Why is the novel intrinsically better than the movie? Other than the fact you committed
2 months...
You need to find a more entertaining book. What they call a 'page turner'.
Comic timing is much better spoken than read.
Maybe, but that doesn't stop me from reading books that make me laugh out loud.
For myself, I have intuitively concluded that watching too much tv (ie, more than just a show here and there) actually reduces my ability to think critically, and makes me unhappy.
I suspect that a lot of/.ers feel the same way as I do. And there's something about this type of revelation that makes people want to share. It doesn't just have to be tv=bad, it could be any type of life altering revelation, like meat=bad, jesus=good, jesus=bad, walking=good, punk=most rockinest, whatever.
There is a natural tendency to see your new found understanding as the solution to the worlds problems.
Well the stuff at gozer.org is not an extension like adblock, it's just a bunch of css to block the display of ads (they're still downloaded, but at least you don't have to look at them).
The css goes in your userContent.css which lives in your_profile/chrome. It should work in versions of FireFox so old that they're called Phoenix. I haven't personally tested it before Firebird 0.6 or so, but it might help you out.
AFAIK that's the plan. It will actually be Mozilla Browser and Mozilla Mail. All this naming stuff is just about the beta codenames. At least, that was the plan a few months ago. Since mozilla.org is/.ed I can't double check right now.
obviously Western companies are more powerful than foreign gov'ts
Yes. They are. They have a couple of fun little special-ops teams that they use to deliver them the governments of impoverished countries everywhere. They're called the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
I once had a "BestBuy associate" tell me "You should buy the bigger hard drive because it's faster."
Uh. He could have been right, in a way. Lots of small cheap drives run at 5400 RPM, while bigger, more expensive hard drives run at 7200. Might not get data into your CPU any quicker but they do spin faster.
A quick view of the latest Dell snail-mail spam shows that this situation still exists (as it has for several years now).
You're probably right. But if they said "It'll be almost as fun as cutting an apple in half and watching it brown" I'd still be more into it than the parade.
The article is full of gloom and doom. It makes it sound like there's no chance at all that it will succeed. I hope it's not as bad as all that. I think they're just trying to keep everybody's hopes from getting too high. Well, my hopes are high anyway. And whatever happens, watching this story unfold will be much more fun than watching some stupid parade with giant inflatable balloon cartoons.
But, it looks like it'll be a mess. It'll turn into a Will Smith and CG robot cheesefest.
No kidding. I hope they serve it with wine and crackers.
Seriously. When I saw the big cardboard 'I' that said wil smith at the top and robot down the middle all I could say was "ug... buh?... Snnn..." I think I got off a "you bastards" before getting dragged into the theater.
Re:What happens when it crashes.
on
A.I. Helicopter?
·
· Score: 1
Call me crazy, but I don't think they're shooting for the home enthusiast market. The one article implies that it's more the emergency services market, who wouldn't be flying these things around unless something bad had happened around that daycare/house. Something bad enough, probably, that the children/residents would be evacuated.
Not enough data
on
Global Dimming
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
The scientists making these observations are trying to make conclusions based on about four decades worth of research. It seems probable to me that global atmospheric trends take millennia to unfold. From the 60's till now probably accounts for a couple of data points out of the hundred or more needed to actually spot a trend.
Also, it seems that the assumption has been made that the sun produces constant output. I don't think we can make this assumption. The sun, as a system, is way bigger than our atmosphere. Until we have thousands of years worth of data, observed from outside the atmosphere, we can't prove that solar radiation is a constant. In fact, since solar flares temporarily increase solar output, you could postulate that thousand year trends in flare frequency and magnitude could affect the overall output of the sun.
So, while global dimming may or may not affect us in the short term (on the scale of centuries) and pollution is still bad (again very long term effects are unrecorded, but it's obviously very bad in the short term (again measured in centuries) and it is ugly), I'm still not all that concerned that the world is going to ice over or boil away any time soon.
Turning off the radio sure beats gouging out yours eyes, that's for sure.
More useful would be popping the ear drums, but I take your point. It consistently amazes me that people still listen to the radio at all.
For that matter, it amazes me that people look at billboards. I can drive by a hundred of billboards and not know what any of them said. This is, I feel, not impressive. It is just an essential survival skill for living in modern america.
I sure hope it doesn't mean the death of the two party system. With all the outrage about Bush getting the electorial majority and not the popular majority in the last election, imagine what would happen if there were 10 parties and the winner received only 20% of the electoral or popular vote.
Well, such a change would more or less require a change in voting procedures. We would have to move to something like instant runoff voting, or one of the other such systems designed to fairly handle 3+ parties. I would like to see that anyway, since we're not officially a two party system. Then Nader could run all he wants without 'taking votes away' from the democratic candidate.
It seems the basis of the story (computers gone bad that want to kill us) was stolen from Terminator
Well, yes, if by Terminator you mean Every Sci-Fi story since the invention of the adding machine. Seriously though, the basic concept of machines rising up against their masters has been done a lot. I know the doctor fought some computers round about 1966. And computers were the ultimate enemy in numerous original star trek episodes.
My knee jerked up and hit the desk when I read that. As I applied the ice pack I realized that it's not at Microsoft that they find these IT managers. It's the guy comes into their cubicle and makes a big show of clicking 'OK install updates' in the windows update popup. He 'asked not to be named' because he was only hired to take out the trash, but he's the only one in the office that's capable of clicking 'OK install updates'.
Note: Yes, I am making broad generalizations about the media. I feel that I can do that because I am better than them. <grin/>
I had a teacher (yes. it was high school) that was annoyed by the night class (continuing ed.) people messing up his room. So he poured some water on the floor and put up a sign*:
DANGER
Hydrogen Oxide Spill
Nobody messed with his room after that.
* It's been a long time since chemistry. Did I remember the naming conventions properly? Well, If I didn't, my teacher did.
Slashdot Mirror
Social contract! Never heard such balderdash in all my days. Come talk to me when I start putting ads on my own site.
For myself, I have intuitively concluded that watching too much tv (ie, more than just a show here and there) actually reduces my ability to think critically, and makes me unhappy.
I suspect that a lot of
There is a natural tendency to see your new found understanding as the solution to the worlds problems.
I can't freaking wait.
Well the stuff at gozer.org is not an extension like adblock, it's just a bunch of css to block the display of ads (they're still downloaded, but at least you don't have to look at them).
The css goes in your userContent.css which lives in your_profile/chrome. It should work in versions of FireFox so old that they're called Phoenix. I haven't personally tested it before Firebird 0.6 or so, but it might help you out.
www.litestep.net, or litestep.com. Works pretty good too.
Banner ads? Wow, I remember those, now that you mention them. The userContent.css I found at gozer.org/mozilla/ad_blocking/ has really spoiled me.
AFAIK that's the plan. It will actually be Mozilla Browser and Mozilla Mail. All this naming stuff is just about the beta codenames. At least, that was the plan a few months ago. Since mozilla.org is /.ed I can't double check right now.
Yes. They are. They have a couple of fun little special-ops teams that they use to deliver them the governments of impoverished countries everywhere. They're called the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Start by being a good planetary scientist. The rest will follow.
Well then, you're right. He's a moron.
Uh. He could have been right, in a way. Lots of small cheap drives run at 5400 RPM, while bigger, more expensive hard drives run at 7200. Might not get data into your CPU any quicker but they do spin faster.
A quick view of the latest Dell snail-mail spam shows that this situation still exists (as it has for several years now).
You're probably right. But if they said "It'll be almost as fun as cutting an apple in half and watching it brown" I'd still be more into it than the parade.
The article is full of gloom and doom. It makes it sound like there's no chance at all that it will succeed. I hope it's not as bad as all that. I think they're just trying to keep everybody's hopes from getting too high. Well, my hopes are high anyway. And whatever happens, watching this story unfold will be much more fun than watching some stupid parade with giant inflatable balloon cartoons.
No kidding. I hope they serve it with wine and crackers.
Seriously. When I saw the big cardboard 'I' that said wil smith at the top and robot down the middle all I could say was "ug... buh?... Snnn..." I think I got off a "you bastards" before getting dragged into the theater.
Of course not. He's a dog.
haha.
No, but Cartoon Network is making a "Scooby Doo, where are you" version of Romeo and Juliet.
Oh Scooby Doo, Scooby Doo. Wherefore art thou Scooby Doo?
Rover Here!
Call me crazy, but I don't think they're shooting for the home enthusiast market. The one article implies that it's more the emergency services market, who wouldn't be flying these things around unless something bad had happened around that daycare/house. Something bad enough, probably, that the children/residents would be evacuated.
Also, it seems that the assumption has been made that the sun produces constant output. I don't think we can make this assumption. The sun, as a system, is way bigger than our atmosphere. Until we have thousands of years worth of data, observed from outside the atmosphere, we can't prove that solar radiation is a constant. In fact, since solar flares temporarily increase solar output, you could postulate that thousand year trends in flare frequency and magnitude could affect the overall output of the sun.
So, while global dimming may or may not affect us in the short term (on the scale of centuries) and pollution is still bad (again very long term effects are unrecorded, but it's obviously very bad in the short term (again measured in centuries) and it is ugly), I'm still not all that concerned that the world is going to ice over or boil away any time soon.
More useful would be popping the ear drums, but I take your point. It consistently amazes me that people still listen to the radio at all.
For that matter, it amazes me that people look at billboards. I can drive by a hundred of billboards and not know what any of them said. This is, I feel, not impressive. It is just an essential survival skill for living in modern america.
Well, such a change would more or less require a change in voting procedures. We would have to move to something like instant runoff voting, or one of the other such systems designed to fairly handle 3+ parties. I would like to see that anyway, since we're not officially a two party system. Then Nader could run all he wants without 'taking votes away' from the democratic candidate.
Well, yes, if by Terminator you mean Every Sci-Fi story since the invention of the adding machine. Seriously though, the basic concept of machines rising up against their masters has been done a lot. I know the doctor fought some computers round about 1966. And computers were the ultimate enemy in numerous original star trek episodes.
But yeah, not exactly a ground breaking concept.
My knee jerked up and hit the desk when I read that. As I applied the ice pack I realized that it's not at Microsoft that they find these IT managers. It's the guy comes into their cubicle and makes a big show of clicking 'OK install updates' in the windows update popup. He 'asked not to be named' because he was only hired to take out the trash, but he's the only one in the office that's capable of clicking 'OK install updates'.
Note: Yes, I am making broad generalizations about the media. I feel that I can do that because I am better than them. <grin />
Q: What did the giraffe say to the elephant?
A: I'm taller than you.
* It's been a long time since chemistry. Did I remember the naming conventions properly? Well, If I didn't, my teacher did.