Interesting... Whenever I tried an address, it always resolved down to one building. Then again, I only used the feature for London addresses -- do you think this may have made a difference?
One other thing -- I am envious of the fact that British and Canadian postal codes resolve down to an exact building. I can just enter a postal code into a mapping website and know exactly where to go. Here in the states, a 5-digit ZIP code resolves to a huge area (not useful for finding a building), and a 9-digit ZIP code only resolves to a few buildings (more helpful, but not unless you like going door-to-door to find the right place). I think we could achieve single-building resolution if we use a 10-digit ZIP code, but I imagine this will probably never happen because people will be happy enough with nine digits. Sadly, it reminds me of the "640k is enough for anybody" argument.:^)
Multimap is truly awesome... I started using it when I planned my trip to Ireland/England back in 2001. I really like the aerial map overlay feature... Using that, I was able to memorize what certain parts of London would look like, which allowed me to find my way around often times without a map. It was a weird feeling being able to find my way around without having been there before.:^)
According to this article, scientists are going to have a hard time getting their mice to live longer. Because cancer tends to "take over" as an animal's age increases, scientists have tried using cancer-preventing proteins to prevent this. The problem they found, however, was that it accelerated the aging process for mice. That's not to say that some other method may find a way around this, but scientists do still seem to be grappling with the issue.
You know, I've always liked the removable keyboard on the Powerbook G4, simply because it amazes people when you lift the keyboard up to show the insides (while it's on, of course)... They ooh and they ahh, regardless of how much they hate Apple. It's really a great experience.:^)
Yeah, I was going to say something along these lines... My Honda Magna can do 0-60 in 3.6 seconds, and it's a 750cc V-4 cruiser... The Magna seats two fairly comfortably as well. I was also able to afford the Magna with a college income (not much), which is something I could not say about the Tzero.
The only game I can think of that actually required 614k of conventional memory in order to run was Falcon 3.0... Is this the game you were referring to?
ermm... that wasn't supposed to be a funny comment.
Yeah, it looks like the moderators are on nitrous oxide again today... I agree that China may be a worthy competitor in the space race. With China we could have the same communism vs. capitalism thing all over again, in order to drive the space race.:^)
So how exactly do you come up with a budget for a project that calls for an unknown (but massive) amount of nonexistanium, delivered to orbit no less?
The same way that NASA came up with the budget for the space program in the early 50's and 60's.
The difference between then and now is that the U.S. was competing against another superpower. Nowadays the ESA and other space agencies seem to be taking the lead -- it would take another presidential speech like Kennedy's (I don't see that happening anytime soon), and feverish, direct competition with another space agency or two to get the ball rolling again here in the U.S.. Sadly, our collective mindset (and maybe attention span) right now falls too short to allow this to happen.
I'll be interested to see what Dali without the sex looks like in a Disney cartoon.
Being that Disney owns Miramax (the company that makes films that generally use the word "fuck" more times than the word "the"), perhaps they will put Destino at the beginning of one of those films...
I've been to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL, and while there are a lot of pieces where adult themes are tossed about, there are plenty of pieces that aren't... If you get to visit the St. Pete museum sometime in the future, be sure to check out The Hallucinogenic Toreador -- it's a huge oil painting that has more subtle meanings than I've ever seen in a painting (by any artist). Sadly the online version does not do it any justice...
In my town, diesel is currently $1.43 per gallon, while 87 octane gasoline is $1.73 per gallon... It makes one salivate for diesel (well... you know what I mean).
The TDI (diesel) Jetta, Golf and Passat cars are awesome. They do indeed get 49 MPG, and their range (in miles) can be between 700+ (for non-wagon versions) to 1,000 (wagon versions -- larger gas tank). That means you can drive from Miami, FL to New York City, NY and only have to fill up your gas tank twice! Some people have even claimed that they have driven over 1,400 miles on one tank of diesel with their TDI.
All TDI cars give lots of torque, so their smallish horsepower rating isn't a big deal. When accelerating, the car feels as peppy as any other (more gas-guzzling) car. The acceleration, braking and even steering feel much more consistent than a hybrid.
Their pollution levels, while different than gasoline, are smaller because of the better gas mileage. One thing to investigate is whether the diesel in your town includes large amounts of sulfur or not -- I believe this helps diesel burn better in colder temperatures, but significantly contributes to greenhouse gases in the exhaust. Otherwise, I've heard these engines are light years ahead of their 1980s counterparts in terms of emissions.
Anyway, my next car will most likely be a fifth-generation Golf TDI -- I should have an engine that lasts 200,000+ miles, and never have to worry about replacing a $5,000 hybrid battery down the road.
I bet you're thinking they cost more than the hybrids... Nope -- you can get a Golf TDI for about $4,000 cheaper than any hybrid on the market (around $16,000 after all is said and done). Availability of the models varies though, and you may have to drive to a larger city to find one.
Yep, still have one -- and it uses a serial connector! I remember when John Carmack said in his.plan that Logitech 3-button mice were the mice to use with Quake (this was before Quake came out)... That alone influenced my purchasing decision...:^) It still works perfectly to this date, some 7 or 8 years after purchase.
BTW, I'm currently using a Logitech USB Marble trackball... I love the thing to death. You can find them new for $20 nowadays (I paid $30... Hmph.)! No carpal tunnel-inducing scroll wheel, either.
And your Slashdot username is "Jon Abbott," clearly indicating that you are a male. Is your maleness supposed to influence how I perceive your posts? Maybe you should have selected a username that doesn't blatantly advertise an irrelevant personal characteristic?
Names are useful to distinguish one person from another. Any name chosen is going to give a stereotype (your name is "pclminion" -- do you have an interest in "minions", for example?). Nationalities are usually irrelevant to the situation, unless we are discussing something that requires it. Does the fact that the team was international have any bearing on the quality of the research that was conducted?
I thought "diversity" was something we are supposed to embrace and value. How are we supposed to do that if we pretend that race doesn't even exist? Are you saying we're never supposed to mention it? The mere mention that a person comes from a particular place is somehow discriminatory?
The mention of race itself is not discriminatory, but we attach stereotypes when it is brought into the picture. For instance, if someone says, "That black guy just ran a red light and cut me off!", was the purpose of saying "black guy" used in order to be as specific as possible, or was it to assign a more negative opinion towards "black guys" as a whole?
Why not celebrate the fact that the scientific team was international in nature?
If the media thought that international cooperation in the team was that important, they should have just said that it was an international team. Was this article about the research that was produced, or the importance/benefit/etc. of international research teams?
You PC weirdos are really odd...
I typically don't associate myself with political correctness, but I think something had to be said here. I don't care who produced this research, as long as they are well-standing in their field and the research is newsworthy. Oh, and I'm a Mac weirdo, not a PC weirdo.:^)
I think we're a bit more cynical nowadays, and thus the future doesn't seem so exciting. We've learnt that things don't change as fast as we would like them to, and the actual changes are mostly quite dull.
But the future is what we make of it, so we should have every reason to be excited about it... I actually struggle reading fantasy because it tends to deal with the past so much, with a magical bend that I can't seem to grok.
I've thought about the whole sci-fi vs. fantasy thing for a while. I've even had arguments with my girlfriend about it (and we don't argue often), and I still don't know exactly the reason why I feel so strongly for sci-fi but against fantasy. I'm an INTP person who only likes sci-fi that seems possible, a la Star Trek and similar stories. Anything too "fantastic" or far-fetched just doesn't interest me.
I know that Arthur C. Clarke wrote, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," but I think there is something about how the magic or technology is presented in both genres that makes a difference. With the sci-fi that I like, the way that the technology works can be explained. It may require things that haven't been invented yet, but for the most part it sounds like it may be feasible one day. Most fantasy on the other hand seems to throw spells and potions around without much explanation behind what is going on. The explanation behind technology is usually what gets my mind thinking, rather than just the mention of the technology itself. Because of this, I don't seem to get the same satisfaction reading fantasy as I do sci-fi.
As someone who works next door to the FSU Mag Lab, and has taken a tour of the facilities, I have heard a couple things about it that boggle the mind... First, if they didn't contain the magnetic field that they are producing, they claim that it would erase everyone's floppies, hard drives, and credit cards in the entire city of Tallahassee. Second, they consume one quarter of the entire power consumption of Tallahassee to create the fields they are creating. The city of Tallahassee had to install a power generation station nearby just to get power to them easily. They apparently ramp up the magnets while everyone else is sleeping, in order to prevent brownouts during the day.
Out of curiosity, I just looked up their electric bill online, but it lumps the Mag Lab's usage with multiple other FSU buildings... The total bill was $500k this month, so it must be an amount less than that.
Coming from someone who works right next door to the FSU Mag Lab, It's funny that you mention that... I've heard that if the Mag Lab didn't contain their magnetic field, everyone in Tallahassee would have their floppies and credit cards erased.
...researchers Swades Chaudhuri, an Indian, and Derek Lovley, an American...
My question of the morning -- what is the point of providing the nationalities of these researchers in the article description? Is it supposed to affect how we view the research that has been conducted?
Slashdot Mirror
This product looks great, except that it doesn't support... err, nevermind. :^)
Interesting... Whenever I tried an address, it always resolved down to one building. Then again, I only used the feature for London addresses -- do you think this may have made a difference?
There's double humor in that -- AMD is a "clone" of Intel, you know... :^)
One other thing -- I am envious of the fact that British and Canadian postal codes resolve down to an exact building. I can just enter a postal code into a mapping website and know exactly where to go. Here in the states, a 5-digit ZIP code resolves to a huge area (not useful for finding a building), and a 9-digit ZIP code only resolves to a few buildings (more helpful, but not unless you like going door-to-door to find the right place). I think we could achieve single-building resolution if we use a 10-digit ZIP code, but I imagine this will probably never happen because people will be happy enough with nine digits. Sadly, it reminds me of the "640k is enough for anybody" argument. :^)
Multimap is truly awesome... I started using it when I planned my trip to Ireland/England back in 2001. I really like the aerial map overlay feature... Using that, I was able to memorize what certain parts of London would look like, which allowed me to find my way around often times without a map. It was a weird feeling being able to find my way around without having been there before. :^)
According to this article, scientists are going to have a hard time getting their mice to live longer. Because cancer tends to "take over" as an animal's age increases, scientists have tried using cancer-preventing proteins to prevent this. The problem they found, however, was that it accelerated the aging process for mice. That's not to say that some other method may find a way around this, but scientists do still seem to be grappling with the issue.
:^)
Besides, didn't anyone read Brave New World Revisited? Overpopulation is not the answer.
You know, I've always liked the removable keyboard on the Powerbook G4, simply because it amazes people when you lift the keyboard up to show the insides (while it's on, of course)... They ooh and they ahh, regardless of how much they hate Apple. It's really a great experience. :^)
Yeah, I was going to say something along these lines... My Honda Magna can do 0-60 in 3.6 seconds, and it's a 750cc V-4 cruiser... The Magna seats two fairly comfortably as well. I was also able to afford the Magna with a college income (not much), which is something I could not say about the Tzero.
The only game I can think of that actually required 614k of conventional memory in order to run was Falcon 3.0... Is this the game you were referring to?
I completely agree with your post otherwise...
I've been to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL, and while there are a lot of pieces where adult themes are tossed about, there are plenty of pieces that aren't... If you get to visit the St. Pete museum sometime in the future, be sure to check out The Hallucinogenic Toreador -- it's a huge oil painting that has more subtle meanings than I've ever seen in a painting (by any artist). Sadly the online version does not do it any justice...
In my town, diesel is currently $1.43 per gallon, while 87 octane gasoline is $1.73 per gallon... It makes one salivate for diesel (well... you know what I mean).
The TDI (diesel) Jetta, Golf and Passat cars are awesome. They do indeed get 49 MPG, and their range (in miles) can be between 700+ (for non-wagon versions) to 1,000 (wagon versions -- larger gas tank). That means you can drive from Miami, FL to New York City, NY and only have to fill up your gas tank twice! Some people have even claimed that they have driven over 1,400 miles on one tank of diesel with their TDI.
All TDI cars give lots of torque, so their smallish horsepower rating isn't a big deal. When accelerating, the car feels as peppy as any other (more gas-guzzling) car. The acceleration, braking and even steering feel much more consistent than a hybrid.
Their pollution levels, while different than gasoline, are smaller because of the better gas mileage. One thing to investigate is whether the diesel in your town includes large amounts of sulfur or not -- I believe this helps diesel burn better in colder temperatures, but significantly contributes to greenhouse gases in the exhaust. Otherwise, I've heard these engines are light years ahead of their 1980s counterparts in terms of emissions.
Anyway, my next car will most likely be a fifth-generation Golf TDI -- I should have an engine that lasts 200,000+ miles, and never have to worry about replacing a $5,000 hybrid battery down the road.
I bet you're thinking they cost more than the hybrids... Nope -- you can get a Golf TDI for about $4,000 cheaper than any hybrid on the market (around $16,000 after all is said and done). Availability of the models varies though, and you may have to drive to a larger city to find one.
Check out the eCycle, a diesel-electric hybrid motorcycle that gets 180MPG (no typo). The only disadvantage I see is that they aren't out yet... :^)
Yep, still have one -- and it uses a serial connector! I remember when John Carmack said in his .plan that Logitech 3-button mice were the mice to use with Quake (this was before Quake came out)... That alone influenced my purchasing decision... :^) It still works perfectly to this date, some 7 or 8 years after purchase.
BTW, I'm currently using a Logitech USB Marble trackball... I love the thing to death. You can find them new for $20 nowadays (I paid $30... Hmph.)! No carpal tunnel-inducing scroll wheel, either.
The mention of race itself is not discriminatory, but we attach stereotypes when it is brought into the picture. For instance, if someone says, "That black guy just ran a red light and cut me off!", was the purpose of saying "black guy" used in order to be as specific as possible, or was it to assign a more negative opinion towards "black guys" as a whole?
If the media thought that international cooperation in the team was that important, they should have just said that it was an international team. Was this article about the research that was produced, or the importance/benefit/etc. of international research teams?
I typically don't associate myself with political correctness, but I think something had to be said here. I don't care who produced this research, as long as they are well-standing in their field and the research is newsworthy. Oh, and I'm a Mac weirdo, not a PC weirdo.
I've thought about the whole sci-fi vs. fantasy thing for a while. I've even had arguments with my girlfriend about it (and we don't argue often), and I still don't know exactly the reason why I feel so strongly for sci-fi but against fantasy. I'm an INTP person who only likes sci-fi that seems possible, a la Star Trek and similar stories. Anything too "fantastic" or far-fetched just doesn't interest me.
I know that Arthur C. Clarke wrote, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," but I think there is something about how the magic or technology is presented in both genres that makes a difference. With the sci-fi that I like, the way that the technology works can be explained. It may require things that haven't been invented yet, but for the most part it sounds like it may be feasible one day. Most fantasy on the other hand seems to throw spells and potions around without much explanation behind what is going on. The explanation behind technology is usually what gets my mind thinking, rather than just the mention of the technology itself. Because of this, I don't seem to get the same satisfaction reading fantasy as I do sci-fi.
We all know the truth -- these Toynbee tiles are merely optical illusions created by infrasound...
(You know, I didn't mean for that to sound so Zippy-the-Pinhead-ish...)
That sounds like something straight out of The Arrival...
As someone who works next door to the FSU Mag Lab, and has taken a tour of the facilities, I have heard a couple things about it that boggle the mind... First, if they didn't contain the magnetic field that they are producing, they claim that it would erase everyone's floppies, hard drives, and credit cards in the entire city of Tallahassee. Second, they consume one quarter of the entire power consumption of Tallahassee to create the fields they are creating. The city of Tallahassee had to install a power generation station nearby just to get power to them easily. They apparently ramp up the magnets while everyone else is sleeping, in order to prevent brownouts during the day.
Out of curiosity, I just looked up their electric bill online, but it lumps the Mag Lab's usage with multiple other FSU buildings... The total bill was $500k this month, so it must be an amount less than that.
Coming from someone who works right next door to the FSU Mag Lab, It's funny that you mention that... I've heard that if the Mag Lab didn't contain their magnetic field, everyone in Tallahassee would have their floppies and credit cards erased.