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Star Wars Prequels

Submission + - Lucas Makes More Changes to the Trilogy

Submitted by Stenchwarrior
Stenchwarrior writes: Many would argue that the original "Star Wars" films were masterpieces when they were first released (the prequels not so much). However George Lucas just can't stop futzing around with his creations.

The billionaire filmmaker's latest change can be seen in the upcoming Blu-ray release of the original trilogy. In the battle between Luke Skywalker and the Emperor in "Return of the Jedi," Lucas has given Darth Vader a new bit of dialogue.
Space

Submission + - Apollo 18 Begs The Question (What If) 1

Submitted by tetrahedrassface
tetrahedrassface writes: The cinematic release today of Apollo 18 begs the question of what would have become our collective space faring history had the program not been tragically canceled. It is in fact a historical truth that Apollo 18 did fly, as a joint flight between Russia and the United States. Apollo 18 did in fact fly, but not to the moon. However had the Apollo missions continued, where would be now. It is likely that we would have landed on Mars, have a permanent presence on Luna, have mutiple space observatories that were larger, and more powerful. Conceivably the Saturn V rockets could have lofted platforms for fuel depots, and components for a larger space station further out into orbit. The loss of the Saturn V's represents a loss od America's frontier spirit, and from the great technological victory we achieved we now sit moribound in low Earth orbit. Though the movie may be fiction, it still begs the question, what if?
Education

Submission + - Open Source RTI Progress Monitoring Software?

Submitted by tetrahedrassface
tetrahedrassface writes: My wife is an Exceptional Educator in an inner city school. As an exceptional educator she does a lot of progress monitoring and there isn't a web-based or computer based program that we've found that is Open Source. After did a bit of searching we found a closed, and proprietary RTI Progress Monitoring suite that seems to be just what teachers need, however it is pricey, and only runs on Windows. I was wondering if anyone out there has seen a multiple platform open source program that RtI Progress Monitoring Charts, Documentation of Observations, Interventions for Academic, Behavioral and Speech Goals and Assessments, plus Benchmarking and is Open Source, free and efficient?
Idle

Submission + - Guitar Makers and Owners Under The Gun. (wsj.com)

Submitted by tetrahedrassface
tetrahedrassface writes: According to the Wall Street Journal, Federal agents again raided guitar maker Gibson this past week seizing several pallets of wood and computer documents. At heart of the issue is the wood that is being used in guitars and whether or not it comes from sustainable sources. The company insists it is being harassed and made to 'cry uncle' to the governments enforcement laws. While, as the article notes, wonderful woods like Madagascar Ebony, Brazilian Rosewood and other fret and tone woods are protected in order to prevent the equivalent of 'blood diamond like trade' in sought after tone woods, the ramafications now extend to guitar sowners. Owners and players are next in sights of this enforcement. If you play a vintage guitar, or a hand built guitar made of old stock woods that were legally obtained years ago, but only recently crafted into an ax, you best not fly with it. John Thomas, a law professor at Quinnipiac University and a blues and ragtime guitarist, says "there's a lot of anxiety, and it's well justified." Once upon a time, he would have taken one of his vintage guitars on his travels. Now, "I don't go out of the country with a wooden guitar." That's right. Recent revisions to various laws and the Lacey Act mean if you carry your guitar across the border and don't have your paperwork and certification in hand, they will seize the guitar and fine you 250.00. So if your planning that dream vacation to France and want to play your acoustic in the air of France (or anywhere else) be forewarned. They are gunning for you.
Linux

Submission + - It's Amazing Really (How Far We've Come)

Submitted by tetrahedrassface
tetrahedrassface writes: In 2000, being newly married and very interested in Linux, I installed Linux on a machine that my wife was using. Well, the install went worse than expected and besides the winmodem not being supported, the Xfree86 didn't like the video card too much. Also, in attempting to manually partition the harddrive I wiped and deleted all my wife's resumes and documents on accident (Sorry honey). She almost divorced me over that one. Anyway in the ensuing years I put Linux on almost any machine my friends and family would dare let me touch. Mostly dual boot configurations, and my friends and family would always complain about having it installed. Yesterday my father borrowed my laptop running linux. I let him start the machine, login with the password and he was amazed. Whereas he always before never liked or was attracted to the look and feel of any distro I foisted on him, this time it was different. He browsed the web, checked his email. I let him go through the screensavers. I showed him how my digital camera is easily mounted. Gimp blew him away, as did LibreOffice. In aby event, I used to be derided by him for my Healthy Linux Addiction (tm). After he worked for an hour two, he said 'Son if I bring my laptop down here tomorrow will you put that on there'. My jaw hit the floor and it just reminded me of how far this whole thing has come. Imagine that, my dad asking for me to install Linux because he likes it. Maybe the world truly is ending, and pigs are about to start flying. We've come a long way.

Comment Why wait on Goog? (Score 3, Interesting) 240

by tetrahedrassface (#37200262) Attached to: Can Google Save Us From Slow Internet

Chattanooga achieved 1Gb/sec on EPB's network without any help at all, and both AT&T and Comcast fighting them every step of the way. The fight went well on up the court system hierarchy but the end result is that the fastest service in the U.S. is now here in tiny Chattanooga. I'm proud of that, and can attest firsthand for the quality and cost savings of their service. We went from roughly 600.00 for phone and internet on our business to 100.00/month. Now, why should we wait or expect to burden Google with this, when the very power to attain this resides in your very own communities.. Takes a little doing tho. Good Luck@!

Comment Chicken meets egg.Y (Score 3) 104

by tetrahedrassface (#37197920) Attached to: NASA Creating Laser Communication System For Mars

Nice planning on the communication system. Nice to see good solid planning, development and R&D. It's what NASA is good at. They also design pretty good rockets, rockets that used to take us places. Now that we have a better network, lets build the SLS and quit relying vaporcraft to get us there. Let,s quit cutting funding, and make it a priority to travel to are causing a brai Mars. We put a human on the moon and can do it again. The SLS can get us there.. we still have the brain power to go to Mars, but our politicians and misguided and overly hopeful privatization plans.... Less than one tenth of one percent of our budget is spent on space... For all of you wanting to save money, if privatizing space makes sense, why not privatize our national security, epa, and social security?? We need a heavy lifter!

Comment Spending is not cut enough! (Score 1) 788

by tetrahedrassface (#36958160) Attached to: Re: the debt deal reached Sunday night ...

Our federal government is simply too large. As a socially liberal person who doesn't mind gay marriage, or legalized marijuana, or believe the ten commandments should be posted everywhere, or a host of other right wing positions for that matter, I do believe our federal government should be smaller. What we really needed was a set of massive cuts across the board to entitlements and military spending above and beyond 5 or 6 trillion dollars. This plan merely kicks this rusted, tetanus infected can down the road, and we are running out of road.

At least in my families personal life we can see that borrowing 42.3 cents to spend a dollar is not sound financial planning! Currently the only debt we have is our house, and we are about to get really serious in paying it off. Washington is a good example of how not to run a budget, and the credit card for D.C. should be torn up and a balanced budget amendment passed. That's what we did in our household and it has taken a few years and some sacrifice but being 80% debt free is a great feeling.

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