I saw the car buried and now I've seen it dug back up. It was built to withstand a nuclear bomb because fear of nuclear war was on everyone's mind in 1957, but it was never intended to be anything other than a vault for the car. At the time Tulsa's largest employer was Douglas Aircraft, building Boeing B-47 bombers for the Strategic Air Command, so Tulsa folks considered the town a prime target for a nuke attack.
The car was buried in a spirit of celebration of Oklahoma's 50th anniversary of statehood, but I think in many people's minds, they thought it might be the only thing that survived the unavoidable nuclear attack. (What a legacy, eh?)
As far as the bunker not being very good protection against a nuke, we school kiddies of the time were being taught to duck under our desks and cover our necks when we saw the flash of a nuclear explosion. If THAT was good enough... just imagine how cool a concrete-covered bunker was.
Oh yeah, they're on their way there. A friend recently sent me a link to her recent photos, hosted on some MSN site. When I clicked it and the page loaded, it informed me that they did not support my OPERATING SYSTEM. Right, not just the browser, they had to tell me they didn't support my whole dang OS.
Well... that's fine, because I don't support anything they do either.
Alrighty then, allow me to recount my fav Stupid User story, which took place in (where else?) Oklahoma:
I was contracted to help a new guy learn the ropes in his new job as "engineer." One day he called and complained that his mouse didn't work. I asked a few questions to get a hint what it was or wasn't doing, expecting it to be unplugged, dirty or just plain broke. Nothing seemed to be wrong with it, and I finally asked, "OK, what is it doing that makes you say it's not working?" He answered, "It just doesn't work right."
I offered to make the hour drive at my usual rate, and he agreed. I went to his office and asked him to show me what was wrong. He was holding the mouse SIDEWAYS, so every time he moved it, the cursor went 90 degrees from the direction he wanted, and he said, "See? It doesn't work right."
I thought to myself, "Hunh, I didn't think to ask THAT one, so much for the 'intuitive interface," turned the mouse, said "Now try it."
Yes, it does sound too bizarre to be true, but remember... it was in Oklahoma.
"You know Mel, it's really a shame, and I just feel sorry for the boys. They worked all night at the launch pad to get the major-sponsor associate-sponsor contingency-award ship ready to fly, and is it time for me to change promotional ball caps yet, and we were fast and we knew when it came down to the last 20 orbits, we were going to be right up there at the front, and I'd like to thank major-sponsor again, 'cause I've only mentioned them once this breath, but you know, it's OK, 'cause we'll be back next week and we're still racking up championship points, and this major-sponsor team just has too much heart to let this get us down, and I'm too good-natured to mess up the advertising value by saying what I really think about that Jett Gordon that made me crash into the asteroid belt."
And remember the best way to put out an alcohol fire is water. Lots and lots of water. Don't waste your time gathering up all the not-quite-halon extinguishers, just go get a lot of buckets.
God, I HATE the way that looks. Spinning the desk top around to back side. Where have I seen that effect before? Oh yeah, 4000 used car dealer commercials. Alt-Fn and a quick switch so I can do what I want will do just fine thanks.
And live video for the desktop background, right. Let's see, got just enough time to pull the browser back up and snipe that ebay auction... oh no! car headlights! I CAN'T SEE THE EYE COONNNNNNNNNNNNN!
The story is probably more amusing than factual. I don't know the regulations in the UK but in the US a video microwave transmitter would operate between.1 watt and a whopping 4 watts. On top of that, a steerable dish controller would have a hardware limit independent of any software to keep it from pointing up or down at an angle that's useless for transmission.
Yes, even driving a less sophisticated sprint car on a dirt track, I counted roughly that many parameters just in the suspension.
And, as others commented, 68 is a start. Next they can add the proper weights to parameters for yellow flags; 0 for clear track. 1 for stationary yellow. 2 for yellow flag being waved frantically. And of course, add 4 for a long black stripe of oil on the line.
I also find it curious that they want to start in F1, a series that has already banned computer controlled suspension. I'm sure Bernie would be very receptive to even more computer control. Maybe they ought to take a tip from drivers who begin their racing career in karts and start with a slower simpler platform.
I've worked for a couple of companies that have advertised huge bonuses and paychecks to work on projects in the middle east. None of the assignments were like post-war Iraq, so this might not apply. The jobs were all in countries with stable locally-owned and operated governments, and these were not a US government funded projects, so excess costs didn't get billed back.
I never had a desire to go, based on the experience of others who had returned and told how their huge paychecks were eaten away by various bribes. For instance, you could live in a tent... or... you could pay a local a nice bundle to get you into some kind of better housing.
Those who returned had two complaints; they were bored to death the whole time they were there, and a lot of their money went to paying off the local insiders.
My God, man. You're watching history being made. Enjoy it.
If incredibly dominant teams damaged the sport, it would have already been terminally ill after the McLaren/Proust/Senna years when other teams were lucky to finish on the same lap with the leaders.
NTSC analog tv goes dark Dec. 31, 2006. May 2003 was the deadline for all stations to be simulcasting NTSC & DTV.
You can buy a set top convertor (IRD) right now for $300+. I decided to buy one from Best Buy after borrowing one and liking the DTV SD signal a lot better than analog. I looked it up on the website and then went to my local store... but the high tech sales dude had no idea what I was talking about.
NTSC uses a color reference signal, ("burst") and picture colors are defined by their phase relative to burst. Think of the color wheel as 360 degrees of color and you get a similar idea. Burst and color information are carried in a sine wave subcarrier.
Throughout the video chain in say, a TV station, that phase relationship must be maintained as it passes through various video processors. Most every device has 3 opportunities to muck up the color phase and many of those devices strip the color burst and reinsert their own. Typically, video editors and operators have a control for phase correction of the video, phase correction of the studio synchronizing subcarrier, and of course the hue (also a phase control) of the monitor they view the signal on.
A common mistake is to make a color adjustment without realizing which of the 3 is out of spec. For instance, if the monitor is 6 degrees counterclockwise, someone often turns a processor control 6 degrees clockwise to make the picture look better. (Wrong!) By the time you see the picture on your TV, it may easily have passed by 100 adjustment possibilities.
NTSC depends on one sine wave, but PAL uses two. When phase is misadjusted in a PAL system, the result is colors that are muted or washed out, but the basic hue remains the same.
BTW, yes it is "Never Twice the Same Color." The system invented by the Russians (and used by France) is SECAM or, "Something Essentially Contrary to the American Method," and was followed by the more faithful European PAL system or "Peace At Last."
main(once, was)
{
a = unix_owner;
who(pulled, a, PR_BONER) {
they->staked_out[some_claims && called(ppl_names)];
}
but_everyone_knew(darl, was, a, stoner);
}
/* all rights reserved, SCO Software, Poetry, Music and Literary Group */
/* method of using black text on white background is trade secret, patent pending */
birdtraq has a posting documenting the 'falcon exploit' describing it as a DOS (denial of seed) attack similar to the 'buckshot' attack, in that not only is the route broken, but the media is eaten. It is noted that even though the carrier may seasonally be reclassified as 'lunch' the data payload may be considered unappetizing and therefore recoverable. Affected users may attempt the alternate SSL (Slow Sparrow Layer) method in hopes of being overlooked. The vulnerability affects owl users of Linux and Windows. In a related story, SCO claims that since it has proved in court that it owns all code ever written, it will be selling licenses on a per egg basis to existing pigeon owners as soon as the massive hummingbird attack on its own server ends.
My two personal favorites (locations withheld for fiscal security reasons) were in eastern Colorado; a dirt strip where the key to the fuel pump was hidden on the side of a hangar in case you needed fuel during its mostly unattended hours - and one in central Kansas, where a cigar box was left at the pump on weekends. Pump, leave your money in the cigar box and you're off.
Gee, if WalMart worked that way, they could all be 24 hour stores.
"The FCC is going to hate it, but even they are unlikely to be able to force the shutdown of analog TV under current conditions..."
You'd think, hunh? After all, the FCC said that if at least 85% of homes can't get DTV, they'd stretch the dark date.
Oh, but some of our illustrious congressmen have decided to "solve the DTV problem." Reps Tauzin and Dingel propose to:
1. Force the end of analog TV on Dec. 31 of 2006. Forget about whether you don't want to buy a new DTV or if you give a fat furry rodent's behind about hi-def programming.
2. Force all TV stations to pass network programming without changing to a lower resolution. So what, you ask.It means that your local cable system (who 'must carry' local broadast stations) will have to give up the bandwidth of 4 cable channels for every broadcast station taking a hi-res feed. 'nother good idea!
3. Force the broadcast flag into every DTV receiver built after a 6-month period. Are you listening Hollywood? We're Congress, and we're here to help.
4. After 2005, no TVs could have analog outputs. Sure, you can have a big screen, and it can have 4-channel Dolby sound. BUT YOU CAN'T HOOK IT UP TO YOUR STEREO.Great.
When you say "industry says..." you mix two different industries. The broadcast industry was orginally near finalizing an HDTV standard that would have been compatible with your NTSC television. The goal was to transition to digital the same way TV transitioned from monochrome to color, whenever you felt like buying a new TV.
The "industry" that barged in at the last minute and pushed 18 different formats, resulting in a standard that was totally incompatible with your NTSC TV was a computer industry group. (I'm sure no one would be surprised to learn that Microsoft was part of the group)
Almost every member of that group had been invited to participate in creating the standard, but ignored the invitation until the draft was ready to present to the FCC.
Broadcasters had seen what competing standards had done to AM stereo (do YOU have a stereo AM radio now?) and basically caved, accepting the non-compatible 18-format TV standard that you're going to fork your money over to watch.
So when you use "industry" be sure to mention whether you mean the television industry or Bill Gates.
Yes, PBS stations are being funded through their traditional channel, the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) grant system. PTFP has been funding digital conversion for public stations since 1998. Their grant awards in August may be the last year for funding digital transmission since all PBS stations are required to be digital in May 2003.
Quoting the MPEG site,on MPEG-4 at http://mpeg.telecomitalialab.com/standards/mpeg-4/ mpeg-4.htm
"MPEG-4, with formal as its ISO/IEC designation 'ISO/IEC 14496', was finalized in October 1998 and became an International Standard in the first months of 1999. The fully backward compatible extensions under the title of MPEG-4 Version 2 were frozen at the end of 1999, to acquire the formal International Standard Status early in 2000."
And in addition to DShor's math, the per-pixel cost is 4 times as much for the disposable than a $1000 camera. In a sense you're paying 4 times as much for a lesser quality photo..3/16 =.019
4/1000 =.004 - if you pay more than $16 for that ski vacation with your family and friends, a camera that brings back clear pictures year after year isn't such a big expense.
Slashdot Mirror
Frickin' land sharks with lasers man.
I saw the car buried and now I've seen it dug back up. It was built to withstand a nuclear bomb because fear of nuclear war was on everyone's mind in 1957, but it was never intended to be anything other than a vault for the car. At the time Tulsa's largest employer was Douglas Aircraft, building Boeing B-47 bombers for the Strategic Air Command, so Tulsa folks considered the town a prime target for a nuke attack.
The car was buried in a spirit of celebration of Oklahoma's 50th anniversary of statehood, but I think in many people's minds, they thought it might be the only thing that survived the unavoidable nuclear attack. (What a legacy, eh?)
As far as the bunker not being very good protection against a nuke, we school kiddies of the time were being taught to duck under our desks and cover our necks when we saw the flash of a nuclear explosion. If THAT was good enough... just imagine how cool a concrete-covered bunker was.
Oh yeah, they're on their way there. A friend recently sent me a link to her recent photos, hosted on some MSN site. When I clicked it and the page loaded, it informed me that they did not support my OPERATING SYSTEM. Right, not just the browser, they had to tell me they didn't support my whole dang OS.
Well... that's fine, because I don't support anything they do either.
Alrighty then, allow me to recount my fav Stupid User story, which took place in (where else?) Oklahoma:
I was contracted to help a new guy learn the ropes in his new job as "engineer." One day he called and complained that his mouse didn't work. I asked a few questions to get a hint what it was or wasn't doing, expecting it to be unplugged, dirty or just plain broke. Nothing seemed to be wrong with it, and I finally asked, "OK, what is it doing that makes you say it's not working?" He answered, "It just doesn't work right."
I offered to make the hour drive at my usual rate, and he agreed. I went to his office and asked him to show me what was wrong. He was holding the mouse SIDEWAYS, so every time he moved it, the cursor went 90 degrees from the direction he wanted, and he said, "See? It doesn't work right."
I thought to myself, "Hunh, I didn't think to ask THAT one, so much for the 'intuitive interface," turned the mouse, said "Now try it."
Yes, it does sound too bizarre to be true, but remember... it was in Oklahoma.
"You know Mel, it's really a shame, and I just feel sorry for the boys. They worked all night at the launch pad to get the major-sponsor associate-sponsor contingency-award ship ready to fly, and is it time for me to change promotional ball caps yet, and we were fast and we knew when it came down to the last 20 orbits, we were going to be right up there at the front, and I'd like to thank major-sponsor again, 'cause I've only mentioned them once this breath, but you know, it's OK, 'cause we'll be back next week and we're still racking up championship points, and this major-sponsor team just has too much heart to let this get us down, and I'm too good-natured to mess up the advertising value by saying what I really think about that Jett Gordon that made me crash into the asteroid belt."
And remember the best way to put out an alcohol fire is water. Lots and lots of water. Don't waste your time gathering up all the not-quite-halon extinguishers, just go get a lot of buckets.
Darl?
Is that you???
... but maybe not in desktops. I just bought a blade from them with RH.
God, I HATE the way that looks. Spinning the desk top around to back side. Where have I seen that effect before? Oh yeah, 4000 used car dealer commercials. Alt-Fn and a quick switch so I can do what I want will do just fine thanks.
And live video for the desktop background, right. Let's see, got just enough time to pull the browser back up and snipe that ebay auction... oh no! car headlights! I CAN'T SEE THE EYE COONNNNNNNNNNNNN!
The story is probably more amusing than factual. I don't know the regulations in the UK but in the US a video microwave transmitter would operate between .1 watt and a whopping 4 watts. On top of that, a steerable dish controller would have a hardware limit independent of any software to keep it from pointing up or down at an angle that's useless for transmission.
Yes, even driving a less sophisticated sprint car on a dirt track, I counted roughly that many parameters just in the suspension.
And, as others commented, 68 is a start. Next they can add the proper weights to parameters for yellow flags; 0 for clear track. 1 for stationary yellow. 2 for yellow flag being waved frantically. And of course, add 4 for a long black stripe of oil on the line.
I also find it curious that they want to start in F1, a series that has already banned computer controlled suspension. I'm sure Bernie would be very receptive to even more computer control. Maybe they ought to take a tip from drivers who begin their racing career in karts and start with a slower simpler platform.
I've worked for a couple of companies that have advertised huge bonuses and paychecks to work on projects in the middle east. None of the assignments were like post-war Iraq, so this might not apply. The jobs were all in countries with stable locally-owned and operated governments, and these were not a US government funded projects, so excess costs didn't get billed back.
I never had a desire to go, based on the experience of others who had returned and told how their huge paychecks were eaten away by various bribes. For instance, you could live in a tent... or... you could pay a local a nice bundle to get you into some kind of better housing.
Those who returned had two complaints; they were bored to death the whole time they were there, and a lot of their money went to paying off the local insiders.
My God, man. You're watching history being made. Enjoy it.
If incredibly dominant teams damaged the sport, it would have already been terminally ill after the McLaren/Proust/Senna years when other teams were lucky to finish on the same lap with the leaders.
NTSC analog tv goes dark Dec. 31, 2006. May 2003 was the deadline for all stations to be simulcasting NTSC & DTV.
You can buy a set top convertor (IRD) right now for $300+. I decided to buy one from Best Buy after borrowing one and liking the DTV SD signal a lot better than analog. I looked it up on the website and then went to my local store... but the high tech sales dude had no idea what I was talking about.
D'oh!
You say that as if it were a bad thing.
Software should be free as in Free Parking.
NTSC uses a color reference signal, ("burst") and picture colors are defined by their phase relative to burst. Think of the color wheel as 360 degrees of color and you get a similar idea. Burst and color information are carried in a sine wave subcarrier.
Throughout the video chain in say, a TV station, that phase relationship must be maintained as it passes through various video processors. Most every device has 3 opportunities to muck up the color phase and many of those devices strip the color burst and reinsert their own. Typically, video editors and operators have a control for phase correction of the video, phase correction of the studio synchronizing subcarrier, and of course the hue (also a phase control) of the monitor they view the signal on.
A common mistake is to make a color adjustment without realizing which of the 3 is out of spec. For instance, if the monitor is 6 degrees counterclockwise, someone often turns a processor control 6 degrees clockwise to make the picture look better. (Wrong!) By the time you see the picture on your TV, it may easily have passed by 100 adjustment possibilities.
NTSC depends on one sine wave, but PAL uses two. When phase is misadjusted in a PAL system, the result is colors that are muted or washed out, but the basic hue remains the same.
BTW, yes it is "Never Twice the Same Color." The system invented by the Russians (and used by France) is SECAM or, "Something Essentially Contrary to the American Method," and was followed by the more faithful European PAL system or "Peace At Last."
main(once, was)
{
a = unix_owner;
who(pulled, a, PR_BONER) {
they->staked_out[some_claims && called(ppl_names)];
}
but_everyone_knew(darl, was, a, stoner);
}
birdtraq has a posting documenting the 'falcon exploit' describing it as a DOS (denial of seed) attack similar to the 'buckshot' attack, in that not only is the route broken, but the media is eaten. It is noted that even though the carrier may seasonally be reclassified as 'lunch' the data payload may be considered unappetizing and therefore recoverable. Affected users may attempt the alternate SSL (Slow Sparrow Layer) method in hopes of being overlooked. The vulnerability affects owl users of Linux and Windows. In a related story, SCO claims that since it has proved in court that it owns all code ever written, it will be selling licenses on a per egg basis to existing pigeon owners as soon as the massive hummingbird attack on its own server ends.
My two personal favorites (locations withheld for fiscal security reasons) were in eastern Colorado; a dirt strip where the key to the fuel pump was hidden on the side of a hangar in case you needed fuel during its mostly unattended hours - and one in central Kansas, where a cigar box was left at the pump on weekends. Pump, leave your money in the cigar box and you're off.
Gee, if WalMart worked that way, they could all be 24 hour stores.
"The FCC is going to hate it, but even they are unlikely to be able to force the shutdown of analog TV under current conditions..."
You'd think, hunh? After all, the FCC said that if at least 85% of homes can't get DTV, they'd stretch the dark date.
Oh, but some of our illustrious congressmen have decided to "solve the DTV problem." Reps Tauzin and Dingel propose to:
1. Force the end of analog TV on Dec. 31 of 2006. Forget about whether you don't want to buy a new DTV or if you give a fat furry rodent's behind about hi-def programming.
2. Force all TV stations to pass network programming without changing to a lower resolution. So what, you ask.It means that your local cable system (who 'must carry' local broadast stations) will have to give up the bandwidth of 4 cable channels for every broadcast station taking a hi-res feed. 'nother good idea!
3. Force the broadcast flag into every DTV receiver built after a 6-month period. Are you listening Hollywood? We're Congress, and we're here to help.
4. After 2005, no TVs could have analog outputs. Sure, you can have a big screen, and it can have 4-channel Dolby sound. BUT YOU CAN'T HOOK IT UP TO YOUR STEREO.Great.
And you thought the FCC had some bad ideas.
When you say "industry says..." you mix two different industries. The broadcast industry was orginally near finalizing an HDTV standard that would have been compatible with your NTSC television. The goal was to transition to digital the same way TV transitioned from monochrome to color, whenever you felt like buying a new TV.
The "industry" that barged in at the last minute and pushed 18 different formats, resulting in a standard that was totally incompatible with your NTSC TV was a computer industry group. (I'm sure no one would be surprised to learn that Microsoft was part of the group)
Almost every member of that group had been invited to participate in creating the standard, but ignored the invitation until the draft was ready to present to the FCC.
Broadcasters had seen what competing standards had done to AM stereo (do YOU have a stereo AM radio now?) and basically caved, accepting the non-compatible 18-format TV standard that you're going to fork your money over to watch.
So when you use "industry" be sure to mention whether you mean the television industry or Bill Gates.
Yes, PBS stations are being funded through their traditional channel, the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) grant system. PTFP has been funding digital conversion for public stations since 1998. Their grant awards in August may be the last year for funding digital transmission since all PBS stations are required to be digital in May 2003.
Quoting the MPEG site,on MPEG-4 at http://mpeg.telecomitalialab.com/standards/mpeg-4/ mpeg-4.htm
"MPEG-4, with formal as its ISO/IEC designation 'ISO/IEC 14496', was finalized in October 1998 and became an International Standard in the first months of 1999. The fully backward compatible extensions under the title of MPEG-4 Version 2 were frozen at the end of 1999, to acquire the formal International Standard Status early in 2000."
So MPEG is trying to capitalize on themselves?
And in addition to DShor's math, the per-pixel cost is 4 times as much for the disposable than a $1000 camera. In a sense you're paying 4 times as much for a lesser quality photo. .3/16 = .019
.004 - if you pay more than $16 for that ski vacation with your family and friends, a camera that brings back clear pictures year after year isn't such a big expense.
4/1000 =