Stories fro the Lens universe almot certainly were the inspriation for the Green Lantern series, as well as for Star Wars (I wish Lucas had just made the Lens stories direclty into movies, instead of giving them a Hollywood haircut and making the watered down Star Wars versions). I've always wanted a Lens too - that's probably why I wear the bigges, gawdiest writwatch possible - a Rolex GMT master. THis turnip sized watch has a real lensy feel to it.
A mouthwash company had a rocket belt promotional tour. They did a flight at a site as small as the parking lot of a suburban Dallas shopping center parking lot (Farmer's Branch, for the interested), circa 1967. It was incredibly LOUD...
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Not precisely a rocket belt, but the Williams Wasp used a cruise missile turbine engine to propel a single seat vehicle. Prototypes were flown, but it never went into production. I sure would have liked to have one...
That reminds me of the famous quote by an economist, can't remember who, who said, that for instance, at a ski lodge, there are many young girls looking for husbands, and many husbands looking for young girls, but the situation is not exactly transitive...
You forgot the legions of sports people, who only come to work so they can talk to the other sports people about sports...all day long, day after day, every day...
Just because Spider is Heinlein's number one fan, doesn't make him the best qualified person for the task...heck, I'm at least as big a fan and lifelong devotee, and I'd be a terrible choice. I actually enjoy Spider's work...it's just his style is not at all close in tone to Heinlein's...it's not even in the same solar system...and sometimes when he really tries to do it like the Grand Old Man, it comes out quite mawkish, especially if he tries to throw in some science & engineering...the result is...not good...I'm sure he was thrilled to get the task, but I still think it's a shame that one of the other "Heinlein" school writers that come closer to Heinlein's style didn't get to helm this one.
Teh only thing that I've seen that was worse than The Cat Who Walks Through Walls was Job: A Comedy of Justice. Oh wait, there was To Sail Beyond the Sunset. Now, don't get me started on Keith Laumer's post-stroke novels...
Of the dozen or so Heinlein style writers extant today, it's a shame they picked the feckless hippy of the lot, Spider Robonson. I'd have vastly preferred one of the hard science Heinlein style writers (such as Varley, or maybe VInge) to the hippy dippy, dated, peace love dove style of Robinson, who wouldn't know real knowledge of physics if it knocked the bong out of his hand and spilled it all over his hand knotted macrame rug, inside his dome house.
I am reminded of a technical conference I attened many years ago. The subject of one panel was "Writing RSX11 Device Drivers". Many of the leading lights in this niche of the industry were on the panel, including one of the all time greats, Ralph Stamerjohn. During the audience Q&A, one of the audience members asked the question "What should you do with new RSX11m driver developers". One of the DEC people on the panel started to answer. Ralph, a famous curmudgeon, grabbed the mike and answered "Take them out and shoot them". Ralph was probably joking...and it seems a buit extreme for 16 year old spammers, but you have to admit, the solution does have a cerain appealing sound to it...
If I was a kid and had one of these doohickeys installed on my car by my parents, I'd disconnect it and take it to the local general aviation airport, and have someone there take it up for a brief 200mph flight...then stick it back in the car...
And these laptops are going to have far shorter useful lifetimes than a textbook...I have textbooks I bought for college in 1971 that are still useful (physics and math don't change that quickly, at least at the Newtonian level)...how useful will one of these laptios be 30 years from now?
UDS used to sell a line of modems that were efficient enough in their use of power that they were powered off the phone line - no power connection was required.
How much current can it source is a good thing to know in evaluating risk...but, since dry humans are pretty good insulators, without some voltage to push it, you won't flow more than a few fractions of an amp out of a 5 volt, 300A supply. You're right about jewelry, for sure - you should alway always always remove rings and watches when poking your mitts into even a low voltage source...
This reminds me of one of the troubleshooting steps taught to me by my old motorcycle gang bros...when you're troubleshooting an engine fails to start problem, first step is decide if it is a fuel delivery or no-spark problem. If you're sure it's a no-spark problem, then firmly grasp the metal part of the spark plug lead and kick the engine over...what's that, you're not willing to do that? Then, you aren't really sure it's a no-spark problem - keep thinking and testing until you are.
Hah! That reminds me of the old checklist for engine out emergency landing at night. When you get down to 100 feet above ground, turn on the landing lights. If you don't like what you see...turn them off...
"There's a lot of crap too".....it's like Theodore Sturgeon said, when someone told him that 90% of science fiction is crap. He replied "90% of everything is crap"...too true...
Just be glad you're not old enough to have gone through the fourth generation language management wars...managers were convinved by that hype that we could buy thes products and then we'd be able to get results by talking to the computers in English, just like the ones on the Enterprise in Star Trek. Instead, some incredibly resource wasting applications were produced, that had to be communicated with in a strange dialect of broken English - sort of a machine pidgin language...
Yah, I watched the live coverage of the first Viking pictures coming back from Mars. The picture built up slowly, line by line. Just as it was getting down to the land, about to show some real details of the surface, the network cut back to the soap operas that were nornally scheduled. That's when I realized that American civlization is doomed.
If you had been alive in the 60s, you would weep bitter tears and voice loud lamentations at their loss, and dream every day of returning to that time.
Nope, it wasn't the PDP-11s either. The VAX's most complicated, least used and most poorly understood instructions were POLYx, CRC, and INDEX (the Vector instructions were middlin' complicated as well, but not a lot of Vector processor equipped VAXes were produced and sold).
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Stories fro the Lens universe almot certainly were the inspriation for the Green Lantern series, as well as for Star Wars (I wish Lucas had just made the Lens stories direclty into movies, instead of giving them a Hollywood haircut and making the watered down Star Wars versions). I've always wanted a Lens too - that's probably why I wear the bigges, gawdiest writwatch possible - a Rolex GMT master. THis turnip sized watch has a real lensy feel to it.
A mouthwash company had a rocket belt promotional tour. They did a flight at a site as small as the parking lot of a suburban Dallas shopping center parking lot (Farmer's Branch, for the interested), circa 1967. It was incredibly LOUD...
Not precisely a rocket belt, but the Williams Wasp used a cruise missile turbine engine to propel a single seat vehicle. Prototypes were flown, but it never went into production. I sure would have liked to have one...
That reminds me of the famous quote by an economist, can't remember who, who said, that for instance, at a ski lodge, there are many young girls looking for husbands, and many husbands looking for young girls, but the situation is not exactly transitive...
Come on! Mod this guy up! It's the most appropriate quote possible!
You forgot the legions of sports people, who only come to work so they can talk to the other sports people about sports...all day long, day after day, every day...
Shoot Gates, then shoot Stallman. Then wipe your prints off the piece, and put it in Gates's hand. Murder-suicide - what could be simpler?
I'm just imagining what the murder scene that involved every one of your obsessions would look like....
Just because Spider is Heinlein's number one fan, doesn't make him the best qualified person for the task...heck, I'm at least as big a fan and lifelong devotee, and I'd be a terrible choice. I actually enjoy Spider's work...it's just his style is not at all close in tone to Heinlein's...it's not even in the same solar system...and sometimes when he really tries to do it like the Grand Old Man, it comes out quite mawkish, especially if he tries to throw in some science & engineering...the result is...not good...I'm sure he was thrilled to get the task, but I still think it's a shame that one of the other "Heinlein" school writers that come closer to Heinlein's style didn't get to helm this one.
Teh only thing that I've seen that was worse than The Cat Who Walks Through Walls was Job: A Comedy of Justice. Oh wait, there was To Sail Beyond the Sunset. Now, don't get me started on Keith Laumer's post-stroke novels...
Of the dozen or so Heinlein style writers extant today, it's a shame they picked the feckless hippy of the lot, Spider Robonson. I'd have vastly preferred one of the hard science Heinlein style writers (such as Varley, or maybe VInge) to the hippy dippy, dated, peace love dove style of Robinson, who wouldn't know real knowledge of physics if it knocked the bong out of his hand and spilled it all over his hand knotted macrame rug, inside his dome house.
I am reminded of a technical conference I attened many years ago. The subject of one panel was "Writing RSX11 Device Drivers". Many of the leading lights in this niche of the industry were on the panel, including one of the all time greats, Ralph Stamerjohn. During the audience Q&A, one of the audience members asked the question "What should you do with new RSX11m driver developers". One of the DEC people on the panel started to answer. Ralph, a famous curmudgeon, grabbed the mike and answered "Take them out and shoot them". Ralph was probably joking...and it seems a buit extreme for 16 year old spammers, but you have to admit, the solution does have a cerain appealing sound to it...
Meh....Wales, Ireland, England, Scotland - what's the difference? Looking from the States, it's all the same to us.
If I was a kid and had one of these doohickeys installed on my car by my parents, I'd disconnect it and take it to the local general aviation airport, and have someone there take it up for a brief 200mph flight...then stick it back in the car...
And these laptops are going to have far shorter useful lifetimes than a textbook...I have textbooks I bought for college in 1971 that are still useful (physics and math don't change that quickly, at least at the Newtonian level)...how useful will one of these laptios be 30 years from now?
UDS used to sell a line of modems that were efficient enough in their use of power that they were powered off the phone line - no power connection was required.
How much current can it source is a good thing to know in evaluating risk...but, since dry humans are pretty good insulators, without some voltage to push it, you won't flow more than a few fractions of an amp out of a 5 volt, 300A supply. You're right about jewelry, for sure - you should alway always always remove rings and watches when poking your mitts into even a low voltage source...
This reminds me of one of the troubleshooting steps taught to me by my old motorcycle gang bros...when you're troubleshooting an engine fails to start problem, first step is decide if it is a fuel delivery or no-spark problem. If you're sure it's a no-spark problem, then firmly grasp the metal part of the spark plug lead and kick the engine over...what's that, you're not willing to do that? Then, you aren't really sure it's a no-spark problem - keep thinking and testing until you are.
Check out the Crypt of Civilization at Oglethorpe University...serious preserveation of civilization in that effort.
Hah! That reminds me of the old checklist for engine out emergency landing at night. When you get down to 100 feet above ground, turn on the landing lights. If you don't like what you see...turn them off...
"There's a lot of crap too".....it's like Theodore Sturgeon said, when someone told him that 90% of science fiction is crap. He replied "90% of everything is crap"...too true...
Just be glad you're not old enough to have gone through the fourth generation language management wars...managers were convinved by that hype that we could buy thes products and then we'd be able to get results by talking to the computers in English, just like the ones on the Enterprise in Star Trek. Instead, some incredibly resource wasting applications were produced, that had to be communicated with in a strange dialect of broken English - sort of a machine pidgin language...
Yah, I watched the live coverage of the first Viking pictures coming back from Mars. The picture built up slowly, line by line. Just as it was getting down to the land, about to show some real details of the surface, the network cut back to the soap operas that were nornally scheduled. That's when I realized that American civlization is doomed.
If you had been alive in the 60s, you would weep bitter tears and voice loud lamentations at their loss, and dream every day of returning to that time.
Nope, it wasn't the PDP-11s either. The VAX's most complicated, least used and most poorly understood instructions were POLYx, CRC, and INDEX (the Vector instructions were middlin' complicated as well, but not a lot of Vector processor equipped VAXes were produced and sold).