I've had high-speed since it was available in my area, long before most people in my town did.

I've been a bandwidth hog in the past. I used to leave file-sharing programs running all day long, keeping seeds active (all legal stuff of course!) So, I definitely can identify with those who abuse the service.

For the past 5 or so years, though, finding a high-speed ISP that doesn't get bogged down around 7pm each night is nearly impossible. I've started getting up early, just so that I can watch streamed video without it queueing. Internet access is like everything else, it's limited.

I know that 10% of the people use 90% of the bandwidth. If the ISP just identifies those people, and charges them 25-50% more, then maybe they'll leave and go some place else.

Is it so unreasonable to want this? There are other options for hosting servers (ie. SDSL), and if people want to host large amount of video files to others, they shouldn't be scared of such services. Leave standard consumer-level internet packages who use a standard amount of data.

Well, from what I see in the .pdf, they can set the gait of the robot, and then just let it crawl, using the preset list of positions.

It is autonomous in a sense. The controls for the different positions come from within the software. The human only gives a single instruction (walk with this gait), and then all the small instructions to make it function come from software.

As far as the semantics go, I am a bit annoyed that they call it a robot, since there are no feedback loops that allow the device to make any type of decisions. But, consider that:

• a) Robotics is a much newer word than Robot, and has a much stricter definition. Using non-biological methods to move limbs is frequently referred to as a subset of robotics, even when the device is not autonomous.
• b) The word "robot" most likely comes from a play written in 1920. The "robots" here are essentially artificial life, made from some strange new chemical. The word "robot" comes from a Czech word that roughly means "worker". Although the robots in the play are fully autonomous, the idea of a non-living worker does not imply autonomy.

tl:dr: I'd let it slide

Also, most people have only seen this film through the edits made by MST3K.

I normally love all MST3K stuff, but in this case, they complain about how the whole movie just doesn't make sense. The reason it doesn't make sense is that a lot of the important scenes were cut out, to make room for all the MST3K content. They chose to cut out plot-important scenes so that they could be sure to preserve all the "driving in silence" scenes at the beginning of the movie.

Essentially, MST3K edited it horribly, and then proceeded to make fun of how badly it was edited.

Awesome link!

I always remember mosquitoes as being the primary example of a pest that serves no known purpose.

Sure, other things that seem to be pests have upsides, but not mosquitoes. Anything that enjoys eating them will be just as happy dining on whatever insect increases to take their place.

Why do we still use this terminology (x86)?

I thought the last x86 processor produced was the Pentium Pro

When the Pentium 4 came out, it was frequently called the "7th generation", but it was never called the 786 or 80786, either formally or informally. Sure, it's just naming conventions, but that's exactly what x86 is about, it's about a trend in naming conventions.

My new hobby will be referring to processors as having x87 architecture, as a distinction to indicate they support floating point instructions.

We all know that zombie Nazis only exist in Norway

Reminds me a little of our library. I would be able to see it from my window if they had built it above ground, but they chose to go down instead.

The legend of this decision lives on through a song about the Morrow Plots. As the song goes, "You Can't Throw Shade on The Corn!"

The Morrow Plots were built in 1876 as an experimental field for growing crops, and is the oldest such field in existence in the western hemisphere. It might not sound like that big of a landmark, but the university decided to build our library underground to preserve it.

All the concept art in the technology review article clearly shows transparent floors.

The way I understand "clear or transparent core walls", some floors will have clear, others would have transparent. It seems obvious to me that the first 10 stores (shopping malls, etc) would have transparent walls, so that the space would feel more natural.

Whether pedestrians are allowed to walk across the glass courtyard is a different question.

SMS technically is not free. If it was, then they would just send all voice data through SMS packets.

Voice data is limited. SMS is limited. (see the Shannon-Hartley theorem page on wikipedia.) With basic GSM or CDMA, a voice channel was used to send SMS data. Although the channel was quickly released after being reserved, it still could cause a tower to be overloaded, if each person sent enough text messages per second.

With GPRS (aka 2.5g), SMS were moved to a separate data packet type that could piggyback onto a voice channel that was already in use for a different SU. The motivation for the change of the standard was that customers would not ever be changed by the networks again for SMS.

Now, we are throwing around terms like 3g and 4g, and most carriers still charge differently for plans with and without text plans. This should make it plainly obvious to everyone that it's a gimmick to get more out of the average customer, which I believe was your point. But your assessment that it is technically "free" for the carrier is incorrect.

Well, the amount of movement of the plates (continental drift) is definitely outside of our control. If some fracking did cause the earthquake to happen prematurely, then it is probably set to go an even longer than normal stretch now before the next earthquake.

Probably.

I played it when it came out, and thought it was extremely boring after getting about 15 hours in. It was neat that it had combat both in ships and on the ground, but neither was great.

My brother liked it a lot, but quit when he found out I was. I asked what was so great, and he just said "There's something extremely satisfying about going around and blowing up Klingons."

I think my brother's statement sums up the game well. If you are a shallow person, and and love just blowing up Klingons because they are Klingons, then this game will scratch that itch. Otherwise, it's probably not worth the monthly cost.

Once it goes free, I'll probably check it out again.

I remember when it was announced, and it was big news then. In fact, I actually had intended to buy it when it came out.

When it did come out, I never even heard of it, and I read a lot of game magazines. I completely had forgotten about it until now.

Nope, I remember. It was the least conservative republican president that I've experienced. I also remember a very liberal congress going along with it at the time. In fact, Ernest Hollings (D) was the one who introduced the bill to the senate.

Looking at the TSA today, with it's $8.1 billion budget, and very few successes, I think it is certainly time to reconsider its usefulness. I doubt you listen to Rush Limbaugh, but he despises the TSA as much as anyone, and I've never heard anyone accuse him of being a liberal.

Americans fear their government more now than at any time in history. Kind of funny if your from foreignland.

You don't know much about American history, then.

200 years ago, The Federalist Party wanted a strong centralized government, and couldn't compete with the Democrat-Republican Party. People opposed any expansion of government at the time, and the idea that the federal government could run their own bank and carry their own debt was so hated by people that they lost every election from 1800 to 1820, and eventually folded. Today, if any politician wanted the government to shrink to that size, they would just be laughed away by all current parties (except maybe libertarian)

100 years ago, no one would have trusted the government to even regulate schools. Now, the government owns the school system, and teachers can't discuss their own religion because they are government employees!

75 years ago, there was incredible opposition to Social Security, even though the average SS check to a retired person would only be $17.50 per month, and would be based on that individual's wages over the previous 5 years. Today, SS provides enough income that many people live off of it, and all retired citizens are eligible.

In 1973, the Federal government wanted to implement a national speed limit. The current opinion was that it was obviously unconstitutional. Finally the law was made, but it wasn't a mandate. States only had to comply if they wanted to continue receiving federal funding for their roads. The courts decided to let it slide. This set the standard for how laws were crafted for 20 years. Today, our legislatures don't even give a second thought for stuff like this. The courts don't even challenge them.

If US citizens feared the government just half as much as they did 100 years ago, then we wouldn't have HUD. We wouldn't have the TSA. The FDA would only regulate selling drugs with incorrect labels, and there would be no banned substances list. We wouldn't have government schools. We wouldn't have the DMV. We wouldn't have Food Stamps or Welfare. We wouldn't have government backed student loans or government backed car companies. Our cars would not need to pass emission testing, and would not be limited by cafe standards. Our showers could put out any amount of water that the customer chose, and we wouldn't have laws regulating what method we use for generating light in our houses. And no one would even think of trying to implement government health care.

The security stuff is rather strange. I don't think the government should be allowed to track you any more than I am allowed to track you. If people wake up and suddenly realize that the government is controlling too much and becoming dangerous because of this, then it's a good discussion.

I agree about it being a beautiful design and concept. Why send expensive aggressive robots to dominate a new species you find on a new planet, when you can just raise their dead and control the masses with slow moving zombies?

I sure hope I'm not misunderstanding your reference.