I miss PLATO. Back in the mid-seventies, this was amazing, absolutely mind-blowing: real-time text chat, multiplayer biplane dogfights, and chess, and galactic conquest... on a global network. Granted, the screen was monochrome (orange on black), but the resolution was better than anything around. And it was a touchscreen. Good times!
Goodwill and Salvation Army have made serious efforts to put each other out of business. One of them (I forget which) sued the other, back in, oh, the late eighties, over the right to sell rags to China. If I recall correctly, I read this in the Wall Street Journal.
Several years ago, some of the second-hand stores here in Minneapolis/Saint Paul shut down. The way I heard it (anecdotal word-of-mouth), larger local business interests pressured the city to impose reporting requirements too burdensome for the second-hand places to bear. Similarly, years ago, you could volunteer at a food co-op and get a discount. Now there's not a single co-op left in the Twin Cities that accepts volunteers. Same (anecdotal) story: bigger business interests (Whole Foods?) pressured regulators to impose reporting requirements too burdensome for the co-ops to justify using volunteers (you had to treat "volunteers" as real employees and do all the paperwork that goes with it.)
Just as soon as someone invents a perpetual motion machine, I'm going to invent a time machine, so I can go back in time and steal that perpetual motion machine!
Kids today have it easy -- context sensitive development environments, online documentation, etc. etc.
Why, when I was your age, we had to chisel bluestone megaliths using only hand tools, and then haul those four-ton stones into a circular pattern, just to calculate date()...!
First, you eat a delicious steak dinner. Then I'll take a steak knife, carve a sirloin off your body, and enjoy a deliciously sampled steak dinner. Like secondhand smoke, but entirely voluntary.
Non-lethal projectiles (e.g. rubber bullets) can break bones and put out eyes. Better than death, I suppose, but I don't care to tell that to a guy who has only one eye for the rest of his life.
The killswitch in Systemic Shock is a cortex bomb. Not sure how messy, we don't actually see it happen in the novel. (Some of the agents know that is happened to one of their own, but the event is not described.)
In the novel Systemic Shock by Dean Ing, special ops agents have devices in their skulls to provide radio communcations, data processing, and a remote kill switch. Ostensibly, the kill switch is for cases where an agent is captured, and is only to be used if the agent explicitly requests termination... but some of the agents suspect that they may be terminated for reasons other than explicit request. Decent novel; moderately recommended.
"Ever since Jimmy Carter's dunderheaded executive order (in which he said the US will not reprocess spent nuclear fuel back into usable fuel... "
Credit where it's due: the initial President directive (a specific variety of Executive order) regarding suspension of reprocessing was issued by President Gerald Ford:
"In October 1976, fear of nuclear weapons proliferation (especially after India demonstrated nuclear weapons capabilities using reprocessing technology) led President Gerald Ford to issue a Presidential directive to indefinitely suspend the commercial reprocessing and recycling of plutonium in the U.S. On April 7, 1977, President Jimmy Carter banned the reprocessing of commercial reactor spent nuclear fuel." - Source
Just like I don't need a drink right now... oh, I want a drink, all right, but I don't need a drink. Furthermore, I can stop drinking entirely, any time I want to stop.
I'm sure America can stop going to the moon any time it wants.
What an auto mechanic really needs is a Green Lantern power ring. If you had a power ring, it would make any tool you needed, plus act as a hydraulic lift and all the other stuff you'd find in a well-equipped shop.
Yeah, yeah -- Green Lantern power rings are only supposed to be used for galactic peacekeeping missions. But I'm telling ya, if I ever get my hands on a power ring, that galactic police force has seen the last of me, because I'm busy making a ton of money repairing cars!
Slashdot Mirror
It's flamebait for the "cell phones cause cancer" crowd: the word "radiation" is a dead giveaway.
I miss PLATO. Back in the mid-seventies, this was amazing, absolutely mind-blowing: real-time text chat, multiplayer biplane dogfights, and chess, and galactic conquest ... on a global network. Granted, the screen was monochrome (orange on black), but the resolution was better than anything around. And it was a touchscreen. Good times!
People believe what they want to believe. "Magic" is one kind of belief reinforcer.
Imagine two identical products. Q: Which one sells best? A: The one with better advertising.
People don't just want advertising: they need it, to experience the joy of ownership as richly as possible.
Apple knows this. Apple is very good at creating belief ... and if Apple calls this "magic", then they're just stating the obvious.
Goodwill and Salvation Army have made serious efforts to put each other out of business. One of them (I forget which) sued the other, back in, oh, the late eighties, over the right to sell rags to China. If I recall correctly, I read this in the Wall Street Journal.
Several years ago, some of the second-hand stores here in Minneapolis/Saint Paul shut down. The way I heard it (anecdotal word-of-mouth), larger local business interests pressured the city to impose reporting requirements too burdensome for the second-hand places to bear. Similarly, years ago, you could volunteer at a food co-op and get a discount. Now there's not a single co-op left in the Twin Cities that accepts volunteers. Same (anecdotal) story: bigger business interests (Whole Foods?) pressured regulators to impose reporting requirements too burdensome for the co-ops to justify using volunteers (you had to treat "volunteers" as real employees and do all the paperwork that goes with it.)
Just as soon as someone invents a perpetual motion machine, I'm going to invent a time machine, so I can go back in time and steal that perpetual motion machine!
The best parodies are always close to the truth -- the closer the better.
I tell ya, hauling a four-ton obelisk upright using rope and logs and manual labor gives new meaning to the word "rollover" ....
We had to improvise close parenthesis by taking an opening parenthesis and then standing on our heads.
Kids today have it easy -- context sensitive development environments, online documentation, etc. etc.
Why, when I was your age, we had to chisel bluestone megaliths using only hand tools, and then haul those four-ton stones into a circular pattern, just to calculate date() ...!
Content filtering at the nation-state level. Yawn.
How about content filtering at the individual consciousness level? Show me what I wish to see, and nothing else.
Made me chuckle -- you smug bastard.
First, you eat a delicious steak dinner. Then I'll take a steak knife, carve a sirloin off your body, and enjoy a deliciously sampled steak dinner. Like secondhand smoke, but entirely voluntary.
The soul is to the body as "Excitement" is to a car built by whatever car manufacturer asserts that "We Build Excitement!"
Yes, I meant Prego. I mean, I meant Ragu, but I remembered it was wrong -- it was Prego.
The soul is to the body as "Italian-ness" is to Ragu Spaghetti Sauce: "It's In There!"
Non-lethal projectiles (e.g. rubber bullets) can break bones and put out eyes. Better than death, I suppose, but I don't care to tell that to a guy who has only one eye for the rest of his life.
What a perfect cover story for launching a real cyber attack. Let the paranoia begin!
The killswitch in Systemic Shock is a cortex bomb. Not sure how messy, we don't actually see it happen in the novel. (Some of the agents know that is happened to one of their own, but the event is not described.)
Cows are host organisms, man is their primary parasite.
In the novel Systemic Shock by Dean Ing, special ops agents have devices in their skulls to provide radio communcations, data processing, and a remote kill switch. Ostensibly, the kill switch is for cases where an agent is captured, and is only to be used if the agent explicitly requests termination ... but some of the agents suspect that they may be terminated for reasons other than explicit request. Decent novel; moderately recommended.
"Ever since Jimmy Carter's dunderheaded executive order (in which he said the US will not reprocess spent nuclear fuel back into usable fuel ... "
Credit where it's due: the initial President directive (a specific variety of Executive order) regarding suspension of reprocessing was issued by President Gerald Ford:
"In October 1976, fear of nuclear weapons proliferation (especially after India demonstrated nuclear weapons capabilities using reprocessing technology) led President Gerald Ford to issue a Presidential directive to indefinitely suspend the commercial reprocessing and recycling of plutonium in the U.S. On April 7, 1977, President Jimmy Carter banned the reprocessing of commercial reactor spent nuclear fuel." - Source
Oh yes there is: it's too expensive.
We don't need to go to the moon.
Just like I don't need a drink right now ... oh, I want a drink, all right, but I don't need a drink. Furthermore, I can stop drinking entirely, any time I want to stop.
I'm sure America can stop going to the moon any time it wants.
There's also the problem that there's no way to differentiate good from evil programs.
Indeed. This problem comes up again and again with a great many tools.
The only difference between a scalpel used for healing and a scalpel used for murder is the man holding the knife.
What an auto mechanic really needs is a Green Lantern power ring. If you had a power ring, it would make any tool you needed, plus act as a hydraulic lift and all the other stuff you'd find in a well-equipped shop.
Yeah, yeah -- Green Lantern power rings are only supposed to be used for galactic peacekeeping missions. But I'm telling ya, if I ever get my hands on a power ring, that galactic police force has seen the last of me, because I'm busy making a ton of money repairing cars!