Earthquakes are after all about relieving pent up pressure between the plates.
This is actually an outdated theory, and has been proven incorrect. Earthquakes are a result of moving tectonic plates catching on each other and then breaking loose. There is no long-term pressure build-up along fault lines.
I think earthquakes are kinda easy to predict though, relatively speaking. I mean, if there's tension, you know it's going to get released sooner or later, so you have a good starting point for the prediction.
This is a common misconception. Earthquakes are not caused by a long term build-up of pressure which is released. They are caused when moving tectonic plates catch on each other and then break loose.
If there was a long-term pressure build-up along fault lines, reliable earthquake prediction would have been a reality a long time ago.
No but I sure remember those co-processor chips that DID magically make your 386 into a 486. I also remember those magic drills with which you could drill a hole in a single sided floppy and magically turn it into a double sided.
Those are good comparisons to the topic of this article, because both of those products had downsides similar to those of the 5900 mod.
- The 386 -> 486 chips gave you a faster processor, but not the other hardware to go along with it (e.g. a faster bus). The 5900 mod (as far as I can tell) gives you a 5950, but with only 128MB of RAM instead of 256MB.
- The floppy disk holes punches would sometimes let you use both sides of a disk (or use a double-density disk as high-density), but single-sided disks were only rated to be used on one side, and double-density disks had a different composition from high-density disks. Using a tool like this was asking to lose your data later on. I bought an old Roland sampler years ago whose previous owner had stored a bunch of data on HD disks (its drive didn't check for the hole), and they were all corrupted. The DD disks were all fine.
Products like these are really a bad way to spend your money. If you need an HD floppy, buy HD. If you really need a 5950, spend the extra $150 and get 256MB of RAM while keeping your warranty intact.
I suppose that would work, but have you ever had a caffeine-withdrawl headache?
I stopped getting them (the caffeine-based ones at least, see below) after about a month when I quit.
I'd tried reducing my caffeine intake, but I just kept going back to it (especially when I had early morning meetings), so I figured cold turkey was the only way it was going to happen.
I'd been drinking caffeinated beverages of one kind or another for about fifteen years (since I was ten or so), and at the end of it I was taking No-Doze in the morning and drinking a thermos full of coffee or black tea every day.
It's been about six months, and I have only two minor complaints:
- *Not* drinking caffeine (a painkiller) means that now I feel the migraines I've apparently been getting for a few years (according to my doctor). They're pretty infrequent, though, so I just keep a bottle of aspirin around.
It took about three months before I wasn't really tired in the mornings. After that I was able to sleep normally and my hands don't shake anymore. Maybe I can finally use a soldering iron properly =).
You can walk into almost any hospital in the USA and almost any clinic and get access to BASIC medical care.
While US hospitals can't refuse to treat you in an emergency due to inability to pay for their services, doing either of these things without insurance or money is going to leave you in debt for a long, long time.
This is a good example of how a lot of people (including myself) conduct verbal conversations. When it is written down, it is next to impossible to understand. What does "Two takes before last, it's like. (makes weeoowee sound). It's coming to an end." mean? Did his bow break, or fly off a cliff, or turn into the chick from Kung Pow or what?
"Metrosexual" is another example. It is constructed from Greek and/or Latin roots, but it doesn't mean what those words mean at all. Is it someone who has sex with cities? Or exclusively *in* cities? No, it is a bastardized conglomeration of two perfectly good words into one lame one. And, as others have said, "fop" is perfectly suited to describe this kind of person anyway. Read Stephenson's Quicksilver.
"Bling bling" at least has the virtue of being an onomatopoeia, and it's good for a laugh. I mean, really, is there anything that doesn't become funny when it's rendered in gangsta?
When I was at university, a friend of mine dated a younger girl who used "lol" (pronounced "lawl") in verbal conversation. That was too weird.
She ended up getting hooked on crack, then tried to assault her mom and ran away to live in the ghetto though, so maybe it was just some kind of statistical abberation.
What state mandated insurance?? I live in Victoria, Australia and can insurance is provided totally by private companies.
In the US (or most of it, at least), insurance (from private companies) is required to drive. This is supposed to prevent you from getting into an accident and not having insurance to cover the damage and injuries to the other person and their vehicle.
Primal was obviously influenced by Soul Reaver on the PS1, but it takes that style of gameplay in a different direction and has a *huge* game-world for this genre. The level design is also incredibly nice-looking.
Everything else I played that came out this year was either a sequel, or set in the same world as another game or film.
One thing that I'd like to know is why does nobody create any 2D games anymore?
With the power of today's systems, I don't think it makes sense to use 2D except for artistic reasons.
Even traditionally 2D styles, like side- and vertical-scrolling shooters look much better when they are done in 3D with a fixed camera and the player limited to movement on two axes.
One of the biggest advantages I see is that 3D games use actual animation of the models rather than frames of sprite animation. This makes movement look much smoother than in a 2D game.
Having a 3D world also lets you add some incredible depth to the background that in a 2D game could only be approximated with Shadow of the Beast-style parallax scrolling. SotB looked amazing a decade ago, but even a mediocre 3D-based scrolling shooter like Silpheed outclasses its backgrounds now.
Which begs the question: why do the big publishers always screw up?
It doesn't actually "beg the question," but I know what you are trying to say.
Sierra does not seem to be a company that's interested in taking risks:
- A friend of mine was working on a modern update of a classic Sierra game (I can't say which one), that got cancelled because Sierra got cold feet.
- Homeworld2's first incarnation (about 2 years in development) was completely scrapped after the developer ran into some technical issues and Sierra decided to play it safe and had them make a new game that was much more like the original than the one they'd been working on.
Into the Fire (the Babylon Five game) would have been completed after the original series finished airing. B5 was excellent, but it was never a huge commercial success. I imagine that Sierra was concerned that the percentage of PC gamers (already a small fraction of the market compared to console games, for example) who also liked a non-mainstream sci-fi series was too small to justify spending any more money.
They could very well have been wrong. Maybe ItF would have sold millions of copies. I doubt it, though - the PC market is not as kind to unusual games as the console market is.
Most people never saw Crimson Skies on the PC, but when a CS game was made for the Xbox, it sold like hotcakes. Maybe Sierra should have hung onto ItF for a year or two and released it for the Xbox instead.
However on a default install it takes XP about 20ish reboots (provided you can get it installed before blaster fubars it) plus about half a dozen driver CDs, which I have to keep hunting for as I can never find them (a couple of them are busted, eg. my tv card doesn't work under Windows any more).
I think you must be using some crappy alternate install process. Maybe it was made by the same people who produced the "open source" patch for IE?
I've installed XP at least ten times on different machines. You boot from the CD and let it do its thing. It reboots once. You install all of your drivers, telling them "no, I'll reboot later," then reboot once when that part is done. You go to Windows Update and install hotfixes, then reboot one last time. That's three reboots.
If you *didn't* slipstream in SP1 (which is dumb, because there's no reason to install a non-SP1 machine, it saves you a ton of time and costs no more than a single blank CD), you'll need to reboot two more times - for the SP, and for the latest version of DirectX.
I wish I could find the sequence I saw in an old astronomy textbook of mine. It was four or five photos, and by the fifth one, the visible parts of the lander had been reduced to a pile of slag.
2. There is something on Mars which hates space probes!
One downed probe is a technical issue.
Two are a coincidence.
Three is an ancient - but still partially active - Martian missile-defence system. You thought the craters on that planet were from asteroids? Hah, they're all that remains to tell the tale of the nuclear war that wiped Mars clean.
This year, Santa was nicer. I got a drill bit, and 4 plastic straps for hooking to the head rest of a car, allowing me to hang light plastic bags from the other end.
What, is that a home no-fuss-no-muss trepanation kit?
Currently, Linux geeks are pretty much the only people who have even heard of Vorbis.
I don't use Linux, but I prefer Vorbis because it sounds better for the same file size as an mp3, and I know that Fraunhofer will never be able to start charging royalties on Vorbis [en/de]coders.
I live in the US, but I've got a couple of PAL tapes, so I bought a Samsung Worldwide VCR. It plays any format of tape, but doesn't have S-Video output.
It does have a SCART connector, so I thought I'd out-smart the designers and get a SCART -> S-Video adapter. It works, but the signal is black and white. I assume this is because there's no seperate chrominance line hooked into the jack.
It's only VHS anyway, so the quality will never be superb, but it would have been nice for minimizing quality loss when I convert tapes to DVD.
Slashdot Mirror
Earthquakes are after all about relieving pent up pressure between the plates.
This is actually an outdated theory, and has been proven incorrect. Earthquakes are a result of moving tectonic plates catching on each other and then breaking loose. There is no long-term pressure build-up along fault lines.
I think earthquakes are kinda easy to predict though, relatively speaking. I mean, if there's tension, you know it's going to get released sooner or later, so you have a good starting point for the prediction.
This is a common misconception. Earthquakes are not caused by a long term build-up of pressure which is released. They are caused when moving tectonic plates catch on each other and then break loose.
If there was a long-term pressure build-up along fault lines, reliable earthquake prediction would have been a reality a long time ago.
They were fully functional prototypes and they let them use them in the movie in exchange for advertising.
I have seen the actual power loader at a display of film props. It is not a functional device.
As others have mentioned, it was a hollow suit with a man inside providing the movement.
FWIW, I've heard people make similar claims about the Navy using "real" power loaders.
The only prototype of a power loader type device (other than the Enryu) was GE's Hardiman, which they never got working properly.
No but I sure remember those co-processor chips that DID magically make your 386 into a 486. I also remember those magic drills with which you could drill a hole in a single sided floppy and magically turn it into a double sided.
Those are good comparisons to the topic of this article, because both of those products had downsides similar to those of the 5900 mod.
- The 386 -> 486 chips gave you a faster processor, but not the other hardware to go along with it (e.g. a faster bus). The 5900 mod (as far as I can tell) gives you a 5950, but with only 128MB of RAM instead of 256MB.
- The floppy disk holes punches would sometimes let you use both sides of a disk (or use a double-density disk as high-density), but single-sided disks were only rated to be used on one side, and double-density disks had a different composition from high-density disks. Using a tool like this was asking to lose your data later on. I bought an old Roland sampler years ago whose previous owner had stored a bunch of data on HD disks (its drive didn't check for the hole), and they were all corrupted. The DD disks were all fine.
Products like these are really a bad way to spend your money. If you need an HD floppy, buy HD. If you really need a 5950, spend the extra $150 and get 256MB of RAM while keeping your warranty intact.
Lastly, despite the fact that the tea has caffiene in it, does it really mean that you can't drink it anymore?
Well, obviously my head wouldn't explode or anything if I did, but I know that it would just lead me back into my old caffeine habit.
Learn to drink water instead.
Ah, foul stuff that is. I'd recommend caffeine-free soda pop or tea instead.
I can't argue with your choice of university, though. I used to be the network admin for The Peak while I was going there.
I suppose that would work, but have you ever had a caffeine-withdrawl headache?
I stopped getting them (the caffeine-based ones at least, see below) after about a month when I quit.
I'd tried reducing my caffeine intake, but I just kept going back to it (especially when I had early morning meetings), so I figured cold turkey was the only way it was going to happen.
I'd been drinking caffeinated beverages of one kind or another for about fifteen years (since I was ten or so), and at the end of it I was taking No-Doze in the morning and drinking a thermos full of coffee or black tea every day.
It's been about six months, and I have only two minor complaints:
- I can't drink the tea at my favourite Chinese restaurant anymore.
- *Not* drinking caffeine (a painkiller) means that now I feel the migraines I've apparently been getting for a few years (according to my doctor). They're pretty infrequent, though, so I just keep a bottle of aspirin around.
It took about three months before I wasn't really tired in the mornings. After that I was able to sleep normally and my hands don't shake anymore. Maybe I can finally use a soldering iron properly =).
You can walk into almost any hospital in the USA and almost any clinic and get access to BASIC medical care.
While US hospitals can't refuse to treat you in an emergency due to inability to pay for their services, doing either of these things without insurance or money is going to leave you in debt for a long, long time.
I think the problem is that a lot of these don't describe evolution, but devolution.
For example, check out the IGN interview with Orlando Bloom and Liv Tyler.
This is a good example of how a lot of people (including myself) conduct verbal conversations. When it is written down, it is next to impossible to understand. What does "Two takes before last, it's like. (makes weeoowee sound). It's coming to an end." mean? Did his bow break, or fly off a cliff, or turn into the chick from Kung Pow or what?
"Metrosexual" is another example. It is constructed from Greek and/or Latin roots, but it doesn't mean what those words mean at all. Is it someone who has sex with cities? Or exclusively *in* cities? No, it is a bastardized conglomeration of two perfectly good words into one lame one. And, as others have said, "fop" is perfectly suited to describe this kind of person anyway. Read Stephenson's Quicksilver.
"Bling bling" at least has the virtue of being an onomatopoeia, and it's good for a laugh. I mean, really, is there anything that doesn't become funny when it's rendered in gangsta?
When I was at university, a friend of mine dated a younger girl who used "lol" (pronounced "lawl") in verbal conversation. That was too weird.
She ended up getting hooked on crack, then tried to assault her mom and ran away to live in the ghetto though, so maybe it was just some kind of statistical abberation.
I fully agree. Here are some more in the same vein:
"case and point" - is that like* when a thief checks out a potential house to burgle and then gestures towards it with an index finger?
"the point is mute" - the point may be moot, but it is never "mute," unless maybe it is being made by a mime.
using "that begs the question" to mean "your statement prompts me to ask this question" instead of its real meaning.
* =P
"I was really drunk last night, and I wanted to take some pics... Started out taking some pics of me flashing out of my car window to some random guys walking by... that was fun... then we headed to Mickey's Club... After a few shots I was pretty messed up... started flashing my boobs pretty much nonstop... until one of the bouncer boys told me to cool it off... ;-)... so we took our fun up to the back room upstairs at Mickey's... and next thing I knew, my wet panties were on the floor... I had alot of guys trying to look into the room... It was pretty crazy... I'm really starting to like this whole public nudity stuff.... I have some sample pics that my girlfriends took below... but you'll have to join to see all the craziness..." (Link NOT safe for work)
It's kind of hard to dispute your own statements.
What state mandated insurance?? I live in Victoria, Australia and can insurance is provided totally by private companies.
In the US (or most of it, at least), insurance (from private companies) is required to drive. This is supposed to prevent you from getting into an accident and not having insurance to cover the damage and injuries to the other person and their vehicle.
Primal for the PS2.
Primal was obviously influenced by Soul Reaver on the PS1, but it takes that style of gameplay in a different direction and has a *huge* game-world for this genre. The level design is also incredibly nice-looking.
Everything else I played that came out this year was either a sequel, or set in the same world as another game or film.
One thing that I'd like to know is why does nobody create any 2D games anymore?
With the power of today's systems, I don't think it makes sense to use 2D except for artistic reasons.
Even traditionally 2D styles, like side- and vertical-scrolling shooters look much better when they are done in 3D with a fixed camera and the player limited to movement on two axes.
One of the biggest advantages I see is that 3D games use actual animation of the models rather than frames of sprite animation. This makes movement look much smoother than in a 2D game.
Having a 3D world also lets you add some incredible depth to the background that in a 2D game could only be approximated with Shadow of the Beast-style parallax scrolling. SotB looked amazing a decade ago, but even a mediocre 3D-based scrolling shooter like Silpheed outclasses its backgrounds now.
Not having a TV at all is definitely an option.
I haven't had an antenna or cable for my TV for almost four years, but they're still very useful for watching movies and playing videogames.
I've tried using my PC monitor, but it's just not the same, especially when you can get a pretty nice 27"+ TV for not too much money.
Which begs the question: why do the big publishers always screw up?
It doesn't actually "beg the question," but I know what you are trying to say.
Sierra does not seem to be a company that's interested in taking risks:
- A friend of mine was working on a modern update of a classic Sierra game (I can't say which one), that got cancelled because Sierra got cold feet.
- Homeworld2's first incarnation (about 2 years in development) was completely scrapped after the developer ran into some technical issues and Sierra decided to play it safe and had them make a new game that was much more like the original than the one they'd been working on.
Into the Fire (the Babylon Five game) would have been completed after the original series finished airing. B5 was excellent, but it was never a huge commercial success. I imagine that Sierra was concerned that the percentage of PC gamers (already a small fraction of the market compared to console games, for example) who also liked a non-mainstream sci-fi series was too small to justify spending any more money.
They could very well have been wrong. Maybe ItF would have sold millions of copies. I doubt it, though - the PC market is not as kind to unusual games as the console market is.
Most people never saw Crimson Skies on the PC, but when a CS game was made for the Xbox, it sold like hotcakes. Maybe Sierra should have hung onto ItF for a year or two and released it for the Xbox instead.
However on a default install it takes XP about 20ish reboots (provided you can get it installed before blaster fubars it) plus about half a dozen driver CDs, which I have to keep hunting for as I can never find them (a couple of them are busted, eg. my tv card doesn't work under Windows any more).
I think you must be using some crappy alternate install process. Maybe it was made by the same people who produced the "open source" patch for IE?
I've installed XP at least ten times on different machines. You boot from the CD and let it do its thing. It reboots once. You install all of your drivers, telling them "no, I'll reboot later," then reboot once when that part is done. You go to Windows Update and install hotfixes, then reboot one last time. That's three reboots.
If you *didn't* slipstream in SP1 (which is dumb, because there's no reason to install a non-SP1 machine, it saves you a ton of time and costs no more than a single blank CD), you'll need to reboot two more times - for the SP, and for the latest version of DirectX.
I'm guessing you didn't install SP1, which takes probably about 20 minutes to install (xp2500) even without the time it takes to do the download.
Download it once, slipstream it into the XP install files, and burn yourself a new XP CD. Then you'll never have to worry about it again.
The last time I rebuilt my XP machine at work (using a CD like that) it took 2-3 reboots to get it completely up to date.
This is your space probe on Earth, then on Venus.
I wish I could find the sequence I saw in an old astronomy textbook of mine. It was four or five photos, and by the fifth one, the visible parts of the lander had been reduced to a pile of slag.
2. There is something on Mars which hates space probes!
One downed probe is a technical issue.
Two are a coincidence.
Three is an ancient - but still partially active - Martian missile-defence system. You thought the craters on that planet were from asteroids? Hah, they're all that remains to tell the tale of the nuclear war that wiped Mars clean.
=P
She gave it to me in class and I was the only one to receive a gift.
Was her name Mary Kay Letourneau? =P
This year, Santa was nicer. I got a drill bit, and 4 plastic straps for hooking to the head rest of a car, allowing me to hang light plastic bags from the other end.
What, is that a home no-fuss-no-muss trepanation kit?
Currently, Linux geeks are pretty much the only people who have even heard of Vorbis.
I don't use Linux, but I prefer Vorbis because it sounds better for the same file size as an mp3, and I know that Fraunhofer will never be able to start charging royalties on Vorbis [en/de]coders.
...as I just learned the hard way.
I live in the US, but I've got a couple of PAL tapes, so I bought a Samsung Worldwide VCR. It plays any format of tape, but doesn't have S-Video output.
It does have a SCART connector, so I thought I'd out-smart the designers and get a SCART -> S-Video adapter. It works, but the signal is black and white. I assume this is because there's no seperate chrominance line hooked into the jack.
It's only VHS anyway, so the quality will never be superb, but it would have been nice for minimizing quality loss when I convert tapes to DVD.