Hmmm, so... "A method, comprising: selecting pixels to be used as an emoticon; assigning a character sequence to the pixels; and transmitting the character sequence to a destination to allow for reconstruction of the pixels at the destination."
That sounds a lot like XFace used in usenet and e-mail posts (a header line that contains about 64 characters that're reconstructed into a graphic)
I doubt the voyager's in any position to be able to receive a signal from earth now. They couldn't "turn them off" even if they wanted to. After all, we need radio-telescope arrays and satelite arrays spanning miles just to pick up its signal...
OK, our power output might be capable of more, but I doubt voyager's receiver's capable of receiving even with a full power signal backed up by 3 power stations at that distance. Receivers require amplifiers, amps require power and voyager's so far from the sun now it must be almost dead. I imagine most on board systems have been shut down to conserve energy for the important sensors/transmission...
Besides which, it'd take about 3 months for the signal to get there, wouldn't it?
I think they were just talking about turning off OUR end, bunch of ignoramouses that they are.
Ah. But is it only "microscopic objects"? I can see the ransom note to the BBC now... I am going to make central london invisible to Radio 4 long wave unless you pay me.....
I saw the programme too... The problem I had with it was a previous horizon that was about global warming causing the ice in greenland to melt, diluting the waters of the gulf stream which would stop it from sinking and interrupt it, stalling the gulf stream completely.
The worst case scenario they came up with was a few hundred years of iceage in northern europe which tends to contradict the episode here that said once the ice started melting, there'd be no stopping it.
Who knows, maybe these two effects will have a cancelling effect... Another thing about an expanding ice sheet is, normally, when sunlight hits the ground, it causes warming, this heat is then emitted and bounces off the greenhouse layer, but with a larger ice sheet, the sunlight is reflected by the ice back into space without being absorbed, thus not causing heating and not adding to global warming...
The earth's a very complex system of checks and balances. This gulf stream stallage, icecap expansion and sunlight reflection could be the balance we need.
(It wouldn't be good for us lot in the UK, and the weather patterns on the rest of the planet would shift dramatically, but it might help prevent vast swathes of the surface from becoming uninhabitable the way this episode of horizon suggested)
One thing I did hear about crusade was that the cure to the drakh plague would be found quite early on, possibly first season and then they would deal with the little box that talks to the captain which would have even more serious repercussions than the plague.
But then, we knew it would be something bad due to the way it came into his posession.
Typical american response, anything that's philanthropic in nature and doesn't involve making shedloads of money is "communist".
At worst it's socialist and there is nothing (no matter how many people in america might disagree) wrong with socialist approaches to things in the right place.
"No cure for the common cold" is completely different from "no viral infection has ever been cured"
Come off it. I've had dozens of colds in my lifetime, I've always recovered from them, therefore, each individual infection was cured, by my immune system.
The only reason there's no "cure for the common cold" is because, like HIV, it's incredibly mutable and there're dozens of strains floating around that your body's never encountered.
Yes, I was wondering that too...
Now, I may be being a bit dense, here, but...
CO2 doesn't HAVE a liquid alotrope. It goes straight from solid to gas when it melts, so how do they make *liquid* CO2?
Sounds like down right theft to me. "Excuse me, mr car park attendant, but we've got to raid your car park and remove all the cars therein for national security reasons, oh, and here's a gagging order so you can't tell any of the owners why we took them. Oh, and they're unlikely to ever get them back."
So, in america innocent until proven guilty and punishment to fit the crime are last century's mottos are they.
So much for the land of the free. The US can confiscate and totally ruin a man for no good reason, offer no compensation and also REFUSE to return any goods they took when found not guilty (if charged at all)...
So, if this is the case, what next? Slashdot'll be the next to lose its hard disks because the grandparent of this article was inciting rebelion.
All of the political opposition will suddenly find themselves on the streets with no posessions because the government sees them as a threat...
Didn't your holy reverred unbreakable (but bendable sometimes) constitution have a clause in there about a person's property being "safe"?
Welcome to the new captialist version of the soviet union, I hope you enjoy it there.
Even with a probability of infinity minus one that you could find one, the Heart of Gold could manage it, it would be the one Arthur was on, and he'd be picked up a fraction of a second before the bullet hit.
Um...
You're misremembering I think.
Arthur wasn't killed by the bullet. If you wanted to make sure the earth couldn't be destroyed, you'd have to save the life of the bloke standing BEHIND Arthur, cos it was Agrajag, Arthur moved to one side and it hit him.
That's why Agrajag couldn't kill arthur when they met in his lair when he was wearing his "Revenge" body. Cos arthur hadn't been to the nightclub yet.
The movie won't be released tomorrow, though. The first episode of the new radio series will. (Actually, today from where I'm posting.)
You're posting from september?!
So, what was the first episode like then? Must've been on last night for you...
How did William Franklin do in the (IMHO) irreplacable role of the voice of the book, Peter Jones?
Did they have Simon Jones, Patrick McGivern, Mark Wing Davey and Rula Lenska (as Lintilla) in it? Can't not have Lintilla considering where the last radio series ended.
The better example of this kind of thing has to be the genius that is "Brass Eye".
None of this confrontational crap in the mould of Jerry Springer or Oprah (well, OK... Just one, involving a bloke with "Bad AIDS" because he caught it having unprotected gay sex, rather than "Good AIDS" (which would've been caught innocently in a blood transfusion). Just duping celebrities into speaking for fake causes like GAFAFWISP, an organisation setup to warn people about heavy electricity, or Cake, a new drug from eastern europe... Bernard Manning saying with all sincerity "Remember kids, cake is a made up drug, but it's not made of plants, it's made of chemicals, by sick bastards"
Another one was "cannibliss". A fake japanese advert shown to celebrities asking for their comments. (Canibliss was a filtration system, dog smokes spliff, blood cycled through filter to a human sitting next to him)
:)
Various TV programmes in the UK did similar things. Tomorrows world back in the early 80s tried a few methods of downloading from the telly.
The old tape recorder next to the tv while we play you the loading sound was the first (I tried that with the ZX81 one they broadcast... didn't work, they also did vic 20 and later, spectrum, iirc). Later, they tried a direct connection to the computer via a light sensor stuck to the screen, and a flashing black and white square. (Think that one was only for the BBC micro though)
The BAUD rate must've been in the 10s but it's still a software download...:)
Other more game oriented computer programmes used to broadcast the loading sound to things on a weekly basis.
Of course... All of this is forgetting Prestel and the games downloadable from teletext if you had the correct peripheral for your computer (again, BBC Micro only iirc)
Slashdot Mirror
Hmmm, so...
"A method, comprising: selecting pixels to be used as an emoticon; assigning a character sequence to the pixels; and transmitting the character sequence to a destination to allow for reconstruction of the pixels at the destination."
That sounds a lot like XFace used in usenet and e-mail posts (a header line that contains about 64 characters that're reconstructed into a graphic)
Crashta la vista, baby... :)
"Your senator"
nope, that didn't help. Any other bright ideas?
(Oh, and a lot of people don't HAVE a senator)
I doubt the voyager's in any position to be able to receive a signal from earth now. They couldn't "turn them off" even if they wanted to. After all, we need radio-telescope arrays and satelite arrays spanning miles just to pick up its signal...
OK, our power output might be capable of more, but I doubt voyager's receiver's capable of receiving even with a full power signal backed up by 3 power stations at that distance. Receivers require amplifiers, amps require power and voyager's so far from the sun now it must be almost dead. I imagine most on board systems have been shut down to conserve energy for the important sensors/transmission...
Besides which, it'd take about 3 months for the signal to get there, wouldn't it?
I think they were just talking about turning off OUR end, bunch of ignoramouses that they are.
Ah. But is it only "microscopic objects"?
I can see the ransom note to the BBC now...
I am going to make central london invisible to Radio 4 long wave unless you pay me.....
1 MILLION DOLLARS! Muahahahahaha.
And tne brits know what the word "wanker" means and nod sagely, while the americans think "huh? was that an insult?"
Real y'say?
You mean, a bit like, say.... xtraceroute?
Which performs a traceroute and plots the location on a globe for each hop?
Pah, flooded indeed.
:-p
They didn't sink and drown
They launched their city into space and took up residence in the pegasus galaxy.
THEN they sunk the city, deliberately.
I saw the programme too...
The problem I had with it was a previous horizon that was about global warming causing the ice in greenland to melt, diluting the waters of the gulf stream which would stop it from sinking and interrupt it, stalling the gulf stream completely.
The worst case scenario they came up with was a few hundred years of iceage in northern europe which tends to contradict the episode here that said once the ice started melting, there'd be no stopping it.
Who knows, maybe these two effects will have a cancelling effect... Another thing about an expanding ice sheet is, normally, when sunlight hits the ground, it causes warming, this heat is then emitted and bounces off the greenhouse layer, but with a larger ice sheet, the sunlight is reflected by the ice back into space without being absorbed, thus not causing heating and not adding to global warming...
The earth's a very complex system of checks and balances. This gulf stream stallage, icecap expansion and sunlight reflection could be the balance we need.
(It wouldn't be good for us lot in the UK, and the weather patterns on the rest of the planet would shift dramatically, but it might help prevent vast swathes of the surface from becoming uninhabitable the way this episode of horizon suggested)
One thing I did hear about crusade was that the cure to the drakh plague would be found quite early on, possibly first season and then they would deal with the little box that talks to the captain which would have even more serious repercussions than the plague.
But then, we knew it would be something bad due to the way it came into his posession.
Typical american response, anything that's philanthropic in nature and doesn't involve making shedloads of money is "communist".
At worst it's socialist and there is nothing (no matter how many people in america might disagree) wrong with socialist approaches to things in the right place.
(And healthcare IS one of the right places)
"No cure for the common cold" is completely different from "no viral infection has ever been cured"
Come off it. I've had dozens of colds in my lifetime, I've always recovered from them, therefore, each individual infection was cured, by my immune system.
The only reason there's no "cure for the common cold" is because, like HIV, it's incredibly mutable and there're dozens of strains floating around that your body's never encountered.
And let's not forget, there are more than the goa'ould, ancients, asgard, nox, giant misty type aliens and tollan out there.
The 4th race mentioned by the asgard were called the furlings... And we've only so far had hints about them.
Citizen jOnnystiph, crime of disrespectful and/or foul and/or desceptive language detected... Please report to orange section re-education booth 5 immediately...
*ZAP* bring on the clones....
Yes, I was wondering that too... Now, I may be being a bit dense, here, but... CO2 doesn't HAVE a liquid alotrope. It goes straight from solid to gas when it melts, so how do they make *liquid* CO2?
I know I will be. I've never once voted for Maggie, Major or Blair, and never intend to. Lib Dems for me ta.
Borders on?
Sounds like down right theft to me.
"Excuse me, mr car park attendant, but we've got to raid your car park and remove all the cars therein for national security reasons, oh, and here's a gagging order so you can't tell any of the owners why we took them. Oh, and they're unlikely to ever get them back."
So, in america innocent until proven guilty and punishment to fit the crime are last century's mottos are they.
So much for the land of the free.
The US can confiscate and totally ruin a man for no good reason, offer no compensation and also REFUSE to return any goods they took when found not guilty (if charged at all)...
So, if this is the case, what next? Slashdot'll be the next to lose its hard disks because the grandparent of this article was inciting rebelion.
All of the political opposition will suddenly find themselves on the streets with no posessions because the government sees them as a threat...
Didn't your holy reverred unbreakable (but bendable sometimes) constitution have a clause in there about a person's property being "safe"?
Welcome to the new captialist version of the soviet union, I hope you enjoy it there.
At which point, IBM will deal the fatal blow by using...
The Chewbaka defence...
Cars don't have a built in self-repair mechanism either.
Of course, there's also BBC7.
(BBC7 has repeated Hitchhikers a couple of times, they'll probably do it again sooner rather than later too)
At the moment, BBC Radio 4 and BBC7 combine to provide a heavenly monday evening's entertainment between 6:30 and 7:30 (8pm if you're a goons fan).
I couldn't live without my "I'm sorry, I haven't a clue" fix now. Totally hooked.
Even with a probability of infinity minus one that you could find one, the Heart of Gold could manage it, it would be the one Arthur was on, and he'd be picked up a fraction of a second before the bullet hit.
Um... You're misremembering I think. Arthur wasn't killed by the bullet. If you wanted to make sure the earth couldn't be destroyed, you'd have to save the life of the bloke standing BEHIND Arthur, cos it was Agrajag, Arthur moved to one side and it hit him.
That's why Agrajag couldn't kill arthur when they met in his lair when he was wearing his "Revenge" body. Cos arthur hadn't been to the nightclub yet.
The movie won't be released tomorrow, though. The first episode of the new radio series will. (Actually, today from where I'm posting.)
You're posting from september?! So, what was the first episode like then? Must've been on last night for you...
How did William Franklin do in the (IMHO) irreplacable role of the voice of the book, Peter Jones?
Did they have Simon Jones, Patrick McGivern, Mark Wing Davey and Rula Lenska (as Lintilla) in it? Can't not have Lintilla considering where the last radio series ended.
:)
The better example of this kind of thing has to be the genius that is "Brass Eye".
:)
None of this confrontational crap in the mould of Jerry Springer or Oprah (well, OK... Just one, involving a bloke with "Bad AIDS" because he caught it having unprotected gay sex, rather than "Good AIDS" (which would've been caught innocently in a blood transfusion).
Just duping celebrities into speaking for fake causes like GAFAFWISP, an organisation setup to warn people about heavy electricity, or Cake, a new drug from eastern europe... Bernard Manning saying with all sincerity "Remember kids, cake is a made up drug, but it's not made of plants, it's made of chemicals, by sick bastards"
Another one was "cannibliss". A fake japanese advert shown to celebrities asking for their comments. (Canibliss was a filtration system, dog smokes spliff, blood cycled through filter to a human sitting next to him)
Various TV programmes in the UK did similar things. Tomorrows world back in the early 80s tried a few methods of downloading from the telly.
:)
The old tape recorder next to the tv while we play you the loading sound was the first (I tried that with the ZX81 one they broadcast... didn't work, they also did vic 20 and later, spectrum, iirc). Later, they tried a direct connection to the computer via a light sensor stuck to the screen, and a flashing black and white square. (Think that one was only for the BBC micro though)
The BAUD rate must've been in the 10s but it's still a software download...
Other more game oriented computer programmes used to broadcast the loading sound to things on a weekly basis.
Of course... All of this is forgetting Prestel and the games downloadable from teletext if you had the correct peripheral for your computer (again, BBC Micro only iirc)