Glad you said that, because I have an honest question.
Does anyone know where a person can learn to *use* an abacus. (Ok, I suppose I could google for that) but is it difficult? Easy once you get it down? Or just increcibly monotonous?
I ask because I work *many* Renaissance Faires and Festivals (Posting this from my booth at The Ohio Renaissance Festival actually) and it has always pained me to resort to "Ye Olde Calculator" for some more complicated percentage off/tax added etc problems.
I've recently come across a fairly nice looking wooden abacus and I think it would just be awesome to whip that puppy out when determining payments for a customer etc.
I have my "Mr Scotts Guide to the Enterprise" right here.
The saucer section of any constitution or constellation class starship, such as the Enterprise, can be disconnected from the rest of the ship and used as a "life raft" for the full crew compliment in the event of drive section contamination or other catastrophic event.
Unlike Enterprise-D however, once detached, the saucer section could not be re-attached to the drive section without refit. It was considered to be a last resort.
(book written wayyy before TNG came out)
Okay, now that I feel like a complete and utter geek, I need to go do something illegal or at least extremely immoral. Have a nice weekend!
Dunno about RR and frozen chickens, But back in the 70's my Grandfather was part of a crew at GE Aircraft Engines in Cincinnati who would go up into the cooling towers in the old 800 building and collect pigeons for "bird tests".
They used CO2 extinguishers to get em down fast, (confused the birds more than freezing them) and would collect dozens a week for engine FOD testing. Had to make sure none of them were actually frozen for some strange reason. (laughs)
Obviously GEAE can't do it like that anymore, but I have no reason to doubt that they did.
Re:...that there is none.
on
The FragBook
·
· Score: 1
I said handle it, not meet the minimum requirements as listed.
my 2.4 with 2GB of ram and a ati9700 has problems keeping up with that game.
Of course, the game is not ATI friendly to begin with, but that is another thread.
As for your fascination with my "man pleaser".. I'll thank you to keep your personal fantasies personal. Mistress prefers it that way.
Re:...that there is none.
on
The FragBook
·
· Score: 1
" You could easily play any shooter in current release, online and competitively, on a $1000 laptop."
Nope, its a personal thing. I have the same problem with some particular shades of neon. (Bromo blue to be exact).
I have about 20/20 vision, but certian wavelengths of blue light appear to have halos or auras around them. At night (duh) backlit blue business signs are just a big blue blob to me. No problems with other colors, just the deeper blue ones.
Whats really odd are the new "hyper bright" blue LED's that the Ohio State Highway Patrol are using on their rear light bars on their cruisers. When I come up on one of them at night, and they have someone pulled over, I honestly have to look far away from the light or it takes up my entire field of vision.
So, if someone wants to find the exact wavelength of Bromo Blue neon, or those LED's the OHP is using, they can tell me what frequency it is that kicks my ass
The line "Freeman Dyson (Freeman Dyson!) had no trouble believing in the Ringworld" is a direct quote from the forward of the 2nd edition of "The Ringworld Engineers"
Larry Niven was talking about the fact that he orginally had no plans to go back to ringworld, but the amazing amount of interest that his story had generated had made it very palitable to him. (I would love to see a recording of the MIT students chanting "the ringworld is unstable" in the halls)
Either way, when Freeman Dyson says something along the lines of "Hmmmm, I like it, but why not do build a lot of little ones instead?" it certainly would get a pen in my hand.
*2* people take the Manta to node 3, at least. That way less of your crew has to walk. Just slam it down when you get in, and let them jump on the wings.
I've carried 4 on it, thats the most so far.
OTOH, one thing that annoys me is when people jump out of badly damaged vehicles up by the tank node, and jump in the tank, letting the manta or other vehicle coast into the bushes. As long as it is damaged, and not dead, it will *not* re-spawn back "wherever" you took it from for another player on your team. That leaves people walking, and less effective.
Then again, on the other other hand, it is an effective way to gain mobile superiority against your enemy. Hijack thier damaged vehicles, find a hiding place, and leave them there. There are some good ones.
(damn, I suddenly feel like I should not have said that)
Interesting? Have these people never *SEEN* the movie?
I'm not even gonna give the title, that would just be blowing it out of the water.
Kinda funny though, I saw Henry Rollins in concert last night, and spoke to him before the show about his role in that movie. "You *liked* that role?".. "Um, yeah Henry, I did"
Cool...
Although, and I hate to say it, but is he starting to look more like Richard Dean Anderson as time goes by? Pic from last night and yes, I look like a goof, you don't need to remind me.
"Umm, note the past tense for the squirrel. Wonder which piece of fascinating electronics caused that."
Actually, that particular squirrel was, at the time of his death, the oldest living squirrel in captivity. He was 8 and 1/2. Average life span for a squirrel is 4-5 in the wild, maybe 10 in captivity if you are lucky. I have heard of 14, but never seen the papers. He had his papers.
He also was near death several times as a neonate. (he was dropped from a bird of prey, and suffered serious brain damage, and had seizures for years because of it, and thus was not releasable, so he lived indoors due to poor depth perception and slow reflexes).
He just had one hell of a will to live. One seriously mellow squirrel. I miss the hell out of him.
The closest thing to any electrical mishaps he ever had was an odd taste for cat5. He would occasionally chew my cords. But just network, never anything else.
Btw, Other uses for dead drives... Wall art! (Yes, this is the wall of my computer room, hopefully it scares the other drives enough to behave) My Drive Graveyard Yes . there are more than a couple deathstar drives in there.
And, just for the publicity, Fun with Magnets a entry of mine from a couple weeks ago about magnets, and my evil ways with them.
Lots of fun to be had with dead drives. They make great wind chimes too!
Oh yeah, thats right, NASA says that it costs too much to maintain, and it's getting close to its estimated end of life date.
Guess we better junk it because it seems we aren't getting any good science out of it. Whats that? oldest known galaxy huh? Cool!.. lets study it to learn more about the origins of the galaxy! Oh, we can't lease any more time on the Hubble because we're junking it remember?.
Once again, I think NASA really needs to learn a very old saying that you don't junk something until you have a replacement. When the JWT is operational and snug in its lagrange point, then we can talk about whether or not to scrap the Hubble. Until then, I think its worth perhaps *outsourcing* a maintinence mission to another country (or private company) who thinks they can get the job done.
Who says we *have* to use the shuttle? Or is there something I am missing about the shuttle being the only craft that can work on the Hubble?
Then again, I can't think of anyone else that can get there at the moment either. And if they can, I suppose they would probably be more apt to put their own agenda's ahead of a NASA maintinence mission.
"Call me when all non-human animals start their first World War."
Now, this is not *world* war, but war in a sense.
If you ever get to Lake Cumberland Kentucky, go to the lodge near State Dock some evening in May or June around 8pm. Thats when the guests are leaving the buffet and walk out onto the deck, food in hand, for the evenings entertainment.
About 20 feet below, every evening, Groundhogs and Raccoons battle each other over position, and cute postures, trying to get food from patrons. This often becomes bloody, and the raccoons have taken to using weapons.
They will run with sticks, or brushes in their mouths, and push the groundhogs off the stumps, which gives the raccoons a better chance to "impress" the crowd, and get food thrown at them.
The groundhogs upped the ante, and *ate* the stumps down to nubs, eliminating the raccoons "performance stages".
The Raccoons then went to plan B, and started sending their *babies* in to fend for food. The babies come out, everyone "ooh's and ahhh's" and throws food. Then the babies take the food back to the adults, who wait just at the treeline.
Not to be outdone, the groundhogs began digging tunnels with entrances out near the patio and deck, under the bushes. When the food is tossed, they dart out (as well as a groundhog can dart) and snatch it before the baby raccoons can get it.
It calmed down a little in the late 90's when the lodge started making an honest effort to keep people from feeding this battle of animal will.
It still goes on however. Last time I was there, about two years ago, the raccoons had taken to climbing up the gutter drains, and walking up to customers and then just *tugging* on their clothing until they were *handed* food. (wimps).
Since the groundhogs don't climb so well, I dunno how they will beat this tactic. Although they still get their fair share, as many people are (and probably should be) unwilling to hand feed wild animals. Therefore what is thrown to the ground still goes to the groundhogs.
If thats not animal warfare, I don't know what is.
By the way, the groundhogs really did gnaw those stumps down to nothing. They stopped as soon as the stumps were gone, and have not been seen gnawing on any other wood. Just the "stages" that the raccoons performed on.
Theres once were some games called Duke Nukem, With lots of Blood, Gore, Guts, and Pukem. But the constant delays For infinite days, Made us all so damn mad we've rebuked em.
(And just for the sadism's sake, as it is near Valentines day, I'll go ahead and shoot myself in the foot and post this logged in)
Actually, combine this feature, with the directional indicator and "threat counter" that the Valentine-One (The *best* radar detector money can buy, period.) and you've got yourself a handy little heads up display.
But you can't always talk to the person you are supposed to be supporting.
Especially when it comes to things like presentations. The client is usually not in their office, and may not be reachable. They have the problem, go to a phone and call the desk. Depending on the nature of the support contract, the desk (if it's on a weekend) may not be *allowed* to offer support, and therefore automatically pages the tech.
The tech can't call the end user. He has no choice but to go to the location that the end user gave the desk when he called in.
Slashdot Mirror
Glad you said that, because I have an honest question.
Does anyone know where a person can learn to *use* an abacus. (Ok, I suppose I could google for that) but is it difficult? Easy once you get it down? Or just increcibly monotonous?
I ask because I work *many* Renaissance Faires and Festivals (Posting this from my booth at The Ohio Renaissance Festival actually) and it has always pained me to resort to "Ye Olde Calculator" for some more complicated percentage off/tax added etc problems.
I've recently come across a fairly nice looking wooden abacus and I think it would just be awesome to whip that puppy out when determining payments for a customer etc.
Any advice?
Sitting upstairs in my booth...
Just seems, wrong somehow.
Although, We are planning a Renaissance Lan Party this year, now that our AC is more stable and it is no longer dangerous to plug in.
*that* is wrong. *lol*
I am fascinated by this statement and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
*buzzer*
I have my "Mr Scotts Guide to the Enterprise" right here.
The saucer section of any constitution or constellation class starship, such as the Enterprise, can be disconnected from the rest of the ship and used as a "life raft" for the full crew compliment in the event of drive section contamination or other catastrophic event.
Unlike Enterprise-D however, once detached, the saucer section could not be re-attached to the drive section without refit. It was considered to be a last resort.
(book written wayyy before TNG came out)
Okay, now that I feel like a complete and utter geek, I need to go do something illegal or at least extremely immoral. Have a nice weekend!
Sorry for the offtopic.. but how is it anyway?
I do a lot of driving, weekend shows and that kind of thing, and spend more than a bit of time at ye olde flying j's across the land.
pretty good connection/deal?
I saw the flyer last weekend, and I was seriously considering it, but I couldn't find anyone there with a clue on it.
(sorry for the offtopic.. feel free to email reply to shadow@shadowsrealm.com )
Its on fire at the moment.
No, I am not kidding.
K 25 Fire
Wait, thats not right. Congrats that you don't live in Cincinnati, sorry that you can't get LaRosas
Hmmm, then again, as of today, I might need to get some "Snappy Cicada Pizza" from Snappys. Snappy Cicada!
Dunno about RR and frozen chickens, But back in the 70's my Grandfather was part of a crew at GE Aircraft Engines in Cincinnati who would go up into the cooling towers in the old 800 building and collect pigeons for "bird tests".
They used CO2 extinguishers to get em down fast, (confused the birds more than freezing them) and would collect dozens a week for engine FOD testing. Had to make sure none of them were actually frozen for some strange reason. (laughs)
Obviously GEAE can't do it like that anymore, but I have no reason to doubt that they did.
I said handle it, not meet the minimum requirements as listed.
.. I'll thank you to keep your personal fantasies personal. Mistress prefers it that way.
my 2.4 with 2GB of ram and a ati9700 has problems keeping up with that game.
Of course, the game is not ATI friendly to begin with, but that is another thread.
As for your fascination with my "man pleaser"
" You could easily play any shooter in current release, online and competitively, on a $1000 laptop."
...
Show me a $1000 laptop that will handle FarCry.
right
Nope, its a personal thing. I have the same problem with some particular shades of neon. (Bromo blue to be exact).
I have about 20/20 vision, but certian wavelengths of blue light appear to have halos or auras around them. At night (duh) backlit blue business signs are just a big blue blob to me. No problems with other colors, just the deeper blue ones.
Whats really odd are the new "hyper bright" blue LED's that the Ohio State Highway Patrol are using on their rear light bars on their cruisers. When I come up on one of them at night, and they have someone pulled over, I honestly have to look far away from the light or it takes up my entire field of vision.
So, if someone wants to find the exact wavelength of Bromo Blue neon, or those LED's the OHP is using, they can tell me what frequency it is that kicks my ass
Larry Niven was talking about the fact that he orginally had no plans to go back to ringworld, but the amazing amount of interest that his story had generated had made it very palitable to him. (I would love to see a recording of the MIT students chanting "the ringworld is unstable" in the halls)
Either way, when Freeman Dyson says something along the lines of "Hmmmm, I like it, but why not do build a lot of little ones instead?" it certainly would get a pen in my hand.
Agreed, with one exception.
*2* people take the Manta to node 3, at least. That way less of your crew has to walk. Just slam it down when you get in, and let them jump on the wings.
I've carried 4 on it, thats the most so far.
OTOH, one thing that annoys me is when people jump out of badly damaged vehicles up by the tank node, and jump in the tank, letting the manta or other vehicle coast into the bushes. As long as it is damaged, and not dead, it will *not* re-spawn back "wherever" you took it from for another player on your team. That leaves people walking, and less effective.
Then again, on the other other hand, it is an effective way to gain mobile superiority against your enemy. Hijack thier damaged vehicles, find a hiding place, and leave them there. There are some good ones.
(damn, I suddenly feel like I should not have said that)
a) Clear Channel alone controls 60% of Rock radio.
b) Clear Channel owns stations in 247 of the 250 major radio markets.
Check out this article for more information on Clear Channel's operations.
And thats not to mention the number of venues Clear Channel now controls.
(This message brought to you by a former employee of Clear Channel Chief Randy Michaels, from when he was just a station manager.)
I'm 6'3".. err, very UScentric of me.. ummm..
1.92 Meters
I'm not even gonna give the title, that would just be blowing it out of the water.
Kinda funny though, I saw Henry Rollins in concert last night, and spoke to him before the show about his role in that movie. "You *liked* that role?" .. "Um, yeah Henry, I did"
Cool...
Although, and I hate to say it, but is he starting to look more like Richard Dean Anderson as time goes by? Pic from last night and yes, I look like a goof, you don't need to remind me.
"Umm, note the past tense for the squirrel. Wonder which piece of fascinating electronics caused that."
Actually, that particular squirrel was, at the time of his death, the oldest living squirrel in captivity. He was 8 and 1/2. Average life span for a squirrel is 4-5 in the wild, maybe 10 in captivity if you are lucky. I have heard of 14, but never seen the papers. He had his papers.
He also was near death several times as a neonate. (he was dropped from a bird of prey, and suffered serious brain damage, and had seizures for years because of it, and thus was not releasable, so he lived indoors due to poor depth perception and slow reflexes).
He just had one hell of a will to live. One seriously mellow squirrel. I miss the hell out of him.
The closest thing to any electrical mishaps he ever had was an odd taste for cat5. He would occasionally chew my cords. But just network, never anything else.
Sorry, that was cheap, but really, he did have this amazing fascination with electronics.
I use those magnets for all sorts of things!
Btw, Other uses for dead drives... Wall art! (Yes, this is the wall of my computer room, hopefully it scares the other drives enough to behave) My Drive Graveyard Yes . there are more than a couple deathstar drives in there.
And, just for the publicity, Fun with Magnets a entry of mine from a couple weeks ago about magnets, and my evil ways with them.
Lots of fun to be had with dead drives. They make great wind chimes too!
WHY are we just letting the Hubble die again?
.. lets study it to learn more about the origins of the galaxy! Oh, we can't lease any more time on the Hubble because we're junking it remember?.
Oh yeah, thats right, NASA says that it costs too much to maintain, and it's getting close to its estimated end of life date.
Guess we better junk it because it seems we aren't getting any good science out of it. Whats that? oldest known galaxy huh? Cool!
Once again, I think NASA really needs to learn a very old saying that you don't junk something until you have a replacement. When the JWT is operational and snug in its lagrange point, then we can talk about whether or not to scrap the Hubble. Until then, I think its worth perhaps *outsourcing* a maintinence mission to another country (or private company) who thinks they can get the job done.
Who says we *have* to use the shuttle? Or is there something I am missing about the shuttle being the only craft that can work on the Hubble?
Then again, I can't think of anyone else that can get there at the moment either. And if they can, I suppose they would probably be more apt to put their own agenda's ahead of a NASA maintinence mission.
Oh well.
"Call me when all non-human animals start their first World War."
Now, this is not *world* war, but war in a sense.
If you ever get to Lake Cumberland Kentucky, go to the lodge near State Dock some evening in May or June around 8pm. Thats when the guests are leaving the buffet and walk out onto the deck, food in hand, for the evenings entertainment.
About 20 feet below, every evening, Groundhogs and Raccoons battle each other over position, and cute postures, trying to get food from patrons. This often becomes bloody, and the raccoons have taken to using weapons.
They will run with sticks, or brushes in their mouths, and push the groundhogs off the stumps, which gives the raccoons a better chance to "impress" the crowd, and get food thrown at them.
The groundhogs upped the ante, and *ate* the stumps down to nubs, eliminating the raccoons "performance stages".
The Raccoons then went to plan B, and started sending their *babies* in to fend for food. The babies come out, everyone "ooh's and ahhh's" and throws food. Then the babies take the food back to the adults, who wait just at the treeline.
Not to be outdone, the groundhogs began digging tunnels with entrances out near the patio and deck, under the bushes. When the food is tossed, they dart out (as well as a groundhog can dart) and snatch it before the baby raccoons can get it.
It calmed down a little in the late 90's when the lodge started making an honest effort to keep people from feeding this battle of animal will.
It still goes on however. Last time I was there, about two years ago, the raccoons had taken to climbing up the gutter drains, and walking up to customers and then just *tugging* on their clothing until they were *handed* food. (wimps).
Since the groundhogs don't climb so well, I dunno how they will beat this tactic. Although they still get their fair share, as many people are (and probably should be) unwilling to hand feed wild animals. Therefore what is thrown to the ground still goes to the groundhogs.
If thats not animal warfare, I don't know what is.
By the way, the groundhogs really did gnaw those stumps down to nothing. They stopped as soon as the stumps were gone, and have not been seen gnawing on any other wood. Just the "stages" that the raccoons performed on.
Theres once were some games called Duke Nukem,
With lots of Blood, Gore, Guts, and Pukem.
But the constant delays
For infinite days,
Made us all so damn mad we've rebuked em.
(And just for the sadism's sake, as it is near Valentines day, I'll go ahead and shoot myself in the foot and post this logged in)
Actually, combine this feature, with the directional indicator and "threat counter" that the Valentine-One (The *best* radar detector money can buy, period.) and you've got yourself a handy little heads up display.
Hmmm, I might get to like this.
It is *amazingly* accurate.
Click Here for more details on how to use analog ambient weather displays.
Okay, maybe it wasn't a flame.
But you can't always talk to the person you are supposed to be supporting.
Especially when it comes to things like presentations. The client is usually not in their office, and may not be reachable. They have the problem, go to a phone and call the desk. Depending on the nature of the support contract, the desk (if it's on a weekend) may not be *allowed* to offer support, and therefore automatically pages the tech.
The tech can't call the end user. He has no choice but to go to the location that the end user gave the desk when he called in.
It's happened to me.