back in my school days, we calculated that realtime rendering of fairly complex raytraced scenes would be a reality in about 17-18 years (6 of which have passed). We used Moore's law as a basis for the estimates. I don't remember if this estimate was based on software or hardware rendering, but it was based on either a 100 or 150 MHz SGI Indigo.
I'm just starting to get back into graphics after not using it for several years, so I can't remember all the details, but I vaguely remember at some point adding objects into a raytraced scene actually is faster than adding objects into a polygon scene, but I think the number of polies vs raytraced objects needs to exceed a huge number (17000?). This had something to do with raytracing difficulty increasing linearly (which may have been only because of Z buffering).
Maybe a slashdot graphics person can refresh my memory.
Interesting - 1986 Civics were notorious for blowing head gaskets. Mine did twice before I scrapped it. Apparently that was the year they switched to aluminum heads. Incidentally, I never had problems with the transmission, which was replaced twice in the '79 Tercel I had before that car (used, but well cared for by Mom). Both were manual transmissions, fyi.
My mom has an '88 Civic and it finally died this year (the battery won't keep a charge, even with a new battery and alternator). It *only* had 248000 miles on it (my '86 only got 112000, and yes, I changed the oil every 3K -- I don't think the original owner did, tho, which probably contributed to the first head gasket going at 65000).
The Toyota Tercel lasted the longest, though - 320000+ miles (it was at 300k when I gave it to my brother and he drove it for 2 more years...).
Or areas like mine (Minneapolis area), where my options are this: Dynamic IP. 640/128 ADSL through Qwest or Covad, or AT cable modem that just reduced upload to 128 and averages about 700-800, off-peak (suggesting pretty good saturation, since it supposedly tops out at 3Gbps).
Yes, I can get a static IP through a couple of companies that use Qwest or Covad lines, but all of them require a business contract with pricing starting at $85/month or more (the $85 had metered bandwidth charges, as well, so if I down/upload more than a certain amount, I pay extra), which means I'd pay $25/month more than having a dynamic IP.
SDSL from another CO is available, as well, starting at $150/month for 128/128 (no thanks).
My CO has roughly 40000 customers, mostly within the 5 mile radius DSL uses, but since Northpoint's bankruptcy, my residential options have dropped to near nothing. I have 100 choices for telephone and 2 for DSL (138, to be exact, according to CO documents I looked up online, but I'm sure some of these aren't active).
There are only two things I can think of: 1) I live in a 'dead zone' with not enough businesses for most ISPs, so very little service is available in the area. 2) I live in a 'dead zone' where a lot of extra equipment needs to be installed to allow DSL connections (Northpoint did it, so I know it's possible...).
I am seriously considering starting a company, or if that fails, work with an existing company, to fix this. I know of two other (non-contiguous)suburbs that also get inadequate service and have demand, even to the extent of getting newspaper coverage about the lack of service and demand for it, but I need to know what my options are for providing this service, and the limitations of the COs involved, as well as where to get the capital I'd need.
If ONLY I could have had 2 minute load times. Try 25-30 minutes on my 7500/100 with 4x CD-ROM. I would start the game, go downstairs and have coffee (or beer, depending on the time of day), come back up to my bedroom, watch some TV or part of a movie and FINALLY the game would come up. Moving between areas usually was 10-15 minutes, as well. I actually bought a JAZ drive specifically so I could do a full install of Fallout and not wait for the painful load times(that was $400 at the time, with one 1GB disk). I later upgraded my CD-ROM to 24x and tried the minimal install and that was nearly as fast as the JAZ disk (2-4 minutes).
I actually thought the game was hanging my machine at first. About 3 seconds before I rebooted the game came up.
Both MacOS X and Windows 95 based interfaces have a 1-3 hour learning curve for a new user (and many more for mastery), and both are cumbersome to use if you're used to the other.
The main purpose of GNOME and KDE was to emulate a familiar interface to lessen the learning curve. Since appx. 95% of users use Windows, that was the chosen interface to emulate. If Linux (or any other *NIX) wants to draw new, less technical users to their platform, they either need to spend millions of dollars on user studies and design their own interface from scratch (Apple and Microsoft did this), or else copy a well known interface where the work has already been done.
The goal of these interfaces is to put everything where the majority of users would expect to find it. Do I put Cut and Paste under Edit, or under Tools? This may seem pretty straightforward, but sometimes you have cultural or regional differences to deal with. You think Cut and Paste should be under Edit, but Down South, they always put them under Tools. Since the majority of customers are Down South, what you think is intuitive and the right place to put the options actually is culturally incorrect for the majority of users. Then you have those Westerners, where Cut is slang for raping sheep and the proper term is Slice for them. You then need a regional dialect translation for the Westerners.
UI design, especially when you don't know your customers (e.g. a general use OS) can be extremely difficult and costly. It is also very difficult to do a good design without doing filmed or observed studies of new users. Without studies, there may be no indication of why users get frustrated or what they get frustrated on using your new interface. I've observed film from a study my company did on a software product that my company thought was fairly intuitive, but users thought it was horrible. One interesting fact from our study was that women gave up more quickly than men. The theory is that women tend to have an idea on how something should be done, and if that doesn't work, they give up on it (in our case they would say they don't know how to do it, and ask directions), where men will try 5-6 different things before giving up and asking directions. On the average, though, only a slightly higher percentage of men figured out the task assigned without asking for help (~6% difference, both were under 20%). Men had a tendency to get closer to completing the task on their own, while women tended to get the task done faster.
In case you missed it, Linux has overtaken UNIX as the number 2 op system. Wet my pants.
My other favorite: "Until recently, interacting with Linux was almost entirely text-driven -- much like Windows' precursor, DOS."
Um, I don't know very many people who EVER booted linux without a windowing system, even 8 years ago when I first heard of Linux. I've had people use my X system to play games and surf the web without EVER touching a command line, even 5 years ago when I first installed Linux on my first PC (yeah, yeah, had only Macs before that, I was an idiot for not conforming to the masses earlier, whatever). A couple of them even emulated windows 95 look and feel - they're pronounced "Guh Nohme" and "Kay-Dee-Eee"
A rehabbed drug dealer/user I knew a few years ago (an ex-roommate) said the strip sets off certain airport scanners if in large concentrations and they're used to enforce the $10000 carryable by citizens when travelling (both the $ limit and the strip are means of controlling smuggling).
He was very knowledgeable, but also suffered some paranoia. It does make sense, though...
Re:VERY GOOD IDEA FOR DUMMY AMERICANS !
on
Fair Use Computer Game
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
Hey, well at least we WIN World Cup games, unlike you losers.
And look, we have Fraunch Dressing, Fraunch Fries... (my apologies to Better Off Dead)
now that I got that out, why the hell is this guy reading slashdot!?!
Inna Gadda Davida was originally "In the Garden of Eden" but the lyrics were so garbled that even other people in the band didn't know what was being sung (trivial knowledge credited to Behind the Music -- or some show like Behind the Music).
If the Nixon tapes are enunciated as bad as this song, we may never know what the real tape said. Hopefully tricky Dick didn't just finish a 3 martini lunch when this was recorded...:P
In a perfect world, a developer will know everything that other developers are putting into the code, but that is rarely the case, unless you're the only developer.
My company has the case where a huge product works on several OSes, and the developers are told to program and test on only one of those OSes and let Q/A handle the rest. Usually the OS the code is programmed on has a lot less problems than other OSes, but even then, I see a lot of bugs, especially when we mix and match different machines (lots of networking code). The code goes through a lot before it gets to Q/A - formal design documents, several code reviews, unit testing, integration testing, then finally a handoff to Q/A and still there are bugs (Q/A writes a testing plan and test cases, so this is XP-like, but it was done long before that term existed). I'm not saying that it is impossible to write bug free code, it's just that the larger the product and the more variables thrown in, the less likely the code to be bug free. There also is the arguement of "how much is too much" testing, where your costs outweigh your returns.
Then there's configurations - I recently found a bug with two identically patched and OSed Solaris machines that had slightly different hardware. One Solaris box worked with our software, the other didn't and was only fixed by a patch to our software. To find problems such as this, some companies have turned to public betas (not mine, though, as we don't even use the concept of Alpha/Beta software), where they give away a portion or all of the software to key (or all) customers, who get an early look at the software in exchange for testing it for bugs. The problem is, early adopters never know what they're getting. Some public betas I've used were very polished pieces of software, where others were unstable garbage that should be considered pre-alpha, if anything. One garbage beta I used is now very stable and robust and is actually what my company uses (automation software), so you shouldn't make all your judgements of a piece of software on a beta itself.
Well, for one, OmniGroup is not owned by InfoGrames, the company distributing NWN, and MacSoft is. A port of the toolset may take a while (depending on how portable they made it), but a port of the game itself should take very little time because a Linux port already exists (at least, a port to OS X).
Fall of 2002 isn't too bad... better than Fall of 2003:)
btw, having a separate box is often a good thing, because numbers aren't counted as PC sales, but I digress.
MOO3 isn't expected until September (OK, Q3, but we all know that Q3==September), so you should get at least 4 hours of sleep in there for a while.
If you want to keep your addictions going now, maybe try long term habits like Morrowind or Wizardry 8. For a short termers, maybe try Dungeon Seige.
Also, amphetamines work a lot better for sleep deprivation than crack. You may want to make the switch, at least for the short term. Just a thought.
While you're at it, practice for the real world by gaming while you're working. Also, try drinking various chemicals around the lab. They're bound to give you super powers, especially at a University lab. Trust me. And,... hey - where's your slashdot time coming from:P
I had US Worst first (and called it that, as did most people I know), but I was wondering if people were using Qworst before the merger...
I went from US Worst to Qworst... what could be worse?:P
Their DSL is no better outside of Colorado -- in the Twin Cities, Qworst has a reputation for blocking and delaying competition and for saying certain areas are incompatible with DSL because they don't want to upgrade the phone system (supposedly even when a large provider offered to pay for it, but that may have to do with the debt of the company - avoiding a situation like Northpoint putting in system and going under 2 weeks later). The latest lawsuits involve Quest only allowed in certain competitors who had to sign a secret agreement...
At least one of these issues (may pending appeal) cost them millions of dollars in court (blocking AT&T), and I know others are pending. What I love is that they now have the gall to ask to carry long distance in our area because they've been 'compliant' with letting competition in. Obviously my opinion is biased against them here, so they're lucky I don't get a vote.
There was a rough cut release (to a select audience) in '76 - I hear WW2 fighter models were standins for fighters. I believe that release was also B&W.
I saw it the last week in August, 1977, which I know only because it was a birthday present (my mom REALLY didn't want me to see a movie with 'WARS' in the name, but my dad broke down). Funny how this was a movie written for kids and yet I almost didn't get to go because I was one:)
The problem with SSNs in general is they have a predictable format, and the more you know about a person, the easier it is to guess the number.
The reason is that SSNs are divided into three sets of information - Area, Group, and Serial. The first three numbers are where you resided (or applied for the card, pre-1972) when you obtained the card. If the numbers are 585, I know you resided in New Mexico when you got the card, for instance (here's a web page I pulled up with Google: http://www.networkusa.org/fingerprint/page3/fp-ssn -info.html). The second two digits are used to tell if a number is assigned. The serial is random. If I know your first three digits because of where you were born and know the assigned portion of the second two, I've reduced the number of values I need to check by a huge amount.
Just knowing your SSN is wonderful for marketing people, as they can build demographics without much more information.
yeah, they started to ban spray paint when I was in my teens. I could still walk into a drug store and buy Saltpeter off the shelf, though. Saltpeter and sugar - the best smoke bombs:)
photocopiers have already had their day in court, and were deemed legal as a way to create legitimate backups of documents. It is still illegal to photocopy documents with copy protection built in, otherwise we'd all dupe our money.
CD burners slid through with the same argument as above. Several groups tried to stop them, so it wasn't easy.
Uncensored internet is already banned - see COPA. It has a few more fights to win in court, but unfortunately, it's been winning them...
According to scrolls used to translate the bible, all women should wear shrouds. I've only seen them in one printed version, though - I think it was the revised standard. The Koran isn't alone.
What I don't remember is if the dress code thingies were required or recommended in either book. I do remember that I violated a bunch of the rules for men - I had long hair and beard at the time I read the revised standard and those were strict no-nos. Then again, so did Jesus in most paintings of him (both black and white-idealized images), so I guess it doesn't matter that much:)
This is an argument I've thought about for a long time, and I've come to the conclusion that the goverment believes it has the right to protect its citizens in all ways, even from themselves. This is why suicide is illegal in many states, as is having a right to die. Why are there prescriptions for medicine or a legal drinking age and tobacco use age? The intent is to make the decisions for the people instead of letting them decide what is best for themselves.
I have mixed feelings about this myself - in one respect, I think there should be a certain degree of protectionism - if I rewire my house, I should have to get it inspected for proper wiring, because it puts anyone who comes in my house at risk if it is done incorrectly. On the other hand, if I want to drop acid in the forest (where I can harm no one but myself), that should be my decision, not the government's decision, provided I'm informed of the risks of using the drug and the permanent side effects. Personally, I would never touch the stuff, but the government thinks I would if it were available, being an ignorant lemming that all citizens are. Those friends of mine who wanted to try it did anyway, and the government failed to stop them, so the whole self-protectionist "drug war" is a failure in my mind.
I remember from some research I did in high school (many moons ago) that pre-marital sex is illegal in the state, as is oral sex. I think oral was considered a sodomy gross misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of $10 (from a 1910-20 law, so it was a realistic amount at that time). Several governors have tried to rid these blue laws from the record books, but many of these attempts have failed because the laws are still used to add sentencing to rape and incest cases.
I recall worse laws, though, such as one eastern seaboard state that has a death penalty for slurping soup (I think it was Massachusetts, but I really don't remember the state as much as the law:)
open apple sequence? Um, wasn't that an Apple ][ thingie? The 'open' apple was replaced by the sqiggly command symbol about the time Prince changed his name to the other squiggly symbol. Prince changed his name back, though.
Macs only had one apple key even when it was an Apple, so 'open' apple is a bit redundant.
cmd-option-O-F and eject cd works, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you like working in Forth or are feeling especially masochistic, since holding down the left mouse button is much easier.
Slashdot Mirror
back in my school days, we calculated that realtime rendering of fairly complex raytraced scenes would be a reality in about 17-18 years (6 of which have passed). We used Moore's law as a basis for the estimates. I don't remember if this estimate was based on software or hardware rendering, but it was based on either a 100 or 150 MHz SGI Indigo.
I'm just starting to get back into graphics after not using it for several years, so I can't remember all the details, but I vaguely remember at some point adding objects into a raytraced scene actually is faster than adding objects into a polygon scene, but I think the number of polies vs raytraced objects needs to exceed a huge number (17000?). This had something to do with raytracing difficulty increasing linearly (which may have been only because of Z buffering).
Maybe a slashdot graphics person can refresh my memory.
Interesting - 1986 Civics were notorious for blowing head gaskets. Mine did twice before I scrapped it. Apparently that was the year they switched to aluminum heads. Incidentally, I never had problems with the transmission, which was replaced twice in the '79 Tercel I had before that car (used, but well cared for by Mom). Both were manual transmissions, fyi.
My mom has an '88 Civic and it finally died this year (the battery won't keep a charge, even with a new battery and alternator). It *only* had 248000 miles on it (my '86 only got 112000, and yes, I changed the oil every 3K -- I don't think the original owner did, tho, which probably contributed to the first head gasket going at 65000).
The Toyota Tercel lasted the longest, though - 320000+ miles (it was at 300k when I gave it to my brother and he drove it for 2 more years...).
Or areas like mine (Minneapolis area), where my options are this:
Dynamic IP.
640/128 ADSL through Qwest or Covad, or AT cable modem that just reduced upload to 128 and averages about 700-800, off-peak (suggesting pretty good saturation, since it supposedly tops out at 3Gbps).
Yes, I can get a static IP through a couple of companies that use Qwest or Covad lines, but all of them require a business contract with pricing starting at $85/month or more (the $85 had metered bandwidth charges, as well, so if I down/upload more than a certain amount, I pay extra), which means I'd pay $25/month more than having a dynamic IP.
SDSL from another CO is available, as well, starting at $150/month for 128/128 (no thanks).
My CO has roughly 40000 customers, mostly within the 5 mile radius DSL uses, but since Northpoint's bankruptcy, my residential options have dropped to near nothing. I have 100 choices for telephone and 2 for DSL (138, to be exact, according to CO documents I looked up online, but I'm sure some of these aren't active).
There are only two things I can think of:
1) I live in a 'dead zone' with not enough businesses for most ISPs, so very little service is available in the area.
2) I live in a 'dead zone' where a lot of extra equipment needs to be installed to allow DSL connections (Northpoint did it, so I know it's possible...).
I am seriously considering starting a company, or if that fails, work with an existing company, to fix this. I know of two other (non-contiguous)suburbs that also get inadequate service and have demand, even to the extent of getting newspaper coverage about the lack of service and demand for it, but I need to know what my options are for providing this service, and the limitations of the COs involved, as well as where to get the capital I'd need.
Pricing is on the site.
$30G for 200 connections. I think point to point (20 mile connection) was about $1000, as well (check it yourself).
It looks like I'm stuck with Fallout 1.1...
No patch for 1.2 and OS X. Oh well.
Wow... two whole minutes.
If ONLY I could have had 2 minute load times. Try 25-30 minutes on my 7500/100 with 4x CD-ROM. I would start the game, go downstairs and have coffee (or beer, depending on the time of day), come back up to my bedroom, watch some TV or part of a movie and FINALLY the game would come up. Moving between areas usually was 10-15 minutes, as well. I actually bought a JAZ drive specifically so I could do a full install of Fallout and not wait for the painful load times(that was $400 at the time, with one 1GB disk). I later upgraded my CD-ROM to 24x and tried the minimal install and that was nearly as fast as the JAZ disk (2-4 minutes).
I actually thought the game was hanging my machine at first. About 3 seconds before I rebooted the game came up.
Both MacOS X and Windows 95 based interfaces have a 1-3 hour learning curve for a new user (and many more for mastery), and both are cumbersome to use if you're used to the other.
The main purpose of GNOME and KDE was to emulate a familiar interface to lessen the learning curve. Since appx. 95% of users use Windows, that was the chosen interface to emulate. If Linux (or any other *NIX) wants to draw new, less technical users to their platform, they either need to spend millions of dollars on user studies and design their own interface from scratch (Apple and Microsoft did this), or else copy a well known interface where the work has already been done.
The goal of these interfaces is to put everything where the majority of users would expect to find it. Do I put Cut and Paste under Edit, or under Tools? This may seem pretty straightforward, but sometimes you have cultural or regional differences to deal with. You think Cut and Paste should be under Edit, but Down South, they always put them under Tools. Since the majority of customers are Down South, what you think is intuitive and the right place to put the options actually is culturally incorrect for the majority of users. Then you have those Westerners, where Cut is slang for raping sheep and the proper term is Slice for them. You then need a regional dialect translation for the Westerners.
UI design, especially when you don't know your customers (e.g. a general use OS) can be extremely difficult and costly. It is also very difficult to do a good design without doing filmed or observed studies of new users. Without studies, there may be no indication of why users get frustrated or what they get frustrated on using your new interface. I've observed film from a study my company did on a software product that my company thought was fairly intuitive, but users thought it was horrible. One interesting fact from our study was that women gave up more quickly than men. The theory is that women tend to have an idea on how something should be done, and if that doesn't work, they give up on it (in our case they would say they don't know how to do it, and ask directions), where men will try 5-6 different things before giving up and asking directions. On the average, though, only a slightly higher percentage of men figured out the task assigned without asking for help (~6% difference, both were under 20%). Men had a tendency to get closer to completing the task on their own, while women tended to get the task done faster.
Just some food for thought.
Yeah, I loved that one.
In case you missed it, Linux has overtaken UNIX as the number 2 op system. Wet my pants.
My other favorite:
"Until recently, interacting with Linux was almost entirely text-driven -- much like Windows' precursor, DOS."
Um, I don't know very many people who EVER booted linux without a windowing system, even 8 years ago when I first heard of Linux. I've had people use my X system to play games and surf the web without EVER touching a command line, even 5 years ago when I first installed Linux on my first PC (yeah, yeah, had only Macs before that, I was an idiot for not conforming to the masses earlier, whatever). A couple of them even emulated windows 95 look and feel - they're pronounced "Guh Nohme" and "Kay-Dee-Eee"
A rehabbed drug dealer/user I knew a few years ago (an ex-roommate) said the strip sets off certain airport scanners if in large concentrations and they're used to enforce the $10000 carryable by citizens when travelling (both the $ limit and the strip are means of controlling smuggling).
He was very knowledgeable, but also suffered some paranoia. It does make sense, though...
Hey, well at least we WIN World Cup games, unlike you losers.
And look, we have Fraunch Dressing, Fraunch Fries... (my apologies to Better Off Dead)
now that I got that out, why the hell is this guy reading slashdot!?!
Inna Gadda Davida was originally "In the Garden of Eden" but the lyrics were so garbled that even other people in the band didn't know what was being sung (trivial knowledge credited to Behind the Music -- or some show like Behind the Music).
:P
If the Nixon tapes are enunciated as bad as this song, we may never know what the real tape said. Hopefully tricky Dick didn't just finish a 3 martini lunch when this was recorded...
In a perfect world, a developer will know everything that other developers are putting into the code, but that is rarely the case, unless you're the only developer.
My company has the case where a huge product works on several OSes, and the developers are told to program and test on only one of those OSes and let Q/A handle the rest. Usually the OS the code is programmed on has a lot less problems than other OSes, but even then, I see a lot of bugs, especially when we mix and match different machines (lots of networking code). The code goes through a lot before it gets to Q/A - formal design documents, several code reviews, unit testing, integration testing, then finally a handoff to Q/A and still there are bugs (Q/A writes a testing plan and test cases, so this is XP-like, but it was done long before that term existed). I'm not saying that it is impossible to write bug free code, it's just that the larger the product and the more variables thrown in, the less likely the code to be bug free. There also is the arguement of "how much is too much" testing, where your costs outweigh your returns.
Then there's configurations - I recently found a bug with two identically patched and OSed Solaris machines that had slightly different hardware. One Solaris box worked with our software, the other didn't and was only fixed by a patch to our software. To find problems such as this, some companies have turned to public betas (not mine, though, as we don't even use the concept of Alpha/Beta software), where they give away a portion or all of the software to key (or all) customers, who get an early look at the software in exchange for testing it for bugs. The problem is, early adopters never know what they're getting. Some public betas I've used were very polished pieces of software, where others were unstable garbage that should be considered pre-alpha, if anything. One garbage beta I used is now very stable and robust and is actually what my company uses (automation software), so you shouldn't make all your judgements of a piece of software on a beta itself.
For some reason, I just pictured Cylons (from Battlestar Galactica) doing it. Then those big headed things from Mars Attacks!
:P
That's enough alien Pr0n for me
Well, for one, OmniGroup is not owned by InfoGrames, the company distributing NWN, and MacSoft is. A port of the toolset may take a while (depending on how portable they made it), but a port of the game itself should take very little time because a Linux port already exists (at least, a port to OS X).
:)
Fall of 2002 isn't too bad... better than Fall of 2003
btw, having a separate box is often a good thing, because numbers aren't counted as PC sales, but I digress.
MOO3 isn't expected until September (OK, Q3, but we all know that Q3==September), so you should get at least 4 hours of sleep in there for a while.
... hey - where's your slashdot time coming from :P
If you want to keep your addictions going now, maybe try long term habits like Morrowind or Wizardry 8. For a short termers, maybe try Dungeon Seige.
Also, amphetamines work a lot better for sleep deprivation than crack. You may want to make the switch, at least for the short term. Just a thought.
While you're at it, practice for the real world by gaming while you're working. Also, try drinking various chemicals around the lab. They're bound to give you super powers, especially at a University lab. Trust me. And,
Apparently an announcment on the mac version is forthcoming today. There are rumors both on Bioware's message boards and at Inside Mac Games.
Patience, Grasshopper.
actually, Dragon was sold years ago (circa 1984), so Gygax may still be writing for them.
As for TSR dumping Gygax, read the real story for yourself:
http://www.gygax.com/gygaxfaq.html
Which came first, Qworst or US Worst?
:P
I had US Worst first (and called it that, as did most people I know), but I was wondering if people were using Qworst before the merger...
I went from US Worst to Qworst... what could be worse?
Their DSL is no better outside of Colorado -- in the Twin Cities, Qworst has a reputation for blocking and delaying competition and for saying certain areas are incompatible with DSL because they don't want to upgrade the phone system (supposedly even when a large provider offered to pay for it, but that may have to do with the debt of the company - avoiding a situation like Northpoint putting in system and going under 2 weeks later). The latest lawsuits involve Quest only allowed in certain competitors who had to sign a secret agreement...
At least one of these issues (may pending appeal) cost them millions of dollars in court (blocking AT&T), and I know others are pending. What I love is that they now have the gall to ask to carry long distance in our area because they've been 'compliant' with letting competition in. Obviously my opinion is biased against them here, so they're lucky I don't get a vote.
There was a rough cut release (to a select audience) in '76 - I hear WW2 fighter models were standins for fighters. I believe that release was also B&W.
:)
I saw it the last week in August, 1977, which I know only because it was a birthday present (my mom REALLY didn't want me to see a movie with 'WARS' in the name, but my dad broke down). Funny how this was a movie written for kids and yet I almost didn't get to go because I was one
obviously you're kidding.
n -info.html). The second two digits are used to tell if a number is assigned. The serial is random. If I know your first three digits because of where you were born and know the assigned portion of the second two, I've reduced the number of values I need to check by a huge amount.
The problem with SSNs in general is they have a predictable format, and the more you know about a person, the easier it is to guess the number.
The reason is that SSNs are divided into three sets of information - Area, Group, and Serial. The first three numbers are where you resided (or applied for the card, pre-1972) when you obtained the card. If the numbers are 585, I know you resided in New Mexico when you got the card, for instance (here's a web page I pulled up with Google: http://www.networkusa.org/fingerprint/page3/fp-ss
Just knowing your SSN is wonderful for marketing people, as they can build demographics without much more information.
yeah, they started to ban spray paint when I was in my teens. I could still walk into a drug store and buy Saltpeter off the shelf, though. Saltpeter and sugar - the best smoke bombs :)
photocopiers have already had their day in court, and were deemed legal as a way to create legitimate backups of documents. It is still illegal to photocopy documents with copy protection built in, otherwise we'd all dupe our money.
:)
CD burners slid through with the same argument as above. Several groups tried to stop them, so it wasn't easy.
Uncensored internet is already banned - see COPA. It has a few more fights to win in court, but unfortunately, it's been winning them...
According to scrolls used to translate the bible, all women should wear shrouds. I've only seen them in one printed version, though - I think it was the revised standard. The Koran isn't alone.
What I don't remember is if the dress code thingies were required or recommended in either book. I do remember that I violated a bunch of the rules for men - I had long hair and beard at the time I read the revised standard and those were strict no-nos. Then again, so did Jesus in most paintings of him (both black and white-idealized images), so I guess it doesn't matter that much
This is an argument I've thought about for a long time, and I've come to the conclusion that the goverment believes it has the right to protect its citizens in all ways, even from themselves. This is why suicide is illegal in many states, as is having a right to die. Why are there prescriptions for medicine or a legal drinking age and tobacco use age? The intent is to make the decisions for the people instead of letting them decide what is best for themselves.
I have mixed feelings about this myself - in one respect, I think there should be a certain degree of protectionism - if I rewire my house, I should have to get it inspected for proper wiring, because it puts anyone who comes in my house at risk if it is done incorrectly. On the other hand, if I want to drop acid in the forest (where I can harm no one but myself), that should be my decision, not the government's decision, provided I'm informed of the risks of using the drug and the permanent side effects. Personally, I would never touch the stuff, but the government thinks I would if it were available, being an ignorant lemming that all citizens are. Those friends of mine who wanted to try it did anyway, and the government failed to stop them, so the whole self-protectionist "drug war" is a failure in my mind.
Anyhow, I'm rambling. 'nough said.
Minnesota has some fun ones too -
:)
I remember from some research I did in high school (many moons ago) that pre-marital sex is illegal in the state, as is oral sex. I think oral was considered a sodomy gross misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of $10 (from a 1910-20 law, so it was a realistic amount at that time). Several governors have tried to rid these blue laws from the record books, but many of these attempts have failed because the laws are still used to add sentencing to rape and incest cases.
I recall worse laws, though, such as one eastern seaboard state that has a death penalty for slurping soup (I think it was Massachusetts, but I really don't remember the state as much as the law
read the tech note (previous comment).
open apple sequence? Um, wasn't that an Apple ][ thingie? The 'open' apple was replaced by the sqiggly command symbol about the time Prince changed his name to the other squiggly symbol. Prince changed his name back, though.
Macs only had one apple key even when it was an Apple, so 'open' apple is a bit redundant.
cmd-option-O-F and eject cd works, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you like working in Forth or are feeling especially masochistic, since holding down the left mouse button is much easier.