The most practical application that I wanted to find info for was a friend in Alaska. They're in geothermal active areas, so a subterranean loop would provide for a very warm side, always warmer than the cool side of the ambient air. A lot of people up there live off-grid, and have to truck, boat, or fly diesel fuel in to keep their generators going. That's a cumbersome task in mid winter.
Ok, you've generated some nice imagery there. Somehow I took your Alaskan environment and tied it up in my mind with Dymaxion cars and Fuller-dome shaped (shush, Stewart, let me work with this) trailers using Stirling engines. You'd only travel when the sun was up, or when you had fuel for the iron stove in the back to run the engine.
There's something very Steampunk, very Golden Age of SF, Popular Mechanix cover about the image. "Well, looks like the sun's coming out. Pack up everybody, let's get ready to roll". Or, since it's a Stirling, "Well, it looks like snow, let's make the best of it and make some miles. Light the furnace, John-Boy."
Anyone else notice that outlook and publisher did not get the ribbon interface?
I suspect that Outlook has a very strong internal UI design group and bend to the Word / Excel camp only grudgingly.
I am indeed making this up, of course, I have no special insight. But I do remember the build up from the original Exchange mail client to Outlook, and how they had new and very specific GUI expertise on the job. Just seems the sort of thing that could be easily entrenched in an organisation. TWAGAS.
Oh, and what the heck is Publisher all about? Does anybody actually use that thing? Did they get the developers when they bought the code? Didn't think so...
Stirling with an "i". Have a look at Whispergen in New Zealand. They sell commercial Stirling engine applications in bulk as home MicroCHP (Combined Heating and Power) generators. They might sell you just the engine, if you're truly interested.
I'd prefer a hybrid, though, and something with a bit better stability control. I'm not sure the Model T engine could work without a bit of a pollution update - make the roof glass and power it with a Stirling engine from the thermal load?
Just kidding here. But it was a beautiful idea. RBF may have been a crackpot, but he was my sort of crackpot - no axiom sacred. Yes, they weren't exactly safe, but then Ralf Nader wouldn't have passed on the Model A Ford-era cars with their beam front axles and rather philosophical approach to braking and steering, either.
Got any links to online sources? I could use a good laugh to pass around at the office...
The original article that gave me that chuckle is long buried I fear, but it's not alone. I like this one, for example, out of New Delhi:
"China has the potential but India has the edge" says Nasscom Vice-President, Ameet Nivsarkar. He adds: "Clients of Indian outsourcing vendors simply expect more out of the services. This has led Indian vendors to set up base in places like China."
Again, if the robber doesnt damage the door, he doesnt have to replace it.
Ah, to be sure, to be sure, it's a good thing ye be putting these miscreants to work at gainful employment, repairing metaphors. Some of them are quite damaged, and isn't it the job of any burglar to help people mix 'em? Get some use out of them, I say, at a decent wage. Say, their name on a famous meme or some such.
Yes - check out Whispergen (jfgi) in New Zealand. They make a nice quiet home sized cogenerator based on a Stirling engine. Any decent temperature differential will do.
Mayhaps for ye eorls. Accvrsed noble class! Trvly words befitting King John: "Why don't they just ask their chef to bring them some food?" Thov art bvt a Chvrl!
You are under arrest for posting on Slashdot when your two shillings per year income places you squarely in the class that must appear at the butts after church. And stop sharpening your arrowheads on the church window sills! There's no luck in it, and they're getting all roundy!
I spent most of my youth writing in cursive, because it was supposedly faster.
It isn't faster, it's easier. They may not have called it anything more than "writer's cramp", but RSI existed much longer than the common medical term of today. Remember that it wasn't the speed with which they wrote that was the problem, but - having fewer alternatives - a clerical job meant you were writing for bloody ever, day after day.
Here's an experiment someone could try if they wanted. Take a day's work, steady writing by hand, and copy it out using printed block style hand print. Do the same thing (after a good rest, or whatever other controls you can add) using cursive writing, connected ascenders and descenders and all. Track each effort with a wristband (or IR thermography, whatever works best) that measures the amount of heat your fingers, wrist and forearm generate over the same amount of time. Add this to subjective feelings - which was easier on you, at the end of the day? Cursive, every time. That's what it evolved for.
However, it's also quite clear that things that evolved from purely utilitarian uses become cultural artifacts, and very beautiful. Check BoingBoing or DarkRoastedBlend sites for some recent photos of restored or old rusted equipment. With the right perspective it becomes art.
Cursive as a magic agreement that somehow has weight over a printed name isn't really based on anything. Why would it matter if it just became printed?
I would be more inclined to expect AI-enabled software to generate signatures based on degenerate yet connected fonts, just like such evolved for humans.
I don't know just how pervasive your biological uniqueness will be added to although such incursions will be assimilated into our daily life will be our own resistance is futile though.
Cursive is fine, but it will never replace Insular Majiscule for grandeur, so important to getting one's point across (especially important if you're 1300 years old or so). I do enjoy the hip-hop trendiness of Carolingean Miniscule with it's clever serifs and ligatures, but nothing will replace Gothic Littera Bastarde for those elegant, impassioned invitations to the A-list on your parties (well, SCA events anyway). But don't skimp on the illumination, either, or valuable content may not be appropriately highlighted.
It doesn't even really need to be bragging. Every few days or so, I'll run in to one of my managers and have a conversation along the lines of...
Aye, excellent. And in the trade we refer to that as "good communications skills". I appreciate a good heads-down worker, but one who can produce *and* is able to actually talk, is golden.
Similar story, only with Russia in the hot-seat of countries. Development moved to Moscow, "high-cost non-core" locations cleaned out of any significant development resources (in my case, Sydney)
NetCracker network on-boarding software, right? Client company starts with a capital "T"?
If so, I can corroborate that. Drove that one in Melbourne during a certain um, minor restructuring...
India is way too expensive. How you can possibly compete by making software in India? You should really consider moving development to east Asia.
It's interesting to read in the Indian English-speaking newspapers how people are bemoaning the problem of "their" industry being outsourced to cheaper countries (China and Malaysia, for example). The quality won't be as good, they say, and the communications pathways are too long.
Hands up, those of you who think this sounds ironically familiar.
I've never fully understood that, nor why that gained acceptance as a concept. I suppose the term was first coined by someone who wanted control, and had an advertising budget.
Slashdot Mirror
You weren't looking closely enough. That was a little picture of a demon. It only began life as a stray apostrophe.
The most practical application that I wanted to find info for was a friend in Alaska. They're in geothermal active areas, so a subterranean loop would provide for a very warm side, always warmer than the cool side of the ambient air. A lot of people up there live off-grid, and have to truck, boat, or fly diesel fuel in to keep their generators going. That's a cumbersome task in mid winter.
Ok, you've generated some nice imagery there. Somehow I took your Alaskan environment and tied it up in my mind with Dymaxion cars and Fuller-dome shaped (shush, Stewart, let me work with this) trailers using Stirling engines. You'd only travel when the sun was up, or when you had fuel for the iron stove in the back to run the engine.
There's something very Steampunk, very Golden Age of SF, Popular Mechanix cover about the image. "Well, looks like the sun's coming out. Pack up everybody, let's get ready to roll". Or, since it's a Stirling, "Well, it looks like snow, let's make the best of it and make some miles. Light the furnace, John-Boy."
...and it's near (just past) perigee ...
Minor quibble: if you're talking about orbital distance from the sun, I think you may actually mean perihelion or periapsis.
Anyone else notice that outlook and publisher did not get the ribbon interface?
I suspect that Outlook has a very strong internal UI design group and bend to the Word / Excel camp only grudgingly.
I am indeed making this up, of course, I have no special insight. But I do remember the build up from the original Exchange mail client to Outlook, and how they had new and very specific GUI expertise on the job. Just seems the sort of thing that could be easily entrenched in an organisation. TWAGAS.
Oh, and what the heck is Publisher all about? Does anybody actually use that thing? Did they get the developers when they bought the code? Didn't think so...
Being generous, I often allow my service providers one mistake. They never get a third.
Stirling with an "i". Have a look at Whispergen in New Zealand. They sell commercial Stirling engine applications in bulk as home MicroCHP (Combined Heating and Power) generators. They might sell you just the engine, if you're truly interested.
Just kidding here. But it was a beautiful idea. RBF may have been a crackpot, but he was my sort of crackpot - no axiom sacred. Yes, they weren't exactly safe, but then Ralf Nader wouldn't have passed on the Model A Ford-era cars with their beam front axles and rather philosophical approach to braking and steering, either.
Dont worry I honestly believe that the moment that we discover another intelligent species we will have instant world peace
Possibly so, but ... possibly interplanetary war, as well. For great justice.
Got any links to online sources? I could use a good laugh to pass around at the office...
The original article that gave me that chuckle is long buried I fear, but it's not alone. I like this one, for example, out of New Delhi:
"China has the potential but India has the edge" says Nasscom Vice-President, Ameet Nivsarkar. He adds: "Clients of Indian outsourcing vendors simply expect more out of the services. This has led Indian vendors to set up base in places like China."
link here
Again, if the robber doesnt damage the door, he doesnt have to replace it.
Ah, to be sure, to be sure, it's a good thing ye be putting these miscreants to work at gainful employment, repairing metaphors. Some of them are quite damaged, and isn't it the job of any burglar to help people mix 'em? Get some use out of them, I say, at a decent wage. Say, their name on a famous meme or some such.
"He knows too much" said the boss, puffing his cigar. "Take him ... for a ride."
Yes. They pilfered the public domain. "To rape" means "to take from by force", as in "the Vikings raped the German coastline".
I think the word you were thinking of was "Pillage".
They've figured out that the stories from comic books are easily adapted for the large screen with a built-in following
Not to mention the money they save on storyboarding. Comics are effectively bound storyboards.
Downside is all the arguments and liquid lunches they miss out on in that stage, as it's effectively been outsourced as non-core process (grin).
Yes - check out Whispergen (jfgi) in New Zealand. They make a nice quiet home sized cogenerator based on a Stirling engine. Any decent temperature differential will do.
Mayhaps for ye eorls. Accvrsed noble class! Trvly words befitting King John: "Why don't they just ask their chef to bring them some food?" Thov art bvt a Chvrl!
You are under arrest for posting on Slashdot when your two shillings per year income places you squarely in the class that must appear at the butts after church. And stop sharpening your arrowheads on the church window sills! There's no luck in it, and they're getting all roundy!
I spent most of my youth writing in cursive, because it was supposedly faster.
It isn't faster, it's easier. They may not have called it anything more than "writer's cramp", but RSI existed much longer than the common medical term of today. Remember that it wasn't the speed with which they wrote that was the problem, but - having fewer alternatives - a clerical job meant you were writing for bloody ever, day after day.
Here's an experiment someone could try if they wanted. Take a day's work, steady writing by hand, and copy it out using printed block style hand print. Do the same thing (after a good rest, or whatever other controls you can add) using cursive writing, connected ascenders and descenders and all. Track each effort with a wristband (or IR thermography, whatever works best) that measures the amount of heat your fingers, wrist and forearm generate over the same amount of time. Add this to subjective feelings - which was easier on you, at the end of the day? Cursive, every time. That's what it evolved for.
However, it's also quite clear that things that evolved from purely utilitarian uses become cultural artifacts, and very beautiful. Check BoingBoing or DarkRoastedBlend sites for some recent photos of restored or old rusted equipment. With the right perspective it becomes art.
I'm a calligrapher sometimes.
Cursive as a magic agreement that somehow has weight over a printed name isn't really based on anything. Why would it matter if it just became printed?
I would be more inclined to expect AI-enabled software to generate signatures based on degenerate yet connected fonts, just like such evolved for humans.
I don't know just how pervasive your biological uniqueness will be added to although such incursions will be assimilated into our daily life will be our own resistance is futile though.
This is nothing new; you can go back centuries and look at historical peoples' signatures, and see that many of them are not very legible.
Unless, of course, you want your John Hancock to be read by King George without his spectacles.
Cursive is fine, but it will never replace Insular Majiscule for grandeur, so important to getting one's point across (especially important if you're 1300 years old or so). I do enjoy the hip-hop trendiness of Carolingean Miniscule with it's clever serifs and ligatures, but nothing will replace Gothic Littera Bastarde for those elegant, impassioned invitations to the A-list on your parties (well, SCA events anyway). But don't skimp on the illumination, either, or valuable content may not be appropriately highlighted.
Apologies for the rubric.
It doesn't even really need to be bragging. Every few days or so, I'll run in to one of my managers and have a conversation along the lines of...
Aye, excellent. And in the trade we refer to that as "good communications skills". I appreciate a good heads-down worker, but one who can produce *and* is able to actually talk, is golden.
Never mind ;)
It's just whether you are liked or not and not what results you produce.
However, if you are liked and can produce, you've probably got a better chance than those who see them as mutually exclusive.
Similar story, only with Russia in the hot-seat of countries. Development moved to Moscow, "high-cost non-core" locations cleaned out of any significant development resources (in my case, Sydney)
NetCracker network on-boarding software, right? Client company starts with a capital "T"?
If so, I can corroborate that. Drove that one in Melbourne during a certain um, minor restructuring...
India is way too expensive. How you can possibly compete by making software in India? You should really consider moving development to east Asia.
It's interesting to read in the Indian English-speaking newspapers how people are bemoaning the problem of "their" industry being outsourced to cheaper countries (China and Malaysia, for example). The quality won't be as good, they say, and the communications pathways are too long.
Hands up, those of you who think this sounds ironically familiar.
Walking is a right, driving is a privilege.
I've never fully understood that, nor why that gained acceptance as a concept. I suppose the term was first coined by someone who wanted control, and had an advertising budget.