oniony writes "Ars Technica has a link to a story on new goggles being developed for/by the military. The new device uses satellite imaging and land profiling to build a 3D representation of the world in a soldier's goggles in real-time. This would enable troops to see through sand storms and oil smoke of the kind currently hampering operations in the Gulf. I imagine one could also remove mountains to allow remote viewing of approaching territory."
Now if they make it so the soldiers see a wireframe world, will that mean that US troops will get kicked off battelfield servers for cheating?
Doesn't this have Sally Struthers written all over it?
For example:
Today, I am visiting with GNU/Linux guru Richard M. Stallman. He needs a sponsor in order to be able to afford basic human necessities, like a razor and a haircut. Not to mention, in his part of the world, there is no running water. These GNU/Linux geeks are people too, and they are deserving of our compassion. For just pennies a day, you can make a difference.
Instead of patching the problem, it's advised to......run linux instead. While it may not be more secure inherently, at least you run less risk of being EOLed.
No, those pictures are available to anyone able to type `halabja` into google. Mind you, they`d find out a little bit more about the wonderful US government if they typed in `halabja rumsfeld`...
The Arab world is a fucking rat's nest. The fact that the US didn't kick ass and take names for that has a lot to do with what has happened in the last 25 years -- in 1984, we were an awful lot more concerned with Iran than Iraq. In 1988, Iraq was still building its portfolio, so to speak.
If you look at everything trying to find pure white airy Ivory Snow freshness, you are going to get fucked. Are you suggesting that the US simply walk away from Iraq and hope that Saddam doesn't spread chemical weapons (which he clearly has) or bio weapons? Should we just rely on good 'ol Saddam to do the right thing? Are you really that fucking moronic?
I guess that fewer Iraqis and americans will die if we just let Saddam go. Wasn't it just a few years ago that the leftys were wailing about the sanctions killing 100,000 kids a year? What the hell is the US supposed to do?
Oh wait...I guess the US should walk away and lift the sanctions. Then Saddam can do whatever he wants. I suppose that won't involve killing thousands of people until he dies, and the lets Odai or Qusai take over. They certainly aren't murderous thugs, or anything.
The simplest and straightest way to solve this problem is to cut the Gordian knot and oust Saddam. Granted, in retrospect, maybe the US shouldn't have been playing footsie with him, but this "past guilt" theory of the left just doesn't help to solve today's problems.
Bitch about the war all you want -- I have yet to see a better solution to dealing with Saddam right now, today, with the cards that are on the table. You can't change the past, and any alleged wrongdoing in the past is not a valid basis for precluding action by the US today.
There is only so much data that canbe stuffed through a telephone wire over a circuit-switched connection. People have been promising to speed up dial-up for years, and the story is always that they have a miracle compression system or a proxy system or even predictive proxying. Combinations of all of the above are promised as well.
The fact is that when you pull big data files that are already compressed, you can't do much to improve things. You are stuffing 8 great tomatoes into the itty-bitty can already.
I've been in the ISP business for about 7 years. There is just no miracle cure. Dial up is what it is.
FWIW, I believe it has legs even now. There is a large portion of the population that only wants email and stock quotes. Broadband, while it may be faster, is something that they don't want to fool with. Also, security gets to be an issue with always-on connections. $10-$15 dial up is a good deal for many people. $25.00 AOL is a ripoff.
While I think that a disclosure that a CD is broken when sold is a good idea, labeling is getting out of hand. Between parental control labels, copyright labels, and the small form factors on CD cases, I think that "album art" is dead and gone. That was often one of the cooler parts of buying records.
Yearning for the halcyon days of youth that never were... Call me Pat Buchanan, I guess.
what y'all ALWAYS MiSs in the assessment, is that it's been done without motive of personal gain.
I am not looking for someone to control the idea and cash in on it. I would like to see a free as in freedom version of this for people to use in whatever manner that they choose to use it. Hence my concern about patents and using (standard) protocols rather than proprietary technology to accomplish the building of such a world.
Give the tools to anyone and everyone and see what happens.
The ambition of the There people is evidently much grander than simply being a game. I think that there is a place for creating a virtual space which will draw in people looking for a good way to communicate and engage in meetings that would otherwise have to take place in meat space.
I've played text-based muds and online games, and the potential for other apps has always made me interested -- rules for interaction and "laws" are really the primary problems, as the many posts here indicate already.
A few years ago, I figured that it would be just as easy to take something like an existing game environment, such as Quake, and mod it sufficiently to remove things like weapons and the like. Just put together a space where people can talk and interact with more than just text or voice.
I think that something of that nature is inevitable and somebody will make it work. I think that the way it will have to be set up is as a set of protocols rather than as a unified metaverse. Each person with a server (could be distributed like Napster) could join his/her world to whole with reciprocal agreements to determine where and with whom you connect your space. Agreements could be included in client programs and the servers about who can come in or go out. Other people have surely thought of these things already -- I'm sure that there are a million ways to do this.
This is an idea that will come. Patents will come. I think an effort to try to lay the groundwork for keeping the technologies open for use ought to be going on right now, if it isn't too late.
This leads me to an interesting question -- what percentage of people use home computers for "work" and what percentage use them as gaming platforms?
This isn't all yes or all no, but I would bet that the bulk of people use them for games most of the time. Linux will not be a widespread consumer phenomenon as a desktop item (IMHO only) without broad game support and shelf space for said games at retailers.
Maybe an idea would be a linux-based game console which would let you run games on the box and on linux-based machines. Think someone like HP might be interested?
I've been using my Palm IIIxe with a QCP-2760. The old "Wireless Web". 14.4 connection (~1KB/sec), and it takes at least 5 seconds to initiate a data call, plus you have to connect the cables between the Palm and the phone.
The thing I like about the sprint pcs module (besides integration with the PDA for calling) is that you get the web with no cables -- just stick the module in and *ploink* you're ready to go. There are call setup anc tear downs (not "always on") but this doesn't bug me.
If it were built into the phone, it might help, but even then, surfing on a 160x160 screen is, well, limiting. And yes, I'm using Blazer.
Never said blazer on a PDA is great -- it just kicks the shit out of a cell phone screen (i.e you can acutally use it for some tasks).
As the article notes, it is really 2.5G service. Nevertheless, I think the author's experience mirrors mine in a lot of ways.
1. SMS is way overrated. It has its place, but given the tariffs in the US, it will never be a big deal. Calling is just too cheap.
2. Data interfaces suck on phones. Everyone keeps predicting the demise of PDAs, but my Handspring Visor Neo with the Sprint PCS module (available for $20) kills any "phone" out there. Go to a bigger (compared to a phone) Treo (for an arm and a leg), and the web is usable.
3. Phones need a better way to get data in and out. At a minimum, maybe a USB cable to synch data from a desktop/laptop. Again, my Visor/PCS phone rules here. I can't believe the Samsung phone inthe review wastes all the features by lacking that simple item. I hadn't considered "how the features work" when I looked at that phone a few months ago -- gotta add that criteria to my list. I do not want to enter several hundred addresses on a fricking phone keypad.
4. What I want in a phone/pda/service plan are the following:
a. desktop synch b. a decent, usable screen/browser c. a smallish form factor (less than my currrent clunky rig, but super-duper small isn't a big deal to me) d. palm-like features (handwriting recognition, scheduler, phonebook, to-do list) e. lots of third party developers and apps f. total cost $100 g. good coverage (very important) h. 1 meg/day of transfer for data i. under $50/mo. j. 250 primetime minutes, free weekends/nights
I have compromised on some of those things, but I still haven't found everything I want in my market. Video phones don't interest me. Ditto cameras and MP3 players. I want my phone and PDA to converge for basic web/mail/phone capabilities in one usable, comfortable package for a reasonable price.
If nobody is willing or able to say what's new in RedHat 9, that's fine. No upgrading will be done here.
osnews.com has a fairly comprehensive review of RH 9.0 posted -- it is referenced on/. in a review of Mandrake 9.1. The review should answer your questions. It isn't list-filled with extra features, but it does dicuss changes/additions from RH 8.0.
My general impression is that this is an incremental version, and not a ground-breaking version.
Build your own server distro and you'll never have to worry who goes down the tubes!
The question I get into sometimes is "what businesses is my business in?" I don't want to be in the business of building my own distro. I will check the link, but the thing is that I am involved in a number of fairly major service businesses, none of which is selling linux distributions. I understand your DIY point, but I'd really rather have someone else put together the various software packages for the servers and the desktops.
Vendors are nice when they are (1) stable and (2) they give you value for the money (which to me means giving me savings over a DIY method).
The linuxfromscratch.org site is cool, and I think that it may be great idea for building specialized boxen, such as a DNS server or an SMTP box -- the fewer services installed and/or running, the less to go wrong, from a misconfiguration or a security standpoint. For desktops, it may not be the way to go, although there is a certain attraction there, too, perhaps.
Hm. Thanks for the link. Now let me figure out what I want to do with it. The more I think about this, the more I think I like the idea.
Intel and AMD are options that I considered on the last several machines that I have bought or built for my businesses. If Intel gets around to implementing technology to limit what I can do with the processors I might buy from them, the chances that the Intel option will win when I make purchasing decisions will gradually approach nil.
There is a difference between patenting and implementing technology. Perhaps Intel will do only the former and skip the latter. Somehow, I am not convinced that will be the case.
Throw in the apparent decision on Intel to wait on 64 bit processors, and I am starting to wonder whether Intel really wants my business.
Mandrake was the first distro I ran, and I got no end of shit for that from some hardcore linux people. That stigma seems to have moderated. I have tried Mandrake versions 7.1, 7.2, 8.0, and I might futz around with 9.1. The thing is that I see RedHat as being around for the long haul, and I am not so sure about Mandrake. I'm using RedHat in production servers as I write this, but I don't think I'd be comfortable doing the same with Mandrake.
To some extent, I realize that I am falling victim to "everyone goes where everyone is" thinking rather than looking at underlying technical issues, but it really sucks when a vendor that you rely on for critical stuff goes belly-up on you. I am not trying to flame Mandrake -- I have used and I like their stuff. I am just concerned about their finances and whether they will be there for me in five or ten years.
It gets better. That water, per the legal agreements, belongs to Colorado. We are finally looking to take it back. California is about to have a reality slap, soon.
Range war over water rights!
Next on "Countdown California: California asks Nevada for overfly rights...chemical weapons use a possibility if Californian troops cross the "red line" established at a fifty mile radius from Durango...French government officials decry war and surrender...Lotus Leaf Eater troops loyal to California governor Gray Davis vow to exterminate alpine troops infiltrating the Sierra Nevada range...Arizona troops to enter southern border of Colorado to stem flood of refugees in SUVs coming from Vail. Join ex-general Barry McCaffrey as he discusses possible military action.
Actually, one thing I left out of my water joke is a serious point -- a ton of water goes to California to raise produce. That water is sent to farmers at a rate which is greatly reduced compared to the residential water rate. That seems unfair, except to the limited extent that preserving farmland in CA may reduce the demand to develop that farmland as residential real estate.
In any case, it seems funny that water should be sent to farmers for a song while consumers get hosed. Plus, if we can kick agriculture out of the west and back to Central America where it belongs, there is a legitimate possibility that fewer illegal immigrants might cross over and those that do cross over will be less likely to be the seasonal, temporary types.
There you have it: water policy causes insecure borders, and maybe terrorism! Omigod! Eat strawberries and support terrorism!
The thing is, that is only half a joke on my part.
The second edition is more of the same -- the book is bigger, fatter, and covers Jaguar. It was published in October 2002, so it's not quite up to the minute, but it's certainly not outdated yet. I shelled out another twenty bucks when I first saw it, and I don't regret it -- the only major complaint I'd had about the first edition was that its usefulness was somewhat impaired when 10.2 came out. It's possible I'll feel the same way about the second edition when faced with 10.3 -- but maybe Pogue will write another book.
This is a great reason to have open books that can be updated. The problems with printing said open books are obvious, but for simple reference purposes, this is an idea whose time has come. I think there was a story here recently about O'Reilly doing something like this. Good luck to them -- I am personally much more likely to buy/use a book that I know will have a longer shelf life than a head of lettuce.
Is raw processing power the only consideration? Granted, an editor with more time is more productive. There are other cosiderations, however.
In any case, the article referenced didn't exactly state what effect this pronouncement (of sorts) would have on Adobe's products. I don't think that they'll bag their Apple lines, but is Adobe going to use this to nudge their customers onto an platform? Somehow, I just don't see that happening.
pumping, processing and discharging a volume of water equal to the flow of the Colorado River into the Pacific Ocean
Is there any water left anymore in the Colorado by the time it hits the ocean? I was under the impression that the Colorado River flowed into toilets, mostly.
I'm just interested in the synopsis of the updates though, which should only be a few K at most, not in downloading several hundred megabytes and trying to figure it out.
The list of updated features is the new feature, and to get the features you need to update. Duh. This is GNU/Linux, remember? Everything is recursive.
I wasn't trying for a one-for-one recreation of the South Park movie joke. It's just a fucking joke. Lighten up, and take the cruise missile out of your ass.
I think the essential elements of the humor are:
(1) Saddam being made into a submissive "catcher" after his world-wide bullying. I call that "irony".
(2) Bush being made into a buggerer in obvious contradiction of his, IMHO, too-oft professed faith (I think faith should be more private and not be used as a political tool). I call that "irony".
(3) I needed a vehicle to deliver the punch line of "Who's your Bagh-daddy?" in a way that made some sense given the current state of affairs. I call that a "play on words".
(4) The South Park movie reference gives a convenient and funny way to visualize this, with Saddam turned into (again) an ironic pussy and Bush into (again) an ironic, sex-crazed hyperactive buggerer.
Obviously, once explained, humor loses its magic. Sorry that you missed the joke the first time around. It was kind of funny, and whether you are for or against the war, humor will help to keep us all going in the coming days.
I was not trying to state that Bush is evil or more evil than Satan or Saddam. You came to that conclusion on your own. Is it because you have doubts? (Couldn't resist the last dig. Mod -1: Flamebait).
FWIW, I don't have any doubts - I think Bush is doing absolutely the right thing for Bush to be doing right now. He's fucking Saddam in the ass. (That's another joke.)
Scene from the next South Park movie: ======= GW: Hey Saddam! Let's fuck! SH: C'mon, W., don't you care about my feelings? GW: Shut up, bitch! Roll over! Who's your Bagh-Daddy? =======
Slashdot Mirror
oniony writes "Ars Technica has a link to a story on new goggles being developed for/by the military. The new device uses satellite imaging and land profiling to build a 3D representation of the world in a soldier's goggles in real-time. This would enable troops to see through sand storms and oil smoke of the kind currently hampering operations in the Gulf. I imagine one could also remove mountains to allow remote viewing of approaching territory."
Now if they make it so the soldiers see a wireframe world, will that mean that US troops will get kicked off battelfield servers for cheating?
GF
Shuttle Data Recorder May be Key to Accident
Well, the solution is simple -- remove the data recorder from the remaining shuttles, and *presto* exploding shuttle problem solved.
GF.
Doesn't this have Sally Struthers written all over it?
For example:
Today, I am visiting with GNU/Linux guru Richard M. Stallman. He needs a sponsor in order to be able to afford basic human necessities, like a razor and a haircut. Not to mention, in his part of the world, there is no running water. These GNU/Linux geeks are people too, and they are deserving of our compassion. For just pennies a day, you can make a difference.
GF.
Instead of patching the problem, it's advised to... ...run linux instead. While it may not be more secure inherently, at least you run less risk of being EOLed.
GF.
I hate those people who have installed Hand-Eye Coordination v. 1.4. I am stuck with a crappy alpha that barely works. Something needs to be done!
GF.
No, those pictures are available to anyone able to type `halabja` into google. Mind you, they`d find out a little bit more about the wonderful US government if they typed in `halabja rumsfeld`...
The Arab world is a fucking rat's nest. The fact that the US didn't kick ass and take names for that has a lot to do with what has happened in the last 25 years -- in 1984, we were an awful lot more concerned with Iran than Iraq. In 1988, Iraq was still building its portfolio, so to speak.
If you look at everything trying to find pure white airy Ivory Snow freshness, you are going to get fucked. Are you suggesting that the US simply walk away from Iraq and hope that Saddam doesn't spread chemical weapons (which he clearly has) or bio weapons? Should we just rely on good 'ol Saddam to do the right thing? Are you really that fucking moronic?
I guess that fewer Iraqis and americans will die if we just let Saddam go. Wasn't it just a few years ago that the leftys were wailing about the sanctions killing 100,000 kids a year? What the hell is the US supposed to do?
Oh wait...I guess the US should walk away and lift the sanctions. Then Saddam can do whatever he wants. I suppose that won't involve killing thousands of people until he dies, and the lets Odai or Qusai take over. They certainly aren't murderous thugs, or anything.
The simplest and straightest way to solve this problem is to cut the Gordian knot and oust Saddam. Granted, in retrospect, maybe the US shouldn't have been playing footsie with him, but this "past guilt" theory of the left just doesn't help to solve today's problems.
Bitch about the war all you want -- I have yet to see a better solution to dealing with Saddam right now, today, with the cards that are on the table. You can't change the past, and any alleged wrongdoing in the past is not a valid basis for precluding action by the US today.
There is only so much data that canbe stuffed through a telephone wire over a circuit-switched connection. People have been promising to speed up dial-up for years, and the story is always that they have a miracle compression system or a proxy system or even predictive proxying. Combinations of all of the above are promised as well.
The fact is that when you pull big data files that are already compressed, you can't do much to improve things. You are stuffing 8 great tomatoes into the itty-bitty can already.
I've been in the ISP business for about 7 years. There is just no miracle cure. Dial up is what it is.
FWIW, I believe it has legs even now. There is a large portion of the population that only wants email and stock quotes. Broadband, while it may be faster, is something that they don't want to fool with. Also, security gets to be an issue with always-on connections. $10-$15 dial up is a good deal for many people. $25.00 AOL is a ripoff.
GF.
While I think that a disclosure that a CD is broken when sold is a good idea, labeling is getting out of hand. Between parental control labels, copyright labels, and the small form factors on CD cases, I think that "album art" is dead and gone. That was often one of the cooler parts of buying records.
Yearning for the halcyon days of youth that never were... Call me Pat Buchanan, I guess.
GF.
what y'all ALWAYS MiSs in the assessment, is that it's been done without motive of personal gain.
I am not looking for someone to control the idea and cash in on it. I would like to see a free as in freedom version of this for people to use in whatever manner that they choose to use it. Hence my concern about patents and using (standard) protocols rather than proprietary technology to accomplish the building of such a world.
Give the tools to anyone and everyone and see what happens.
GF.
The ambition of the There people is evidently much grander than simply being a game. I think that there is a place for creating a virtual space which will draw in people looking for a good way to communicate and engage in meetings that would otherwise have to take place in meat space.
I've played text-based muds and online games, and the potential for other apps has always made me interested -- rules for interaction and "laws" are really the primary problems, as the many posts here indicate already.
A few years ago, I figured that it would be just as easy to take something like an existing game environment, such as Quake, and mod it sufficiently to remove things like weapons and the like. Just put together a space where people can talk and interact with more than just text or voice.
I think that something of that nature is inevitable and somebody will make it work. I think that the way it will have to be set up is as a set of protocols rather than as a unified metaverse. Each person with a server (could be distributed like Napster) could join his/her world to whole with reciprocal agreements to determine where and with whom you connect your space. Agreements could be included in client programs and the servers about who can come in or go out. Other people have surely thought of these things already -- I'm sure that there are a million ways to do this.
This is an idea that will come. Patents will come. I think an effort to try to lay the groundwork for keeping the technologies open for use ought to be going on right now, if it isn't too late.
GF.
This leads me to an interesting question -- what percentage of people use home computers for "work" and what percentage use them as gaming platforms?
This isn't all yes or all no, but I would bet that the bulk of people use them for games most of the time. Linux will not be a widespread consumer phenomenon as a desktop item (IMHO only) without broad game support and shelf space for said games at retailers.
Maybe an idea would be a linux-based game console which would let you run games on the box and on linux-based machines. Think someone like HP might be interested?
GF
I've been using my Palm IIIxe with a QCP-2760. The old "Wireless Web". 14.4 connection (~1KB/sec), and it takes at least 5 seconds to initiate a data call, plus you have to connect the cables between the Palm and the phone.
The thing I like about the sprint pcs module (besides integration with the PDA for calling) is that you get the web with no cables -- just stick the module in and *ploink* you're ready to go. There are call setup anc tear downs (not "always on") but this doesn't bug me.
If it were built into the phone, it might help, but even then, surfing on a 160x160 screen is, well, limiting. And yes, I'm using Blazer.
Never said blazer on a PDA is great -- it just kicks the shit out of a cell phone screen (i.e you can acutally use it for some tasks).
GF.
As the article notes, it is really 2.5G service. Nevertheless, I think the author's experience mirrors mine in a lot of ways.
1. SMS is way overrated. It has its place, but given the tariffs in the US, it will never be a big deal. Calling is just too cheap.
2. Data interfaces suck on phones. Everyone keeps predicting the demise of PDAs, but my Handspring Visor Neo with the Sprint PCS module (available for $20) kills any "phone" out there. Go to a bigger (compared to a phone) Treo (for an arm and a leg), and the web is usable.
3. Phones need a better way to get data in and out. At a minimum, maybe a USB cable to synch data from a desktop/laptop. Again, my Visor/PCS phone rules here. I can't believe the Samsung phone inthe review wastes all the features by lacking that simple item. I hadn't considered "how the features work" when I looked at that phone a few months ago -- gotta add that criteria to my list. I do not want to enter several hundred addresses on a fricking phone keypad.
4. What I want in a phone/pda/service plan are the following:
a. desktop synch
b. a decent, usable screen/browser
c. a smallish form factor (less than my currrent clunky rig, but super-duper small isn't a big deal to me)
d. palm-like features (handwriting recognition, scheduler, phonebook, to-do list)
e. lots of third party developers and apps
f. total cost $100
g. good coverage (very important)
h. 1 meg/day of transfer for data
i. under $50/mo.
j. 250 primetime minutes, free weekends/nights
I have compromised on some of those things, but I still haven't found everything I want in my market. Video phones don't interest me. Ditto cameras and MP3 players. I want my phone and PDA to converge for basic web/mail/phone capabilities in one usable, comfortable package for a reasonable price.
If nobody is willing or able to say what's new in RedHat 9, that's fine. No upgrading will be done here.
/. in a review of Mandrake 9.1. The review should answer your questions. It isn't list-filled with extra features, but it does dicuss changes/additions from RH 8.0.
osnews.com has a fairly comprehensive review of RH 9.0 posted -- it is referenced on
My general impression is that this is an incremental version, and not a ground-breaking version.
GF.
Build your own server distro and you'll never have to worry who goes down the tubes!
The question I get into sometimes is "what businesses is my business in?" I don't want to be in the business of building my own distro. I will check the link, but the thing is that I am involved in a number of fairly major service businesses, none of which is selling linux distributions. I understand your DIY point, but I'd really rather have someone else put together the various software packages for the servers and the desktops.
Vendors are nice when they are (1) stable and (2) they give you value for the money (which to me means giving me savings over a DIY method).
The linuxfromscratch.org site is cool, and I think that it may be great idea for building specialized boxen, such as a DNS server or an SMTP box -- the fewer services installed and/or running, the less to go wrong, from a misconfiguration or a security standpoint. For desktops, it may not be the way to go, although there is a certain attraction there, too, perhaps.
Hm. Thanks for the link. Now let me figure out what I want to do with it. The more I think about this, the more I think I like the idea.
GF.
Intel and AMD are options that I considered on the last several machines that I have bought or built for my businesses. If Intel gets around to implementing technology to limit what I can do with the processors I might buy from them, the chances that the Intel option will win when I make purchasing decisions will gradually approach nil.
There is a difference between patenting and implementing technology. Perhaps Intel will do only the former and skip the latter. Somehow, I am not convinced that will be the case.
Throw in the apparent decision on Intel to wait on 64 bit processors, and I am starting to wonder whether Intel really wants my business.
GF.
Mandrake was the first distro I ran, and I got no end of shit for that from some hardcore linux people. That stigma seems to have moderated. I have tried Mandrake versions 7.1, 7.2, 8.0, and I might futz around with 9.1. The thing is that I see RedHat as being around for the long haul, and I am not so sure about Mandrake. I'm using RedHat in production servers as I write this, but I don't think I'd be comfortable doing the same with Mandrake.
To some extent, I realize that I am falling victim to "everyone goes where everyone is" thinking rather than looking at underlying technical issues, but it really sucks when a vendor that you rely on for critical stuff goes belly-up on you. I am not trying to flame Mandrake -- I have used and I like their stuff. I am just concerned about their finances and whether they will be there for me in five or ten years.
GF.
It gets better. That water, per the legal agreements, belongs to Colorado. We are finally looking to take it back. California is about to have a reality slap, soon.
Range war over water rights!
Next on "Countdown California: California asks Nevada for overfly rights...chemical weapons use a possibility if Californian troops cross the "red line" established at a fifty mile radius from Durango...French government officials decry war and surrender...Lotus Leaf Eater troops loyal to California governor Gray Davis vow to exterminate alpine troops infiltrating the Sierra Nevada range...Arizona troops to enter southern border of Colorado to stem flood of refugees in SUVs coming from Vail. Join ex-general Barry McCaffrey as he discusses possible military action.
GF.
Actually, one thing I left out of my water joke is a serious point -- a ton of water goes to California to raise produce. That water is sent to farmers at a rate which is greatly reduced compared to the residential water rate. That seems unfair, except to the limited extent that preserving farmland in CA may reduce the demand to develop that farmland as residential real estate.
In any case, it seems funny that water should be sent to farmers for a song while consumers get hosed. Plus, if we can kick agriculture out of the west and back to Central America where it belongs, there is a legitimate possibility that fewer illegal immigrants might cross over and those that do cross over will be less likely to be the seasonal, temporary types.
There you have it: water policy causes insecure borders, and maybe terrorism! Omigod! Eat strawberries and support terrorism!
The thing is, that is only half a joke on my part.
GF.
The second edition is more of the same -- the book is bigger, fatter, and covers Jaguar. It was published in October 2002, so it's not quite up to the minute, but it's certainly not outdated yet. I shelled out another twenty bucks when I first saw it, and I don't regret it -- the only major complaint I'd had about the first edition was that its usefulness was somewhat impaired when 10.2 came out. It's possible I'll feel the same way about the second edition when faced with 10.3 -- but maybe Pogue will write another book.
This is a great reason to have open books that can be updated. The problems with printing said open books are obvious, but for simple reference purposes, this is an idea whose time has come. I think there was a story here recently about O'Reilly doing something like this. Good luck to them -- I am personally much more likely to buy/use a book that I know will have a longer shelf life than a head of lettuce.
GF.
Is raw processing power the only consideration? Granted, an editor with more time is more productive. There are other cosiderations, however.
In any case, the article referenced didn't exactly state what effect this pronouncement (of sorts) would have on Adobe's products. I don't think that they'll bag their Apple lines, but is Adobe going to use this to nudge their customers onto an platform? Somehow, I just don't see that happening.
GF
pumping, processing and discharging a volume of water equal to the flow of the Colorado River into the Pacific Ocean
Is there any water left anymore in the Colorado by the time it hits the ocean? I was under the impression that the Colorado River flowed into toilets, mostly.
GF
I'm just interested in the synopsis of the updates though, which should only be a few K at most, not in downloading several hundred megabytes and trying to figure it out.
The list of updated features is the new feature, and to get the features you need to update. Duh. This is GNU/Linux, remember? Everything is recursive.
GF.
Asshole:
I wasn't trying for a one-for-one recreation of the South Park movie joke. It's just a fucking joke. Lighten up, and take the cruise missile out of your ass.
I think the essential elements of the humor are:
(1) Saddam being made into a submissive "catcher" after his world-wide bullying. I call that "irony".
(2) Bush being made into a buggerer in obvious contradiction of his, IMHO, too-oft professed faith (I think faith should be more private and not be used as a political tool). I call that "irony".
(3) I needed a vehicle to deliver the punch line of "Who's your Bagh-daddy?" in a way that made some sense given the current state of affairs. I call that a "play on words".
(4) The South Park movie reference gives a convenient and funny way to visualize this, with Saddam turned into (again) an ironic pussy and Bush into (again) an ironic, sex-crazed hyperactive buggerer.
Obviously, once explained, humor loses its magic. Sorry that you missed the joke the first time around. It was kind of funny, and whether you are for or against the war, humor will help to keep us all going in the coming days.
I was not trying to state that Bush is evil or more evil than Satan or Saddam. You came to that conclusion on your own. Is it because you have doubts? (Couldn't resist the last dig. Mod -1: Flamebait).
FWIW, I don't have any doubts - I think Bush is doing absolutely the right thing for Bush to be doing right now. He's fucking Saddam in the ass. (That's another joke.)
GF.
Scene from the next South Park movie:
=======
GW: Hey Saddam! Let's fuck!
SH: C'mon, W., don't you care about my feelings?
GW: Shut up, bitch! Roll over! Who's your Bagh-Daddy?
=======
GF.