Any comments on The Open Encyclopedia Project which appears to have a similar objective/goal as Wikipedia - which you have done a very nice job with BTW!;-)
From my reading of the second law of thermodynamics, it sounds to me like this the eventual long-term result anyway as they will reach their maximum state of entropy...
My guess is that WebSideStory's statistics may show an increase next month, since/.'ers will be checking out their site (I assume they use data from their own site)... and the/. sample base is HEAVILY biased toward Mozilla/Firefox/etc.
Just noticed a bunch of -1 and 0 comments from folks looking for gmail accounts, the powder2glass google toolbar team gives one away almost daily to (basically) the fastest clicker - something/.'ers should be pretty good at - one is being given away today between 1000-1100 MDT. They aren't quite as nifty or as fun as this radio controlled hovercraft I got yesterday!;-)
Captbraritone and hellfire - The powder2glass google toolbar team is giving away free gmail invites - per the web page, will be one later this morning.
FYI FWIW: Almost exactly 12 hours later, the hit counter says 93,474... so the estimate of 90,000 from the patent/first post AC was pretty darn close. BTW, when my christmas lights got slashdotted, I recorded 20,864 referrals from 16,907 unique IP addresses, so given that he had 60,293 before today, this is also in the ballpark with what I observed - read more about the Slashdot Effect on Christmas Lights for those interested.
I've had a IP to location tool on my personal web site for over a year - it uses one of the more simpler ways of determining location (use the Perl Module Geo::IPfree... looks like the 0.1 release for that was 2002) so does this mean that my use of that module means I'm in violation of the patent... or is the Perl Module itself in violation?
A few comments/followup from the poster, Mr. Christmas Lights:
1. I first like to thank simoniker for adding the "small metallic fibers which grow on surfces that have been electroplated with zinc" to the article - made it more understandable/readable.
3. Related to #2, I would STRONGLY recommend/.'ers actually READ what that says. The Denver Post article was written by a reporter - would you expect that to be technically accurate/broad/etc? Again, take a look at the NASA site which DOES present a compelling case that this is a REAL issue and not FUD. The original study with the medical equipment makes for facinating reading.
4. Some Anonymous Coward seems to have a problem with my nickname. Did you actually click on the "Mr. Christmas Lights" and see what is there - tell me that isn't appropriate (it's been used before BTW).
5. The same AC made a smart-ass comment about the Nigritude Ultramarine SEO contest - while I'm aware of that contest (#4 above is a hint for 'ya!), I'm currently ranking #199 for the keyphrase with less than a week to do, so I'm not a contendor... although I do rank #1 for the phrase Nigritude Ultramarine Hulk!;-)... and I actually did submit a wrapup article a few days ago about this, but it got rejected - good news is the contest is over July 7th, so all those N-U links will go away - they are a bit annoying.
6. I haven't seen anyone comment on a business (verus technical) aspect of the Denver Post article (but this is/.) where some state mucky-muck basically says this is a reason to bring all state websites under one authority and talks about $7.5 million in funding. One wonders if some empire building going on and/or play for more money!
7. There have been several Denver Post articles about the failure of these computer systems. I didn't mention that fact in my submission because I thought it would be too lengthy, but apparently the inability to electronically check/file business/elections stuff has been a real big deal - good example of our dependancy on computers.
I run dual 19" LCD's (similar to your dual 21" CRT's) and while this isn't too shabby, it's kinda annoying when one is working on stuff and it spans more than one screen (even though my bezel's are less than 1"). For instance, here's a 3,108x300 pixel panorama from Longs Peak Colorado (the original is 17,797x1,1718 pixels) and being able to streatch thigns across the screen is pretty darn nice at times.
Good luck with your wife!;-)
Just to followup on my own post, part 1 (with detailed log data and whois records) is now posted where I talk about how Graeme stole my web site and tried to profit from it.
I recently had some scumbags "steal" the entire contents of my web site (text and images) and host it on his own URL (after he changed the Adsense Publisher ID so he could profit from it!)
The contact information on the web site was my own (!)... so all I could do was take a look at whois data and send 'em a "WTF" note - it did get resolved (whole summary coming shortly), but having at least SOMEONE to contact via whois was helpful.
Having said that, it does suck that the spammers harvest these Email addresses.
It would REALLY add up if we could get micropayments for reading Email. Seriousely, all the discussion so far is about web sites, but applying micro-payments to Email might be kinda interesting, although I can see some real challenges in applying - for instance, who pays when your single Email to a list is exploded to a thousand folks, who is "collection authority", how do you set your thresholds (something for spammers/unknowns, zippo for friends/family/etc.)
But BOY, if the spammers had to pay two cents (or even $0.0002 as a previous poster mentioned) per Email, that would sure get rid of a LOT of crap we see in our mailboxes.
Don't forget host-based tools - one of my favorite that will help keep you OUT of trouble is sudo which is a way of controlling and logging root access. Been around forever - tastes great AND less filling!;-)
I have some satellite pictures of my house and would like to have have it programmed to zoom in on my neighbor when she is sunbathing topless two doors down...;-)
Re:Some metals they might find next (?)
on
Amorphous Steel
·
· Score: 1
Some metals they might find next (?)
on
Amorphous Steel
·
· Score: 5, Informative
From this page (mirrored here so they don't get/'ed)... no mention of Unobtainium!;-)
BTW, if you can't get a gmail invite from the poster above, they are giving one away periodically from the bottom of this Google Compute page.
There are several special metals in the Marvel universe that can have a
place in the World of Darkness. These metals are usually very hard; much
harder than mere steel, and they are not very ablative. They are also
very rare, in general. One or two of them have special properties.
Adamantium
Adamantium is the hardest metal known to man, though it has not been
made clear how dense it is. One would suspect that its density is roughly
the same as that of normal steel, though a Storyteller can rule that it is
as heavy as lead or as light as magnesium. At any rate, it would appear
that no force on earth is sufficient to break or bend adamantium when it
is at a normal temperature. Wolverine has used his adamantium-coated
claws in Arctic climes as well as steamy jungles, so there is no reason to
suppose that the metal becomes brittle at low temperatures. Judging from
the number of times Wolverine's flesh has been roasted or vaporized right
off of his skeleton in the comics, with no visible effect on the metal, we
must assume that adamantium has a relatively high melting point. In any
case, to be nice to Logan, it also seems likely that it has a fairly high
specific heat capacity, at least for a metal. It may or may not be one
of the magnetic metals- as seen in X-Men 25- because Magneto has enough
raw power to reach down and repel protons in the raw, if he wants to.
There is a special process that allows adamantium in ionic (salt) form
to be bonded to human bones- as in Wolverine's skeleton- or even human
skin- as in Cyber's case. This process was developed by a Japanese
scientist and villain called Dark Wind, and stolen (or sold) for the
benefit of Department H, a branch of the Canadian Ministry of Defense.
The following characters have some sort of connection to the metal, or
are actually running around wearing it: Wolverine, Cyber, Dark Wind,
Apocalypse, the Professor (not Xavier), Ultron, Lady Deathstrike.
Carbonadium
Carbonadium is a resilient, unstable metal that is much tougher than
steel but more flexible than adamantium. It would seem as though it
is a difficult and extremely expensive process to make carbonadium, which
is probably an alloy of some kind, since there is apparently only one
carbonadium synthesizer in the entire world. Carbonadium, like its more
resilient counterpart adamantium, would appear to have a high specific
heat capacity and melting point.
Carbonadium may or may not have one unique property: it may serve
to stabilize a life-force vampire's condition, which would keep the
mutant from having to drain the life force of others to survive. This
may be a simple fact of Omega Red's condition, rather than something
general to life-force vampirism.
Omega Red's tentacles are composed of carbonadium, and it is possible
that his skeleton is also laced with the stuff. Other characters with
a link to carbonadium include Wolverine, Sabretooth, Maverick, and
John Wraith.
Omnium
Omnium is an extremely hard, extremely rigid metal that is likely
to be second in resilience only to adamantium. In any case, it would
seem that it is even less likely to bend without snapping than that
metal. Omnium is not a commonly used or mentioned metal, but it has
appeared on rare occasion in Marvel comics.
There was an acolyte of Magneto that had the power to change either
himself or another person into an aware omnium statue. Other characters
that have been seen using or testing the metal include Penance and
the White
If you are REALLY into large pixel panorama's, check out the guy who generated a GIGA-pixel image of the Grand Canyon using a Canon D60 6 megapixel DSLR and PTAssembler + PanoramaTools.
As noted, the details on this are sketchy, but I HIGHLY doubt it's a 70 megapixel camera - just a rotater/stitcher on top of a run-of-the-mill digicam platform. What they probably make easy for you is keeping the exposure exact, the shooting location the same, and stitching it all togather for you.
You too can do this (with a little effort) - for example, here is a Longs Peak Panorama generated by stitching togather a dozen or so pictures from a Canon G5 consumer digicam. It does look a bit wierd seeing a rotated view on a flat surface though.
Just to echo that comment, the classic example I use to amplify Brook's theory that "throwing people" at the project won't make it get done any faster (and will often make it take longer) is that a woman can have a baby in 9 months, but 9 women can't have a baby in 1 month.
Yea, I know 9 women can have 9 babies in 9 months (i.e. you can multi-thread/process!;-), but if you are focused on a specific project, what I say above applies.
I read this book a decade or two ago - haven't read it for years, but truly a classic in the field with a lot of it still applicable today.
If you think you have an issue with that "extra step, read about the guy who generated a GIGA-pixel image of the Grand Canyon - while that is an extreme case, the reality is that you should (!) always take that extra step - it's kinda a pain to get an incoming MByte+ JPEGs when a less than 100 KByte 800X600 crop saved with reasonable JPEG compression will do just fine for view purposes - you can always Email your friend back and ask 'em for the digital original if you want to print it.
BTW, along the lines of that Grand Canyon shot, Page 3 of the original article also showed a stitched panorama of Pike Peak, Colorado - if you are interested, here is series of pictures of Longs Peak Colorado which includes a Longs Peak Panorama similar to the one in the original article - this is yet another example where digital makes stuff like this easier.
You want him to learn in a "real-world" settings rather than a video game - there is no "reset" button in the former. Along those lines, the local police almost always have a "drunk driver/accident" exhibit which shows what a car looks look after a crash - and may also have pictures of victims - yea, it's a SHOCK, but you really want to impress upon him that he has to be careful, not only for himself, but for others.
And going out with him (again, in the real-world) might be FUN for father/son rather than sitting in front of a screen - he'll be leaving the house shortly and going off on his own, so you might regret not spending this time now.
Finally, I still do something like this with my wife who's "worried" about driving in snow - I take her to a empty parking lot and have her drive around to see what it feels like to slide/brake/etc. in snow - highly, highly recommended with your son if you live where weather is a factor - slippery roads are a whole new ballgame. Make sure you emphasize the difference between pumping the brakes (for older cars) and anti-skid braking where you do NOT want to do this.
Oh yeah, one more thing - tell him to watch out for Photo Radar - we don't need any more pictures like that one!;-)
OK - lets see how smart/.'ers are... if you took a manometer up in the blimp with you, would the pressure go up or down as you rise in altitude... and would it matter if the blimp is filled with Helium or Hydrogen?!?;-)
Slashdot Mirror
Because then there will be no more letters. P.S. Yes, I DID read the article before posting and it kinda implied this point too!
Ditto comments from the parent ... would add that I bet they are using the screen shots as provided from Open Thumbshots
Any comments on The Open Encyclopedia Project which appears to have a similar objective/goal as Wikipedia - which you have done a very nice job with BTW! ;-)
From my reading of the second law of thermodynamics, it sounds to me like this the eventual long-term result anyway as they will reach their maximum state of entropy ...
My guess is that WebSideStory's statistics may show an increase next month, since /.'ers will be checking out their site (I assume they use data from their own site) ... and the /. sample base is HEAVILY biased toward Mozilla/Firefox/etc.
Just noticed a bunch of -1 and 0 comments from folks looking for gmail accounts, the powder2glass google toolbar team gives one away almost daily to (basically) the fastest clicker - something /.'ers should be pretty good at - one is being given away today between 1000-1100 MDT. They aren't quite as nifty or as fun as this radio controlled hovercraft I got yesterday! ;-)
Captbraritone and hellfire - The powder2glass google toolbar team is giving away free gmail invites - per the web page, will be one later this morning.
FYI FWIW: Almost exactly 12 hours later, the hit counter says 93,474 ... so the estimate of 90,000 from the patent/first post AC was pretty darn close. BTW, when my christmas lights got slashdotted, I recorded 20,864 referrals from 16,907 unique IP addresses, so given that he had 60,293 before today, this is also in the ballpark with what I observed - read more about the Slashdot Effect on Christmas Lights for those interested.
I've had a IP to location tool on my personal web site for over a year - it uses one of the more simpler ways of determining location (use the Perl Module Geo::IPfree ... looks like the 0.1 release for that was 2002) so does this mean that my use of that module means I'm in violation of the patent ... or is the Perl Module itself in violation?
1. I first like to thank simoniker for adding the "small metallic fibers which grow on surfces that have been electroplated with zinc" to the article - made it more understandable/readable.
2. The NASA URL is one-level deep (a mistake on my part) - here is the top-level.
3. Related to #2, I would STRONGLY recommend /.'ers actually READ what that says. The Denver Post article was written by a reporter - would you expect that to be technically accurate/broad/etc? Again, take a look at the NASA site which DOES present a compelling case that this is a REAL issue and not FUD. The original study with the medical equipment makes for facinating reading.
4. Some Anonymous Coward seems to have a problem with my nickname. Did you actually click on the "Mr. Christmas Lights" and see what is there - tell me that isn't appropriate (it's been used before BTW).
5. The same AC made a smart-ass comment about the Nigritude Ultramarine SEO contest - while I'm aware of that contest (#4 above is a hint for 'ya!), I'm currently ranking #199 for the keyphrase with less than a week to do, so I'm not a contendor ... although I do rank #1 for the phrase Nigritude Ultramarine Hulk! ;-) ... and I actually did submit a wrapup article a few days ago about this, but it got rejected - good news is the contest is over July 7th, so all those N-U links will go away - they are a bit annoying.
6. I haven't seen anyone comment on a business (verus technical) aspect of the Denver Post article (but this is /.) where some state mucky-muck basically says this is a reason to bring all state websites under one authority and talks about $7.5 million in funding. One wonders if some empire building going on and/or play for more money!
7. There have been several Denver Post articles about the failure of these computer systems. I didn't mention that fact in my submission because I thought it would be too lengthy, but apparently the inability to electronically check/file business/elections stuff has been a real big deal - good example of our dependancy on computers.
'Nuff random late night rambling!
Windows is spelled W-I-N-D-O-W-S ;-)
Linux is spelled R-O-L-A-I-D-S
Which would you rather have for relief from your computer woes?!?
I run dual 19" LCD's (similar to your dual 21" CRT's) and while this isn't too shabby, it's kinda annoying when one is working on stuff and it spans more than one screen (even though my bezel's are less than 1"). For instance, here's a 3,108x300 pixel panorama from Longs Peak Colorado (the original is 17,797x1,1718 pixels) and being able to streatch thigns across the screen is pretty darn nice at times. Good luck with your wife! ;-)
Just to followup on my own post, part 1 (with detailed log data and whois records) is now posted where I talk about how Graeme stole my web site and tried to profit from it.
The contact information on the web site was my own (!) ... so all I could do was take a look at whois data and send 'em a "WTF" note - it did get resolved (whole summary coming shortly), but having at least SOMEONE to contact via whois was helpful.
Having said that, it does suck that the spammers harvest these Email addresses.
But BOY, if the spammers had to pay two cents (or even $0.0002 as a previous poster mentioned) per Email, that would sure get rid of a LOT of crap we see in our mailboxes.
Don't forget host-based tools - one of my favorite that will help keep you OUT of trouble is sudo which is a way of controlling and logging root access. Been around forever - tastes great AND less filling! ;-)
I have some satellite pictures of my house and would like to have have it programmed to zoom in on my neighbor when she is sunbathing topless two doors down ... ;-)
There is no hope for me "The Fun Guy" ... heck, I even have a Nigritude Ultramarine Hulk ;-)
BTW, if you can't get a gmail invite from the poster above, they are giving one away periodically from the bottom of this Google Compute page.
There are several special metals in the Marvel universe that can have a place in the World of Darkness. These metals are usually very hard; much harder than mere steel, and they are not very ablative. They are also very rare, in general. One or two of them have special properties.
Adamantium
Adamantium is the hardest metal known to man, though it has not been made clear how dense it is. One would suspect that its density is roughly the same as that of normal steel, though a Storyteller can rule that it is as heavy as lead or as light as magnesium. At any rate, it would appear that no force on earth is sufficient to break or bend adamantium when it is at a normal temperature. Wolverine has used his adamantium-coated claws in Arctic climes as well as steamy jungles, so there is no reason to suppose that the metal becomes brittle at low temperatures. Judging from the number of times Wolverine's flesh has been roasted or vaporized right off of his skeleton in the comics, with no visible effect on the metal, we must assume that adamantium has a relatively high melting point. In any case, to be nice to Logan, it also seems likely that it has a fairly high specific heat capacity, at least for a metal. It may or may not be one of the magnetic metals- as seen in X-Men 25- because Magneto has enough raw power to reach down and repel protons in the raw, if he wants to.
There is a special process that allows adamantium in ionic (salt) form to be bonded to human bones- as in Wolverine's skeleton- or even human skin- as in Cyber's case. This process was developed by a Japanese scientist and villain called Dark Wind, and stolen (or sold) for the benefit of Department H, a branch of the Canadian Ministry of Defense. The following characters have some sort of connection to the metal, or are actually running around wearing it: Wolverine, Cyber, Dark Wind, Apocalypse, the Professor (not Xavier), Ultron, Lady Deathstrike.
Carbonadium
Carbonadium is a resilient, unstable metal that is much tougher than steel but more flexible than adamantium. It would seem as though it is a difficult and extremely expensive process to make carbonadium, which is probably an alloy of some kind, since there is apparently only one carbonadium synthesizer in the entire world. Carbonadium, like its more resilient counterpart adamantium, would appear to have a high specific heat capacity and melting point.
Carbonadium may or may not have one unique property: it may serve to stabilize a life-force vampire's condition, which would keep the mutant from having to drain the life force of others to survive. This may be a simple fact of Omega Red's condition, rather than something general to life-force vampirism.
Omega Red's tentacles are composed of carbonadium, and it is possible that his skeleton is also laced with the stuff. Other characters with a link to carbonadium include Wolverine, Sabretooth, Maverick, and John Wraith.
Omnium
Omnium is an extremely hard, extremely rigid metal that is likely to be second in resilience only to adamantium. In any case, it would seem that it is even less likely to bend without snapping than that metal. Omnium is not a commonly used or mentioned metal, but it has appeared on rare occasion in Marvel comics.
There was an acolyte of Magneto that had the power to change either himself or another person into an aware omnium statue. Other characters that have been seen using or testing the metal include Penance and the White
As noted, the details on this are sketchy, but I HIGHLY doubt it's a 70 megapixel camera - just a rotater/stitcher on top of a run-of-the-mill digicam platform. What they probably make easy for you is keeping the exposure exact, the shooting location the same, and stitching it all togather for you.
You too can do this (with a little effort) - for example, here is a Longs Peak Panorama generated by stitching togather a dozen or so pictures from a Canon G5 consumer digicam. It does look a bit wierd seeing a rotated view on a flat surface though.
Yea, I know 9 women can have 9 babies in 9 months (i.e. you can multi-thread/process! ;-), but if you are focused on a specific project, what I say above applies.
I read this book a decade or two ago - haven't read it for years, but truly a classic in the field with a lot of it still applicable today.
Are these the three shotgun dudes guarding your house three days/week?!? ;-)
BTW, along the lines of that Grand Canyon shot, Page 3 of the original article also showed a stitched panorama of Pike Peak, Colorado - if you are interested, here is series of pictures of Longs Peak Colorado which includes a Longs Peak Panorama similar to the one in the original article - this is yet another example where digital makes stuff like this easier.
You want him to learn in a "real-world" settings rather than a video game - there is no "reset" button in the former. Along those lines, the local police almost always have a "drunk driver/accident" exhibit which shows what a car looks look after a crash - and may also have pictures of victims - yea, it's a SHOCK, but you really want to impress upon him that he has to be careful, not only for himself, but for others.
And going out with him (again, in the real-world) might be FUN for father/son rather than sitting in front of a screen - he'll be leaving the house shortly and going off on his own, so you might regret not spending this time now.
Finally, I still do something like this with my wife who's "worried" about driving in snow - I take her to a empty parking lot and have her drive around to see what it feels like to slide/brake/etc. in snow - highly, highly recommended with your son if you live where weather is a factor - slippery roads are a whole new ballgame. Make sure you emphasize the difference between pumping the brakes (for older cars) and anti-skid braking where you do NOT want to do this.
Oh yeah, one more thing - tell him to watch out for Photo Radar - we don't need any more pictures like that one! ;-)
OK - lets see how smart /.'ers are ... if you took a manometer up in the blimp with you, would the pressure go up or down as you rise in altitude ... and would it matter if the blimp is filled with Helium or Hydrogen?!? ;-)