Too many movies these days just show all the highlights in the trailers - so you've seen everything worth watching before you even pay for admission...
This is what I call the "Weekend at Bernie's" effect, after the 1989 comedy of that name. Whatever its weaknesses, that movie's outrageous situational humor made it reasonably fun to watch, at least after a few beers. Unfortunately, the seemingly endless theatrical trailer gave away all of that humor in advance.
Sadly, this became the norm in Hollywood-- especially for bad flicks.
What about the small problem of finding 6 people to go to Mars, to work in a nuclear power station for no people for 30 years?
Maybe this is really part of a CIA plot to finally do something with all of those underemployed Russian nuclear scientists and engineers, so they won't go build WMDs for rogue nations.
if you drink pop all day, all of the sugar accumulates. try drinking water instead.
Water is good. Diet soda is good-- or at least neutral. Non-diet soda is bad. Why?
Four words: High Fructose Corn Syrup. Most sweetened drinks (and many food items, from catsup to yogurt) are actually sweetened with HFCS rather than regular sugar.
This is what makes you fat.
Read the label first. Then drink water instead.
Yes, I know; the poster didn't mention soda; I'm assuming that the beer tap isn't actually available at his workplace. Hint to rhuntley12: There's a reason why it's called a "beer gut."
Then I discovered Wal-Mart's groceries. [...]
Alas, Wal-Mart will probably be the first to use RFIDs wide-scale [...]
Yeah, so just think how many RFID devices you'll have swallowed after just a few weeks of eating your WalMart-purchased groceries! I wonder if they'll pass on through, or remain in your stomach for seven years like chewing gum. Not only would you be trackable by what you buy, but by what you actually eat! Unless, of course, you microwave everything, which unfortunately rules out fresh fruit...
This look like: I have a bigger xxx than you have!! Biggest car, biggest house, biggest whatever.
I stopped playing that game a long time ago, and recently purchased my first laptop-- the very tiny
Fujitsu Lifebook P1120, certainly at the opposite end of the scale as the 17" Toshiba. Cool machine, for what I got it for-- i.e., surfing/reading web articles on my sofa, and storing/reading documents for the occasional business trip. I recently flew from Orlando to L.A. (~5 hours), using the P1120 for most of the flight. Battery was still at ~50% by the end. The touchscreen makes this machine very usable.
Oops... this being slashdot, I should mention the obligatory: No, it's not running Linux, at least not yet. This is my first experience owning and using a WinXP machine. It's not bad, once you get it to cease the endless reminders to upgrade this or register that-- and, of course, once you load Mozilla. I'd probably convert it to Linux if a good touchscreen driver and calibration utility became available.
What did it for me was the persistant evasiveness of the Intuit marketing and customer support people. I sent them an email expressing my dismay with their activation scheme, specifically mentioning the Sector 33 issue and the problems it posed to me. The reply, attached below, completely side-stepped that issue.
--
Hello,
My name is Mike and I am a member of the Executive Response team for
TurboTax. I am sorry to learn that you have some concerns about TurboTax
and want to thank you for taking time to contact us directly about it.
Hearing directly from customers like you is the best way for us to know
exactly what you're experiencing so we can work together to get you correct
information and the best solution.
Let me share some quick facts with you that I believe will give you the
information you need about how our activation codes really work.
TurboTax 2002 includes a product activation process that ensures
TurboTax is used in accordance with the TurboTax software license and
services agreement.
Product activation ties printing and filing from the TurboTax
federal product to a single computer, preventing unlicensed use of the
product.
The Macrovision SafeCast® (C-Dilla) product activation technology
used by Intuit installs files on your computer when you install TurboTax.
These files serve as your product license in addition to managing and
protecting that license.
These files are not "SpyWare." They interact only with TurboTax and
with each other.
Macrovision SafeCast® (C-Dilla) does not transmit any personally
identifiable information to Intuit or any other party. It does not examine,
modify, or transmit any information about your computer, your computer's
contents, or your activities or behavior. In implementing product
activation, ensuring your privacy was a key consideration and continues to
be.
Product activation will not prevent you from using your CD-R or
CD-RW drives.
You can delete Macrovision SafeCast® (C-Dilla) folders and
components associated with TurboTax after you are done with TurboTax. An
uninstall utility is available on our support site at
http://www.turbotaxsupport.com/default.asp?platfor m=1&DocID=836
I truly hope this response satisfies your concerns. Your confidence in us
is important so if you have any additional questions or concerns please send
them to me at Mike_support@intuit.com, or
you can get additional information from our support site at
www.turbotaxsupport.com.
...is seamless linux support on the Fujitsu Lifebook P1000, including the touchscreen and button mouse. Maybe that'll happen, now.
I don't need no stinkin' tablet PC. Give me a teeny-tiny laptop that (a) runs linux, (b) generates sufficiently little heat that I can actually put it on my lap, and (c) has easy and flexible pointing device options.
If Mr. Graham had empathy for his readers, one way to show it would be to avoid the use of footnotes that required manually scrolling to the bottom of a long web page.
Did any one other than myself notice that the Soyuz module is named TMA-1?
If I'm not mistaken, that was the name of the spooky monument site in Clarke's "2001, a Space Odyssey".
The technicality that overturned Poindexter's appeal was that he'd testified under an immunity deal with Congress. So, the appellate court decision that kept him out of jail was on solid legal ground.
That, however, does not mean that he wasn't guilty as sin; only that he can't legally be punished for it. In any event, under no circumstances should he be serving in a senior Pentagon position requiring any level of security clearance.
This isn't really news. The secret Bush administration plot to bomb the moon was scooped, months ago, by that fine investigative cartoonist, Tom Tomorrow.
Or, consider another possibility:
"In other news today, a U.S. scientific mission to search for lunar water deposits revealed that the moon actually has a vast, hollow void in its center, occupying nearly 90 percent of the volume of the moon as a whole. This void is (or was) filled with water. Unfortunately, the hole left in the moon's north pole by the mission's explosive primary payload is allowing the water to rapidly boil off into space. Mission scientists estimate that it will be completely empty within a year.
"Meanwhile, officials at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are said to be studying the feasibility of depositing nuclear waste in the now-vacant interior of the moon. Frightened residents of countries over which the moon passes are reportedly organizing to oppose this effort."
It was much longer than two years after automobiles became widely available before U.S. cities began to be designed around them, as opposed to streetcars, rail, and pedestrians. It finally took a joint venture between GM, Mack Truck, Standard Oil, and others, who systematically bought up the privately owned transit companies, ripped up their tracks, and replaced their routes with buses. The first waves of automobile buyers (driving on government-funded roads, of course) had drained enough previous ridership revenue from the transit companies that it wasn't too expensive to buy them out.
Cities might eventually be designed to support the Segway, or something like it, but it won't happen just because it's a neat technology. Short of a prolonged public crisis, such as a severe oil shortage, it'll take someone with deep pockets, good political connections, and a solid profit motive to make it happen.
This is just a thought, but the Segway pushers in the U.S. might want to ally themselves with bicyclists in advocating expanded lanes for all vehicles in the ~15 mph speed range. (Yes, I know that many cyclists ride faster than 15 mph. So include a passing lane.:-)
If you're not adverse to looking on eBay, you can find some good deals there. Remember that many Dell, Sun, IBM, and SGI monitors are actually relabelled Trinitrons, so don't forget to check on them as well.
I'll second that. I recently purchased three Sun GDM-5410 monitors (21" flat Trinitrons) for $225 from a Sun reseller that was advertising them on eBay. They were about 2.5 years old, off-lease from a Texas Instruments facility. The reseller was close enough to my home for local pick-up, so I saved shipping-- usually the catch to an otherwise good eBay deal on a big monitor.
The same reseller also had some slightly older Sun GDM-5010PT monitors (21" vertically flat Trinitrons), for $125. I'd had one of each model on my desk at work. The 5410 is much sharper, but the 5010 might be good for cheaply outfitting a room for LAN parties, if you were so inclined. (I was happy with the 5010 at work for years, until I saw a 5410.)
They are covering their tracks. How else could you explain this suspicious lack of alien signal evidence after all of these years of searching? This is a coverup of galactic proportions.
Does this remind anyone else of Bush's justification for invading Iraq?
</troll>
Relating to complex numbers
on
Imagining Numbers
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I once had a EE professor who explained complex power (i.e., the complex number component of AC power) with a beer analogy:
Complex power is like the head on your beer. You can't do anything useful with it (e.g.: drink it, or use it to power your PS2), but you have to carry it around with you, consuming resources. And, of course, you try to minimize it, where possible.
THAT said, the fact that they're still floundering with no plan is the reason I haven't subscribed yet. Times are tight; I could certainly afford $20 a year, but I'd rather not spend $20 for 1 month or possibly 2.
And, of course, one reason why they're floundering (aside from astronomical rent) is that you and 49,999 others haven't subscribed yet. It's interesting: About this time last year, when the last batch of Salon-is-dead predictions were making the rounds, I tried to convince several of my friends-- all regular Salon readers-- to subscribe. None of them did, citing exactly the above reasons.
Could it be that the latest round of Salon bashing is intended to bring about this result? I mean, come on... the voices in the traditional media that are salivating at the prospect of Salon's demise aren't exactly impartial.
I know what I'm going to do: take out gift subscriptions for said friends who didn't subscribe last year; maybe they'll get hooked and renew next time around. Risky? Yes, but it could prove to be money well spent-- much more so than the subscription fees for several dead tree publications that I receive but don't have time to read.
That's a great idea for a followup Apple commercial, but who the #%@* are they going to get to hold a 55in widescreen in their lap on an airline seat, next to MiniMe?
Re-play of old Apple ad?
on
Baked Apple
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Back in the early 1980s, I remember seeing a magazine ad for Apple showing the remains of some guy's 12" Sony TV that a house fire had melted all over the top of an Apple-II-- one that he had brought home from the office. Oops! According to the accompanying narrative, he thought his goose would be cooked when he informed his boss, but lo and behold, the computer still worked; it just needed a new keyboard and maybe a little more. Anyone see the makings of a re-hashing of this ad?
In all seriousness, although the par-baked PowerBook might still work now, I'm guessing that the chance of a latent part failure in the near future has been significantly increased.
Does "Slow Loop 'n Pitch" remind anyone else of Terry Kath doing Free Form Guitar? (Which is to ask, are there any other geezers on/.?;-)
Also, "Random Noise" sounds suspiciously like he dumped the ROM contents straight to the DAC. Some 20 years ago, I did exactly that with my Trash80 Color Computer, with similar results.
Consider Clarke's First Law: "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."
How old are you?;-)
Aside from the question of technical feasibility, if such a device had been available and used at the gate, it still might not have foiled the Sept. 11 hijackers. Apparently, they had made several trial flights before that date, and were only informed shortly before boarding that this flight was to be the big one. How much more trouble would it have been for them to check in via cell phone, after boarding? That way, there might be no immediately relevant thoughts for a brain wave scanner to pick up.
Slashdot Mirror
This is what I call the "Weekend at Bernie's" effect, after the 1989 comedy of that name. Whatever its weaknesses, that movie's outrageous situational humor made it reasonably fun to watch, at least after a few beers. Unfortunately, the seemingly endless theatrical trailer gave away all of that humor in advance.
Sadly, this became the norm in Hollywood-- especially for bad flicks.
FWIW, Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke is a good read, overlords and all.
Maybe this is really part of a CIA plot to finally do something with all of those underemployed Russian nuclear scientists and engineers, so they won't go build WMDs for rogue nations.
I don't have a copy in front of me, but it reminds me of something from Childhood's End.
Water is good. Diet soda is good-- or at least neutral. Non-diet soda is bad. Why?
Four words: High Fructose Corn Syrup. Most sweetened drinks (and many food items, from catsup to yogurt) are actually sweetened with HFCS rather than regular sugar. This is what makes you fat. Read the label first. Then drink water instead.
Yes, I know; the poster didn't mention soda; I'm assuming that the beer tap isn't actually available at his workplace. Hint to rhuntley12: There's a reason why it's called a "beer gut."
Yeah, so just think how many RFID devices you'll have swallowed after just a few weeks of eating your WalMart-purchased groceries! I wonder if they'll pass on through, or remain in your stomach for seven years like chewing gum. Not only would you be trackable by what you buy, but by what you actually eat! Unless, of course, you microwave everything, which unfortunately rules out fresh fruit...
I stopped playing that game a long time ago, and recently purchased my first laptop-- the very tiny Fujitsu Lifebook P1120, certainly at the opposite end of the scale as the 17" Toshiba. Cool machine, for what I got it for-- i.e., surfing/reading web articles on my sofa, and storing/reading documents for the occasional business trip. I recently flew from Orlando to L.A. (~5 hours), using the P1120 for most of the flight. Battery was still at ~50% by the end. The touchscreen makes this machine very usable.
Oops... this being slashdot, I should mention the obligatory: No, it's not running Linux, at least not yet. This is my first experience owning and using a WinXP machine. It's not bad, once you get it to cease the endless reminders to upgrade this or register that-- and, of course, once you load Mozilla. I'd probably convert it to Linux if a good touchscreen driver and calibration utility became available.
That depends on what sort of software you write. You might want to read the story of the Therac 25. The first time I read it, it gave me nightmares.
--
Hello,
My name is Mike and I am a member of the Executive Response team for TurboTax. I am sorry to learn that you have some concerns about TurboTax and want to thank you for taking time to contact us directly about it. Hearing directly from customers like you is the best way for us to know exactly what you're experiencing so we can work together to get you correct information and the best solution.
Let me share some quick facts with you that I believe will give you the information you need about how our activation codes really work.
TurboTax 2002 includes a product activation process that ensures TurboTax is used in accordance with the TurboTax software license and services agreement.
Product activation ties printing and filing from the TurboTax federal product to a single computer, preventing unlicensed use of the product.
The Macrovision SafeCast® (C-Dilla) product activation technology used by Intuit installs files on your computer when you install TurboTax. These files serve as your product license in addition to managing and protecting that license.
These files are not "SpyWare." They interact only with TurboTax and with each other.
Macrovision SafeCast® (C-Dilla) does not transmit any personally identifiable information to Intuit or any other party. It does not examine, modify, or transmit any information about your computer, your computer's contents, or your activities or behavior. In implementing product activation, ensuring your privacy was a key consideration and continues to be.
Product activation will not prevent you from using your CD-R or CD-RW drives.
You can delete Macrovision SafeCast® (C-Dilla) folders and components associated with TurboTax after you are done with TurboTax. An uninstall utility is available on our support site at http://www.turbotaxsupport.com/default.asp?platfor m=1&DocID=836
I truly hope this response satisfies your concerns. Your confidence in us is important so if you have any additional questions or concerns please send them to me at Mike_support@intuit.com, or you can get additional information from our support site at www.turbotaxsupport.com.
Mike
Executive Response Team
Intuit Inc.
I don't need no stinkin' tablet PC. Give me a teeny-tiny laptop that (a) runs linux, (b) generates sufficiently little heat that I can actually put it on my lap, and (c) has easy and flexible pointing device options.
Otherwise, a fine and insightful article.
"Take us to the landing zone, Hal."
"I'm sorry, Dave; I'm afraid I can't do that."
I would add:
2a) Make sure that the router closet is climate-controlled, unless you intend to test the environmental specs of your network equipment.
That, however, does not mean that he wasn't guilty as sin; only that he can't legally be punished for it. In any event, under no circumstances should he be serving in a senior Pentagon position requiring any level of security clearance.
Or, consider another possibility:
"In other news today, a U.S. scientific mission to search for lunar water deposits revealed that the moon actually has a vast, hollow void in its center, occupying nearly 90 percent of the volume of the moon as a whole. This void is (or was) filled with water. Unfortunately, the hole left in the moon's north pole by the mission's explosive primary payload is allowing the water to rapidly boil off into space. Mission scientists estimate that it will be completely empty within a year.
"Meanwhile, officials at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are said to be studying the feasibility of depositing nuclear waste in the now-vacant interior of the moon. Frightened residents of countries over which the moon passes are reportedly organizing to oppose this effort."
Cities might eventually be designed to support the Segway, or something like it, but it won't happen just because it's a neat technology. Short of a prolonged public crisis, such as a severe oil shortage, it'll take someone with deep pockets, good political connections, and a solid profit motive to make it happen.
This is just a thought, but the Segway pushers in the U.S. might want to ally themselves with bicyclists in advocating expanded lanes for all vehicles in the ~15 mph speed range. (Yes, I know that many cyclists ride faster than 15 mph. So include a passing lane. :-)
Yikes, would that turn all of us Phoenix users into Volvo Driving Soccer Moms?
[Disclaimer: I drive a Volvo 240 wagon. Great for hauling windsurfing gear. Safety is what driver does, not what driver drives.]
I'll second that. I recently purchased three Sun GDM-5410 monitors (21" flat Trinitrons) for $225 from a Sun reseller that was advertising them on eBay. They were about 2.5 years old, off-lease from a Texas Instruments facility. The reseller was close enough to my home for local pick-up, so I saved shipping-- usually the catch to an otherwise good eBay deal on a big monitor.
The same reseller also had some slightly older Sun GDM-5010PT monitors (21" vertically flat Trinitrons), for $125. I'd had one of each model on my desk at work. The 5410 is much sharper, but the 5010 might be good for cheaply outfitting a room for LAN parties, if you were so inclined. (I was happy with the 5010 at work for years, until I saw a 5410.)
Specs on both models are here
Does this remind anyone else of Bush's justification for invading Iraq?
</troll>
I once had a EE professor who explained complex power (i.e., the complex number component of AC power) with a beer analogy:
Complex power is like the head on your beer. You can't do anything useful with it (e.g.: drink it, or use it to power your PS2), but you have to carry it around with you, consuming resources. And, of course, you try to minimize it, where possible.
Worked for me!
And, of course, one reason why they're floundering (aside from astronomical rent) is that you and 49,999 others haven't subscribed yet. It's interesting: About this time last year, when the last batch of Salon-is-dead predictions were making the rounds, I tried to convince several of my friends-- all regular Salon readers-- to subscribe. None of them did, citing exactly the above reasons.
Could it be that the latest round of Salon bashing is intended to bring about this result? I mean, come on... the voices in the traditional media that are salivating at the prospect of Salon's demise aren't exactly impartial.
I know what I'm going to do: take out gift subscriptions for said friends who didn't subscribe last year; maybe they'll get hooked and renew next time around. Risky? Yes, but it could prove to be money well spent-- much more so than the subscription fees for several dead tree publications that I receive but don't have time to read.
--
Why bungee jumpers need more life insurance.
That's a great idea for a followup Apple commercial, but who the #%@* are they going to get to hold a 55in widescreen in their lap on an airline seat, next to MiniMe?
In all seriousness, although the par-baked PowerBook might still work now, I'm guessing that the chance of a latent part failure in the near future has been significantly increased.
Also, "Random Noise" sounds suspiciously like he dumped the ROM contents straight to the DAC. Some 20 years ago, I did exactly that with my Trash80 Color Computer, with similar results.
Spell nostalgia.
Consider Clarke's First Law: "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."
How old are you? ;-)
Aside from the question of technical feasibility, if such a device had been available and used at the gate, it still might not have foiled the Sept. 11 hijackers. Apparently, they had made several trial flights before that date, and were only informed shortly before boarding that this flight was to be the big one. How much more trouble would it have been for them to check in via cell phone, after boarding? That way, there might be no immediately relevant thoughts for a brain wave scanner to pick up.