The awesomely bad graphics are one reason you can not purchase the original Tron in advance of the sequel. The awesomely bad plot is another. Disney doesn't want people to remember how bad the movie really was.
I can't? Tron has been available on DVD since 2002.
Don't be silly. The author chooses a question as the title of an article to evoke the endless well of opinions that is Slashdot. {/sarcasm}
Seriously, though. Since when is it looked down upon to use literary devices in your blog post? Do you really expect to read an article with a question in the title without reading the author's proposed answer? What did you think the article was about???
You missed my point entirely.
I don't take issue with the literary device of asking a question and then answering it in narrative.
I take issue with asking a question that is entirely obvious and uncontroversial for the purpose of providing an entirely obvious and uncontroversial answer..all while pretending it's a deep subject that needs the authors careful analysis.
It's editorial masturbation, and while I'm not going to challenge anyone's right to do so, I WILL excercise my right to say "please don't masturbate here".
Maybe I'm missing some subtleties, but "why can't they make it work" doesn't sound like a real question. It sounds like a literary device where the author asks himself a question that he can then answer, without having to sound like he's just sounding off on an obvious subject that everyone already understands.
But if not, I can hazard a guess why sat phones haven't taken off. Cost. Putting satellites in orbit is exponentially more expensive than putting up terrestrial towers. It's always going to cost a LOT more than cell phones. Combine that with the fact that the market of people who NEED sat phones because cells aren't good enough is very small. So you end up with expensive infrastructure, plus very small user base, that equals enormous individual consumer expense.
Anyone shocked by this revelation? anyone other than RedEaredSlider at least?
You've made an unsupported statement of opinion "the actions and effects are the same", which quite frankly isn't true.
If you really think it is, how about some kind of citation or example of what you're talking about. Anyone with a smidge of sense (or a browser with google access) knows Anarchism and Libertarianism aren't remotely similar...except so far as you obviously don't like either, so lumping them together seems like a moral victory for you.
At least with the political party, what they say they will do doesn't match the other, even if the actions are indistinguishable. For the libertarian and anarchist, what they say they'll do match almost exactly. They just disagree about what the effect will be.
I'll just say again, you're confusing "libertarian" with "anarchist" and the two aren't remotely similar in philosophy or intention, except so far as fringes of both might overlap, which can be said about any political party.
The fact that you keep doing so tells me you have an agenda that simple wikipedia links won't fix.
well, why do you need your phone or computer for during your juror duty ?
Because for every hour the jury is actually in the courtroom, there's about 6 hours they are in jury chambers and allowed no freedom to go anywhere, or do anything. Just expected to sit and wait to be called back in.
I can tell you've never been on a jury, because it is the most excrutiatingly boring thing you could imagine, and you're treated exactly as if everyone's time is more valuable than yours, including the defendant.
taking a moment before hte start of proceedings to say, ok all phones turned off NOW, any violations will be contempt of court is a fine way to handle it. Simply confiscating the phones and laptops of the jury ONLY, is very likely to bias the jury against the defendant for making them get treated like shit. There's a whole courtroom full of people that need the same instructions, so why treat the jury like misbehaving children being preemptively punished?
You've confused "libertarian" with "anarchist".
The only difference is that the libertarian is the idealist and the anarchist is the realist. Their desires and the results of those desires are the same. The only difference is the understanding of the consequences of their desires.
That's like saying the only difference between democrats and republicans is the animal on their bumper stickers. It's pithy, but displays a surprising amount of political ignorance.
I've never understood the unease that people show about human cloning. My reaction is usually "so what"? Who gets the first clone? Hell, I don't know, or really care. Why SHOULD I care about that any more than I do about those people reproducing the old fashioned way? All of the people you listed already have offspring, what would change if they were clones (essentially infant identical twins), or regular kids?
This all reminds me of Louise Brown, the first "test tube baby". When she was born there was a fantastic amount of outrage about "playing god" and I even remember some evangelist saying she wouldn't have a soul. Now, nobody give a fig about in vitro fertilization. Cloning will be the same in a very short amount of time after it's perfected.
All they'll prove is it's nearly impossible to get 500 kids with mirrors to simultaneously focus on the same thing. Hell, it'll be tough enough to get 500 kids to stand still at the same time. the reality is it's nearly impossible for more than a couple of people to focus reflections on the same spot because there's no visual reference to the point of aim once the target area is light saturated.
You mean like this one that originally started shipping August 2009
Wow, you got me. that is a truly compelling example you've produced. A site that doesn't have photos of any product, just poor quality icons, vague descriptions, and no promise of ever shipping.
...and a growing cult. Not saying the creches are being stolen by the Atheists, probably "just kids." But these days, those Atheists DO get their noses out of joint when confronted with public displays that run counter to their own belief systems.
Not all Atheists are vandalizing extremists, of course. Most of them have moderate beliefs, contribute productively to society, and love America just like you or I.
Typically what atheists get out of joint about is the government endorsing a particular religion to the exclusion of all others. The very same christians who say "what's the big deal" about a nativity scene seem to be VERY concerned about displays of Islam, Judaism, Wicca, Satanism, etc.
Or would you support the local Church of Satan putting up a display in the public places during whatever holiday they wanted to celebrate?
Not necessarily. There are convertibles where the screen just lays down, and there are some where the screen detaches and turns into a tablet.
Hence I said "remove the screen".
Then again, reading is hard.
Know what else is hard? buying products that don't exist.
Can you point us to where we can buy one of these detachable screen laptops? Or did you see a picture of a concept mockup someplace and confuse it with a well flushed marketplace of competing devices?
One distinct advantage the iPad has, is that it actually exists.
For $450 you can buy a decent convertible netbook/tablet that does both.
yes, it does both less well than either of each. Convertibles give you all the bulk and weight of a laptop, combined with an OS that wasn't designed for tablet use. What's not to love?
Except for the fact that netbooks are cheap and not limited. While undoubtedly you are going to be able to do more with the Honeycomb tablet than an iPad and it will be cheaper, netbooks still are the way to go for laptop replacements. I can buy a netbook for a bit less than $300 that can do most of the things a tablet can do for a lot cheaper.
The netbook/laptop format is most certainly limited. They're nearly unusable while standing or walking, and very awkward to use while sitting but not at a desk. So while you CAN buy a netbook for $300, it can do most of the things an ipad can do, except the things that it can't do or do as well. Those applications are what the slate format excels at, and individuals can decide if those applications are worth the expense.
Pretending the slate form factor is useless because it's not exactly the same as a laptop is just ignoring the obvious.
just a large android, too awkward to use as a phone, too big to carry around, what's the point?
Let me guess, 8 months ago saying "just a large ipod, too awkward to use as a phone, too big to carry around, what's the point?", and you still don't get the point. Well, maybe it's time to buck up and accept that not everyone sees the world through your particularly focused tunnel vision. iPads seem to be selling marginally well, so maybe there's a point after all.
Actually, you can use a solar sail to accelerate yourself out of earth orbit. It's just a matter of orienting the sail parralel to the sun's radiation vector when it's head on, and perpendicular to it when it's in a position to increase your orbital velocity.
While maybe possible in theory, it's hard to imagine it being practical. ignoring the size issue and the clutter in earth orbit, the amount of time it would take for a solar sail to escape the earth gravity well seems like it would be incredibly long.
I've always heard solar sails proposed as the long term/low cost option for propulsion AFTER having been boosted out of the well by conventional propulsion.
actually, TFA uses exactly the term "Solar sail" to describe this project.
In their defense, there seems to be three distinct goals for this project that have been combined into a single experiment, and then reported on badly.
One project is the ejecting of the pico-satellite from the micro-satellite.
Another is testing the deployment process for the "solar sail".
lastly, there's testing the hypothesis of increasing drag on to reduce oribital decay time.
Add one sloppy bit of science reporting, mix thoroughly, print results. (...profit!)
The timing is perfect for this discussion, as just last Friday I went to a concert featuring three heavy metal bands and during the roughly hour wait outside to get into the venue I was discussing the intrusive TSA searches with a friend. He was telling me how he's refusing to fly again until "this shit ends" and nobody is going to feel him up just so he can get on an airplane.
You can probably guess the punchline. At the venue door, every person was being thoroughly searched, and I was even searched by a very cute female, complete with groin check. My friend...who was appalled by TSA practices, took the full body feel-up by a fat guy without a hitch.
I'm not sure if this is a case of "I really want to go to this concert, but I don't have any place I currently want to fly to" setting indignation priorities, or if it's more a case of nobody had told him he was supposed to be offended by concert patdowns, but for whatever reasons there are some definite inconsistencies in the way people react to body searches.
Does this qualify as a "solar sail"? It seems more like it's a fractional atmosphere parachute. Solar sails are intended to interact with solar wind particles, but it would seem to be almost useless in an orbital situation, half the orbit you'd be head into the solar wind, half you'd have it at your back accellerating you. In either case, the solar wind is an exceedingly small force, which is why solar sails are proposed on the scale of square miles+. The solar wind would be dwarfed by stray atmospheric particles in earth orbit.
This seems like they're using the term "solar sail" when they mean something completely different.
Slashdot Mirror
The awesomely bad graphics are one reason you can not purchase the original Tron in advance of the sequel. The awesomely bad plot is another. Disney doesn't want people to remember how bad the movie really was.
I can't? Tron has been available on DVD since 2002.
Don't be silly. The author chooses a question as the title of an article to evoke the endless well of opinions that is Slashdot. {/sarcasm}
Seriously, though. Since when is it looked down upon to use literary devices in your blog post? Do you really expect to read an article with a question in the title without reading the author's proposed answer? What did you think the article was about???
You missed my point entirely.
I don't take issue with the literary device of asking a question and then answering it in narrative.
I take issue with asking a question that is entirely obvious and uncontroversial for the purpose of providing an entirely obvious and uncontroversial answer..all while pretending it's a deep subject that needs the authors careful analysis.
It's editorial masturbation, and while I'm not going to challenge anyone's right to do so, I WILL excercise my right to say "please don't masturbate here".
This joke brought to you by TV from 40 years ago.
Maybe I'm missing some subtleties, but "why can't they make it work" doesn't sound like a real question. It sounds like a literary device where the author asks himself a question that he can then answer, without having to sound like he's just sounding off on an obvious subject that everyone already understands.
But if not, I can hazard a guess why sat phones haven't taken off. Cost. Putting satellites in orbit is exponentially more expensive than putting up terrestrial towers. It's always going to cost a LOT more than cell phones. Combine that with the fact that the market of people who NEED sat phones because cells aren't good enough is very small. So you end up with expensive infrastructure, plus very small user base, that equals enormous individual consumer expense.
Anyone shocked by this revelation? anyone other than RedEaredSlider at least?
1. don't work indoors 2. cost a lot more than cell phones that do work indoors, show real-time video, run apps. etc.
Did I miss anything?
3. Doesn't have Twitter client
You've made an unsupported statement of opinion "the actions and effects are the same", which quite frankly isn't true.
If you really think it is, how about some kind of citation or example of what you're talking about. Anyone with a smidge of sense (or a browser with google access) knows Anarchism and Libertarianism aren't remotely similar...except so far as you obviously don't like either, so lumping them together seems like a moral victory for you.
At least with the political party, what they say they will do doesn't match the other, even if the actions are indistinguishable. For the libertarian and anarchist, what they say they'll do match almost exactly. They just disagree about what the effect will be.
I'll just say again, you're confusing "libertarian" with "anarchist" and the two aren't remotely similar in philosophy or intention, except so far as fringes of both might overlap, which can be said about any political party.
The fact that you keep doing so tells me you have an agenda that simple wikipedia links won't fix.
well, why do you need your phone or computer for during your juror duty ?
Because for every hour the jury is actually in the courtroom, there's about 6 hours they are in jury chambers and allowed no freedom to go anywhere, or do anything. Just expected to sit and wait to be called back in.
I can tell you've never been on a jury, because it is the most excrutiatingly boring thing you could imagine, and you're treated exactly as if everyone's time is more valuable than yours, including the defendant.
taking a moment before hte start of proceedings to say, ok all phones turned off NOW, any violations will be contempt of court is a fine way to handle it. Simply confiscating the phones and laptops of the jury ONLY, is very likely to bias the jury against the defendant for making them get treated like shit. There's a whole courtroom full of people that need the same instructions, so why treat the jury like misbehaving children being preemptively punished?
You've confused "libertarian" with "anarchist". The only difference is that the libertarian is the idealist and the anarchist is the realist. Their desires and the results of those desires are the same. The only difference is the understanding of the consequences of their desires.
That's like saying the only difference between democrats and republicans is the animal on their bumper stickers. It's pithy, but displays a surprising amount of political ignorance.
I've never understood the unease that people show about human cloning. My reaction is usually "so what"? Who gets the first clone? Hell, I don't know, or really care. Why SHOULD I care about that any more than I do about those people reproducing the old fashioned way? All of the people you listed already have offspring, what would change if they were clones (essentially infant identical twins), or regular kids?
This all reminds me of Louise Brown, the first "test tube baby". When she was born there was a fantastic amount of outrage about "playing god" and I even remember some evangelist saying she wouldn't have a soul. Now, nobody give a fig about in vitro fertilization. Cloning will be the same in a very short amount of time after it's perfected.
All they'll prove is it's nearly impossible to get 500 kids with mirrors to simultaneously focus on the same thing. Hell, it'll be tough enough to get 500 kids to stand still at the same time. the reality is it's nearly impossible for more than a couple of people to focus reflections on the same spot because there's no visual reference to the point of aim once the target area is light saturated.
So when a libertarian's house is on fire and the firefighters show up, do they say "No, that's ok, I'm a libertarian."?
You've confused "libertarian" with "anarchist". But don't let ignorance hold you back.
Dr. Who's Sonic Screwdriver Exists...and all it took was redefining the words "sonic screwdriver" and "exists".
I swear, writing inaccurate headlines that give impressions 180 degrees from the story facts is an art that you just can't teach.
You mean like this one that originally started shipping August 2009
Wow, you got me. that is a truly compelling example you've produced. A site that doesn't have photos of any product, just poor quality icons, vague descriptions, and no promise of ever shipping.
That totally blows the doors off the iPad!
...and a growing cult. Not saying the creches are being stolen by the Atheists, probably "just kids." But these days, those Atheists DO get their noses out of joint when confronted with public displays that run counter to their own belief systems.
Not all Atheists are vandalizing extremists, of course. Most of them have moderate beliefs, contribute productively to society, and love America just like you or I.
Typically what atheists get out of joint about is the government endorsing a particular religion to the exclusion of all others. The very same christians who say "what's the big deal" about a nativity scene seem to be VERY concerned about displays of Islam, Judaism, Wicca, Satanism, etc.
Or would you support the local Church of Satan putting up a display in the public places during whatever holiday they wanted to celebrate?
Moral of the story - tablets just aren't quite there yet.
Yes, obviously the 8 million or so ipads sold so far are indications of a non-existent market niche being served by an unsatisfactory device type.
Not necessarily. There are convertibles where the screen just lays down, and there are some where the screen detaches and turns into a tablet.
Hence I said "remove the screen".
Then again, reading is hard.
Know what else is hard? buying products that don't exist.
Can you point us to where we can buy one of these detachable screen laptops? Or did you see a picture of a concept mockup someplace and confuse it with a well flushed marketplace of competing devices?
One distinct advantage the iPad has, is that it actually exists.
This will probably mean the end of Microsoft as well. Likely the beginning of the Year of Linux on the desktop as well.
I'm feeling pretty optimistic about IPv6 too!
For $450 you can buy a decent convertible netbook/tablet that does both.
yes, it does both less well than either of each. Convertibles give you all the bulk and weight of a laptop, combined with an OS that wasn't designed for tablet use. What's not to love?
Except for the fact that netbooks are cheap and not limited. While undoubtedly you are going to be able to do more with the Honeycomb tablet than an iPad and it will be cheaper, netbooks still are the way to go for laptop replacements. I can buy a netbook for a bit less than $300 that can do most of the things a tablet can do for a lot cheaper.
The netbook/laptop format is most certainly limited. They're nearly unusable while standing or walking, and very awkward to use while sitting but not at a desk. So while you CAN buy a netbook for $300, it can do most of the things an ipad can do, except the things that it can't do or do as well. Those applications are what the slate format excels at, and individuals can decide if those applications are worth the expense.
Pretending the slate form factor is useless because it's not exactly the same as a laptop is just ignoring the obvious.
just a large android, too awkward to use as a phone, too big to carry around, what's the point?
Let me guess, 8 months ago saying "just a large ipod, too awkward to use as a phone, too big to carry around, what's the point?", and you still don't get the point. Well, maybe it's time to buck up and accept that not everyone sees the world through your particularly focused tunnel vision. iPads seem to be selling marginally well, so maybe there's a point after all.
Actually, you can use a solar sail to accelerate yourself out of earth orbit. It's just a matter of orienting the sail parralel to the sun's radiation vector when it's head on, and perpendicular to it when it's in a position to increase your orbital velocity.
While maybe possible in theory, it's hard to imagine it being practical. ignoring the size issue and the clutter in earth orbit, the amount of time it would take for a solar sail to escape the earth gravity well seems like it would be incredibly long.
I've always heard solar sails proposed as the long term/low cost option for propulsion AFTER having been boosted out of the well by conventional propulsion.
TFA says nothing about it being a solar sail.
actually, TFA uses exactly the term "Solar sail" to describe this project.
In their defense, there seems to be three distinct goals for this project that have been combined into a single experiment, and then reported on badly.
One project is the ejecting of the pico-satellite from the micro-satellite.
Another is testing the deployment process for the "solar sail".
lastly, there's testing the hypothesis of increasing drag on to reduce oribital decay time.
Add one sloppy bit of science reporting, mix thoroughly, print results. (...profit!)
The timing is perfect for this discussion, as just last Friday I went to a concert featuring three heavy metal bands and during the roughly hour wait outside to get into the venue I was discussing the intrusive TSA searches with a friend. He was telling me how he's refusing to fly again until "this shit ends" and nobody is going to feel him up just so he can get on an airplane.
You can probably guess the punchline. At the venue door, every person was being thoroughly searched, and I was even searched by a very cute female, complete with groin check. My friend...who was appalled by TSA practices, took the full body feel-up by a fat guy without a hitch.
I'm not sure if this is a case of "I really want to go to this concert, but I don't have any place I currently want to fly to" setting indignation priorities, or if it's more a case of nobody had told him he was supposed to be offended by concert patdowns, but for whatever reasons there are some definite inconsistencies in the way people react to body searches.
Does this qualify as a "solar sail"? It seems more like it's a fractional atmosphere parachute. Solar sails are intended to interact with solar wind particles, but it would seem to be almost useless in an orbital situation, half the orbit you'd be head into the solar wind, half you'd have it at your back accellerating you. In either case, the solar wind is an exceedingly small force, which is why solar sails are proposed on the scale of square miles+. The solar wind would be dwarfed by stray atmospheric particles in earth orbit.
This seems like they're using the term "solar sail" when they mean something completely different.