NASA did nearly the same thing towards the end of the Apollo program...They scrapped the last two lunar landings, even though ALL of the hardware was already built and ready to go, because they didn't want to staff the control room and fuel the rockets. It has been said that this was equivalent to crushing a brand new Rolls Royce which has never been driven simply because one does not want to pay for a tank of gas.
The worst thing of all is what the US government spent the money on, when they'd cut it from NASA's budget.
Vietnam.
I wonder... in a hundred years, will historians point to this decision and say that this is the moment when the American dream died?
Everything about it seems to be 20 years in the future. If you ever say anything weird or unbelievable, add "in Japan" at the end, and it sounds more realistic.
And just as 'In Soviet Russia' was dying out, too... I weep for Slashdot, for now we are doomed to at least a year of +5 funny posts consisting only of '... in Japan!'
If I'm not mistaken, didn't Nostradomus not predict anything beyond 2012 because the world/civilization was supposed to end?
1999 and seven months, actually. His believers changed their tune to 1999 and nine months (September, right? Sept = seven) in August, and when 2000 dawned without disaster they started pushing 2012 along with the rest of the k00k brigade.
Naval expression, I believe. All the sailors gather (or muster) on deck and the captain inspects 'em. If their kit is all in order, they've passed muster.
It did not have blatant nudity or sex, but your character could sleep with others (no, you didn't see anything) and it affected the story.
What I liked was: everyone in FO2 was bi. This was very nice when playing through with the stock 'female dexterity monster' character. Very nice indeed.
You try lugging around 12 swords, 5 flails, 6 longbows, 4 crossbows, 312 potions, a small volcano, John F Kennedy's mummy and a chicken. Say hi to realism.
Reasonable in most cases. But why, throughout all three Neverwinter Nights campaigns, did I find myself playing Inventory Tetris with the contents of a bag of holding?
System Shock 2 was the only game to capture sci-fi horror so well that I literally jumped out of my seat on several occcasions while playing it.
When I was first playing through SS2, I had a summer job in a warehouse full o' books. Lots of long, narrow aisles of shelving.
One time I had to go get some stuff and the light had gone. It was quite dark down there... so I'm trundling along and I notice, on the ceiling, something fitted up there and it's glowing red.
Instant adrenaline surge, duck around the nearest corner and reach for my gun to shoot out that camera quick before the alarm sounds and the robots come for me. All I find is a knife, and this is back before boxcutters became ultimate weapons of annihilation. A moment of purest horror, before I realise - thank fuck! - that it's not a camera, it's the safety LED indicating that the power's still on even though the fluorescent lamp is dead. And I feel tremendously silly.
I still think SS1 was better, though. SHODAN has to be the greatest game villain of all time. Ah, those long nights on Citadel Station, sneaking through the corridors with a flechette gun, running up against something awful and deciding in an instant whether to take cover and snipe or fire up the personal shield and go for it with the laser rapier... happy memories:-)
That's definitely not a killer rock. Look at the estimated frequency:
The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is 4.3 x 10^4 years
43,000 years between impacts. We've survived these before. Of course, that's the same kind of timescale as ice ages, so the consequences could be nasty...
Quite so. Unfortunately when I had TruBass switched on I quickly discovered the inadequacies of my car's sound system...
I'm going to have to get hold of a copy of 'The Antisocial Urban Driver's Handbook on Making your Car into a Bloody Great Boom-Box' to make best use of this thing.
Note: I an entirely unaffiliated with iRiver, but they do make some damn fine mp3 players.
USB 2.0 probably wouldn't be such a big deal on a Flash player. Hard disk players need it, though.
TruBass not seen before on an MP3 player, though? I'm pretty sure I've got it on my (ogg-playing, DRM-unencumbered, fully Slashdot-politically-correct) iHP-140...
Gun manufacturers are not responsible for the actions of the people that use their products, but P2P vendors are?
It seems to me that the gun nuts may actually have a use here.
If computer hardware can be restricted under munitions export laws, then computers are weapons.
If computers are weapons then they come under the Second Amendment.
If computers come under the Second Amendment then all this godawful stuff about federally-mandated DRM is unconstitutional. You'll take my general-purpose programmable computer from my cold, dead hands!
Wikipedia is the internet equivalent of The National Enquirer.
I think that the Wikipedia is the single most remarkable book ever to emerge from the Internet. Though, given the way it's written, it can only be expected to contain much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate...
Yes, but Britannica's 85,000 articles are credible and verified for accuracy, while some of Wikipedia's content should be questionned.
Wikipedia scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two ways: first, it is slightly cheaper, and second, it has the words 'Welcome to Wikipedia' printed in large friendly letters on the cover.
Moreover, where Britannica will give a biochemical description of alcohol, Wikipedia will tell you what the best drink in existence is, where the best ones are mixed, how much you can expect to pay and what voluntary organisations exist to help you rehabilitate afterwards. Oh, and even how to make one yourself.
Seriously, though: take a clamshell PDA, a wireless connection and set Wikipedia to be your homepage, and write 'Don't Panic' on the cover. Another SF fantasy becomes real...
Slashdot Mirror
Fear vs. Love
Now, would you like me to explain exactly where you can put your LifeLine exercises?
The worst thing of all is what the US government spent the money on, when they'd cut it from NASA's budget.
Vietnam.
I wonder... in a hundred years, will historians point to this decision and say that this is the moment when the American dream died?
Or as reality TV? Imagine the possibilities of bugging an entire school and tracking the movements of all the pupils... it would be the greatest!
Won't work. Mr Fusion will provide the power for the time circuit, but the internal combustion engine runs only on gasoline!
So maybe there's no motive for the American car makers to improve efficiency, but do you think that applies to the Germans?
And just as 'In Soviet Russia' was dying out, too... I weep for Slashdot, for now we are doomed to at least a year of +5 funny posts consisting only of '... in Japan!'
1999 and seven months, actually. His believers changed their tune to 1999 and nine months (September, right? Sept = seven) in August, and when 2000 dawned without disaster they started pushing 2012 along with the rest of the k00k brigade.
Naval expression, I believe. All the sailors gather (or muster) on deck and the captain inspects 'em. If their kit is all in order, they've passed muster.
What I liked was: everyone in FO2 was bi. This was very nice when playing through with the stock 'female dexterity monster' character. Very nice indeed.
Reasonable in most cases. But why, throughout all three Neverwinter Nights campaigns, did I find myself playing Inventory Tetris with the contents of a bag of holding?
When I was first playing through SS2, I had a summer job in a warehouse full o' books. Lots of long, narrow aisles of shelving.
One time I had to go get some stuff and the light had gone. It was quite dark down there... so I'm trundling along and I notice, on the ceiling, something fitted up there and it's glowing red.
Instant adrenaline surge, duck around the nearest corner and reach for my gun to shoot out that camera quick before the alarm sounds and the robots come for me. All I find is a knife, and this is back before boxcutters became ultimate weapons of annihilation. A moment of purest horror, before I realise - thank fuck! - that it's not a camera, it's the safety LED indicating that the power's still on even though the fluorescent lamp is dead. And I feel tremendously silly.
I still think SS1 was better, though. SHODAN has to be the greatest game villain of all time. Ah, those long nights on Citadel Station, sneaking through the corridors with a flechette gun, running up against something awful and deciding in an instant whether to take cover and snipe or fire up the personal shield and go for it with the laser rapier... happy memories :-)
The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is 4.3 x 10^4 years
43,000 years between impacts. We've survived these before. Of course, that's the same kind of timescale as ice ages, so the consequences could be nasty...
There are some people, it seems, whom I will never understand.
Please, please, please tell me you're trolling. If enough people really think like this, democracy is finished.
I hereby define statement a as:
Statement a is false.
a, or not a, that is the question...
All together now...
You're new here, aren't you?
If ever a good luck charm contained any genuine magic, it would naturally have to be a totoro. This seems almost axiomatic in its certainty...
Getting a different guy in the White House is a "minor" change?
Wow. I thought I was cynical.
I'm actually amazed that
a: I seem to be the only one making Hitchhiker references
b: I keep getting modded 'informative' for it
Surely someone around here knows where their towel is?
I'm going to have to get hold of a copy of 'The Antisocial Urban Driver's Handbook on Making your Car into a Bloody Great Boom-Box' to make best use of this thing.
Note: I an entirely unaffiliated with iRiver, but they do make some damn fine mp3 players.
TruBass not seen before on an MP3 player, though? I'm pretty sure I've got it on my (ogg-playing, DRM-unencumbered, fully Slashdot-politically-correct) iHP-140...
It seems to me that the gun nuts may actually have a use here.
If computer hardware can be restricted under munitions export laws, then computers are weapons.
If computers are weapons then they come under the Second Amendment.
If computers come under the Second Amendment then all this godawful stuff about federally-mandated DRM is unconstitutional. You'll take my general-purpose programmable computer from my cold, dead hands!
I think that the Wikipedia is the single most remarkable book ever to emerge from the Internet. Though, given the way it's written, it can only be expected to contain much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate...
Wikipedia scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two ways: first, it is slightly cheaper, and second, it has the words 'Welcome to Wikipedia' printed in large friendly letters on the cover.
Moreover, where Britannica will give a biochemical description of alcohol, Wikipedia will tell you what the best drink in existence is, where the best ones are mixed, how much you can expect to pay and what voluntary organisations exist to help you rehabilitate afterwards. Oh, and even how to make one yourself.
Seriously, though: take a clamshell PDA, a wireless connection and set Wikipedia to be your homepage, and write 'Don't Panic' on the cover. Another SF fantasy becomes real...
But just think! If you use it cleverly you can decapitate a puppeteer!