So people came to South Carolina 25,000 years ago and left no traces on the rest of the continent for 12,000 years? Yeah right. Off the top of my head, here are several more likely explanations:
[I didn't write this, it is an email classic]
Paleoanthropology Division
Smithsonian Institute
207 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20078
Dear Sir:
Thank you for your latest submission to the Institute, labeled "211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline post. Hominid skull." We have given this specimen a careful and detailed examination, and regret to inform you that we disagree with your theory that it represents "conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Charleston County two million years ago." Rather, it appears that what you have found is the head of a Barbie doll, of the variety one of our staff, who has small children, believes to be the "Malibu Barbie". It is evident that you have given a great deal of thought to the analysis of this specimen, and you may be quite certain that those of us who are familiar with your prior work in the field were loathe to come to contradiction with your findings. However, we do feel that there are a number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped you off to it's modern origin:
# 1. The material is molded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are typically fossilized bone.
# 2. The cranial capacity of the specimen is approximately 9 cubic centimeters, well below the threshold of even the earliest identified proto-hominids.
# 3. The dentition pattern evident on the "skull" is more consistent with the common domesticated dog than it is with the "ravenous man-eating Pliocene clams" you speculate roamed the wetlands during that time. This latter finding is certainly one of the most intriguing hypotheses you have submitted in your history with this institution, but the evidence seems to weigh rather heavily against it. Without going into too much detail, let us say that:
# A. The specimen looks like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has chewed on.
# B. Clams don't have teeth.
It is with feelings tinged with melancholy that we must deny your request to have the specimen carbon dated. This is partially due to the heavy load our lab must bear in it's normal operation, and partly due to carbon dating's notorious inaccuracy in fossils of recent geologic record. To the best of our knowledge, no Barbie dolls were produced prior to 1956 AD, and carbon dating is likely to produce wildly inaccurate results. Sadly, we must also deny your request that we approach the National Science Foundation's Phylogeny Department with the concept of assigning your specimen the scientific name "Australopithecus spiff-arino." Speaking personally, I, for one, fought tenaciously for the acceptance of your proposed taxonomy, but was ultimately voted down because the species name you selected was hyphenated, and didn't really sound like it might be Latin.
However, we gladly accept your generous donation of this fascinating specimen to the museum. While it is undoubtedly not a hominid fossil, it is, nonetheless, yet another riveting example of the great body of work you seem to accumulate here so effortlessly. You should know that our Director has reserved a special shelf in his own office for the display of the specimens you have previously submitted to the Institution, and the entire staff speculates daily on what you will happen upon next in your digs at the site you have discovered in your back yard. We eagerly anticipate your trip to our nation's capital that you proposed in your last letter, and several of us are pressing the Director to pay for it. We are particularly interested in hearing you expand on your theories surrounding the "trans-positating fillifitation of ferrous ions in a structural matrix" that makes the excellent juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex femur you recently discovered take on the deceptive appearance of a rusty 9-mm Sears Craftsman automotive crescent wrench.
I think (forthcoming accusations of suckuppitude expected) that Slashcode is a great forum management system.
[I'm at Excellent Karma but I still get modded down - that's what's good about it]
This is only worthwhile if one has a large enough user base, implementing user rankings does not work until a certain "tipping point" (to use an overused term) is reached.
Some bitch about Slashcode, but the thinking behind it is not so bad.
If you want progressive generations referring to peers as "maddog", "barfy" or "booger", in the future go for it. I've always thought that this type of unimaginative, buddy-building naming was pretty useless. Apparently it's a character-building experience though.
The only references that snopes provides is two local alternative weekly writers. One of these guys wrote an (Montreal) urban legend-related book, so naturally I have to wonder.
I still have the cemetary map here (email me for a scan if you want) and the supposed location was a bitch to find. We still didn't see the stone, but that could have been due to trees obscuring the view. It's not as if you can just drive up and ask the caretakers to show you the "fuckyou" grave.
Which CAD program and which third-party apps should be learned? All of them? Because CAD has drastically reduced the need for draftsmen, knowledge of specific software decides whether resumes end up in the OK pile or file 13, no matter how much knowledge one has.
When all that was important was the ability to draw (I can't really figure out a parallel situation for computer-only people, maybe you can) and understand a certain engineering discipline, draftsmen could easily move between jobs. Now their mobility is restricted by specific software package knowledge.
You, for example, might posess all the same skills I have because you can maybe operate a CAD package, from an employer's viewpoint. What's also scary is that it's now easier to fake one's way into a job. 20 years ago it took manual dexterity and hundreds of hours of training and dedication to create a good drawing - today you can just print one out and claim you made it - who's to know the difference?
I used to have a defineable, pretty unique skill. I can draw stuff as a draftsman on paper. My unique "skill" was pretty much killed by widespread CAD adoption. This major change didn't just affect me, it screwed quite a few hundred thousand other people that had decades of experience and knowledge.
This is not really a problem as it will only take two or three generations of designers to adapt to the new technology. Death will eventually solve this problem.
I could elaborate, but it's probably pointless to do so in this forum where computerization=cool.
This reminds me of a manager (in an un-related field) I once knew whose stated philosophy was, "drive them until they are almost dead, then give them an injection of hope."
Is some poor bastard going to get screwed on copyright violation if people forget the "!"? Similarly, if court ducuments omit the "!", does this render claims invalid?
Maybe people should start putting odd, difficult-to reproduce keyboard characters into their company names.
...with proprietary licensing fees, you have your sunk development costs, but from that point on, you could sell 1000, 10000, or millions of copies, and it's all profit
Isn't this the whole problem with the selling software ideal? I.E., the idea of do once (for $16.57 plus pizza and time/devotion) and then become a millionaire?
How many el-cheapo startups are still around today and make enough money to keep going all by themselves?
Actually, I promote my site's Google search results for "piping design" (without the quotes, and admittedly it's a kind of obscure subject) but the Yahoo results are preferable than the Google ones in my opinion. I'm still #1 at both, but Yahoo finds original content provided by readers at #4 while Google seems to find my advertising page at #2.
Monstercable. My ex-wife used to work for a distributor of the stuff many years ago, and we got great prices on it. It looked really cool and tech-like, so people bought it. The same company used to sell Nakamichi tape decks, Sansui and Quadral speakers in North America.
Totally unrelated, but I just tried to run my legal, paid-for copy of C&C Generals and my paid-for, legal copy of Alice Cooper's Goes to Hell (which I have bought at least twice - once on vinyl 20 years ago) popped up telling me to go to hell. I have 2 CD drives.
Yeah, I'm clueless - remember when Klaatu was said to be the Beatles? I got sucked into that one also.
Slashdot Mirror
France also has a great reprocessing system, which would be a great idea for this nuclear waste problem.
NIH, NIMBY, TSIF (the sky is falling).
So people came to South Carolina 25,000 years ago and left no traces on the rest of the continent for 12,000 years? Yeah right. Off the top of my head, here are several more likely explanations:
[I didn't write this, it is an email classic]
Paleoanthropology Division
Smithsonian Institute
207 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20078
Dear Sir:
Thank you for your latest submission to the Institute, labeled "211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline post. Hominid skull." We have given this specimen a careful and detailed examination, and regret to inform you that we disagree with your theory that it represents "conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Charleston County two million years ago." Rather, it appears that what you have found is the head of a Barbie doll, of the variety one of our staff, who has small children, believes to be the "Malibu Barbie". It is evident that you have given a great deal of thought to the analysis of this specimen, and you may be quite certain that those of us who are familiar with your prior work in the field were loathe to come to contradiction with your findings. However, we do feel that there are a number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped you off to it's modern origin:
# 1. The material is molded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are typically fossilized bone.
# 2. The cranial capacity of the specimen is approximately 9 cubic centimeters, well below the threshold of even the earliest identified proto-hominids.
# 3. The dentition pattern evident on the "skull" is more consistent with the common domesticated dog than it is with the "ravenous man-eating Pliocene clams" you speculate roamed the wetlands during that time. This latter finding is certainly one of the most intriguing hypotheses you have submitted in your history with this institution, but the evidence seems to weigh rather heavily against it. Without going into too much detail, let us say that:
# A. The specimen looks like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has chewed on.
# B. Clams don't have teeth.
It is with feelings tinged with melancholy that we must deny your request to have the specimen carbon dated. This is partially due to the heavy load our lab must bear in it's normal operation, and partly due to carbon dating's notorious inaccuracy in fossils of recent geologic record. To the best of our knowledge, no Barbie dolls were produced prior to 1956 AD, and carbon dating is likely to produce wildly inaccurate results. Sadly, we must also deny your request that we approach the National Science Foundation's Phylogeny Department with the concept of assigning your specimen the scientific name "Australopithecus spiff-arino." Speaking personally, I, for one, fought tenaciously for the acceptance of your proposed taxonomy, but was ultimately voted down because the species name you selected was hyphenated, and didn't really sound like it might be Latin.
However, we gladly accept your generous donation of this fascinating specimen to the museum. While it is undoubtedly not a hominid fossil, it is, nonetheless, yet another riveting example of the great body of work you seem to accumulate here so effortlessly. You should know that our Director has reserved a special shelf in his own office for the display of the specimens you have previously submitted to the Institution, and the entire staff speculates daily on what you will happen upon next in your digs at the site you have discovered in your back yard. We eagerly anticipate your trip to our nation's capital that you proposed in your last letter, and several of us are pressing the Director to pay for it. We are particularly interested in hearing you expand on your theories surrounding the "trans-positating fillifitation of ferrous ions in a structural matrix" that makes the excellent juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex femur you recently discovered take on the deceptive appearance of a rusty 9-mm Sears Craftsman automotive crescent wrench.
Yours in Science,
Harvey Rowe
Curator, Antiquities
Mahatma Ghandi (1869-1948):
"I think it would be a good idea."
I think (forthcoming accusations of suckuppitude expected) that Slashcode is a great forum management system.
[I'm at Excellent Karma but I still get modded down - that's what's good about it]
This is only worthwhile if one has a large enough user base, implementing user rankings does not work until a certain "tipping point" (to use an overused term) is reached.
Some bitch about Slashcode, but the thinking behind it is not so bad.
If you want progressive generations referring to peers as "maddog", "barfy" or "booger", in the future go for it. I've always thought that this type of unimaginative, buddy-building naming was pretty useless. Apparently it's a character-building experience though.
The only references that snopes provides is two local alternative weekly writers. One of these guys wrote an (Montreal) urban legend-related book, so naturally I have to wonder.
I still have the cemetary map here (email me for a scan if you want) and the supposed location was a bitch to find. We still didn't see the stone, but that could have been due to trees obscuring the view. It's not as if you can just drive up and ask the caretakers to show you the "fuckyou" grave.
In one episode they were trying to triangulate the location of where a photograph was taken
For Montrealer Slashdotters, can you independently ID and photograph this gravestone:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/grave.asp
When I tried, it was summer so a distant view was very difficult (obscured by tree foliage).
Does TiVo phone home about users' viewing habits? If so, it might provide decent realtime feedback about which ads people actually pay attention to.
It will be a criminal act to get up and take a leak while the commercials are on
Thus causing sales of Depends to skyrocket.
Which CAD program and which third-party apps should be learned? All of them? Because CAD has drastically reduced the need for draftsmen, knowledge of specific software decides whether resumes end up in the OK pile or file 13, no matter how much knowledge one has.
When all that was important was the ability to draw (I can't really figure out a parallel situation for computer-only people, maybe you can) and understand a certain engineering discipline, draftsmen could easily move between jobs. Now their mobility is restricted by specific software package knowledge.
You, for example, might posess all the same skills I have because you can maybe operate a CAD package, from an employer's viewpoint. What's also scary is that it's now easier to fake one's way into a job. 20 years ago it took manual dexterity and hundreds of hours of training and dedication to create a good drawing - today you can just print one out and claim you made it - who's to know the difference?
I used to have a defineable, pretty unique skill. I can draw stuff as a draftsman on paper. My unique "skill" was pretty much killed by widespread CAD adoption. This major change didn't just affect me, it screwed quite a few hundred thousand other people that had decades of experience and knowledge.
This is not really a problem as it will only take two or three generations of designers to adapt to the new technology. Death will eventually solve this problem.
I could elaborate, but it's probably pointless to do so in this forum where computerization=cool.
This reminds me of a manager (in an un-related field) I once knew whose stated philosophy was, "drive them until they are almost dead, then give them an injection of hope."
WTF?
Is some poor bastard going to get screwed on copyright violation if people forget the "!"? Similarly, if court ducuments omit the "!", does this render claims invalid?
Maybe people should start putting odd, difficult-to reproduce keyboard characters into their company names.
Isn't this the whole problem with the selling software ideal? I.E., the idea of do once (for $16.57 plus pizza and time/devotion) and then become a millionaire?
How many el-cheapo startups are still around today and make enough money to keep going all by themselves?
WinZip? IrfanView?
Actually, I promote my site's Google search results for "piping design" (without the quotes, and admittedly it's a kind of obscure subject) but the Yahoo results are preferable than the Google ones in my opinion. I'm still #1 at both, but Yahoo finds original content provided by readers at #4 while Google seems to find my advertising page at #2.
I always thought hooah was the New England word for prostitute.
Monstercable. My ex-wife used to work for a distributor of the stuff many years ago, and we got great prices on it. It looked really cool and tech-like, so people bought it. The same company used to sell Nakamichi tape decks, Sansui and Quadral speakers in North America.
(Hi, hon!)
Did you mistake the "hon" key for the "mom" key?
This assumes that you use keyboard shortcuts for FPS shooter games.
Infogrip has a few alternatives.
Thanks for the reply even if you don't know what you're talking about.
I also would welcome open source CAD and would be willing to devote time to its development.
Totally unrelated, but I just tried to run my legal, paid-for copy of C&C Generals and my paid-for, legal copy of Alice Cooper's Goes to Hell (which I have bought at least twice - once on vinyl 20 years ago) popped up telling me to go to hell. I have 2 CD drives.
Yeah, I'm clueless - remember when Klaatu was said to be the Beatles? I got sucked into that one also.
I'm guilty, I guess.
I'm trying to figure out how Bush can be blamed for this, but I can't. Perhaps I need to be enlightened.
What's wrong with a pencil, a piece of paper, and a count process to which the candidates (and their lawyers) can be invited to ?
Because that would be, like, so untechnological. If ever there was a thing that *should be* untechnological, it'd be voting.
The US, in its wisdom and reliance on expensive stuff, thinks that plain old paper is not good enough.
You deserve what you allow the computers to get away with.
Autocad doesn't dominate in any aspect of CAD
AC, did you mis-type something? Or maybe even fuck up a lot?
At last check, Autodesk was the 4th largest software company in the world. Please correct me. Noone ever bitches about ACAD's monopoly, why is this?
AutoCAD had been sponsoring undersea explororation for quite some time.
AutoCAD is the big gorilla in the CAD world, but we never see anyone complaining about their domination.
Is this because nobody knows what CAD is all about?