Well, having been a System Administrator, I can sympathize with this plight. Even a small non-compliance percentage is a bad thing, since there's only about 50-million cracker tools that will give the list of usernames for the network. Here's a few things I can recommend. Most are common sense, but just in case, I thought it might help:
Educate your users in 1337-speak. - You know, 3's as E's, 7's as T's, etc. Point out that they can make nearly any normal, easy to remember password more secure by using 1337-speak. This will help prevent tools like L0phtCrack from breaking the code in minutes, but rather might change it to days. I did a bit of security consulting and found this to be the easiest way of ensuring compliance at the user level. For added security, have them make phrases using the special characters. For instance $4Bugs is a rather secure six-letter password (though really I'd prefer 8+).
Fear Works Wonders - Divulge that if their account is hacked because of a non-compliant password, the entire office will know of it, and they will probably be lynched, but only after the cracker has stolen all their bank account info and ss#. This may or may not be the truth, but the people listening to you say this are the same people who are using their CD-ROM drive bay for a cup holder.
Tools a la Sneakers - Of course, you can turn on password enforcements, that's the first one. Now try to crack your own network. Not a Cracker? All right, then just go download YAPS, LANGuard, and L0phtCrack and run those. Yeah, they're only scripts, but unless your network has somehow garnered the attention of a serious cracker, the only ones assaulting you will be script-kiddies. So fill in the blanks, and see how your network holds up.
Given Time, Serious Hackers Will Get In - There's only so much security you can have without just simply yanking the network from any outside connections. If the network you are supporting is government, big-money, or anything of interest to a serious hacker, it is only a matter of time. Forced PW changes (every 14 days) or so, will help reduce this chance a lot, but will also anger your users. But if passwords are allowed to sit for 30 days, and a compliant admin-access password only takes 25 days to crack, then it will be cracked.
Sure, let them keep their PWs on stickies... IN A LOCKED CABINET - Most offices will give you a drawer with a lock on it. These locks are almost never used. Find the Facilities person for this office and get those keys. Let the users write down their PWs in a notebook or stickies, but make it clear they need to lock those books up at night or take them home. Getting a custodial job to crack a network by writing down PWs from stickies on the monitor is the oldest trick in the book (and by god, it still works great). If you catch someone with password stickies on their monitor, punish them.
Breed ph34r and paranoia - I printed out some old WWII propaganda posters and changed the lettering on them to refer to passwords and security. It was fun, livened up the walls a bit in the office, and served as a subtle reminder to the users that SAM the Cracker was always out there, trying to steal their (fill in the blank). Of course, in truth, we only had one serious hacking attempt, but it was a lot of fun scaring them, and it made them more attentive to possible security breaches. Sometimes annoyingly so, but hey, we never got cracked in the time I was there.
"Dude you're talking about this guy's sister! You could be a little more sensitive in how you put that couldn't you?"
Well... yes, I suppose I could. My apologies to the user whose sister it is. It was not my intention to insult, but rather to give good/clear warning. Schizophrenia has a very high tendancy to cause either an extremely high or extremely low sex drive, and sometimes additional deviances from the norm. I didn't want to get too flowery or obtuse with my choice of words because I didn't want to be too vague to give warning about these possibilities, so that they didn't come as a surprise later. But you are correct, my choice of wording could have been better.
" I wonder when (if) the balance will tip so there's more cream than crap."
The balance will probably tip towards cream when we require a license to breed. Seriously. As it stands, stupid people are outbreeding the smart ones. The stupid people are the ones who keep producing the crap in the cesspool.
In order for any cesspool/genepool/information pool to have more cream than crap, three things have to happen:
Smart people need to make it their duty to breed.
Women, currently being the bearers of life, need to be more selective in who's child they choose to carry. Men, likewise, need to be more selective about their seed.
There needs to be a license instituted that prevents stupid people from breeding.
Otherwise, we're all pretty much screwed.
Yay smart people...
"You might have to wait a little while for a HTML to RIPTerm conversion program."
I don't expect it would be too hard, given the right motivation. And BBSes already have some conversions out. Heck, that's how I managed to get back into Trade Wars for a while, cause it has to run as a door.
Anyway. I think what they need to concentrate on, in lieu of PDA browsers, is HUD-based browsers. Maybe they could combine the Nomad with a text browser and wireless internet connection.
Heck, most of us have to pay, either monetarily, or emotionally (from our significant other) in order to play games. I think if it were actually a lucrative, well-paying career, then us "geeks" could probably get our hitherto negative appelation put on par with "big baller".
Money makes the world go around, and with a six-figure income, where you don't have to retire due to old age, it could become quite an attractive trait. "I make 300k competing against some of the top professionals in my field" sure sounds a lot sexier than "I do tech support for XXXXX..."
Why not just use LYNX?
on
Mozilla's Mini-Me
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Heck... these whipper-snappers today all want their fancy-schmancy pictures and animated graphics. In my day we used LYNX and LIKED IT!!!
But seriously... why doesn't someone start low-graphic mini-browsers. They could use LYNX or some other text-based browser. After all, when you're looking at a very limited amount of real-estate on your screen, do you really care about missing out on those stupid "Punch The Monkey" ads?
"...thanks for the informative reply to what is obviously a serious question.. wish i had more to contribute."
Oh, it was my pleasure. There's unfortunately no quick and easy FAQ that can be made, but hopefully I was able to give at least an impression of what to expect.
As a diagnosed schizophrenic, I can offer some slices of what's in store, and a little more info:
Medication: A lot of the quality of life is going to depend upon her medication. Stelazine, for instance, made me completely numb to life. While it stops the audial/visual hallucenations, it also blocks creativity, sex drive, and emotion. Unfortunately, those are very common side effects to many anti-psychotic medications. I can't tell you the medical reason why, only that it heavily depends upon the individual's brain chemistry. She may end up going through 5-10 different meds before she finds a balance between supression of the illness, and supression of one's emotional life.
Paranoia: This is probably the worst effect she will have to deal with. It can be mild (ie. "Did you hear something?") to extreme (ie. "You're trying to poison my food!"), and it can bounce between the two based on stimulus. Two bits of advice. NEVER lie to her. Once you have, you get categorized as someone who has lied. It doesn't matter about the reason. Even if the truth hurts, and she screams that she hates you, as long as you maintain her trust, you have a chance to be her confidant. Secondly, don't dismiss her paranoia. Sometimes, in the throws of "everyone is out to get me", a schizophrenic just needs to vent. Instead of saying "You're just being paranoid", give them rational fact against their feats, and accept the fact that it might do nothing to dissuade them. Illogical fear is simply a fact of Schizophrenia.
Nymphomania/Frigidity: Without medication, she might either become a roaring slut, or a frigid ice queen. Or neither, but most likely, expect some sexual tendancies that are deviant from the norm.
Hallucinations: There will most likely be audial and/or visual hallucinations. The frequency and intensity will largely depend again on her chemistry, medication, and how severe the illness is. I fortunately have a very light case, and mine have usually been limited to something as mild as a woman leaning against a wall, and whisperings. As long as she can keep aware of what logically should and should not be there, she can dismiss these as "background noise". Sometimes she won't be able to ignore these, and it will cause sleepless nights and agitated working conditions. In this case, I recommend a soporific. With sleep, the symptoms will often die down. However, thanks to paranoia, you might have trouble getting her to take them. Seriously, though, a doctor's opinion is vital on this aspect. She might have them so bad she cannot drive.
Severe Mood Swings: Schizophrenics are often ruled by their emotional state. I call my bad days "Black Moods". You would probably do best to steer clear of her on these days, unless she actually seeks you out. Then be there for her, but don't try to be "proactive" in solving whatever sparked the emotional problem. This will usually pass, followed by remorse and apology. Try to be understanding.
Barriers: Set barriers as well. If her case is light enough that she can more or less live a normal life on her own, she needs to know what barriers there are going to be, up front. As with many other mental illnesses, there are certain individuals who latch onto someone, much in the way a drowning victim does, and won't let them go, effectively ruining their life. Don't let this happen to you. Fortunately, I've always been of the isolationist variety. It's others that must respect -my- barriers. This might also happen to her. If it does, then respect her wishes as much as is reasonable.
I hope this helps. If you want to know more detailed information, I would recommend first having her fully diagnosed, and find out the degree and specific symptoms. You can ask me whatever questions you like, and I will try to answer, but the truth is, schizophrenia is different for each person who has it. The best person to ask "what's it like" is her.
-TheTXLibra "You've got no kids, no wife, no job, and you're not in The Tigger Movie!!!"
- my best friend's son, Gabe, at 5 years old.
There are certain market demographics that would love for this service to be available to them. I remember in Seattle that Cosmo.com actually did quite well in the area at the time. Though whether they are still in business, I have no idea.
Anyway, the demographics this market will best sell to are:
Stoners - "Why go all the way to the store, when you only have to go to the door, man?"
1337 FPS addicts - "Do j00 have any idea how many frags I'll miss out on in the time it takes to get to the store, shop, and get back?"
Welfare Mothers - "I can feed and produce babies even easier than ever!"
Quadraplegics - "No more pushing the cart with my chin? Sounds good."
An infinite number of monkeys - "Eek! Ook!"
The obese - "Finally! A way to remove the very last shred of excercise from my life! (wheeze)"
Programmers - "one more line of code, then I'll eat..."
"Wow, since daily US oil consumption is what, 20 *million* barrels per day, I'm
sure it will be no problem to set up another 10,000 of these plants..."
You're missing the point. Yeah, from this one plant, only 500 barrels of oil a day are produced. But if you've observed anything about technological advances, it's that once you do something successfully, the next time it's easier (unless it's cold fusion, that doesn't count).
So, for today, there's one plant, and 500 barrels a day produced, and that one plant may have cost in the millions to make. But with the right investment in this technology, and development, in five years, maybe they could set up a factory for a few hundred thousand, that produces 5,000 barrels a day.
Come on, don't start hating on a potentially helpful technology and process when it's still in the fledgling phases. Give it a chance to catch on and advance.
Empirical evidence from my own email box bears this out. Most of the spam I receive tends to come from residential cable modem/DSL lines in various countries, predominantly the states
First, my disclaimer. I despise what George Lucas did with Eps 1 and 2. Now, the sad truth...
It's history, not his story: George gave us 3 (2 if you don't count Return of the Jedi) great movies that did something no other movie had before. It gave the idea of a space movie new depth and dimension that cause such a great deal of sensawunda it developed its own cult following. This wasn't just some plucky group of adventurers in some rocket, and tin-foil robots anymore. It was a slice of life and events spanning an entire galaxy, with entire stories behind the characters untold. It was, at the time, the greatest outer-space Sci-Fi movie ever. It was a new era in filmmaking history. No one else had done this before... but a lot have done it since. The story wasn't his, it was Kurasowa's. Before Kurasowa it was someone else's... The story was another rehash of many stories. We who originally saw it in the theatres have claimed it was one of the best stories ever, but perhaps the truth is that it was the first time we ever felt true sensawunda on the big screen. Now, over 20 years later, special effects have become so grand as to numb us. Low budget sci-fi network shows can get better effects than the original, yet they fail to impress us because we are innundated with them everywhere from web-pages to TV commercials, to TV, to movies. Is it any wonder that nothing a mediocre talent like Lucas could produce would ever evoke that same feeling as the original?
I hate what Hitler did, but he still ended up ruling most of Europe: No, I don't think Lucas is Hitler. I may dislike his style, but he never committed an atrocity worse than Eps 1 and 2. My point is this... we can complain as much as we want to about how Lucas did things wrong in the new triliogy, but the fact remains that:
He is rich, and we are not.
He became rich off his films, and his new movies made him richer.
We do not live in a Meritocracy. If we did, he'd be Whuffie poor. We live in a Capitolist state that values accomplishment by the money it makes. Ergo, technically, he did good.
Even if he were dirt poor, I am assuming that he's still managed to get more movies produced and released than any of us here, which is an astounding feat in and of itself.
Rights make Right: Lucas owns the rights to Star Wars. If he wanted to, he could have chosen to do much worse. He could have decided to yank the original off the shelves, replace R2 and 3P0 with the Wayans Brothers, Solo with Jim Carey, and put Elen Degeneress as the Princess. Darth Vader could have been played by LL Cool J, and Obi could be played by Woody Allen. Instead of light sabers, maybe they would use Pokemon duels... it could have been worse... ludicrously so. At least he made a vague attempt to remain in a similar universe as the originals. Sure he may have crapped all over his own work, but at least he didn't ruin the originals...yet... (for the record, I did enjoy Spaceballs)
An infinite number of monkeys with typewriters: Someday, something will elicit the same sensawunda as the 3 originals did. In fact, I believe for many, the LotR series already did so. In another 20-30 years, it will be something else. Perhaps a Western.
So while I hate the new episodes, I can appreciate the original 3 to this day, and am still thankful for them.
Of course, there's one other small problem... however many light years we send it out there, that's also how many years Earth would have to wait before receiving any images. So, while you could, in theory (assuming even instantaneous travel), set up an image reflector 5,000 light years away, to try and see the Tower of Babylon, you wouldn't actually get to see anything from the reflection point until a minimum of 5,000 years past launch date.
But that's using a mirror... and if we can travel FTL, why the heck would we bother staring at a reflected image, when we could just FTL jump out there, set up a super-scope to point at Earth, and get a much clearer image, then retrieve it's stored images later. Heck, we could even do a series of hops, like a string-of-pearls effect, and drop a camera every 5 light-years, for as long a span, or series of spans, as we want.
Until FTL though, we'll need to stick to recent history, like 1/2 a light-year, or find some anomoly in space that acts as a giant reflector.
You know... I've actually given this some thought before...
Say someday we managed to put out a large mirror...say... X number of lightyears from Earth, where X was half the number of years you wanted to be able to look into Earth's history. Here's what I'm curious about:
1.) Assuming you could get the mirror out there and set up at light speed, it would make sense that the first image of the Earth we would get back was of the craft toting the mirror leaving Earth...well, actually, probably not, since it would logically take some pre-lightspeed travel first. But you get my drift.
2.) Assuming FTL travel, could you actually see into a point in time before the point the mirror left Earth?
3.) What size mirror would be needed for a telescope to be able to capture a reflected image? Would it even be possible? Perhaps with refraction from other celestial bodies (like they've done to enhance Hubble's distance viewing).
S###bucks bought out Seattle's Best??? (begin rant)
(bold profanity) @#$% those !$%-eating %#@!$ers with a *%!@ full of #$@!!! (/end profanity)
Oh by all the gods... truly nothing is sacred. They had the best coffee. I lived in Seattle for 3 years, and liked them better than Tully's, better than that really hard to pronounce name, and even better than Speakeasy Cafe (back when the Speakeasy was just a Rainmail internet coffee house). Now Starbucks has taken something good and assimilated it into its god-awful processing methods. For God's sake, McDonald's produces a better cup of coffee! (/end rant)
(begin remorse) I'm sorry. I just really liked Seattle's Best, but haven't heard anything about them since moving back to Texas... you see, the best we have here is Folgiers... unless you go to Austin, which has Mojo's Daily Grind. (/end remorse)
(/end rant)(begin mourning) I think I'd like to be alone with my coffee now...
Hey, I never said the mentality makes sense. I'm stopped trying to figure that out a long time ago. I'm just curious why the same people who have this mentality are drinking The Man's coffee.
You know, I can accept a certain status-quo hatred of Seattle-area based MegaCorps like Microsoft, Barnes & Noble, and so on... They are hated, for the most part, because they have money that the haters do not. There are other reasons to be sure, but it all amounts to the fact that they represent The Man, and hating The Man is en vogue.
Why then, do so many die-hard penguins and independant bookstore shoppers insist on supporting Starbucks? If coffee has an archetypical "The Man" figure, who has way too much money, produces shoddy goods, and destroys good quality companies with its monopoly-like tendancies, it is Starbucks. They put great coffee houses out of business, the kind that you may have met some of your best friends at. They use inferior beans, cooked at too high of a temperature, for too short an amount of time, just to increase output. That's right, you're drinking a bean that was treated worse than those poor saps on WB's Superstars.
Why God? Why of all people, do you, "The Man"-hating intellectuals, actually give them your business?
I apologize if this got posted twice. This is a subject that has intrigued me, and while I cannot claim any expertise in the field, here is what I have gathered, info-wise, in answer to many of the common questions I've seen on here. I will try to reference my sources where possible, though some of this is coming from memory.
How often does this happen?
Over the last 15 million years, the trend has been 4 reversals every 1 million years. However, this is not periodic. You could have one every 250,000 years, or possibly one in 790,000 years (the number of years ago this last happened) and then followed by 3 more in the span of 200,000 years. - Brad Clement of Florida International University.
How quickly will it happen?
Studies have suggested anywhere from 1,000 to 28,000 years are required to initiate and complete a reversal. However, core samples have suggested the last four flips took about 7,000 years to take place. However, it should be noted that near the equator the changes takes place roughly twice as fast as at the poles. Thus, no one human being will likely ever witness the full trauma of the event. - National Science Foundation
What will we use to determine direction? (The compass discussion)
This is relative to your purposes. If it is for purposes involving magnetism, the same methods for determining magnetic north should work (such as the old-school method of clearing gauss on a monitor), only not precisely accurately for any great amount of time. However, what we are all mostly concerned with is geographic north. Magnetic pole shifting is not going to change geography overly much...we think. There are many methods with which to determine direction using everything from the parts you were born with to fancy gizmos.
The North Star - At night, the North Star can be found roughly 1/3 of the way up from the horizon. Using the outward two stars on the outward rim of the cup of the Big Dipper, make a mental line "upward" relative to the cup (it may actually be down, or sideways, but imagine "upward" as being above the open end of the dipper). You should be able to make a straight line to another star, at an angle of degrees from the horizon roughly equal to your latitude. This star is also the furthest outermost star on the ladel of the Little Dipper. The Boy Scouts of America Scout Handbook
The Sun - We all should know the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west. But sometimes it can be difficult to determine due to cloud cover or just the height of the sun. In cases like this, try to find a good shadow from something perpendicular to the ground, straight and narrow (like a stick). In the morning, the shadow will point west, in the evening, it will point east. The Boy Scouts of America Scout Handbook
Sextant - A sextant may be used at local noon (when the sun is at its highest point) to determine your latitude. While it is not entirely practical, it can make longer treks easier when trying to determine map coordinates. Sid Meiyer's "Pirates"
John Harrison Chronometer - Longitude can be determined by a simple formula involving the speed at which one is travelling, and the starting latitude one is at, and then compensating for whether you are travelling east or west. "An Historical Account of Maritime Navigational Practice and the subsequent Invention of the Chronometer" by Jonathan Medwin
GPS Tracking devices - "GPS is susceptible to unintentional disruption from such causes as atmospheric effects, signal blockage from buildings, and interference from communications equipment, as well as to potential deliberate disruption" - U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta In theory, GPS systems should work fine throughout th
Slashdot Mirror
-The Libra
"You've got no kids, no wife, no job, and you're not in The Tigger Movie!!!"
- my best friend's son, Gabe, at 5 years old.
"Dude you're talking about this guy's sister! You could be a little more sensitive in how you put that couldn't you?"
Well... yes, I suppose I could. My apologies to the user whose sister it is. It was not my intention to insult, but rather to give good/clear warning. Schizophrenia has a very high tendancy to cause either an extremely high or extremely low sex drive, and sometimes additional deviances from the norm. I didn't want to get too flowery or obtuse with my choice of words because I didn't want to be too vague to give warning about these possibilities, so that they didn't come as a surprise later. But you are correct, my choice of wording could have been better.
-The Libra
"You've got no kids, no wife, no job, and you're not in The Tigger Movie!!!"
- my best friend's son, Gabe, at 5 years old.
The balance will probably tip towards cream when we require a license to breed. Seriously. As it stands, stupid people are outbreeding the smart ones. The stupid people are the ones who keep producing the crap in the cesspool.
In order for any cesspool/genepool/information pool to have more cream than crap, three things have to happen:
- Smart people need to make it their duty to breed.
- Women, currently being the bearers of life, need to be more selective in who's child they choose to carry. Men, likewise, need to be more selective about their seed.
- There needs to be a license instituted that prevents stupid people from breeding.
Otherwise, we're all pretty much screwed. Yay smart people...-TheTXLibra
"You've got no kids, no wife, no job, and you're not in The Tigger Movie!!!"
- my best friend's son, Gabe, at 5 years old.
"You might have to wait a little while for a HTML to RIPTerm conversion program."
I don't expect it would be too hard, given the right motivation. And BBSes already have some conversions out. Heck, that's how I managed to get back into Trade Wars for a while, cause it has to run as a door.
Anyway. I think what they need to concentrate on, in lieu of PDA browsers, is HUD-based browsers. Maybe they could combine the Nomad with a text browser and wireless internet connection.
Heck, most of us have to pay, either monetarily, or emotionally (from our significant other) in order to play games. I think if it were actually a lucrative, well-paying career, then us "geeks" could probably get our hitherto negative appelation put on par with "big baller".
Money makes the world go around, and with a six-figure income, where you don't have to retire due to old age, it could become quite an attractive trait. "I make 300k competing against some of the top professionals in my field" sure sounds a lot sexier than "I do tech support for XXXXX..."
-TheTXLibra
"You've got no kids, no wife, no job, and you're not in The Tigger Movie!!!" - my best friend's son, Gabe, at 5 years old.
Heck... these whipper-snappers today all want their fancy-schmancy pictures and animated graphics. In my day we used LYNX and LIKED IT!!!
But seriously... why doesn't someone start low-graphic mini-browsers. They could use LYNX or some other text-based browser. After all, when you're looking at a very limited amount of real-estate on your screen, do you really care about missing out on those stupid "Punch The Monkey" ads?
Pheh... give me the good old days of BBSes.
-TheTXLibra
"You've got no kids, no wife, no job, and you're not in The Tigger Movie!!!" - my best friend's son, Gabe, at 5 years old.
"...thanks for the informative reply to what is obviously a serious question.. wish i had more to contribute."
Oh, it was my pleasure. There's unfortunately no quick and easy FAQ that can be made, but hopefully I was able to give at least an impression of what to expect.
- Medication: A lot of the quality of life is going to depend upon her medication. Stelazine, for instance, made me completely numb to life. While it stops the audial/visual hallucenations, it also blocks creativity, sex drive, and emotion. Unfortunately, those are very common side effects to many anti-psychotic medications. I can't tell you the medical reason why, only that it heavily depends upon the individual's brain chemistry. She may end up going through 5-10 different meds before she finds a balance between supression of the illness, and supression of one's emotional life.
- Paranoia: This is probably the worst effect she will have to deal with. It can be mild (ie. "Did you hear something?") to extreme (ie. "You're trying to poison my food!"), and it can bounce between the two based on stimulus. Two bits of advice. NEVER lie to her. Once you have, you get categorized as someone who has lied. It doesn't matter about the reason. Even if the truth hurts, and she screams that she hates you, as long as you maintain her trust, you have a chance to be her confidant. Secondly, don't dismiss her paranoia. Sometimes, in the throws of "everyone is out to get me", a schizophrenic just needs to vent. Instead of saying "You're just being paranoid", give them rational fact against their feats, and accept the fact that it might do nothing to dissuade them. Illogical fear is simply a fact of Schizophrenia.
- Nymphomania/Frigidity: Without medication, she might either become a roaring slut, or a frigid ice queen. Or neither, but most likely, expect some sexual tendancies that are deviant from the norm.
- Hallucinations: There will most likely be audial and/or visual hallucinations. The frequency and intensity will largely depend again on her chemistry, medication, and how severe the illness is. I fortunately have a very light case, and mine have usually been limited to something as mild as a woman leaning against a wall, and whisperings. As long as she can keep aware of what logically should and should not be there, she can dismiss these as "background noise". Sometimes she won't be able to ignore these, and it will cause sleepless nights and agitated working conditions. In this case, I recommend a soporific. With sleep, the symptoms will often die down. However, thanks to paranoia, you might have trouble getting her to take them. Seriously, though, a doctor's opinion is vital on this aspect. She might have them so bad she cannot drive.
- Severe Mood Swings: Schizophrenics are often ruled by their emotional state. I call my bad days "Black Moods". You would probably do best to steer clear of her on these days, unless she actually seeks you out. Then be there for her, but don't try to be "proactive" in solving whatever sparked the emotional problem. This will usually pass, followed by remorse and apology. Try to be understanding.
- Barriers: Set barriers as well. If her case is light enough that she can more or less live a normal life on her own, she needs to know what barriers there are going to be, up front. As with many other mental illnesses, there are certain individuals who latch onto someone, much in the way a drowning victim does, and won't let them go, effectively ruining their life. Don't let this happen to you. Fortunately, I've always been of the isolationist variety. It's others that must respect -my- barriers. This might also happen to her. If it does, then respect her wishes as much as is reasonable.
I hope this helps. If you want to know more detailed information, I would recommend first having her fully diagnosed, and find out the degree and specific symptoms. You can ask me whatever questions you like, and I will try to answer, but the truth is, schizophrenia is different for each person who has it. The best person to ask "what's it like" is her. -TheTXLibra"You've got no kids, no wife, no job, and you're not in The Tigger Movie!!!" - my best friend's son, Gabe, at 5 years old.
Anyway, the demographics this market will best sell to are:
"Wow, since daily US oil consumption is what, 20 *million* barrels per day, I'm sure it will be no problem to set up another 10,000 of these plants..."
You're missing the point. Yeah, from this one plant, only 500 barrels of oil a day are produced. But if you've observed anything about technological advances, it's that once you do something successfully, the next time it's easier (unless it's cold fusion, that doesn't count).
So, for today, there's one plant, and 500 barrels a day produced, and that one plant may have cost in the millions to make. But with the right investment in this technology, and development, in five years, maybe they could set up a factory for a few hundred thousand, that produces 5,000 barrels a day.
Come on, don't start hating on a potentially helpful technology and process when it's still in the fledgling phases. Give it a chance to catch on and advance.
Empirical evidence from my own email box bears this out. Most of the spam I receive tends to come from residential cable modem/DSL lines in various countries, predominantly the states
One word. "Outsourcing".
So while I hate the new episodes, I can appreciate the original 3 to this day, and am still thankful for them.
-TheTXLibra
"You've got no kids, no wife, no job, and you're not in The Tigger Movie!!!"
- my best friend's son, Gabe, at 5 years old.
Of course, there's one other small problem... however many light years we send it out there, that's also how many years Earth would have to wait before receiving any images. So, while you could, in theory (assuming even instantaneous travel), set up an image reflector 5,000 light years away, to try and see the Tower of Babylon, you wouldn't actually get to see anything from the reflection point until a minimum of 5,000 years past launch date.
But that's using a mirror... and if we can travel FTL, why the heck would we bother staring at a reflected image, when we could just FTL jump out there, set up a super-scope to point at Earth, and get a much clearer image, then retrieve it's stored images later. Heck, we could even do a series of hops, like a string-of-pearls effect, and drop a camera every 5 light-years, for as long a span, or series of spans, as we want.
Until FTL though, we'll need to stick to recent history, like 1/2 a light-year, or find some anomoly in space that acts as a giant reflector.
You know... I've actually given this some thought before...
Say someday we managed to put out a large mirror...say... X number of lightyears from Earth, where X was half the number of years you wanted to be able to look into Earth's history. Here's what I'm curious about:
1.) Assuming you could get the mirror out there and set up at light speed, it would make sense that the first image of the Earth we would get back was of the craft toting the mirror leaving Earth...well, actually, probably not, since it would logically take some pre-lightspeed travel first. But you get my drift.
2.) Assuming FTL travel, could you actually see into a point in time before the point the mirror left Earth?
3.) What size mirror would be needed for a telescope to be able to capture a reflected image? Would it even be possible? Perhaps with refraction from other celestial bodies (like they've done to enhance Hubble's distance viewing).
S###bucks bought out Seattle's Best???
(begin rant)
(bold profanity) @#$% those !$%-eating %#@!$ers with a *%!@ full of #$@!!! (/end profanity)
Oh by all the gods... truly nothing is sacred. They had the best coffee. I lived in Seattle for 3 years, and liked them better than Tully's, better than that really hard to pronounce name, and even better than Speakeasy Cafe (back when the Speakeasy was just a Rainmail internet coffee house). Now Starbucks has taken something good and assimilated it into its god-awful processing methods. For God's sake, McDonald's produces a better cup of coffee! (/end rant)
(begin remorse)
I'm sorry. I just really liked Seattle's Best, but haven't heard anything about them since moving back to Texas... you see, the best we have here is Folgiers... unless you go to Austin, which has Mojo's Daily Grind.
(/end remorse)
(/end rant)(begin mourning)
I think I'd like to be alone with my coffee now...
Hey, I never said the mentality makes sense. I'm stopped trying to figure that out a long time ago. I'm just curious why the same people who have this mentality are drinking The Man's coffee.
You know, I can accept a certain status-quo hatred of Seattle-area based MegaCorps like Microsoft, Barnes & Noble, and so on... They are hated, for the most part, because they have money that the haters do not. There are other reasons to be sure, but it all amounts to the fact that they represent The Man, and hating The Man is en vogue.
Why then, do so many die-hard penguins and independant bookstore shoppers insist on supporting Starbucks? If coffee has an archetypical "The Man" figure, who has way too much money, produces shoddy goods, and destroys good quality companies with its monopoly-like tendancies, it is Starbucks. They put great coffee houses out of business, the kind that you may have met some of your best friends at. They use inferior beans, cooked at too high of a temperature, for too short an amount of time, just to increase output. That's right, you're drinking a bean that was treated worse than those poor saps on WB's Superstars.
Why God? Why of all people, do you, "The Man"-hating intellectuals, actually give them your business?
How often does this happen?
Over the last 15 million years, the trend has been 4 reversals every 1 million years. However, this is not periodic. You could have one every 250,000 years, or possibly one in 790,000 years (the number of years ago this last happened) and then followed by 3 more in the span of 200,000 years. - Brad Clement of Florida International University.
How quickly will it happen?
Studies have suggested anywhere from 1,000 to 28,000 years are required to initiate and complete a reversal. However, core samples have suggested the last four flips took about 7,000 years to take place. However, it should be noted that near the equator the changes takes place roughly twice as fast as at the poles. Thus, no one human being will likely ever witness the full trauma of the event. - National Science Foundation
What will we use to determine direction? (The compass discussion)
This is relative to your purposes. If it is for purposes involving magnetism, the same methods for determining magnetic north should work (such as the old-school method of clearing gauss on a monitor), only not precisely accurately for any great amount of time. However, what we are all mostly concerned with is geographic north. Magnetic pole shifting is not going to change geography overly much...we think. There are many methods with which to determine direction using everything from the parts you were born with to fancy gizmos.