55164
submission
smitty_one_each writes:
While clearly not as cool as the Antikythera Mechanism,
the more recent Tinkertoy Computer is still kinda nifty.
The Tinkertoy computer is not fully automatic: a human operator must crank the read head up and down and must manage its input. After the computer's opponent makes a move, the operator walks to the front of the machine to adjust the core piece inside the read head, registering the contestant's move.
This gadget appears to have been an MIT project with strong Danny Hillis input.
That would be Mr. "WTF my watch?" Hillis of Long Now fame. The Wikipedia entry lists no timeline for completing the thing, but they need to get cracking soon, or Styx will be too old to perform at the Nevada site's commissioning.
49372
submission
smitty_one_each writes:
Retro chic for the ueber-geek. I thought my manual transmission car and bowties had it goin' on.
Wearable game controllers, though? On running shorts? Clearly I am humbled by this outburst of 1337n355:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/01/the-nes-advanta ge-belt-buckle-so-much-retro-it-hurts/
47014
submission
smitty_one_each writes:
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/28/D8LMC4600 .html
The government discriminates against blind people by printing money that all looks and feels the same, a federal judge said Tuesday in a ruling that could change the face of American currency.
I dunno. It's obvious that the system could consider the blind more, but the relevant definition of descrimination,
treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit: racial and religious intolerance and discrimination.
indicates a far more active situation where individual merit matters.
Smacks of station identification, to me. There has got to be some cost-benefit analysis, or at least some common sense applied.
45416
submission
smitty_one_each writes:
What a cogent analysis of the Left, as seen from the Right:
http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/2006/11/ 26/wars_then_and_now_1.php
Why does the Democratic leadership seem to welcome in the thinking of a James Baker or Brent Scowcroft, especially since it once demonized realism, most notably the circumstances around the first Gulf War or the supposed Bush I failure to stop the genocide in the Balkans? Is it just petty spite at seeing GWB's own turn on him?
Or is it a deeper malaise that modern liberal internationalism is neither liberal nor international. Lacking any real belief that the United States, now or in its past, has been a continual force for good, the contemporary Left hardly wants the rest of the world to suffer the American malaise of racism, sexism, homophobia, environmental degradation, and consumerism. That self-doubt is buttressed by the idea as well that confrontation is always bad, that evil does not really exist, but is a construct we create for misunderstanding, that the world's ills are remedied by reason and dialogue.
In essence, the progressive Leftist is often affluent, insulated from the savagery about him by his material largess, and empathizes with those who are antithetical to the very forces that made him free, secure, and prosperous--as a way to assuage the guilt, at very little cost, of his own blessedness.
12051
submission
smitty_one_each writes:
You've heard the kerfluffle, now it's up to you:
- GPLv3
- GPLv2
- Artisitic
- BSD
- Cowboy Neal Driver's
8566
submission
smitty_one_each writes:
Licensing wars are both important and a frequent source of yawns. From the primal scream licensing department comes WTFPL, the "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot"[1] Public License, for when your inner coder just isn't dealing with with all that legal hooey.
Freshmeat lists four projects released under this license, including the scatalogical libcaca, "A colour ASCII art library", which is somehow appropriate.
OTOH, there is SQLite, which takes this rather refreshing approach:
** The author disclaims copyright to this source code. In place of
** a legal notice, here is a blessing:
**
** May you do good and not evil.
** May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
** May you share freely, never taking more than you give.
Ah, the lower-stress approach to existence...
[1] Phonetic alphabet alias for workplace-unsafe phrase.
