"Remember that all models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful." (George E.P. Box and Norman R. Draper, Empirical Model-Building and Response Surfaces (1987), p. 74)
"One of the most insidious and nefarious properties of scientific models is their tendency to take over, and sometimes supplant, reality." (Erwin Chargaff)
I think that says it all, really.
--Bud
One wonders if they'll be turned off by Celine Dion music — a new type of shark repellent perhaps?
Oh yes, the "Celine Dion effect" is well known. For example, playing My Heart Will Go On in railway stations late at night will magically keep the stations empty from pickpockets, rapists and other miscreants and indeed any sentient beings except cockroaches. The high notes will first melt your earwax and then your brain. Cockroaches merely lose their orientation and walk into walls.
I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work underwater too. Unless of course the sharks fight back with lasers.
--Bud
> stupid_is writes with news that Duke Nukem Forever has now gotten a firm US release date: May 3rd.
Yes, but which firm?
> It will release worldwide three days later.
Release what?
I thought "DNF" stood for Did Not Finish.
--Bud
One element I pushed was that nobody was going to be interested in their kernel, regardless of what they did, and that conversion to Linux would eventually be necessary if they were not to continue to expend millions on re-inventing the wheel.
Not a good thing to push because the kernel is the interesting part of Symbian. It's power-tight and has real-time features, both of which are very nice features in a mobile communications device. Unfortunately it only runs on ARM. Linux on the other hand runs on everything. With Qt on top of both Symbian and MeeGo, there's nowhere Nokia can't go. (There's no guarantee they'll actually go there, but they *could*.)
--Bud
Ouch - this is the best that Hubble can do? The images show serious chromatic aberrations, with significant red-blue fringing on edges. What's worse is that the effect gets more pronounced as the camera moves around.
Given that the camera moves at relativistic speeds, the chromic aberrations are probably a relativistic effect and would of course get more pronounced the faster the camera moves. Another interesting side effect is that while for you the movie is over in a matter of minutes, someone observing you will feel that the movie takes too long, and incidentally also perceive you as significantly smaller.
Kids, don't try this at home!
--Bud
What was that again? Last time I checked, Darl McBride was busy terminating SCO.
--Bud
It seems that in some cases, whiskey can now be called an energy drink.
--Bud
This novel is not to be tossed lightly aside, but to be hurled with great force. -- Dorothy Parker