apple Records will have to say.