me thinks you missed the joke jar jar says: "Episode 4 was the first movie relased. Me so think you so stupid"
My greatest fear is that Lucas will decide to remake the original Episode 4 -- from scratch, so that he can fully incorporate his "vision". He could justify it pretty well by the need to tie up the loose ends that are sure to be left by the prequels, like:
* Why doesn't C3P0 remember being created by Anakin? He keeps saying "Thank the Maker", when he could easily thank him in person.
* Assuming that C3PO has had his memory wiped, what about R2D2? Are we going to have to say they wiped him, too, or does he just not bother telling what he knows?
* In Ep IV, Darth Vader doesn't seem to ascribe any particular significance to Tatooine -- his birthplace.
* We were introduced to Luke's future foster parents (in Lucas' trademark ham-handed way) in Ep II. So when Anakin/Darth visited, why would he have them barbequed?
* In fact, why would he even need to massacre Jawas to find the droids -- why not just drop in on Owen and Beru directly?
Maybe some of these questions are going to be answered next May... but I can't imagine it'll be in any way satisfying. I suspect Lucas would remake Eps IV, V, VI in a heartbeat, if the studios were fool enough to let him. And they could well be.
In fact, I wish we didn't have so many lights on at night. I don't think we need all the lights that we do have on after the sun sets. I'd say we could do with half, it'll save a lot of energy and it'd be a lot more pleasant. Of course the flip side of this is safety. Would people feel as safe walking around downtown anymore? Probably not. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.
Lights = safety? Not neccesarily.
The problem with the Bad Guy hiding in the shadows is that he has an advantage: you are illuminated, he isn't. Take away the lights, and the Bad Guy's advantage evaporates.
Of course, that's one of those things that works great in theory, and will never get to be tested in practice...
Quite a bitter and malevolent post, wouldn't you say? Perhaps you're the one with issues to work out, or some time away from the computer.
You are quite right! In fact, I'm taking off early today to make a weekend run out of town with the kids, for exactly the reasons you cited. Have you been talking to my therapist?
Mods: the parent's -1, Troll mod is Unfair. Give it +1, Psychic.
The Alienware model is lauded by "Daniel P. Martin, 15, High school sophomore". He crows, "My computer would be going at, like, a frame a second right now". Like, Danny, how are your grades this year?
Dell's Inspiron inspired "Tori K. Beverly, 16, High school junior" to gush "It's easier to take to parties." Yeah, the screen hinge is probably great for crushing tabs of X.
But this one takes the cake: "Matt A. Hendershot, 21, unemployed says of the VoodooPC, "I'll trade you my Mustang for it. I'm serious". I'm serious too, Matt... you need to turn off the computer in your parents' basement and get a freakin' job. And lose the hat. Jeez.
Why would you consider Nader a viable option? Whatever you or I may think of his politics, I haven't heard anyone try to argue that he will ever get the sort of funding required to run a competitive campaign.
Funding aside, Nader is no longer the Green Party's candidate -- so he doesn't even have our tiny bit of organizational support behind him. As a Green myself, I'm not too sad to see him go -- I'll miss his name recognition, but he never joined the party, and was widely rumored to be arrogant and aloof (as though those were unusual qualities in a politician?).
I'm going to be plugging for a Texan that we don't have to be embarrassed by: David Cobb. Not only because he's a great guy that I've actually met, but because it's critically important to keep the Green Party on the ballot in every state possible. We'll make our biggest impact in the off-year elections, as our down-ballot candidates build up a critical mass at the local and state level.
I'm not looking forward to November, when Utah will once again rubber-stamp President Bush and Senator Orrin Hatch.
When is it going to end that you keep shamelessly promoting your website in every April Fool's Slashdot thread?:^)
No big deal... I've refreshed his page a few times (once it came back up), and it looks... lacking. If I were actually looking for something, I'd go elsewhere. Meanwhile, though, he's getting charged for bandwidth without generating any ad revenue... unless, of course, we *are* clicking through, in which case we're the ones with a screw loose.
Slashdot hasn't been this much fun since they changed servers and gave everyone unlimited mod points on the test box! Aaah, those were the days.
Do you really want people laughing at your kid behind his/her back the rest of their life?
No fooling: my wife works at a children's hospital, and once had a child come through whose middle name was "Trash". The parent (singlular, of course) was just as caring as you might expect from someone who would do that to her child. In a fair world, a name like that on a birth certificate would be prima facie evidence of child abuse... whether you were thinking along the lines of Boy Named Sue or not.
The search on "Jennifer 8. Lee" brought back an interesting blog comment: If it's simply the number eight, why does it have a period after it?
My grandfather's name is A C (let's call him Jonesmith for privacy). When he married my grandmother (first grandpa died before I was born), I thought his name was "Acee", like the local milk company. But his first name is "A", and his middle name is "C". And his full name is A C Jonesmith, not A. C. Jonesmith.
So the blogger is right -- if her middle name is "8", it should be "Jennifer 8 Lee", no period.
On the other side of the survey, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Kentucky are 50, 49, and 48, respectively.
For a business owner looking for tech talent, it means bad news for those states. But what about for us, the aforementioned "talent"? Shouldn't this mean that if I move to Jackson, Little Rock, or Bowling Green, that my skills will be in higher demand?
Interestingly, in my family's home town of Hazard, KY, there's a call center for SHPS. Those are a few hundred jobs that are staying here instead of going to India. Would moving call centers to MS/AR/KY help those states improve? That's a policy I'd like to see Kerry implement.
BTW, word in Hazard is that SHPS absolutely sucks as a place to work, with high pressure and no advancement. But it's better than the welfare office.
the same thing happened yesterday on macnn.com, someone left an italic tag open, and the whole page was in italics. i guess it's contagious?
Actually, the last Slashdot book review I saw had the same problem. They fixed it later, but it seems like someone would catch it. Since I'm a subscriber, I try to help (we can send a note if we see a problem), but I can't hit Refresh all day! (I have to go to the bathroom sometimes!)
The tag line for the article is: from the in-perfect-harmony dept.
So I assume Hemos was remembering the 1980s Band Aid concerts (warning: auto-playing MIDI crap). The song "Do they know it's Christmas?" hit the top of the UK charts in November 1984, and was at the top of the US charts soon after. The touching refrain was this:
Feed the world Let them know it's Christmas time Feed the world Do they know it's Christmas time at all?
What I didn't even think about, my senior year, was that the "they" we were congratulating ourselves on feeding, victims of a drought in Ethiopia, may not have known it was Christmas time at all for an entirely different reason. To wit, these stats:
Religions: Muslim 45%-50%, Ethiopian Orthodox 35%-40%, animist 12%, other 3%-8%
So around 65% of the population would not even *celebrate* Christmas... and those that do, celebrate it on January 7th! And it's not a particularly important date, compared with Epiphany two weeks later.
Since much of the discussion of this topic centers on social questions and not "nerd" issues, I think it might be apropos to consider that one of the most well-known "feed the world" programs of its time based itself around a catchphrase that likely generated laughter and scorn among those it purported to help.
To what extent does the "warping" of space near an object as massive as the sun affect this little spacecraft's orbital calculations? I know (but don't fully understand) that there are relativistic effects on Mercury's orbit that aren't described by pure Newtonian physics.
To what extent do the mission planners have to account for this effect? Can they even know for sure until they see what happens as they pass by Mercury those three times before orbital insertion? Or will the effect be negligible compared to the solar wind and other "normal" forces? The link above notes that Newton is only off by 43 arcseconds out of 5600, but it seems like even 0.77% could add up pretty quick.
Hook up a phone, especially one of the ones with faster access (ATT's EDGE or Verizon's new network) and you instantly have shareable access anywhere.
Alternatively, you could just log on to an existing WiFi hot spot, and make its Internet connection free to all. I think I'd enjoy connecting at Starbucks even more* if I could watch random strangers enjoying my largesse.
Or, as someone has referenced, you could have a network of friends relay wireless from a high-bandwidth hot spot back to, say, the college dorm. Just have your friends stand around with their backpacks every 20 feet or so. Don't forget redundant links in case someone has to take a potty/food/tequila break.
Anonymity affecionados might like the idea, too... the re-transmitter is the only one who shows up in the connection logs.
* Disclaimer: I've never connected at a Starbucks or anywhere else -- I don't even have a laptop. Donations accepted.
Unfortunately, the "girlfriend" protocol requires direct connectivity before remote image download can occur. In fact, users of this protocol often find themselves purchasing the packet wrapper for the sole purpose of removing it when the packet is received.
Mobile pr0n with a 20-ft radius has the advantage of getting you ping access to a server that normally would not allow the receiver within 10-ft (distance measured with a device called a "pole").
Some fool, apparently myself, wrote: "Previously sold at Tokyoflash. Sorry, we can't get any more."
Great news, boyz n girlz... it's available again! Follwowing the same link now brings up an active order page, and sure enough, it's listed as usual on the watches page.
The only glitch seems to be that the color selection has changed... white isn't available, only turquoise blue. Still, it's too cool to pass up... hope they still have it when I have the cash. I should be able to convince my wife that $38 for a one-of-a-kind watch is a good buy compared to her own online addictions...
The rest of us slobs would continue to crawl around in the.com,.net,.org, and.dust domains.
I'd love to be able to register a.dust domain. It would be perfect for ephermeral sites whose content won't be needed by future generations -- archive.org could safely ignore any content blowing in the.dust.
I've been at work too long to come up with any creative domainname.dust ideas, though.
What is/was the scandal? I'd like to know because I write them a check every month:/
In 2002, their European operations took a nosedive, and they had to borrow a wad o'cash to get things back together. I can't find any decent muckraking on the events, probably because the local paper is widely known to be a corporate tool (just ask these guys or these guys).
But here's one mention (2/3 down the page), and the local paper did mention the problems in a puff piece saying how great everything is now: turn off JavaScript to read without registration (google cache also requires you turn off JS).
Among the industries taken over or overregulated by the Gov: Rail Trains Pharmacies Telecom
I usually agree with your comments, but I think you're a bit off today.
Rail Trains - all but dead True, but not because of government regulation. In fact, it was lack of government foresight that allowed the auto and tire industries to shut down rail-based public transit.
Pharmacy - corrupt and overpriced In what way does this have to do with the government? Compare the "market-based" (read: monopoly-controlled) US system with the Canadian system. Note that buses of US citizens head to Canada for cheap drugs -- not the other way around.
Telecom - sucks oh so bad The comparison this time would be with Europe. I'm no expert, but everything I read on Slashdot indicates that Europe's regulation of telcos resulted in a superior wireless network, while the US corporate welfare system caused a tangled mess of incompatible systems.
"The Government" isn't the solution to all problems... but neither is "The Market".
On the other hand, your comment has been moderated as "Funny", so maybe I just didn't get the joke and should come down off my high horse...
The local electric co-op, Trinity Valley Electric, had a phone subsidiary, Trinity Valley Services. When we moved to their service area last summer, I was exctatic to be out of the grasp of the scandal-plagued monopoly I'd been forced to buy power from before. So when we signed up for electricty and they asked if we'd like to use their phone service, we said heck, yeah!
Last month, we got a note in the mail that TVS was now "Cedar Valley Communications", and no longer directly affiliated with TVEC. This was pretty depressing... it was so nice to call up the phone company and talk to a person instead of to a robot.
Now, it makes sense. With an 8-1 decision in the works, TVEC/TVS must have known that they were about to get hammered by Texas law. With little hope for legislative help from the Republican puppet government in Austin, they spun off TVS.
At least I don't have to worry about getting a bill from the clueless megacorporation I was stuck with before.
Slashdot Mirror
U.S. Justice Department Prepares Assault on Pr0n
About damned time, too. The Long John Silvers giveaway was bad enough.
me thinks you missed the joke
jar jar says: "Episode 4 was the first movie relased. Me so think you so stupid"
My greatest fear is that Lucas will decide to remake the original Episode 4 -- from scratch, so that he can fully incorporate his "vision". He could justify it pretty well by the need to tie up the loose ends that are sure to be left by the prequels, like:
* Why doesn't C3P0 remember being created by Anakin? He keeps saying "Thank the Maker", when he could easily thank him in person.
* Assuming that C3PO has had his memory wiped, what about R2D2? Are we going to have to say they wiped him, too, or does he just not bother telling what he knows?
* In Ep IV, Darth Vader doesn't seem to ascribe any particular significance to Tatooine -- his birthplace.
* We were introduced to Luke's future foster parents (in Lucas' trademark ham-handed way) in Ep II. So when Anakin/Darth visited, why would he have them barbequed?
* In fact, why would he even need to massacre Jawas to find the droids -- why not just drop in on Owen and Beru directly?
Maybe some of these questions are going to be answered next May... but I can't imagine it'll be in any way satisfying. I suspect Lucas would remake Eps IV, V, VI in a heartbeat, if the studios were fool enough to let him. And they could well be.
In fact, I wish we didn't have so many lights on at night. I don't think we need all the lights that we do have on after the sun sets. I'd say we could do with half, it'll save a lot of energy and it'd be a lot more pleasant. Of course the flip side of this is safety. Would people feel as safe walking around downtown anymore? Probably not. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.
Lights = safety? Not neccesarily.
The problem with the Bad Guy hiding in the shadows is that he has an advantage: you are illuminated, he isn't. Take away the lights, and the Bad Guy's advantage evaporates.
Of course, that's one of those things that works great in theory, and will never get to be tested in practice...
Open Source Missile, a la google.
The delicious irony is that Google loves +5 Slashdot posts, so the parent is now in the top 10 results for its own query. Sweet!
Quite a bitter and malevolent post, wouldn't you say? Perhaps you're the one with issues to work out, or some time away from the computer.
You are quite right! In fact, I'm taking off early today to make a weekend run out of town with the kids, for exactly the reasons you cited. Have you been talking to my therapist?
Mods: the parent's -1, Troll mod is Unfair. Give it +1, Psychic.
The testimonials for the products are priceless.
The Alienware model is lauded by "Daniel P. Martin, 15, High school sophomore". He crows, "My computer would be going at, like, a frame a second right now".
Like, Danny, how are your grades this year?
Dell's Inspiron inspired "Tori K. Beverly, 16, High school junior" to gush "It's easier to take to parties."
Yeah, the screen hinge is probably great for crushing tabs of X.
But this one takes the cake: "Matt A. Hendershot, 21, unemployed says of the VoodooPC, "I'll trade you my Mustang for it. I'm serious".
I'm serious too, Matt... you need to turn off the computer in your parents' basement and get a freakin' job.
And lose the hat. Jeez.
Why would you consider Nader a viable option? Whatever you or I may think of his politics, I haven't heard anyone try to argue that he will ever get the sort of funding required to run a competitive campaign.
Funding aside, Nader is no longer the Green Party's candidate -- so he doesn't even have our tiny bit of organizational support behind him. As a Green myself, I'm not too sad to see him go -- I'll miss his name recognition, but he never joined the party, and was widely rumored to be arrogant and aloof (as though those were unusual qualities in a politician?).
I'm going to be plugging for a Texan that we don't have to be embarrassed by: David Cobb. Not only because he's a great guy that I've actually met, but because it's critically important to keep the Green Party on the ballot in every state possible. We'll make our biggest impact in the off-year elections, as our down-ballot candidates build up a critical mass at the local and state level.
I'm not looking forward to November, when Utah will once again rubber-stamp President Bush and Senator Orrin Hatch.
I've got two words for you: Get Involved!
When is it going to end that you keep shamelessly promoting your website in every April Fool's Slashdot thread? :^)
No big deal... I've refreshed his page a few times (once it came back up), and it looks... lacking. If I were actually looking for something, I'd go elsewhere. Meanwhile, though, he's getting charged for bandwidth without generating any ad revenue... unless, of course, we *are* clicking through, in which case we're the ones with a screw loose.
Slashdot hasn't been this much fun since they changed servers and gave everyone unlimited mod points on the test box! Aaah, those were the days.
damn! It really did get slashdotted. Crap!
No, I think your line is, "Somebody set up us the bomb." Then, we say, "All your dealsites are belong to us."
It looks like you have no chance to survive... make your time.
Do you really want people laughing at your kid behind his/her back the rest of their life?
No fooling: my wife works at a children's hospital, and once had a child come through whose middle name was "Trash". The parent (singlular, of course) was just as caring as you might expect from someone who would do that to her child. In a fair world, a name like that on a birth certificate would be prima facie evidence of child abuse... whether you were thinking along the lines of Boy Named Sue or not.
The search on "Jennifer 8. Lee" brought back an interesting blog comment: If it's simply the number eight, why does it have a period after it?
My grandfather's name is A C (let's call him Jonesmith for privacy). When he married my grandmother (first grandpa died before I was born), I thought his name was "Acee", like the local milk company. But his first name is "A", and his middle name is "C". And his full name is A C Jonesmith, not A. C. Jonesmith.
So the blogger is right -- if her middle name is "8", it should be "Jennifer 8 Lee", no period.
And my grandpa was 1337 before 1337 was invented.
Could you repeat that? I didn't understand a word you posted because of your accent.
Sorry 'bout that, I was drinking a pop at the time.
On the other side of the survey, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Kentucky are 50, 49, and 48, respectively.
For a business owner looking for tech talent, it means bad news for those states. But what about for us, the aforementioned "talent"? Shouldn't this mean that if I move to Jackson, Little Rock, or Bowling Green, that my skills will be in higher demand?
Interestingly, in my family's home town of Hazard, KY, there's a call center for SHPS. Those are a few hundred jobs that are staying here instead of going to India. Would moving call centers to MS/AR/KY help those states improve? That's a policy I'd like to see Kerry implement.
BTW, word in Hazard is that SHPS absolutely sucks as a place to work, with high pressure and no advancement. But it's better than the welfare office.
the same thing happened yesterday on macnn.com, someone left an italic tag open, and the whole page was in italics. i guess it's contagious?
Actually, the last Slashdot book review I saw had the same problem. They fixed it later, but it seems like someone would catch it. Since I'm a subscriber, I try to help (we can send a note if we see a problem), but I can't hit Refresh all day! (I have to go to the bathroom sometimes!)
Vote for Martian succession this winter to keep the Martian surface clean!
I agree, it's time for the current Queen of Mars to step down, and make way for the next in line in the Martian royal court.
Oh, did you mean secession? My bad.
The tag line for the article is:
from the in-perfect-harmony dept.
So I assume Hemos was remembering the 1980s Band Aid concerts (warning: auto-playing MIDI crap). The song "Do they know it's Christmas?" hit the top of the UK charts in November 1984, and was at the top of the US charts soon after. The touching refrain was this:
Feed the world
Let them know it's Christmas time
Feed the world
Do they know it's Christmas time at all?
What I didn't even think about, my senior year, was that the "they" we were congratulating ourselves on feeding, victims of a drought in Ethiopia, may not have known it was Christmas time at all for an entirely different reason. To wit, these stats:
Religions:
Muslim 45%-50%, Ethiopian Orthodox 35%-40%, animist 12%, other 3%-8%
So around 65% of the population would not even *celebrate* Christmas... and those that do, celebrate it on January 7th! And it's not a particularly important date, compared with Epiphany two weeks later.
Since much of the discussion of this topic centers on social questions and not "nerd" issues, I think it might be apropos to consider that one of the most well-known "feed the world" programs of its time based itself around a catchphrase that likely generated laughter and scorn among those it purported to help.
So a Rocket Scientist created paypal, huh?
Not exactly... as I understand it, he got rich from PayPal (originally at this cool URL), *then* started SpaceX.
So in effect, PayPal created a Rocket Scientist!
What's next? Google Labs creating a Brain Surgeon?
To what extent does the "warping" of space near an object as massive as the sun affect this little spacecraft's orbital calculations? I know (but don't fully understand) that there are relativistic effects on Mercury's orbit that aren't described by pure Newtonian physics.
To what extent do the mission planners have to account for this effect? Can they even know for sure until they see what happens as they pass by Mercury those three times before orbital insertion? Or will the effect be negligible compared to the solar wind and other "normal" forces? The link above notes that Newton is only off by 43 arcseconds out of 5600, but it seems like even 0.77% could add up pretty quick.
Hook up a phone, especially one of the ones with faster access (ATT's EDGE or Verizon's new network) and you instantly have shareable access anywhere.
Alternatively, you could just log on to an existing WiFi hot spot, and make its Internet connection free to all. I think I'd enjoy connecting at Starbucks even more* if I could watch random strangers enjoying my largesse.
Or, as someone has referenced, you could have a network of friends relay wireless from a high-bandwidth hot spot back to, say, the college dorm. Just have your friends stand around with their backpacks every 20 feet or so. Don't forget redundant links in case someone has to take a potty/food/tequila break.
Anonymity affecionados might like the idea, too... the re-transmitter is the only one who shows up in the connection logs.
* Disclaimer: I've never connected at a Starbucks or anywhere else -- I don't even have a laptop. Donations accepted.
It's called a girlfriend. Look into it.
Unfortunately, the "girlfriend" protocol requires direct connectivity before remote image download can occur. In fact, users of this protocol often find themselves purchasing the packet wrapper for the sole purpose of removing it when the packet is received.
Mobile pr0n with a 20-ft radius has the advantage of getting you ping access to a server that normally would not allow the receiver within 10-ft (distance measured with a device called a "pole").
Some fool, apparently myself, wrote: "Previously sold at Tokyoflash. Sorry, we can't get any more."
Great news, boyz n girlz... it's available again! Follwowing the same link now brings up an active order page, and sure enough, it's listed as usual on the watches page.
The only glitch seems to be that the color selection has changed... white isn't available, only turquoise blue. Still, it's too cool to pass up... hope they still have it when I have the cash. I should be able to convince my wife that $38 for a one-of-a-kind watch is a good buy compared to her own online addictions...
The rest of us slobs would continue to crawl around in the .com, .net, .org, and .dust domains.
.dust domain. It would be perfect for ephermeral sites whose content won't be needed by future generations -- archive.org could safely ignore any content blowing in the .dust.
I'd love to be able to register a
I've been at work too long to come up with any creative domainname.dust ideas, though.
What is/was the scandal? I'd like to know because I write them a check every month :/
In 2002, their European operations took a nosedive, and they had to borrow a wad o'cash to get things back together. I can't find any decent muckraking on the events, probably because the local paper is widely known to be a corporate tool (just ask these guys or these guys).
But here's one mention (2/3 down the page), and the local paper did mention the problems in a puff piece saying how great everything is now: turn off JavaScript to read without registration (google cache also requires you turn off JS).
Among the industries taken over or overregulated by the Gov:
Rail Trains
Pharmacies
Telecom
I usually agree with your comments, but I think you're a bit off today.
Rail Trains - all but dead
True, but not because of government regulation. In fact, it was lack of government foresight that allowed the auto and tire industries to shut down rail-based public transit.
Pharmacy - corrupt and overpriced
In what way does this have to do with the government? Compare the "market-based" (read: monopoly-controlled) US system with the Canadian system. Note that buses of US citizens head to Canada for cheap drugs -- not the other way around.
Telecom - sucks oh so bad
The comparison this time would be with Europe. I'm no expert, but everything I read on Slashdot indicates that Europe's regulation of telcos resulted in a superior wireless network, while the US corporate welfare system caused a tangled mess of incompatible systems.
"The Government" isn't the solution to all problems... but neither is "The Market".
On the other hand, your comment has been moderated as "Funny", so maybe I just didn't get the joke and should come down off my high horse...
The local electric co-op, Trinity Valley Electric, had a phone subsidiary, Trinity Valley Services. When we moved to their service area last summer, I was exctatic to be out of the grasp of the scandal-plagued monopoly I'd been forced to buy power from before. So when we signed up for electricty and they asked if we'd like to use their phone service, we said heck, yeah!
Last month, we got a note in the mail that TVS was now "Cedar Valley Communications", and no longer directly affiliated with TVEC. This was pretty depressing... it was so nice to call up the phone company and talk to a person instead of to a robot.
Now, it makes sense. With an 8-1 decision in the works, TVEC/TVS must have known that they were about to get hammered by Texas law. With little hope for legislative help from the Republican puppet government in Austin, they spun off TVS.
At least I don't have to worry about getting a bill from the clueless megacorporation I was stuck with before.