Y'know, I get really tired of all this bullshit I hear. It's bad enough to hear this bullshit when I interact with "normal" people -- do we really need this on slashdot as well?
Look everyone, making any sort of contact with an alien civilization would be such an incredible discovery, there's no way the government could ever keep it quiet. Christ, they can't even keep China from obtaining detailed blueprints on every single nuclear weapon in the US arsenal. So how are these nincompoops going to keep a bunch of scientists -- who have given up the chance to be reputable, respected, and published for the chance to discover life -- quiet? I don't care what kind of blackmail or torture or whatever technique they used -- there is no way they could keep all the scientists quiet. What's to stop a terminally ill SETI researcher from spilling the beans?
Guys, just relax. There is no conspiracy. The reason SETI has to vehemently deny shit like this is because the media blows everything completely out of proportion. They are trying to contain the situation before everyone picks it up and starts running with it. Occam's razor and all that jazz.
...the abysmally named 'System of Systems Common Operating Environment'...
The term "system of systems" refers to the fact that FCS is meant to allow the army to be able to reconfigure things easily and rapidly to allow the technology to be used for a wide range of missions. Yeah, it sounds a bit strange if you're not used to the terminology but they do pick these phrases, acronyms, and words for a reason. You can read more about FCS here. Basically, the idea is to use a collection of smaller, more manueverable vehicles (including tanks, guns, as well as unmanned ground and aerial vehicles) to accomplish a wide array of military missions. FCS will lack the heavy armor (e.g., 70 ton tanks) that we currently have which could make the force more susceptible to destruction. The advantage of using a lighter force, however, is that it doesn't take them so long to set up, they can move pretty quickly, and don't require as much support equipment and supplies (e.g., fuel). The army plans to make the lighter FCS unit survivable through a lot of fancy communication and data-sharing technologies. So the fact that they have decided to choose Linux is reasonably signficant. FCS will rely very heavily on the quality of their software.
James Doohan and George Takei always struck me as the two members of the cast who seemed to handle the unlikely fame they received from Star Trek the best. Doohan always remembered that it was the fans that made everything possible.
I'll bet he inspired a great many of the older posters here in their formative years.
In the fascinating (and sometimes hilarious) documentary Trekkies Doohan relates the story of a suicidal Trek fan who confided in him. Doohan took it upon himself to nurse this poor soul back to health. He told the fan that he wanted to see them at the next convention. To his amazement, the fan was there and Doohan graciously met with them, allowing them to come backstage and the whole deal. Doohan tried it again and again the fan showed up at the next convention. They kept this up for a long time (I forget -- it might have been years) when suddenly the fan stopped coming. Doohan feared the worst had happened.
Years later Doohan was stunned when the fan showed up at a convention out of nowhere! The fan told Doohan that they had turned their life around, enrolled in school, and become... an electrical engineer.
If you haven't seen this film you should definitely rent it. Watching Doohan come close to tears as he tells this story is worth the rental fee right there.
Blade Runner is my favorite movie of all time. There's so much to like. One thing that fascinates me is that there is really no hero and no villains in the movie. I'm sure that most people argue that Harrison Ford's character is the hero. But let's think about that: his job is to execute escaped slaves. Hardly a noble persuit. Yes, he does this very relucantly but really that's not much of an excuse. When the film starts, we see him looking in the want ads for a job. Really, I wonder just how hard he's looking. With so much of humanity on the off-world colonies, there's probably plenty of jobs available -- just not very good ones. In addition, once Deckard is on the assignment, he seems to really get into it. Even when he's at home drinking he's studying the photo that he took from Leon's apartment with that fancy photo analyzer of his. He hardly seems to be someone who can't stand his job.
The part about no villians is probably easier to argue. The replicants are simply doing what they can do survive. Yes, they have killed some people when they were trying to escape but they were slaves for chrissake! Pris is described as "'yer standard pleasure model." Basically she was created solely for use as a prostitute. It's not too surprising that she'd be willing to kill to get out of such a depressing situation.
Even though the movie is set in the future and deals with technology and places that don't exist, I think the fact that there aren't any real true 100% heros or 100% villans makes the film very interesting and realistic. I think most people realize this on some level and it draws them to watch what happens when "realistic" people have to deal with messy situations.
I think this is one reason why hardcore fans hate the dubbing. It makes the viewer tend to side with and identify with Deckard. That makes you see him as the hero even if he does questionable things. The Director's Cut lets you watch the movie as an impartial observer.
You don't see a whole lot of well-rounded copyright discourse on the major media news outlets. (Gee, I wonder why...) CNN: We're tough on music fans. We like suing kids and grandmas. We equate infringement with theft. We are fair and balanced, too.
Quite some time ago (about the time the RIAA started cracking down) CNN had an interview with an RIAA rep on "Newsnight with Aaron Brown" in which Mr. Brown concluded by wishing the rep good luck on their hunt to bring the bad guys to justice. I sent an email to him through their website suggesting that his comment and the entire interview was anything but fair and balanced. He sent me a two-sentence response that was really depressing. Basically he equated me with his daughter (and if you've seen Aaron you'll know he's young enough that his daughter is most likely a teenie-bopper Britney fan) and said he was at a loss to see how someone could not see that this was theft. I sent him a reply that tried to explain things a bit more thoroughly and even gave him some suggestions for how to fit the opposing viewpoint into one of his interviews. I don't know whether he ever read my follow up message.
I don't still have copies of those emails but I did post it here on slashdot. Subscribers can probably go through my history and find my post to see what Mr. Brown's exact words were. Sorry I don't have the link.
The reason I bring this up is to emphasize that CNN's pro-MPAA pro-RIAA stance isn't just some corporate-mandated policy. Apparently at least one of the most senior newsmen also believe that the RIAA is doing the right thing.
What we really need is to get one of "our people" on one of these news shows and try to explain the p2p position clearly and concisely in a way that the public might have a chance of understanding. Don't know when that's going to be, though.
GMD
Virtual Girlfriend is a "service"
on
Virtual Girlfriend
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I have this overwhelming sense of pity for some poor lonely guy out there who would have to get a Virtual Girlfriend because he cannot hold a real relationship. All this guy wants is a bit of love and respect, but he just can't get it. Then I get disgusted at the greedy, money-grubbing company trying to capitalize on these poor souls, feeding their thirst for money off of their victim's need for love and acceptance...
I'm not sure if all of this is meant to be a joke (as one respondant has already suggested) but since you are being modded as Insightful I'm going to reply as though you were serious. This company is providing a service. To think of them as exploiting someone is a real misunderstanding of commerce. Do grocery stores exploit me because I have a biological need to eat? There are numerous reasons why some guy may need to find love and finds this Virtual Girlfriend thing to be a less-risky outlet. Perhaps someone has recently been hurt very badly in a relationship (e.g., engaged and then his fiance ran off with someone else) and just isn't ready to date real people just yet. Rather than forcing him to interact with other (real) women when he's still thinking about his loss (which wouldn't be very much fun for the women he meets) or having him sit on his couch bawling to himself, this Virtual Girlfriend may actually serve a theraputic purpose. In this case, the company is not exploiting him but is helping provide a way for him to get over his loss. Yeah, it would be great if this company provided this free of charge out of the goodness of their hearts but that's not the world we live in. They developed the technology and need to recoup their investment as well as reward those who came up with the idea. This is legitimate commerce, not exploitation.
Good point. Y'know, there are people called "actors" who are trained to give convincing performances of people whom they are not. Just because someone looks old and frail, how do we really know? You remember how convincing Patrick Stewart was at playing a bumbling old Jean-Luc Picard in "All Good Things..."? A little bit of makeup and several months practicing and I bet you could get a normally young, healthy person to look and act very much like an elderly man. At least well enough for an overworked security screener who's been dealing with huge crowds all day long. Like brandon said, he's already got a built-in excuse for setting the metal detector off.
In Japan, Yoshiyuki Sankai has built a robot suit, called Hybrid Assistive Limb-3 (or HAL-3), designed to help disabled or elderly people.
Am I the only one spooked at the prospect of superpowered old people? It doesn't take much to get old people irritated. Right now, if their order at Denny's takes a little longer than normal to arrive at their table all they can really do is grumble and demand to see the manager (and trust me -- a former employee of this fine chain -- they do). Once we equip them with robotic exoskeletons, what's to stop them from trashing the restaurant? Or the rest of the city for that matter? The Japanese will have to call Godzilla in to deal with the robots rather than the other way around!
Who's the fucking Einstein who thought up the idea of giving super robot ninja powers to the elderly?!?
Google is a brand name. It should always be capitalized, just like Kleenex and Xerox. The fact that common usage has adapted these trademarked names as generic nouns doesn't change the fact that proper English dictates that they should be capitalized.
The internet was never a brand name, thus, there was no need to capitalize it.
Each of those Windows Update temporary files are a badge of honor to a geek. Football heros and motorcycle bad-boys have scars on their bodies with which they can impress the chicks. Think of all that excess crap on your computer as "cyber-scars". Next time you bring a date back to your apartment, wink at her coyly and tell her "I want to show you something that I don't show most girls." Then show her your directory filled with the remenants of your numerous battles with Windows Update. She'll get weak in the knees and be all over you. If you want to be extra-sure of making an impression, make sure to point out specific files and tell her a story about how you got that particular "scar." It would be best if your story involves orphans or kittens.
Don't laugh. Think of me when you're having the best sex of your life!
I remember at one point the military was looking for a full robotic exoskeleton that went above and below the waist. I believe that they gave up and decided to persue lower-body-only technology because they were running into problems with the exoskeleton ripping the tendons and ligaments of those who wore the suit prototypes. The human stretch reflex is a function of the central nervous system and is designed to prevent limbs from being placed into positions that stress the connective tissues. Obviously, with a powered exoskeleton one wrong move could result in an arm getting pulled much further than your nervous system would ever let you position it under your own power. I believe that the researchers got tired of wrestling with this problem and decided to focus on the lower body because human joints in the lower body tend to be of simplier design (and easier to replicate and control) than the upper body ones. Ultimately they'd like to have powered legs that are capable of complex motion like running so that troops could cover large distances in a single day. But running is complex enough even without a suit. I imagine it's going to be a long time before you can put on a set of techno-trowsers and not rip your hamstrings right off your bone!
Actually, on a serious note, I got pretty frustrated with the article. Actually, I only read the first page and then got bored. I'll never understand why science writers always clutter up their articles with crap like that turtle in the story. We want to read about advanced aerodynamics, not wildlife. Then they go on and on talking in detail about the test. Just tell us what happened at the test; we don't need a blow-by-blow account.
Extra clutter like that really makes the article seem amateurish. You have to be really damn interested in the topic to wade through all that extraneous crap at the beginning of the article no less! Maybe they think they are humanizing the dry science. But do you think people who buy a magazine that has Science in the title really find science boring? Or that they need this high-school-like prose at the beginning?
And don't even get me started on when an article tries to make an analogy with something real-life. I read an article in Scientific American some years ago that was using the swordfight between Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as an example of how the new technology can better the "old standbys". The whole point of that scene was that Yeoh could have killed Ziyi even with that fancy Green Destiny in her hands. What a terrible analogy! And this is the way you start off a science article?
I've never heard a sonic boom... so I'm not really sure how loud they are, but a co-worker described it as "pretty much sounds like thunder".
EVERYONE has heard a sonic boom at one point: the crack of a whip. That sound you hear is not the tip of the whip hitting anything. It's the sound of the tip accelerating beyond the speed of sound and creating a mini-sonic boom. That little flick at the end causes the tip to snap out at incredible speed.
Now as far as a big sonic boom, I haven't heard one either. I'm sure there are some pretty strict regulations about not creating sonic booms in civilian areas.
What the fuck kind of idiocy is this? First of all, we already have stealth technology so we're already catching our opponents by surprise. Second, sonic booms are detected AFTER the aircraft flies overhead -- not before! The whole phenomenon of a sonic boom is that the aircraft is racing ahead of the "information" of its arrival (in the form of sound waves).
I'm not saying that a sonic-boom-free aircraft is of no military use. The shockwaves responsible for sonic booms cause drag to increase signficantly, thus requiring much more fuel. But the motivation certainly isn't one of trying to catch someone off guard.
While I understand your complaint against so-called "Hallmark Holidays" (so named because they are just an excuse to buy a Hallmark brand card) I think sysadmins really do deserve a day like this. By and large, most people's interaction with syadmins is to complain that something isn't working. No one ever walks up to a sysadmin and says "Hey, everything is working great today! Thanks for all you do!" (unless things have recently NOT been good). In this respect, sysadmins are very much like doctors or psychotherapists in that they have to deal with fixing things when the chips are down. These health workers, however, usually get lots of vacation time and very generous salaries to compensate for their stressful jobs -- something sysadmins typically do not enjoy.
Not only are sysadmins taken for granted but unlike others in that situation (e.g., secretaries) their job is one where people are constantly complaining to them. This makes them very unique and very underappreciated. I don't think it's too much to ask that for one day out of the year that people interact with their sysadmins in a positive manner.
I don't know how many times I've given out my gmail address to geeks the gotten the response "Oh, cool. Gmail!" But, to the average person, it just means nothing.
Let me get this straight: you are claiming that the fact that Google has no name-recognition with the average person is some sort of advantage in ensuring the majority market share?
Google embraces the things that geeks love to have in a company. This is something that Microsoft just doesn't get and will not in the near future, IMHO. The only ground that MS has to compete on is that of the "average" soccer mom computer user that doesn't know about Google.
There are more "average soccer moms" then "geeks". If Google concentrated on embracing things that geeks love and Microsoft has superior name recognition among soccer moms, Google will lose.
It was Crick's. Indeed, Watson didn't even know what Crick was up to in the next room. Suddenly a voice from nowhere rang out: "Watson! Come here! I want you!" After that, there was no looking back. A new era of technology was ushered in.
I'd just like to point out that "we have explored all of Earth" is definitely not true. The deep oceans are something that we are just barely starting to explore. There are some crazy looking motherfuckers living down there. They glow and shit. And they don't even need light to live -- how wack is that? Seriously, though, I understand your sentiment (and I agree with it) that space is the next big frontier. I just wanted to point out that there are still a few exciting opportunities still here on Earth.
The novelization of TPM explains it. The sith used to number in the thousands. Because of the corrupting nature of the Dark Side, infighting was common. This division of their forces allowed the Jedi to wipe the Sith threat from the galaxy. Only one Sith, Darth Bane, survived. Learning from the mistakes of the past, he enacted the doctorine of only two sith at a time - Master and Apprentice.
Interesting. Thanks for letting us know. That makes the story much more interesting.
Yes, the film could have delved into this, but I think any reasonable viewer, after hearing Darth Maul say "At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge!", could easily draw the conclusion that there is hella bad blood between the Jedi & the Sith.
Oh, I caught the part about the Sith not liking the Jedi very much. What was missing was all the stuff you wrote above, namely, "why". I think the film *should* have delved into the motivations of the characters a bit more. Leaving it the way it was made the movie just one big videogame. Maybe Lucas filmed the scene describing the history of the Sith you laid out above but it ended up on the cutting-room floor to make room for the scene where Jar-Jar gets his tongue stunned by the plasma beams of the pod-racer's engines.
W.R.T your comments on the TPM lightsaber battle, I can't help but disagree....This scene was brilliant, and to add dialog to it would have ruined the moment.
Interesting way to look at it. I hadn't thought of that. It seemed like a wasted opportunity to move the story along. If, however, Qui-Gon was already aware of the backstory between the Jedi and the Sith, then you're absolutely right that there is no need for dialog. Unfortunately, because Lucas chose not to let *us* in on the secret, having characters just stand there in silence was a bit baffling.
Anyhow, thanks for the explanation. I'm interested to hear a bit more about how the Sith fell apart but I'm not going to purchase a Star Wars product just so I can find out. Lucas should have included that in my ticket price.
So now they have 'Revenge od the Sith'. Fine Sith is all about revenge, but what is it a revenge of? did a Jedi knock up palpatines sister and Now he wnats to get even? Did Obi-One park in the 'Sith of the months' parking spot?
I know you're just joking around, but I think you're making a good point here. At no point have we seen any motivation for why the Sith are the way they are. I think this signficantly detracts from the movies. If Lucas decides to explain the source of the Sith's hatred in this final film, I would definitely appreciate the effort (as long as he doesn't reduce it to something as stupid as mitochlorians).
In the 2-on-1 lightsabre duel from Epsiode I there is a moment where the fighting has ceased. Gui-Con and Darth Maul are separated by a plasma wall and Obi-won is even further away. Maul walks around like a caged tiger while Gui-Con just sits there meditating. This is not exciting! This does not build suspense! This does not move the story foward! I couldn't believe that they would just sit there like that. That was the perfect opportunity for a short conversation between warriors to take place and give the audience insight into the conflict! Doesn't Maul have anything to say? Doesn't he even want to mock the jedi? Is Gui-Con so dead to the world that he's not even remotely curious why this guy has appeared out of nowhere to kill him?
I, too, would like to know what this "revenge" the Sith want is all about. Here's hoping that Lucas will finally answer this question in the new film. Otherwise, it just becomes a stupid white hats vs. black hats space western. Aren't we a little old for that?
Jim Ward, Vice President of Marketing for Lucasfilm and Executive Producer of the DVDs spoke about the upcoming release, and announced that the epic feature-length documentary, Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, would appear as a special edited-for-television edition on the A&E network this fall.
Okay, so this question isn't exactly about Episode III. Bear with me, please.
Does anyone know if this 'Empire of Dreams' documentary is going to include all the stuff from the "Making of..." specials they showed on TV in the 80s? Even though I was a kid at the time, I thought those things were fascinating. And I think today, after being innundated with all those "Making of..." featurettes on DVD which just feature some pasty-faced geek typing away at a computer, watching how spfx were done before computers would really be exciting to see again.
Does anyone know if that stuff is going to be included? Or is this new documentary just going to be a bunch of interviews with cast and crew, reminiscing about the good old days? Something tells me that Lucas would be hard-pressed to let people see the "archaic" (read: non-computer) means they used for spfx in the original trilogy.
...features Micro-Power(TM), a gentle pulsing action powered by a Duracell AAA battery.
...allowing a man to shave wherever he prefers.
...and the Duracell AAA battery is easy to insert...
Ugh. Did anyone else get a little creeped out reading some of this shit? They really need to fire whoever came up with stuff like that. Unless they are trying to subliminally market it as something other than a razor.
Slashdot Mirror
Y'know, I get really tired of all this bullshit I hear. It's bad enough to hear this bullshit when I interact with "normal" people -- do we really need this on slashdot as well?
Look everyone, making any sort of contact with an alien civilization would be such an incredible discovery, there's no way the government could ever keep it quiet. Christ, they can't even keep China from obtaining detailed blueprints on every single nuclear weapon in the US arsenal. So how are these nincompoops going to keep a bunch of scientists -- who have given up the chance to be reputable, respected, and published for the chance to discover life -- quiet? I don't care what kind of blackmail or torture or whatever technique they used -- there is no way they could keep all the scientists quiet. What's to stop a terminally ill SETI researcher from spilling the beans?
Guys, just relax. There is no conspiracy. The reason SETI has to vehemently deny shit like this is because the media blows everything completely out of proportion. They are trying to contain the situation before everyone picks it up and starts running with it. Occam's razor and all that jazz.
GMD
The term "system of systems" refers to the fact that FCS is meant to allow the army to be able to reconfigure things easily and rapidly to allow the technology to be used for a wide range of missions. Yeah, it sounds a bit strange if you're not used to the terminology but they do pick these phrases, acronyms, and words for a reason. You can read more about FCS here. Basically, the idea is to use a collection of smaller, more manueverable vehicles (including tanks, guns, as well as unmanned ground and aerial vehicles) to accomplish a wide array of military missions. FCS will lack the heavy armor (e.g., 70 ton tanks) that we currently have which could make the force more susceptible to destruction. The advantage of using a lighter force, however, is that it doesn't take them so long to set up, they can move pretty quickly, and don't require as much support equipment and supplies (e.g., fuel). The army plans to make the lighter FCS unit survivable through a lot of fancy communication and data-sharing technologies. So the fact that they have decided to choose Linux is reasonably signficant. FCS will rely very heavily on the quality of their software.
GMD
James Doohan and George Takei always struck me as the two members of the cast who seemed to handle the unlikely fame they received from Star Trek the best. Doohan always remembered that it was the fans that made everything possible.
I'll bet he inspired a great many of the older posters here in their formative years.
In the fascinating (and sometimes hilarious) documentary Trekkies Doohan relates the story of a suicidal Trek fan who confided in him. Doohan took it upon himself to nurse this poor soul back to health. He told the fan that he wanted to see them at the next convention. To his amazement, the fan was there and Doohan graciously met with them, allowing them to come backstage and the whole deal. Doohan tried it again and again the fan showed up at the next convention. They kept this up for a long time (I forget -- it might have been years) when suddenly the fan stopped coming. Doohan feared the worst had happened.
Years later Doohan was stunned when the fan showed up at a convention out of nowhere! The fan told Doohan that they had turned their life around, enrolled in school, and become ... an electrical engineer.
If you haven't seen this film you should definitely rent it. Watching Doohan come close to tears as he tells this story is worth the rental fee right there.
GMD
Blade Runner is my favorite movie of all time. There's so much to like. One thing that fascinates me is that there is really no hero and no villains in the movie. I'm sure that most people argue that Harrison Ford's character is the hero. But let's think about that: his job is to execute escaped slaves. Hardly a noble persuit. Yes, he does this very relucantly but really that's not much of an excuse. When the film starts, we see him looking in the want ads for a job. Really, I wonder just how hard he's looking. With so much of humanity on the off-world colonies, there's probably plenty of jobs available -- just not very good ones. In addition, once Deckard is on the assignment, he seems to really get into it. Even when he's at home drinking he's studying the photo that he took from Leon's apartment with that fancy photo analyzer of his. He hardly seems to be someone who can't stand his job.
The part about no villians is probably easier to argue. The replicants are simply doing what they can do survive. Yes, they have killed some people when they were trying to escape but they were slaves for chrissake! Pris is described as "'yer standard pleasure model." Basically she was created solely for use as a prostitute. It's not too surprising that she'd be willing to kill to get out of such a depressing situation.
Even though the movie is set in the future and deals with technology and places that don't exist, I think the fact that there aren't any real true 100% heros or 100% villans makes the film very interesting and realistic. I think most people realize this on some level and it draws them to watch what happens when "realistic" people have to deal with messy situations.
I think this is one reason why hardcore fans hate the dubbing. It makes the viewer tend to side with and identify with Deckard. That makes you see him as the hero even if he does questionable things. The Director's Cut lets you watch the movie as an impartial observer.
GMD
You don't see a whole lot of well-rounded copyright discourse on the major media news outlets. (Gee, I wonder why...) CNN: We're tough on music fans. We like suing kids and grandmas. We equate infringement with theft. We are fair and balanced, too.
Quite some time ago (about the time the RIAA started cracking down) CNN had an interview with an RIAA rep on "Newsnight with Aaron Brown" in which Mr. Brown concluded by wishing the rep good luck on their hunt to bring the bad guys to justice. I sent an email to him through their website suggesting that his comment and the entire interview was anything but fair and balanced. He sent me a two-sentence response that was really depressing. Basically he equated me with his daughter (and if you've seen Aaron you'll know he's young enough that his daughter is most likely a teenie-bopper Britney fan) and said he was at a loss to see how someone could not see that this was theft. I sent him a reply that tried to explain things a bit more thoroughly and even gave him some suggestions for how to fit the opposing viewpoint into one of his interviews. I don't know whether he ever read my follow up message.
I don't still have copies of those emails but I did post it here on slashdot. Subscribers can probably go through my history and find my post to see what Mr. Brown's exact words were. Sorry I don't have the link.
The reason I bring this up is to emphasize that CNN's pro-MPAA pro-RIAA stance isn't just some corporate-mandated policy. Apparently at least one of the most senior newsmen also believe that the RIAA is doing the right thing.
What we really need is to get one of "our people" on one of these news shows and try to explain the p2p position clearly and concisely in a way that the public might have a chance of understanding. Don't know when that's going to be, though.
GMD
I have this overwhelming sense of pity for some poor lonely guy out there who would have to get a Virtual Girlfriend because he cannot hold a real relationship. All this guy wants is a bit of love and respect, but he just can't get it. Then I get disgusted at the greedy, money-grubbing company trying to capitalize on these poor souls, feeding their thirst for money off of their victim's need for love and acceptance...
I'm not sure if all of this is meant to be a joke (as one respondant has already suggested) but since you are being modded as Insightful I'm going to reply as though you were serious. This company is providing a service. To think of them as exploiting someone is a real misunderstanding of commerce. Do grocery stores exploit me because I have a biological need to eat? There are numerous reasons why some guy may need to find love and finds this Virtual Girlfriend thing to be a less-risky outlet. Perhaps someone has recently been hurt very badly in a relationship (e.g., engaged and then his fiance ran off with someone else) and just isn't ready to date real people just yet. Rather than forcing him to interact with other (real) women when he's still thinking about his loss (which wouldn't be very much fun for the women he meets) or having him sit on his couch bawling to himself, this Virtual Girlfriend may actually serve a theraputic purpose. In this case, the company is not exploiting him but is helping provide a way for him to get over his loss. Yeah, it would be great if this company provided this free of charge out of the goodness of their hearts but that's not the world we live in. They developed the technology and need to recoup their investment as well as reward those who came up with the idea. This is legitimate commerce, not exploitation.
GMD
Good point. Y'know, there are people called "actors" who are trained to give convincing performances of people whom they are not. Just because someone looks old and frail, how do we really know? You remember how convincing Patrick Stewart was at playing a bumbling old Jean-Luc Picard in "All Good Things..."? A little bit of makeup and several months practicing and I bet you could get a normally young, healthy person to look and act very much like an elderly man. At least well enough for an overworked security screener who's been dealing with huge crowds all day long. Like brandon said, he's already got a built-in excuse for setting the metal detector off.
GMD
In Japan, Yoshiyuki Sankai has built a robot suit, called Hybrid Assistive Limb-3 (or HAL-3), designed to help disabled or elderly people.
Am I the only one spooked at the prospect of superpowered old people? It doesn't take much to get old people irritated. Right now, if their order at Denny's takes a little longer than normal to arrive at their table all they can really do is grumble and demand to see the manager (and trust me -- a former employee of this fine chain -- they do). Once we equip them with robotic exoskeletons, what's to stop them from trashing the restaurant? Or the rest of the city for that matter? The Japanese will have to call Godzilla in to deal with the robots rather than the other way around!
Who's the fucking Einstein who thought up the idea of giving super robot ninja powers to the elderly?!?
GMD
Google is a brand name. It should always be capitalized, just like Kleenex and Xerox. The fact that common usage has adapted these trademarked names as generic nouns doesn't change the fact that proper English dictates that they should be capitalized.
The internet was never a brand name, thus, there was no need to capitalize it.
GMD
Each of those Windows Update temporary files are a badge of honor to a geek. Football heros and motorcycle bad-boys have scars on their bodies with which they can impress the chicks. Think of all that excess crap on your computer as "cyber-scars". Next time you bring a date back to your apartment, wink at her coyly and tell her "I want to show you something that I don't show most girls." Then show her your directory filled with the remenants of your numerous battles with Windows Update. She'll get weak in the knees and be all over you. If you want to be extra-sure of making an impression, make sure to point out specific files and tell her a story about how you got that particular "scar." It would be best if your story involves orphans or kittens.
Don't laugh. Think of me when you're having the best sex of your life!
GMD
I remember at one point the military was looking for a full robotic exoskeleton that went above and below the waist. I believe that they gave up and decided to persue lower-body-only technology because they were running into problems with the exoskeleton ripping the tendons and ligaments of those who wore the suit prototypes. The human stretch reflex is a function of the central nervous system and is designed to prevent limbs from being placed into positions that stress the connective tissues. Obviously, with a powered exoskeleton one wrong move could result in an arm getting pulled much further than your nervous system would ever let you position it under your own power. I believe that the researchers got tired of wrestling with this problem and decided to focus on the lower body because human joints in the lower body tend to be of simplier design (and easier to replicate and control) than the upper body ones. Ultimately they'd like to have powered legs that are capable of complex motion like running so that troops could cover large distances in a single day. But running is complex enough even without a suit. I imagine it's going to be a long time before you can put on a set of techno-trowsers and not rip your hamstrings right off your bone!
GMD
Actually, on a serious note, I got pretty frustrated with the article. Actually, I only read the first page and then got bored. I'll never understand why science writers always clutter up their articles with crap like that turtle in the story. We want to read about advanced aerodynamics, not wildlife. Then they go on and on talking in detail about the test. Just tell us what happened at the test; we don't need a blow-by-blow account.
Extra clutter like that really makes the article seem amateurish. You have to be really damn interested in the topic to wade through all that extraneous crap at the beginning of the article no less! Maybe they think they are humanizing the dry science. But do you think people who buy a magazine that has Science in the title really find science boring? Or that they need this high-school-like prose at the beginning?
And don't even get me started on when an article tries to make an analogy with something real-life. I read an article in Scientific American some years ago that was using the swordfight between Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as an example of how the new technology can better the "old standbys". The whole point of that scene was that Yeoh could have killed Ziyi even with that fancy Green Destiny in her hands. What a terrible analogy! And this is the way you start off a science article?
Sorry, just had to rant,
GMD
I've never heard a sonic boom... so I'm not really sure how loud they are, but a co-worker described it as "pretty much sounds like thunder".
EVERYONE has heard a sonic boom at one point: the crack of a whip. That sound you hear is not the tip of the whip hitting anything. It's the sound of the tip accelerating beyond the speed of sound and creating a mini-sonic boom. That little flick at the end causes the tip to snap out at incredible speed.
Now as far as a big sonic boom, I haven't heard one either. I'm sure there are some pretty strict regulations about not creating sonic booms in civilian areas.
GMD
What the fuck kind of idiocy is this? First of all, we already have stealth technology so we're already catching our opponents by surprise. Second, sonic booms are detected AFTER the aircraft flies overhead -- not before! The whole phenomenon of a sonic boom is that the aircraft is racing ahead of the "information" of its arrival (in the form of sound waves).
I'm not saying that a sonic-boom-free aircraft is of no military use. The shockwaves responsible for sonic booms cause drag to increase signficantly, thus requiring much more fuel. But the motivation certainly isn't one of trying to catch someone off guard.
GMD
While I understand your complaint against so-called "Hallmark Holidays" (so named because they are just an excuse to buy a Hallmark brand card) I think sysadmins really do deserve a day like this. By and large, most people's interaction with syadmins is to complain that something isn't working. No one ever walks up to a sysadmin and says "Hey, everything is working great today! Thanks for all you do!" (unless things have recently NOT been good). In this respect, sysadmins are very much like doctors or psychotherapists in that they have to deal with fixing things when the chips are down. These health workers, however, usually get lots of vacation time and very generous salaries to compensate for their stressful jobs -- something sysadmins typically do not enjoy.
Not only are sysadmins taken for granted but unlike others in that situation (e.g., secretaries) their job is one where people are constantly complaining to them. This makes them very unique and very underappreciated. I don't think it's too much to ask that for one day out of the year that people interact with their sysadmins in a positive manner.
GMD
I don't know how many times I've given out my gmail address to geeks the gotten the response "Oh, cool. Gmail!" But, to the average person, it just means nothing.
Let me get this straight: you are claiming that the fact that Google has no name-recognition with the average person is some sort of advantage in ensuring the majority market share?
Google embraces the things that geeks love to have in a company. This is something that Microsoft just doesn't get and will not in the near future, IMHO. The only ground that MS has to compete on is that of the "average" soccer mom computer user that doesn't know about Google.
There are more "average soccer moms" then "geeks". If Google concentrated on embracing things that geeks love and Microsoft has superior name recognition among soccer moms, Google will lose.
GMD
It was Crick's. Indeed, Watson didn't even know what Crick was up to in the next room. Suddenly a voice from nowhere rang out: "Watson! Come here! I want you!" After that, there was no looking back. A new era of technology was ushered in.
Didn't you learn this story in elementary school?
GMD
I'd just like to point out that "we have explored all of Earth" is definitely not true. The deep oceans are something that we are just barely starting to explore. There are some crazy looking motherfuckers living down there. They glow and shit. And they don't even need light to live -- how wack is that? Seriously, though, I understand your sentiment (and I agree with it) that space is the next big frontier. I just wanted to point out that there are still a few exciting opportunities still here on Earth.
GMD
The novelization of TPM explains it. The sith used to number in the thousands. Because of the corrupting nature of the Dark Side, infighting was common. This division of their forces allowed the Jedi to wipe the Sith threat from the galaxy. Only one Sith, Darth Bane, survived. Learning from the mistakes of the past, he enacted the doctorine of only two sith at a time - Master and Apprentice.
Interesting. Thanks for letting us know. That makes the story much more interesting.
Yes, the film could have delved into this, but I think any reasonable viewer, after hearing Darth Maul say "At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge!", could easily draw the conclusion that there is hella bad blood between the Jedi & the Sith.
Oh, I caught the part about the Sith not liking the Jedi very much. What was missing was all the stuff you wrote above, namely, "why". I think the film *should* have delved into the motivations of the characters a bit more. Leaving it the way it was made the movie just one big videogame. Maybe Lucas filmed the scene describing the history of the Sith you laid out above but it ended up on the cutting-room floor to make room for the scene where Jar-Jar gets his tongue stunned by the plasma beams of the pod-racer's engines.
W.R.T your comments on the TPM lightsaber battle, I can't help but disagree....This scene was brilliant, and to add dialog to it would have ruined the moment.
Interesting way to look at it. I hadn't thought of that. It seemed like a wasted opportunity to move the story along. If, however, Qui-Gon was already aware of the backstory between the Jedi and the Sith, then you're absolutely right that there is no need for dialog. Unfortunately, because Lucas chose not to let *us* in on the secret, having characters just stand there in silence was a bit baffling.
Anyhow, thanks for the explanation. I'm interested to hear a bit more about how the Sith fell apart but I'm not going to purchase a Star Wars product just so I can find out. Lucas should have included that in my ticket price.
GMD
So now they have 'Revenge od the Sith'. Fine Sith is all about revenge, but what is it a revenge of? did a Jedi knock up palpatines sister and Now he wnats to get even? Did Obi-One park in the 'Sith of the months' parking spot?
I know you're just joking around, but I think you're making a good point here. At no point have we seen any motivation for why the Sith are the way they are. I think this signficantly detracts from the movies. If Lucas decides to explain the source of the Sith's hatred in this final film, I would definitely appreciate the effort (as long as he doesn't reduce it to something as stupid as mitochlorians).
In the 2-on-1 lightsabre duel from Epsiode I there is a moment where the fighting has ceased. Gui-Con and Darth Maul are separated by a plasma wall and Obi-won is even further away. Maul walks around like a caged tiger while Gui-Con just sits there meditating. This is not exciting! This does not build suspense! This does not move the story foward! I couldn't believe that they would just sit there like that. That was the perfect opportunity for a short conversation between warriors to take place and give the audience insight into the conflict! Doesn't Maul have anything to say? Doesn't he even want to mock the jedi? Is Gui-Con so dead to the world that he's not even remotely curious why this guy has appeared out of nowhere to kill him?
I, too, would like to know what this "revenge" the Sith want is all about. Here's hoping that Lucas will finally answer this question in the new film. Otherwise, it just becomes a stupid white hats vs. black hats space western. Aren't we a little old for that?
GMD
Jim Ward, Vice President of Marketing for Lucasfilm and Executive Producer of the DVDs spoke about the upcoming release, and announced that the epic feature-length documentary, Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, would appear as a special edited-for-television edition on the A&E network this fall.
Okay, so this question isn't exactly about Episode III. Bear with me, please.
Does anyone know if this 'Empire of Dreams' documentary is going to include all the stuff from the "Making of..." specials they showed on TV in the 80s? Even though I was a kid at the time, I thought those things were fascinating. And I think today, after being innundated with all those "Making of..." featurettes on DVD which just feature some pasty-faced geek typing away at a computer, watching how spfx were done before computers would really be exciting to see again.
Does anyone know if that stuff is going to be included? Or is this new documentary just going to be a bunch of interviews with cast and crew, reminiscing about the good old days? Something tells me that Lucas would be hard-pressed to let people see the "archaic" (read: non-computer) means they used for spfx in the original trilogy.
GMD
We expect to go down around 9 (eastern) and hope to be back up by midnight.
Oh that's just great. Now what the hell am I supposed to do with myself on a Friday night? Go downtown and watch all the cool people on their dates?
Couldn't you guys have scheduled this downtime for sometime during my work hours so I could actually get something done at the office for a change?
GMD
Scientists are excited because this is a rare instance of a beautiful lifeform that has been petrified in media other than hot grits.
GMD
...a moisturizing Indicator® Lubrastrip(TM)...
...features Micro-Power(TM), a gentle pulsing action powered by a Duracell AAA battery.
...allowing a man to shave wherever he prefers.
...and the Duracell AAA battery is easy to insert...
Ugh. Did anyone else get a little creeped out reading some of this shit? They really need to fire whoever came up with stuff like that. Unless they are trying to subliminally market it as something other than a razor.
GMD
Guys, commercial flight isn't really the goal. Instead, NASA's Hyper-X program, the six-year, $185 million research endeavor of which the X-43A is a part, is aimed at developing vehicles that can deliver payloads into space much more cheaply than traditional rockets.
GMD