On 21 February 2001, ICANN's Chief Registrar Liaison, Dan Halloran, sent you an e-mail pointing out that the contact details for yorkstreethardware.com were inaccurate. According to VeriSign's Whois data, the domain was registered to "Toto", residing at "the yellow brick road" in "Oz, KS 06750".
Thanks, if only for that quote! I had a good laugh over that one.
Re:Anyone read the short story?
on
Minority Report
·
· Score: 2
The premise is the same: the director of Pre-Crime is implicated in a pre-mediated murder of an individual he does not know. He runs, swearing he will never commit the murder. In the interim, he sneaks back into Pre-crime to get the minority report.
Other than that, the movie and book diverge on the plot, technology, most of the minor points of the pre-cogs, everything about the minority report (including Anderton's knowledge about the report, how it is obtained, what it means), the reason for the murder, the specifics of the ending, the level of coverage of Pre-Crime (national versus local), the specifics of antagonism between John Anderton and the other guy (in the book, he is a young go-getter that wants Anderton's job and is being groomed as his successor), Anderton's family and co-workers (including the old guy, who is not in the story at all), any habits he has, what happens to pre-murderers, most of the history leading up to the story (the book discusses an Anglo-Chinese war, which the main plotline draws from), and the future that the story takes place.
Here is a summary of the short story:
Anderton, and man nearing retirement age, is meeting his future replacement for the first time. He instinctively dislikes the man, out of simple jealousy/self preservation.
That day, he flips through the file cards from the breathing lumps of soulless flesh that are the pre-cogs. They technically are human, but are considered as sub-human, mental retards with pre-cog abilities that just lie in a vat and babble. The babble is translated by computers into the future, and not just murders. Anderton makes the off-the-cuff remark about how some of the information is funnelled off to other organizations. The army also has a system identical to Anderton's (with different pre-cogs) which creates a safeguard system to Pre-Crime (or the army). One last note: Anderton remarks the pre-criminals are sent to detention camps.
Anderton finds in one of the cards that in 36 hours, he will kill someone that he doesn't know. He immediately suspects the new guy is trying to set him up so he can wrest Pre-Crime away from Anderton. Anderton runs, and is caught by people who work from the individual. The individual is a member of the officer's club of people that fought in the Anglo-China war who found out about his murder from his army buddies. He tries to turn Anderton over the authorties, but Anderton is saved by some-one that claims to be working against Pre-Crime. Anderton is given money, a new identity that allows for travelling, and is sent off to clear his name.
Anderton decides to break back into Pre-Crime to see if a minority report is created about his case. He succeeds in breaking in and he does have a minority report: two precogs believe he is going to kill, but the third disagrees. It claims that when Anderton is made aware of his future crime, he doesn't commit it. Vindicated, he returns to his victim with this proof, but on the way, is almost captured by his replacement. His anonymous benefactor saves him again, but then is disabled by Anderton when the man tries to disable Anderton's wife. Anderton learns that the man is a member of the army and works with his victim.
This victim is delighted that he won't be killed, and not just for the obvious reason. Apparently, he dislikes Pre-Crime, and hopes to ride this issue and the disarry that happens because of it to rise to power. Anderton, shocked that this man is going to both destroy something that he believes so dearly in and use this destruction to further his own agenda, kills the man. As punishment for committing the first murder in the nation since Pre-Crime was started, he is exported to an off-world colony with his wife.
In the conclusion, we find why the minority was created:
- the first report was created when the first pre-cog saw the murder.
- the second report, the minority report, was created when the second pre-cog took into account the new future created by Anderton seeing the pre-cog report.
-the third report was created when the third pre-cog took into account that Anderton would succeed in showing the minority report to the intended victim, and Anderton's decision to kill him.
It is mentioned that the only way that the pre-cogs are so out of sync is because they sample differnet futures caused by Anderton's knowledge of their predictions.
Re:In past ages the philosphers...
on
Homogenized Music
·
· Score: 1
The/worst/ thing to happen would be for a govt to socialize the thing and freeze CCU in it's current form
No, you are completely wrong.
The worst thing that can happen is CCU declares bankruptcy, and sells off a lot of stations at a bargrain price to an organization with a ton of money, a vested interest in the music industry, and very few morals.
Sound like any organization you know of *cough* RIAA *cough*?
We don't have an equation of gravity that works for more then two bodies of mass, but what we can do is model each pair interaction for a short time interval, modify the system accordingly, advance the timer one tick, and repeat.
WTF? What is your mathematical background to say this? The mathematics to calculate the total force on an object, be the forces gravitional, electro-magnetic, kinetic, etc. is incredibly basic. Ever hear of a little thing called a Free Body Diagram? Solving a multi-body gravitional system with free body diagrams on each body is a trivial exercise in basic vector calculus. At worst, you have to solve sets of differential equations, given that radius between any two bodies is changing as a direct function of time, and that acceleration of a given body is changing as a second derivative of time.
To say that we don't have an equation is either obtuse, naive, or a deliberate troll.
[BLOCKQUOTE]"The People's Liberation Army does not yet have the capability to carry out its intended goal of disrupting Taiwanese military and civilian infrastructures or U.S. military logistics using computer virus attacks," said the CIA's report, which was included in a broader national security assessment that authorities distributed to intelligence officials. [/BLOCKQUOTE]
What, they don't have a text editor and a book Visual Basic? Could it be that Microsoft's monopolistic pricing schemes has saved democracy?
First: congratulations!
Second: out of perverse curiousity, I would like to see a picture of the bride-to-be. All I know is that all of the pictures have the word "cleavage" in them. So, um, is there a *sanitized* version of said pictures so I can view them at work?:)
Ummm...hello? What planet do you live on? Apparently, one where all video cards have only one chip on them. NVidia chips have Linux drivers, true, but the chips that are used on the same video cards do NOT have Linux drivers.
Hmmm, I would disagree with you about those points. From the Star Wars fiction I have read about Boba Fett, he was originally Jaster Mereel, a Journeyman Protector on the planet Concord Dawn, and he was banished for killing a fellow protector for unknown reasons (reasons that the best defense lawyer on the planet say may have been deserved). He served time as a stormtrooper before leaving the Imperial forces and starting out as a bounty hunter.
Lastly, stormtroopers are citizens conscripted from Empire planets into Imperial service. They are not clones, aside from the clones that Grand Admiral Thrawn created during that triology of books.
Have you (or any of the TNG cast) ever rubbed it for good luck?
Are you kidding me? We'd gather every Monday morning in the center of the bridge, cry havoc, and let slip the rubbing of Patrick's head. We always wanted to rub
Shatner's bald head for luck, but he'd never take off his toupee. So we'd just rub his belly instead.
Thanks, Wil! That was the funniest thing I have seen on/. interview!
BTW, thanks for the interview; I liked your character on ST:NG, thought you did a great job playing him, and glad you posted responses here to show what a great guy you are! Good luck with your career!
Yes, I would like to see that instead of just marking "funny" posts to -2. I mean, I could assign "overrated", "redundant", and "off-topic" moderations to "0" and ignore 95% of all stupid moderations.
A "slug" is an Imperial derived unit used to measure mass, as opposed to weight. Mass is the amount of material a piece of matter consists. Weight is the amount of gravitational pull exerted on said mass. To find the mass, in slugs, of an object with weight, W (measured in lbs), you would take:
F = m * a
substitue Earth's acceleration due to gravity, 32.2f/s^2, or g, for a:
and even claims of using x-rated pictures for steganography.
So, what; I now have several gigs of "evidence" on my computer? Damn, where's that bulk eraser when you need it...
Re:I used slashdot to gauge public opinion
on
Handling the Loads
·
· Score: 2
Yes, could you have imagined the initial uproar that would have happenned if this tragedy occured on April 1st? A lot of people would have been incredible angry...until they found out it *wasn't* a joke.
A big kudos to the Slashteam! You guys really pulled through!
Time to open up your math books, sonny. You are right, in that gravity, G, is a function of masses, m and M, BUT mass is NOT a function of G!
G=f(m,M)
M!=f(G)
Therefore, mass doesn't need to have anything to do with gravity, but gravity cannot exist without mass.
Furthermore, you cannot realistical measure the mass of earth at any given time to the precision required by any lucid standards committee (especially when you using that value without a standard measure of mass to begin with), nor can you realistical the distances between object centres.
You're joking, right? You refute my claim that these calculations are speculative with numbers that are based on?.....pure, 200-proof speculation. The mind boggles.
The numbers are pure speculation? Have you looked at a diagram of our *solar system*. I mean, it pretty clear cut. How many terrestial planets are there in our system: hmmm, there is Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. *That's* *four* *out* *of* *nine*. It's not rocket science. It's counting.
Even taking your most empirical probability, that 4/9 planets are terrestrial. This is pure speculation, because we have no idea how typical our solar system is.
Well, we know of what, less than 10 solar systems, and ours is unique, so I would say that the odds of our solar system forming are at worst 1/10. You are right, we don't know for sure, but it gives us a start. A process. A methodology. From that, we can refine our model as better data comes through. And until we have better data, bluntly, you can't *disprove* my numbers. The numbers are completely valid, based on our current knowledge.
I never said *life* requires a large moon. I said *intelligent* life requires a disproportionately large moon. Assumption one: life starts in water. Assumption two: intelligent life only happens when intelligence aids in survival. Assumption three: intelligence only aids in survival because intelligence allows for the use of tools. Assumption four: main tools that early intelligence can use don't work in water (try swinging a stick, throwing a rock, or starting a fire underwater). Assumption five: life will make the transistion from aquatic to terrestial at shores. Assumption six: without a regular transitional period between land and water (say, like an inter-tidial zone caused by the gravity of a disproportionately large moon), it is unlikely to impossible that life will evolve to become terrestial.
Just because I have one fucked-up sense of irony, I present the following with tongue I cheek:
You're joking, right? You refute my claim that these calculations are speculative with numbers that are based on?.....pure, 200-proof speculation. The mind boggles.
Even taking your most empirical probability, that 4/9 planets are terrestrial. This is pure speculation, because we have no idea how typical our solar system is. The rest of your numbers either suffer from the same reliance on a single known instance from a pool of billions, or from an assumption about what life requires (life needs a large moon? How do you know that?) Life on Earth probably started around hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean; why not add plate tectonics to your list of speculations?
Of course, your values are just as valid as mine. Or as invalid. But, the process is the same.
Based on pure speculation? Not really. Let's look at our solar system, shall we:
Odds of a planet being a terrestial planet: 4/9
Odds of a planet inside the life zone: 2/9
Odds of a planet inside the life zone having and keeping a life-bearing atmosphere: 1/2
Odds of planet having a significantly-sized moon (for tidal forces, intertidal zones being a key area for the evolution of aquatic life to non-aquatic life): 1/63
Odds of planet bearing any life whatsoever: 2/9
Odds of planet having significant amounts of surface liquid water: 1/9
Total odds of intelligent life: 16/826686 = 1.94e-5
Or: intelligent life springing up once every 51668 planets. Now, feel free to massage the data as you see fit; I made the assumption that every event was mutually-exclusive (IE: intelligent life needs both life and water, but life in general doesn't need water). As well, I based the assumption that the odds are standard across the universe. From what I have read, the odds of a planet have such a disproportionately large satellite is very remote.
Hear, hear! Damned right! B5 is the best Sci-Fi TV ever. It is a series that can be watched from end to end several times in a row (all 110 episodes) and you will *still* catch something new, or understand some obscure bit of foreshadowing that originally you missed. I have seen the series several times over, and I still find myself finding new gems. The continuity of the series is great; my biggest pet peeve of ST:NG (my second favourite SF TV show) was how the events of the episode would only affect the crew for *that* episode, and would never affect them afterward.
As well, it is a very believable sci-fi series. The humans are not the most powerful race in existence. The future is dirty, dingle, and jerry-rigged; not some utopian paradise. The science is believable: Star Furies act as how spacecraft *should* act. And I love the space battles; just the little details like the space debris keeping the inertia, the way streams of pulse cannon fire missing missing hitting missing targets.
B5 is the premiere science fiction series. If you haven't watched it, and want to know how good it is without knowing anything of the story line, I would suggest watching "In The Beginning", the made-for-cable movie that relates the events of the Earth-Minbari war.
Slashdot Mirror
Why not Dean Cain respising the role of Superman? Dean Cain did an excellent job, IMHO, on TV.
Thanks, if only for that quote! I had a good laugh over that one.
The premise is the same: the director of Pre-Crime is implicated in a pre-mediated murder of an individual he does not know. He runs, swearing he will never commit the murder. In the interim, he sneaks back into Pre-crime to get the minority report.
Other than that, the movie and book diverge on the plot, technology, most of the minor points of the pre-cogs, everything about the minority report (including Anderton's knowledge about the report, how it is obtained, what it means), the reason for the murder, the specifics of the ending, the level of coverage of Pre-Crime (national versus local), the specifics of antagonism between John Anderton and the other guy (in the book, he is a young go-getter that wants Anderton's job and is being groomed as his successor), Anderton's family and co-workers (including the old guy, who is not in the story at all), any habits he has, what happens to pre-murderers, most of the history leading up to the story (the book discusses an Anglo-Chinese war, which the main plotline draws from), and the future that the story takes place.
Here is a summary of the short story:
Anderton, and man nearing retirement age, is meeting his future replacement for the first time. He instinctively dislikes the man, out of simple jealousy/self preservation.
That day, he flips through the file cards from the breathing lumps of soulless flesh that are the pre-cogs. They technically are human, but are considered as sub-human, mental retards with pre-cog abilities that just lie in a vat and babble. The babble is translated by computers into the future, and not just murders. Anderton makes the off-the-cuff remark about how some of the information is funnelled off to other organizations. The army also has a system identical to Anderton's (with different pre-cogs) which creates a safeguard system to Pre-Crime (or the army). One last note: Anderton remarks the pre-criminals are sent to detention camps.
Anderton finds in one of the cards that in 36 hours, he will kill someone that he doesn't know. He immediately suspects the new guy is trying to set him up so he can wrest Pre-Crime away from Anderton. Anderton runs, and is caught by people who work from the individual. The individual is a member of the officer's club of people that fought in the Anglo-China war who found out about his murder from his army buddies. He tries to turn Anderton over the authorties, but Anderton is saved by some-one that claims to be working against Pre-Crime. Anderton is given money, a new identity that allows for travelling, and is sent off to clear his name.
Anderton decides to break back into Pre-Crime to see if a minority report is created about his case. He succeeds in breaking in and he does have a minority report: two precogs believe he is going to kill, but the third disagrees. It claims that when Anderton is made aware of his future crime, he doesn't commit it. Vindicated, he returns to his victim with this proof, but on the way, is almost captured by his replacement. His anonymous benefactor saves him again, but then is disabled by Anderton when the man tries to disable Anderton's wife. Anderton learns that the man is a member of the army and works with his victim.
This victim is delighted that he won't be killed, and not just for the obvious reason. Apparently, he dislikes Pre-Crime, and hopes to ride this issue and the disarry that happens because of it to rise to power. Anderton, shocked that this man is going to both destroy something that he believes so dearly in and use this destruction to further his own agenda, kills the man. As punishment for committing the first murder in the nation since Pre-Crime was started, he is exported to an off-world colony with his wife.
In the conclusion, we find why the minority was created:
- the first report was created when the first pre-cog saw the murder.
- the second report, the minority report, was created when the second pre-cog took into account the new future created by Anderton seeing the pre-cog report.
-the third report was created when the third pre-cog took into account that Anderton would succeed in showing the minority report to the intended victim, and Anderton's decision to kill him.
It is mentioned that the only way that the pre-cogs are so out of sync is because they sample differnet futures caused by Anderton's knowledge of their predictions.
No, you are completely wrong.
The worst thing that can happen is CCU declares bankruptcy, and sells off a lot of stations at a bargrain price to an organization with a ton of money, a vested interest in the music industry, and very few morals.
Sound like any organization you know of *cough* RIAA *cough*?
To say that we don't have an equation is either obtuse, naive, or a deliberate troll.
[BLOCKQUOTE]"The People's Liberation Army does not yet have the capability to carry out its intended goal of disrupting Taiwanese military and civilian infrastructures or U.S. military logistics using computer virus attacks," said the CIA's report, which was included in a broader national security assessment that authorities distributed to intelligence officials. [/BLOCKQUOTE] What, they don't have a text editor and a book Visual Basic? Could it be that Microsoft's monopolistic pricing schemes has saved democracy?
First: congratulations! Second: out of perverse curiousity, I would like to see a picture of the bride-to-be. All I know is that all of the pictures have the word "cleavage" in them. So, um, is there a *sanitized* version of said pictures so I can view them at work? :)
Ummm...hello? What planet do you live on? Apparently, one where all video cards have only one chip on them. NVidia chips have Linux drivers, true, but the chips that are used on the same video cards do NOT have Linux drivers.
"They're...al...read...y...heeerrrrrrreeeeee...."
Hmmm, I would disagree with you about those points. From the Star Wars fiction I have read about Boba Fett, he was originally Jaster Mereel, a Journeyman Protector on the planet Concord Dawn, and he was banished for killing a fellow protector for unknown reasons (reasons that the best defense lawyer on the planet say may have been deserved). He served time as a stormtrooper before leaving the Imperial forces and starting out as a bounty hunter.
Lastly, stormtroopers are citizens conscripted from Empire planets into Imperial service. They are not clones, aside from the clones that Grand Admiral Thrawn created during that triology of books.
Patrick Stewart's bald head
/. interview!
by Genie1 on 09:40 AM October 15th, 2001
Have you (or any of the TNG cast) ever rubbed it for good luck?
Are you kidding me? We'd gather every Monday morning in the center of the bridge, cry havoc, and let slip the rubbing of Patrick's head. We always wanted to rub Shatner's bald head for luck, but he'd never take off his toupee. So we'd just rub his belly instead.
Thanks, Wil! That was the funniest thing I have seen on
BTW, thanks for the interview; I liked your character on ST:NG, thought you did a great job playing him, and glad you posted responses here to show what a great guy you are! Good luck with your career!
ROFLMAO!!!!! Thanks, Evangelion, and whatever stupid moderator did that! Oh, you just made my day!
Yes, I would like to see that instead of just marking "funny" posts to -2. I mean, I could assign "overrated", "redundant", and "off-topic" moderations to "0" and ignore 95% of all stupid moderations.
"Absolute anonymity breeds absolute irresponsibility"
So, Mr. McNealy, shall we assume you are now absolutely anonymous?
"I'm tired of the outrage. If you get on a plane, I want to know who you are. If you rent a crop duster, I want to know who you are,'' he said.
If you head a large corporation, I want to know who you are.
A long time ago, this man was respectable. What happened?
Oops, I should have clarified something: Weight is the amount of gravitational *force* exerted on said mass. So F = W, and the equation is:
m = W / g
A "slug" is an Imperial derived unit used to measure mass, as opposed to weight. Mass is the amount of material a piece of matter consists. Weight is the amount of gravitational pull exerted on said mass. To find the mass, in slugs, of an object with weight, W (measured in lbs), you would take:
F = m * a
substitue Earth's acceleration due to gravity, 32.2f/s^2, or g, for a:
F = m * g
and solve for m:
m = F / g
Better?
This post-graduate is a woman who has experience brewing beer...in space. If that isn't Mrs. Right, then I'll never meet her.
So, what; I now have several gigs of "evidence" on my computer? Damn, where's that bulk eraser when you need it...
Yes, could you have imagined the initial uproar that would have happenned if this tragedy occured on April 1st? A lot of people would have been incredible angry...until they found out it *wasn't* a joke.
A big kudos to the Slashteam! You guys really pulled through!
Time to open up your math books, sonny. You are right, in that gravity, G, is a function of masses, m and M, BUT mass is NOT a function of G!
G=f(m,M)
M!=f(G)
Therefore, mass doesn't need to have anything to do with gravity, but gravity cannot exist without mass.
Furthermore, you cannot realistical measure the mass of earth at any given time to the precision required by any lucid standards committee (especially when you using that value without a standard measure of mass to begin with), nor can you realistical the distances between object centres.
Yes, he said "Thank you" to Rufus (Chris Rock) after Rufus offered to put a good word in with God on Jay and Silent Bob's behalf.
Well, we know of what, less than 10 solar systems, and ours is unique, so I would say that the odds of our solar system forming are at worst 1/10. You are right, we don't know for sure, but it gives us a start. A process. A methodology. From that, we can refine our model as better data comes through. And until we have better data, bluntly, you can't *disprove* my numbers. The numbers are completely valid, based on our current knowledge.
I never said *life* requires a large moon. I said *intelligent* life requires a disproportionately large moon. Assumption one: life starts in water. Assumption two: intelligent life only happens when intelligence aids in survival. Assumption three: intelligence only aids in survival because intelligence allows for the use of tools. Assumption four: main tools that early intelligence can use don't work in water (try swinging a stick, throwing a rock, or starting a fire underwater). Assumption five: life will make the transistion from aquatic to terrestial at shores. Assumption six: without a regular transitional period between land and water (say, like an inter-tidial zone caused by the gravity of a disproportionately large moon), it is unlikely to impossible that life will evolve to become terrestial.
Of course, your values are just as valid as mine. Or as invalid. But, the process is the same.
Based on pure speculation? Not really. Let's look at our solar system, shall we:
Odds of a planet being a terrestial planet: 4/9 Odds of a planet inside the life zone: 2/9
Odds of a planet inside the life zone having and keeping a life-bearing atmosphere: 1/2
Odds of planet having a significantly-sized moon (for tidal forces, intertidal zones being a key area for the evolution of aquatic life to non-aquatic life): 1/63
Odds of planet bearing any life whatsoever: 2/9
Odds of planet having significant amounts of surface liquid water: 1/9
Total odds of intelligent life: 16/826686 = 1.94e-5
Or: intelligent life springing up once every 51668 planets. Now, feel free to massage the data as you see fit; I made the assumption that every event was mutually-exclusive (IE: intelligent life needs both life and water, but life in general doesn't need water). As well, I based the assumption that the odds are standard across the universe. From what I have read, the odds of a planet have such a disproportionately large satellite is very remote.
Hear, hear! Damned right! B5 is the best Sci-Fi TV ever. It is a series that can be watched from end to end several times in a row (all 110 episodes) and you will *still* catch something new, or understand some obscure bit of foreshadowing that originally you missed. I have seen the series several times over, and I still find myself finding new gems. The continuity of the series is great; my biggest pet peeve of ST:NG (my second favourite SF TV show) was how the events of the episode would only affect the crew for *that* episode, and would never affect them afterward.
As well, it is a very believable sci-fi series. The humans are not the most powerful race in existence. The future is dirty, dingle, and jerry-rigged; not some utopian paradise. The science is believable: Star Furies act as how spacecraft *should* act. And I love the space battles; just the little details like the space debris keeping the inertia, the way streams of pulse cannon fire missing missing hitting missing targets.
B5 is the premiere science fiction series. If you haven't watched it, and want to know how good it is without knowing anything of the story line, I would suggest watching "In The Beginning", the made-for-cable movie that relates the events of the Earth-Minbari war.