Dwar Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore through the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.
He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe--ninety-six billion planets--into the supercircuit that would connect them all into the one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies.
Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then, after a moment's silence, he said, "Now, Dwar Ev."
Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel.
Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn."
"Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question that no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer."
He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?"
The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of single relay.
"Yes, now there is a God."
Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch.
A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut.
What's wrong with using a camera and a microphone pick up? Something with enough sensitivity to pick up voices at a reasonable level, and a couple of cameras in strategic places, and you've got a good idea of what's happening in your plane.
On a side note though, shouldn't your security measures be somewhat secretive? I mean, tell everyone there are cameras/alarms in place, but not anything particular. Hard to beat a system if you don't know what it is. Of course, idiots still rob 7-11 without so much as a mask, but that's another story.
One more thing. I don't see why it's so hard to stop hijackers. PUT A BIG HEAVY DOOR IN BETWEEN THE CABIN AND THE COCKPIT, and tell the pilots not to open it during flight unless absolutely everything checks out, and even then, only for seconds at a time. Think lock on the inside only, nice little peephole, secret knocks, no handles, hinges, nothing on the outside. A nice big steal door can deter a heck of a lot of people. Maybe arm the pilots for those 5 seconds of open door time. If the bad guys have hostages, well, they might die. But the whole plane won't go down, and the hijackers (terrorists, whatever) will probably stop trying eventually.
I honestly don't the see the big deal. It's doable.
Who says you don't want to identify who clicked it? I used one of these last year, and we did it for marks. Kinda hard if it doesn't identify who's who.
(Ballmer)"Ok people, I know you're angry, I know you're disgruntled, I know you need to relieve a little stress, and I'm here to help. Now everyone pick up your chair, let out a big shout, and imagine it hitting whoever you want...yeah...that's it..."
Of course, there's no reason not to trust a web site that also profiles porn stars, fishing lures, bad sitcoms, acne, beer brewing, and the history of toenail clippers as an indisputable source of climatalogical analysis. Oh wait, yes there is.
And what would that reason be, exactly? Not to say Wikipedia is perfect, but it's mission is to be an great big tome of knowledge about all kinds of crap, and if that means pages about fishing or beer, where's the harm in that? You do realize the guy who writes about his favourite porn star probably isn't the same guy who puts up his carefully collected research on climate change, right? Or if it, maybe he/she knows enough to do BOTH with a little pride.
No, it ain't perfect, but it ain't bad either. If you don't believe me, go look at the pages of stuff you already know about. Then judge it for yourself. Sound good?
If you want to know why it's hard, look at the following sentance:
While cooking dinner, my dog threw up on the carpet.
It's a correct, grammar wise, but nearly everyone who reads it sees what's wrong right away. But just try and right a program that can do that, and you won't get anywhere.
So you expect a casino, which is a business that has to pay for dealers, the building, the lights, the cleaning staff, all those drinks you guzzle, to just go and put out games that lose money for them? Welcome to the real world.
Well, it's not really important how good the program is at calculating pi. It's not like you actually *need* to know a million digits of it, you're just looking for...you kno...a benchmark.
A business can refuse a sale for any reason they choose. However, if they agree to make said sale, they must accept legal tender (cash) with a few provisions. (This is for Canada, btw.) Pennies, you are obligated to accept no more than 50, nickles, 40, dimes, 50, quarters, 40. As for bills, you may refuse to take any bill you believe to be counterfeit. Essentially, any old, large denomination bill, I'll refuse at sale, just because it COULD be counterfeit.
Want to buy something? Use tens and twenties. It's easy and it works.
Slashdot Mirror
It's also a lot like a different story, "Answer" by Fredric Brown.
http://www.alteich.com/oldsite/answer.htm/
Dwar Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore through the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing. He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe--ninety-six billion planets--into the supercircuit that would connect them all into the one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies. Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then, after a moment's silence, he said, "Now, Dwar Ev." Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel. Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn." "Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question that no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer." He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?" The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of single relay. "Yes, now there is a God." Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch. A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut.
This is slashdot. I read it partly for people's opinions, as do many other people. Not every comment is fact. If you don't like it, leave.
What's wrong with using a camera and a microphone pick up? Something with enough sensitivity to pick up voices at a reasonable level, and a couple of cameras in strategic places, and you've got a good idea of what's happening in your plane.
On a side note though, shouldn't your security measures be somewhat secretive? I mean, tell everyone there are cameras/alarms in place, but not anything particular. Hard to beat a system if you don't know what it is. Of course, idiots still rob 7-11 without so much as a mask, but that's another story.
One more thing. I don't see why it's so hard to stop hijackers. PUT A BIG HEAVY DOOR IN BETWEEN THE CABIN AND THE COCKPIT, and tell the pilots not to open it during flight unless absolutely everything checks out, and even then, only for seconds at a time. Think lock on the inside only, nice little peephole, secret knocks, no handles, hinges, nothing on the outside. A nice big steal door can deter a heck of a lot of people. Maybe arm the pilots for those 5 seconds of open door time. If the bad guys have hostages, well, they might die. But the whole plane won't go down, and the hijackers (terrorists, whatever) will probably stop trying eventually.
I honestly don't the see the big deal. It's doable.
Who says you don't want to identify who clicked it? I used one of these last year, and we did it for marks. Kinda hard if it doesn't identify who's who.
You've never bought a dime bag, have you?
*In a huge seminar room*
(Ballmer)"Ok people, I know you're angry, I know you're disgruntled, I know you need to relieve a little stress, and I'm here to help. Now everyone pick up your chair, let out a big shout, and imagine it hitting whoever you want...yeah...that's it..."
Of course, there's no reason not to trust a web site that also profiles porn stars, fishing lures, bad sitcoms, acne, beer brewing, and the history of toenail clippers as an indisputable source of climatalogical analysis. Oh wait, yes there is.
And what would that reason be, exactly? Not to say Wikipedia is perfect, but it's mission is to be an great big tome of knowledge about all kinds of crap, and if that means pages about fishing or beer, where's the harm in that? You do realize the guy who writes about his favourite porn star probably isn't the same guy who puts up his carefully collected research on climate change, right? Or if it, maybe he/she knows enough to do BOTH with a little pride.
No, it ain't perfect, but it ain't bad either. If you don't believe me, go look at the pages of stuff you already know about. Then judge it for yourself. Sound good?
Grammar checks YOU!
Any spelling or grammar errors in the parent are on purpose...nothing to see here, please move along...
If you want to know why it's hard, look at the following sentance:
While cooking dinner, my dog threw up on the carpet.
It's a correct, grammar wise, but nearly everyone who reads it sees what's wrong right away. But just try and right a program that can do that, and you won't get anywhere.
So you expect a casino, which is a business that has to pay for dealers, the building, the lights, the cleaning staff, all those drinks you guzzle, to just go and put out games that lose money for them? Welcome to the real world.
ummm....this is what's known as a joke, ladies and gents. think username.
Well, it's not really important how good the program is at calculating pi. It's not like you actually *need* to know a million digits of it, you're just looking for...you kno...a benchmark.
A business can refuse a sale for any reason they choose. However, if they agree to make said sale, they must accept legal tender (cash) with a few provisions. (This is for Canada, btw.) Pennies, you are obligated to accept no more than 50, nickles, 40, dimes, 50, quarters, 40. As for bills, you may refuse to take any bill you believe to be counterfeit. Essentially, any old, large denomination bill, I'll refuse at sale, just because it COULD be counterfeit. Want to buy something? Use tens and twenties. It's easy and it works.
Try Something positive. http://www.somethingpositive.net/
'Don't worry, it's safe to let private armies carry these guns, because we promise that our gunmen won't shoot anyone in that building.'
Isn't this basically what the US says about those "minutemen" guarding the southern border?
Anybody else curious aobut how much this costs?
include a link to google in the article? Who's gonna say "oh man, i've heard of this google thing but i just can't recall the url..."?