Scratch marks. The pirate will leave scratch marks when they put the disk in its packaging 'cos they have a hook hand.
Plus, the notes on the back of the box differ in telltale ways from the usual fare, for example they might say stuff like "Ahar me mateys, this be a fine film, 'two hooks up' raves the critics! The whole crew will rejoice at this swashbuckler of a picture, plus an extra DVD with a treasure chest of bonus scenes! Rated ARRRRRR!"
But its the element of humanity that captures the public's imagination.
Capturing the publics imagination is another thing that robots do well. I'll bet Spirit and Opportunity have much better name recognition than any of the ISS crew, or the crew of the most recent Shuttle mission. They got huge media coverage.
Without humans in the mix, what does that leave us with?
So basically, NASA should have humans doing exploration so it doesn't hurt our self-esteem? Honestly, I do think there is some value to having humans in space, the same way there is value in having humans climb tall, cold mountains for no reason. But there's a finite amount I'm willing to have my government pay for that, when there are cheaper, better ways to advance science and society.
Technology for accidentally blinding people is lame. So why not work on deliberately blinding people?
The military already has lasers designed to temporarily blind you. Could you hook those up to some kind of eye-recognition software that would allow the laser to automatically target people's eyes? Could be useful in a firefight or ambush, although you would need some way to keep it from targeting your own troops.
Seem like there will always be a way to copy digital music and give it freely to others.
Wait, there's this thing called Baidu that lets you copy music and give it away for FREE? DAMN, thanks for bringing this to my attention, Giant Music Corporations!
Well, if you don't have to work very hard to perform tasks A, B, and C (because of calculators, the internet, spell check and various other thought-saving technologies) you can focus really, really hard on D (whether it is inventing a new computer algorithm, cold fusion, frictionless sandpaper, or new things to sue people over). Good old fashioned division of labor.
Well, as for rich and criminal, there was that one Mexican drug lord who tried to create a new identity by getting plastic surgery and massive liposuction... and there were a few complications with the surgery. Truly a great loss to humanity.
Anyone know whatever happened to his plastic surgeon?
I recall a story in a horror comic involving a snake-oil salesman in the Old West. He goes town to town hawking his miracle heal-all elixir (which is nothing but some concoction of whiskey, opium and turpentine, or whatnot). Plying his wares, he runs across a remote, run-down town and is in for the shock of his life when the residents tell him that, thanks to their wondrous magic spring, they don't need his elixir. They proceed to demonstrate how despite cuts, gunshots etc. they are able to heal instantly. He leaves without making a sale, of course.
But seeing that he can make a fortune marketing a real heal-all, the snake-oil salesman sneaks back into town that night... only to have the townspeople explain that there really is no magic spring, after all... you see, they are vampires. Cut to panel of the snake-oil salesman recoiling in horror as the townspeople reveal their fangs.
6. And the Lord said, "Lo! [they are] one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they have commenced to do. Now, will it not be withheld from them, all that they have planned to do?
7. Come, let us descend and confuse their language, so that one will not understand the language of his companion."
Man, thank goodness nothing like that will happen when we try to build the space elevator! That would sure screw things up.
I mean, if you consider the possible implications of hrejit nü hrønfar ngornbø hleptic i vrüdenik slahh! Hlah! Nrkramnü, egnem znepi znepi frafnuu fraarg. Ple, ple plehehahrmon!Nkramnu? Nkramnu. Vrreedonfarnu o slan wethnip nkri nar franfor. (n'ktuthnish omo san wanaroomh!)
My favorite work of his is his series of _Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind_ graphic novels. The art is gorgeous, and the style is very different from other Japanese artists- Miyazaki's biggest influence is clearly Moebius.
There are four volumes, so it develops the world and story to a much greater depth than in the movie. It's Tolkienesque in scope, as much an exercise in world-building as storytelling. Miyazaki creates maps, kingdoms, technology, religions, and ecology for the world.
At the same time, his character development is excellent. As always his villains are the most interesting ones, and he's got a ton of them. They're also much more developed than in the movie. Princess Kushana switches sides halfway through, there's an immortal king suffering from ennui who is just fantastic, and then there's the God Warrior. The God Warrior is a mindless killing machine in the movie; but in the comics it is sentient... which makes it much more creepy, and Nausicaa's relationship with it is weirdly touching, but mostly disturbing.
There are some parts that come off as overly sentimental in the third volume- probably my least favorite- but it picks up again, strong, in the fourth. The fourth volume is as dark as Miyazaki gets. The ending... not happy, not unhappy. Complex. Again, that makes it one of his stronger works.
I'm not a huge fan of Japanese entertainment, but this is hands-down my favorite comic.
they are constantly trying to change the market, which very few companies ever do. they tried the virtual boy (which didnt do so hot) but the DS is doing very well, and i think that with their new control, there is a HUGE amount of potential.
There's also a lot of potential risk. My question is, how does that risk affect the decision of game companies to make games for this system? Are game companies going to want to invest resources for a platform that may not sell? And might that create a vicious circle- even if the system is good, if the game companies hold off developing games, then there's a great likelihood of the system failing to sell.
Great interface just might not be enough. For a long time, Apple had a big advantage in terms of interface, but the machines cost more than PCs, and there was never as much software.
I completely agree: it's now about whether the next president will ruin it.
Odds are, the current one already has. We're fighting a war, and currently spending about a billion dollars a week doing that. A reasonable guess is that the insurgency will take five or ten years to defeat. Meanwhile, taxes have been cut for those Americans who can most afford them. Things might not have been so bad if we'd had any sort of planning for the postwar situation, or if we'd gone in with a real multinational force, or if we'd simply stayed home, but what's done is done.
The result is that the U.S. owes a lot of money. Sooner or later, the Federal government will either need to raise taxes, cut spending, or both. Even if future administrations support the mission, in that kind of climate, 100 billion (perhaps more, knowing how these things tend to turn out for NASA) is gonna be a tough sell.
So it's OK to be a slimeball, as long as your product is good.
No, it's not OK. But the reality is that if you are going to be a jerk, people are far more likely to tolerate you and make excuses for you if you produce something they appreciate and find important, than if you don't.
So I guess the lesson is, don't be a jerk if you don't have to. If you can't help it, at least have some redeeming qualities.
I agree, Apple is worse than MS in many ways. The only reason why it isn't so apparent is their complete lack of market share.
Probably true. Don't get me wrong, my first computer was a IIe and I love my iBook, and I respect a lot of their company's values, but they're not flawless. I suspect a major reason they don't get called on it is that they're not really in a position to do nearly as much damage as Microsoft. It's the difference between being threatened with bodily harm by Richard Simmons instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
There is also a theory which states that most petroleum could have come from non-biological sources.
According to Wikipedia, "One prediction of most abiogenic theories is that other planets of the solar system or their moons have large petroleum oceans, either from hydrocarbons present at the formation of the solar system, or subsequent chemical reactions."
Now I see why the White House is such a big proponent of exploring the Moon and Mars.
And they are smaller because they are... uh, less massive.
Actually, it is important that the editors point out that they are both small AND have reduced mass. After all, if that hadn't been specified, then for all we know the robots could have been small in linear dimensions, but might have been constructed out of neutronium, in which case they would weigh thousands of tons.
Re:Old Concept Revisited with more schmaltz
on
Review: Nintendogs
·
· Score: 4, Funny
What animal would really make for an ideal pet?
Well, for Slashdotters, how about a virtual girlfriend?
It's an interesting concept though: look for aliens by trying to see them blow the shit out of each other.
I mean, what would be the effects of a nuclear war, for instance? Given that we came pretty close to lobbing missiles at each other over Cuba, you'd expect that a reasonable number of civilizations would engage in nuclear exchanges. Is clusters of hydrogen bombs going off simultaneously going to be something we could pick up from hundreds of light years away? Of course, such events would be brief... and probably unlikely to repeat themselves in any location.
Then why do they matter? As long as my product works, and works well, and I notice the quality, shouldn't that be enough? Why should the product cost more money simply because someone labored over it to add features I will never notice? I don't buy a product because the developer decided to make it "precious" by worring about it too much. Just a thought.
One way to look at it is that if these guys have done their job right, you won't even know they've done their job at all. Like my iBook- I use the thing constantly. At my desk. On my bed at home. At the airport. Sitting on the concrete of the train platform. And I never thank the guys who invented the keyboard and touchpad (just to name a couple of components) because they just feel good, and natural, like a piece of clothing that's been well broken in. Some guys spent a hell of a lot of time worrying about stuff like the shape, texture, and resistance of the keys when you hit them; and I never think about them, because there's nothing wrong with them. And that's good design.
As for Apple zealotry... I don't happen agree with your post, but it's certainly not a troll. The only defense I can offer for the fanboys is that Apple spent a few years near death there, where we weren't sure it was going to make it. Maybe that's why Apple users can be so defensive about their product. Dunno. There is a really cultish mentality (Please! I'm a mac user! Don't mod me down! We can stand criticism of Apple... right?). I once visited the Apple campus and they had huge banner pictures of an iBook, iMac, PowerBook and whatever tower they had at their time... it just made me think of the old Soviet pageantry and propaganda, somehow. The true Mac user is not just a user. He is a believer and a convert. Which (in moderate doses) is a good thing. It's nice to have technology which is beautiful enough to get emotionally attached to.
What would killing Osama Bin-Ladin do to alleviate the threat from his organization? Nothing. The beauty of organizations like al-Qaeda is that they are a loosely organized organization of largely autonomous cells focused on a single goal. They can survive the capture and killing of their leaders as well as massive campaigns to round up and imprison or kill the membership. As long as there are believers in the cause, the organizations roots remain in tact ready to sprout to life at any opportunity.
There is a lot of truth to this. Removing the leader of a decentralized network- to the extent it has one- does little to cripple the network. It might even increase the damage a bit by creating several competing terrorist networks.So from a tactical standpoint, removing him isn't important, and the United States needs to do more to win the ideological battle, like the relief effort in Indonesia.
From a strategic standpoint, however, Osama bin Laden serves a much more important role. He is critical to the morale of the enemy. He stands as a symbol of defiance against the West and as a symbol of the power of that terrorist network. Removing him is very important to winning this fight. And while bombing him into a fine red mist of vaporized flesh might be supremely satisfying, it also has the possibility of backfiring, by turning him into a martyr like Che. The best thing to do would probably be to capture him, do a quick military trial, and lock him away in a tiny cell to rot.
Slashdot Mirror
Scratch marks. The pirate will leave scratch marks when they put the disk in its packaging 'cos they have a hook hand.
Plus, the notes on the back of the box differ in telltale ways from the usual fare, for example they might say stuff like "Ahar me mateys, this be a fine film, 'two hooks up' raves the critics! The whole crew will rejoice at this swashbuckler of a picture, plus an extra DVD with a treasure chest of bonus scenes! Rated ARRRRRR!"
Capturing the publics imagination is another thing that robots do well. I'll bet Spirit and Opportunity have much better name recognition than any of the ISS crew, or the crew of the most recent Shuttle mission. They got huge media coverage.
Without humans in the mix, what does that leave us with?
So basically, NASA should have humans doing exploration so it doesn't hurt our self-esteem? Honestly, I do think there is some value to having humans in space, the same way there is value in having humans climb tall, cold mountains for no reason. But there's a finite amount I'm willing to have my government pay for that, when there are cheaper, better ways to advance science and society.
It's being used for mushroom farming?
OK, why DO people go to Renaissance fairs?
The military already has lasers designed to temporarily blind you. Could you hook those up to some kind of eye-recognition software that would allow the laser to automatically target people's eyes? Could be useful in a firefight or ambush, although you would need some way to keep it from targeting your own troops.
Wait, there's this thing called Baidu that lets you copy music and give it away for FREE? DAMN, thanks for bringing this to my attention, Giant Music Corporations!
At least, that's the theory.
Anyone know whatever happened to his plastic surgeon?
But seeing that he can make a fortune marketing a real heal-all, the snake-oil salesman sneaks back into town that night... only to have the townspeople explain that there really is no magic spring, after all... you see, they are vampires. Cut to panel of the snake-oil salesman recoiling in horror as the townspeople reveal their fangs.
The end.
Gotta love those old EC horror comics.
Ya ought ta be keel-hauled, ya scurvy dog.
7. Come, let us descend and confuse their language, so that one will not understand the language of his companion."
Man, thank goodness nothing like that will happen when we try to build the space elevator! That would sure screw things up.
I mean, if you consider the possible implications of hrejit nü hrønfar ngornbø hleptic i vrüdenik slahh! Hlah! Nrkramnü, egnem znepi znepi frafnuu fraarg. Ple, ple plehehahrmon!Nkramnu? Nkramnu. Vrreedonfarnu o slan wethnip nkri nar franfor. (n'ktuthnish omo san wanaroomh!)
There are four volumes, so it develops the world and story to a much greater depth than in the movie. It's Tolkienesque in scope, as much an exercise in world-building as storytelling. Miyazaki creates maps, kingdoms, technology, religions, and ecology for the world.
At the same time, his character development is excellent. As always his villains are the most interesting ones, and he's got a ton of them. They're also much more developed than in the movie. Princess Kushana switches sides halfway through, there's an immortal king suffering from ennui who is just fantastic, and then there's the God Warrior. The God Warrior is a mindless killing machine in the movie; but in the comics it is sentient... which makes it much more creepy, and Nausicaa's relationship with it is weirdly touching, but mostly disturbing.
There are some parts that come off as overly sentimental in the third volume- probably my least favorite- but it picks up again, strong, in the fourth. The fourth volume is as dark as Miyazaki gets. The ending... not happy, not unhappy. Complex. Again, that makes it one of his stronger works.
I'm not a huge fan of Japanese entertainment, but this is hands-down my favorite comic.
There's also a lot of potential risk. My question is, how does that risk affect the decision of game companies to make games for this system? Are game companies going to want to invest resources for a platform that may not sell? And might that create a vicious circle- even if the system is good, if the game companies hold off developing games, then there's a great likelihood of the system failing to sell.
Great interface just might not be enough. For a long time, Apple had a big advantage in terms of interface, but the machines cost more than PCs, and there was never as much software.
Perhaps Grand Theft Auto can exploit that feature with a "lukewarm tea" mod...
Odds are, the current one already has. We're fighting a war, and currently spending about a billion dollars a week doing that. A reasonable guess is that the insurgency will take five or ten years to defeat. Meanwhile, taxes have been cut for those Americans who can most afford them. Things might not have been so bad if we'd had any sort of planning for the postwar situation, or if we'd gone in with a real multinational force, or if we'd simply stayed home, but what's done is done.
The result is that the U.S. owes a lot of money. Sooner or later, the Federal government will either need to raise taxes, cut spending, or both. Even if future administrations support the mission, in that kind of climate, 100 billion (perhaps more, knowing how these things tend to turn out for NASA) is gonna be a tough sell.
No, it's not OK. But the reality is that if you are going to be a jerk, people are far more likely to tolerate you and make excuses for you if you produce something they appreciate and find important, than if you don't.
So I guess the lesson is, don't be a jerk if you don't have to. If you can't help it, at least have some redeeming qualities.
Probably true. Don't get me wrong, my first computer was a IIe and I love my iBook, and I respect a lot of their company's values, but they're not flawless. I suspect a major reason they don't get called on it is that they're not really in a position to do nearly as much damage as Microsoft. It's the difference between being threatened with bodily harm by Richard Simmons instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
According to Wikipedia, "One prediction of most abiogenic theories is that other planets of the solar system or their moons have large petroleum oceans, either from hydrocarbons present at the formation of the solar system, or subsequent chemical reactions."
Now I see why the White House is such a big proponent of exploring the Moon and Mars.
And the sad thing is, his sex life is still better than that of most slashdot readers.
Actually, it is important that the editors point out that they are both small AND have reduced mass. After all, if that hadn't been specified, then for all we know the robots could have been small in linear dimensions, but might have been constructed out of neutronium, in which case they would weigh thousands of tons.
Well, for Slashdotters, how about a virtual girlfriend?
One way is to cut through it and then count the rings.
I mean, what would be the effects of a nuclear war, for instance? Given that we came pretty close to lobbing missiles at each other over Cuba, you'd expect that a reasonable number of civilizations would engage in nuclear exchanges. Is clusters of hydrogen bombs going off simultaneously going to be something we could pick up from hundreds of light years away? Of course, such events would be brief... and probably unlikely to repeat themselves in any location.
One way to look at it is that if these guys have done their job right, you won't even know they've done their job at all. Like my iBook- I use the thing constantly. At my desk. On my bed at home. At the airport. Sitting on the concrete of the train platform. And I never thank the guys who invented the keyboard and touchpad (just to name a couple of components) because they just feel good, and natural, like a piece of clothing that's been well broken in. Some guys spent a hell of a lot of time worrying about stuff like the shape, texture, and resistance of the keys when you hit them; and I never think about them, because there's nothing wrong with them. And that's good design.
As for Apple zealotry... I don't happen agree with your post, but it's certainly not a troll. The only defense I can offer for the fanboys is that Apple spent a few years near death there, where we weren't sure it was going to make it. Maybe that's why Apple users can be so defensive about their product. Dunno. There is a really cultish mentality (Please! I'm a mac user! Don't mod me down! We can stand criticism of Apple... right?). I once visited the Apple campus and they had huge banner pictures of an iBook, iMac, PowerBook and whatever tower they had at their time... it just made me think of the old Soviet pageantry and propaganda, somehow. The true Mac user is not just a user. He is a believer and a convert. Which (in moderate doses) is a good thing. It's nice to have technology which is beautiful enough to get emotionally attached to.
There is a lot of truth to this. Removing the leader of a decentralized network- to the extent it has one- does little to cripple the network. It might even increase the damage a bit by creating several competing terrorist networks.So from a tactical standpoint, removing him isn't important, and the United States needs to do more to win the ideological battle, like the relief effort in Indonesia.
From a strategic standpoint, however, Osama bin Laden serves a much more important role. He is critical to the morale of the enemy. He stands as a symbol of defiance against the West and as a symbol of the power of that terrorist network. Removing him is very important to winning this fight. And while bombing him into a fine red mist of vaporized flesh might be supremely satisfying, it also has the possibility of backfiring, by turning him into a martyr like Che. The best thing to do would probably be to capture him, do a quick military trial, and lock him away in a tiny cell to rot.