Again, I do not encourage nor promote flammage. But:
What got the video back on the Web was the realization that the FBI's threat was an empty one. A bunch of poorly-worded, expletive-filled emails did little, other than allow Wired to make Slashdotters look like potty-mouthed malcontents.
And from where did the realization that the FBI's threat was empty come? From being flamed to hell for giving in to censorship at the drop of a dime. He probably figured no one would mind, and he was proved wrong. Yes, it would have worked better if everyone had been civil. But it did the job, and it made someone realise there COULD be grave implications to flippant censorship.
The guy should NOT have given in to the FBI unless they had a court order. He was just playing scared. I think he reacted perfectly normally, and it's a sad fact that Slashdotters replied the way they did. What I'm saying, it still worked.
I did catch the irony. But I do think he'll think twice before giving in to pressure again. I think Wired is overplaying the act by pointing out the flames, but I think there must be a good number of people who took the time to patiently point out that unless they had a warrant, he didn't have to give in, and that he gave in too quickly.
Of course he's gonna put himself as a victim and show the really inflamatory behaviours and letters. But that's how it goes: the bigger the group of people, the more morons it carries. The problem is that we portray these morons as representative instead of fringe, and this encourages them to continue.
I say, moderate it up to 5 for Funny, then back to 0 for Offtopic. It probably deserves both marks.
At any rate, these guys (him and the Grits down my Pants guy) provides me with my daily dose of surrealism. That's why I read only high (3+) and low (0-) comments on Slashdot. Don't give me the middle!
I don't encourage flames, far from it; but look at this bit from the article:
With the video again streaming from his servers, Wieger is awaiting another call from the FBI. Inspired by the nasty comments in his email inbox, he's been practicing his free speech.
"I'm going to tell the FBI, 'Fuck you! You've probably cost us our business, you assholes!'"
Well, well. So it did work. People have complained that the ISP didn't stand for freedom of speech and it gave them a spine. Frankly, Weiger is trying to play the victim here. Saying stuff like, 'Oh, but we're just a lil' company, it wasn't our fault.' Yeah. But it's never anybody's fault when freedom of speech is concerned. You pull content from a website, and you're claiming you're just paying the rent. What you're doing next is approving of massive censorship in the name of passivity.
How do you think the Nazis pulled it off? Not one worker ever killed Jews en masse: the only thing they did is pull a lever, drive a locomotive, show the Jews to the gas chamber. I'm not saying genocide and censorship are of the same scale; I'm saying that in both cases, institutions promoting them hope everyone involve will say, 'Well, I didn't really do anything.'
Like I said, flames is never the solution. But making your voice heard is. In the light of the conclusion of this story, the Slashdot effect, civilised or not, did have a positive effect. I'm not endorsing it, but... Well, you gotta wonder.
Oh, I've experienced what you call the Zen of Quake... I'm an avid gamer, so of course I have. I still think it's a butchering of the concept of Zen...
It has more to do with the hemispheres of the brain. The left hemisphere controls mathematical and geometrical concepts, of which time is one. The right hemisphere covers intuition and creativity.
What you're doing when you're 'In the zone' (thanks to Wah for the distinction) is that your right hemisphere takes over. Since you don't need to analyze your keystrokes because they've become 'unconscious competence' (thanks to another poster - wee, we're making progress!), the right hemisphere takes over and you're going for gut instincts as if you were taking a stroll down the park and facing baddies with guns. Really, the loss of time is a simple consequence of having fun.
It's immersive, and you are relinquishing control of your senses to a machine. But I think calling it Zen is naive and uninformed.
Really, same goes with the idea that playing pinball is Zen. It's a nitpick considering the article's aim, but it's still a flawed analogy.
Kent in Omaha, I think your objection to my own point is valid in itself; so don't take the following as a sophist attack on your opinion. But damn, I gotta nitpick.
We're quickly going down that same slippery slope with the "gay rights" (there's no such thing),
There is, however, such a thing as an absence of rights for gays.
"gun control" (which is illegal),
It's illegal? Or immoral? Or are you gonna say 'unconstitutional'? I think it's perfectly legal and moral to require a modicum of civism and a minimum of 60 of IQ from someone who covets an object that makes it as easy killing someone as changing the channel.
"separation of church and state" (it has never existed),
Ah, that would be why they teach creationism over darwinism in school. You're right, it's quite an utopia.
"voluntary income tax" (just try to not volunteer), and many other lies.
Hmm. "voluntary income tax" would be the national lottery.:)
Seriously, though, I understand you're claiming a Libertarian point of view on the matter, but your rapid-fire generalisations didn't impress me.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
It's a sad fact when the Occident is determined to reduce Zen to a simple game of Quake. For the record, 'forgetting' your keys and going on automatic pilot mode is as Zen as driving your car. Ever notice how drivers just forget about the controls and just 'become' the car?
It's just a matter of repeating something often enough that you jumpwire your brain, and don't need to think about every command anymore. The same goes on in walking.
If that were Zen, then Zen would be another word for 'automatism'.
Fact of the matter is, the only thing this company needs is exactly what they gather: your Web habits.
They're trying to defend themselves by saying they're not actually collecting your name or address, but that's not like this information matters to them.
Working for an e-commerce company, I can tell you what they want: they want list of clients. They want to know exactly what kind of people use their software. They want to target their publicity more closely.
If you ask me, it's BS when they say they're not actually using the info they collect. This information is invaluable to advertising companies, and knowing where everyone goes from your site on is the Holy Grail of target advertising on the Web. Many companies focus solely on providing companies with 'client lists'.
So it's BS when the PR guys say it's harmless. Fact of the matter is, they're doing it without asking permission.
Here's a little gem from the article:
The campaign Web site for Vice President Al Gore removed support for the technology Monday, citing privacy concerns.
``To the best of the Gore campaign's knowledge, no personally identifiable information was divulged,'' spokesman Chris Lehane said. ``But even this very benign data collection doesn't meet the Gore campaign privacy standards.''
Wow. I know people tend to pick on Gore for that misquoted bit about inventing the Internet, but that's very fair of him. I thought we were the only ones (we being geeks) throwing a temper tantrum about privacy on the net. Way to go. Too bad I'm Canadian, eh?:)
I don't think there are many geeks who abused drugs and alcohol at a low age, had a chronic habit of beating on other kids or had a fascination for knives. We abused our eyes with television screens jacked with an Atari, beat other kids (at Pac-Man) and had a fascination for BASIC.
My point is: Katz is trying to get us in an uproar by trying to say geeks are being specifically targeted by this. I think it's BS. I think he might as well have used the three criteria for a serial killer, and it would have made as much sense.
I consider that kind of behaviour trolling on a massive scale, not journalism. Katz is setting geeks up as the new martyrdom, and probably making a fortune by marking us all as misfits and misunderstood geniuses. He's milking us for all we're worth.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
It sounds like a great concept, but the 3 hour battery life sounds incredibly short to me... For hardcore computer users (read: the geeks who are likely to buy this), 3 hours is a short computer session.
I mean, especially since it runs Win98, it means you won't have enough time to install the darn thing...
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
I'm sorry, but I don't buy it when the article says that the primary forseable use right now is for quadraplegics. Yes, that's a very noble goal, but let's face it. Every new technology faces one critical application test:
Can the Army use it to kill even more people?
In this case, the answer, of course, is yes. If you can pull a trigger simply by thinking about it, that's one less barrier toward the perfect killing machine (not to mention it would make awesome Quake fragfests.)
So: let's see if the Army picks it up. If they do, then the technology will pass through to the mainstream in a dozen years or so.
I mean, even digital computers were invented as part of the war effort (considering the Bombe as a first, which is arguable.)
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
Here are the three symptoms in childhood that allow profilers to detect potential serial killers:
Mutilation and/or torture of small animals (frogs, etc.)
Pyromaniac tendencies (likes to play with fire and burn things)
Wet one's bed until an advanced age of childhood
Wonder how many/.ers that fit?
My point? Katz is kicking the bee's nest that is Slashdot to gather outrage. The fact of the matter is, this is not geeks he is talking about. He's talking about that bastard in highschool who collected knives and beat every kid around. He's talking about the guy who took it out on everyone else because his father beat the living shit out of him back home.
Sure, that can be some geeks. But it's not the profile of all geek. Where's the love for science? Where's the obsession for details?
Besides, it's ok to profile potential troublemakers. You indeed want to stop one kid from going to school and gunning down everyone, so the best way to go about this is to explain to teachers what's at stake; to give them an understanding that some people need support and help, and to be there for them if they need it, should they ask for it. What's wrong with that?
Trouble is, like I said, geeks are not the target here. And the geeks, who seem to suffer a major social stigmata while younger, go about their lives without help just because they don't kill everyone in sight. Well, not most of the times, anyway. We're just bullied, we don't bully others. We all dream of slaughtering someone at some point in our lives, but there's a nagging something that keeps us from doing it. As we grow up, we realise it's ethics.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
if you're going to do anything remotely interesting you don't want to use the firmware but you'll use legOS or pbFORTH (IMO). so you don't really care for the firmware upgrade.
Yeah, you're right. I don't know why, though. I'm something of a Lego Mindstorms completist, and I feel I'm gonna buy the damn upgrade even if I don't do anything with it. I mean, I bought the two expansion packs mostly for the parts, and that's a bit of a lot to pay for a few parts and a CD ROM you'll never use...
Call me an addict!
I have read on lugnet that the new RCX does not come with jack for power adapter - you can only use batteries as power source (that's a major bummer, if you ask me).
Really! I wonder why? Perhaps it's because no one ever used the power adapter jack, since you don't want a robot with an autonomy of three feet... But it's been useful to me in designing robots that weren't meant to move (like that wonderful arm grip on the top of the box... T'was a hell to rebuild!)
Glad I have the 1.0 RCX, then...
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
1.5 has better software, as well as an upgrade on the firmware (the RCX's OS.) I think the pieces count is merely that they reevaluated the pieces that should go into the basic set (I know I've built a lot with it, and whereas there are too many of one type of piece, there are many others that are entirely too few.) So the 10 pieces you're missing in the new set are pieces you don't really need, and some other pieces have been replaced as well.
My advice is, don't sweat it. Sure, you'll end up wanting more pieces (more! more! MORE!) but the starting pieces is a good balance and you'll be tinkering with the code more anyway. (I've had hours of pleasure with a simple two touch sensors, one light sensor "buggy".) If you need more pieces, buy sensors individually, or buy other Lego Technic models. (The motorcycle and the super-car are downright fabulous, as well as a great source of extra all-purposes pieces, btw.)
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
There is no justice in this world. As much as I would like to play the part of Anakin Skywalker like every other 15-35 geek boy who ever helped define the term 'cinematic obsession' in our boyhood, it's almost certain that the part will go to someone who doesn't care that much about Star Wars.
Nevermind that we'd never really sell liking Jar Jar, or that we'd push for some more explicit love scenes with Miss Portman... (Not to mention giggling irresistibly at the sight of Segfault's favourite part of Portman's anatomy...) We would, like Ewan McGregor before us, make whooshing sounds when wielding our lightsabres, and actually carry the cardboard prop like it were a dangerous weapon.
The thing that would probably outcast us the very moment we step on set is the drool, and the muttering of repetitive 'I am Darth Vader. Hot damn! I am Darth Vader.'
So, forget it. Whoever they'll pick, he'll come out of some dark cave in Siberia, and won't even know who Darth Vader is until he reads the script for Ep. 3 and demands that Lucas rewrites the part where he falls for the Dark Side.
Life is full of cruelties.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
There's nothing like remembering how it was, at 10 year-old, when you could shake that big box under the Christmas tree, and know a toy hid in there. When the familiar rattle of Lego bricks was heard, my face always overflowed with joy.
A safe bet for any toy-lovin' geek remains the Lego Mindstorms kit and accessories. The basic kit is a bit pricey ($219 US), but well worth it. And if your geek has the basic kit already, there are expansion packs ($49.99 US), an upgrade ($24.95 US), additional RCX ($129.99 US), remote controls ($19.99) and touch, light, temperature and rotation sensors ($9.99 - $19.99 US) as well as additional motors ($18.25 US).
If your geek is the kind of geek who has all the Lego Mindstorms stuff already, there's a book from O'Reilly on Mindstorms ($24.95 US), which will provide advanced tips for design and programming. It was reviewed on Slashdot.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
(Yes, I know the 70 lbs figure is an approximation to begin with, so we don't give a f* about the grams... But I'm a physics graduate with a prejudice against approximations.:) )
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
Now, a lot of people have pointed out that it's somewhat useless to wager that there is life (As We Know It (tm) anyway) on that planet. Of course, being 4 times the size of Jupiter, and with a revolution of 3 *days*, it must be a bit hectic up there, to put it mildly.
But: the presence of oxygen is revelant, in the sense that it's a pretty high coincidence that oxygen can be found there, if it is indeed due to chance. This is the same argument than when the first exoplanets were discovered: people pointed out they were large, surely lifeless masses of gas, but the point is not that. The point is, planets *do* exist out there, around other stars. That's mighty big, as it shows that planet formation is universal, and not a freak accident.
From there, it only looks good. If now we can observe the light off a planet (though I bet the specific conditions for observing such a light is in the range of probabilities of seeing a gravitational lens effect), it means we're moving forward to the day we'll be able to observe an Earth-type planet up there somewhere. And from there, it's a simple question of sending a radio signal directly at that planet.
So, stop saying it's irrevelant. It's a small step, but it's revelant as hell. Ten years ago, I could only dream that scientists would pick out the signs of an extra-solar planet. Now the possibility of finding a planet the size of our own is becoming more and more a reality. And if that's not something to celebrate, I don't know what is.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
Re:I don't know about you...
on
Happy Odd Day!
·
· Score: 1
"Do you plan to live forever?"
"Dunno. Ask me again in 300 years."
From Terry Pratchett's "Guards! Guards!"
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
Listen, I'm an Open Source advocate in my own time, but I get fed up with people picking at Seti@Home for not being Open Source. What's the big deal? Yes, it would be a better world, maybe, if Seti@Home went Open Source. Yes, it makes sense for a project like Seti@Home to aim at a collaborative construction.
But give me a break. Stop antagonising Seti@Home because they're doing it in a traditional way. Who cares? They've come up with a great concept to advance their research, and a lot of people bought into it. It's not like they're making money out of it. It's not like the publicity they get fills the bank account of a rich CEO.
So stop picking at Seti@Home all the time until they become Open Source. Change is gradual, and we have to count or blessings and support Open Source initiatives when we see them, not declare a Jihad against everything non-OSS. Yes, most people including me would like to take a peek at the code. But let it be, for just a moment... Seti@Home remains a great project, whether it's Open Source or not.
You know, there *are* great software that don't need to be Open Source... And I think they're not hurt that much because of it. I don't think Seti@Home would get a whole lotta good from Open Sourcing their code, because everyone could figure out how to send false data claiming they not only got an E.T. signal, but it was singing Singing in the Rain in slow-motion.
/me calms down.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
Slashdot Mirror
And from where did the realization that the FBI's threat was empty come? From being flamed to hell for giving in to censorship at the drop of a dime. He probably figured no one would mind, and he was proved wrong. Yes, it would have worked better if everyone had been civil. But it did the job, and it made someone realise there COULD be grave implications to flippant censorship.
The guy should NOT have given in to the FBI unless they had a court order. He was just playing scared. I think he reacted perfectly normally, and it's a sad fact that Slashdotters replied the way they did. What I'm saying, it still worked.
Of course he's gonna put himself as a victim and show the really inflamatory behaviours and letters. But that's how it goes: the bigger the group of people, the more morons it carries. The problem is that we portray these morons as representative instead of fringe, and this encourages them to continue.
At any rate, these guys (him and the Grits down my Pants guy) provides me with my daily dose of surrealism. That's why I read only high (3+) and low (0-) comments on Slashdot. Don't give me the middle!
Well, well. So it did work. People have complained that the ISP didn't stand for freedom of speech and it gave them a spine. Frankly, Weiger is trying to play the victim here. Saying stuff like, 'Oh, but we're just a lil' company, it wasn't our fault.' Yeah. But it's never anybody's fault when freedom of speech is concerned. You pull content from a website, and you're claiming you're just paying the rent. What you're doing next is approving of massive censorship in the name of passivity.
How do you think the Nazis pulled it off? Not one worker ever killed Jews en masse: the only thing they did is pull a lever, drive a locomotive, show the Jews to the gas chamber. I'm not saying genocide and censorship are of the same scale; I'm saying that in both cases, institutions promoting them hope everyone involve will say, 'Well, I didn't really do anything.'
Like I said, flames is never the solution. But making your voice heard is. In the light of the conclusion of this story, the Slashdot effect, civilised or not, did have a positive effect. I'm not endorsing it, but... Well, you gotta wonder.
It has more to do with the hemispheres of the brain. The left hemisphere controls mathematical and geometrical concepts, of which time is one. The right hemisphere covers intuition and creativity.
What you're doing when you're 'In the zone' (thanks to Wah for the distinction) is that your right hemisphere takes over. Since you don't need to analyze your keystrokes because they've become 'unconscious competence' (thanks to another poster - wee, we're making progress!), the right hemisphere takes over and you're going for gut instincts as if you were taking a stroll down the park and facing baddies with guns. Really, the loss of time is a simple consequence of having fun.
It's immersive, and you are relinquishing control of your senses to a machine. But I think calling it Zen is naive and uninformed.
Really, same goes with the idea that playing pinball is Zen. It's a nitpick considering the article's aim, but it's still a flawed analogy.
There is, however, such a thing as an absence of rights for gays.
It's illegal? Or immoral? Or are you gonna say 'unconstitutional'? I think it's perfectly legal and moral to require a modicum of civism and a minimum of 60 of IQ from someone who covets an object that makes it as easy killing someone as changing the channel.
Ah, that would be why they teach creationism over darwinism in school. You're right, it's quite an utopia.
Hmm. "voluntary income tax" would be the national lottery. :)
Seriously, though, I understand you're claiming a Libertarian point of view on the matter, but your rapid-fire generalisations didn't impress me.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
It's just a matter of repeating something often enough that you jumpwire your brain, and don't need to think about every command anymore. The same goes on in walking.
If that were Zen, then Zen would be another word for 'automatism'.
Fact of the matter is, the only thing this company needs is exactly what they gather: your Web habits.
They're trying to defend themselves by saying they're not actually collecting your name or address, but that's not like this information matters to them.
Working for an e-commerce company, I can tell you what they want: they want list of clients. They want to know exactly what kind of people use their software. They want to target their publicity more closely.
If you ask me, it's BS when they say they're not actually using the info they collect. This information is invaluable to advertising companies, and knowing where everyone goes from your site on is the Holy Grail of target advertising on the Web. Many companies focus solely on providing companies with 'client lists'.
So it's BS when the PR guys say it's harmless. Fact of the matter is, they're doing it without asking permission.
Here's a little gem from the article:
Wow. I know people tend to pick on Gore for that misquoted bit about inventing the Internet, but that's very fair of him. I thought we were the only ones (we being geeks) throwing a temper tantrum about privacy on the net. Way to go. Too bad I'm Canadian, eh? :)
It was more than off the wall, it was humour. Darn, I need a few crates of smileys if I want to make it on Slashdot...
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
My point is: Katz is trying to get us in an uproar by trying to say geeks are being specifically targeted by this. I think it's BS. I think he might as well have used the three criteria for a serial killer, and it would have made as much sense.
I consider that kind of behaviour trolling on a massive scale, not journalism. Katz is setting geeks up as the new martyrdom, and probably making a fortune by marking us all as misfits and misunderstood geniuses. He's milking us for all we're worth.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
I mean, especially since it runs Win98, it means you won't have enough time to install the darn thing...
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
Can the Army use it to kill even more people?
In this case, the answer, of course, is yes. If you can pull a trigger simply by thinking about it, that's one less barrier toward the perfect killing machine (not to mention it would make awesome Quake fragfests.)
So: let's see if the Army picks it up. If they do, then the technology will pass through to the mainstream in a dozen years or so.
I mean, even digital computers were invented as part of the war effort (considering the Bombe as a first, which is arguable.)
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
Mutilation and/or torture of small animals (frogs, etc.)
Pyromaniac tendencies (likes to play with fire and burn things)
Wet one's bed until an advanced age of childhood
Wonder how many /.ers that fit?
My point? Katz is kicking the bee's nest that is Slashdot to gather outrage. The fact of the matter is, this is not geeks he is talking about. He's talking about that bastard in highschool who collected knives and beat every kid around. He's talking about the guy who took it out on everyone else because his father beat the living shit out of him back home.
Sure, that can be some geeks. But it's not the profile of all geek. Where's the love for science? Where's the obsession for details?
Besides, it's ok to profile potential troublemakers. You indeed want to stop one kid from going to school and gunning down everyone, so the best way to go about this is to explain to teachers what's at stake; to give them an understanding that some people need support and help, and to be there for them if they need it, should they ask for it. What's wrong with that?
Trouble is, like I said, geeks are not the target here. And the geeks, who seem to suffer a major social stigmata while younger, go about their lives without help just because they don't kill everyone in sight. Well, not most of the times, anyway. We're just bullied, we don't bully others. We all dream of slaughtering someone at some point in our lives, but there's a nagging something that keeps us from doing it. As we grow up, we realise it's ethics.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
Yeah, you're right. I don't know why, though. I'm something of a Lego Mindstorms completist, and I feel I'm gonna buy the damn upgrade even if I don't do anything with it. I mean, I bought the two expansion packs mostly for the parts, and that's a bit of a lot to pay for a few parts and a CD ROM you'll never use...
Call me an addict!
Really! I wonder why? Perhaps it's because no one ever used the power adapter jack, since you don't want a robot with an autonomy of three feet... But it's been useful to me in designing robots that weren't meant to move (like that wonderful arm grip on the top of the box... T'was a hell to rebuild!)
Glad I have the 1.0 RCX, then...
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
My advice is, don't sweat it. Sure, you'll end up wanting more pieces (more! more! MORE!) but the starting pieces is a good balance and you'll be tinkering with the code more anyway. (I've had hours of pleasure with a simple two touch sensors, one light sensor "buggy".) If you need more pieces, buy sensors individually, or buy other Lego Technic models. (The motorcycle and the super-car are downright fabulous, as well as a great source of extra all-purposes pieces, btw.)
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
Nevermind that we'd never really sell liking Jar Jar, or that we'd push for some more explicit love scenes with Miss Portman... (Not to mention giggling irresistibly at the sight of Segfault's favourite part of Portman's anatomy...) We would, like Ewan McGregor before us, make whooshing sounds when wielding our lightsabres, and actually carry the cardboard prop like it were a dangerous weapon.
The thing that would probably outcast us the very moment we step on set is the drool, and the muttering of repetitive 'I am Darth Vader. Hot damn! I am Darth Vader.'
So, forget it. Whoever they'll pick, he'll come out of some dark cave in Siberia, and won't even know who Darth Vader is until he reads the script for Ep. 3 and demands that Lucas rewrites the part where he falls for the Dark Side.
Life is full of cruelties.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
A safe bet for any toy-lovin' geek remains the Lego Mindstorms kit and accessories. The basic kit is a bit pricey ($219 US), but well worth it. And if your geek has the basic kit already, there are expansion packs ($49.99 US), an upgrade ($24.95 US), additional RCX ($129.99 US), remote controls ($19.99) and touch, light, temperature and rotation sensors ($9.99 - $19.99 US) as well as additional motors ($18.25 US).
All these elements are available at Lego World Shop.
If your geek is the kind of geek who has all the Lego Mindstorms stuff already, there's a book from O'Reilly on Mindstorms ($24.95 US), which will provide advanced tips for design and programming. It was reviewed on Slashdot.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
1 lb == 0.45359237 kg, to be anal ret... exact.
So that means, 70 lbs == 31.7514 kg.
(Yes, I know the 70 lbs figure is an approximation to begin with, so we don't give a f* about the grams... But I'm a physics graduate with a prejudice against approximations. :) )
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
If a complete solar system is discovered, can we run it as a Beowulf cluster with our own?
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
Well, it should have been called sunlight, but then the Moon went ahead and patented the million year-old technology first.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
But: the presence of oxygen is revelant, in the sense that it's a pretty high coincidence that oxygen can be found there, if it is indeed due to chance. This is the same argument than when the first exoplanets were discovered: people pointed out they were large, surely lifeless masses of gas, but the point is not that. The point is, planets *do* exist out there, around other stars. That's mighty big, as it shows that planet formation is universal, and not a freak accident.
From there, it only looks good. If now we can observe the light off a planet (though I bet the specific conditions for observing such a light is in the range of probabilities of seeing a gravitational lens effect), it means we're moving forward to the day we'll be able to observe an Earth-type planet up there somewhere. And from there, it's a simple question of sending a radio signal directly at that planet.
So, stop saying it's irrevelant. It's a small step, but it's revelant as hell. Ten years ago, I could only dream that scientists would pick out the signs of an extra-solar planet. Now the possibility of finding a planet the size of our own is becoming more and more a reality. And if that's not something to celebrate, I don't know what is.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
"Dunno. Ask me again in 300 years."
From Terry Pratchett's "Guards! Guards!"
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
But give me a break. Stop antagonising Seti@Home because they're doing it in a traditional way. Who cares? They've come up with a great concept to advance their research, and a lot of people bought into it. It's not like they're making money out of it. It's not like the publicity they get fills the bank account of a rich CEO.
So stop picking at Seti@Home all the time until they become Open Source. Change is gradual, and we have to count or blessings and support Open Source initiatives when we see them, not declare a Jihad against everything non-OSS. Yes, most people including me would like to take a peek at the code. But let it be, for just a moment... Seti@Home remains a great project, whether it's Open Source or not.
You know, there *are* great software that don't need to be Open Source... And I think they're not hurt that much because of it. I don't think Seti@Home would get a whole lotta good from Open Sourcing their code, because everyone could figure out how to send false data claiming they not only got an E.T. signal, but it was singing Singing in the Rain in slow-motion.
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
Hello? I was making a statement on Slashdot's obsessions, not on Al Gore's statements. Wasn't that obvious?
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."