Taller gear = faster acceleration, less top speed. "High" numbered gears are actually physically smaller ones. Think of a mountain bike and how 1st gear was the biggest gear and utterly useless for anything other than falling off your bike.:)
There are three series' of books I truly sunk my teeth into early in my life.
The Dragonriders of Pern was one of them. High fantasy bravado mixed with Sci Fi. Loved it. Still read the newer ones from time to time.
Shannara was another. Post apocalyptic epic high fantasy with hints of steampunk. Was one of my first tastes of geekdom (and still one of the sweetest).
And last but not even close to least, the entire 21 book saga known as Robotech. Classic Japanese SciFi (mecha, aliens, romance, and more!) adapted for north america. It took me a loooong time (mostly trying to hunt the books down in the right order!) but devouring this series was one of my proudest accomplishments as a young boy. And if I had the time in my life, i'd do it again as an adult. It was fucking awesome.
Ok, I know its not much younger than BG2, but have you tried Knights of the Old Republic? Even if you're not a Star Wars nerd, its an AWESOME CRPG.
KotOR 2, on the other hand, isn't quite as good. If you can get past the bugs, the missing planet, and the fact that the ending kind of falls flat, it's still oodles of fun though. Just another victim of being rushed out the door.
Anyways, I recommend the KotOR series simply for the fact that my girlfriend who is
a) Not much of a geek.
b) "Hates" D&D even though I pointed out to her that the KotOR ruleset is just a simplified version of D&D.
c) Not usually into RPGs and only has a passing interest in Star Wars.
Is absofrikkinloutely in love with the series. And if she can fall in love with it, it must be pretty damn good.
After looking at all that, am I the only one who is sorta taken by how complicated it is, and under the impression I am looking at the various complications of a four barrel carburetor?
(Before anyone makes the "Big Three" jokes, I have friends who say that really GM/DC/Ford are much more like the Hells Angels than a pack of Greasers. They don't really sit around at Arnold's diner, they just show up with guns and take what they want.
Fixed... I think. We still use car analogies here at Slashdot, right??
Um... it IS CUDA. Or rather, its an extension for CUDA.
From what I understand, nVidia took the PhysX engine they bought from Ageia and ported it to their own language (CUDA) so that it would run on their graphics cards, so people didn't have to shell out for a second $300 "Physics Processing Unit", thus boosting nVidia's GPU sales.
I ran into a problem with an old ISP over this. I was "using too much bandwidth" even though they refused to tell me what exactly "too much" was. I told them their service says "unlimited". Well, turns out their "unlimited" claim supposedly means "unlimited access", as in available 24/7 (and they couldn't even always manage that!), not "unlimited traffic".
So I told them that they could go to hell and that I would be taking my internet and TV services elsewhere. At this point they began groveling at my feet, but it was way too late.:)
As far as I understand it as a Canadian (similar but not completely identical systems), there is no fixed term for the PM or upper house (of Lords in the UK, the Senate in Canada), but the lower (elected) House of Commons (both countries) is limited to 5 year terms. Now the only way for the House of Commons to 'eject' a PM as it were is for a major bill to fail to pass through the house of commons. This is called a "vote of no confidence" and basically means that if the PM can't get something important, like a budget, through the lower house, then the government must be dissolved. It's very rare, at least in Canada. Now assuming the people have elected a majority government or a majority coalition where its virtually impossible to pass a vote of no confidence, then basically once you elect a party (and it's leader) to government you're stuck with them for at least 5 years. Your absolute last ditch effort is for enough people to convince their members of parliament (the person you elected to the house of commons) to vote against their own party, or at least apply pressure to the PM for change. It wouldn't happen except in an extreme situation.
And they wonder why voter turnout in Canada (and the UK, incidentally) has been sliding for years...
Believe it. "Pullman Brown"" (officially "UPS Brown") has been a trademark of United Parcel Service for a looong friggin time. They're pretty aggressive about protecting it too, seeing as how their whole corporate image is tied to the color so strongly ("what can Brown do for you?" etc.)
So unfortunatly, colors being trademarked is nothing new.
A friend of mine has an erratic update loop on her Vista laptop (not the same bug as the update loop, apparently - this one would only force reboots a few times in a row/for 2-4 hours), I wonder if SP1 will fix that too... hmm.
When I worked for UPS a few years back, all of their internal sites were IE only too because they used ActiveX. A lot.
I suspect they haven't changed since then, and in a company as big slow and dumb as UPS I suspect it will take them a VERY long time to consider any alternatives.
Well you see, this is slashdot. Offtopic is actually a way to take out anger from your dog/cat/wife not putting out
I don't know what's more frightening. The fact that "dog" and "cat" are listed before wife, or the fact that some genius with mod points actually dropped a "+1 Insightful" on the parent post...
Or at least, MechWarrior was the first thing I thought of when I read this story. Not something more practical like artificial limbs. Hmm... I may need to get out more.
How can you tell between idle thoughts and thoughts that are supposed to bring about actions?
Well obviously the brain is capable of doing it, so i'm assuming there must be a way of differentiating the two by monitoring the brain closely enough. That might require more refining of this technology though, so until then you'll just have to stop thinking about sex all the time.
...and even though i'm just a lowly warehouse monkey that's only been working there for five months (hey, they let me work around school as I need, and it pays pretty good), I got $1500+ in stuff: A $400 xmass bonus (grossed up for a $400 net, just like yours), $350 in free gas (given as a credit at the companies cardlock), a $250 gift certificate to a grocery store, a hoodie, hat, mug, and a $500 end of year bonus. Hell, the new guy who'd been there exactly FOUR DAYS got a $250 cheque.
Insanity, but there's just that much fucking money in oil that they can afford to do that.
Mazda is pulling a slight of hand with their "1.3L" claim. That's the effective displacement of a single rotation of the engine. However, the total volume of all cylinders, not the effective volume of one revolution, is typically how displacement is measured in piston engines. So if you look at it from the definition of total possible volume, the true 'total' displacement of a 13B/Renesis is actually 3.9L. Now, that's not exactly fair either, since the rotary engine actually has to make three revolutions to use it's total volume, compared to two with a 4-stroke piston engine. So if you square both engines up at two revolutions each, the relative displacement of a 13B/Renesis is 2.6L. Which makes a lot more sense for the kind of power it puts out.
Rotary's are (or can be) great engines, but they're not exactly miracle motors like Mazda would like you to believe.:)
Maybe I've been working on cars too much, but why not use anti-freeze? Obviously you can't use the same stuff. However, could there be an organic (or anything safe) form of anti-freeze injected into the blood stream prior to freezing below 0c?
Some animals literally do survive short periods of freezing by producing mass quantities of glycerol (or other substances) to protect major organs. The wood frog is the only example I remember from high school biology, but I know there are other reptiles and insects (dunno about any mammals) that can survive freezing too. So it's definitely possible, even if it involves a little bit of playing god.
We can make synthetic fuel. It's just not economically viable... yet. Synthetic lubricants are much more common, and practical. Though the definition of "practical" is slightly twisted when dealing with $2,000 a barrel (55 gal) synthetic gear lube.
It sure is funny to see someone pop a drum of that stuff with a forklift.
(Less funny: Trying to stop it from leaking, and cleaning up after draining what's left into buckets)
The only bit of blue gear I really hate is the reciever on my Logitech z680's. I don't mind the power indicator... its the bloody display, and its BLINDING blue backlight. ARGH! The thing is im-friggin-possible to read unless you're two feet away and staring at it head on. And at night (sometimes I listen to podcasts before bed) it lights up my whole damn room. Sucks, but I gotta live with it. *Sigh*
Other than that though, none of my blue LED goodies (and I seem to have a lot... cases, thumb drives, monitors, yeesh...) none of them really bother me. A lot of them actually look pretty spiffy IMO. Even my cell phone which does happen to have a blue backlight for the keys... its nice and crisp, looks great! There's nothing wrong with the color really, as long as its used in moderation.
Slashdot Mirror
Taller gear = faster acceleration, less top speed. "High" numbered gears are actually physically smaller ones. Think of a mountain bike and how 1st gear was the biggest gear and utterly useless for anything other than falling off your bike. :)
There are three series' of books I truly sunk my teeth into early in my life.
The Dragonriders of Pern was one of them. High fantasy bravado mixed with Sci Fi. Loved it. Still read the newer ones from time to time.
Shannara was another. Post apocalyptic epic high fantasy with hints of steampunk. Was one of my first tastes of geekdom (and still one of the sweetest).
And last but not even close to least, the entire 21 book saga known as Robotech. Classic Japanese SciFi (mecha, aliens, romance, and more!) adapted for north america. It took me a loooong time (mostly trying to hunt the books down in the right order!) but devouring this series was one of my proudest accomplishments as a young boy. And if I had the time in my life, i'd do it again as an adult. It was fucking awesome.
Anyways, those are where I started.
Ok, I know its not much younger than BG2, but have you tried Knights of the Old Republic? Even if you're not a Star Wars nerd, its an AWESOME CRPG.
KotOR 2, on the other hand, isn't quite as good. If you can get past the bugs, the missing planet, and the fact that the ending kind of falls flat, it's still oodles of fun though. Just another victim of being rushed out the door.
Anyways, I recommend the KotOR series simply for the fact that my girlfriend who is
a) Not much of a geek.
b) "Hates" D&D even though I pointed out to her that the KotOR ruleset is just a simplified version of D&D.
c) Not usually into RPGs and only has a passing interest in Star Wars.
Is absofrikkinloutely in love with the series. And if she can fall in love with it, it must be pretty damn good.
After looking at all that, am I the only one who is sorta taken by how complicated it is, and under the impression I am looking at the various complications of a four barrel carburetor?
(Before anyone makes the "Big Three" jokes, I have friends who say that really GM/DC/Ford are much more like the Hells Angels than a pack of Greasers. They don't really sit around at Arnold's diner, they just show up with guns and take what they want.
Fixed... I think. We still use car analogies here at Slashdot, right??
They haven't done so because they're subscribers to PhysX's competition - Havok.
AMD / ATI / Havok
vs
Intel / nVidia / PhysX
Pick your side!
(Ok so it doesn't quite work like that but dividing battle lines evenly makes it less confusing than it really is)
Um... it IS CUDA. Or rather, its an extension for CUDA.
From what I understand, nVidia took the PhysX engine they bought from Ageia and ported it to their own language (CUDA) so that it would run on their graphics cards, so people didn't have to shell out for a second $300 "Physics Processing Unit", thus boosting nVidia's GPU sales.
And now someones ported it to ATI.
*Nelson Laugh*
You missed the funny. That quote is from the game Half Life. :)
I ran into a problem with an old ISP over this. I was "using too much bandwidth" even though they refused to tell me what exactly "too much" was. I told them their service says "unlimited". Well, turns out their "unlimited" claim supposedly means "unlimited access", as in available 24/7 (and they couldn't even always manage that!), not "unlimited traffic".
:)
So I told them that they could go to hell and that I would be taking my internet and TV services elsewhere. At this point they began groveling at my feet, but it was way too late.
As far as I understand it as a Canadian (similar but not completely identical systems), there is no fixed term for the PM or upper house (of Lords in the UK, the Senate in Canada), but the lower (elected) House of Commons (both countries) is limited to 5 year terms. Now the only way for the House of Commons to 'eject' a PM as it were is for a major bill to fail to pass through the house of commons. This is called a "vote of no confidence" and basically means that if the PM can't get something important, like a budget, through the lower house, then the government must be dissolved. It's very rare, at least in Canada. Now assuming the people have elected a majority government or a majority coalition where its virtually impossible to pass a vote of no confidence, then basically once you elect a party (and it's leader) to government you're stuck with them for at least 5 years. Your absolute last ditch effort is for enough people to convince their members of parliament (the person you elected to the house of commons) to vote against their own party, or at least apply pressure to the PM for change. It wouldn't happen except in an extreme situation.
And they wonder why voter turnout in Canada (and the UK, incidentally) has been sliding for years...
Believe it. "Pullman Brown"" (officially "UPS Brown") has been a trademark of United Parcel Service for a looong friggin time. They're pretty aggressive about protecting it too, seeing as how their whole corporate image is tied to the color so strongly ("what can Brown do for you?" etc.)
So unfortunatly, colors being trademarked is nothing new.
A friend of mine has an erratic update loop on her Vista laptop (not the same bug as the update loop, apparently - this one would only force reboots a few times in a row/for 2-4 hours), I wonder if SP1 will fix that too... hmm.
When I worked for UPS a few years back, all of their internal sites were IE only too because they used ActiveX. A lot.
I suspect they haven't changed since then, and in a company as big slow and dumb as UPS I suspect it will take them a VERY long time to consider any alternatives.
...'cuz I want my own freakin BattleMech!
Or at least, MechWarrior was the first thing I thought of when I read this story. Not something more practical like artificial limbs. Hmm... I may need to get out more.
Well obviously the brain is capable of doing it, so i'm assuming there must be a way of differentiating the two by monitoring the brain closely enough. That might require more refining of this technology though, so until then you'll just have to stop thinking about sex all the time.
...and even though i'm just a lowly warehouse monkey that's only been working there for five months (hey, they let me work around school as I need, and it pays pretty good), I got $1500+ in stuff: A $400 xmass bonus (grossed up for a $400 net, just like yours), $350 in free gas (given as a credit at the companies cardlock), a $250 gift certificate to a grocery store, a hoodie, hat, mug, and a $500 end of year bonus. Hell, the new guy who'd been there exactly FOUR DAYS got a $250 cheque.
Insanity, but there's just that much fucking money in oil that they can afford to do that.
1) Buy/Pay-off "neutral expert"
2) Resume "business" as normal
3) ???
4) Profit!
Mazda is pulling a slight of hand with their "1.3L" claim. That's the effective displacement of a single rotation of the engine. However, the total volume of all cylinders, not the effective volume of one revolution, is typically how displacement is measured in piston engines. So if you look at it from the definition of total possible volume, the true 'total' displacement of a 13B/Renesis is actually 3.9L. Now, that's not exactly fair either, since the rotary engine actually has to make three revolutions to use it's total volume, compared to two with a 4-stroke piston engine. So if you square both engines up at two revolutions each, the relative displacement of a 13B/Renesis is 2.6L. Which makes a lot more sense for the kind of power it puts out.
:)
Rotary's are (or can be) great engines, but they're not exactly miracle motors like Mazda would like you to believe.
Let me guess. You're from Soviet Russia, yes?
We can make synthetic fuel. It's just not economically viable... yet. Synthetic lubricants are much more common, and practical. Though the definition of "practical" is slightly twisted when dealing with $2,000 a barrel (55 gal) synthetic gear lube.
It sure is funny to see someone pop a drum of that stuff with a forklift.
(Less funny: Trying to stop it from leaking, and cleaning up after draining what's left into buckets)
The only bit of blue gear I really hate is the reciever on my Logitech z680's. I don't mind the power indicator... its the bloody display, and its BLINDING blue backlight. ARGH! The thing is im-friggin-possible to read unless you're two feet away and staring at it head on. And at night (sometimes I listen to podcasts before bed) it lights up my whole damn room. Sucks, but I gotta live with it. *Sigh*
Other than that though, none of my blue LED goodies (and I seem to have a lot... cases, thumb drives, monitors, yeesh...) none of them really bother me. A lot of them actually look pretty spiffy IMO. Even my cell phone which does happen to have a blue backlight for the keys... its nice and crisp, looks great! There's nothing wrong with the color really, as long as its used in moderation.