Here in the US, at least the National Park Service is enough aware of goecaching that they ask (it's not even required by law, they just ask) to be informed of where caches are placed in a park. This simple notification would prevent the problem in TFA - but only if it had happened in a national park.
I find that the 2- and 3-star reviews are more informative than the 4- and 5-star reviews. They inevitably point out flaws which may or may not be important to me. Even if I agree with the negative review, sometime I buy the book anyway, as it may be worthwhile, flaws and all.
Positive glowing reviews never tell me anything I need to know.
While not patented, this game based on hand gestures is under copyright. To be fair, the game is copyrighted, not necessarily the gestures. Could the gestures be used in another game? Also, the author is quite liberal in his enforcement of his copyright. I suspect the game is rarely played by gestures in any case, rather is it played online or in a pencil-and-paper version.
Interesting that they are one of the sponsored organizations for the Google Summer of Code. I guess we only have to wait a few hours to find out if any talented students will get awarded the chance to work on this since Seti Institute was mentoring a couple of projects
It's a good thing we (or some of us) live in the enlightened USA. In the US, we would never allow a law that forbade the interpretation of history and our collective past. Except for Florida, that is.
Kewl story on the Lost Cosmonauts, thanks for posting.. See also this recent news blurb (and book) about the cosmonaut Vladimir Kamarov, allegedly the cosmonaut that Robert Heinlein heard about during his visit to the USSRin 1960.
During my recent visit to the Computer History Museum, there was a lot of fund raising activity, asking for volunteers, etc etc. The word "desperate" comes to mind. I have a hunch that if a large collection of computer game paraphernalia dropped in their lap, and it would attract a lot of (paying) visitors, they'd jump at the chance.
The only thing missing from that licensing agreement is a slap in the face!
(just kidding. That's a joke, a reference to the oath scene in Kingdom of Heaven). I actually respect and like your licensing agreement a lot!.
Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright, that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong; that is your oath. [Slaps Balian] And that is so you remember it. Rise a knight, and Baron of Ibelin.
The US already has laws on the books for this. Google the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
IANAL, but as I understand it, individuals could be criminally liable and face fines and/or years in prison. At the corporate level, fines can be imposed, but even more threatening is being disbarred from government contracts. For some companies, that can be a serious penalty indeed.
I don't think it likely that that penalty will ever be imposed however, especially not to a large corporation like IBM.
To be clear, what they are doing is sending up a 2nd satellite with full hydrazine tanks which attaches itself to the aging satellite. No fuel transfer takes place, as you might have expected because the satellite tanks don't include caps removable in orbit.
The new bolted on satellite then carries out station keeping maneuvers until it's own tanks are depleted, or until the satellite owners give up on it (in which case they typically use a little fuel to send it to a higher graveyard orbit).
Yea, it is geeky. Plus, you can watch lots of TV channels you may not normally get, from countries you didn't know about, or in languages you didn't know existed.
Search for Free to Air satellite TV. Below is a good starting point:
http://www.ftalist.com/index.php
Bank of America...? Where have I heard that before...? Oh, yeah! They're the one that paid ZERO taxes last year!
I don't know what's in those leaked e-mails, but this item is just as big - and scandalous,
"GE isn't the only "Top 5" company on this year's Fortune 500 list that owed no income taxes. Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), which suffered major losses in 2009, included a tax benefit of $1.9 billion in its annual profit."
In pictures, the beginning of our century may be looked back on as the time when everyone was happy (smile detection) and people had perfect looks (retouch).
We look at old photos of frozen lakes and giant crowds and consider them accurate. Tho, it turns out people took photos of the lake being frozen or the crowded streets because it was exceptional rather than that being the norm.
In the beginning of the previous century (and even during the one before that!), the early cameras needed long exposure times to capture images. This lead to photographers choosing subjects carefully, with a preference for immobile ones. One common trick was to photograph ships in a harbor at low tide, when their hulls rested on the sandy bottom keeping them still. Even when taking portraits, photographers used frames to keep their subjects heads still for the several minutes of exposure time needed.
These choices of subject are more a portrayal of the cameras capabilities at the time than the reality of their world.
The game Monopoly is itself a derivative work of an earlier game called The Landlord's Game, the patent for which Parker Brothers bought back in the 1930s.
Your post and this article reminded me about this complaint, much older than medieval times, about how the invention of writing ruined peoples memory skills. Let me quote that citation (slightly edited by me):
"
[Writing] , said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and give them better memories; it is a specific both for the memory and for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious Theuth,... this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves.
The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.
Nintendo is to be commended for doing a fantastic job on backwards compatibility across the Gameboy line. Just about every Gameboy game from the original Gameboy console would still run on the Gameboy Advance twenty years later (even if you needed a backup cartridge to get it into the newer console, cartridges which Nintendo frowns upon, to say the least).
However, Nintendo has made it clear that the DS series are not Gameboys, and have made no commitments to backwards compatibility.
So... simple answer: Not likely. If you want to play 3D games, get the 3DS. It may or may not play current DS games.
The other simple answer: Bloody unlikely. I think you can be pretty sure that the DS will not be able to play 3DS games. I don't even expect there will be a non-3D mode for them to operate in an older DS.
Jeff Foust, in an editorial on The Space Review makes the observation that these stories catch our attention because the flights and resulting photos tease our desire for spaceflight.
FTA:
"If properly described, these images are not low-cost competitors to NASA spacecraft (as some media reports try to claim) but instead appetizers for the “real thing”: actual flights into space, suborbitally or orbitally"
Given the recent merger between NBC and Comcast, and the fact that record companies show no sign of disappearing. I think there will be no change for another 30 years...
1. Bemoan loss of US tech edge 2. Bemoan lack of profits in long term research 3. Get government to spend taxpayer $$ for research the companies should do for themselves 4. Use taxpayer paid R&D to develop new products - $$ profit! 5. Sell new products in China - $$ profit! 6. China gets all that taxpayer funded R&D to develop their own products, which are cheaper than US made versions 7. Bemoan loss of US tech edge....
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Here in the US, at least the National Park Service is enough aware of goecaching that they ask (it's not even required by law, they just ask) to be informed of where caches are placed in a park. This simple notification would prevent the problem in TFA - but only if it had happened in a national park.
I find that the 2- and 3-star reviews are more informative than the 4- and 5-star reviews. They inevitably point out flaws which may or may not be important to me. Even if I agree with the negative review, sometime I buy the book anyway, as it may be worthwhile, flaws and all. Positive glowing reviews never tell me anything I need to know.
While not patented, this game based on hand gestures is under copyright. To be fair, the game is copyrighted, not necessarily the gestures. Could the gestures be used in another game? Also, the author is quite liberal in his enforcement of his copyright. I suspect the game is rarely played by gestures in any case, rather is it played online or in a pencil-and-paper version.
I'll give you three guesses which one I'm thinking about. ;)
Two of the GSOC projects this year were for the SETI Institute. Apparently, the SETI Institute proposed 5 projects, but only 2 of them were funded.
Interesting that they are one of the sponsored organizations for the Google Summer of Code. I guess we only have to wait a few hours to find out if any talented students will get awarded the chance to work on this since Seti Institute was mentoring a couple of projects
It's a good thing we (or some of us) live in the enlightened USA. In the US, we would never allow a law that forbade the interpretation of history and our collective past. Except for Florida, that is.
Kewl story on the Lost Cosmonauts, thanks for posting.. See also this recent news blurb (and book) about the cosmonaut Vladimir Kamarov, allegedly the cosmonaut that Robert Heinlein heard about during his visit to the USSRin 1960.
During my recent visit to the Computer History Museum, there was a lot of fund raising activity, asking for volunteers, etc etc. The word "desperate" comes to mind. I have a hunch that if a large collection of computer game paraphernalia dropped in their lap, and it would attract a lot of (paying) visitors, they'd jump at the chance.
Haven't they heard about the BANANA APOCALYPSE!
They have guidelines for selecting lights etc. here.
(just kidding. That's a joke, a reference to the oath scene in Kingdom of Heaven). I actually respect and like your licensing agreement a lot!.
Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright, that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong; that is your oath. [Slaps Balian] And that is so you remember it. Rise a knight, and Baron of Ibelin.
IANAL, but as I understand it, individuals could be criminally liable and face fines and/or years in prison. At the corporate level, fines can be imposed, but even more threatening is being disbarred from government contracts. For some companies, that can be a serious penalty indeed.
I don't think it likely that that penalty will ever be imposed however, especially not to a large corporation like IBM.
The new bolted on satellite then carries out station keeping maneuvers until it's own tanks are depleted, or until the satellite owners give up on it (in which case they typically use a little fuel to send it to a higher graveyard orbit).
Yea, it is geeky. Plus, you can watch lots of TV channels you may not normally get, from countries you didn't know about, or in languages you didn't know existed. Search for Free to Air satellite TV. Below is a good starting point: http://www.ftalist.com/index.php
I forget the origin of that quote, but I think video think video games suffer from the same conundrum.
I don't know what's in those leaked e-mails, but this item is just as big - and scandalous,
"GE isn't the only "Top 5" company on this year's Fortune 500 list that owed no income taxes. Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), which suffered major losses in 2009, included a tax benefit of $1.9 billion in its annual profit."
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/16/news/companies/ge_7000_tax_returns/
In pictures, the beginning of our century may be looked back on as the time when everyone was happy (smile detection) and people had perfect looks (retouch). We look at old photos of frozen lakes and giant crowds and consider them accurate. Tho, it turns out people took photos of the lake being frozen or the crowded streets because it was exceptional rather than that being the norm.
In the beginning of the previous century (and even during the one before that!), the early cameras needed long exposure times to capture images. This lead to photographers choosing subjects carefully, with a preference for immobile ones. One common trick was to photograph ships in a harbor at low tide, when their hulls rested on the sandy bottom keeping them still. Even when taking portraits, photographers used frames to keep their subjects heads still for the several minutes of exposure time needed. These choices of subject are more a portrayal of the cameras capabilities at the time than the reality of their world.
The game Monopoly is itself a derivative work of an earlier game called The Landlord's Game, the patent for which Parker Brothers bought back in the 1930s.
"
[Writing] , said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and give them better memories; it is a specific both for the memory and for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious Theuth, ... this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves.
The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.
"
From Plato, "Phaedrus Dialogue", ca 370 BCE
(and iirc, the parent trainees were Japanese)
Nintendo is to be commended for doing a fantastic job on backwards compatibility across the Gameboy line. Just about every Gameboy game from the original Gameboy console would still run on the Gameboy Advance twenty years later (even if you needed a backup cartridge to get it into the newer console, cartridges which Nintendo frowns upon, to say the least). However, Nintendo has made it clear that the DS series are not Gameboys, and have made no commitments to backwards compatibility. So... simple answer: Not likely. If you want to play 3D games, get the 3DS. It may or may not play current DS games. The other simple answer: Bloody unlikely. I think you can be pretty sure that the DS will not be able to play 3DS games. I don't even expect there will be a non-3D mode for them to operate in an older DS.
FTA:
"If properly described, these images are not low-cost competitors to NASA spacecraft (as some media reports try to claim) but instead appetizers for the “real thing”: actual flights into space, suborbitally or orbitally"
Given the recent merger between NBC and Comcast, and the fact that record companies show no sign of disappearing. I think there will be no change for another 30 years...
1. Bemoan loss of US tech edge
2. Bemoan lack of profits in long term research
3. Get government to spend taxpayer $$ for research the companies should do for themselves
4. Use taxpayer paid R&D to develop new products - $$ profit!
5. Sell new products in China - $$ profit!
6. China gets all that taxpayer funded R&D to develop their own products, which are cheaper than US made versions
7. Bemoan loss of US tech edge....