The General Products Corporation (and their mainstay product line of spaceship hulls) was the mouthpiece of the cowardly race called the "Puppeteers" in the book Ringworld
Actually the Piersons Puppeteers, and with it GP, spans more than just the Ringworld series (or Neutron Star for those who mentioned it). The Puppeteers, along with the Kzin, and other elements of that universe belong to Larry Nivens "Known Universe" books - a set of books with completely different stories set within the same universe. These include a good number of Mr. Nivens work.
I think these guys really need to do some raster games. It's also a lot easier on the beam controllers.
Having actually worked with lasers on a regular basis, and having seen lasers project raster images, I'd like to dissagree.
While in theory scanning in horizontal lines may sound less taxing, you have a serious problem with the shear amount of data.
As each point in the image has to be drawn (obviously, it's raster) you have an incredible amount of points... unfortunately the fastest scanners out there can hardly cope with this. Basiclly, you generally get very small, simplified, images of only 1 field (assuming video) and at a low frame rate.
As far as I know, the only way you could get a solid, quality image, would be to incorporate multiple scan heads - each responsible for a different vertical segment of the screen. (which has been done)
I am a little sceptical of your friends laser TV... seeing as it seems to be quite the hack, which one would be hard pressed to reproduce given the latest technology.
Quick, somebody better dispatch Roger Wilco to take care of things on Mir.
Seriously though, as these fungi seem to be inhabiting pressurized parts of the station, theoretically could Mir not be depressurized for an extended period of time?
The lack of oxygen should kill off the fungus... just don't ask me to clean it up.
Here comes Iridium
Falling on my head like a NATO bomb
Falling from the sky like a Canadian Sea King
I want to walk in the particle stream
I want to dance like astronomers do
I want to dive into your bunker
It is raining bits on you
So baby laugh with me
Like competitors do
Walk with me
Like investors do
Talk to me
Like PCS users do
Here comes Iridium
Billions burning, what a tragedy
Tearing Motorola apart like the DOJ
Oooouch
I want to walk in the particle stream
I want to dance like astronomers do
I want to dive into your bunker
It is raining bits on you
So baby laugh with me
Like competitors do
Here comes Iridium
Falling on my head like a NATO bomb
Falling from the sky like a Canadian Sea King
(Here comes another, here comes another)
I want to walk in the particle stream
I want to dance like astronomers do
I want to dive into your bunker
It is raining bits on you
Actually theres a little bar in Ottawa that I went to with Emmett last year at OLS called Zaphod Beeblebrox's which serves the Gargle Blaster. I can't remember what precisely was in it, but it was pretty tasty:) I think I will be returning to it this July
Having originally come from Ottawa, I know the place well. For anyone planning to be in Ottawa, its located in the North Eastern part of the Byward Market.
I believe their recipe went like this: 1 shot of Jack Danials 1/2 Peach Schnaps (although some may prefer a full shot) 1/2 Blue Curaco Mixed in a small glass of orange juice.
And yes, it does turn the most lovely shade of radio-active-green.
Granted, five-finger dexterity is impressive (how else could a robot flip someone the bird?), but for the tasks which this thing is supposed to accomplish, wouldn't a claw be cheaper/lower maintenance/logical?
There are a couple of reasons why using a five-fingered, human sized configuration makes good sense.
As Lister of Smeg mentioned, it allows for more intuitive control of the robot using VR glove type interfaces.
However, there is a more important reason: if its roughly the same size and configuration of a normal human (in terms of hands, etc), then it should be capable of using and manipulating standard tools. This way only one set of tools needs to be taken up into space - rather than having to take a set designed for human and a set designed for robotic use. The Honda Humanoid Robot was designed with this concept in mind.
This really shouldn't come as that big a surprise to people - no more so than someone winning a lottery. As the article mentions, there is a 1 in 37 million chance of this happening. Statistically this means that while it will not happen often, it will happen at some point. I think the problem arises from the wide spread belief that DNA testing is infallible and provides concrete proof of a persons guilt/innocence - it does not. DNA evidence is just that, evidence, and should be regarded as such in court. If DNA testing along with collaborating evidence indicates the person is guilty, then they probably are - or vice versa. If there is evidence that points against the DNA results, one should not automatically assume that the DNA results are correct.
I have to wonder, one of the major basis for the success of neural networks is that they are trained, rather then programmed in the traditional sense. This works fine while your researching and developing a singular system. But how do you mass-produce these systems? You can't just apply the same code across millions of them. Will there be classrooms filled with little computers learning how to be computers? What happens if one becomes a bully? What if one can't do math? And will there be trauma counselors on hand should one Blue Screen?
Dear Sir/Madam I am writing to inform you that your network failed to show up for English Class today. We cannot stress enough how important regular attendance is key in achieving a proper education. Please attend to this matter as this is its fourth missed class. Thank you, 011100110 Principal - School of Advanced Network Training
I wonder if anyone has ever gone ahead and built that thing, I bet most of Ada's code would have run correctly on it.
Yes, actually, someone did - the London Science Museum, finished in the early 90's. Pretty amaizing actually, 4000 pieces of cast iron, bronze, and steel (3 tons worth) calculating upto 32 decimal places! 'Course, it isn't exactly portable.
The problem is that installs should detect the card, not that users are dumb. Come on, that's what computers are for, doing things automatically for users!
Ack! No no no, thats exactly the kind of thinking that gets everyone into trouble. Computers are supposed to do what their told, not act as some kind of magic talisman to solve the words problems.
My car can get me where I want to go, but not without my assistance - which requires that I know how to drive. Same applies with the computer: it can do all sorts of wonderful things for me, provided I tell it what to do. I can't expect it to do everything without intervention. As with driving, without a basic amount of knowledge, you'll never get your PC out of park.
Computers are a tool, and should be used as such. Once people understand that, everything will go much more smoothly.
It's very easy to sit back, after the fact, and trash the media. But if you think about it they're not completely to blame.
If you've ever been at the scene of an accident you'll know that each witness has a different story on what happened. Well, the same applies here.
The days of investigative reporting are mostly gone. Why? Because we're an instant gratification society, one that doesn't allow the time to do proper research on a story like this. Everyone wants to know what's happening RIGHT NOW. As such, the only things that come out are theories and conjecture, the (dubious) accounts of so-called eyewitnesses - the same witnesses who have varying ideas of what happened.
Because properly sorting out what actually went on takes time, and the legal process often requires that evidence be kept quiet until the investigation is complete, few 'real' facts come out until quite some time after the event. That doesn't stop people screaming for answers.
What happens? Unlike the police, the media does not have access to all the evidence. So the same stories keep getting repeated, over and over, with only the occasional fact being added in. And, as with any story retold without being checked, it morphs into something even further from the truth.
We are as much to blame as the media are. I bet virtually every last one of you now blaming the media were, at the time, glued to your screens. Afterwards you probably went off and talked with friends, doing exactly what the media was doing, theorizing and making you're own interpretation of events.
If people had a little more patience to wait until information has been gathered, instead of screaming for information to be pieced together, what is being reported would be far more accurate. Unfortunately, few have patience anymore.
However, I must admit such horrid coverage like 20/20's story leaves no one to blame but themselves. Sensationalism at its worst.
Slashdot Mirror
Ahhh, isn't it nice to see that while the dominant OS may change, some things always remain the same?
Actually the Piersons Puppeteers, and with it GP, spans more than just the Ringworld series (or Neutron Star for those who mentioned it). The Puppeteers, along with the Kzin, and other elements of that universe belong to Larry Nivens "Known Universe" books - a set of books with completely different stories set within the same universe. These include a good number of Mr. Nivens work.
Having actually worked with lasers on a regular basis, and having seen lasers project raster images, I'd like to dissagree.
While in theory scanning in horizontal lines may sound less taxing, you have a serious problem with the shear amount of data.
As each point in the image has to be drawn (obviously, it's raster) you have an incredible amount of points... unfortunately the fastest scanners out there can hardly cope with this. Basiclly, you generally get very small, simplified, images of only 1 field (assuming video) and at a low frame rate.
As far as I know, the only way you could get a solid, quality image, would be to incorporate multiple scan heads - each responsible for a different vertical segment of the screen. (which has been done)
I am a little sceptical of your friends laser TV... seeing as it seems to be quite the hack, which one would be hard pressed to reproduce given the latest technology.
Seriously though, as these fungi seem to be inhabiting pressurized parts of the station, theoretically could Mir not be depressurized for an extended period of time?
The lack of oxygen should kill off the fungus... just don't ask me to clean it up.
Falling on my head like a NATO bomb
Falling from the sky like a Canadian Sea King
I want to walk in the particle stream
I want to dance like astronomers do
I want to dive into your bunker
It is raining bits on you
So baby laugh with me
Like competitors do
Walk with me
Like investors do
Talk to me
Like PCS users do
Here comes Iridium
Billions burning, what a tragedy
Tearing Motorola apart like the DOJ
Oooouch
I want to walk in the particle stream
I want to dance like astronomers do
I want to dive into your bunker
It is raining bits on you
So baby laugh with me
Like competitors do
Here comes Iridium
Falling on my head like a NATO bomb
Falling from the sky like a Canadian Sea King
(Here comes another, here comes another)
I want to walk in the particle stream
I want to dance like astronomers do
I want to dive into your bunker
It is raining bits on you
Having originally come from Ottawa, I know the place well. For anyone planning to be in Ottawa, its located in the North Eastern part of the Byward Market.
I believe their recipe went like this:
1 shot of Jack Danials
1/2 Peach Schnaps (although some may prefer a full shot)
1/2 Blue Curaco
Mixed in a small glass of orange juice.
And yes, it does turn the most lovely shade of radio-active-green.
There are a couple of reasons why using a five-fingered, human sized configuration makes good sense.
As Lister of Smeg mentioned, it allows for more intuitive control of the robot using VR glove type interfaces.
However, there is a more important reason: if its roughly the same size and configuration of a normal human (in terms of hands, etc), then it should be capable of using and manipulating standard tools. This way only one set of tools needs to be taken up into space - rather than having to take a set designed for human and a set designed for robotic use. The Honda Humanoid Robot was designed with this concept in mind.
This really shouldn't come as that big a surprise to people - no more so than someone winning a lottery.
As the article mentions, there is a 1 in 37 million chance of this happening. Statistically this means that while it will not happen often, it will happen at some point.
I think the problem arises from the wide spread belief that DNA testing is infallible and provides concrete proof of a persons guilt/innocence - it does not.
DNA evidence is just that, evidence, and should be regarded as such in court. If DNA testing along with collaborating evidence indicates the person is guilty, then they probably are - or vice versa. If there is evidence that points against the DNA results, one should not automatically assume that the DNA results are correct.
I have to wonder, one of the major basis for the success of neural networks is that they are trained, rather then programmed in the traditional sense. This works fine while your researching and developing a singular system. But how do you mass-produce these systems? You can't just apply the same code across millions of them. Will there be classrooms filled with little computers learning how to be computers? What happens if one becomes a bully? What if one can't do math? And will there be trauma counselors on hand should one Blue Screen?
Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing to inform you that your network failed to show up for English Class today. We cannot stress enough how important regular attendance is key in achieving a proper education.
Please attend to this matter as this is its fourth missed class.
Thank you,
011100110
Principal - School of Advanced Network Training
Yes, actually, someone did - the London Science Museum, finished in the early 90's.
Pretty amaizing actually, 4000 pieces of cast iron, bronze, and steel (3 tons worth)
calculating upto 32 decimal places! 'Course, it isn't exactly portable.
The LSM has a pic of it here.
Ack! No no no, thats exactly the kind of thinking that gets everyone into trouble.
Computers are supposed to do what their told, not act as some kind of magic
talisman to solve the words problems.
My car can get me where I want to go, but not without my assistance - which requires that I know how to drive.
Same applies with the computer: it can do all sorts of wonderful things for me,
provided I tell it what to do. I can't expect it to do everything without intervention.
As with driving, without a basic amount of knowledge, you'll never get your PC out of park.
Computers are a tool, and should be used as such. Once people understand that,
everything will go much more smoothly.
It's very easy to sit back, after the fact, and trash the media. But if you think about it they're not completely to blame.
If you've ever been at the scene of an accident you'll know that each witness has a different story on what happened. Well, the same applies here.
The days of investigative reporting are mostly gone. Why? Because we're an instant gratification society, one that doesn't allow the time to do proper research on a story like this. Everyone wants to know what's happening RIGHT NOW. As such, the only things that come out are theories and conjecture, the (dubious) accounts of so-called eyewitnesses - the same witnesses who have varying ideas of what happened.
Because properly sorting out what actually went on takes time, and the legal process often requires that evidence be kept quiet until the investigation is complete, few 'real' facts come out until quite some time after the event. That doesn't stop people screaming for answers.
What happens? Unlike the police, the media does not have access to all the evidence. So the same stories keep getting repeated, over and over, with only the occasional fact being added in. And, as with any story retold without being checked, it morphs into something even further from the truth.
We are as much to blame as the media are. I bet virtually every last one of you now blaming the media were, at the time, glued to your screens. Afterwards you probably went off and talked with friends, doing exactly what the media was doing, theorizing and making you're own interpretation of events.
If people had a little more patience to wait until information has been gathered, instead of screaming for information to be pieced together, what is being reported would be far more accurate. Unfortunately, few have patience anymore.
However, I must admit such horrid coverage like 20/20's story leaves no one to blame but themselves. Sensationalism at its worst.