Now, my eyes certainly aren't the best, too many years squinting at computer monitors, but it looks to me like the black streak doesn't even touch the flash, but instead vanishes over the horizon, somewhere in that land mass. Also, if it was something hitting the pole, it would have been damaged, and if it had hit the water, later photos would have shown the splash/ripples. Well, maybe. It would depend on the length of time between photos, I guess. It doesn't extend to the end of the photo, either, but goes into some of those clouds on the left. The flash looks like it has some kind of aura around it, like when they remade the first Death Star blowing up, but again, it's hard for me to see, and it could just be the light reflecting off a ripple in the water. I think the flash it just the light blowing, however. I don't know. If the black streak were in more than just the one picture, I would just chalk it up to a distant vapor trail from a jet taking off or something. If it's something flying through the air, it'd have to be travelling pretty damn fast to be so straight, whether it's going up or down. My best guess would be at it travelling up. I should think that if it were falling, it'd have more of an arc to it. Really, we'll probably never know what it is.
OK, you've got me there. I was mainly talking about normal children around age 8 and up. That makes me think of all the old cupholder problems, though. Heh. Thanks for the laugh.
When I was 10 or 11 or so (so, 12, 13 years ago), we got our first "real" computer. It was an Easy Data IBM-compatible 486dx33, running 4MB RAM and a 170MB hard drive. Came with some old version of DOS. My parents spent about $2000 on it. As soon as I got to sit in front of it, I started trying to figure out how/why it worked. I had always been curious about the how/why of things, and previously I had only used AppleII's. Oh, and a commodore 64 of which I have absolutely no memory. My mom answered the questions she could (the basics of RAM, CPU's, and operating systems), but it wasn't enough. I talked to my geeky friends at school (the only ones I had, really), combed the library, everything. I got into games, which ultimately became my downfall, but I still play them. Ahh, Wolf3D and 4D-Boxing.
When I got my copy of Diablo, years later, it said I should install DirectX 3.0. P133 w/16MB RAM and Windows95. Yech. So, I did it. Big mistake. For some reason, it didn't like my machine, and so my video display options dropped to 640x480x16 colors. Sweet. I spent hours trying to undo the damage, working frantically to get it fixed before my mom got home, sweating furiously, because I knew she would flip out. My dad spent the whole time sitting on the couch watching TV and laughing at me, telling me how busted I was going to be. Anyway, long story still long, I got it fixed about 30 seconds before she walked in the door. Whew.
What I'm getting at with this tedious anecdote is that really, even in todays world of adware, spyware, viruses, etc, there is nothing your child can do to your computer that can not be undone. Of course, it may take a full wipe and reinstall of your OS, so keep your importand stuff backed up, but if you limit your kids to a few activities only, they will never learn anything. It seems as though all the mistakes we made when we were learning has bred a fear into us of our children causing us those headaches all over again, but if we don't just let them face it, we will breed a generation of people who can do s much with a computer as my dad, which isn't much at all.
Naturally, we all (or most, anyway) agree that computer usage does not in and of itself cause children to have bad grades. There are many other factors in there. Television, lack of discipline, etc. However, let us not get too worked up over something posted by Christian Scientists. Very few people outside their own sect take anything they say seriously, and they have a history of...odd behaviors. For example, using prayer as a medicine and refusing to take their children to doctors when needed. This always confused me, but I'm an apathetic agnostic, so I've never understood the whole need for religion anyway. It's just not logical.
Also, think about what the internet has become over the past decade or so. Remember when it was good and pure? When you could visit any web page and not have to worry about porn popups? It is important that parents monitor what their children are doing, to an extent, but this is easily accomplished simply by helping your child with his/her research. Suggest web sites you know to contain good/accurate information and so forth. I mean, don't be overbearing about it of course, especially if you have teenagers, but just be available.
The internet in recent years has become a cesspool of pornography, stupidity, and misinformation where any idiot with five minutes can build a web site about nothing. Just look at me:) This can complicate the learning process to be certain, but it doesn't have to hinder the education of a child, or an adult for that matter. I make it a point to learn at least one new thing a day, and I usually learn several thanks to slashdot.
Multiple computers in a home, I believe, are a good idea anyway. I can't count the times when I was in school I needed to do homework or something and my mother was online playing word whomp or some other dumb game. Or one of my sisters was checking her email for the seventy-fifth time that day while chatting in at least five different chat rooms at the same time. The only person who didn't use it was my dad, and he's just now starting to use the internet. For the sole purpose of reading "news" on the politically extreme web sites he visits. Sad story.
I dreamed that the U.S. government was going to outlaw online gaming in an effort to tank the computer industry...
Score: -2
-1 Modifier "offtopic"
-1 Modifier "retarded"
Yesssss....
Interesting. One would think that a race that had eliminated all sickness would be sophisticated enough to want nothing to do with a pathetic, squabbling, irrational people such as us...but of course were that the case, there would then be no story, would there?
Much to my chagrin, I didn't intend my mispelling, but when you point it out, it is rather amusing. I don't know when this switch to mercantilism happened, and I never heard about it, but I don't like it. If you've ever read the second edition Shadowrun base book, it looks to me like that's what we're heading for. Corporations staffing private armies to protect their interests. The RIAA is at it already.
I looked at that info on the Libertarian party. The quiz put me somewhere between centralist and left-liberal. It looks good on paper, or in this case, my screen, but unfortunately it seems another of those styles that fails in application. Too many people just don't care enough, and don't want to be bothered with things like personal responsibility.
It does seem more and more like the mafia is running the show, doesn't it? I think, much as it pains me to admit it, I am above all things an idealist. I have a firm idea of what I would like to see the world become, and it's never going to happen. Oh well. At some point all of this has to collapse. Either Chaos Theory or Natural Selection - or both - will kick in at some point and everything will fall. Nothing to do but wait, really.
Before everyone goes off about democracy this and that, one thing should be made clear. The United States of America is not - I repeat, NOT - a Democratic nation. It is a Constitutional Republic. There is a small but significant difference.
Also, our econimic system - for those of you who don't know - is commonly known as Capitolism. Such is the nature of a capitolist economy that the government, in order to function effectively, must operate as a business. They offer services - courts, police, etc. - and we pay for those services with our taxes.
Now, running for president is not a government service, therefore the money must come from somewhere. Thus, camapign contributions. After all, it would be kind of hard to organize a Bake Sale large enough to support this kind of operation, wouldn't it?
Of course, there are those who would love to see this system collapse and a new take its place. They are known by a variety of names and methods - Communists, Socialists, some Democrats (Not all, just the worst, like this Dean guy), and in general, idiots. In some places, they have already managed to gain some power. Like Oregon. Or New York. If this trend continues, we will all end up where Russia is now, and where China, France, and Australia will be before long. Poverty stricken fools, deluded by the promise of so-called "true equality" and condemned to a life of servitude to the very entity created to serve us - the government.
Now, I believe in equality, but in ctual equality, which is that everyone has the same chance to succeed, not this crap they are trying to feed you, which is that no one should be rich and successful, and any who become so are the tools of an evil empire bent on keeping the average man down. I know I'll probably be called a troll or something for all this, and if that is the case, so be it. But the rest of you have a choice. You can either beome a pawn of those who would truly seek to rule over you completely, or you can be thankful that the founding fathers of this great nation had the incredible foresight to put into effect a system that is admittedly not perfect, but something much more important than that. It's free.
They're all just Baby Communists anyway. It's the life cycle of a Nazi. Democrat-Socialist-Communist-Nazi. A small step on the path to total control of the ignorant masses.
Are there only 2 republicans running for president? Sad... Anyway, this is kind of cool, because it gives people a way to contribute who may not have known how, and we don't have to join anything except amazon.com. And who isn't a member of that already?
coherent standards. I used to be quite a good programmer. Then I took a break for a few years. When I came back, Java had moved past version 1.0, Visual Basic had replaced BASIC, Object Oriented Programming was all the rage, and the old--style procedural programming methods I had learned were regarded as archaic crap. Javascript was cool, and I had never even hard of it.
Every year it seems somebody comes out with something new, usually Microsoft. In their efforts to dominate all markets, they have changed everything they could, and if you want to be "in" you have to do it their way. Other people refuse to change and so continue to code in the old styles. So now, with all these new things, I find myself left in the dust. All the methods of writing a good program I was taught have been thrown out. Not nearly enough emphasis is put on documentation anymore.
By now you're probably thinking I'm some kind of geezer or something...heh. I'm 22, and once again, Microsoft is at the root of all my problems. Well, them and the W3C. And Sun. Bastards!! All of them! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some catching up to do.
Slashdot Mirror
What do you mean? Cooling your PC with cooking oil is completely practical ;P
I'd say it's probably coming from underground.
happy she got the job as a model, and only a little disgusted with herself for going down on him to get it?
http://www.dsps.net/uuid.html
Hope this clears it up for you.
had a "noble goal" too.
So. . . You're saying it's from Mars? Filled with incurable bacteria we have no cure for?
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Moderation: -1 Stupid, -1 Redundant, -1 Redundant, -1 Overrated, Total score: -5 (Extra -1 for thehelluvit)
Now, my eyes certainly aren't the best, too many years squinting at computer monitors, but it looks to me like the black streak doesn't even touch the flash, but instead vanishes over the horizon, somewhere in that land mass. Also, if it was something hitting the pole, it would have been damaged, and if it had hit the water, later photos would have shown the splash/ripples. Well, maybe. It would depend on the length of time between photos, I guess. It doesn't extend to the end of the photo, either, but goes into some of those clouds on the left. The flash looks like it has some kind of aura around it, like when they remade the first Death Star blowing up, but again, it's hard for me to see, and it could just be the light reflecting off a ripple in the water. I think the flash it just the light blowing, however. I don't know. If the black streak were in more than just the one picture, I would just chalk it up to a distant vapor trail from a jet taking off or something. If it's something flying through the air, it'd have to be travelling pretty damn fast to be so straight, whether it's going up or down. My best guess would be at it travelling up. I should think that if it were falling, it'd have more of an arc to it. Really, we'll probably never know what it is.
OK, you've got me there. I was mainly talking about normal children around age 8 and up. That makes me think of all the old cupholder problems, though. Heh. Thanks for the laugh.
When I got my copy of Diablo, years later, it said I should install DirectX 3.0. P133 w/16MB RAM and Windows95. Yech. So, I did it. Big mistake. For some reason, it didn't like my machine, and so my video display options dropped to 640x480x16 colors. Sweet. I spent hours trying to undo the damage, working frantically to get it fixed before my mom got home, sweating furiously, because I knew she would flip out. My dad spent the whole time sitting on the couch watching TV and laughing at me, telling me how busted I was going to be. Anyway, long story still long, I got it fixed about 30 seconds before she walked in the door. Whew.
What I'm getting at with this tedious anecdote is that really, even in todays world of adware, spyware, viruses, etc, there is nothing your child can do to your computer that can not be undone. Of course, it may take a full wipe and reinstall of your OS, so keep your importand stuff backed up, but if you limit your kids to a few activities only, they will never learn anything. It seems as though all the mistakes we made when we were learning has bred a fear into us of our children causing us those headaches all over again, but if we don't just let them face it, we will breed a generation of people who can do s much with a computer as my dad, which isn't much at all.
That's my piece. Peace.
Also, think about what the internet has become over the past decade or so. Remember when it was good and pure? When you could visit any web page and not have to worry about porn popups? It is important that parents monitor what their children are doing, to an extent, but this is easily accomplished simply by helping your child with his/her research. Suggest web sites you know to contain good/accurate information and so forth. I mean, don't be overbearing about it of course, especially if you have teenagers, but just be available.
The internet in recent years has become a cesspool of pornography, stupidity, and misinformation where any idiot with five minutes can build a web site about nothing. Just look at me :) This can complicate the learning process to be certain, but it doesn't have to hinder the education of a child, or an adult for that matter. I make it a point to learn at least one new thing a day, and I usually learn several thanks to slashdot.
Multiple computers in a home, I believe, are a good idea anyway. I can't count the times when I was in school I needed to do homework or something and my mother was online playing word whomp or some other dumb game. Or one of my sisters was checking her email for the seventy-fifth time that day while chatting in at least five different chat rooms at the same time. The only person who didn't use it was my dad, and he's just now starting to use the internet. For the sole purpose of reading "news" on the politically extreme web sites he visits. Sad story.
Anyway, that's my piece. Peace.
I dreamed that the U.S. government was going to outlaw online gaming in an effort to tank the computer industry... Score: -2 -1 Modifier "offtopic" -1 Modifier "retarded" Yesssss....
Interesting. One would think that a race that had eliminated all sickness would be sophisticated enough to want nothing to do with a pathetic, squabbling, irrational people such as us...but of course were that the case, there would then be no story, would there?
Ah, yes. Many apologies for my absent-minded nature.
In Orson Wells' War Of the Worlds, why do the Martian invaders die of our everyday diseases, but humans don't die of theirs?
Much to my chagrin, I didn't intend my mispelling, but when you point it out, it is rather amusing. I don't know when this switch to mercantilism happened, and I never heard about it, but I don't like it. If you've ever read the second edition Shadowrun base book, it looks to me like that's what we're heading for. Corporations staffing private armies to protect their interests. The RIAA is at it already.
I looked at that info on the Libertarian party. The quiz put me somewhere between centralist and left-liberal. It looks good on paper, or in this case, my screen, but unfortunately it seems another of those styles that fails in application. Too many people just don't care enough, and don't want to be bothered with things like personal responsibility.
It does seem more and more like the mafia is running the show, doesn't it? I think, much as it pains me to admit it, I am above all things an idealist. I have a firm idea of what I would like to see the world become, and it's never going to happen. Oh well. At some point all of this has to collapse. Either Chaos Theory or Natural Selection - or both - will kick in at some point and everything will fall. Nothing to do but wait, really.
Before everyone goes off about democracy this and that, one thing should be made clear. The United States of America is not - I repeat, NOT - a Democratic nation. It is a Constitutional Republic. There is a small but significant difference.
Also, our econimic system - for those of you who don't know - is commonly known as Capitolism. Such is the nature of a capitolist economy that the government, in order to function effectively, must operate as a business. They offer services - courts, police, etc. - and we pay for those services with our taxes.
Now, running for president is not a government service, therefore the money must come from somewhere. Thus, camapign contributions. After all, it would be kind of hard to organize a Bake Sale large enough to support this kind of operation, wouldn't it?
Of course, there are those who would love to see this system collapse and a new take its place. They are known by a variety of names and methods - Communists, Socialists, some Democrats (Not all, just the worst, like this Dean guy), and in general, idiots. In some places, they have already managed to gain some power. Like Oregon. Or New York. If this trend continues, we will all end up where Russia is now, and where China, France, and Australia will be before long. Poverty stricken fools, deluded by the promise of so-called "true equality" and condemned to a life of servitude to the very entity created to serve us - the government.
Now, I believe in equality, but in ctual equality, which is that everyone has the same chance to succeed, not this crap they are trying to feed you, which is that no one should be rich and successful, and any who become so are the tools of an evil empire bent on keeping the average man down. I know I'll probably be called a troll or something for all this, and if that is the case, so be it. But the rest of you have a choice. You can either beome a pawn of those who would truly seek to rule over you completely, or you can be thankful that the founding fathers of this great nation had the incredible foresight to put into effect a system that is admittedly not perfect, but something much more important than that. It's free.
They're all just Baby Communists anyway. It's the life cycle of a Nazi. Democrat-Socialist-Communist-Nazi.
A small step on the path to total control of the ignorant masses.
Are there only 2 republicans running for president? Sad...
Anyway, this is kind of cool, because it gives people a way to contribute who may not have known how, and we don't have to join anything except amazon.com. And who isn't a member of that already?
Microsoft, all the way. They have more experience at snowjobbing the legal system.
So does that mean SCO is going to sue Microsoft, too?
Does it have multiple spellings? I don't actually speak a whole lot of Spanish, just the really offensive words mostly.
"ese" is Spanish for the "that" So what they're saying is "hey, that, watchu think you doin?" which makes absolutely no sense.
I know Mexican Judo...
coherent standards. I used to be quite a good programmer. Then I took a break for a few years. When I came back, Java had moved past version 1.0, Visual Basic had replaced BASIC, Object Oriented Programming was all the rage, and the old--style procedural programming methods I had learned were regarded as archaic crap. Javascript was cool, and I had never even hard of it.
Every year it seems somebody comes out with something new, usually Microsoft. In their efforts to dominate all markets, they have changed everything they could, and if you want to be "in" you have to do it their way. Other people refuse to change and so continue to code in the old styles. So now, with all these new things, I find myself left in the dust. All the methods of writing a good program I was taught have been thrown out. Not nearly enough emphasis is put on documentation anymore.
By now you're probably thinking I'm some kind of geezer or something...heh. I'm 22, and once again, Microsoft is at the root of all my problems. Well, them and the W3C. And Sun. Bastards!! All of them! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some catching up to do.
Hmm, didn't think about it like that. So as long as you don't look directly into the beam, it basically is just a giant flashlight. Thanks.
Since when is Austin Powers Association a trademark? Oh no! Amazon got another one!