If the diameter of the circle of the rotation is large enough, the astronauts would not get motion sickness. Back in the 1970s, I read that a space station of about 1 mile in diameter, could be rotated at 1 G gravity without making the people inside seasick.
Instead of making the spaceship that large, they could attach the living quarters to each end of a very long cable, and then slowly rotate the ship. In the center of the cable, they could place a zero-G section which would contain sensors, and possibly the propulsion system and other equipment.
The long cable could be made out of some type of super strong light weight material, such as some type of carbon fibers.
There is also the question of how much artificial gravity would be needed to protect the astronauts health. If it is significantly less than 1 G, they could use a shorter cable or rotate the ship more slowly.
There is also the question of to what extent the astronauts bodies might possibly be able to get used to a certain amount of motion. Perhaps, they should ask sailers or fighter pilots, if their resistance to seasickness has improved, or not.
I forgot to mention, that the reason for using such a long cable would be to avoid having to spin the spaceship so quickly that they would get seasick. With a large enough cable, they could create sufficient centrifugal force (or artificial gravity) without giving the astronauts motion sickness.
Perhaps they could create artificial gravity by using a 1 mile long cable and a counter weight to slowly rotate the spaceship in large circles. If rotated at just the right speed, they could create the equivalent of 1 G gravity, through centrifugal force. A pilot in a fighter jet experiences the same kind of forces when making a high speed turn.
The cable could be made out of some super strong lightweight material. Extra fuel and other supplies could be used as the counterweight on the other end of the long cable, which would perhaps be about one mile away.
Of course, the other main problem problem would be how to protect the crew from both of the main types of radiation which exist in space. I vaguely recall reading that there are cosmic rays coming from deep space, and there is also another type of radiation which comes from solar flares. Shielding against radiation, might require bringing along a large amount of heavy massive radiation shielding, unless there is some better way to deflect or shield against radiation. I do not know much about radiation or the types radiation in space. However, as I recall, the cosmic rays have much more energy and are the hardest to shield against. I seem to recall reading, that Earth's magnetic field is what protects us here on Earth.
Of course, if heavy radiation shielding is used, then there is then the question of what kind of propulsion systems are efficient enough to move that much massive radiation shielding over interplanetary distances.
I am not an expert on the subject, but that is how I might approach the problem.
Oops, I meant to say that the free open source software which I added to my Windows XP box, did NOT add any crapware. Somehow, I left the word not out. I was trying to say that some commercial software programs throw in some extra unwanted crapware during installation, but not the typical GPL licensed open source software program.
There was absolutely no crapware on the AOpen computer, which I purchased about 2 1/2 years ago. I was very pleasantly surpised to discover that it came with just the plain Windows XP Professional installed, and almost nothing else. I had never before seen a Windows computer, which did not have lots of annoying unwanted crapware installed. There were not any unwanted demo programs that stop working after a short period of time. It did not have any extra unwanted stuff that would automatically start up, while booting up.
The AOpen computer is a very small desktop computer that is just book sized 6-inch x 6-inch x 2-inch box, that uses an external keyboard, monitor and mouse.
I have somehow managed to keep it reasonably free of unwanted crapware, even after hooking up to DSL and installing several commercial programs. I also installed some free open source software, which of course did add crapware. Even now, the computer boots up and shuts down in a fraction of the time of most other Windows computers that I have used. It boots up and shuts down about as quickly as my Linux computer and it feels just as clean and free of crapware. I am also happy that ESSET NOD anti-virus/firewall, which I installed, does not seem to affect performance noticeably.
There was some unwanted crapware that was added during my original DSL Internet setup. But, that was done on an older computer, which I no longer have (not the AOpen computer). The fact that my main computer is a Linux computer, has also helped keep my Windows XP computer in such a wonderful pristine clean condition. The AOpen Windows XP computer was used much less, than the Linux computer.
Linux distros, such as Ubuntu, do not ever come with what what I would consider to be crapware, despite the fact that many programs and utilities are installed by default. None of it is advertising demos or unwanted toolbars or that type of thing. Besides that, I can quickly easily install or uninstall whatever I want with the Snyaptic package manager. There is never any advertising related stuff on a Linux installation CD.
Perhaps, I encountered a puddle in the parking lot while pushing my grocery cart out to my truck. However, your point is valid that the items in my list are not in a, well thought out, logical order.
After finding mosquito larvae, I might be tempted to grab a couple of granules of VectoBac which contains a mosquito specific, mosquito larvae killing bacillus. However, I probably would not actually do that on someone else's property. On our own property, I have noticed that the bacillus kills mosquito larva, but does not kill tadpoles. From what I have, read it does not hurt animals or other wildlife either. Another alternative would have been to use Agnique MMF to put a molecular monofilm on the surface of the puddle which suffocates mosquitoes.
On our neighbors property, they added mosquito fish to a marshy pond, which once was a major mosquito breeding area.
That is probably more than you wanted to know about my interest in mosquito larvae. I am not an expert, I am just someone who has many impossible to eliminate puddles, caused by summer thunder storms, on our many acres of land. A more interesting shot would have been of one of those times which I have seen garter snakes catching tadpoles from the puddles.
Here are the first few snapshots of my daily activities.
1) Using Draino in my stopped up kitchen sink 2) Me standing naked in front of the mirror, contemplating my 250 lbs weight 3) Using a plunger on an overflowing stopped up toilet 4) Checking the tire pressure in my tires 5) Posting on Slashdot 6) Standing in line at the grocery store in a slow moving line 7) Bending down looking for mosquito larvae in a puddle 8) Staring at the mess in my closet and wondering when I will ever get around to cleaning it out 9) Me scratching my balls 10) Me shaving with a older style double-edged safety razor
Thanks to Microsoft, I may eventually have a device which will allow me to jog my memory of what those moments were like. Perhaps, I should save the pictures of those moments forever, so that future generations will know what life was like during this time period.
Despite heat and motion sensors and such to try to detect significant moments, the results might end up, not being much better that is on my list.
The article said that "it had developed the campaign to target men under 35 who hate advertising." It also said that it "should gain the appreciation from even the most cynical, anti-advertising guy."
It definitely did not gain my appreciation, and I think of myself as being a cynical, anti-advertising guy. However, I am way over 35 years old, so I am not their targeted audience.
I pretty much ignore most commercials, automotive or otherwise. Instead, whenever I get ready to buy a car, I look at consumer reports and a few issues of car magazines. I also ask at least a couple of auto mechanics, what cars and engines are good or bad. I usually do that same type of research for almost any major hardware, computer or appliance purchase, instead of relying on what the ads say.
As a voter, I nearly always ignore campaign commercials, as being both useless brief sound bites and deliberately misleading statements. Instead, I look at those free booklets which contain brief statements from every candidate and also the free booklet showing the pro and con positions for each proposition. I also clip relevant newspaper articles and watch debates. I usually turn of the sound or change channels, whenever a campaign commercial comes on. I ignore all the campaign commercials.
When I go to the grocery store, I read labels and buy whatever sounds like it has the healthiest ingredients. To me, what the label says, is what counts, not what has been advertised.
Their adversing campaign would definitely make me even more cynical about ads, than ever. Is that ABC news story actually for real?
P.S., Upon re-reading, fredklein's post, I see that I misunderstood part of what his source said. I somehow missed the part where he did mention the cooling effect of the cup, and that being why they suggest the coffee starting out so hot. However, fast food places usually use styrofoam cups, which have very little thermal mass and are good insulators. So, I do not see that quote as being relevant to how things are typically done at fast food places. If anything, the lack of thermal mass in their cups, should be a reason for not keeping the coffee so hot.
Sorry, about not reading what you said carefully enough.
The scalding hot coffee that I have sometimes been served at fast food places, has sometimes been much hotter that what I end up with in a coffee cup at home, or in an ordinary restaurant.
Brewing coffee at a high temperature is different that drinking it at that temperature. When I make coffee at home, I pour it into a ceramic coffee cup and the thermal mass of coffee cup, quickly absorbs just the right amount of heat. That is not true of a styrofoam cup which has very little thermal mass to initially absorb the excess heat. To make things worse the styrofoam is a very good insulator. Most people at home or in ordinary restaurants drink their coffee from ceramic coffee cups which quickly reduce the coffee to less than scalding hot. The combination of extra hot coffee and styrofoam cups, is what is so bad.
If someone drinks their coffee black like me, there is no cream or milk or other ingredients added to dilute the heat. Scalding hot coffee in a styrofoam cup, remains too hot to drink for many minutes afterwards.
I do not enjoy struggling to sip scalding hot coffee which burns my tongue. I also do not like having sore burned spots on my tongue and on the roof of my mouth, for the next couple of days. That sometimes happens, if I am not careful, even with coffee that is only slightly too hot.
Coffee does need to be hot to taste good, but I have never noticed any improved taste from it being scalding hot. My personal experience is not consistent, with what your source says. Good fresh brewed coffee only needs to be hot, not scalding hot.
Coffee only tastes good if is has been freshly brewed, not too long before serving it. The scalding hot coffee that I have had at fast food places, frequently is that terrible smelling and terrible tasting, overcooked old coffee. It sometimes smells like it has been cooked several hours earlier and kept very hot all that time. Instead of that wonderful, rich fresh fresh brewed natural coffee bean smell, it frequently has that sickeningly overpowering, disgusting strong burnt smell and taste.
Good water is also important for good coffee. Where I live, the water tastes good, but bad tasting water can make bad tasting coffee. People such as myself who drink their coffee black, probably notice the actual taste of the coffee much more than people who add milk and sugar.
I have always disliked getting coffee in a styrofoam cup that is way too hot to drink. I always drink my coffee black, so nothing is added to cool it down. The styrofoam cups at fast food places keep the coffee way too hot, much longer than a ceramic coffee cup would have. If the coffee at an ordinary restaurant is too hot, it will quickly cool off somewhat in the ceramic cup and saucer they use.
I do not like having to sit around, for a few minutes, waiting for the coffee to cool down before I can drink it. After several minutes, I usually get impatient and start cautiously trying to sip the still way too hot coffee. The next day, I have usually discovered that my tongue was sore from having been burned by the super hot coffee. After a couple of days, the soreness of portions of my tongue and roof of my mouth, goes away.
Usually, the way too hot coffee from fast food places smells disgusting. Instead of having that wonderful rich coffee aroma, it usually has that strong disgusting overcooked, burnt smell, typical of coffee made several hours ago, but constantly kept hot for several hours. When I finally get around to cautiously taking my first sip, I usually discover that it tastes even worse than it smells, so I throw it away. People who use cream or sugar, might have possibly have been able to make it taste minimally acceptable.
If fast food place can not provide fresh good smelling and good tasting coffee, I wish they would just not even offer it on the menu.
I was stuck with 26.4K dial-up, until about 3 years ago, here in Arizona. The local telephone lines were not good enough for 28.8 K, 32 K, or 56 K dial-up. I could not get cable or DSL either. That would be understandable if I were a rancher out in the middle of nowhere, but I actually live on the edge of a small city.
Back then, I had taken several classes at a Junior College, in which much of the required study material was available online. The online study material had lots of graphics and was very slow to download on 26.4K dial-up. Well, I did at least have the option of making the 4 mile drive over to the college and using one of their computers instead.
Several years ago, I noticed a several mile long ditch being dug from the nearest small windowless telephone building to the next nearest such small windowless telephone building. I could see that they were installing several miles of conduit, from one building to the other, in the ditch. I asked a telephone employee, working nearby, if they were upgrading the system to where DSL (or at least 56K dial-up) would be available. He said that they had just finished installing a new switch in the building, which should soon make DSL possible, but were waiting for the power supply to be upgraded to the quality required by new switch needed.
About a year after they finished, DSL did eventually became available. I now have a 1.5Mb/800K DSL connection. I am quite happy with 1.5 Mb DSL, but living less than 1/2 a mile from their brand new switch, I am surprised that they did not offer the option of an even higher speed. But, for what I do online, I would probably rarely be able to tell the difference, even if it were faster.
Where can I join this hypothetical group, consisting of 98.5% women, where we all have a common shared interest in something? It would be great if some of them would actually be flirting with me.
Yes, I might need to tell a few of them "no thank you." If I latter were to get married (and they did see my ring or already know), I would just say "sorry, I am married." Even then, I would still happily continue participating in the subject of our shared interest.
Back in the late 1980s, I was in a stupid 1 credit "connections" class, which every student at a particular Junior College in Arizona, had to take. I remember one incident, with a female student, in the "connections" class. On that assignment, we had to pair off and answer a question which the other person would grade. We were not supposed to grade them based on whether we agreed with them or not. I was paired up with a student who was a mother in her mid-40s.
The question for me, was something about how likely I would be to hire a woman for a computer programming job. Below is roughly what I said:
I said that, I would seriously consider the woman as a good candidate and examine at her qualifications. I mentioned that I had taken several computer classes, but was disappointed at how few women there were in the classes. Of those few women in those classes, none seemed to be passionate about expanding their abilities, beyond what was required in the class. I also mentioned, that I had browsed thorough computer magazines in book stores, hundreds of times over the years without ever once seeing a women look at a computer magazine or ham radio magazine or anything like that. I also mentioned, that no women ever came to the local computer club or ham radio club meetings on their own. I say that with disappointment, because I would like to see more women involved in those activities.
I then went on to say, that despite the seeming lack of serious passionate interest in computers, from the few women I had met so far, I was not ready to assume that all women were like that. I was quite willing to give a female job applicant serious consideration and give her the benefit of the doubt, and consider the possibility that she might really have a serious interest in computers.
The female student who was grading my reply was absolutely furious and gave me a "F," despite the fact that we were not supposed to be grading each other on whether we agree with the answer or not. She never did say exactly what was wrong with what I had said. The incident made somewhat of an impression on me, and left me wondering what was wrong with my answer. I had already given her a good grade for the question, which she had to answer ahead of that.
In that hypothetical situation, I had said I would seriously consider the female person as a serious candidate. What more could anyone ask? If anything, I was making an extra effort to give female candidates a fair opportunity, despite my lack of exposure to women who were seriously interested in computers. What was she upset about? Did she just simply misunderstand what I had just said? What I learned from that exercise, in the "connections" class, was that even if I try extra hard to treat women fairly, they can be quite angry with me anyway.
By the way, over the next couple of decades, after that, I was pleased to have encountered several women who were quite interested in computers and who were quite capable. One such women, was a regular at the local LUG meetings. I do not work with computers at work, so I do not have any personal experience with writing software for the FOSS community. For me, computers are just a hobby.
It would be possible for a small business look like they are software pirates when they have actually paid for all their software. For instance, suppose someone starts a small business and brings a desktop computer from home, to use at their small business. The receipts for the original software purchases (if can they still even be found), would not specifically mention the name of the business. The accounting records might mention using the computer which had originally been used at the business owner's home. But would that be sufficient to satisfy the BSA? I am not sure, and am not an expert on this.
Suppose that computer from home had a student version of Microsoft Office, that had been installed on the computer, several years before, back when the owner of the business had been a student. The small business owner, might not realize that using that he or she is now a software pirate.
As I said, I am not an expert, but here is another situation where the receipts might not make things clear enough about the fact that the business had actually purchased the software. Many small businesses pay for most things by check or cash, and do not have any kind of company charge card. If they purchased some software or a computer on-line from a company which does not accept checks or cash, they would have to use a personal charge card instead. The accounting records would record the owner, or other employee, being reimbursed for the software or hardware. The accounting records would also have attached the receipt to their records. But, would the BSA be satisfied with a vague roundabout complicated purchase, such as that?
The BSA's figures most likely include small business owners, who have either unknowingly violated the licensing terms, or who can not adequately prove having paid for the software, to the BSA's satisfaction.
I prefer free software, but I have never used pirated software. That is why I mostly use free open source software which has been licensed under one of the several widely used free software licenses, such as the GPL license. In recent years, most of the best known open source programs, now seem much more mature and feature complete.
On my main computer, I use Debian Linux and have download whatever free software I want from the thousands of properly licensed free open source programs in the Debian repositories. My only paid for commercial programs on the Linux computer are Autopano Giga and Crossover Linux.
I also have a Windows XP computer and use several open source programs on it too such as OpenOffice, AbiWord and Gimp. I also have several commercial programs, which I have paid for and use, such as Sandboxie and SecureZIP. There has never been any pirated software on either computer.
The BSA always seems to totally avoid mentioning the option of using free open source GPL licensed software instead. That bias, is presumably because they are representing many of the largest software companies. They do not want people to stay legal by switching from using pirated software to using free open source GPL licensed alternatives.
Back in September, Chabil Ha said on Slashdot that he was planning a Windows 7 party, which would include comparison demos of Snow Leopard and Ubuntu. Did anyone hear if he ever actually got around to doing his Windows 7 Launch party? His party sounds like more fun, especially they have some good Pizza and beer.
On three different occasions, I have had advertisements saying that they had detected viruses and spyware on my computer. They then offer to scan my hard disk for free. When I try to close the tab, or try to say no, they then go ahead and pretend to scan my hard drive. After about 60 seconds of supposedly scanning my 500 GB hard drive, they announce that they have found 2 viruses on drive C, and also spyware in my registry.
Since Linux does not use alphabetical letters as name for hard drives or partitions, that seems suspicious. Linux also does not have a registry. When I looked the names of the viruses up on the Internet, they were listed as only infecting certain versions of Windows (not Linux).
They then recommend that I purchase and download their little known anti-virus product for $39.95. After again attempting to close the tab and a pop-up, a box appears mentioning an attempt to download a Windows binary file. It asks me what program I want to use to open a file which ends with a.EXE extension. The file has the name of their anti-virus product, with.EXE as the extension. I also gives me the option to save the Windows only program to somewhere on my hard disk, or to cancel the download.
I have have run into variations of that advertisement 3 times over the last few years. However, I still do actually think that it is good that Comcast is notifying their customers, who are quite likely sending the rest of us large amounts of spam.
I get email advertisements from one of my banks and also from PayPal. That makes it harder to tell which messages are real. But, If they want me click on a link and log-in, I assume that it is most likely a phishing message.
I received an email warning this morning that wanted me to log into my online banking account to check on an alert. I do have an account with that bank, but I do not have the account set up for online banking.
I moved the cursor above the link,without clicking, and looked at the bottom of the screen to see where the link was really going. I was expecting to see one of those long complicated URLs to some foreign country, like what I usually see on phishing messages like that. But instead, this one had a short simple URL with the name of my bank, and one appropriate sounding extra word tacked onto the end of the URL. The URL looked reasonable.
If I were to try going the the bank's website, I would not have trusted clicking on their link. Instead, I would have carefully typed the normal version of the bank's URL directly into the browser (assuming that I actually had an online banking account to log into).
A couple of months ago, a bank employee, tried to talk me into using online banking. I told him that sounds good, but only if they offer two factor authentication. I showed him the PayPal security token on my keychain. He said they did not offer the option of using anything like that. I suggested to him that would not be good enough, because if someone were to steal my user name and password through a phishing message, they still would not have my security token. If someone found the security token on the ground they would not have my password. His response, was that I should just ignore all phishing email messages.
If the phishing emails could fool the head of the FBI, then a large percentage of their customers could also be fooled.
I think that future generations will be more likely to wonder why we spent so much time thinking about Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan (at least here in the U.S.). They might have preferred, that we had done more thoughtful in depth thinking about long term problems such as the federal budget deficit, the trade deficit, how to pay for Social Security and Medicaid, how to reduce topsoil erosion on farm land, and how to slow the increase in overpopulation.
Our failure to do much about global warming might also be a gripe of theirs, but at least we did talk about that problem.
Although you are probably half joking, I do not really think that making an informed decision, as a consumer, about Mac vs. Windows is a total waste of time. In your alternate scenario of space aliens conquering Earth, perhaps their initial attack was will have been on the millions of inadequately secured Windows computers around the world, with viruses, trojans, and malware. They might have launched that attack on computers, just after a financial collapse of our civilization had occurred, due to the federal deficit.
Perhaps, they might have then done an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack from space to physically damage the delicate electronics in computers and other electronic devices. Devices attached to long wires would have been especially vulnerable. As our civilization temporarily collapsed, they might have chosen that moment to attack.
If the alien masters asked why we were so stupid and easy to conqure, I might mention the amount of time our news media spent on the problems of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, instead of on real issues the voters needed to know about. I would also criticize the news media's tendency to show overly simplistic short sound bites of what politicians and other important people had to say.
By the way, I use Linux on my PC, but also have a Windows computer which I occasionally use.
"I'm a PC," and I use Linux on my PC instead of Windows. I have three PCs, only one of which has Windows installed. My main day to day computer is a PC running Linux. The Microsoft or Apple commercials say "I'm a PC," as if to imply that all PC users use Windows.
The PC that actually does have Windows installed on it, is my least used computer.
As I mentioned in another comment elsewhere, I use only one keyboard, monitor and mouse to control all 3 computers. I controll all 3 computers with a KVM switch. However, most KVM switches are now being replaced by something similar which uses USB cables and the newer type of video cable (whatever that is called). Another alternative would have been to run Windows inside of VMWare. Most of the time I have the Windows box turned off, but when I have it and an my favorite Linux box turned on, I can jump back and forth between Windows and Linux in about 2 seconds.
My rarely used, Windows XP PC has small 6 inch x 6 inch x 2 inch case, which only uses about 23 Watts (not counting the 20 inch monitor). Since the Windows computer is used so rarely, it is good that it does not take up much space or use much power.
I have also been irritated when those ads by both Microsoft and Apple, say "I'm a PC," as if to imply that all PCs run Windows. Right now, I am using Linux on a PC. I have three PCs, and only one of them has Windows installed on it.
Most desktop Linux users run Linux on a PC, although Linux will run on other hardware.
I am a Linux user who also has a token Windows box. The Linux computer is what I use for most of my day to day activities, such as text editing, email and browsing the Internet. The Windows XP computer gets used once every few months for running a couple of Windows programs such as one that has every topographic map for the state of Arizona. The top map program is also available in a Mac version, but not in a Linux version. Being able to view and print out topo map, for the entire state, is handy when planning a hiking or backpacking trip. Topo maps are something occasionally I need, but only rarely use, so I do not need to use the Windows computer as my day to day computer.
I use just one keyboard, mouse and monitor, with a KVM switch, to control both computers. I can switch back and forth between either computer in about 2 seconds. The Windows XP computer is in a small 6 inch x 6 inch x 2 inch case, has a 1.85 GHz Core 2 Duo and uses only about 23 Watts. My several year old Linux computer is in a tower case, has an AMD 64 X2 processor, and uses about 73 Watts. On the rare occasions when I run both a once, I still use less power than most other desktop computers.
The Linux computer is what is being exposed to most of the threats from the Internet, although I have both computers behind the firewall built into my DSL modem. The Windows box lives a more sheltered existence, by mostly only being briefly connected to the Internet for security updates and anti-virus signature updates. Of course I do updates for the Linux box too and have a firewall installed on both computers.
About a year ago, I purchasing a used.357 Magnum revolver at a gun store here in Arizona. The clerk verbally asked me for information such as my Social Security number. Then, the clerk noticed someone behind me, who had a pen and piece of paper, who was starting to write something down. He sternly interrupted the person, and asked what he wanted. He said that he wanted to know if the gun store owners wanted to donate to some charity.
After kicking the guy out, he then called in my information over the phone, to get the sale approved. He verbally repeated all the information over the phone, while several other customers were still in the store. I could have heard those answers from anywhere in the store, even at my age. So after purchasing my first handgun, I felt less secure about crime, due my concern about the possibility of my identity having been stolen. I have been checking my credit reports regularly since then, but everything seems to be OK.
There should be a password associated with our Social Security account number. In fact, they should really get modern and offer the option of using both a password and also a electronic key on our key chains. If a password were used, I would have changed my password after the above incident.
P.S., as a clarification of what I just said. I did not actually "need" to modify my hosts file to stop their scareware advertisement. The advertisement was already gone by then. I just did that as an experiment, and then deliberately returned to the website, to see if it really did bock their scareware anti-spyware advertisement (which it did).
Slashdot Mirror
If the diameter of the circle of the rotation is large enough, the astronauts would not get motion sickness. Back in the 1970s, I read that a space station of about 1 mile in diameter, could be rotated at 1 G gravity without making the people inside seasick.
Instead of making the spaceship that large, they could attach the living quarters to each end of a very long cable, and then slowly rotate the ship. In the center of the cable, they could place a zero-G section which would contain sensors, and possibly the propulsion system and other equipment.
The long cable could be made out of some type of super strong light weight material, such as some type of carbon fibers.
There is also the question of how much artificial gravity would be needed to protect the astronauts health. If it is significantly less than 1 G, they could use a shorter cable or rotate the ship more slowly.
There is also the question of to what extent the astronauts bodies might possibly be able to get used to a certain amount of motion. Perhaps, they should ask sailers or fighter pilots, if their resistance to seasickness has improved, or not.
I forgot to mention, that the reason for using such a long cable would be to avoid having to spin the spaceship so quickly that they would get seasick. With a large enough cable, they could create sufficient centrifugal force (or artificial gravity) without giving the astronauts motion sickness.
Perhaps they could create artificial gravity by using a 1 mile long cable and a counter weight to slowly rotate the spaceship in large circles. If rotated at just the right speed, they could create the equivalent of 1 G gravity, through centrifugal force. A pilot in a fighter jet experiences the same kind of forces when making a high speed turn.
The cable could be made out of some super strong lightweight material. Extra fuel and other supplies could be used as the counterweight on the other end of the long cable, which would perhaps be about one mile away.
Of course, the other main problem problem would be how to protect the crew from both of the main types of radiation which exist in space. I vaguely recall reading that there are cosmic rays coming from deep space, and there is also another type of radiation which comes from solar flares. Shielding against radiation, might require bringing along a large amount of heavy massive radiation shielding, unless there is some better way to deflect or shield against radiation. I do not know much about radiation or the types radiation in space. However, as I recall, the cosmic rays have much more energy and are the hardest to shield against. I seem to recall reading, that Earth's magnetic field is what protects us here on Earth.
Of course, if heavy radiation shielding is used, then there is then the question of what kind of propulsion systems are efficient enough to move that much massive radiation shielding over interplanetary distances.
I am not an expert on the subject, but that is how I might approach the problem.
Oops, I meant to say that the free open source software which I added to my Windows XP box, did NOT add any crapware. Somehow, I left the word not out. I was trying to say that some commercial software programs throw in some extra unwanted crapware during installation, but not the typical GPL licensed open source software program.
There was absolutely no crapware on the AOpen computer, which I purchased about 2 1/2 years ago. I was very pleasantly surpised to discover that it came with just the plain Windows XP Professional installed, and almost nothing else. I had never before seen a Windows computer, which did not have lots of annoying unwanted crapware installed. There were not any unwanted demo programs that stop working after a short period of time. It did not have any extra unwanted stuff that would automatically start up, while booting up.
The AOpen computer is a very small desktop computer that is just book sized 6-inch x 6-inch x 2-inch box, that uses an external keyboard, monitor and mouse.
I have somehow managed to keep it reasonably free of unwanted crapware, even after hooking up to DSL and installing several commercial programs. I also installed some free open source software, which of course did add crapware. Even now, the computer boots up and shuts down in a fraction of the time of most other Windows computers that I have used. It boots up and shuts down about as quickly as my Linux computer and it feels just as clean and free of crapware. I am also happy that ESSET NOD anti-virus/firewall, which I installed, does not seem to affect performance noticeably.
There was some unwanted crapware that was added during my original DSL Internet setup. But, that was done on an older computer, which I no longer have (not the AOpen computer). The fact that my main computer is a Linux computer, has also helped keep my Windows XP computer in such a wonderful pristine clean condition. The AOpen Windows XP computer was used much less, than the Linux computer.
Linux distros, such as Ubuntu, do not ever come with what what I would consider to be crapware, despite the fact that many programs and utilities are installed by default. None of it is advertising demos or unwanted toolbars or that type of thing. Besides that, I can quickly easily install or uninstall whatever I want with the Snyaptic package manager. There is never any advertising related stuff on a Linux installation CD.
Perhaps, I encountered a puddle in the parking lot while pushing my grocery cart out to my truck. However, your point is valid that the items in my list are not in a, well thought out, logical order.
After finding mosquito larvae, I might be tempted to grab a couple of granules of VectoBac which contains a mosquito specific, mosquito larvae killing bacillus. However, I probably would not actually do that on someone else's property. On our own property, I have noticed that the bacillus kills mosquito larva, but does not kill tadpoles. From what I have, read it does not hurt animals or other wildlife either. Another alternative would have been to use Agnique MMF to put a molecular monofilm on the surface of the puddle which suffocates mosquitoes.
On our neighbors property, they added mosquito fish to a marshy pond, which once was a major mosquito breeding area.
That is probably more than you wanted to know about my interest in mosquito larvae. I am not an expert, I am just someone who has many impossible to eliminate puddles, caused by summer thunder storms, on our many acres of land. A more interesting shot would have been of one of those times which I have seen garter snakes catching tadpoles from the puddles.
Here are the first few snapshots of my daily activities.
1) Using Draino in my stopped up kitchen sink
2) Me standing naked in front of the mirror, contemplating my 250 lbs weight
3) Using a plunger on an overflowing stopped up toilet
4) Checking the tire pressure in my tires
5) Posting on Slashdot
6) Standing in line at the grocery store in a slow moving line
7) Bending down looking for mosquito larvae in a puddle
8) Staring at the mess in my closet and wondering when I will ever get around to cleaning it out
9) Me scratching my balls
10) Me shaving with a older style double-edged safety razor
Thanks to Microsoft, I may eventually have a device which will allow me to jog my memory of what those moments were like. Perhaps, I should save the pictures of those moments forever, so that future generations will know what life was like during this time period.
Despite heat and motion sensors and such to try to detect significant moments, the results might end up, not being much better that is on my list.
The article said that "it had developed the campaign to target men under 35 who hate advertising." It also said that it "should gain the appreciation from even the most cynical, anti-advertising guy."
It definitely did not gain my appreciation, and I think of myself as being a cynical, anti-advertising guy. However, I am way over 35 years old, so I am not their targeted audience.
I pretty much ignore most commercials, automotive or otherwise. Instead, whenever I get ready to buy a car, I look at consumer reports and a few issues of car magazines. I also ask at least a couple of auto mechanics, what cars and engines are good or bad. I usually do that same type of research for almost any major hardware, computer or appliance purchase, instead of relying on what the ads say.
As a voter, I nearly always ignore campaign commercials, as being both useless brief sound bites and deliberately misleading statements. Instead, I look at those free booklets which contain brief statements from every candidate and also the free booklet showing the pro and con positions for each proposition. I also clip relevant newspaper articles and watch debates. I usually turn of the sound or change channels, whenever a campaign commercial comes on. I ignore all the campaign commercials.
When I go to the grocery store, I read labels and buy whatever sounds like it has the healthiest ingredients. To me, what the label says, is what counts, not what has been advertised.
Their adversing campaign would definitely make me even more cynical about ads, than ever. Is that ABC news story actually for real?
P.S., Upon re-reading, fredklein's post, I see that I misunderstood part of what his source said. I somehow missed the part where he did mention the cooling effect of the cup, and that being why they suggest the coffee starting out so hot. However, fast food places usually use styrofoam cups, which have very little thermal mass and are good insulators. So, I do not see that quote as being relevant to how things are typically done at fast food places. If anything, the lack of thermal mass in their cups, should be a reason for not keeping the coffee so hot.
Sorry, about not reading what you said carefully enough.
The scalding hot coffee that I have sometimes been served at fast food places, has sometimes been much hotter that what I end up with in a coffee cup at home, or in an ordinary restaurant.
Brewing coffee at a high temperature is different that drinking it at that temperature. When I make coffee at home, I pour it into a ceramic coffee cup and the thermal mass of coffee cup, quickly absorbs just the right amount of heat. That is not true of a styrofoam cup which has very little thermal mass to initially absorb the excess heat. To make things worse the styrofoam is a very good insulator. Most people at home or in ordinary restaurants drink their coffee from ceramic coffee cups which quickly reduce the coffee to less than scalding hot. The combination of extra hot coffee and styrofoam cups, is what is so bad.
If someone drinks their coffee black like me, there is no cream or milk or other ingredients added to dilute the heat. Scalding hot coffee in a styrofoam cup, remains too hot to drink for many minutes afterwards.
I do not enjoy struggling to sip scalding hot coffee which burns my tongue. I also do not like having sore burned spots on my tongue and on the roof of my mouth, for the next couple of days. That sometimes happens, if I am not careful, even with coffee that is only slightly too hot.
Coffee does need to be hot to taste good, but I have never noticed any improved taste from it being scalding hot. My personal experience is not consistent, with what your source says. Good fresh brewed coffee only needs to be hot, not scalding hot.
Coffee only tastes good if is has been freshly brewed, not too long before serving it. The scalding hot coffee that I have had at fast food places, frequently is that terrible smelling and terrible tasting, overcooked old coffee. It sometimes smells like it has been cooked several hours earlier and kept very hot all that time. Instead of that wonderful, rich fresh fresh brewed natural coffee bean smell, it frequently has that sickeningly overpowering, disgusting strong burnt smell and taste.
Good water is also important for good coffee. Where I live, the water tastes good, but bad tasting water can make bad tasting coffee. People such as myself who drink their coffee black, probably notice the actual taste of the coffee much more than people who add milk and sugar.
I have always disliked getting coffee in a styrofoam cup that is way too hot to drink. I always drink my coffee black, so nothing is added to cool it down. The styrofoam cups at fast food places keep the coffee way too hot, much longer than a ceramic coffee cup would have. If the coffee at an ordinary restaurant is too hot, it will quickly cool off somewhat in the ceramic cup and saucer they use.
I do not like having to sit around, for a few minutes, waiting for the coffee to cool down before I can drink it. After several minutes, I usually get impatient and start cautiously trying to sip the still way too hot coffee. The next day, I have usually discovered that my tongue was sore from having been burned by the super hot coffee. After a couple of days, the soreness of portions of my tongue and roof of my mouth, goes away.
Usually, the way too hot coffee from fast food places smells disgusting. Instead of having that wonderful rich coffee aroma, it usually has that strong disgusting overcooked, burnt smell, typical of coffee made several hours ago, but constantly kept hot for several hours. When I finally get around to cautiously taking my first sip, I usually discover that it tastes even worse than it smells, so I throw it away. People who use cream or sugar, might have possibly have been able to make it taste minimally acceptable.
If fast food place can not provide fresh good smelling and good tasting coffee, I wish they would just not even offer it on the menu.
I was stuck with 26.4K dial-up, until about 3 years ago, here in Arizona. The local telephone lines were not good enough for 28.8 K, 32 K, or 56 K dial-up. I could not get cable or DSL either. That would be understandable if I were a rancher out in the middle of nowhere, but I actually live on the edge of a small city.
Back then, I had taken several classes at a Junior College, in which much of the required study material was available online. The online study material had lots of graphics and was very slow to download on 26.4K dial-up. Well, I did at least have the option of making the 4 mile drive over to the college and using one of their computers instead.
Several years ago, I noticed a several mile long ditch being dug from the nearest small windowless telephone building to the next nearest such small windowless telephone building. I could see that they were installing several miles of conduit, from one building to the other, in the ditch. I asked a telephone employee, working nearby, if they were upgrading the system to where DSL (or at least 56K dial-up) would be available. He said that they had just finished installing a new switch in the building, which should soon make DSL possible, but were waiting for the power supply to be upgraded to the quality required by new switch needed.
About a year after they finished, DSL did eventually became available. I now have a 1.5Mb/800K DSL connection. I am quite happy with 1.5 Mb DSL, but living less than 1/2 a mile from their brand new switch, I am surprised that they did not offer the option of an even higher speed. But, for what I do online, I would probably rarely be able to tell the difference, even if it were faster.
Where can I join this hypothetical group, consisting of 98.5% women, where we all have a common shared interest in something? It would be great if some of them would actually be flirting with me.
Yes, I might need to tell a few of them "no thank you." If I latter were to get married (and they did see my ring or already know), I would just say "sorry, I am married." Even then, I would still happily continue participating in the subject of our shared interest.
Back in the late 1980s, I was in a stupid 1 credit "connections" class, which every student at a particular Junior College in Arizona, had to take. I remember one incident, with a female student, in the "connections" class. On that assignment, we had to pair off and answer a question which the other person would grade. We were not supposed to grade them based on whether we agreed with them or not. I was paired up with a student who was a mother in her mid-40s.
The question for me, was something about how likely I would be to hire a woman for a computer programming job. Below is roughly what I said:
I said that, I would seriously consider the woman as a good candidate and examine at her qualifications. I mentioned that I had taken several computer classes, but was disappointed at how few women there were in the classes. Of those few women in those classes, none seemed to be passionate about expanding their abilities, beyond what was required in the class. I also mentioned, that I had browsed thorough computer magazines in book stores, hundreds of times over the years without ever once seeing a women look at a computer magazine or ham radio magazine or anything like that. I also mentioned, that no women ever came to the local computer club or ham radio club meetings on their own. I say that with disappointment, because I would like to see more women involved in those activities.
I then went on to say, that despite the seeming lack of serious passionate interest in computers, from the few women I had met so far, I was not ready to assume that all women were like that. I was quite willing to give a female job applicant serious consideration and give her the benefit of the doubt, and consider the possibility that she might really have a serious interest in computers.
The female student who was grading my reply was absolutely furious and gave me a "F," despite the fact that we were not supposed to be grading each other on whether we agree with the answer or not. She never did say exactly what was wrong with what I had said. The incident made somewhat of an impression on me, and left me wondering what was wrong with my answer. I had already given her a good grade for the question, which she had to answer ahead of that.
In that hypothetical situation, I had said I would seriously consider the female person as a serious candidate. What more could anyone ask? If anything, I was making an extra effort to give female candidates a fair opportunity, despite my lack of exposure to women who were seriously interested in computers. What was she upset about? Did she just simply misunderstand what I had just said? What I learned from that exercise, in the "connections" class, was that even if I try extra hard to treat women fairly, they can be quite angry with me anyway.
By the way, over the next couple of decades, after that, I was pleased to have encountered several women who were quite interested in computers and who were quite capable. One such women, was a regular at the local LUG meetings. I do not work with computers at work, so I do not have any personal experience with writing software for the FOSS community. For me, computers are just a hobby.
It would be possible for a small business look like they are software pirates when they have actually paid for all their software. For instance, suppose someone starts a small business and brings a desktop computer from home, to use at their small business. The receipts for the original software purchases (if can they still even be found), would not specifically mention the name of the business. The accounting records might mention using the computer which had originally been used at the business owner's home. But would that be sufficient to satisfy the BSA? I am not sure, and am not an expert on this.
Suppose that computer from home had a student version of Microsoft Office, that had been installed on the computer, several years before, back when the owner of the business had been a student. The small business owner, might not realize that using that he or she is now a software pirate.
As I said, I am not an expert, but here is another situation where the receipts might not make things clear enough about the fact that the business had actually purchased the software. Many small businesses pay for most things by check or cash, and do not have any kind of company charge card. If they purchased some software or a computer on-line from a company which does not accept checks or cash, they would have to use a personal charge card instead. The accounting records would record the owner, or other employee, being reimbursed for the software or hardware. The accounting records would also have attached the receipt to their records. But, would the BSA be satisfied with a vague roundabout complicated purchase, such as that?
The BSA's figures most likely include small business owners, who have either unknowingly violated the licensing terms, or who can not adequately prove having paid for the software, to the BSA's satisfaction.
I prefer free software, but I have never used pirated software. That is why I mostly use free open source software which has been licensed under one of the several widely used free software licenses, such as the GPL license. In recent years, most of the best known open source programs, now seem much more mature and feature complete.
On my main computer, I use Debian Linux and have download whatever free software I want from the thousands of properly licensed free open source programs in the Debian repositories. My only paid for commercial programs on the Linux computer are Autopano Giga and Crossover Linux.
I also have a Windows XP computer and use several open source programs on it too such as OpenOffice, AbiWord and Gimp. I also have several commercial programs, which I have paid for and use, such as Sandboxie and SecureZIP. There has never been any pirated software on either computer.
The BSA always seems to totally avoid mentioning the option of using free open source GPL licensed software instead. That bias, is presumably because they are representing many of the largest software companies. They do not want people to stay legal by switching from using pirated software to using free open source GPL licensed alternatives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPL
Back in September, Chabil Ha said on Slashdot that he was planning a Windows 7 party, which would include comparison demos of Snow Leopard and Ubuntu. Did anyone hear if he ever actually got around to doing his Windows 7 Launch party? His party sounds like more fun, especially they have some good Pizza and beer.
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1385089&cid=29574345
If they wait till the end of this month, they would have the 9.10 Karmic Koala version of Ubuntu to use in the comparison, too.
On three different occasions, I have had advertisements saying that they had detected viruses and spyware on my computer. They then offer to scan my hard disk for free. When I try to close the tab, or try to say no, they then go ahead and pretend to scan my hard drive. After about 60 seconds of supposedly scanning my 500 GB hard drive, they announce that they have found 2 viruses on drive C, and also spyware in my registry.
.EXE extension. The file has the name of their anti-virus product, with .EXE as the extension. I also gives me the option to save the Windows only program to somewhere on my hard disk, or to cancel the download.
Since Linux does not use alphabetical letters as name for hard drives or partitions, that seems suspicious. Linux also does not have a registry. When I looked the names of the viruses up on the Internet, they were listed as only infecting certain versions of Windows (not Linux).
They then recommend that I purchase and download their little known anti-virus product for $39.95. After again attempting to close the tab and a pop-up, a box appears mentioning an attempt to download a Windows binary file. It asks me what program I want to use to open a file which ends with a
I have have run into variations of that advertisement 3 times over the last few years. However, I still do actually think that it is good that Comcast is notifying their customers, who are quite likely sending the rest of us large amounts of spam.
I get email advertisements from one of my banks and also from PayPal. That makes it harder to tell which messages are real. But, If they want me click on a link and log-in, I assume that it is most likely a phishing message.
I received an email warning this morning that wanted me to log into my online banking account to check on an alert. I do have an account with that bank, but I do not have the account set up for online banking.
I moved the cursor above the link,without clicking, and looked at the bottom of the screen to see where the link was really going. I was expecting to see one of those long complicated URLs to some foreign country, like what I usually see on phishing messages like that. But instead, this one had a short simple URL with the name of my bank, and one appropriate sounding extra word tacked onto the end of the URL. The URL looked reasonable.
If I were to try going the the bank's website, I would not have trusted clicking on their link. Instead, I would have carefully typed the normal version of the bank's URL directly into the browser (assuming that I actually had an online banking account to log into).
A couple of months ago, a bank employee, tried to talk me into using online banking. I told him that sounds good, but only if they offer two factor authentication. I showed him the PayPal security token on my keychain. He said they did not offer the option of using anything like that. I suggested to him that would not be good enough, because if someone were to steal my user name and password through a phishing message, they still would not have my security token. If someone found the security token on the ground they would not have my password. His response, was that I should just ignore all phishing email messages.
If the phishing emails could fool the head of the FBI, then a large percentage of their customers could also be fooled.
I think that future generations will be more likely to wonder why we spent so much time thinking about Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan (at least here in the U.S.). They might have preferred, that we had done more thoughtful in depth thinking about long term problems such as the federal budget deficit, the trade deficit, how to pay for Social Security and Medicaid, how to reduce topsoil erosion on farm land, and how to slow the increase in overpopulation.
Our failure to do much about global warming might also be a gripe of theirs, but at least we did talk about that problem.
Although you are probably half joking, I do not really think that making an informed decision, as a consumer, about Mac vs. Windows is a total waste of time. In your alternate scenario of space aliens conquering Earth, perhaps their initial attack was will have been on the millions of inadequately secured Windows computers around the world, with viruses, trojans, and malware. They might have launched that attack on computers, just after a financial collapse of our civilization had occurred, due to the federal deficit.
Perhaps, they might have then done an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack from space to physically damage the delicate electronics in computers and other electronic devices. Devices attached to long wires would have been especially vulnerable. As our civilization temporarily collapsed, they might have chosen that moment to attack.
If the alien masters asked why we were so stupid and easy to conqure, I might mention the amount of time our news media spent on the problems of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, instead of on real issues the voters needed to know about. I would also criticize the news media's tendency to show overly simplistic short sound bites of what politicians and other important people had to say.
By the way, I use Linux on my PC, but also have a Windows computer which I occasionally use.
"I'm a PC," and I use Linux on my PC instead of Windows. I have three PCs, only one of which has Windows installed. My main day to day computer is a PC running Linux. The Microsoft or Apple commercials say "I'm a PC," as if to imply that all PC users use Windows.
The PC that actually does have Windows installed on it, is my least used computer.
As I mentioned in another comment elsewhere, I use only one keyboard, monitor and mouse to control all 3 computers. I controll all 3 computers with a KVM switch. However, most KVM switches are now being replaced by something similar which uses USB cables and the newer type of video cable (whatever that is called). Another alternative would have been to run Windows inside of VMWare. Most of the time I have the Windows box turned off, but when I have it and an my favorite Linux box turned on, I can jump back and forth between Windows and Linux in about 2 seconds.
My rarely used, Windows XP PC has small 6 inch x 6 inch x 2 inch case, which only uses about 23 Watts (not counting the 20 inch monitor). Since the Windows computer is used so rarely, it is good that it does not take up much space or use much power.
I have also been irritated when those ads by both Microsoft and Apple, say "I'm a PC," as if to imply that all PCs run Windows. Right now, I am using Linux on a PC. I have three PCs, and only one of them has Windows installed on it.
Most desktop Linux users run Linux on a PC, although Linux will run on other hardware.
I am a Linux user who also has a token Windows box. The Linux computer is what I use for most of my day to day activities, such as text editing, email and browsing the Internet. The Windows XP computer gets used once every few months for running a couple of Windows programs such as one that has every topographic map for the state of Arizona. The top map program is also available in a Mac version, but not in a Linux version. Being able to view and print out topo map, for the entire state, is handy when planning a hiking or backpacking trip. Topo maps are something occasionally I need, but only rarely use, so I do not need to use the Windows computer as my day to day computer.
I use just one keyboard, mouse and monitor, with a KVM switch, to control both computers. I can switch back and forth between either computer in about 2 seconds. The Windows XP computer is in a small 6 inch x 6 inch x 2 inch case, has a 1.85 GHz Core 2 Duo and uses only about 23 Watts. My several year old Linux computer is in a tower case, has an AMD 64 X2 processor, and uses about 73 Watts. On the rare occasions when I run both a once, I still use less power than most other desktop computers.
The Linux computer is what is being exposed to most of the threats from the Internet, although I have both computers behind the firewall built into my DSL modem. The Windows box lives a more sheltered existence, by mostly only being briefly connected to the Internet for security updates and anti-virus signature updates. Of course I do updates for the Linux box too and have a firewall installed on both computers.
About a year ago, I purchasing a used .357 Magnum revolver at a gun store here in Arizona. The clerk verbally asked me for information such as my Social Security number. Then, the clerk noticed someone behind me, who had a pen and piece of paper, who was starting to write something down. He sternly interrupted the person, and asked what he wanted. He said that he wanted to know if the gun store owners wanted to donate to some charity.
After kicking the guy out, he then called in my information over the phone, to get the sale approved. He verbally repeated all the information over the phone, while several other customers were still in the store. I could have heard those answers from anywhere in the store, even at my age. So after purchasing my first handgun, I felt less secure about crime, due my concern about the possibility of my identity having been stolen. I have been checking my credit reports regularly since then, but everything seems to be OK.
There should be a password associated with our Social Security account number. In fact, they should really get modern and offer the option of using both a password and also a electronic key on our key chains. If a password were used, I would have changed my password after the above incident.
P.S., as a clarification of what I just said. I did not actually "need" to modify my hosts file to stop their scareware advertisement. The advertisement was already gone by then. I just did that as an experiment, and then deliberately returned to the website, to see if it really did bock their scareware anti-spyware advertisement (which it did).