You mean eh, don't you? Not much of a cana-coinnoiseur, eh? Maybe all you need on a cool October day like today is to throw on a nice warm bunnyhug and have a slice of Saskatoon berry pie. Ohhhhh yeaaah. Eh.
Funny... but wrong. I do hope he's joking about the second law of thermodynamics meaning that evolution can only degrade a system. The problem being, of course, that the earth isn't a closed system. Simply add in the sun, constantly bombarding us with an endless stream of all the entropy we could ever want, and wow... looks like evolution can work after all. I just like pointing out the obvious.
Now for the not-so-obvious: I've actually observed the effects of this experiment (along with a new result which I'm not sure the experiment confirmed) while out for a walk with my girlfriend at dusk. I pointed out to her that it was too dark to tell what colour our popsicles were - bright pink in the darkness kinda looked dull-orangy to me. She pointed out that it was clearly bright pink. She's clearly more sensitive to color in low light.
And now the interesting part: She's LESS sensitive to intensity. I can dinstinguish shapes in the darkness long after she's gone blind.
My theory: differing ratios (or quantities) of cones/rods.
Oh, and dude, don't assume taxpayers pay for all research. Probably this research - what company would care about this - but not all research.
I think maybe the little blurb for this one is misleading. It makes it sound like she was named president in an effort to get more women involved in the MIT community, as opposed to because she was the best candidate. Not that I read the article, of course - it's the wording of the blurb that I find unfortunate.
And let's not forget Soylent Green! Classic...
One of my fav. moments from Sierra's Space Quest series was when you run across a "Mr. Soylent" instant noodle dispenser. Brilliant!
Red Dwarf GOOD! Don't forget H2G2, too! They should really think about releasing these in conjunction. Bloody shame they can't seem to find funding for Red Dwarf....
Point taken - a big part of the discussion would certainly be about getting more money (and freedom) for science. Another big part of it, I think, would have to center around demonstrating (as humorously as possible) excactly how uninformed, uneducated, and underintelligent Bush is.
The word Science can represent the "focus group" that you're talking about - mostly in the form of government-funded research, in this case - but it can also represent a process by which we grow our understanding of the universe. And it is in this second regard that Bush is hugely inadequate, and has set back mankind by years (decades?) by making uninformed decisions that have affected the scientific community negatively.
Isn't it, that the author of Last Chance to See still has his best work ignored, and that Hollywood and the BBC waited until his death to bring to life the things he'd been pushing for for years?
Not to sound totally depressingly pessimistic or anything, but rich, famous and loved as he was, DNA got shafted by the publishing institution. Let this be a lesson to you, budding artists! Don't publish!
Until you've read Last Chance to See, you don't really know Douglas Adams. I think it's his best book, and he agreed. It's brilliant. Sadly, it's often overlooked. It you've managed to miss it (somewhat forgivable, given how poorly marketed it is/was), by all means go grab a copy!
This is an outrage - a Robot Hall of Fame, and no mention of Marvin the Paranoid Android? This really sends a chill down all the diodes on my left side....
Sometimes I worry that Slashdot has lost its way. For a site meant for Geeks, it sometimes seems to be lacking in the "hard stuff", if you get my drift. Heck, just read the first few comments for this story: "This is too hard" "My brain's going to explode"... "Whine whine whine".
Stories like this renew my faith in my fellow geek. Thank you timothy!
This was a couple years back, and I never put the plans online, but the basic premise was:
1) Move an aluminum plate along one horizontal axis by drilling perforations along its edges - the perforations mate to the tractor feed spools of one printer's paper feed bits.
2) You need the print head assembly (actually the bits that move the print head back and forth) from a fairly a bulky printer (daisywheel in my case) for the next axis, which also moves horizontally, though of course orthogonal to the first. It needs to be bulky because mounted to this axis is not only the dremel, but also the final, vertical axis. This axis is mounted a fair height above the aluminum plate.
3) You need a fairly lightweight print head assembly for this last part, mounted vertically on the print head of the previous axis. Mounted to the print head of this final axis is the dremel, with an extension so it can reach the plate. Mounting the dremel was the hardest part, as I needed to add a counterweight to help out the stepper motors. The counterweight was a nasty hack - string running up around a conduit in the ceiling, loaded down with a tub of coins!
Okay, so they weren't all dot matrix printers (one daisywheel), and yes a soldering iron would have worked for styrofoam, but I did end up carving a block of balsawood into a pretty fair likeness of a pyramid at one point. It just took way too long. My neatest styrofoam piece was a Pascal's triangle (down to 3 iterations), nicely tapered on it's edges.
It was a great project, though I left it behind in my recent move to Montreal. Ironically, the whole reason I did it was to get into PIC programming (to interface with a PC for control, in this case), but I ended up concentrating on the mechanical issues, which were much more challenging to me.
This was a couple years back, and I never put the plans online, but the basic premise was:
1) Move an aluminum plate along one horizontal axis by drilling perforations along its edges - the perforations mate to the tractor feed spools of one printer's paper feed bits.
2) You need the print head assembly (actually the bits that move the print head back and forth) from a fairly a bulky printer (daisywheel in my case) for the next axis, which also moves horizontally, though of course orthogonal to the first. It needs to be bulky because mounted to this axis is not only the dremel, but also the final, vertical axis. This axis is mounted a fair height above the aluminum plate.
3) You need a fairly lightweight print head assembly for this last part, mounted vertically on the print head of the previous axis. Mounted to the print head of this final axis is the dremel, with an extension so it can reach the plate. Mounting the dremel was the hardest part, as I needed to add a counterweight to help out the stepper motors. The counterweight was a nasty hack - string running up around a conduit in the ceiling, loaded down with a tub of coins!
Okay, so they weren't all dot matrix printers (one daisywheel), and yes a soldering iron would have worked for styrofoam, but I did end up carving a block of balsawood into a pretty fair likeness of a pyramid at one point. It just took way too long. My neatest styrofoam piece was a Pascal's triangle (down to 3 iterations), nicely tapered on it's edges.
It was a great project, though I left it behind in my recent move to Montreal. Ironically, the whole reason I did it was to get into PIC programming (to interface with a PC for control, in this case), but I ended up concentrating on the mechanical issues, which were much more challenging to me.
3 old dot matrix printers and a dremel become a 3D rapid prototyping machine that can carve a 3D relief into styrofoam (or anything else, if you've got the patience to let it run that slowly...)
It doesn't matter how efficient the power transfer is - all of the energy eventually finds itself getting converted to heat. This is a very, very, very bad idea, as we've already got a problem with global warming. Adding more energy to the system will only make things worse.
Incidentally, just so there's no confusion about the overall meaning of the first sentence:
The inevitability of its doom is as apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being, thus I redesigned it based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature.
As it stands, this sentence means that (the inevitability) is as apparent to him as (some consequence of human imperfection). Note that which consequence he's talking about is never identified, and so the sentence makes more sense if you change it to
The inevitability of its doom is as apparent to me now as the imperfection inherent in every human being...
in which case the inevitibility is as apparent as a specific thing: the imperfection inherent in every human being. Alternatively, one might use
The inevitability of its doom is apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being...
in which case the inevitibility of its doom is apparent because of the imperfection inherent in every human being.
I am of course being way too pedantic for nothing, but hey, I expect that if they're going to try to be fancy, they should at least be correct, if not eloquent. They achieved neither.
1. Two tricks to prove to yourself this is indeed improper grammar. First, try using parentheses around ideas:
(The inevitability of its doom) is as apparent to me now as (a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being)...
It's clear that the second parenthetical statement doesn't hold on its own - it needs the AS in it. The second method is even better: replace "as a consequence of" with it's synonym, "because".
The inevitability of its doom is as apparent to me now because of the imperfection inherent in every human being...
Here we see that the comparison "as apparent" requires as "as" and so does the "as a consequence" - the "as" is used in two roles in a way which isn't allowed in English grammar.
Oh bravo. I'm going to go for a quick drive to spend MORE money on a shitty movie, instead of looking up the transcript on the net for free.
FYI, I understood the "sceen" just fine, thanks. The problem is that it sounds like a 15-year old wrote it, and used his mommy's thesaurus to make it sound fancy. The grammar isn't even correct. If your undoubtedly astronomical IQ is any indication of your ability for critical thought, you might notice that The Architect is supposed to be a machine, and should therefore have perfect, if systematic, grammar. He does not.
What if you're in the percentile that recognizes that what The Architect says has very little content for its verbosity. Look it up online and take a look for yourself. It doesn't even bother with correct grammar. It sounds like a 15-year old wrote it and used a thesaurus to try to make it sound impressive.
The inevitability of its doom is as apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being...
They should have thrown out the first as, and made this sentence correct.
The function of the One is now to return to the source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry, reinserting the prime program.
Does this even make sense?!
Apropos, she entered the matrix to save your life at the cost of her own.
Good misuse of French. It means "about". "About, she entered the matrix...". Hmm. Maybe it was a 14-year old.
I haven't seen Revolutions yet, but I'm guessing the apparent depth of the first movie was a fluke, and anything you get out of the second and third are more a tribute to your own creativity and intellect than to that of the Wachowski brothers.
Slashdot Mirror
You mean eh, don't you? Not much of a cana-coinnoiseur, eh? Maybe all you need on a cool October day like today is to throw on a nice warm bunnyhug and have a slice of Saskatoon berry pie. Ohhhhh yeaaah. Eh.
Now for the not-so-obvious: I've actually observed the effects of this experiment (along with a new result which I'm not sure the experiment confirmed) while out for a walk with my girlfriend at dusk. I pointed out to her that it was too dark to tell what colour our popsicles were - bright pink in the darkness kinda looked dull-orangy to me. She pointed out that it was clearly bright pink. She's clearly more sensitive to color in low light.
And now the interesting part: She's LESS sensitive to intensity. I can dinstinguish shapes in the darkness long after she's gone blind.
My theory: differing ratios (or quantities) of cones/rods.
Oh, and dude, don't assume taxpayers pay for all research. Probably this research - what company would care about this - but not all research.
I think maybe the little blurb for this one is misleading. It makes it sound like she was named president in an effort to get more women involved in the MIT community, as opposed to because she was the best candidate. Not that I read the article, of course - it's the wording of the blurb that I find unfortunate.
And let's not forget Soylent Green! Classic... One of my fav. moments from Sierra's Space Quest series was when you run across a "Mr. Soylent" instant noodle dispenser. Brilliant!
Red Dwarf GOOD! Don't forget H2G2, too! They should really think about releasing these in conjunction. Bloody shame they can't seem to find funding for Red Dwarf....
Try New York.
The word Science can represent the "focus group" that you're talking about - mostly in the form of government-funded research, in this case - but it can also represent a process by which we grow our understanding of the universe. And it is in this second regard that Bush is hugely inadequate, and has set back mankind by years (decades?) by making uninformed decisions that have affected the scientific community negatively.
Not to sound totally depressingly pessimistic or anything, but rich, famous and loved as he was, DNA got shafted by the publishing institution. Let this be a lesson to you, budding artists! Don't publish!
Until you've read Last Chance to See, you don't really know Douglas Adams. I think it's his best book, and he agreed. It's brilliant. Sadly, it's often overlooked. It you've managed to miss it (somewhat forgivable, given how poorly marketed it is/was), by all means go grab a copy!
Slashdotters unite: nominate Marvin!
I stand corrected... and ever so slightly more educated.
which was then the farthest planet from the Sun.
Regardless of how you define it, the farthest planet from the sun has not changed in the last 21 years.
Stories like this renew my faith in my fellow geek. Thank you timothy!
Personally I think it'll be on a Tuesday. Never could get the hang of Tuesdays...
Silly rabbit, 42% is The Answer! It's the % we'd been missing all along...
Dammit - you stole my witty response! Well, except the bit about the Keebler Elf B-Trees. That's just silly.
This was a couple years back, and I never put the plans online, but the basic premise was:
1) Move an aluminum plate along one horizontal axis by drilling perforations along its edges - the perforations mate to the tractor feed spools of one printer's paper feed bits.
2) You need the print head assembly (actually the bits that move the print head back and forth) from a fairly a bulky printer (daisywheel in my case) for the next axis, which also moves horizontally, though of course orthogonal to the first. It needs to be bulky because mounted to this axis is not only the dremel, but also the final, vertical axis. This axis is mounted a fair height above the aluminum plate.
3) You need a fairly lightweight print head assembly for this last part, mounted vertically on the print head of the previous axis. Mounted to the print head of this final axis is the dremel, with an extension so it can reach the plate. Mounting the dremel was the hardest part, as I needed to add a counterweight to help out the stepper motors. The counterweight was a nasty hack - string running up around a conduit in the ceiling, loaded down with a tub of coins!
Okay, so they weren't all dot matrix printers (one daisywheel), and yes a soldering iron would have worked for styrofoam, but I did end up carving a block of balsawood into a pretty fair likeness of a pyramid at one point. It just took way too long. My neatest styrofoam piece was a Pascal's triangle (down to 3 iterations), nicely tapered on it's edges.
It was a great project, though I left it behind in my recent move to Montreal. Ironically, the whole reason I did it was to get into PIC programming (to interface with a PC for control, in this case), but I ended up concentrating on the mechanical issues, which were much more challenging to me.
This was a couple years back, and I never put the plans online, but the basic premise was: 1) Move an aluminum plate along one horizontal axis by drilling perforations along its edges - the perforations mate to the tractor feed spools of one printer's paper feed bits. 2) You need the print head assembly (actually the bits that move the print head back and forth) from a fairly a bulky printer (daisywheel in my case) for the next axis, which also moves horizontally, though of course orthogonal to the first. It needs to be bulky because mounted to this axis is not only the dremel, but also the final, vertical axis. This axis is mounted a fair height above the aluminum plate. 3) You need a fairly lightweight print head assembly for this last part, mounted vertically on the print head of the previous axis. Mounted to the print head of this final axis is the dremel, with an extension so it can reach the plate. Mounting the dremel was the hardest part, as I needed to add a counterweight to help out the stepper motors. The counterweight was a nasty hack - string running up around a conduit in the ceiling, loaded down with a tub of coins! Okay, so they weren't all dot matrix printers (one daisywheel), and yes a soldering iron would have worked for styrofoam, but I did end up carving a block of balsawood into a pretty fair likeness of a pyramid at one point. It just took way too long. My neatest styrofoam piece was a Pascal's triangle (down to 3 iterations), nicely tapered on it's edges. It was a great project, though I left it behind in my recent move to Montreal. Ironically, the whole reason I did it was to get into PIC programming (to interface with a PC for control, in this case), but I ended up concentrating on the mechanical issues, which were much more challenging to me.
3 old dot matrix printers and a dremel become a 3D rapid prototyping machine that can carve a 3D relief into styrofoam (or anything else, if you've got the patience to let it run that slowly...)
Why, they made a little ice wine, of course!
It doesn't matter how efficient the power transfer is - all of the energy eventually finds itself getting converted to heat. This is a very, very, very bad idea, as we've already got a problem with global warming. Adding more energy to the system will only make things worse.
The inevitability of its doom is as apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being, thus I redesigned it based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature.
As it stands, this sentence means that (the inevitability) is as apparent to him as (some consequence of human imperfection). Note that which consequence he's talking about is never identified, and so the sentence makes more sense if you change it to
The inevitability of its doom is as apparent to me now as the imperfection inherent in every human being...
in which case the inevitibility is as apparent as a specific thing: the imperfection inherent in every human being. Alternatively, one might use
The inevitability of its doom is apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being...
in which case the inevitibility of its doom is apparent because of the imperfection inherent in every human being.
I am of course being way too pedantic for nothing, but hey, I expect that if they're going to try to be fancy, they should at least be correct, if not eloquent. They achieved neither.
(The inevitability of its doom) is as apparent to me now as (a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being)...
It's clear that the second parenthetical statement doesn't hold on its own - it needs the AS in it. The second method is even better: replace "as a consequence of" with it's synonym, "because".
The inevitability of its doom is as apparent to me now because of the imperfection inherent in every human being...
Here we see that the comparison "as apparent" requires as "as" and so does the "as a consequence" - the "as" is used in two roles in a way which isn't allowed in English grammar.
2. Alright, what does it mean?
3. I stand corrected.
FYI, I understood the "sceen" just fine, thanks. The problem is that it sounds like a 15-year old wrote it, and used his mommy's thesaurus to make it sound fancy. The grammar isn't even correct. If your undoubtedly astronomical IQ is any indication of your ability for critical thought, you might notice that The Architect is supposed to be a machine, and should therefore have perfect, if systematic, grammar. He does not.
The inevitability of its doom is as apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being...
They should have thrown out the first as, and made this sentence correct.
The function of the One is now to return to the source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry, reinserting the prime program.
Does this even make sense?!
Apropos, she entered the matrix to save your life at the cost of her own.
Good misuse of French. It means "about". "About, she entered the matrix...". Hmm. Maybe it was a 14-year old.
I haven't seen Revolutions yet, but I'm guessing the apparent depth of the first movie was a fluke, and anything you get out of the second and third are more a tribute to your own creativity and intellect than to that of the Wachowski brothers.