One of the most interesting GPS games I've seen in a while is Wherigo, which was developed by the same folks who run geocaching.com (disclaimer: I'm a prominent geocacher). It's an interactive location based game that works by way of "cartridges" that can be downloaded to certain GPS receivers and smart phones. Possibilities include simple tours of parks or historic areas, interactive games that require you to visit certain spots to unlock other locations, or complex lifesize mazes or whack-a-mole style games that can be played anywhere and are often physically challenging.
Sadly the game hasn't really taken off yet, probably because of a lack of compatible devices (there is no iPhone app yet) or because of the learning curve required to create new cartridges. However, it has much untapped possibility. I've played through a few cartridges that were essentially tours of obscure but fascinating sites in city parks, and had alot of fun in the process.
GPS is nothing new in phones, but sadly end-user access to GPS functionality is still being hindered by many phone manufacturers. My current phone ( a G'zOne) has a GPS receiver, but it's only useful for E911 purposes unless I buy an extra subscription for some sort of mapping service. Even then I still couldn't use the phone as a basic GPS receiver due to software limitations.
So I try your second link and just below the first link is a box that lets me do a Google search... from Bing! So just for kicks I used Bing to do a Google search for Bing. I'm still not sure whether using that search box is considered binging or googling, or maybe it's a googlebing?
I'll second this! I've wasted many an hour playing X-3. The latest installment, X-3: Terran Conflict, came out late last year and features some pretty stunning graphics if you haven't played a space sim since the Wing Commander days (check out the screenshots... they're actually in-game with the HUD hidden, not cutscenes). I believe the games are translated (from German?) and can be a bit confusing at first (not just the user interface, but because of some balance issues and the lack of a real plot!), however the series does have a pretty active online following/modding community.
For reference that would require the entire east coast be filled to ~55 miles inland.
Ever driven across the central part of the US? There's lots of corn... 87 million acres, or about 136,000 square miles, actually. Now, I know not all of that corn is used for ethanol production. However, there are large swaths of land in the US within reasonable distance of an ocean which aren't much use beyond growing pine for timber (like coastal areas of North Carolina or Texas) because they're not suited for growing other crops. This could be a much more efficient use for such land.
Plus, not all of that 24 acres is actually producing ethanol. We're talking 3100 tanks that take up 250 square feet each, or about 17.79 acres. As this technology matures and as farms are scaled up, you'll likely see increased output per acre.
If I only had some mod points... your post was spot-on exactly what I was going to say in response to the topic.
I am a Christian and a scientist (life sciences/mycology/forestry to be exact). Several of my closest colleges hold similar beliefs, though some are less "religious" than others (believe me, it makes for some very interesting conversations over our morning coffee!). Yet the prevailing cultural attitude we regularly face is that you are expected to either be a 7-day biblical literalist, or that you completely dismiss the Bible as an ancient myth. There seems to be no room for middle ground. Myself, I don't see why answering the question of our exact mechanism of creation is critical.
I believe in a God who, if He wanted to, could have guided evolution with humankind as a result, or could have created the world in 7 days complete with "historic" fossil and genetic evidence of evolution, or could have even ordered the entire universe (including us with all of our memories) into existence less than a second ago. Does it matter? What matters to me is that we're here, now, and that we need to do what we can to make the most of every moment we have. As a scientist, this means using my skills and knowledge to strive to make the world better through improvements in our understanding of the physical universe around us, and as a Christian this means seeking out a spiritual framework of meaning and purpose for my life that goes beyond just a physical existence. Maybe it's a bit naive of me, but I see religion and science as addressing two fundamentally different questions. I do not expect science to answer questions which lie outside of the observable, empirical world, and I do not expect my religious beliefs to completely explain the minutiae of the workings of the universe.
This is why I have no qualms about studying or writing about evolutionary processes as a Christian. It's the currently held scientific theory, based on the consensus of overwhelming empirical evidence. Just because something can appear to happen in the absence of a higher power, doesn't mean that the higher power cannot exist. Whether evolutionary evidence is genuine or was planted in a 6,000 year old earth that was designed to "look" old, it's still there, and in science you can't discount data simply because it doesn't fall in line with what you personally want it to be.
Actually, I believe the GP is in the UK, since they used the term "motorway" but referred to speed in miles per hour. Oh, the speed camera reference was a dead giveaway, too.;-)
This is a result of having the GPS set to "snap to road" or whatever the exact name of the feature is. Basically, the GPS guesses which road you are following and adjusts your calculated position accordingly. Except that sometimes, especially in the case of parallel roads, it guesses wrong. Texas frontage roads are especially bad about causing this (don't get me started on that state's horrendous interstate exit layouts...)
Some GPS models let you disable this feature, but many models designed for car navigation (such as the Garmin Nuvi line) always have it enabled.
I can't believe you were modded funny instead of insightful. I do something like this for all my "secret questions", and write the answers down in a secure place.
Years ago we had a family member who started using the personal information of their relatives to commit fraud and identity theft. They knew us well enough to know the correct answers to most of the standard questions. Thus we've always seen the use of such questions as a security risk.
One possibility which remains, if Big Media manages to shut down Internet liberty somehow, is merely the sharing of physical media (perhaps via some kind of social networking site which does an automatic "N steps to...").
That's already happening. Myself, and several people I know, keep our music collections on 2.5" external hard drives. More than once we've gotten together to "swap" music. Then, after amassing an ever increasing library, each person goes out and swaps with more friends. As each person swaps with more people, everybody's collections grow. In just one day alone I managed to acquire 110GB (yes, gigabytes) of new mp3 files... much more than I could possibly listen to. Even after 6 months I've only been able to scratch the surface of the new collection.
TFA says that several cleaners were used, and the video mentions some sort of spray cleanser. Know what happens when you mix cleaners? The result isn't pretty. Fumes of toxic compounds such as chlorine, Chloramine, or even hydrazine can be produced. I once personally saw a building that had to be evacuated because somebody mixed bleach and ammonia when cleaning a restroom.
While TFA doesn't explicitly state whether this happened or not, it isn't that much of a stretch.
Slashdot Mirror
Whoops... posting to undo mod.
I swear that trailing slash wasn't there when I hit preview. The actual link should be: http://www.wherigo.com/about.aspx
One of the most interesting GPS games I've seen in a while is Wherigo, which was developed by the same folks who run geocaching.com (disclaimer: I'm a prominent geocacher). It's an interactive location based game that works by way of "cartridges" that can be downloaded to certain GPS receivers and smart phones. Possibilities include simple tours of parks or historic areas, interactive games that require you to visit certain spots to unlock other locations, or complex lifesize mazes or whack-a-mole style games that can be played anywhere and are often physically challenging.
Sadly the game hasn't really taken off yet, probably because of a lack of compatible devices (there is no iPhone app yet) or because of the learning curve required to create new cartridges. However, it has much untapped possibility. I've played through a few cartridges that were essentially tours of obscure but fascinating sites in city parks, and had alot of fun in the process.
GPS is nothing new in phones, but sadly end-user access to GPS functionality is still being hindered by many phone manufacturers. My current phone ( a G'zOne) has a GPS receiver, but it's only useful for E911 purposes unless I buy an extra subscription for some sort of mapping service. Even then I still couldn't use the phone as a basic GPS receiver due to software limitations.
All problems? Good luck using that tape to cover the microphone...
Hey! That stuff will get me a +5 funny some day!
(fixed that for you.)
So you mean she's not naked.
(typing this while sitting at my computer naked, except for khakis, a pair of boxers, and a t-shirt.)
You created a new account just to post pizza analogies? Wow, and I thought my extended period of unemployment was making me go crazy from boredom!
So I try your second link and just below the first link is a box that lets me do a Google search... from Bing! So just for kicks I used Bing to do a Google search for Bing. I'm still not sure whether using that search box is considered binging or googling, or maybe it's a googlebing?
table@diningroom:~ $ sudo mv salt seat1 seat3
I'll second this! I've wasted many an hour playing X-3. The latest installment, X-3: Terran Conflict, came out late last year and features some pretty stunning graphics if you haven't played a space sim since the Wing Commander days (check out the screenshots... they're actually in-game with the HUD hidden, not cutscenes). I believe the games are translated (from German?) and can be a bit confusing at first (not just the user interface, but because of some balance issues and the lack of a real plot!), however the series does have a pretty active online following/modding community.
For reference that would require the entire east coast be filled to ~55 miles inland.
Ever driven across the central part of the US? There's lots of corn... 87 million acres, or about 136,000 square miles, actually. Now, I know not all of that corn is used for ethanol production. However, there are large swaths of land in the US within reasonable distance of an ocean which aren't much use beyond growing pine for timber (like coastal areas of North Carolina or Texas) because they're not suited for growing other crops. This could be a much more efficient use for such land.
Plus, not all of that 24 acres is actually producing ethanol. We're talking 3100 tanks that take up 250 square feet each, or about 17.79 acres. As this technology matures and as farms are scaled up, you'll likely see increased output per acre.
If I only had some mod points... your post was spot-on exactly what I was going to say in response to the topic.
I am a Christian and a scientist (life sciences/mycology/forestry to be exact). Several of my closest colleges hold similar beliefs, though some are less "religious" than others (believe me, it makes for some very interesting conversations over our morning coffee!). Yet the prevailing cultural attitude we regularly face is that you are expected to either be a 7-day biblical literalist, or that you completely dismiss the Bible as an ancient myth. There seems to be no room for middle ground. Myself, I don't see why answering the question of our exact mechanism of creation is critical.
I believe in a God who, if He wanted to, could have guided evolution with humankind as a result, or could have created the world in 7 days complete with "historic" fossil and genetic evidence of evolution, or could have even ordered the entire universe (including us with all of our memories) into existence less than a second ago. Does it matter? What matters to me is that we're here, now, and that we need to do what we can to make the most of every moment we have. As a scientist, this means using my skills and knowledge to strive to make the world better through improvements in our understanding of the physical universe around us, and as a Christian this means seeking out a spiritual framework of meaning and purpose for my life that goes beyond just a physical existence. Maybe it's a bit naive of me, but I see religion and science as addressing two fundamentally different questions. I do not expect science to answer questions which lie outside of the observable, empirical world, and I do not expect my religious beliefs to completely explain the minutiae of the workings of the universe.
This is why I have no qualms about studying or writing about evolutionary processes as a Christian. It's the currently held scientific theory, based on the consensus of overwhelming empirical evidence. Just because something can appear to happen in the absence of a higher power, doesn't mean that the higher power cannot exist. Whether evolutionary evidence is genuine or was planted in a 6,000 year old earth that was designed to "look" old, it's still there, and in science you can't discount data simply because it doesn't fall in line with what you personally want it to be.
Actually, I believe the GP is in the UK, since they used the term "motorway" but referred to speed in miles per hour. Oh, the speed camera reference was a dead giveaway, too. ;-)
This is a result of having the GPS set to "snap to road" or whatever the exact name of the feature is. Basically, the GPS guesses which road you are following and adjusts your calculated position accordingly. Except that sometimes, especially in the case of parallel roads, it guesses wrong. Texas frontage roads are especially bad about causing this (don't get me started on that state's horrendous interstate exit layouts...)
Some GPS models let you disable this feature, but many models designed for car navigation (such as the Garmin Nuvi line) always have it enabled.
I can't believe you were modded funny instead of insightful. I do something like this for all my "secret questions", and write the answers down in a secure place.
Years ago we had a family member who started using the personal information of their relatives to commit fraud and identity theft. They knew us well enough to know the correct answers to most of the standard questions. Thus we've always seen the use of such questions as a security risk.
One possibility which remains, if Big Media manages to shut down Internet liberty somehow, is merely the sharing of physical media (perhaps via some kind of social networking site which does an automatic "N steps to ...").
That's already happening. Myself, and several people I know, keep our music collections on 2.5" external hard drives. More than once we've gotten together to "swap" music. Then, after amassing an ever increasing library, each person goes out and swaps with more friends. As each person swaps with more people, everybody's collections grow. In just one day alone I managed to acquire 110GB (yes, gigabytes) of new mp3 files... much more than I could possibly listen to. Even after 6 months I've only been able to scratch the surface of the new collection.
What state?
TFA says that several cleaners were used, and the video mentions some sort of spray cleanser. Know what happens when you mix cleaners? The result isn't pretty. Fumes of toxic compounds such as chlorine, Chloramine, or even hydrazine can be produced. I once personally saw a building that had to be evacuated because somebody mixed bleach and ammonia when cleaning a restroom.
While TFA doesn't explicitly state whether this happened or not, it isn't that much of a stretch.
Whether or not this would fly will all come down to cost.
I bet that regardless of cost, it won't. Because, well, it's a train, and last time I checked trains couldn't fly. :-P
4,800 kB/sec up (bytes not bits) on a uni. lab computer.
The real question is, I wonder how long it will be before I get a call from out IT department...
Why even make up an acronym at all? Why can't the government just give something a name and leave it at that?
um... 10^4 = 10,000
Still much less than 10^14, though, so your point still stands.
Alabama.
Hey, I never said I was running Mac OS X on that Mac. For all you know it could be a very expensive Linux box. :-P
(Well, actually, I am running OS X. When I'm not booted into Ubuntu)