I haven't seen a cost either, but the last time I recall seeing a price tag attached to a Solaris-running laptop with some version of Sparc CPU, the price was around $10k (of course, this was in 1997, so prices may have changed). From what I gather, when dealing with Sun (and compatible) hardware, the old yacht motto applies: "if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it."
Rendezvous with Rama was OK for Clarke. Rama II wasn't bad, but wasn't all that great. Books III and IV were just plain horrid (granted, Gentry Lee was a big influence, so it isn't all Clarke's fault). The abomination that would be a prequel to it would be unforgivable.
Oh, no...it's a necessary skill in our (American) society. You wouldn't want to be left unable to respond if some terrible tragedy struck, would you? I mean, suppose someone in your office goes postal, and you're the first person the TV reporter finds. "Excuse me, sir; John Doe just slaughtered everyone in your office, how do you feel?" Do you want to be struck dumb as Zacharias or do you want to reply "I'm going to Disney World!"?
Your comments gave me an idea that started me wondering....
what happens if you write a reverse tetris program? That is, write a program where the human tries to pick the right combination of pieces and the computer tries to achieve tetrises using the pieces...
Of course, my not being an AI expert, it would be pointless for me to try, but maybe someone else out there might find it interesting...
I'll gladly join you in the grovelling. IMNSHO, Cathy is the best host ever in the history of the series. Roger, Tyler, and Karen just don't match up !
They actually did an episode with manned flight...gliders....one was made out of wood strips and canvas, the other out of aluminum poles and tarp. There was a bit of an accident that ended the competition, but the pilot (and expert) was safe. Must say from the sequence that it looked a lot worse than it was.
I wish I could join with you on the laughable sentiment; unfortunately I can't. (Disclaimer: even though I work for Nando Media, sister company to the News & Observer, my opinions are my own).
From where I sit the campaigns have been utterly shameful, mired in grime and innuendo. I never had an opinion on Senator Helms, one way or the other, but this much I do know: he can't be worse than Mr. Bowles or Mrs. Dole. Though they each paint the other with brushes of deceit and inneptitude, they both appear to be exactly the same.
I know as a North Carolina resident I should excercise my right to vote, but in this case, I'm boycotting that race.
The California story is true. If you watch enough TLC "Bad Driver" or "Police" specials, you'll see it at least once. I've personally see the same show airing twice, and a variant running, in the last 6 months.
Basically an ex-national guard guy with a beef with the local hospital sneaks onto the armory grounds and steals an M1A1 out from under their collective noses (can we say "curt-martial" boys and girls? good...I knew we could...)
anyhow, he cut loose rampaging down city streets. they've gote some lovely helicopter footage of him taking out cars, vans, a full-size motor home, even a street light. he tried to take out a pedestrian bridge, and eventually ended up on the freeway, headed towards said hospital.
The legions of following squad cars are something to see...rather like the 3+ hour hostage situation that recently occurred between Raleigh and Richmond on I-85...but I digress...
At any rate, fearing that the police were going to catch him on one side of the freeway (mind, they were more nervous about the main gun pointing rearward at the squad cars), he tries to drive the tank over the center divider, high centering the beast in the process.
A couple officers climbed up on the tank, and one who had guard experience opened the hatch. They ordered the guy to stop, but he just looked at them and laughed. Fearing for public safety (not to mention their own), one of the officers ended it with a lethal gunshot.
I guess the moral of the story is don't steal an Abrams tank....
I recall seeing a show on TLC about the camera systems in London used for tracking people, especially shoplifters. Some of the systems they showed off were capable of taking a blurry shot and finding a good match in a database of photos. Not sure what kinds of software techniques are available to match two different photos to the same person, but according to the show, accuracy was pretty good (I want to say something like 90%+). Scary that you sometimes don't even need to lean over to the camera operator next to you for a second opinion on whether that's John or Joe Doe....
First, I think if you successfully illuminated the camera with a laser, they wouldn't be able to identify you, meaning they couldn't very well have a talk with you on the subject of anti-surveilance techniques. Second, I think this would end up being classified with radar jammers as obstruction of law enforcement, meaning if they caught you doing it, they would be even more unhappy than if you were just speeding or running a red light. Third, I think it would take quite a bit of effort to figure out how to consistently jam the camera. Lasers are directional, meaning you have to get the laser properly angled so the beam blinds the camera when it tries to take your pretty picture; due to differences in camera manufacture and placement, I don't think this would be a trivial exercise. Finally, if you're in the habit of running red lights and want to be more effective at doing it without getting caught, then you're a serious menace to both yourself and passerby and shouldn't be driving to begin with.
Ever consider maybe he doesn't use Outlook? These viruses will go through someone's address book, meaning it most likely came through someone else who uses Outlook, maybe even someone he doesn't know. Now the sue-happy CEO on the other hand....
Not likely...Most of the people using this form of *ahem* communication are more likely to be AOL users and similarly intelligent forms of life. Besides which, the 'bonics' part comes from 'ebonics' which derives from 'ebony' meaning, black. So really, if you were going to name it off of 'nerd' then it would be 'nerdics'. Since it's really related to ignorant communication, I'd rather call it 'idiotics';)
But the meal pill would be the complete antithesis of cooking. One of the joys of cooking and eating good food is that you get to savor the process of creating it, then you get to enjoy the nuanced flavors and textures of the food. With a pill, you get it from a manufacturer, it has no flavor, and it has no texture.
Besides all that, the human body is meant to actually digest food...can you imagine the hunger pangs you'd feel if all you were doing is popping nutrient pills?
I guess it just seems a little...intentional...to put an axe through a computer....
Re:Some things I've come across before today:
on
When Users Attack
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Reminds me of a story told by a friend. One day a group of us, including markster were standing around shooting the breeze...markster mentioned that the local bike shop owner had asked him to install Linux on his (I think it was a 486) computer. He managed to get another member of the group that was present volunteered to do the job...
John apparently went over to the shop to load Linux, but nothing he did would work, he told us. Noticing that the case was slightly askew and wires were coming out of it, he took the cover off to discover a rats nest of wires soldered onto the mainboard. I suppose I should mention at this point that the shop owner liked to tinker, and apparently he'd been making some custom mods to his system that will never be documented anywhere...
John asked him what all the wires were for, and he replied that they helped the computer work the way he needed it to. He proudly showed off the row of dip switches that he'd gotten from old 9600 modems and repurposed for toggling between the printer and his extra hard drive. John, probably in stupified amazement, yanked the rats nest of wires out of the system, told him to format the drive, and that he'd get back to him on the Linux install.
I never got the epilogue, but that's one of the wierder stories I've heard told....
Slashdot Mirror
I haven't seen a cost either, but the last time I recall seeing a price tag attached to a Solaris-running laptop with some version of Sparc CPU, the price was around $10k (of course, this was in 1997, so prices may have changed). From what I gather, when dealing with Sun (and compatible) hardware, the old yacht motto applies: "if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it."
Rendezvous with Rama was OK for Clarke. Rama II wasn't bad, but wasn't all that great. Books III and IV were just plain horrid (granted, Gentry Lee was a big influence, so it isn't all Clarke's fault). The abomination that would be a prequel to it would be unforgivable.
don't think that's necessary...isn't it obvious considering he goes by the name 'Duh-bya'?
Vanilla is so....bland...now Butterscotch...now that's sumptuous! :)
Oh, no...it's a necessary skill in our (American) society. You wouldn't want to be left unable to respond if some terrible tragedy struck, would you? I mean, suppose someone in your office goes postal, and you're the first person the TV reporter finds. "Excuse me, sir; John Doe just slaughtered everyone in your office, how do you feel?" Do you want to be struck dumb as Zacharias or do you want to reply "I'm going to Disney World!"?
Your comments gave me an idea that started me wondering....
what happens if you write a reverse tetris program? That is, write a program where the human tries to pick the right combination of pieces and the computer tries to achieve tetrises using the pieces...
Of course, my not being an AI expert, it would be pointless for me to try, but maybe someone else out there might find it interesting...
I'll gladly join you in the grovelling. IMNSHO, Cathy is the best host ever in the history of the series. Roger, Tyler, and Karen just don't match up !
They actually did an episode with manned flight...gliders....one was made out of wood strips and canvas, the other out of aluminum poles and tarp. There was a bit of an accident that ended the competition, but the pilot (and expert) was safe. Must say from the sequence that it looked a lot worse than it was.
Because according to Tom, they're probably both lying, so if you buy the 500, you might get 350 ;)
I wish I could join with you on the laughable sentiment; unfortunately I can't. (Disclaimer: even though I work for Nando Media, sister company to the News & Observer, my opinions are my own).
From where I sit the campaigns have been utterly shameful, mired in grime and innuendo. I never had an opinion on Senator Helms, one way or the other, but this much I do know: he can't be worse than Mr. Bowles or Mrs. Dole. Though they each paint the other with brushes of deceit and inneptitude, they both appear to be exactly the same.
I know as a North Carolina resident I should excercise my right to vote, but in this case, I'm boycotting that race.
Hmm...try reporting him to the software piracy police? :)
The California story is true. If you watch enough TLC "Bad Driver" or "Police" specials, you'll see it at least once. I've personally see the same show airing twice, and a variant running, in the last 6 months.
Basically an ex-national guard guy with a beef with the local hospital sneaks onto the armory grounds and steals an M1A1 out from under their collective noses (can we say "curt-martial" boys and girls? good...I knew we could...)
anyhow, he cut loose rampaging down city streets. they've gote some lovely helicopter footage of him taking out cars, vans, a full-size motor home, even a street light. he tried to take out a pedestrian bridge, and eventually ended up on the freeway, headed towards said hospital.
The legions of following squad cars are something to see...rather like the 3+ hour hostage situation that recently occurred between Raleigh and Richmond on I-85...but I digress...
At any rate, fearing that the police were going to catch him on one side of the freeway (mind, they were more nervous about the main gun pointing rearward at the squad cars), he tries to drive the tank over the center divider, high centering the beast in the process.
A couple officers climbed up on the tank, and one who had guard experience opened the hatch. They ordered the guy to stop, but he just looked at them and laughed. Fearing for public safety (not to mention their own), one of the officers ended it with a lethal gunshot.
I guess the moral of the story is don't steal an Abrams tank....
I recall seeing a show on TLC about the camera systems in London used for tracking people, especially shoplifters. Some of the systems they showed off were capable of taking a blurry shot and finding a good match in a database of photos. Not sure what kinds of software techniques are available to match two different photos to the same person, but according to the show, accuracy was pretty good (I want to say something like 90%+). Scary that you sometimes don't even need to lean over to the camera operator next to you for a second opinion on whether that's John or Joe Doe....
First, I think if you successfully illuminated the camera with a laser, they wouldn't be able to identify you, meaning they couldn't very well have a talk with you on the subject of anti-surveilance techniques. Second, I think this would end up being classified with radar jammers as obstruction of law enforcement, meaning if they caught you doing it, they would be even more unhappy than if you were just speeding or running a red light. Third, I think it would take quite a bit of effort to figure out how to consistently jam the camera. Lasers are directional, meaning you have to get the laser properly angled so the beam blinds the camera when it tries to take your pretty picture; due to differences in camera manufacture and placement, I don't think this would be a trivial exercise. Finally, if you're in the habit of running red lights and want to be more effective at doing it without getting caught, then you're a serious menace to both yourself and passerby and shouldn't be driving to begin with.
Depends on if he works for a company that used to be audited by Arthur Anderson :)
Ever consider maybe he doesn't use Outlook? These viruses will go through someone's address book, meaning it most likely came through someone else who uses Outlook, maybe even someone he doesn't know. Now the sue-happy CEO on the other hand....
Hmm...maybe by process of elimination on who they know took it and who they know didn't take it?
OK, I took some flak for hiding. I admit it, I wrote the anonymous post about working down the hall...
Seriously, though, there are days when I feel like Dilbert.
Not likely...Most of the people using this form of *ahem* communication are more likely to be AOL users and similarly intelligent forms of life. Besides which, the 'bonics' part comes from 'ebonics' which derives from 'ebony' meaning, black. So really, if you were going to name it off of 'nerd' then it would be 'nerdics'. Since it's really related to ignorant communication, I'd rather call it 'idiotics' ;)
Well...hopefully you could leave out the 'L' if you're in the same bar....y'know?
Invaluable resource in the case that you don't happen to be a redneck and need to know how to cook a squirrel properly?
But the meal pill would be the complete antithesis of cooking. One of the joys of cooking and eating good food is that you get to savor the process of creating it, then you get to enjoy the nuanced flavors and textures of the food. With a pill, you get it from a manufacturer, it has no flavor, and it has no texture.
Besides all that, the human body is meant to actually digest food...can you imagine the hunger pangs you'd feel if all you were doing is popping nutrient pills?
maybe someone used nonstandard sockets when they designed the board...what the heck...I think you're right tho...
I guess it just seems a little...intentional...to put an axe through a computer....
Reminds me of a story told by a friend. One day a group of us, including markster were standing around shooting the breeze...markster mentioned that the local bike shop owner had asked him to install Linux on his (I think it was a 486) computer. He managed to get another member of the group that was present volunteered to do the job...
John apparently went over to the shop to load Linux, but nothing he did would work, he told us. Noticing that the case was slightly askew and wires were coming out of it, he took the cover off to discover a rats nest of wires soldered onto the mainboard. I suppose I should mention at this point that the shop owner liked to tinker, and apparently he'd been making some custom mods to his system that will never be documented anywhere...
John asked him what all the wires were for, and he replied that they helped the computer work the way he needed it to. He proudly showed off the row of dip switches that he'd gotten from old 9600 modems and repurposed for toggling between the printer and his extra hard drive. John, probably in stupified amazement, yanked the rats nest of wires out of the system, told him to format the drive, and that he'd get back to him on the Linux install.
I never got the epilogue, but that's one of the wierder stories I've heard told....