I've almost convinced myself George Lucas never made the first three Star Wars, and that it was somebody else. Look at the reviews for almost any of the other films he wrote (THX-1138, Willow, Captain EO, Star Wars I-III) and they are all rated at least an order of magnitude worse. The only other film I could find that was rated as highly was Raiders of the Lost Ark, and he shared the writing role with Philip Kaufman on that one.
So now do we need to worry about dark matter colliding with Earth? Can't this stuff be detected by looking at areas where the cosmic background radiation is lower than usual? I suppose if it were moving it would have some sort of heat signature to it...
I've tried using a dremel with the buffing attachment to remove scratches from my sunglasses. Although it began to remove the smallest scratches from the surface, it proceeded to dull the lens such that the area became opaque. As such, I don't recommend this solution...
That would normally be the case, but I have years of experience in military aircraft manufacturing. I saw numerous problems from those pictures that would have shut down any government contractor. I'm all about private aerospace companies raising the bar for government-sponsored companies, but when their facilities look like that, it is clear that the bar is not being raised at all. I wish them luck.
Those MotherShip pics are scary. For one, the work areas are very cluttered which could lead to confusion, errors, rework and overall inefficiency. It appears there is no system in place to ensure that all tools and support equipment are properly accounted for and not left in the ship. This could lead to foreign object debris (FOD) destroying the ship while it is in operation. The other scary element is the apparent lack of work stands or platforms for the mechanics. When a plane gets built, it is important to build work stands or platforms first so that the mechanics have a place to stand wherever they need to be. As you can see from the pictures, they are doing their work standing on ladders. In addition to the inefficiency factor mentioned earlier, this also leads to ergonomic and safety issues. A mechanic standing on a ladder can't do the same quality job as when both feet are firmly on a platform, especially if any riveting is involved. Oddly, SpaceShipTwo has platforms for their mechanics but the MotherShip crew only has ladders. I was actually interested in taking a ride on this until I saw the pictures of their work areas!
If anyone from Scaled wants me to come out and do a full-scale industrial engineering evaluation, feel free to contact me by replying.
I just loaded the latest nightly of WebKit, which from what I gather is supposed to be using Squirrelfish, but it still seems to run the "Wundermap" at wunderground.com more slowly than Firefox 3.0RC1. I consider the Wundermap to be the ultimate browser test, as it has to process so much JS and images... I recently tried running it on a Mac Pro 8-core at the local Apple store, and it still loaded slowly! The Mac Pro absolutely flew through everything else I threw at it, including playing multiple HD movies at the same time, but when loading the Wundermap, it is almost as slow as my puny 2.0 GHz G5.
NYSE keeps a trade and quote (TAQ) database with intraday trade data, but it is very expensive. You might be able to find free copies on DVD at certain libraries though, but more often than not they are categorized as non-circulating. You should be able to bring in a laptop though so you can analyze the data right there.
I caught the RSS title of this story and it appeared that Asus is making a 10 pound heavy battery! I thought for a second that luggables were making a comeback!
Ever since watching Back to the Future II, I was hoping that we'd have flying cars by 2015. So now all we need now is hoverboards, Gray's Sports Almanac, a few more Jaws sequels, and all lawyers must be abolished.
The problem with taxes in general is that they constrain whatever is being taxed — there is no such thing as a "fair" tax. So for income tax, income is constrained. A consumption tax constrains consumption. I am not one of the rich you wrote about, but I would much rather have a consumption tax because I don't consume very much. Plus, if I were rich, I would want the extra money for creating businesses which help provide jobs to people. The other benefit of a consumption tax is that people who ordinarily don't pay income taxes (such as drug dealers) would still end up paying a consumption tax for buying things like Hummers. As it is now, they evade the law and live tax-free. We have a huge problem in the U.S. with not saving our money, and a consumption tax would help to fix that. Saved capital provides the foundation of a good economy where businesses and jobs can be created.
Finally, we will all have tires that are invincible! This will be especially useful for road bike tires, which get sliced up rather easily compared to automobile tires...
Back in 2001, the Yes Men envisioned a wearable suit that does exactly the same thing. It was only a matter of time until a company actually proposed the idea.
If you need a firewire cable to debrick your Mac, email me your mailing address to i_love_junk_email at yahoo.com and I'll send it to you. I've got a 6-pin to 6-pin firewire cable that I'm not using right now. Note that this is not an offer for a free firewire cable -- I want it back when you're done.:^)
As the current nutjob officeholder has shown, people will say anything to get elected. Once they get into office, all bets are off. I think Ron Paul is the most consistent and honest person running. Through almost 20 years in Congress,
He has never voted to raise taxes. He has never voted for an unbalanced budget. He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership. He has never voted to raise congressional pay. He has never taken a government-paid junket (trip). He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
He voted against the Patriot Act. He voted against regulating the Internet. He voted against the Iraq war.
When are we going to stand up and say - "To hell with stupid incompetent security. I want my freedom and I want it now."
For those of us living in the United States, it will be when we vote for freedom by voting for Ron Paul in the primary elections and general election next year. Please read or watch his speech entitled On Patriotism.
Upon reading that Radiohead was allowing folks to set their own price for the download, I went to their website and paid £2 (with their service charge it came out to $4.99). The registration was somewhat intrusive (they want your phone number, but I falsified that part). The songs are in 160kbps and downloaded quickly. I didn't see any other comments on here saying "It works", so count this one as proof.
Slashdot Mirror
I've almost convinced myself George Lucas never made the first three Star Wars, and that it was somebody else. Look at the reviews for almost any of the other films he wrote (THX-1138, Willow, Captain EO, Star Wars I-III) and they are all rated at least an order of magnitude worse. The only other film I could find that was rated as highly was Raiders of the Lost Ark, and he shared the writing role with Philip Kaufman on that one.
So now do we need to worry about dark matter colliding with Earth? Can't this stuff be detected by looking at areas where the cosmic background radiation is lower than usual? I suppose if it were moving it would have some sort of heat signature to it...
I've tried using a dremel with the buffing attachment to remove scratches from my sunglasses. Although it began to remove the smallest scratches from the surface, it proceeded to dull the lens such that the area became opaque. As such, I don't recommend this solution...
That would normally be the case, but I have years of experience in military aircraft manufacturing. I saw numerous problems from those pictures that would have shut down any government contractor. I'm all about private aerospace companies raising the bar for government-sponsored companies, but when their facilities look like that, it is clear that the bar is not being raised at all. I wish them luck.
Those MotherShip pics are scary. For one, the work areas are very cluttered which could lead to confusion, errors, rework and overall inefficiency. It appears there is no system in place to ensure that all tools and support equipment are properly accounted for and not left in the ship. This could lead to foreign object debris (FOD) destroying the ship while it is in operation. The other scary element is the apparent lack of work stands or platforms for the mechanics. When a plane gets built, it is important to build work stands or platforms first so that the mechanics have a place to stand wherever they need to be. As you can see from the pictures, they are doing their work standing on ladders. In addition to the inefficiency factor mentioned earlier, this also leads to ergonomic and safety issues. A mechanic standing on a ladder can't do the same quality job as when both feet are firmly on a platform, especially if any riveting is involved. Oddly, SpaceShipTwo has platforms for their mechanics but the MotherShip crew only has ladders. I was actually interested in taking a ride on this until I saw the pictures of their work areas!
If anyone from Scaled wants me to come out and do a full-scale industrial engineering evaluation, feel free to contact me by replying.
I heard that the reason why the VW GX3 wasn't produced was legal liability reasons... Unfortunately I imagine the same will happen with this vehicle.
However, one must also keep in mind that any statement from someone whose Slashdot user ID is less than 1000 is always correct and indisputable.
I just loaded the latest nightly of WebKit, which from what I gather is supposed to be using Squirrelfish, but it still seems to run the "Wundermap" at wunderground.com more slowly than Firefox 3.0RC1. I consider the Wundermap to be the ultimate browser test, as it has to process so much JS and images... I recently tried running it on a Mac Pro 8-core at the local Apple store, and it still loaded slowly! The Mac Pro absolutely flew through everything else I threw at it, including playing multiple HD movies at the same time, but when loading the Wundermap, it is almost as slow as my puny 2.0 GHz G5.
Dopefish! Oh wait, that's what came first...
NYSE keeps a trade and quote (TAQ) database with intraday trade data, but it is very expensive. You might be able to find free copies on DVD at certain libraries though, but more often than not they are categorized as non-circulating. You should be able to bring in a laptop though so you can analyze the data right there.
I caught the RSS title of this story and it appeared that Asus is making a 10 pound heavy battery! I thought for a second that luggables were making a comeback!
Win95 was also my high point because that is what finally convinced me to switch to Linux. Thank you Patrick Volkerding!
Ever since watching Back to the Future II, I was hoping that we'd have flying cars by 2015. So now all we need now is hoverboards, Gray's Sports Almanac, a few more Jaws sequels, and all lawyers must be abolished.
I was surprised to only find three. I was hoping to find a gut-busting score 5 funny comment, but instead the mod squad showed no mercy.
The problem with taxes in general is that they constrain whatever is being taxed — there is no such thing as a "fair" tax. So for income tax, income is constrained. A consumption tax constrains consumption. I am not one of the rich you wrote about, but I would much rather have a consumption tax because I don't consume very much. Plus, if I were rich, I would want the extra money for creating businesses which help provide jobs to people. The other benefit of a consumption tax is that people who ordinarily don't pay income taxes (such as drug dealers) would still end up paying a consumption tax for buying things like Hummers. As it is now, they evade the law and live tax-free. We have a huge problem in the U.S. with not saving our money, and a consumption tax would help to fix that. Saved capital provides the foundation of a good economy where businesses and jobs can be created.
I thought the Air would come from Venus.
Finally, we will all have tires that are invincible! This will be especially useful for road bike tires, which get sliced up rather easily compared to automobile tires...
What? My hearing aid isn't working today.
Back in 2001, the Yes Men envisioned a wearable suit that does exactly the same thing. It was only a matter of time until a company actually proposed the idea.
Where's my free government pony? :^)
If you need a firewire cable to debrick your Mac, email me your mailing address to i_love_junk_email at yahoo.com and I'll send it to you. I've got a 6-pin to 6-pin firewire cable that I'm not using right now. Note that this is not an offer for a free firewire cable -- I want it back when you're done. :^)
He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket (trip).
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
He voted against the Patriot Act.
He voted against regulating the Internet.
He voted against the Iraq war.
When are we going to stand up and say - "To hell with stupid incompetent security. I want my freedom and I want it now."
For those of us living in the United States, it will be when we vote for freedom by voting for Ron Paul in the primary elections and general election next year. Please read or watch his speech entitled On Patriotism.Upon reading that Radiohead was allowing folks to set their own price for the download, I went to their website and paid £2 (with their service charge it came out to $4.99). The registration was somewhat intrusive (they want your phone number, but I falsified that part). The songs are in 160kbps and downloaded quickly. I didn't see any other comments on here saying "It works", so count this one as proof.