How much longer will people vote for politicians who let corporations shit all over consumers in the name of profit?
I'm guessing at least two months....
I'm no physicist or modeler, but this occurred to me.
These guys modeled the universe, so lets use their model and fiddle with it. Gravity in our universe is an attractive force. Change it to a repelling force of the same scalar quantity with respect to mass, so the only thing that changes is the + sign becomes a - sign in the appropriate equations.
Instead of using the model like these folks did, starting at 380,000 years aBB (after Big Bang), could you start in the present and apply this negative gravity instead?
Would you then be watching the universe unfold - er, fold up, I guess - in reverse? Would it be essentially time travel (within the model, of course)?
That is a cool scenario. In our solar system, there is much extraterrestrial oxygen in the form of oxides, and relatively little in the way of flourides. Does that hold elsewhere? Who knows?
You know, I've gone through several phases of education, including evolutionary biology and paleontology grad work. Something I've always wondered is what intelligent life on another planet would look like.
The first assumption I make is that it has to be water-based organic life. It has to be water, since liquid methane seems just too cold to allow required chemical reactions. It has to be organic since those compounds have the right mix of solubility and insolubility in water.
OK, so we have water and organic chemistry. The next thing to consider is environment. While you may develop a degree of intelligence as a marine creature, you will be severly hampered in technical development by being underwater. On an Earth-like planet, there is fire on the seabed, but it is too far from the surface to be of use. A special set of circumstances - very shallow seas and volcanic vents - may lead to underwater technology, but it seems a rare set of conditions and I dismiss this possibility. So, we have to assume that intelligence evolves on land.
Now, the evolutionary experiments here on Earth have pretty much established that large land animals function best with four limbs. In a light gravity situation, more limbs may work, however.
Animals tend to cluster sensory organs, and the brain that runs them, toward the front. Waste goes out the back. It's nearly a universal plan, so we can assume aliens would be the same.
To grow intelligence and techology, you need the ability to manipulate tools, which means hands or maybe tentacles in light gravity. The manipulatory Earthlings are primates, raccoons, some reptiles (chameleons, e.g.), and some rodents. The rodents are now primarily terrestrial, though.
With these patterns, we see that an intelligent alien would probably roughly resemble us. It would have a face and almost certainly a head. It would have arms, and although the "hands" might look different, they'd probably function similarly. They might have two legs or four or more, but they'd crap behind them, like we do. Who knows what skin or hair or scales they';d have.
I could go on forever on this. The point is, however, is that intelligent life is almost certainly recognizable as intelligent life, no matter where it comes from. We'd be very different, but we'd also be kinds similar.
One of the nice things about the G5 design was that the case had USB and other ports on the front, where they are most conveniently used.
This new iMac has all ports on the back side. It's a step backward in usability. If I want to plug in headphones, I need to stand up and look behind the thing. Not good.
This is a design mistake Apple doesn't usually make. With the ports on the front, or on the side or bottom edge (and moving the power cord), it would have been possible to mount this iMac on a wall, clearing up valuable desk space (not that it takes up too much as is). Just for the coolness factor, that would have been worth it.
An unlocked minifridge, full of beer and Malibu, with a stack of porn on top, is not only guaranteed to prevent further intrusion into your stuff, but it will, like flypaper and often just as sticky, entrap any pests and hold them fast until you return.
The thrust of Rantastic's initial post is off the mark. As others have already pointed out here, it's natural and good business practice that Toulouse would run Firefox and any number of competitors.
The key to focus on, however, is that Toulouse has access to fast, easily applied patches for Firfox, while an MSIE flaw is fought with Russian law enforcement. When will the MSIE software be patched? "We're still working on that."
Whoops. You're right in one respect - I didn't notice that tech support had its own column and that Apple wasn't ranked. I don't see how you subscribe this to some enslaved devotion to Apple, however, and you're wrong to do so.
Wretched support means frustrated consumers have to surrender time and often money. It could lead them to another PC vendor when they're ready to buy again. "Tech support is a clear differentiator," says Brownlee Thomas, a Montreal-based analyst with Forrester Research.
I hope Apple can get all those G5 chips it's going to need....
Seriously, though - as a journalist, I find it disingenuous that USA Today doesn't include Apple on its little table of tech-support satisfaction, especially since PC Mag
This thing is not used to fly the plane, but for views around the plane - most commonly in combat sims to look around from within the cockpit. The folks who use it (not me) are happy with it. It doesn't take huge head movements to trigger the view change on-screen. An inch or two in any direction does not stress your eyes, which of course stay looking at the monitor.
Right now, serious flight simmers use an eight-way hat switch for views, supplemented with a "look up" button. Looking down isn't used with this 8-point view system. Some sims do include a pure panning view system, and these can use the mouse, although they again are best triggered with a hat switch (four way, in general).
Us flight-sim geeks are serious, and the $140 price tag or whatever is not a big sacrifice. Heck, my Thrustmaster Cougar cost about twice that - and that doesn;t include the cost of the rudder pedals I bought for use with my first set of Thrustmaster gear.
Re:You've got to be kidding me?!
on
Virtual Girlfriend
·
· Score: 1, Funny
If you put the phone on vibrate, you can at least pretend she has put on a strap-on....
I just saw a Canadian movie today called Shot in the Face (2001) [imdb.com]. Yes the fans at IMDB give it an under-rated 5.6/10, but to me the film had a unique plot, interesting characters and it was fun -- it was just low budget, but it still brought a smile to my face. Obviously not A-list by any stretch of the imagination.
But, really - just how big is the market for bukkake? And are you sure it only brought "a smile" to your face?
Slashdot Mirror
How much longer will people vote for politicians who let corporations shit all over consumers in the name of profit? I'm guessing at least two months....
These guys modeled the universe, so lets use their model and fiddle with it. Gravity in our universe is an attractive force. Change it to a repelling force of the same scalar quantity with respect to mass, so the only thing that changes is the + sign becomes a - sign in the appropriate equations.
Instead of using the model like these folks did, starting at 380,000 years aBB (after Big Bang), could you start in the present and apply this negative gravity instead?
Would you then be watching the universe unfold - er, fold up, I guess - in reverse? Would it be essentially time travel (within the model, of course)?
That is a cool scenario. In our solar system, there is much extraterrestrial oxygen in the form of oxides, and relatively little in the way of flourides. Does that hold elsewhere? Who knows?
The first assumption I make is that it has to be water-based organic life. It has to be water, since liquid methane seems just too cold to allow required chemical reactions. It has to be organic since those compounds have the right mix of solubility and insolubility in water.
OK, so we have water and organic chemistry. The next thing to consider is environment. While you may develop a degree of intelligence as a marine creature, you will be severly hampered in technical development by being underwater. On an Earth-like planet, there is fire on the seabed, but it is too far from the surface to be of use. A special set of circumstances - very shallow seas and volcanic vents - may lead to underwater technology, but it seems a rare set of conditions and I dismiss this possibility. So, we have to assume that intelligence evolves on land.
Now, the evolutionary experiments here on Earth have pretty much established that large land animals function best with four limbs. In a light gravity situation, more limbs may work, however.
Animals tend to cluster sensory organs, and the brain that runs them, toward the front. Waste goes out the back. It's nearly a universal plan, so we can assume aliens would be the same.
To grow intelligence and techology, you need the ability to manipulate tools, which means hands or maybe tentacles in light gravity. The manipulatory Earthlings are primates, raccoons, some reptiles (chameleons, e.g.), and some rodents. The rodents are now primarily terrestrial, though.
With these patterns, we see that an intelligent alien would probably roughly resemble us. It would have a face and almost certainly a head. It would have arms, and although the "hands" might look different, they'd probably function similarly. They might have two legs or four or more, but they'd crap behind them, like we do. Who knows what skin or hair or scales they';d have.
I could go on forever on this. The point is, however, is that intelligent life is almost certainly recognizable as intelligent life, no matter where it comes from. We'd be very different, but we'd also be kinds similar.
Oddly, the Arab league isn't happy. Go figure.
This new iMac has all ports on the back side. It's a step backward in usability. If I want to plug in headphones, I need to stand up and look behind the thing. Not good.
This is a design mistake Apple doesn't usually make. With the ports on the front, or on the side or bottom edge (and moving the power cord), it would have been possible to mount this iMac on a wall, clearing up valuable desk space (not that it takes up too much as is). Just for the coolness factor, that would have been worth it.
An unlocked minifridge, full of beer and Malibu, with a stack of porn on top, is not only guaranteed to prevent further intrusion into your stuff, but it will, like flypaper and often just as sticky, entrap any pests and hold them fast until you return.
The key to focus on, however, is that Toulouse has access to fast, easily applied patches for Firfox, while an MSIE flaw is fought with Russian law enforcement. When will the MSIE software be patched? "We're still working on that."
That's the gist of it.
Whoops. You're right in one respect - I didn't notice that tech support had its own column and that Apple wasn't ranked. I don't see how you subscribe this to some enslaved devotion to Apple, however, and you're wrong to do so.
I hope Apple can get all those G5 chips it's going to need....
Seriously, though - as a journalist, I find it disingenuous that USA Today doesn't include Apple on its little table of tech-support satisfaction, especially since PC Mag
- did
include Apple in its survey.Right now, serious flight simmers use an eight-way hat switch for views, supplemented with a "look up" button. Looking down isn't used with this 8-point view system. Some sims do include a pure panning view system, and these can use the mouse, although they again are best triggered with a hat switch (four way, in general).
Us flight-sim geeks are serious, and the $140 price tag or whatever is not a big sacrifice. Heck, my Thrustmaster Cougar cost about twice that - and that doesn;t include the cost of the rudder pedals I bought for use with my first set of Thrustmaster gear.
If you put the phone on vibrate, you can at least pretend she has put on a strap-on....
But, really - just how big is the market for bukkake? And are you sure it only brought "a smile" to your face?
Math is not a sport. Neither is sig testing.
Wow. I think I found a new sig quote! I wonder what will happen on my second-ever registered post....
What will the Microsoft-led coalition be called? Team Advantage? (In a perfect world, Liberty Alliance would be US Alliance. I know.)