The other great line was relating to the Roush Mustang: "I'd have one of those if I were the sort of person who looks at my sister and thought 'hmmmm'"....
The most impressive thing to me about digital camera development is that serious photography is now within pretty much anyone's budget. It doesn't really make that much possible that wasn't possible before, but now it's all possible for amateurs with a reasonably inexpensive camera and free software. It's also made it easier for people to exchange information. Point and shoot, and then e-mail the photos around the world in seconds. Think of all those Burmese cellphone cameras for instance. Going back 20 years, you'd mostly be reliant on photojournalists and well-to-do amateurs. Even then, those guys would have had to worry about smuggling film, or getting it secretly developed. In that sense digital cameras have been very democratising.
You can make solar powered charging kits, no shit. The question is whether they'd actually be useful. Would they be too big to hand out to every soldier? Or if you could give them to each soldier, would it take too long to charge, especially given how weather dependent it would be? Even if you had big charging stations that several troops could plug in to, you would still have to consider how quickly and efficiently they could operate.
I wonder how they'd look to power these things. If they went with rechargeable batteries, then the troops would need a place to charge them every night/week or so. And if every soldier has one, that would make things interesting logistically... Would it be possible to make solar powered charging kits?
On the other hand they could go with disposable batteries that would be shipped in with other supplies. Or they could just rotate out rechargeable ones I suppose.
Good luck.
I spent about 20 minutes searching myself but didn't get very far. It would have been easy if I could search through last week's programme guide.
Sorry mate, I'm not in the habit of writing down the name and producer of every documentary I watch. It was on the Australia/NZ History Channel last week. Unfortunately their website's programme guide does not extend back in time, otherwise I'd be able to narrow the program down.
The haunted house in question should be fairly easy to identify for any British haunted house aficionado:
- The house has a painting of one of the "fools" (i.e., jester) that used to live there.
- Small bedroom where a young girl died (this is where the mattress comes in).
- Lady in white haunts the gardens outside.
The same documentary covered the Amityville massacre, and some bar in the US which is reputedly haunted by poltergeists.
WTF are they using manual labor for everything ? just get explosive bolts and use charges to cut em lose. or electromagnets and cut the power to release equipment. 10 seconds and youre done. They may have issues with explosive bolts in oxygenated environments...
As for electromagnets, I think you would need power to keep them going on the way up. The whole point of bolting the equipment would have been to prevent them from flying all over the place during launch/orbit.
Perhaps lying in the bed for a reasonably long time has something to do with it. Add to that the power of suggestion, where people are expecting something ghostly to happen...
I saw a British documentary recently about an investigation of a haunted house. In particular, the house had one room where just about anyone who had slept there reported hearing a child screaming, and a sudden uneasy feeling. This was traditionally attributed to the ghost of a child who had died in the room.
One paranormal investigator surveyed the room and found out that the mattress coils in the 200+ year old bed was made of highly magnetised material. He was able to show that the magnetic fields were so strong as to be capable of generating hallucinatory states in anyone sleeping on the bed.
So this was one instance where I thought that investigation of the reports led to an interesting scientific finding. Dismissing the reports of hauntings as pure nonsense wouldn't have taught us much, neither would have accepting the reports at face value.
I really don't understand why that's not illegal...isn't this why there are so many restrictions on where certain programs can be legally downloaded? That's usually due to encryption capabilities of the software being "exported." IIRC, there used to be export versions of IE that were limited to 56-bit encryption due to US export laws which classified certain types of encryption as a "weapon."
But I think that's pretty much a non-issue in the developed world nowadays. Someone could correct me if I'm wrong.
Some people would actively seek out the trains given how much of a hassle airport security is. Everything would of course be fine until some nutjob figured out a way to blow up a maglev train...
I've been wondering for a long time why they don't simply set up a well-working torrent tracker that serves torrents with real, paid ads inserted in the material. This should work great for TV-based media, which is mostly prepared for hosting ads anyway.
A possible argument that the networks may use against this - people collecting downloaded shows will not want to buy the DVDs. They could of course offer lower-quality torrents, but this would simply drive people further towards the unofficial HDTV rips and the like. These are of course fully ad-free, and some of the "HRHD" (Hi-Res HD) XviD rips come equipped with AC3 sound.
Having said that, high-quality, official torrent releases would offset any losses in DVD sales through advertising revenue. The really big fans will probably buy the DVDs in any case, so there will likely be no great loss.
Official torrents could also be quite attractive in that the networks could easily provide some very fast seeders, thereby ensuring that the torrents stay consistently "strong" for much longer. Current TV torrent networks are very good, but can be a little inconsistent at times.
Most newbie computer users will also tend to gravitate towards the official torrents, which are likely to be better publicised.
Overall, I think there is some merit to the idea. One last issue would involve the problem of preventing worldwide distribution - if the networks want a show to be US-only. This of course would also be a rather silly excuse, because the Internet would allow producers to reach markets in which their show would otherwise have not been seen. Ads could even be specially targetted on a per-country/region basis.
The guy who designed the SR-71's engines ended up winning one of the most prestigious aviation prizes (no, I can't remember which) for the way that the movable engine inlets ended up being responsible for something like 80% of the thrust produced at high speeds. He later became director of the Lockheed Skunkworks in the era where they produced the F117A.
The guy's name is Ben Rich, IIRC. He went on to write a very good book about his time at Lockheed-Martin. The book is called "Skunk Works." The title originates from the name of Lockheed's top-secret, advanced developments team...
At the School of Engineering at the University of Auckland, they set the first year design classes the task of building such egg racers.
So now we know where they got the idea from...
And as the original poster said:
Nobody could accuse the entrants of, say, the Great Egg Race or the Micromouse Championships of producing something fundamentally worthwhile.
This is quite true, but the important thing is that people/students are encouraged to think about a challenging problem, and to look at inventive ways of overcoming it. Having developed such critical thinking skills, they can be applied to more relevant problems.
As far as defusing bombs goes, you can't beat MacGyver. In fact, he's been so bored of late that he's resorted to building bombs on aeroplanes (See: http://bbspot.com/News/2004/06/macgyver.html.) So I think he'd jump at the opportunity to defuse a few...
It can also burn CDs and save DVDs to local mpeg (DivX?) files
Having skimmed through the article, I can't find any mention of exactly how this PVR backs up DVDs. However, I would almost certainly rule out DivX backups for a couple of reasons:
1. Encode time - You don't want users sitting around waiting for encoding to complete. Even if this is done in the background it will likely degrade the PVR's performance and reduce the picture quality of the DVD being backed up. 2. DeCSS - converting to another format will require circumventing protection on the disc. This will create some iffy legal issues, as it makes it easier (in theory) to exchange DVD content. 3. The DivX codec itself requires a license does it not? It might be free for personal use, but certainly not for a commercial app. If any compression is going on, it will probably be to an open format such as XviD.
I think that the VOB files on the DVD are simply saved to hard disk, or maybe the player makes an image of the whole DVD. The PVR can then easily playback the DVD as per normal, except that it is now running off the hard disk.
I saw an interview with Patrick Stewart on the British chat show Parkinson. Parkinson asked him the very same thing - why is there no cure for male baldness in the future.
Picard's response was to mention what Gene Roddenberry said at one of the first TNG press conferences - that, in the future, "No one would care." This is of course perfectly in line with the almost utopian future that Roddenberry's vision for Star Trek espouses...where man has evolved beyond an obsession with greed, power, appearances etc etc...
i dont know where to begin as to whats wrong with that scenario. thats the only episode of mg that i've seen. its enough...
Then I don't suppose you want to hear about the time he secretly built an airplane out of bamboo whilst working in a south american prison camp? Or the fact that he taxied the plane off a cliff whilst being shot at? Of course all the bits of bamboo were held together with duct tape...
so, uh, whats the difference between this WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe download and the en_winxp_sp2.iso available on MSDN?
is it just the XPSP2.EXE file from that image?
No, I imagine the.iso is a full installation disc for WinXp, with SP2 INTEGRATED into it. This allows a clean installation directly to WinXp SP2.
The.exe file allows an upgrade of an existing installation.
However, the.exe file can be used to "slipstream" itself into an older Windows Xp install base. This allows you to create something similar to the.iso file you will find on MSDN. More information can be found here: http://www.viperlair.com/articles/howto/software/s lipstream/winxpsp1a/
The guide linked to is for SP1a, but the general idea should hold for SP2.
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It should play Theora because you can install mplayer for it...
I just can't believe they don't make the SVT Lightning in 4WD. I always assumed it was 4WD.
The other great line was relating to the Roush Mustang: "I'd have one of those if I were the sort of person who looks at my sister and thought 'hmmmm'"....
You can make solar powered charging kits, no shit. The question is whether they'd actually be useful. Would they be too big to hand out to every soldier? Or if you could give them to each soldier, would it take too long to charge, especially given how weather dependent it would be? Even if you had big charging stations that several troops could plug in to, you would still have to consider how quickly and efficiently they could operate.
I wonder how they'd look to power these things. If they went with rechargeable batteries, then the troops would need a place to charge them every night/week or so. And if every soldier has one, that would make things interesting logistically... Would it be possible to make solar powered charging kits? On the other hand they could go with disposable batteries that would be shipped in with other supplies. Or they could just rotate out rechargeable ones I suppose.
Good luck. I spent about 20 minutes searching myself but didn't get very far. It would have been easy if I could search through last week's programme guide.
Sorry mate, I'm not in the habit of writing down the name and producer of every documentary I watch. It was on the Australia/NZ History Channel last week. Unfortunately their website's programme guide does not extend back in time, otherwise I'd be able to narrow the program down. The haunted house in question should be fairly easy to identify for any British haunted house aficionado: - The house has a painting of one of the "fools" (i.e., jester) that used to live there. - Small bedroom where a young girl died (this is where the mattress comes in). - Lady in white haunts the gardens outside. The same documentary covered the Amityville massacre, and some bar in the US which is reputedly haunted by poltergeists.
...Pravda http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravda#The_Soviet_period would have been proud of something like this.
Perhaps lying in the bed for a reasonably long time has something to do with it. Add to that the power of suggestion, where people are expecting something ghostly to happen...
I saw a British documentary recently about an investigation of a haunted house. In particular, the house had one room where just about anyone who had slept there reported hearing a child screaming, and a sudden uneasy feeling. This was traditionally attributed to the ghost of a child who had died in the room. One paranormal investigator surveyed the room and found out that the mattress coils in the 200+ year old bed was made of highly magnetised material. He was able to show that the magnetic fields were so strong as to be capable of generating hallucinatory states in anyone sleeping on the bed. So this was one instance where I thought that investigation of the reports led to an interesting scientific finding. Dismissing the reports of hauntings as pure nonsense wouldn't have taught us much, neither would have accepting the reports at face value.
Some people would actively seek out the trains given how much of a hassle airport security is. Everything would of course be fine until some nutjob figured out a way to blow up a maglev train...
I've been wondering for a long time why they don't simply set up a well-working torrent tracker that serves torrents with real, paid ads inserted in the material. This should work great for TV-based media, which is mostly prepared for hosting ads anyway.
A possible argument that the networks may use against this - people collecting downloaded shows will not want to buy the DVDs. They could of course offer lower-quality torrents, but this would simply drive people further towards the unofficial HDTV rips and the like. These are of course fully ad-free, and some of the "HRHD" (Hi-Res HD) XviD rips come equipped with AC3 sound.
Having said that, high-quality, official torrent releases would offset any losses in DVD sales through advertising revenue. The really big fans will probably buy the DVDs in any case, so there will likely be no great loss.
Official torrents could also be quite attractive in that the networks could easily provide some very fast seeders, thereby ensuring that the torrents stay consistently "strong" for much longer. Current TV torrent networks are very good, but can be a little inconsistent at times.
Most newbie computer users will also tend to gravitate towards the official torrents, which are likely to be better publicised.
Overall, I think there is some merit to the idea. One last issue would involve the problem of preventing worldwide distribution - if the networks want a show to be US-only. This of course would also be a rather silly excuse, because the Internet would allow producers to reach markets in which their show would otherwise have not been seen. Ads could even be specially targetted on a per-country/region basis.
The guy who designed the SR-71's engines ended up winning one of the most prestigious aviation prizes (no, I can't remember which) for the way that the movable engine inlets ended up being responsible for something like 80% of the thrust produced at high speeds. He later became director of the Lockheed Skunkworks in the era where they produced the F117A.
The guy's name is Ben Rich, IIRC. He went on to write a very good book about his time at Lockheed-Martin. The book is called "Skunk Works." The title originates from the name of Lockheed's top-secret, advanced developments team...
Vote Michael Badnarik in 2004. Send a message to Washington and don't choose between a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich.
Gotta love the biting social commentary of South Park.
At the School of Engineering at the University of Auckland, they set the first year design classes the task of building such egg racers. So now we know where they got the idea from... And as the original poster said: Nobody could accuse the entrants of, say, the Great Egg Race or the Micromouse Championships of producing something fundamentally worthwhile. This is quite true, but the important thing is that people/students are encouraged to think about a challenging problem, and to look at inventive ways of overcoming it. Having developed such critical thinking skills, they can be applied to more relevant problems.
Avoid messy Windows and Office Updates and get what you need directly...
n /MS04-028.mspx
.NET framework are vulnerable too. Talk about multiple attack vectors!
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulleti
Note that you may have to patch SEVERAL microsoft products. (E.g., you need separate updates for IE6 SP1, VS.NET 2003, Office 2003...)
Note also that if you are running IE6 SP1 on *any* OS, you are vulnerable according to the bulletin.
Some versions of the
As far as defusing bombs goes, you can't beat MacGyver. In fact, he's been so bored of late that he's resorted to building bombs on aeroplanes (See: http://bbspot.com/News/2004/06/macgyver.html.) So I think he'd jump at the opportunity to defuse a few...
It can also burn CDs and save DVDs to local mpeg (DivX?) files
Having skimmed through the article, I can't find any mention of exactly how this PVR backs up DVDs. However, I would almost certainly rule out DivX backups for a couple of reasons:
1. Encode time - You don't want users sitting around waiting for encoding to complete. Even if this is done in the background it will likely degrade the PVR's performance and reduce the picture quality of the DVD being backed up.
2. DeCSS - converting to another format will require circumventing protection on the disc. This will create some iffy legal issues, as it makes it easier (in theory) to exchange DVD content.
3. The DivX codec itself requires a license does it not? It might be free for personal use, but certainly not for a commercial app. If any compression is going on, it will probably be to an open format such as XviD.
I think that the VOB files on the DVD are simply saved to hard disk, or maybe the player makes an image of the whole DVD. The PVR can then easily playback the DVD as per normal, except that it is now running off the hard disk.
I saw an interview with Patrick Stewart on the British chat show Parkinson. Parkinson asked him the very same thing - why is there no cure for male baldness in the future.
Picard's response was to mention what Gene Roddenberry said at one of the first TNG press conferences - that, in the future, "No one would care." This is of course perfectly in line with the almost utopian future that Roddenberry's vision for Star Trek espouses...where man has evolved beyond an obsession with greed, power, appearances etc etc...
i dont know where to begin as to whats wrong with that scenario. thats the only episode of mg that i've seen. its enough...
Then I don't suppose you want to hear about the time he secretly built an airplane out of bamboo whilst working in a south american prison camp? Or the fact that he taxied the plane off a cliff whilst being shot at? Of course all the bits of bamboo were held together with duct tape...
so, uh, whats the difference between this WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe download and the en_winxp_sp2.iso available on MSDN? is it just the XPSP2.EXE file from that image? No, I imagine the .iso is a full installation disc for WinXp, with SP2 INTEGRATED into it. This allows a clean installation directly to WinXp SP2.
The .exe file allows an upgrade of an existing installation.
However, the .exe file can be used to "slipstream" itself into an older Windows Xp install base. This allows you to create something similar to the .iso file you will find on MSDN. More information can be found here: http://www.viperlair.com/articles/howto/software/s lipstream/winxpsp1a/
The guide linked to is for SP1a, but the general idea should hold for SP2.