It certainly ruins naked-eye astronomy. I still remember the first time I was far enough away from city lights that I could look up and see how breathtaking the sky is on a clear night. In a city you see a couple of stars, even when the moon's not up and forget about the constellations.
It makes me sad to realize that so many people will grow up and never realize how fsking *AMAZING* a sky full of stars is when they can see it with their own eyes, wonder what's out there, be drawn to astronomy, physics, even poetry and literature. The current state of night skies above our cities is anything but inspiring, in my not so humble opinion . ..
Despite his obvious popularity among heavy users of the internet, Ron Paul has no shot at the White House. National polls have his support in the low single digits. It's not going to happen.
I agree completely. However, I voted for him in the Florida primary for another reason. Some of his ideas are completely batshit crazy, however I want him to stop being ignored by the media and included in more debates. He makes one very important point that I want to hear the republicans (hell, everybody) discuss:
Most of the "big issues" debated this time around ought to be non-issues because addressing them is almost certainly *not* within the powers granted to the government by the constitution.
That, and the fact he's the only anti-war Republican. He may have crappy poll numbers, but he's gotten loads of cash (he just needs to effing SPEND more of it.)
In short, I didn't vote for him expecting he had any chance of getting the nomination. Just my way of trying to say "let the man speak!"
In the general, I'll be voting for the Democratic nominee.
This is a bit of a circular argument. You're looking to the stock price for confirmation of whether Google won or not. (Would it go up? Would it go down? Depends on whether investors think it was a good buy and become a profitable venture) However, the stock price would only change if the information was widely known. Even if a few insiders have that information, it's not going to cause enough activity to swing the stock price.
As far as the overall market is concerned--Google may or may not win that spectrum, which has been known for a while. Today only tells us that it's going to cost 4.7 billion, which was in the expected ballpark. No new information.
Those are laws, not just security procedures. An information leak could cause the FCC to redo the auction all togheter. Also, in looking over the auction history, Round 13 saw the previous high bid (stil below reserve). Round 17 saw the $4.7bln bid. It could very well be Google, since that's the only bid above the reserve . . .
Google can't talk about the auction until it's all over so anybody without insider information only knows that Google might or might not get the spectrum which we've known for months. Really, the only new information available is how much the spectrum cost and that the open access rules are a certainty--but this was widely expected any way. So I don't see any reason why Google's stock should move right now because of the auction.
Grrrr . ..I wish they'd announce it early! The other slices could take weeks to sort out, but I do understand why they probably won't announce a winner until it's all over as it could affect the outcomes of other auctions.
There's been a lot of speculation that Google doesn't want the spectrum, just the open access, but I could see them going for it. A nationwide broadband data network will be easy to sub-let to other companies and gives Google a direct path to users without any meddling cable companies or telcos getting in the way.
I love my Wii--first console I've had since I was a kid . . . but seriously. It's much too young to be considered for "best ever" lists.
It doesn't play games for XBox or Playstation, but the library it brings to the table is much bigger
Ummmmm . . . what? The Gamecube and Wii don't have all that big of libraries. Certainly less than the Playstation line. Even throwing in the VC doesn't get it there. (Which I don't think should count anyway since it's not really reverse compatibility if you can't dust off the old cartridges and use them. And you have to buy the games all over again.)
I grew up with the NES. My parents refused to buy me a SNES when they came out, but I'm not at all bitter (bastards! *cries*). Aside from playing SNES games at friend's houses, I lost interest fairly quickly. I'd occasionally play a brief game at a friend's house on their playstation and i don't think I ever even touched a PS2 beyond using it to play DVDs back when it was the cheapest DVD player on the market. So I basically skipped the past two console generations alltogether.
The NES was the "greatest" system for me, simply because that was the one I interacted with the most, however I can definitely agree with this guy's argument that Sony's embrace of third party developers with the PlayStations made the game industry what it is today.
One minor nitpick, from the article:
Once you've read David Sheff's Game Over, it's almost impossible to play a Super Mario game without imagining the young Miyamoto gamboling through the woodland close to his boyhood home, discovering hidden caves and lakes.
I've always heard that was his inspiration for Zelda, not Mario.
The word "Agnostic" is derived from Greek meaning "without knowledge." I'd say most self-described agnostics are not weak/lazy atheists as you imply, but simply reject the notion that there can be absolute certainty about the existance of god/gods/spirits/etc.
To be atheist is to actively disbelieve in God, which still requires some degree of faith. Occam's Razor vs. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." An atheist will say they *know* there is no such thing as God, an agnostic will say they don't know, may never know, and is okay with that. They're quite distinct outlooks.
Unfortunately, these patent troll companies are immune to counter-suits by other companies with large patent portfolios becuase they don't actually make anything. The defacto balance of power is maintained primarilly through Mutually Assured Destruction. The trolls exploit this to their advantage.
How was XP's install base after a year? Is Vista even comparable now to what XP was doing a year after its release? I swear I'm not trying to troll here, I honestly don't have figures to back this up. However, in my (admittedly) anecdotal experience, neither I nor my other geeky friends were strongly recommending that any new shoppers stick with Win98. The manufacturers are still shipping new machines with XP, and the impression I'm getting is they'd like to keep doing so as long as possible.
Actually *enforcing* the "hmmmm, let's not run everything root/admin" paradigm is certainly a step in the right direction and that alone probably accounts for some of the better security with Vista vs XP . . . but how much? It's easy to say you're the "most secure" operating system when you're being actively avoided. By that logic, the P2 box in my attic is completely unhackable and immune to any conceivable vulnerability by virtue of having a faulty power supply and unplugged.
I think what's important here is it's commercial spaceflight being done as a viable business. Sure, they're $200k joyrides that aren't even close to acheiving orbital speeds and the engineering challenges with getting to orbit are daunting and well beyond anything with SS1 & 2.
A private manned orbital spacecraft will require fundamentally different design principles, but if there's a successful business behind suborbital, ponying up the R&D cash for an orbital craft will be much easier to justify.
Branson and Rutan have said as much--if SS2 is successful, SS3 may very well be an orbiter.
Meanwhile, there's several other companies addressing more issues--SpaceX's rockets, Bigelow's inflatable habitats, and Virgin/Scaled settling up the spaceport/tourist infrastructure.
A 2d display at *any* resolution is still a 2d display. Color balance, the fact that the images produced by currently widespread display tech glows, etc all contribute. Just look at still cameras--a nice 5MP camera with top-notch optics, sesors, etc will capture much better images than a cheap 10MP camera. More pixels aren't always better.
Assuming for a moment commercial scale fusion becomes economically viable relatively soon, can the resulting helium be realistically (and safely) harvested?
No one has ever demonstrably retrieved data from hard drive platters that have been zeroed out (to my knowledge--please correct me if I'm wrong--I know there have been theories suggesting it might be possible, but I've never heard of any means for actually doing so). None have recovered data from smashed platters without a lab in clean room conditions. Anyone with access to that is unlikely to be dumpster diving for old drives to see what might be recoverable just for kicks.
If the drive works and is modern enough to be connected to a current computer on hand, zero it out--a bootable disk/disc of *nix, g4u, BootItNg, or random hard drive utilities are all free-as-in-beerly available and do the trick quite easily. Otherwise, the sledgehammer is quite effective. Hell, use an axe and split some logs while you're at it.
Just don't try to resell a working drive without zeroing it out. I've heard rumors of ATM hard drives on ebay that got a quick format and still contained sensitive account information. dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/whatever [let simmer till the blinky lights stop] is your friend**.
**unless the drive is mounted. Or if you're following advice from an IRC channel. Or if there are midgets. Damn the midgets.
Probably not much at all would happen to an object traveling through the cloud. I couldn't find any information on how dense the cloud is thought to be, but any "cloud" in space is by its nature going to be extremely diffuse. A few particles impacting a normal matter object passing through is not going to do any noticeable damage and the extra gamma rays are likely a drop in the bucket compared to all the radiation encountered moving closer to the galactic center.
From the perspective of the average user, XP's install is the easiest by far. They take the computer out of the box it came in, plug it in, turn it on, and XP is right there.
The Microvision website has a pdf with specifications. 10 lumens on this one as well . . . seemed like something neat before I read that. Now, not so much.
Last/Current/Next/Latest Generation vocab aside, the PS2 has built an enormous library of titles and new titles continue to be released for it. PS2s will remain on many store shelves for some time to come. There are quite possibly still more PS2s out there, functioning, and connected to TVs (not packed away in a closet) than all 3 "new gen" consoles combined. It's in decline, to be sure, game studios have finally (and very recently) begun shifting their primary focus away from PS2 to the new consoles. But there's definitely still some life left in the old girl.
The difference is that Compaq's reengineering of the IBM BIOS didn't make unauthorized use of IBM created trademarks, artwork, characters, plotlines etc.
I figured as much, but it is kind of a shame they won't give us FULL downloadable DS games. I was hoping they'd release something along the lines of a writable flash cart that would let us take VC games and DS games on the go from the Wii.
I'd really like to see much more interaction between the DS and the Wii. What have they done so far? The Pokemon game is the only thing I've heard about.
What we need are lightweight little touchtablets running VNC. That weigh a handful of ounce, unfold from 8" to 17", last a week on a charge, and cost under $100. All they have to do is display a remote tappable desktop, with mutable little speakers, maybe bluetooth headphones/keyboards for occasional use.
Perhaps the idea that the writers wouldn't get any percentage of compensation for an internet release of their work as they would get for a DVD release of their work, is absurd.
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It certainly ruins naked-eye astronomy. I still remember the first time I was far enough away from city lights that I could look up and see how breathtaking the sky is on a clear night. In a city you see a couple of stars, even when the moon's not up and forget about the constellations.
It makes me sad to realize that so many people will grow up and never realize how fsking *AMAZING* a sky full of stars is when they can see it with their own eyes, wonder what's out there, be drawn to astronomy, physics, even poetry and literature. The current state of night skies above our cities is anything but inspiring, in my not so humble opinion . . .
Hmmmm . . . I think of the young Bushes, George P seems the heir apparent. He's got the looks, can lock up the hispanic vote and is very well spoken.
I agree completely. However, I voted for him in the Florida primary for another reason. Some of his ideas are completely batshit crazy, however I want him to stop being ignored by the media and included in more debates. He makes one very important point that I want to hear the republicans (hell, everybody) discuss:
Most of the "big issues" debated this time around ought to be non-issues because addressing them is almost certainly *not* within the powers granted to the government by the constitution.
That, and the fact he's the only anti-war Republican. He may have crappy poll numbers, but he's gotten loads of cash (he just needs to effing SPEND more of it.)
In short, I didn't vote for him expecting he had any chance of getting the nomination. Just my way of trying to say "let the man speak!"
In the general, I'll be voting for the Democratic nominee.
This is a bit of a circular argument. You're looking to the stock price for confirmation of whether Google won or not. (Would it go up? Would it go down? Depends on whether investors think it was a good buy and become a profitable venture) However, the stock price would only change if the information was widely known. Even if a few insiders have that information, it's not going to cause enough activity to swing the stock price.
As far as the overall market is concerned--Google may or may not win that spectrum, which has been known for a while. Today only tells us that it's going to cost 4.7 billion, which was in the expected ballpark. No new information.
Those are laws, not just security procedures. An information leak could cause the FCC to redo the auction all togheter. Also, in looking over the auction history, Round 13 saw the previous high bid (stil below reserve). Round 17 saw the $4.7bln bid. It could very well be Google, since that's the only bid above the reserve . . .
Google can't talk about the auction until it's all over so anybody without insider information only knows that Google might or might not get the spectrum which we've known for months. Really, the only new information available is how much the spectrum cost and that the open access rules are a certainty--but this was widely expected any way. So I don't see any reason why Google's stock should move right now because of the auction.
Grrrr . . .I wish they'd announce it early! The other slices could take weeks to sort out, but I do understand why they probably won't announce a winner until it's all over as it could affect the outcomes of other auctions.
There's been a lot of speculation that Google doesn't want the spectrum, just the open access, but I could see them going for it. A nationwide broadband data network will be easy to sub-let to other companies and gives Google a direct path to users without any meddling cable companies or telcos getting in the way.
*Fingers crossed*
I love my Wii--first console I've had since I was a kid . . . but seriously. It's much too young to be considered for "best ever" lists.
Ummmmm . . . what? The Gamecube and Wii don't have all that big of libraries. Certainly less than the Playstation line. Even throwing in the VC doesn't get it there. (Which I don't think should count anyway since it's not really reverse compatibility if you can't dust off the old cartridges and use them. And you have to buy the games all over again.)
I grew up with the NES. My parents refused to buy me a SNES when they came out, but I'm not at all bitter (bastards! *cries*). Aside from playing SNES games at friend's houses, I lost interest fairly quickly. I'd occasionally play a brief game at a friend's house on their playstation and i don't think I ever even touched a PS2 beyond using it to play DVDs back when it was the cheapest DVD player on the market. So I basically skipped the past two console generations alltogether.
The NES was the "greatest" system for me, simply because that was the one I interacted with the most, however I can definitely agree with this guy's argument that Sony's embrace of third party developers with the PlayStations made the game industry what it is today.
One minor nitpick, from the article:
I've always heard that was his inspiration for Zelda, not Mario.
The word "Agnostic" is derived from Greek meaning "without knowledge." I'd say most self-described agnostics are not weak/lazy atheists as you imply, but simply reject the notion that there can be absolute certainty about the existance of god/gods/spirits/etc.
To be atheist is to actively disbelieve in God, which still requires some degree of faith. Occam's Razor vs. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." An atheist will say they *know* there is no such thing as God, an agnostic will say they don't know, may never know, and is okay with that. They're quite distinct outlooks.
Unfortunately, these patent troll companies are immune to counter-suits by other companies with large patent portfolios becuase they don't actually make anything. The defacto balance of power is maintained primarilly through Mutually Assured Destruction. The trolls exploit this to their advantage.
How was XP's install base after a year? Is Vista even comparable now to what XP was doing a year after its release? I swear I'm not trying to troll here, I honestly don't have figures to back this up. However, in my (admittedly) anecdotal experience, neither I nor my other geeky friends were strongly recommending that any new shoppers stick with Win98. The manufacturers are still shipping new machines with XP, and the impression I'm getting is they'd like to keep doing so as long as possible.
Actually *enforcing* the "hmmmm, let's not run everything root/admin" paradigm is certainly a step in the right direction and that alone probably accounts for some of the better security with Vista vs XP . . . but how much? It's easy to say you're the "most secure" operating system when you're being actively avoided. By that logic, the P2 box in my attic is completely unhackable and immune to any conceivable vulnerability by virtue of having a faulty power supply and unplugged.
I think what's important here is it's commercial spaceflight being done as a viable business. Sure, they're $200k joyrides that aren't even close to acheiving orbital speeds and the engineering challenges with getting to orbit are daunting and well beyond anything with SS1 & 2. A private manned orbital spacecraft will require fundamentally different design principles, but if there's a successful business behind suborbital, ponying up the R&D cash for an orbital craft will be much easier to justify. Branson and Rutan have said as much--if SS2 is successful, SS3 may very well be an orbiter. Meanwhile, there's several other companies addressing more issues--SpaceX's rockets, Bigelow's inflatable habitats, and Virgin/Scaled settling up the spaceport/tourist infrastructure.
A 2d display at *any* resolution is still a 2d display. Color balance, the fact that the images produced by currently widespread display tech glows, etc all contribute. Just look at still cameras--a nice 5MP camera with top-notch optics, sesors, etc will capture much better images than a cheap 10MP camera. More pixels aren't always better.
Assuming for a moment commercial scale fusion becomes economically viable relatively soon, can the resulting helium be realistically (and safely) harvested?
No one has ever demonstrably retrieved data from hard drive platters that have been zeroed out (to my knowledge--please correct me if I'm wrong--I know there have been theories suggesting it might be possible, but I've never heard of any means for actually doing so). None have recovered data from smashed platters without a lab in clean room conditions. Anyone with access to that is unlikely to be dumpster diving for old drives to see what might be recoverable just for kicks.
If the drive works and is modern enough to be connected to a current computer on hand, zero it out--a bootable disk/disc of *nix, g4u, BootItNg, or random hard drive utilities are all free-as-in-beerly available and do the trick quite easily. Otherwise, the sledgehammer is quite effective. Hell, use an axe and split some logs while you're at it.
Just don't try to resell a working drive without zeroing it out. I've heard rumors of ATM hard drives on ebay that got a quick format and still contained sensitive account information. dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/whatever [let simmer till the blinky lights stop] is your friend**.
**unless the drive is mounted. Or if you're following advice from an IRC channel. Or if there are midgets. Damn the midgets.
Probably not much at all would happen to an object traveling through the cloud. I couldn't find any information on how dense the cloud is thought to be, but any "cloud" in space is by its nature going to be extremely diffuse. A few particles impacting a normal matter object passing through is not going to do any noticeable damage and the extra gamma rays are likely a drop in the bucket compared to all the radiation encountered moving closer to the galactic center.
Endgadget's writeup gives a few more details. The plastic sheet you referred to does in fact work via induction.
From the perspective of the average user, XP's install is the easiest by far. They take the computer out of the box it came in, plug it in, turn it on, and XP is right there.
The Microvision website has a pdf with specifications. 10 lumens on this one as well . . . seemed like something neat before I read that. Now, not so much.
Yes they are.
Last/Current/Next/Latest Generation vocab aside, the PS2 has built an enormous library of titles and new titles continue to be released for it. PS2s will remain on many store shelves for some time to come. There are quite possibly still more PS2s out there, functioning, and connected to TVs (not packed away in a closet) than all 3 "new gen" consoles combined. It's in decline, to be sure, game studios have finally (and very recently) begun shifting their primary focus away from PS2 to the new consoles. But there's definitely still some life left in the old girl.
The difference is that Compaq's reengineering of the IBM BIOS didn't make unauthorized use of IBM created trademarks, artwork, characters, plotlines etc.
I figured as much, but it is kind of a shame they won't give us FULL downloadable DS games. I was hoping they'd release something along the lines of a writable flash cart that would let us take VC games and DS games on the go from the Wii.
I'd really like to see much more interaction between the DS and the Wii. What have they done so far? The Pokemon game is the only thing I've heard about.
Screw that, I want a pony.
There. Fixed that for you.