This puts me in mind of the sun orbiting Great A'Tuin - even though that sun is much, much smaller.
Does the star occasionally become obscured by an odd, giant turtle shaped object? Is it moving in a slightly screw-like trajectory? Does an elephant occasionally lift a leg to let it pass?
I wish they did, too. Here's why I think they don't:
1. Pages get lost and damaged due to the constant sliding of the holes as the pages are turned.
2. The book becomes trivial to scan or photocopy.
3. Providing "updated chapter(s)" means there's no incentive to buy the more expensive updated edition.
4. Multiple page sizes would be a pain to keep in sync.
1. A thin but durable plastic strip stuck to one side of each page would easily add strength to the holes and help prevent breakage.
2. It's trivial to scan or photocopy now. Either the book is very large, and is made with the cloth and glue style binding which can be opened nearly flat on a flat surface, or it's a straight glue bind, and is easy to remove the pages.
3. Each replacement chapter could be priced at it's percentage of the complete book, i.e., if it's a 20 page chapter in a 100 page book that costs $50, then the cost of replacement of that chapter could be $10.
This has the added advantage to the publisher that while a person pays per page for the first edition, and the publisher is making a slight loss on the binder, subsequent updates are actually costing slightly more to the consumer - by maybe a few cents - because they're only buying the updated pages.
4. A page numbering system of (chapternumber).(section).(subsection) could be used instead of the traditional "i to v" (introduction) and "1 to 237" (content), like a lot of online technical help documents I've seen.
At the bottom outer corners of each page - or top, it doesn't really matter on the layout - there could be "4.3.1" (Chapter 4, Section 3, Subsection 1) which could be listed in the contents as "4. Core Functions", "4.3. The IF command", "4.3.1. Examples of Correct Usage".
Okay, minor addendum to idea. You get the replacement chapters AND the updated contents.:)
I don't think it'll happen though, not unless I publish my own books and, let's face it, I'm not a writer.
Having never owned a Mac, but I'd like to comment on the books, the "missing manuals", and the literature that you can find online.
Owning a detailed, well laid out reference manual to scripting, programming, your OS of choice, and other parts of your computer is always a handy thing, but why don't they ever publish manuals in a three or four ring binder, or unbound with the holes punched for readily inserting into a binder?
Not all aspects of computing change as rapidly as others. A manual explaining how a transistor works and how to build one would still be as valid today as it was when transistors were first created, even if only to the hobbiest electrician, but my two books on Debian GNU/Linux are now rather dated in areas.
What I'd like to see publishers do is provide people with the option to order "binder format" - "Would you like that in 3 or 4 ring? A4, Letter, or A5?" - editions of books, so that when the subject matter changed, the publisher could provide the updated chapter(s) all nicely prepared to simply insert in your binder, or you could even download/rewrite the chapters yourself.
It's not such a stretch to see that in this information age as much as we need readily upgradeable software and hardware, we should also have readily upgradeable manuals to go with it.
Unless you have a business account (which I need solely for the fixed IP address) Then you pay $105 p/m for 512/128 and a 2gb/month cap. I've watched the iiNet home plans soaring over the past 2 years, but have the business plans improved? Not really... The plan I'm on has been replaced with a $149/m 40gb/m 512/128 one. For me to upgrade to a faster speed, I'm looking at $199 per month. Nuts to that.
And because you pay that amount of money for that 512/128 connection, they'll keep on charging you for it for as long as possible - My local ISP charges $79.95 for a similar plan (512/128, static IP, unlimited dowload).
I pay AU$160.00 per month for an Unlimited 512/512 connection with a static IP address. And yes, I've tested it's "unlimited" status. >:)
That's at one ISP, and if you look at the Broadband Choice site on Whirlpool, you'll find several ISP's who offer similar plans.
Stop paying too much and help the rest of us DSL customers in Australia push the prices down.
Can we keep them there? sort of like what the British did to criminals? exiled them to Australia (and notice how Australia is this really cool place to be...hot girls, never seems to bring up any bad news, and gorgeous and advanced city.)
Yeah but while the country's lovely and the general populace is friendly, unfortunately the majority of our politicians are simpletons and knee-jerk reactionaries who tend to ban anything old thing based on the simplest, and stupidest, reasons.
Some of them make sense, like the gas masks with asbestos in the filter, but rather silly ones include the glider planes with the "sharp nose on planes" and the pop guns with "No guard to prevent discharge of other objects."
I live in Queensland - born and raised - and I recently got interested in Airsoft as a good alternative to paintball for a more realistic, "counter-strike" style game due to the realistic nature of the firearms.
Banned. You know why? I went to the police - where you need to go for a permit to import through customs any airsoft firearm or part of an airsoft firearm - and found out this fascinating little nugget of information from their permits and licencing division:
Airsoft firearms, including the spring-loaded single-shot type, are banned outright from importation and/or manufacture because when fired at a close range they may cause bodily harm.
I can go down to the local gun club out at Carindale, register, get a licence for a handgun, buy a Glock 17 - a neighbour I used to live near owned one, nice gun btw - and then if I like I can get another licence which will allow me to carry that handgun concealed about my person - same neighbour's wife kept the Glock in her handbag, both being members of the club.
Yeah, the country's nice, and our populace is generally pretty friendly and easy going compared to what I've heard about the rest of the western world, but Australia is still run by the politicians in a similar vein to the old prisoner colonies of yestercenturies.
So remember, AOL caters to the simple/stupid crowd.
Who is also the crowd that generally has massive amounts of spyware/trojaned/infected PCs used for sending out Viri and Spam. And also the same who respond to spam, buy spam products and think "Gee, I'm really glad my bank is verifying my account information" when they get a phishing e-mail.
Then there are the things the semi "anonymous" accounts are used for and a few other illegal things that people use AOL accounts for. Eliminating the AOL crowd would probably make the internet a safer/saner place to be for the rest of us. Especially when you consider it's also the AOL customers that want the governemnt to "protect tehir children" from online content.
When I'm out there in the street one day and some crazed loon finally snaps and starts shooting people, that's when I'll be glad there's lots of cannon fodder (innocent bystanders) around - cold and heartless yes, but I'm primarily interested in my own preservation over others.
When that gun goes off, do you stand there and go,
`What? What's happening? What was that noise?'
No, you duck with your arms over your head and run in what you hope is the opposite direction to the source of the gun shot. If you had armour you'd put it on in the hopes that it helps.
When I see a new, large scale virus infection coming I read about the viruses infection methods, its source, and its transportation method - hearing the gunshot and figuring out where it's coming from - then I beef up any security that's somehow lacking, double-check my virus scanners (yes, plural), and weather the onslaught - put on my armour and hide behind the thickest concrete wall around.
Gun fights in the streets and internet security are two very different things, but for this comment the bad analogy works.
Simple and stupid people are cannon fodder to be used as cover while the rest of us more intelligent users get to safer ground.
They're black - instantly cool but probably a problem to spot your mate when his dark face shield is closed - the helmet is just barely bigger than your head - so you don't go knocking your noggin on stuff cause you forgot - and all the fastenings had that appearance of being sturdy and functional without taking ages to fiddle with.
They weren't skin tight, more like about how baggy a tracksuit is on a regular sized person, but they weren't overly bulky either. The costume designers even made sure to put small "life support" systems on the backs of the suits too, and although they only looked big enough to scrub CO2 for maybe 30-45 minutes, I imagine something slightly bigger could be made, or have hook-up points on the suit and ship for extended EVA.
It would have been good to find an interview with Claudia Black or Ben Browder that asked if the general design of the mock-up suits was comfortable.
Skin tight is functional, but I can see personal aesthetics screwing with the crew - we're only human, and things that shouldn't bother us generally do.
I'm still not sure why you condone property theft. Perhaps if Hollywood was viewed as a haven for righties you might feel differently. Otherwise, fairly typical radcon response.
Completely without your permission, I just quoted you. Now you can never ever use those words again.
Check Aussie Rules Football one day too. I see a lot of knee/shin/spike-soled-shoe on face action in that every time some guy jumps 5+ feet up to grab the ball. >:)
I like Australian Rugby League for a good "big boofy blokes" sort of sport, and I miss the "Spear Tackle". >:)
For those ignorant of the Spear Tackle (WTF?! Heathen!), it's basically this,
Blue Player, for example, has the ball and is running towards the Red Team's goal.
Red players are chasing him.
Upon reaching the Blue player, two or three of the red players will grab the blue player - not just one - and pick him up, tip him over, and drive him face first into the ground, but not maliciously of course.
Marvelous game. Download the rules off the net one day and try playing it. Remember, no padding or armour.
And as for V8 Supercars, well, what can I say?
Sure, 185mph (298kph) isn't the 200mph+ of nascar or F1, but then again, I can't walk into my local car dealership and buy the same car as a nascar or F1.
I can just about do that with V8 Supercars.:)
I much prefer the Australian sports arena to the yank or european one.
ok, why cant we have a real space station that can sustain it's self?
Mainly because of two things; Lack of imagination on the part of the decision makers in the government, and Cost.
Why do we not design and build a ring station so the astronauts and scientists can be more comfortable in at least 1/2 gravity. plus why can we not put it out a little further s othat station keeping fuel useage is minimized? (i know the shuttle sucks and cant get out anyfarther)
Cost and lack of imagination again.
we need to make real stations, not these greyhound buses ducttaped together that we keep building.
the ISS is not much different than the old skylab and Mir stations.
how about spending 1/2 of what we are wasting in IRAQ on a real station?
Well, it's simple young Nony.
Your average politician has the attention span of a Nat with A.D.D., the morals of a crocodile, and the imagination of a dumb rock - unlike ordinary rocks which imagine finding themselves a cool stream to be slowly smoothed and massaged in.
All a politician wants is basically two things; A way to make people think s/he's making their lives better so they keep on putting him in charge, and their ridiculously high wages and benefits packages.
These men that allocate budgets for such things as a rotational space-station with centrifically simulated gravity and multi-acre green house, don't personally want a space station, so they don't think anyone else would want one either.
They lack the capacity to understand why men would want to go into space and see other planets and look for alien civilisations.
Let's take a surgical circular saw and look inside the mind of this politician I happen to have prepared earlier,
"Ooo, pay day this week... constituents happy? Course they're happy, the television told them to be happy... Better not let them get too happy, they might forget that they need me to do, stuff... Hoo boy, look at the tits on that intern... Hey, there's a fifty sticking out of that guys wallet... damn, I missed it. Hope he comes back later..."
Now let's ask him a question about space.
`Hmmm, space? With the stars?'
"What the hell do these geeks want with space? Don't they know there's liquor, and women, and money down here? I don't want to go into space, I've got my big car, and nice house, and trophy family, and thousands of people kissing my fat ass every day. Fuck space."
`Oh yes, yes, a noble pursuit. Here, {reaches into his own wallet}, have a couple of million.'
Now let's mention a fictitious enemy that might be remotely indirectly after the politician's property.
`Terrorists want us to stop pouring tonnes of waste into landfills because if we don't they'll detonate a what? A Grotty Bomb? Good Lord! That might make people too scared. I might get blamed. I could lose my high paying position in the government! Here, {reaches into tax payers pockets}, take 200 Billion dollars and go kill those commie bastards!'
To summarise: The men making the decisions and providing the needed funds for research are stupid, that's why our space programs fail.
I've personally seen two strange flying objects that I cannot explain, and my Dad has told me about a brief encounter he had when he was younger.
One thing I've seen was a white disc-shaped object moving through the sky at high altitude, but not flying gracefully as your northern hemisphere ufo's do, oh no.
The pilot of this ufo must of thought it would be funny to flip the ship edge over edge, like a tossed coin moving horizontally instead of vertically.
The other ufo sighting of mine is your more "mysterious lights" sort.
Latish one evening while I was standing on the back verandah I happened to see an orange light moving low in the sky from the east towards the west.
I thought it might have been an F-111 doing a "dump and burn" since I live near the RAAF base at Amberley, but I couldn't hear it, and you will definitely hear a "dump and burn" when it's happening.
I watched because it looked kinda cool, and was surprised to see it join two other lights, one coming from somewhere off to the north and the other from the west.
They buzzed around the top of Denmark Hill - kind of a small parkland just near the Ipswich Hospital - doing some really close and tight turns and maneuvers for several minutes, and then flew off towards the north-north-west until they were out of sight.
Now, I'm not saying they were aliens, or some secret government project or whatever, so leave that tin-foil sitting on the hatstand.
I'm saying that if you keep an eye open, you'll probably see at least one very odd occurance in your life.
I'd like to believe there are aliens. I have no proof to the contrary so it remains forever a possibility for me.
I often imagine what would be the best thing to do when meeting an alien from outer space - probably don't move, don't smile, and don't wave hello in case the bugger misinterprets it and goes for his sidearm - but I don't pin all my hopes and dreams on it like some people.
Just a few hopes and dreams.:)
We live in a big freaking universe, and since it was possible for life to start on earth, I don't see why life couldn't start on another planet - no pseudo-religious arguments about god please.
Anywho, whatever the dark streak and bright flash in the photo actually is, we're never going to know for certain, so why not let this photographer think it's aliens, or a meteroite, or a star wars laser test gone wrong.
We can argue about it back and forth for days but there's really no point.
The guy took some pictures, wasn't abducted by aliens or the government, and now his life is a little more mysterious.
Good, we all need a bit more mystery in our lives sometimes. It'll give him something to talk to his grandkids about.
Ah, I know what to do when I meet that alien. Offer him a drink.
I've seen Tripping the Rift and Farscape. Everyone likes to get sloshed.:)
Ah yes, but if you're a bloke like me than you hold up your jeans with a heavy, 1.5" wide, heavy leather belt and you've bought the good quality leather, and if leather is unavailable then expensive and thick polyester, clip-on pouches for your assorted gadgets.
All I need is some sort of fruitbat-shaped grapple and some thin but ludicrously strong rope and I'll have my own super hero-ish utility belt.:)
`Look, over at that horrible looking pile of junk that's wobbling all over the road, it's Wonder Dork!'
For those who haven't played Simcity, or read the odd sci-fi that features these, an Arcology is basically a suburb - housing, shopping, businesses, parks, and even small food production areas - constructed inside a building.
I don't know about America, but here in Australia "roll-your-own" tobacco takes up about as much shelf space in supermarkets, service stations, newsagents, and of course tobacconists, as factory-rolled cigarettes and cigars, so there are quite a few brands of cigerette papers available.
I prefer Ventii brand papers myself with either the Dutch brand Drum - Halfzware Shag (Dark Blue Packet) - or another Dutch brand called Bank, both owned by Imperial Tobacco*.
And as for water pipes. Hah!
You can walk into any one of a dozen randomly picked "alternative" or "new age" shops, and even tobacconists, and buy a water pipe in all kinds of shapes and forms.
[/Offtopic]
I hope Sharman wins this case.
Sure, Kazaa is loaded with spyware, their network is full of shite, and I disagree with their own "politics" about Kazaa Lite, but, if they lose, what's stopping the media companies from going after the other P2P networks using the same arguments?
Yah yah, Morpheus won it's case. So? That's only going to slow down the MAFIAA^, not stop them.
The only way the MAFIAA is going to be stopped from going after the tools - and Kazaa is a tool# - is if they lose every case they bring against the companies providing the tools, and for that we're going to need some very good precedents set here and now, and I hope we've got the lawyers with the brains and the balls to do it.
The MAFIAA have to learn that the Internet is not going to go away, and they cannot restrict it's use with legislation and the courts.
In a purely technical sense, anything that stops the transceiving of data is damage, and if our computers don't automatically route around it, then we will.
Hopefully one day - preferably while I'm still alive - the MAFIAA will embrace the Internet and use it to better deliver products to us, but I don't think they will for a long time yet.
* I think Drum used to be owned by Douwe Egberts, the same Dutch company that produces Moccona coffee, but I don't have any old Drum packets to confirm this.
^ Not to be confused with The Family, which I have to hold in higher regard than the RIAA, the MPAA, and all the other *AA's because, quite simply, The Family seem to be a lot more straight forward and honest with people, even if they do commit acts which are illegal and, depending on your viewpoint, immoral.
Anyone know what happened to the MAFIAA web site? The one that was to be a kind of activist site against the RIAA, MPAA, BSA, BSAA, ARIA, etc...
# Just because a spanner is not a hammer does not mean it is not a tool. The Internet is a tool for the facilitation of enabling electronic data transfer, TCP/IP is a tool that is used to encapsulate data for transport over the Internet, and Kazaa is just of many P2P tools that enables people to more readily send and receive that data.
A tool is something that aids in work, whether it be a hammer, a drill, a computer, a program, or a gun.
...You're stealing the dinner right out of an actors mouth.'
When - probably not if - we as ordinary people have something that can create, or fabricate, common objects, clothes, food, and other smallish to medium sized things cheaply and easily, we're going to hear the paraphrased statement from those who previously sold them.
It's going to be a whole new court fought battle about blueprints-over-P2P and "illicit" sharing of big corp's trade "secrets".
Never mind the fact that by the time we have the Fabricator we won't need a big company to sell us all kinds of material goods, the people who run those companies will tell us that we must have them.
We shouldn't be allowed to make our own clothes en-mass cheaply and easily. We shouldn't be allowed to quickly whip up a gadget to keep ourselves amused while we ride the train or bus, replacing the one that was stolen by someone less fortunate than us.
That old argument about P2P file-sharing and cars?
`Sharing music is like if you copied your neighbour's car so that you both have one...'
We're going to do that, and the car companies will scream bloody murder about it.
Replicators, fabricators, 3D copy machines, and miniature nanobot driven-factories will come about one day - I hope in my lifetime - and when they do, we're going to have the same "molded" people who stand to lose 1 or more cents - corporate executives and major corporate share holders - whinging about them until their legislated into obscurity and we almost can't legally get one.
All it'll take to get these to the masses though is one machine, run by an altruistic man with the blueprints for the machine...
An executive of a major distribution company/conglomerate sees the demographics stagnating in their area of entertainment or communications.
First thing they do is ask,
`Why are we stagnating? Why, despite more people being born everyday, don't we see more consumers?'
Of course, s/he conveniently forgets that:
There are also people dieing in the world, and therefore are no longer consumers.
The quality of the general broadcast media has steadily degraded to the point where it can be broken down into a mathematically formulated product for easy packaging and mass consumption*.
Very, veeery slooowly, people are wondering why they are paying, for example, AU$30 for a DVD of a movie when the VHS tape - which obviously costs more to mass produce because of fiddly wires and springs and screws and stuff - costs only AU$20, even if the tape comes with the same "special bonus extras!!!".
Yes, people are downloading movies, tv shows, games, books, and anything else that can be broken down into a digitised form for easy distribution. That's what people do. We like to have it quick and easy when possible.
`I want it now! No! I want it yesterday, with sugar! And ice-cream! And f'cking bells on!'
Executives need to learn, and learn fast, that we are slooowly sick of being consumers. We want to be customers again.
The old bastards have the tools at their disposal, the Internet being the biggest and most obvious, but they won't use it, probably not even in my lifetime, and I'm only twenty-eight.
No, they won't use it for the same reasons we will get things in ways they don't like.
`I don't want to think about how the money system or banking or accounts f'cking work, I just want you to give me money now! No! I want it yesterday! With sugar! And ice-cream! And f'cking bells on!'
The wheel keeps turning round-and-round, and I keep falling into the ground... Over and over I reach for the sky, and some beligerant bastard forces me down... Round-and-round we'll never stop, give me money for that copied movie or I'll call the cops...
* You'll have to do the/. search, I've been drinking vodka, and watching Black Books, and listening to Rob Zombie.:)
On topic, giving something new to someone is always nice, if they're generally interested in what you give them.
I would think carefully about prior conversations about computing - if there were any - and whether or not the recipient of the card has ever expressed any interest in other Operating Systems, or has been using windows or mac os and said,
`There must be something better than this.'
I think the general idea of giving a CD, or mini-CD, of data in a card is a nifty idea, although I'd be careful of giving it to people who might think you're being cheap if you don't follow up with a gift - sometimes just a card is more appreciated than a card and an unwanted gift.
You could give a short movie to people who're interested in things you've done, photos of your holidays to friends who're thinking about where to take their own holidays, and so on, tailoring the content to the recipient.
I'm not sure which distribution you should use, but if I was going to give Linux on a bootable CD to people - who possibly have no real idea what it is or what makes it different to any other software on their computer - then I would systematically download a copy of each latest version of the major CD bootable distributions - or those popular with geeks - burn them to CD, and boot up with each one.
I'd take careful note of each distribution's running performance, hardware detection, general "prettiness"*, and the last factor, how easy it is to install on a computer's hard drive - just in case someone really likes it.
I wouldn't worry about too much about whether Gnome or KDE, Mozilla or Firefox, Open Office or Kwrite as deciding factors because if your friends haven't heard of Linux, or have but don't know anything about it, then how are they going to have a preference for one desktop or program over another?
I'd worry instead about making it look as familiar as possible to their existing desktop, because nothing turns people off software more than having a basic affinity with one thing and then being forced to completely change how they do the same tasks, or perceiving they have to do something different.
That makes it "too hard", and people will generally give up when they think something is "too hard". If they were the sort of person who encountered things that were "too hard" and said,
`I can frigging do this!'
Then they'd probably be geeks.:)
* I'm presuming this is for non-geeks, where appearance is often just as important, if not more, than performance.
It uses a localised 100bhp motor attached to each wheel to give the car a combined 800bhp*.
The reason for this is that the designer says in the UK Auto Express article that if you're going to design an electric car and have it taken seriously than you really need to build one that can outperform a high-powered sports car#.
I don't know if the way he did it was right, but I do think it looks nifty.:)
* Please don't flame me if you're know way more about bhp's and stuff and I'm completely "off-base". I'm just going by the article.
# I would have cut and paste the quote but the Auto Express page is suddenly spitting up this registration form and I don't feel like registering just for a quote.
Slashdot Mirror
This puts me in mind of the sun orbiting Great A'Tuin - even though that sun is much, much smaller.
Does the star occasionally become obscured by an odd, giant turtle shaped object? Is it moving in a slightly screw-like trajectory? Does an elephant occasionally lift a leg to let it pass?
Terry Pratchett, this star's for you. :)
1. A thin but durable plastic strip stuck to one side of each page would easily add strength to the holes and help prevent breakage.
2. It's trivial to scan or photocopy now. Either the book is very large, and is made with the cloth and glue style binding which can be opened nearly flat on a flat surface, or it's a straight glue bind, and is easy to remove the pages.
3. Each replacement chapter could be priced at it's percentage of the complete book, i.e., if it's a 20 page chapter in a 100 page book that costs $50, then the cost of replacement of that chapter could be $10.
This has the added advantage to the publisher that while a person pays per page for the first edition, and the publisher is making a slight loss on the binder, subsequent updates are actually costing slightly more to the consumer - by maybe a few cents - because they're only buying the updated pages.
4. A page numbering system of (chapternumber).(section).(subsection) could be used instead of the traditional "i to v" (introduction) and "1 to 237" (content), like a lot of online technical help documents I've seen.
At the bottom outer corners of each page - or top, it doesn't really matter on the layout - there could be "4.3.1" (Chapter 4, Section 3, Subsection 1) which could be listed in the contents as "4. Core Functions", "4.3. The IF command", "4.3.1. Examples of Correct Usage".
Okay, minor addendum to idea. You get the replacement chapters AND the updated contents. :)
I don't think it'll happen though, not unless I publish my own books and, let's face it, I'm not a writer.
Having never owned a Mac, but I'd like to comment on the books, the "missing manuals", and the literature that you can find online.
Owning a detailed, well laid out reference manual to scripting, programming, your OS of choice, and other parts of your computer is always a handy thing, but why don't they ever publish manuals in a three or four ring binder, or unbound with the holes punched for readily inserting into a binder?
Not all aspects of computing change as rapidly as others. A manual explaining how a transistor works and how to build one would still be as valid today as it was when transistors were first created, even if only to the hobbiest electrician, but my two books on Debian GNU/Linux are now rather dated in areas.
What I'd like to see publishers do is provide people with the option to order "binder format" - "Would you like that in 3 or 4 ring? A4, Letter, or A5?" - editions of books, so that when the subject matter changed, the publisher could provide the updated chapter(s) all nicely prepared to simply insert in your binder, or you could even download/rewrite the chapters yourself.
It's not such a stretch to see that in this information age as much as we need readily upgradeable software and hardware, we should also have readily upgradeable manuals to go with it.
And because you pay that amount of money for that 512/128 connection, they'll keep on charging you for it for as long as possible - My local ISP charges $79.95 for a similar plan (512/128, static IP, unlimited dowload).
I pay AU$160.00 per month for an Unlimited 512/512 connection with a static IP address. And yes, I've tested it's "unlimited" status. >:)
That's at one ISP, and if you look at the Broadband Choice site on Whirlpool, you'll find several ISP's who offer similar plans.
Stop paying too much and help the rest of us DSL customers in Australia push the prices down.
Yeah but while the country's lovely and the general populace is friendly, unfortunately the majority of our politicians are simpletons and knee-jerk reactionaries who tend to ban anything old thing based on the simplest, and stupidest, reasons.
For example, check out the banned items on this page CAV Resource Centre - List of Banned & Regulated Products.
Some of them make sense, like the gas masks with asbestos in the filter, but rather silly ones include the glider planes with the "sharp nose on planes" and the pop guns with "No guard to prevent discharge of other objects."
I live in Queensland - born and raised - and I recently got interested in Airsoft as a good alternative to paintball for a more realistic, "counter-strike" style game due to the realistic nature of the firearms.
Banned. You know why? I went to the police - where you need to go for a permit to import through customs any airsoft firearm or part of an airsoft firearm - and found out this fascinating little nugget of information from their permits and licencing division:
Airsoft firearms, including the spring-loaded single-shot type, are banned outright from importation and/or manufacture because when fired at a close range they may cause bodily harm.
I can go down to the local gun club out at Carindale, register, get a licence for a handgun, buy a Glock 17 - a neighbour I used to live near owned one, nice gun btw - and then if I like I can get another licence which will allow me to carry that handgun concealed about my person - same neighbour's wife kept the Glock in her handbag, both being members of the club.
Yeah, the country's nice, and our populace is generally pretty friendly and easy going compared to what I've heard about the rest of the western world, but Australia is still run by the politicians in a similar vein to the old prisoner colonies of yestercenturies.
When I'm out there in the street one day and some crazed loon finally snaps and starts shooting people, that's when I'll be glad there's lots of cannon fodder (innocent bystanders) around - cold and heartless yes, but I'm primarily interested in my own preservation over others.
When that gun goes off, do you stand there and go,
`What? What's happening? What was that noise?'
No, you duck with your arms over your head and run in what you hope is the opposite direction to the source of the gun shot. If you had armour you'd put it on in the hopes that it helps.
When I see a new, large scale virus infection coming I read about the viruses infection methods, its source, and its transportation method - hearing the gunshot and figuring out where it's coming from - then I beef up any security that's somehow lacking, double-check my virus scanners (yes, plural), and weather the onslaught - put on my armour and hide behind the thickest concrete wall around.
Gun fights in the streets and internet security are two very different things, but for this comment the bad analogy works.
Simple and stupid people are cannon fodder to be used as cover while the rest of us more intelligent users get to safer ground.
Is the peacekeeper spacesuits from Farscape.
They're black - instantly cool but probably a problem to spot your mate when his dark face shield is closed - the helmet is just barely bigger than your head - so you don't go knocking your noggin on stuff cause you forgot - and all the fastenings had that appearance of being sturdy and functional without taking ages to fiddle with.
They weren't skin tight, more like about how baggy a tracksuit is on a regular sized person, but they weren't overly bulky either. The costume designers even made sure to put small "life support" systems on the backs of the suits too, and although they only looked big enough to scrub CO2 for maybe 30-45 minutes, I imagine something slightly bigger could be made, or have hook-up points on the suit and ship for extended EVA.
It would have been good to find an interview with Claudia Black or Ben Browder that asked if the general design of the mock-up suits was comfortable.
Skin tight is functional, but I can see personal aesthetics screwing with the crew - we're only human, and things that shouldn't bother us generally do.
is somewhat appropriate.
Not quite singing praise on Titan but it's what came to mind when I saw the article. :)
Completely without your permission, I just quoted you. Now you can never ever use those words again.
Think about it.
Just a bit of an addendum.
Check Aussie Rules Football one day too. I see a lot of knee/shin/spike-soled-shoe on face action in that every time some guy jumps 5+ feet up to grab the ball. >:)
Hehe, you Yanks with your grid iron.
Pad this, pad that, chuck on a helmet...
I like Australian Rugby League for a good "big boofy blokes" sort of sport, and I miss the "Spear Tackle". >:)
For those ignorant of the Spear Tackle (WTF?! Heathen!), it's basically this,
Marvelous game. Download the rules off the net one day and try playing it. Remember, no padding or armour.
And as for V8 Supercars, well, what can I say? :)
Sure, 185mph (298kph) isn't the 200mph+ of nascar or F1, but then again, I can't walk into my local car dealership and buy the same car as a nascar or F1.
I can just about do that with V8 Supercars.
I much prefer the Australian sports arena to the yank or european one.
It's been a while but I remember using Netscape 2, Netscape 3, Gold, and Netscape 4 up to 4.78.
All the download links I saw, on legit download sites and Netscape's site, pointed me to "Download Here" style links.
What I never saw was anything saying I had to pay for it, unless I was using it for a commercial purpose.
Where did all this guff about personal users having to pay for Netscape come from?
Mainly because of two things; Lack of imagination on the part of the decision makers in the government, and Cost.
Cost and lack of imagination again.
Well, it's simple young Nony.
Your average politician has the attention span of a Nat with A.D.D., the morals of a crocodile, and the imagination of a dumb rock - unlike ordinary rocks which imagine finding themselves a cool stream to be slowly smoothed and massaged in.
All a politician wants is basically two things; A way to make people think s/he's making their lives better so they keep on putting him in charge, and their ridiculously high wages and benefits packages.
These men that allocate budgets for such things as a rotational space-station with centrifically simulated gravity and multi-acre green house, don't personally want a space station, so they don't think anyone else would want one either.
They lack the capacity to understand why men would want to go into space and see other planets and look for alien civilisations.
Let's take a surgical circular saw and look inside the mind of this politician I happen to have prepared earlier,
"Ooo, pay day this week... constituents happy? Course they're happy, the television told them to be happy... Better not let them get too happy, they might forget that they need me to do, stuff... Hoo boy, look at the tits on that intern... Hey, there's a fifty sticking out of that guys wallet... damn, I missed it. Hope he comes back later..."
Now let's ask him a question about space.
`Hmmm, space? With the stars?'
"What the hell do these geeks want with space? Don't they know there's liquor, and women, and money down here? I don't want to go into space, I've got my big car, and nice house, and trophy family, and thousands of people kissing my fat ass every day. Fuck space."
`Oh yes, yes, a noble pursuit. Here, {reaches into his own wallet}, have a couple of million.'
Now let's mention a fictitious enemy that might be remotely indirectly after the politician's property.
`Terrorists want us to stop pouring tonnes of waste into landfills because if we don't they'll detonate a what? A Grotty Bomb? Good Lord! That might make people too scared. I might get blamed. I could lose my high paying position in the government! Here, {reaches into tax payers pockets}, take 200 Billion dollars and go kill those commie bastards!'
To summarise: The men making the decisions and providing the needed funds for research are stupid, that's why our space programs fail.
Yeah, shame about the X-38 (Crew Return Vehicle).
I really wanted to see the Farscape module up and flying in real life rather than just in a television show.
Australia is full of wierd events.
I've personally seen two strange flying objects that I cannot explain, and my Dad has told me about a brief encounter he had when he was younger.
One thing I've seen was a white disc-shaped object moving through the sky at high altitude, but not flying gracefully as your northern hemisphere ufo's do, oh no.
The pilot of this ufo must of thought it would be funny to flip the ship edge over edge, like a tossed coin moving horizontally instead of vertically.
The other ufo sighting of mine is your more "mysterious lights" sort.
Latish one evening while I was standing on the back verandah I happened to see an orange light moving low in the sky from the east towards the west.
I thought it might have been an F-111 doing a "dump and burn" since I live near the RAAF base at Amberley, but I couldn't hear it, and you will definitely hear a "dump and burn" when it's happening.
I watched because it looked kinda cool, and was surprised to see it join two other lights, one coming from somewhere off to the north and the other from the west.
They buzzed around the top of Denmark Hill - kind of a small parkland just near the Ipswich Hospital - doing some really close and tight turns and maneuvers for several minutes, and then flew off towards the north-north-west until they were out of sight.
Now, I'm not saying they were aliens, or some secret government project or whatever, so leave that tin-foil sitting on the hatstand.
I'm saying that if you keep an eye open, you'll probably see at least one very odd occurance in your life.
I'd like to believe there are aliens. I have no proof to the contrary so it remains forever a possibility for me.
I often imagine what would be the best thing to do when meeting an alien from outer space - probably don't move, don't smile, and don't wave hello in case the bugger misinterprets it and goes for his sidearm - but I don't pin all my hopes and dreams on it like some people.
Just a few hopes and dreams. :)
We live in a big freaking universe, and since it was possible for life to start on earth, I don't see why life couldn't start on another planet - no pseudo-religious arguments about god please.
Anywho, whatever the dark streak and bright flash in the photo actually is, we're never going to know for certain, so why not let this photographer think it's aliens, or a meteroite, or a star wars laser test gone wrong.
We can argue about it back and forth for days but there's really no point.
The guy took some pictures, wasn't abducted by aliens or the government, and now his life is a little more mysterious.
Good, we all need a bit more mystery in our lives sometimes. It'll give him something to talk to his grandkids about.
Ah, I know what to do when I meet that alien. Offer him a drink. :)
I've seen Tripping the Rift and Farscape. Everyone likes to get sloshed.
Ah yes, but if you're a bloke like me than you hold up your jeans with a heavy, 1.5" wide, heavy leather belt and you've bought the good quality leather, and if leather is unavailable then expensive and thick polyester, clip-on pouches for your assorted gadgets.
All I need is some sort of fruitbat-shaped grapple and some thin but ludicrously strong rope and I'll have my own super hero-ish utility belt. :)
`Look, over at that horrible looking pile of junk that's wobbling all over the road, it's Wonder Dork!'
You mean like an Arcology?
For those who haven't played Simcity, or read the odd sci-fi that features these, an Arcology is basically a suburb - housing, shopping, businesses, parks, and even small food production areas - constructed inside a building.
...You don't sound like you're on the toilet.
That's always awkward for the other person.
[Offtopic to Article, not Parent]
I don't know about America, but here in Australia "roll-your-own" tobacco takes up about as much shelf space in supermarkets, service stations, newsagents, and of course tobacconists, as factory-rolled cigarettes and cigars, so there are quite a few brands of cigerette papers available.
I prefer Ventii brand papers myself with either the Dutch brand Drum - Halfzware Shag (Dark Blue Packet) - or another Dutch brand called Bank, both owned by Imperial Tobacco*.
And as for water pipes. Hah!
[/Offtopic]You can walk into any one of a dozen randomly picked "alternative" or "new age" shops, and even tobacconists, and buy a water pipe in all kinds of shapes and forms.
I hope Sharman wins this case.
Sure, Kazaa is loaded with spyware, their network is full of shite, and I disagree with their own "politics" about Kazaa Lite, but, if they lose, what's stopping the media companies from going after the other P2P networks using the same arguments?
Yah yah, Morpheus won it's case. So?
That's only going to slow down the MAFIAA^, not stop them.
The only way the MAFIAA is going to be stopped from going after the tools - and Kazaa is a tool# - is if they lose every case they bring against the companies providing the tools, and for that we're going to need some very good precedents set here and now, and I hope we've got the lawyers with the brains and the balls to do it.
The MAFIAA have to learn that the Internet is not going to go away, and they cannot restrict it's use with legislation and the courts.
In a purely technical sense, anything that stops the transceiving of data is damage, and if our computers don't automatically route around it, then we will.
Hopefully one day - preferably while I'm still alive - the MAFIAA will embrace the Internet and use it to better deliver products to us, but I don't think they will for a long time yet.
* I think Drum used to be owned by Douwe Egberts, the same Dutch company that produces Moccona coffee, but I don't have any old Drum packets to confirm this.
^ Not to be confused with The Family, which I have to hold in higher regard than the RIAA, the MPAA, and all the other *AA's because, quite simply, The Family seem to be a lot more straight forward and honest with people, even if they do commit acts which are illegal and, depending on your viewpoint, immoral.
Anyone know what happened to the MAFIAA web site? The one that was to be a kind of activist site against the RIAA, MPAA, BSA, BSAA, ARIA, etc...
# Just because a spanner is not a hammer does not mean it is not a tool. The Internet is a tool for the facilitation of enabling electronic data transfer, TCP/IP is a tool that is used to encapsulate data for transport over the Internet, and Kazaa is just of many P2P tools that enables people to more readily send and receive that data.
A tool is something that aids in work, whether it be a hammer, a drill, a computer, a program, or a gun.
...You're stealing the dinner right out of an actors mouth.'
When - probably not if - we as ordinary people have something that can create, or fabricate, common objects, clothes, food, and other smallish to medium sized things cheaply and easily, we're going to hear the paraphrased statement from those who previously sold them.
It's going to be a whole new court fought battle about blueprints-over-P2P and "illicit" sharing of big corp's trade "secrets".
Never mind the fact that by the time we have the Fabricator we won't need a big company to sell us all kinds of material goods, the people who run those companies will tell us that we must have them.
We shouldn't be allowed to make our own clothes en-mass cheaply and easily. We shouldn't be allowed to quickly whip up a gadget to keep ourselves amused while we ride the train or bus, replacing the one that was stolen by someone less fortunate than us.
That old argument about P2P file-sharing and cars?
`Sharing music is like if you copied your neighbour's car so that you both have one...'
We're going to do that, and the car companies will scream bloody murder about it.
Replicators, fabricators, 3D copy machines, and miniature nanobot driven-factories will come about one day - I hope in my lifetime - and when they do, we're going to have the same "molded" people who stand to lose 1 or more cents - corporate executives and major corporate share holders - whinging about them until their legislated into obscurity and we almost can't legally get one.
All it'll take to get these to the masses though is one machine, run by an altruistic man with the blueprints for the machine...
An executive of a major distribution company/conglomerate sees the demographics stagnating in their area of entertainment or communications.
First thing they do is ask,
`Why are we stagnating? Why, despite more people being born everyday, don't we see more consumers?'
Of course, s/he conveniently forgets that:
Yes, people are downloading movies, tv shows, games, books, and anything else that can be broken down into a digitised form for easy distribution. That's what people do. We like to have it quick and easy when possible.
`I want it now! No! I want it yesterday, with sugar! And ice-cream! And f'cking bells on!'
Executives need to learn, and learn fast, that we are slooowly sick of being consumers. We want to be customers again.
The old bastards have the tools at their disposal, the Internet being the biggest and most obvious, but they won't use it, probably not even in my lifetime, and I'm only twenty-eight.
No, they won't use it for the same reasons we will get things in ways they don't like.
`I don't want to think about how the money system or banking or accounts f'cking work, I just want you to give me money now! No! I want it yesterday! With sugar! And ice-cream! And f'cking bells on!'
The wheel keeps turning round-and-round, and I keep falling into the ground... Over and over I reach for the sky, and some beligerant bastard forces me down... Round-and-round we'll never stop, give me money for that copied movie or I'll call the cops...
* You'll have to do the /. search, I've been drinking vodka, and watching Black Books, and listening to Rob Zombie. :)
ChristBSD is far superior
Just curious...what's the mascot for this distro ;-)
Buddy Christ obviously. :)
[/OT]On topic, giving something new to someone is always nice, if they're generally interested in what you give them.
I would think carefully about prior conversations about computing - if there were any - and whether or not the recipient of the card has ever expressed any interest in other Operating Systems, or has been using windows or mac os and said,
`There must be something better than this.'
I think the general idea of giving a CD, or mini-CD, of data in a card is a nifty idea, although I'd be careful of giving it to people who might think you're being cheap if you don't follow up with a gift - sometimes just a card is more appreciated than a card and an unwanted gift.
You could give a short movie to people who're interested in things you've done, photos of your holidays to friends who're thinking about where to take their own holidays, and so on, tailoring the content to the recipient.
I'm not sure which distribution you should use, but if I was going to give Linux on a bootable CD to people - who possibly have no real idea what it is or what makes it different to any other software on their computer - then I would systematically download a copy of each latest version of the major CD bootable distributions - or those popular with geeks - burn them to CD, and boot up with each one.
I'd take careful note of each distribution's running performance, hardware detection, general "prettiness"*, and the last factor, how easy it is to install on a computer's hard drive - just in case someone really likes it.
I wouldn't worry about too much about whether Gnome or KDE, Mozilla or Firefox, Open Office or Kwrite as deciding factors because if your friends haven't heard of Linux, or have but don't know anything about it, then how are they going to have a preference for one desktop or program over another?
I'd worry instead about making it look as familiar as possible to their existing desktop, because nothing turns people off software more than having a basic affinity with one thing and then being forced to completely change how they do the same tasks, or perceiving they have to do something different.
That makes it "too hard", and people will generally give up when they think something is "too hard". If they were the sort of person who encountered things that were "too hard" and said, :)
`I can frigging do this!'
Then they'd probably be geeks.
* I'm presuming this is for non-geeks, where appearance is often just as important, if not more, than performance.
That's funny, around 4chan it's more like,
`You Fail Teh Intarweb!'
It uses a localised 100bhp motor attached to each wheel to give the car a combined 800bhp*.
The reason for this is that the designer says in the UK Auto Express article that if you're going to design an electric car and have it taken seriously than you really need to build one that can outperform a high-powered sports car#.
I don't know if the way he did it was right, but I do think it looks nifty. :)
* Please don't flame me if you're know way more about bhp's and stuff and I'm completely "off-base". I'm just going by the article.
# I would have cut and paste the quote but the Auto Express page is suddenly spitting up this registration form and I don't feel like registering just for a quote.
...Of Captain Nemo's car from LXG.
I personally wouldn't have a problem with the 200 miles of distance per an hour charge, so that's not a low point for me.
I might have a problem with something like it's length - more than five metres (16+ feet) long (?!) - but other than that, I like it.
Be kick ass to whoop the butts of all those V8 "rev-heads" around here in a nearly silent eight-wheeled car too. :)