Quickies, Coast to Coast 233
Let's start this off with some violence!
BigBlockMopar
answered the age-old question: what happens when a tank runs over a hard drive.
NeoCode sent the The Illustrated Guide To Breaking Your Computer, and finally,
matticus discovered The Overclockerz Store is selling burnt-up athlons/durons made into keychains.
Now that we've got that out of our system, lets get some schoolin' by learning
about the facts of life:
spankweasel sent in the invisible condom.
Now math:
Jonathan Hayward sent us
A four-dimensional maze.
And some history:
John Willemin sent us a nostalgia
inducing Microsoft Ad from the days of yore.
After a hard day of education, why not travel home on your lawn mower powered
hoverboard at
a cool 15mph? (thanks LenZ)
Then we can play some
dot-com monopoly (thanks to gmag3) and see what's on TV.
MTO sent us Trailers for the Dune miniseries, and
David Hume sent an abc
article about Vinyl Video which
attempts to generate images from your records. Finally, we better check
the weather channel to find out what the weather is gonna be like ...
on Mars
(thanks noctis).
Re:Keychains (Score:1)
DYN? (Score:3)
Re:Form of hybrid (Score:2)
mov ax, 13h
int 10h
Re:Vinyl Video (Score:2)
John Logie Baird, the Scottish inventor of a 25 line mechanical television system, made 78 RPM recordings of his video signal in the 1920s. But, due to difficulties in syncronizing the signal on the disk to the mechanical TV system, he was never able to play them back. An engineer recently obtained some of these audio tracks, and was able to process the audio into video, doing a huge amount of time base correction. Astonishing to see video from 1928. I wish I could find the link, but the link I had seen is now dead. [aol.com]
Re:Your sig (Score:1)
Asper is an adjective meaning rough, thus aspera means "rough things." I believe that the word aspire would be related to spirare, to breath. My literal translation would be "To the stars, through rough things"
"Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto"
(I am a man: nothing human is alien to me)
Re:Vinyl Video (Score:2)
After posting this, I found a working link. [dircon.co.uk]
Re:4d maze? or 3? (Score:1)
--Gfunk
Tank, spank, I want to meet those two girls. (Score:3)
Re:Even if they could clone him... (Score:1)
Yeah. Luckily, it's already been done. You see, Richard Stallman is the new messiah. This may seem like a strange time to break the truth, but it's got to come out some time I suppose. The proof? Just look at the similarity in beard tastes...
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HOLY CRAP! What a stupid idea! (Score:1)
Too pissed for a
Nanite
Do the solutions to rubik's cubes apply? (Score:1)
Swiss Army and gun control... (Score:1)
I know the Swiss army is largely composed of reservists, but what I don't get is how you can get to drive an SPH out of the base, get civilians on it, and play funky games with it. If you're a Swiss reservist, can you keep a tank or SPH in your garage? How does it work? Don't you get reprimanded for allowing civilians near or in a military vehicle?
And people here in the US whine about lax gun control. Sheesh.
Re:Tell Jocelyne Piret not to patent the sls gel (Score:1)
I believe this chemical is used in most shampoo's. I often read whatever I can whenever I can, and since there isn't much reading material in the shower, I have read the ingredients upon several occations. This chemical sounds aufully familiar (and sodium laureth sulfate). (BTW, I am also a chemist, so it's not _too_ wierd that I remember that sort of thing).
Re:WTF? (Score:1)
Re:Where are the keychains?!?! (Score:1)
Avoiding men's responsibility AGAIN? (Score:1)
Anne Marie's idea about this having an effect as the worldwide AIDS situation has merit. It allows women some control, when the men simply WON'T wear a condom. But it's not perfect. In parts of Africa, men (claim to) prefer sex with a woman whose vagina is very dry. Women go so far as to actually *wipe* dry (ouch) their vaginas before sex to avoid displeasing their husbands. I don't see this slippery solution working very well for them.
Jon Katz... (Score:2)
Re:That's a IBM M-type keyboard! you bastard! (Score:1)
Please donate all of your extra IBM relay-key keyboards to me, I'll gladly send you plenty of crappy Microsoft keyboards in exchange, which you can abuse all you like.
--
EFF Member #11254
Patents & The Invisible Condom (Score:2)
First, there is no such animal as a "North American Patent" there are Canadian patents, and there are U.S. patents, but there are no "North American patents."
Second, you can not get a patent for "a secret formulation", since in order to obtain the patent, the formulation must be disclosed.
Third, I did a search of the U.S. Patent Office [164.195.100.11] and of the Canadian Patent Office [ic.gc.ca], and found no patents issued to Jocelyne Piret.
So, the above data is obviously wrong. Hope you didn't get all riled up.
I do expect that there is a patent application pending for this. However, that is not necessarily a problem, if the patent is licensed, either for a nominal fee or free. So, don't get annoyed before you have all the facts.
Thalia
Re:That's a IBM M-type keyboard! you bastard! (Score:1)
Re:Condom story missing vital information (Score:2)
Re:Off Topic: Avoiding men's responsibility AGAIN? (Score:1)
My girlfriend would be rather upset to hear you say that... It's not only men who like sex. Ever hear that a woman's sex drive peaks around 30? There's a fair amount of evidence to suggest that that's mainly due to the fact that it takes women that long to fully get over having been socially conditioned to believe that girls who like sex are morally inferior. If one takes proper precautions, the risk of sex is no greater than any of a number of other activities we take for granted (such as driving). Trying to project morals from eras before effective safe sex onto the modern world is sickening, and demeaning to women.
if the 4d maze wasn't just random.. (Score:1)
'specially if the 4th dimension ("time"?) were
perhaps another project to further my own education.
Re:.. (Score:1)
---
Woah. (Score:1)
--
Re:Tell Jocelyne Piret not to patent the sls gel (Score:1)
don't believe the hype.
Re:Condom story missing vital information (Score:1)
Even if your's was true(big if there) then you would certainly see the benefit of this product to non-hookers. I bet a lot of your "women" wonder if they got something from you.(and a fair number of them probably did)
Steven
Where are the keychains?!?! (Score:1)
--
All browsers' default homepage should read: Don't Panic...
Re:Dangerous Website! (Score:1)
Of course you should wear eye protection when you do such things. Heck, they say you should wear a mask when cutting wood these days! (Something about resin particulates).
Re:"4-D" maze is actually only 3-D (Score:1)
--
Beyond three dimensions (Score:1)
I live up on a big hill, and each morning I usually go speeding down on my bicycle. There is one house down the hill with a particularly well-hidden driveway, out of which a car occasionally comes backing out. A couple of months ago I was racing down when the car starting backing out. There was no chance of stopping in time, so I had to crash into a nearby tree to avoid hitting the car. The usual pain and obscenities insued.
Now, a rational person would take this as a sign that he should bike more slowly and cautiously down this hill. Fortunately, I am blind to common sense. But a strange thing has happened. Twice since then, as I started biking down the hill, I had the "feeling" that the car was about to come backing out. Both times I slowed down. And both times my instinct was correct, as the car came backing out as my feeling indicated it would.
I could not see or hear the car (my bike is kind of noisy since hitting the tree), and even if I could I would have no way of knowing that the car was actually going to back up (as opposed to just idle there for a while) Is it possible from my previous accident that I've learned how to see where this car is going to be X seconds ahead of time?
The daily bike journey is the only time I ever really get this feeling, so I suppose I will continue the experiment until I either hit the car (or tree while avoiding it), or correctly predict its appearance enough times to convince me that it's not just a coincidence. But regardless, I'm not willing to rule out our capacity to see into a future (not "the future", since there are probably an infinite number of those...)
Re:Swiss Army and gun control... (Score:1)
Wonder if it makes a good pickup vehicle? At least you'd be immune to 'road rage'...
Airboard is a spoof/joke site (Score:1)
I didn't see the Olympic games ceremonies... in fact I don't have a TV set. Did these Airboard things really work?
I took a look at the web site, and the pictures look heavily re-touched. And the technical specs page is a real let-down!
Top speed of around 25km/h is not bad compared to an aluminium scooter, but the other stuff makes it a laughable kid's toy!
Limited to an incline of 5% (a 1 in 20 slope) and limited to 100kg payload! I weigh about 90kg already! Add a stout pair of boots, packed lunch and fishing gear, and I'd be well over that limit.
And that disclaimer:
makes me think it's just a joke site.Re:Where are the keychains?!?! (Score:2)
Pansy Puzzle (Score:1)
Connah
Re:4d Maze (Score:1)
Re:Condom story missing vital information (Score:1)
Mmmm... minty fresh twat... oh sweet jesus, it's got teeth!! Ow, my nose.
-- Notes from the pussy revolution
Re:Dangerous Website! (Score:2)
-- Sig (120 chars) --
Your friendly neighborhood mIRC scripter.
Re:Keychains (Score:1)
Re:That's a IBM M-type keyboard! you bastard! (Score:2)
Not that you would ever need to buy one if you already have one. Mine has been through more trauma than I care to recall. I got pissed once and threw it through a plate glass window into a lake, and it was working fine half an hour later.
Microsoft Ad mirrors? (Score:1)
Re:That's a IBM M-type keyboard! you bastard! (Score:1)
I wonder if this is why they have started making them lighter and "safer" nowadays; perhaps the designers are taking workplace violence into consideration in their designs.
--
EFF Member #11254
Tank (Score:3)
Less of a tank and more of a SP howitzer.
Re:Form of hybrid (Score:2)
Tux has made it on to the Monopoly Board! (Score:2)
It's good to see that Tux has made it on to one of the squares!
4d maze? or 3? (Score:2)
But then again I could be missing something here. Wouldn't be the first time, I was wrong once before but it turned out I was mistaken.
:)
Jason
Real World 4 dimensional maze (Score:4)
Re:4d maze? or 3? (Score:2)
The 4th dimension comes in because you can move to any white space in any of the adjacent squares, not just 2 of them (up and down). Imagine moving in your own square as 2 dimensions (left and right), the squares above or below your big sqare as the third dimension (up and down), and the squares to the left and right of your big square as your forth dimension (left and right, but on a different "level").
The Good Reverend
Tank over a Hard Drive (Score:2)
also wrong headed (Score:2)
Condoms are always breaking news for those who depend on them.
Don't want AIDS? Sit down and keep your mouth shut.
Re:Avoiding men's responsibility AGAIN? (Score:2)
And I, also being male, also having experienced with and without condoms, can honestly say that there is enough of a sensation difference to matter. Sure, if it's a condom or nothing, I choose the condom, but anything that makes the condom unnecessary is great in my book. I won't even use latex condoms, I buy the polyurethane (if that's how you spell it) ones, because they're thinner. People have different tastes, just because you don't feel a difference doesn't mean others won't.
Re:That's a IBM M-type keyboard! you bastard! (Score:2)
They do implode... (Score:2)
When the front of the tube is smashed, the fragments go flying to the rear of the tube. They hit the back of it and then rebound and fly back out the front.
It is very very nasty if you happen to be near it.
4th dimension and time (Score:2)
First, dimensions don't have a specific ordering. Time is, according to relativity, one dimension, and space gives us three more. You are welcome to mix them up, that's the Lorentz transform (stationary -> moving frame).
Time is a little different from space, though. Spacetime is hyperbolic, not Euclidean, since time has a different metric sig (or if you prefer, is represented by imaginary rather than real coordinates). Also, if we believe in causality it is one way.
When people say n-D, they are usually referring to a Euclidean space, so spacetime doesn't work. Of course you are welcome to pick any n dimensions you want. In the maze the dimensions are quantized, so the four dimensions are easy to choose - the coordinates of the board and on the board!
Re:/. effect (Score:2)
The funny part is that Tom still kept it up, despite the fact that he [cmu.edu] is now privy to the world's largest Internet uplink [ncne.net] for civilian use, and is also a TA for 15-212 [principles...amming.org], which I'm currently taking.
Screw that Tank - Hello Chicks (Score:2)
what I really want is the digits of that chick. The burnette, not the redhead.
Anyone?
Off Topic: Avoiding men's responsibility AGAIN? (Score:3)
Your post seems like a dream - for WOMEN WHO CAN'T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO HAVE SOME DISCRETION ABOUT WHO THEY FUCK!
Seriously, it shouldn't be a problem as intercourse requires two people. If a man doesn't want to put on a condom, the woman can close her legs and say no. You can argue that he might force her anyways and rape her, but how would she get into this situation in the first place? People have sex too easily, and should try to be a little more picky about who they let in their pants. This goes for both men and women. It's not that difficult to wait longer than a week after meeting someone before having sex. It just takes a little bit of common sense, which most humans don't seem to have.
One thing that seperates humans from animals is the fact that we can restrain ourselves from acting on impulses. If you want to have sex with someone but don't have a lot of trust with that person, then you are an idiot if you act on it. Sex is more than just having an orgasm, because there can be very life changing consequences. Try to have a meaningful relationship rather than just busting a nut and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Hovercraft? not enough power! (Score:3)
Re:if the 4d maze wasn't just random.. (Score:2)
Bill - aka taniwha
--
That's a IBM M-type keyboard! you bastard! (Score:3)
There are a lot of fans for these keyboards who will happily adopt it from you, please don't destroy them. A new one is 80+ dollars.
6-dimensional maze (Score:2)
Re:Off Topic: Avoiding men's responsibility AGAIN? (Score:3)
Real Mars Weather (Score:3)
Mars Today [nasa.gov] It includes current conditions. I believe this site has been up before the Internet was popular.
And current solar data [maj.com] for those intersted
~afniv
"Man könnte froh sein, wenn die Luft so rein wäre wie das Bier"
Desert Power (Score:2)
RCA inferior to LaserDiscs (Score:2)
Note: I have a bunch of Lasers, and there's nothing like freaking out a bunch of people when they come over and see a pristine copy of Bladerunner playing backwards at 1/8 speed
Pope
Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength! Monopolies offer Choice!
Re:4d maze? or 3? (Score:3)
I thought 4D was 'time', too. Until I read this intro [reading.ac.uk] to the 4th D. Here's a picture [reading.ac.uk] of a 4D cube(hypercube).
Later, while looking at the puzzle, I noticed and gave thought to the fact that you can move upwards to two different places, and still be going up. That, I think, is the more obvious basis for that being a 4D cube, layed out in 2D.
Here's an excerpt from the intro:
An introduction to the fourth dimension
Man has been fascinated about the possibility of there being more than three dimensions ever since he has understood the concept. Henry More (1614-1687) considered that spirits have four dimensions. H.G. Wells suggested that the fourth dimension is time in The Time Machine. This can be misleading in fact since time is somewhat different from the other three dimensions as we know them. Abbott's Flatland (1) is probably nearer the mark. He considers the life of a 2-dimensional square which suddenly has the chance to travel in three dimensions. This gives the square the ability to see inside objects in its 2-dimensional world, something it previously thought was impossible. Using this analogy from three to four dimensions, we would be able to see inside solid objects if we were able to break out of our own 3-dimensional world into the fourth dimension. Taking the analogy further, when a 3-dimensional object crosses a 2-dimensional world its inhabitants simply see an object appear from nowhere, grow in size, changing its shape in a rather odd manner if the object is irregular, and then decrease in size until it disappears again. In our world this would be the equivalent of an object suddenly appearing somewhere, growing in size, shrinking and then disappearing without trace. This may soung very disturbing but this is because we do not fully understand the fourth dimension.
VinylVideo (Score:2)
Re:4d maze? or 3? (Score:2)
Re:Off Topic: Avoiding men's responsibility AGAIN? (Score:3)
What's the difference between you, sounding off on your opinions about sexuality, and some religious conservative demanding abstinence until marriage? Bully for you if you can stick to your code of ethics, but you have no business lecturing the rest of us.
It just takes a little bit of common sense, which most humans don't seem to have.
Bullshit. Human beings are built to fuck. It's part of who we are, it's part of being a living organism. Sexual diseases and unwanted pregnancies are unfortunate, sad, and inevitable; avoiding them takes knowledge, willpower, and a cultural context that is by no means universal. Do you have any idea how recent the idea that sex can kill you really is? How can another way to prevent disease be anything but a step forward?
Your attitude toward rape is sickening. Learn some compassion.
-Mars
But we like Hasbro! (Score:3)
You see, my brain was filled with these products at an early age, like most of the other guys here. We learned a lot from those 30 second clips at the end of every G.I. Joe cartoon where they told us, "knowing is half the battle."
For many of us, Hasbro is the company that raised us as our parents were working/abandoning us/etc so we grew up with what we learned from TV, comic books, and our toys. Hasbro was a major company that helped me become the person I am today.
Illustrated guide to breaking your computer... (Score:2)
Is anyone surprised?
Re:Form of hybrid (Score:2)
mov ax, 13h
int 10h
/. effect (Score:2)
Re:Quickies, Coast to Coast (Score:2)
Athlon Keychains (Score:2)
Invisible condom (Score:2)
--
Re:Where are the keychains?!?! (Score:2)
http://ocz.safeshopper.com/29/5934.htm?562
It may be cheaper than blowing up your own chip, but it's less fun.
Re:Where are the keychains?!?! (Score:2)
i ordered one a couple days ago
Microsoft Ad Mirror! (Score:3)
so, i put it up on my verio account. here's the new link (if there are any moderators, either please moderate this up or tell taco or whatever so the link will be right:
http://www.p3.net/~kritik/microsoft-ad/windows-fu
anyways... reading my web server logs should be interesting =)
-jjw
Re:That's a IBM M-type keyboard! you bastard! (Score:2)
You bastard! That is a IBM's legendary buckling spring M-type keyboard that the kid drilled on! Those keyboards deserve some respect, I tell ya, they are better than any of CmdrTaco's lame keyboards combined.
Agreed. The only keyboard in the same league as those (and their compact PS/2 cousin) is the two-tone brown keyboard that shipped with early Compaq Deskpros. Actually, I like it for exactly the opposite reasons that I like the loud IBM spring-loaders.
Sometimes, you want to feel like you're using a Selectric to type your e-mail, sometimes you don't.
I wish the guy had destroyed a really cheesy no-name clone keyboard instead.
Re:Hovercraft? not enough power! (Score:2)
When I was about 10 years old I ordered a "How to make a hovercraft" manual from the back of an old Donald Duck mag. The magazine was published in about 1950, somehow the company still had some lying around. So I tried to make it.
Bassicly you stick a vacume cleaner moter on a circular peice of wood. and put some lining underneth the disc of wood to hold the air.
guess what. it didn't work. by the time I was done (even at the age of 10) I could till the vacume cleaner moter wasn't going to cut it. The design, i think, could have worked (well maybe not). but with a much more powerfull moter. besides who wants to hover around and be plugged into the wall?
-Jon
Re:Don't buy dot-com monopoly (Score:2)
--
(4d maze)how fast did you solve it? (Score:2)
Condom story missing vital information (Score:3)
Ok, colorless, odorless, all these are great accomplishments. But for me(and admit it guys, a lot of you too) this thing needs to be tasteless as well.
Steven
New amazon.com navigation page (Score:2)
(moderators: tired of election jokes? then moderate this down as flamebait!)
--
You call *that* breaking a computer?!? (Score:2)
Let's NOT pirate Dune (Score:2)
It's stated on Sci-Fi's website that if there's enough interest, we stand a chance of seeing books 2-6 come to the small screen. I would LOVE to see this happen, and don't want to see anything out there that might jeapordize the rest of the serieses (serii?).
I'm a big fan of Lynch's film, mostly because I'm a Lynch fan and partly because I can tell myself that it was just "inspired" by Herbert, and not an adaptation thereof. If the SciFi channel's miniseries is as good as it looks, many Herbert fans (myself included) will be VERY happy, and VERY hungry for more.
South Park made Comedy Central... It's hard to argue this. Once SP started, they received some pitiful number of nielsen points -- but it was a LOT for cable networks. It gave them the room to charge more for advertising and fund other creative ventures. That's what SciFi is gambling on with Dune, I'd imagine.
I don't have cable, and Sci Fi isn't in the basic lineup where I am. So I've called TCI this week to get it installed. If/when SciFi offers this on video/dvd, I'll purchase it. Things like this are what they need. It may cost a bit for the effort, but think if it as an investment in the future -- for all of us geeks.
-Chris
...More Powerful than Otto Preminger...
Re:Your sig (Score:2)
There's nothing about roads, rough or otherwise, in the latin.
Best Part About Mars Weather... (Score:2)
...is that after a while the Energizer bunny rabbit goes accross it. I bet a lot of people don't think about the rabbit anymore. What I'm wondering, is if they made arrangements to have some bunny appearances 100 years into the future. The company might not even be around any more. That would be trippy.
Tell Jocelyne Piret not to patent the sls gel (Score:2)
I encourage all of you to write or call her at (418) 654-2705 and andre.desormeaux@crchul.ulaval.ca and tell her that there are more important things in this world than money. It's the moral thing to do.
Comment removed (Score:3)
But... Hoverboards can't go over water (Score:2)
Hoverboard (Score:2)
But it bears a striking resemblance to the Hawkman hovercycle thingy that Flash Gordon escaped from the palace on, after Ming the Merciless' forces blew it up.
Fantasically cheesy film
'Gordon's alive?'
Re:What is that? (Score:2)
It's not Japanese. It's a talk show (with skits) that shows on Cartoon Network, using clips from a cheesy old Hanna-Barbera (Scooby Doo, The Flintstones) adventure cartoon from the 60s (IIRC) with new voices dubbed over. "Coast to Coast" was developed by Joel Hodgson, the genius who also created Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Space Ghost is the superhero who hosts the show, and Zorak is the evil alien bug who acts as the show's band leader.
---
Zardoz has spoken!
Don't buy dot-com monopoly (Score:3)
The 4d maze (Score:2)
Don't buy dot-com monopoly (Score:2)
(or at least read about another nasty lawsuit involving a billion dollar corp and anti-trust law)
--
Overclockerz Store = HORRIBLE SERVICE (Score:4)
I bought a Duron 600 pretested to do 950 from these guys. At first it seemed to work fine, but within a week it had developed serious stability problems, and eventually refused to boot at all (no POST, not even sync to the monitor). So I contacted customer service. They recommended e-mail, so I tried that first. After a week (I should have waited less time), I picked up the phone. Their only phone contact system is voice mail! You can't call up and talk to a real person, you MUST leave a message and wait to be called back. So it was 3 to 4 weeks after my initial purhcase that I was first meaningfully contacted and offered a small tech tidbit (that should have been on their site in the first place) that helped me out a bit, but in the end was a wash. Even after I had solved my first problem, tracked down another show-stopper and thought I had everything licked, my chip eventually did die.
The end result was a chip they promised to do 950 lasted less than 2 months, most of that time running at its stock 600. And unfortunately for me, as I was re-applying thermal compound and re-mounting the heatsink in a (vain) effort to revive my dead chip (I was grasping at straws at this point), I cracked a corner of the die, thus making the damned thing completely un-returnable.
So I have a $110 AMD-brand keychain-to-be of my own sitting right here on the desk.
Moral of the story? %$#@ those &*@#$es at OCZ! I bought a replacement Duron 600 for $50 and did the unlock job myself with a pencil and am running fine at 900 right now. You're better off doing it yourself than spending extra money and writing off any chance of getting service should they sell you crap akin to what I got.
MoNsTeR
Re:Vinyl Video (Score:2)
It played video disks with a needle, not too different from that of a turntable.
Re:some people think they are trash (Score:2)