The way I heard it was, it was originally called Alumium. Then some American added an extra n to make it Aluminum, and then some Brit added the extra i to make it more like the rest of the element names: Aluminium. So technically the Yanks are more correct if you're talking about which came first.
But since I'm a Brit and Aluminum always sounds so stupid I call shenanigans. It's Aluminium, you yanks are so stupid, it's got an extra i in it now, jeezus wouldja catch up already.
My personal theory on speed cameras is that they aren't there to catch everyone that speeds at all. They're there to catch people driving without due care and attention.
Most, if not all speed cameras, despite popular myth, are situated in clearly visible positions and warning signs are placed in advance of your approach (in the UK this is). As far as I'm concerned, if you get caught by a speed camera then one of two things has happened. Either:
a) You were driving sooooooo fast that you had no time to slow down to the prescribed limit - in which case you are guilty of dangerous driving regardless of the limit.
b) You didn't see it - in which case you weren't paying attention to the road signs and dangers so are guilty of driving without due care.
Either charge is more serious than speeding and the police know that, but they are harder to prove and more expensive to get through courts, so we have speeding fines instead. Those drivers who routinely speed everywhere yet never get caught speeding must be better at spotting upcoming hazards.
They're not designed to catch speeders, but to catch people who aren't competent enough on the road to be speeding.
Plenty of people complain about speed cameras and an unfortunate side effect of this is that it is becoming socially acceptable to speed, because it wasn't you it was the camera. That's what I find more abhorrent.
Except the stupid thing about that rhyme for the purposes of rememberin' is that lots of months have three syllables ending in ber and other months have one syllable, so you could equally say:
Thirty days have september, april, may and december,
or
Thirty days have november, august, march and october,
There is no system in place to prevent this, you just have to know (remember) what the months are in the first two lines which provides no benefit over just remembering them anyway.
The knuckle thing requires no remembering except that February has 28/29 days which is something most people don't have a problem with.
Slightly OT. Another common not-time-related rememberin' device is 'i before e except after c' which I never understood because it's bollocks. I always say it as 'i before e except after c and h and w and some other letters as well but not always, you just have to learn how to spell properly yourself'.
I can't remember exactly where I saw it. I'm fairly certain it was a documentary on TV from a very long time ago. It was explained as the reason why we have 60 minutes in the hour and 12 hours on the clock face and was the counting method favoured by Babylonians.
I've also used the knuckle-valley calendar for most of my life. I can't remember where I picked it up from but it's definitely more effective than that stupid rhyme which has no reliable method for remembering which month to say next.
Open your left hand palm facing you. Now point with your thumb to the bottom division of your index finger. One. Now point to the middle section. Two. And the top of your index finger. Three. Then start at the bottom of your middle finger. Four. and so on until you reach the top of your little finger. Twelve. Now open your right hand palm facing towards you and close your thumb towards your palm. This one digit down records the Twelve. Two digits, twenty-four and so on until you have a fist (Sixty).
Alternatively you might also keep track of the twelves the same way you do the units in which case a full set would get you 144. Gross
I can personally guarantee that following its successful release on DVD about 5 months will elapse before it will be broadcast on Fox/Sky/Highest Bidder's station.
This is a well rehearsed tactic in the UK. Coronation Street was the most famous example. ITV made a special one-off video only episode of the long running serial, just in time for Christmas. Then in February or March, they broadcast it on TV. They were sued and had to pay back lots of people who bought the video under the impression that it was the only way they could see it.
Now no-one would now be as stupid to claim that this will never be broadcast on TV. The way I see it all they're doing is swapping around the TV/DVD release dates. This will ensure greater sales of the DVD from devoted fans since none of them will have had the opportunity to see it on TV and record it for themselves (ahem) and then they can just broadcast it anyway and pick up the rest of the DVD sales from not so devoted punters.
I used to have a set of top trump cards with the Death Star in. That card was one of the best having massive weight and firepower but it's downfall was always speed. As I recall it was one of the slowest in the pack coming in at 2km/s. At that speed they surely would all have crumbled to death long before reaching the rebel base. For all intents it was pretty much stationary. Although I suppose you could use gravity to increase its speed but that would still take a long time.
British (English) slang. Derived from the word Business.
Something may be described as "The Business" pronounced "Biz-Niss" hence "Bees Knees" or "The Dog's Bollocks" or "The Mutt's Nuts" all pretty much mean something is good.
I'm glad to see so many agree. I read this and thought the guy must be either heroically misinformed or smoking a seriously high grade of crack.
I won't go into all of his points but the 64bit bit is torn to shreds by the article over at Ars. Apple are moving to Intel from the bottom up, not the top down. At the moment only the G5 offerings are 64 bit so there is no regression by moving all the G4s to 32bit Intel chips first while Apple wait for Intel's 64bit chips to come along by the end of 2007 which is when the PowerMac is due to be upgraded.
Lets hope that they can develop a system wide word context recognition tool which will automatically correct people who don't know HOW THE HELL TO SPELL LOSE!!
I was seriously disappointed by Nemesis. Ok I'm know I'm not alone on that score, but it might not be entirely be for the same reason. The trailers for Nemesis hinted to me that more was to come, I believe the phrase used was "beginning of the end". I understood this to imply that a new virulent enemy was being created for the crew of Enterprise, with the Borg out of the picture. I was also expecting this to be at least a 2 or 3 film story arc, leaving more scope for darker endings and major character carnage. But alas it turned out to be another one film, big bad ship extended episode. I hope someone has the balls to come up with a proper trilogy without having to rely on a series of popular books. And no, not Lucas, and not a prequel.
I've been dragged along to see all three films so far and I'd say the third was in a different league to the other two but each film has improved on the previous.
I just wish someone would go back and re-render all the CGI in the first film. Parts of that (particularly the Quidditch (sp?) scenes) looked no better than a console game. They really were appallingly rushed and are a stain on what would otherwise be a nice little DVD boxset in the future.
They should just do it. Imagine the weight that will be lost just from 70million people getting up out of their reclining chairs to give the TV a bash.
Then when they realise that there is no more TV they will leave fitter, more active lives. discovering things like fresh air and ambition. This new America populated by fierce go-geters truly will be a force to be reckoned with. They'd likely take over the world. Oh wait...
It wasn't so long ago that Adobe was semi-threatening to drop the Mac version of Photoshop.
What if, in the future, things get a little choppy and Adobe drop GoLive and ImageReady (or Dreamweaver and Firewors - whichever survive). What is the alternative? Buy a PC?
This gives Adobe incredible leverage over Apple - should they need it.
When Panther came out there was also an option, at least in the UK, for educational customers to purchase a CD only pack. the price was around £12. I know because I bought it. Check out the Apple Store for Education or try to find the educational price list which is what it was on last time.
Exactly. Until you've actually produced something unique, whether it be artistic or useful, you have no right to demand that everybody that does keep their work free of DRM.
How will you feel when your masterpiece is disseminated amongst the masses for no repayment.
Anyone that promotes those free MP3 sites as viable alternatives to buying from 'The Man' is living in a dreamworld. Sure there may be a few idealists out there who are giving for the sake of it but I'm sure a lot of them are just individuals and bands who just can't get a recording contract. And if/when they finally do they'll probably want to protect their works too.
It's like the one obnoxious kid in the class won't shut up. The teacher turns around and says "the next time you do that, the whole class stays behind" The kid does it. And the whole class loves him for it.
Would you really we rather we didn't have the iTunes Music Store?
Reminds me of a Lee & Herring sketch where an Amish type of family had chosen an arbitrary date of 1982 as their cut off point. Everything produced after 1982 was evil.
They had an atari 2600 console and could play Pong but not Pacman (1983)
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think any of the mods are old enough to get the reference.
What a waste.
A PINT! That's nearly a whole armful.
Why not download Celestia [Google it] and measure it for yourself over the last 60,000 years ;-)
Yes, but how does pr0n look on it?
like this
The way I heard it was, it was originally called Alumium. Then some American added an extra n to make it Aluminum, and then some Brit added the extra i to make it more like the rest of the element names: Aluminium. So technically the Yanks are more correct if you're talking about which came first.
But since I'm a Brit and Aluminum always sounds so stupid I call shenanigans. It's Aluminium, you yanks are so stupid, it's got an extra i in it now, jeezus wouldja catch up already.
...and anyone who is happy to introduce themselves as a webMASTER. Wanker.
My personal theory on speed cameras is that they aren't there to catch everyone that speeds at all. They're there to catch people driving without due care and attention.
Most, if not all speed cameras, despite popular myth, are situated in clearly visible positions and warning signs are placed in advance of your approach (in the UK this is). As far as I'm concerned, if you get caught by a speed camera then one of two things has happened. Either:
a) You were driving sooooooo fast that you had no time to slow down to the prescribed limit - in which case you are guilty of dangerous driving regardless of the limit.
b) You didn't see it - in which case you weren't paying attention to the road signs and dangers so are guilty of driving without due care.
Either charge is more serious than speeding and the police know that, but they are harder to prove and more expensive to get through courts, so we have speeding fines instead. Those drivers who routinely speed everywhere yet never get caught speeding must be better at spotting upcoming hazards.
They're not designed to catch speeders, but to catch people who aren't competent enough on the road to be speeding.
Plenty of people complain about speed cameras and an unfortunate side effect of this is that it is becoming socially acceptable to speed, because it wasn't you it was the camera. That's what I find more abhorrent.
Except the stupid thing about that rhyme for the purposes of rememberin' is that lots of months have three syllables ending in ber and other months have one syllable, so you could equally say:
Thirty days have september,
april, may and december,
or
Thirty days have november,
august, march and october,
There is no system in place to prevent this, you just have to know (remember) what the months are in the first two lines which provides no benefit over just remembering them anyway.
The knuckle thing requires no remembering except that February has 28/29 days which is something most people don't have a problem with.
Slightly OT. Another common not-time-related rememberin' device is 'i before e except after c' which I never understood because it's bollocks. I always say it as 'i before e except after c and h and w and some other letters as well but not always, you just have to learn how to spell properly yourself'.
Have you tried maintaining the figure 8 or 64 using that method, or worse, try doing 192 without putting yourself in hospital.
I can't remember exactly where I saw it. I'm fairly certain it was a documentary on TV from a very long time ago. It was explained as the reason why we have 60 minutes in the hour and 12 hours on the clock face and was the counting method favoured by Babylonians.
I've also used the knuckle-valley calendar for most of my life. I can't remember where I picked it up from but it's definitely more effective than that stupid rhyme which has no reliable method for remembering which month to say next.
You can count up to 60 on your hands like this:
Open your left hand palm facing you. Now point with your thumb to the bottom division of your index finger. One.
Now point to the middle section. Two.
And the top of your index finger. Three.
Then start at the bottom of your middle finger. Four. and so on until you reach the top of your little finger. Twelve.
Now open your right hand palm facing towards you and close your thumb towards your palm. This one digit down records the Twelve. Two digits, twenty-four and so on until you have a fist (Sixty).
Alternatively you might also keep track of the twelves the same way you do the units in which case a full set would get you 144. Gross
I can personally guarantee that following its successful release on DVD about 5 months will elapse before it will be broadcast on Fox/Sky/Highest Bidder's station.
This is a well rehearsed tactic in the UK. Coronation Street was the most famous example. ITV made a special one-off video only episode of the long running serial, just in time for Christmas. Then in February or March, they broadcast it on TV. They were sued and had to pay back lots of people who bought the video under the impression that it was the only way they could see it.
Now no-one would now be as stupid to claim that this will never be broadcast on TV. The way I see it all they're doing is swapping around the TV/DVD release dates. This will ensure greater sales of the DVD from devoted fans since none of them will have had the opportunity to see it on TV and record it for themselves (ahem) and then they can just broadcast it anyway and pick up the rest of the DVD sales from not so devoted punters.
I used to have a set of top trump cards with the Death Star in. That card was one of the best having massive weight and firepower but it's downfall was always speed. As I recall it was one of the slowest in the pack coming in at 2km/s. At that speed they surely would all have crumbled to death long before reaching the rebel base. For all intents it was pretty much stationary. Although I suppose you could use gravity to increase its speed but that would still take a long time.
Bees Knees
British (English) slang. Derived from the word Business.
Something may be described as "The Business" pronounced "Biz-Niss" hence "Bees Knees" or "The Dog's Bollocks" or "The Mutt's Nuts" all pretty much mean something is good.
Alright bloke.
I'm glad to see so many agree. I read this and thought the guy must be either heroically misinformed or smoking a seriously high grade of crack.
I won't go into all of his points but the 64bit bit is torn to shreds by the article over at Ars. Apple are moving to Intel from the bottom up, not the top down. At the moment only the G5 offerings are 64 bit so there is no regression by moving all the G4s to 32bit Intel chips first while Apple wait for Intel's 64bit chips to come along by the end of 2007 which is when the PowerMac is due to be upgraded.
In short - WTF!!
Would that be worse than hearing the plinky plonky sting that comes at the end of every other PC advert playing over the new iMac?
shudder
Lets hope that they can develop a system wide word context recognition tool which will automatically correct people who don't know HOW THE HELL TO SPELL LOSE!!
I was seriously disappointed by Nemesis. Ok I'm know I'm not alone on that score, but it might not be entirely be for the same reason.
The trailers for Nemesis hinted to me that more was to come, I believe the phrase used was "beginning of the end".
I understood this to imply that a new virulent enemy was being created for the crew of Enterprise, with the Borg out of the picture. I was also expecting this to be at least a 2 or 3 film story arc, leaving more scope for darker endings and major character carnage. But alas it turned out to be another one film, big bad ship extended episode.
I hope someone has the balls to come up with a proper trilogy without having to rely on a series of popular books. And no, not Lucas, and not a prequel.
Jeezus, I can hardly read that damned text image.
I've been dragged along to see all three films so far and I'd say the third was in a different league to the other two but each film has improved on the previous.
I just wish someone would go back and re-render all the CGI in the first film. Parts of that (particularly the Quidditch (sp?) scenes) looked no better than a console game. They really were appallingly rushed and are a stain on what would otherwise be a nice little DVD boxset in the future.
They should just do it. Imagine the weight that will be lost just from 70million people getting up out of their reclining chairs to give the TV a bash.
Then when they realise that there is no more TV they will leave fitter, more active lives. discovering things like fresh air and ambition. This new America populated by fierce go-geters truly will be a force to be reckoned with. They'd likely take over the world. Oh wait...
It wasn't so long ago that Adobe was semi-threatening to drop the Mac version of Photoshop.
What if, in the future, things get a little choppy and Adobe drop GoLive and ImageReady (or Dreamweaver and Firewors - whichever survive). What is the alternative? Buy a PC?
This gives Adobe incredible leverage over Apple - should they need it.
When Panther came out there was also an option, at least in the UK, for educational customers to purchase a CD only pack. the price was around £12. I know because I bought it.
Check out the Apple Store for Education or try to find the educational price list which is what it was on last time.
Exactly. Until you've actually produced something unique, whether it be artistic or useful, you have no right to demand that everybody that does keep their work free of DRM.
How will you feel when your masterpiece is disseminated amongst the masses for no repayment.
Anyone that promotes those free MP3 sites as viable alternatives to buying from 'The Man' is living in a dreamworld. Sure there may be a few idealists out there who are giving for the sake of it but I'm sure a lot of them are just individuals and bands who just can't get a recording contract. And if/when they finally do they'll probably want to protect their works too.
It's like the one obnoxious kid in the class won't shut up.
The teacher turns around and says "the next time you do that, the whole class stays behind"
The kid does it.
And the whole class loves him for it.
Would you really we rather we didn't have the iTunes Music Store?
bye bye positive karma.
Reminds me of a Lee & Herring sketch where an Amish type of family had chosen an arbitrary date of 1982 as their cut off point. Everything produced after 1982 was evil.
They had an atari 2600 console and could play Pong but not Pacman (1983)