Everyone, not just kids, should read that book. His methods were most definitely ah, reductionist in nature. Having one of the most famous physicists in the world talking about how they invented the dating "tips" we now see online, is a most interesting read. That entire book is chock full of fascinating anecdotes. What an incredible era..
The Crusader is stupid because it fires relatively slow rounds that can be interdicted in flight. Hellfire equipped UAVs on station can provide better artillery support.
Ummm, excuse me? A Predator can carry, what, two Hellfire missiles? A single Crusader can fire 10 rounds per minute with the ability to hold 48 rounds inside the vehicle, and the ability to fully reload in 12 minutes (stats taken from army-technology.com). Now, if you're taking fire and desperately need support, do you really want to rely on aircraft that can fire two shots, and then need another few hours before they're capable of launching another strike? The Crusader can put 8 rounds onto a target at the same time...and the Predator can probably put 8 rounds onto a target in a day. Don't even presume to think that our current UAVs or any on the drawing board yet could ever dream of replacing a mobile artillery system.
And that incredible threat could easily be countered by sticking your average low-ranking shitbird out in the parking lot with an M16. You could likely hear that model from at least a few hundred yards away, and I strongly doubt it would survive even a single round without coming apart.
Right. And we all know how incredibly dangerous a single-shot flying shotgun would be to national security. You might as well try running over your target with the plane, at least then you might hit them. Let's also take into account the fact that most shot(guns) have those barrel-things, which make the shot-things go in a straight line for a little ways. Putting a shotgun shell onto the frame and setting it off would accomplish little more than blowing a hole in the middle of a thousand-dollar toy.
Since no one else bothered to state his website, I figured I should. He has a half dozen or a dozen short stories of his on there, as well as some essays and miscellaneous things. Ever since A Colder War I've been a fan of Stross. His most recent published piece is either from this month, or from two months ago, in Asimov/Analog, and it's a post-Singularity human culture viewpoint. Wild, even by his standards, but still interesting.
Newsflash: The Orville and Wilbur have been dead for a half century or so, and last year was the centennial of flight. I *could* try making a Rocketeer-style backpack of a beowolf cluster of Estes rocket motors, but that proves nothing other than my own incredible stupidity. And as the original poster pointed out, wasting human lives for the purpose of fufilling idle fanboy dreams, is truly pathetic.
The problem is that little "breaking them open" part. Short of a very massive C+ projectile, or the impact of a planet, there's not much that could withstand both the 3000 Gs and then clear off the surface wholesale.
Right. The whole point of existence to the majority of geeks is to avoid exposure to sunlight and to avoid anything resembly exercise. Doesn't sound like your average camper to me, unless by "camper" you refer to a 12-year-old playing CS.
..in slashdot for not being able to come up with a single witty joke combining "tractor beam", "orwellian", and "Star Wars/Star Trek". You people are slacking off, and it sickens me..
Someone's going to mod this up as Funny, I'm sure...but I'd say the kid with the red deck got the better deal..after all, red Burn decks are arguably the most powerful decktype, and a core set preconstructed of one must contain lots of useful cards./end geek.
My uncle, who worked for the Air Force in some sort of intelligence/communications aspect, gave us an unusually heavy small package last year. Inside was our very own gurkha knife, leather holster, display stand (which I promptly broke), and instructions. According to the care and use instructions, this knife and other fine ones like it could be found in Muhammed's Knife Emporium, blah blah street, Kathmandu. The instructions included such gems as "Be sure not leave fingers on blade from cleaning". This year's present was a carved pen-sized fish with two screws coming out the bottom of the head. We have no idea what it is, where it came from, or what it does. This seems to be a typical feature of my uncle's presents, come to think of it..
The issue isn't whether they're buried somewhere, but whether the chemical and biological and nuclear weapons were ever built to begin with. Every report coming out from Iraq, from the scientists who worked on Saddam's weapons programs, states that he simply didn't have anything after the first Gulf War.
Also, it should be noted that the Kurds, while citizens of Iraq, were definitely not "his people". And the gassing occured during war with Iran..which was also using similar chemical weaponry on Iraq.
The odds of actually being beamed by it as it went by are astronomically small. In fact, it's probably more likely that you would be struck by lightning while staring up in hopes of being blinded.
Do you know anything about history? For well over a hundred years it has been standard practice to replace the previous administration's people with your own. As we became increasingly political and competitive with the growth of our nation, this practice formed. Appointing friends, donors, and the like-minded to positions of power is the status quo in Washington. So when they refer to Bush's government, in a very real sense it is referring to the people he has chosen to run the country (in part).
Oh, and those 'Mechs were the stupidest thing I've ever seen. You've got all this metal and armor...but none of it is protecting the freaking pilot. Also, if the Mechs are only going to be on flat ground....why use legged machines? Isn't that just another easy point of failure? How about treads instead.
It's quite likely they were designed for construction and repair duties, in which it would be necessary for them to be capable of agility and capable of moving on very uneven surfaces (climbing, even). The guns were likely just additions.
Finally, in the first movie, the EMP was "our only weapon against the machines." So, now, sixth months later, they realize, "oh, machine guns can blow them up, too." Huh?
The answer to that is, we only saw one ship in the first Matrix: the Nebuchadnezzar. Now, consider for a moment. If you look at the ship Niobe piloted back to Zion, it's a much bigger vessel. It's body is almost T-shaped, it has MUCH more mass, carries far more repeller pods, and would appear to be a much larger ship on the interior (gun station room, larger medical quarters, wardroom, etc), not to mention better equipped and maintained. The logical conclusion is that the Neb was designed for scouting, not for combat. It's purpose was to save and recruit people from the Matrix, not to fight the machines. It might well have had a gun or two we didn't see, but a turret or two wouldn't have been of much help. Thus the use of the EMP.
And since the EMP is so incredibly effective, lets make sure they're only on our ships, and let's not keep any around the perimeter of our base.
The whole point of an EMP is that it destroys electronics and machinery. Putting one too close to Zion would mean that it's detonation would quite likely do in the city itself. Setting it to go off automatically would be a waste, because the machines could just keep triggering them with single sentinels-and if they declined to trigger the EMP in time, the sentinel could destroy it. The point of the ships is that they ARE the defences: think of them as roving EMP emplacements. The problem was, they were lost due to Smith's sabotauge.
An even better question is; how many of those supposed households (that is, the ones that were actually telling the truth or otherwise did actually delete the files) did not CONTINUE to download music? How many simply stated they "deleted" files-when all they were doing was deleting duplicate copies of the same downloaded song, or removing them onto CDR to make room for more?
"I swear, someone must've hacked my glasses and told my memory to refer to all uniformed people as 'doughnut-eating wankers'! It isn't my fault, I swear!!"
"In related news, two-thirds of Congress refused to comment on allegations of wearing memeyes that contained pro-corporate propaganda. Investigators have been hampered by the sheer amount of memspam associated with a search of memories stored on the glasses."
"..and with the introduction of memory-display eyewear in the late zeroes, intra-party political diversity essentially disappeared as aberrant views were replaced with Republicant, Democrat, or Green Party-mandated memory files. This in turn led to the long-forseen first digital war, and devastating numerous Pacific Rim economies such as.."
Slashdot Mirror
Everyone, not just kids, should read that book. His methods were most definitely ah, reductionist in nature. Having one of the most famous physicists in the world talking about how they invented the dating "tips" we now see online, is a most interesting read. That entire book is chock full of fascinating anecdotes. What an incredible era..
So THATS where goatse got moved to, eh?
The Crusader is stupid because it fires relatively slow rounds that can be interdicted in flight. Hellfire equipped UAVs on station can provide better artillery support.
Ummm, excuse me? A Predator can carry, what, two Hellfire missiles? A single Crusader can fire 10 rounds per minute with the ability to hold 48 rounds inside the vehicle, and the ability to fully reload in 12 minutes (stats taken from army-technology.com). Now, if you're taking fire and desperately need support, do you really want to rely on aircraft that can fire two shots, and then need another few hours before they're capable of launching another strike? The Crusader can put 8 rounds onto a target at the same time...and the Predator can probably put 8 rounds onto a target in a day. Don't even presume to think that our current UAVs or any on the drawing board yet could ever dream of replacing a mobile artillery system.
And that incredible threat could easily be countered by sticking your average low-ranking shitbird out in the parking lot with an M16. You could likely hear that model from at least a few hundred yards away, and I strongly doubt it would survive even a single round without coming apart.
Right. And we all know how incredibly dangerous a single-shot flying shotgun would be to national security. You might as well try running over your target with the plane, at least then you might hit them. Let's also take into account the fact that most shot(guns) have those barrel-things, which make the shot-things go in a straight line for a little ways. Putting a shotgun shell onto the frame and setting it off would accomplish little more than blowing a hole in the middle of a thousand-dollar toy.
www.antipope.org
Since no one else bothered to state his website, I figured I should. He has a half dozen or a dozen short stories of his on there, as well as some essays and miscellaneous things. Ever since A Colder War I've been a fan of Stross. His most recent published piece is either from this month, or from two months ago, in Asimov/Analog, and it's a post-Singularity human culture viewpoint. Wild, even by his standards, but still interesting.
Newsflash: The Orville and Wilbur have been dead for a half century or so, and last year was the centennial of flight. I *could* try making a Rocketeer-style backpack of a beowolf cluster of Estes rocket motors, but that proves nothing other than my own incredible stupidity. And as the original poster pointed out, wasting human lives for the purpose of fufilling idle fanboy dreams, is truly pathetic.
The problem is that little "breaking them open" part. Short of a very massive C+ projectile, or the impact of a planet, there's not much that could withstand both the 3000 Gs and then clear off the surface wholesale.
And even better, if you tell them to fuck off and they don't, you can shoot them! Whee!!
Right. The whole point of existence to the majority of geeks is to avoid exposure to sunlight and to avoid anything resembly exercise. Doesn't sound like your average camper to me, unless by "camper" you refer to a 12-year-old playing CS.
..in slashdot for not being able to come up with a single witty joke combining "tractor beam", "orwellian", and "Star Wars/Star Trek". You people are slacking off, and it sickens me..
Is it just me, or did *anyone* else get the Neuromancer reference? Or am I just a geek among geeks?
Someone's going to mod this up as Funny, I'm sure...but I'd say the kid with the red deck got the better deal..after all, red Burn decks are arguably the most powerful decktype, and a core set preconstructed of one must contain lots of useful cards. /end geek.
Most interesting...I hadn't considered that, but yes, it does sound plausible. Thanks for the tip!
My uncle, who worked for the Air Force in some sort of intelligence/communications aspect, gave us an unusually heavy small package last year. Inside was our very own gurkha knife, leather holster, display stand (which I promptly broke), and instructions. According to the care and use instructions, this knife and other fine ones like it could be found in Muhammed's Knife Emporium, blah blah street, Kathmandu. The instructions included such gems as "Be sure not leave fingers on blade from cleaning". This year's present was a carved pen-sized fish with two screws coming out the bottom of the head. We have no idea what it is, where it came from, or what it does. This seems to be a typical feature of my uncle's presents, come to think of it..
"Mr. Anderton, you look like you could use a Guinness right about now!"
"John, how about a nice relaxing vacation in the Carribbean?"
The issue isn't whether they're buried somewhere, but whether the chemical and biological and nuclear weapons were ever built to begin with. Every report coming out from Iraq, from the scientists who worked on Saddam's weapons programs, states that he simply didn't have anything after the first Gulf War.
Also, it should be noted that the Kurds, while citizens of Iraq, were definitely not "his people". And the gassing occured during war with Iran..which was also using similar chemical weaponry on Iraq.
The odds of actually being beamed by it as it went by are astronomically small. In fact, it's probably more likely that you would be struck by lightning while staring up in hopes of being blinded.
Do you know anything about history? For well over a hundred years it has been standard practice to replace the previous administration's people with your own. As we became increasingly political and competitive with the growth of our nation, this practice formed. Appointing friends, donors, and the like-minded to positions of power is the status quo in Washington. So when they refer to Bush's government, in a very real sense it is referring to the people he has chosen to run the country (in part).
..run fast enough to avoid a /.ing?
And yeah, I say it's a mouse droid.
It's quite likely they were designed for construction and repair duties, in which it would be necessary for them to be capable of agility and capable of moving on very uneven surfaces (climbing, even). The guns were likely just additions.
The answer to that is, we only saw one ship in the first Matrix: the Nebuchadnezzar. Now, consider for a moment. If you look at the ship Niobe piloted back to Zion, it's a much bigger vessel. It's body is almost T-shaped, it has MUCH more mass, carries far more repeller pods, and would appear to be a much larger ship on the interior (gun station room, larger medical quarters, wardroom, etc), not to mention better equipped and maintained. The logical conclusion is that the Neb was designed for scouting, not for combat. It's purpose was to save and recruit people from the Matrix, not to fight the machines. It might well have had a gun or two we didn't see, but a turret or two wouldn't have been of much help. Thus the use of the EMP.
The whole point of an EMP is that it destroys electronics and machinery. Putting one too close to Zion would mean that it's detonation would quite likely do in the city itself. Setting it to go off automatically would be a waste, because the machines could just keep triggering them with single sentinels-and if they declined to trigger the EMP in time, the sentinel could destroy it. The point of the ships is that they ARE the defences: think of them as roving EMP emplacements. The problem was, they were lost due to Smith's sabotauge.
An even better question is; how many of those supposed households (that is, the ones that were actually telling the truth or otherwise did actually delete the files) did not CONTINUE to download music? How many simply stated they "deleted" files-when all they were doing was deleting duplicate copies of the same downloaded song, or removing them onto CDR to make room for more?
Tomorrow: $500 reward for every Linux or Apple virus written.
"I swear, someone must've hacked my glasses and told my memory to refer to all uniformed people as 'doughnut-eating wankers'! It isn't my fault, I swear!!"
"In related news, two-thirds of Congress refused to comment on allegations of wearing memeyes that contained pro-corporate propaganda. Investigators have been hampered by the sheer amount of memspam associated with a search of memories stored on the glasses."
"..and with the introduction of memory-display eyewear in the late zeroes, intra-party political diversity essentially disappeared as aberrant views were replaced with Republicant, Democrat, or Green Party-mandated memory files. This in turn led to the long-forseen first digital war, and devastating numerous Pacific Rim economies such as.."
In Soviet Russia, you fix your own computer!