That's a good idea, but I think there's more money to be saved where people are using entire colons when semi-colons would suffice.

http://www.dilbert.com/strips/?F=1&CharIDs=&ViewType=Full&NoDateRange=1&SingleDate=08%2F20%2F1996&Order=s.DateStrip&PerPage=5&After=04%2F16%2F1989&Before=03%2F26%2F2010&CharFilter=Any

I hear that square-wave signals look WAY better when they travel through way-overpriced copper rather than inexpensive copper. You can totally tell the difference!

Why stop there? I only use copper mined from a small mine in the amazon that has been blessed by a local shaman. You think your picture looks better on expensive copper? Mine comes from the freaking amazon. Like acai berries. Ever heard of them? Yeah.

My TV signal is freaking sweet.

I have a similar problem.. but it only applies to dark socks. No matter how frequently I buy new black socks and how INfrequently I buy new white socks, I always end up with "not enough dark socks."

For example, right now I am down to exactly 4 pairs of black socks and about 15-20 pairs of white socks - right after I do my laundry. And I don't even remember the last time I bought white socks.

Maybe black socks mature into white socks? (and XKCD suggested that socks may be the larval stage of wire coat hangers...)

That's a pretty intriguing idea too, but also in theory it is impossible to get energy out of that because the ratchet will actually slip due to its own thermal energy an average things out.. assuming a long period of time and all parts of ratchet being at thermal equilibrium. If the ratchet is at a lower thermal state then you really just have a miniature heat engine that extracts energy from the thermal difference, which becomes equalized. Source: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownian_ratchet?wasRedirected=true .. my apologies for the rambly runon post.. typing from my phone

Yes, I was really intrigued and confused, after reading the line:

I was thinking, wow, is this even possible? If this is true, I think they've just created a material that could behave like a passive air-conditioner, heater, refridgerator, etc., while using NO power, ever. That alone must be breaking some serious laws of thermodynamics..

"One dimension" or "one axis," would have been more appropriate than "one direction."

Not to crap on your idea, but I don't think that would work. Tires are like pencil erasers. They lose material as you use them. Anything you put on the outside of a tire, that makes contact with the ground, will be rubbed off in less than a few hundred miles. For example, if you look at a new tire, it will typically have little nubs or rubber hairs all over it (these are a result of the molding process). After you drive on them for a few hundred miles, you'll see they get rubbed away/off.

I'm sick of wall-hackers, aim-botters, and speed-hackers. I'm glad Stanford is finally looking into this, because cheating in CS has made the game thoroughly unenjoyable.

You're thinking too small.

The correct question is, how many beer kegs fit in a 0.5 micrometer fridge?

0.00000000000000000852167911 beer kegs

If the fridge interior happens to be shaped optimally so that no space is wasted and the entire 0.5 micrometer fridge is filled with keg, then.. exactly 8.52167911 * 10^-18 beer kegs (if each keg is 15.5 gallons). [Incase someone wants to out-pedant me: Yeah, I understand you can't optimally shape a 0.5 micrometer fridge for a keg, when the size of 1 unit of keg > 0.5 micrometer fridge.]

Citation: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=(0.5+micrometers%5E3)%2F(1+keg)&aq=f&aql=&aqi=&oq=

Perhaps a game not so dominated by rushing tactics would be a better choice of base game? It definitely seems an interesting idea, but there must be games better suited to an AI contest like this...

Perhaps the concept of shock tactics, such as "rushing" have been evolving for centuries and may just be one of the more effective battle strategies in games and real conflicts. The US has their Shock and Awe, the Germans have their Blitzkrieg, and etc.

Wikipedia's "common interpretation of blitzkrieg": The word, meaning "lightning war", was associated with a deliberate strategy of quick and decisive short battles to deliver a knock out blow to an enemy state before it could fully mobilize.

Sounds like rushing to me. Maybe the fact that rushing is so effective in so many games is because it really is a valid strategy?

1) Repartition the drive so they have a 20-40GB C: drive and partition the remainder for their data on D:.

2) After installing a fresh copy of windows on a freshly formatted drive, I install all their applications (make a list of them before reformatting, so you don't forget details like Adobe Flash Player, Acrobat, etc.). Also do all the windows updates and update all the applications.

3) Move the "My Documents" folder to the D: drive - also go through all the applications and verify that the default saving directories are all on the D: drive.

4) IMMEDIATELY Create a image of the C: partition. I use BartPE/WinPE to boot up outside of windows and "Symantec Ghost" to create an image. You can use any boot disk and any image program you want. Save the image to the D: partition. This image will be a large file or series of files that contains all the data of C:.

5) Now allow them to use their computers for about a week. This will allow them to move things around, customize things to their liking, etc.

6) Come in a week later, check for viruses, malware, etc. If it's clean, then create a SECOND image. This is your "broken in" image.

[6.1) If it's not clean, try to find out what caused the problem - go back to the original image you just made, and copy it back on. Show them what caused it, and tell them not to download whatever program caused it - and come back in another week (go back to step 5).]

7) Now burn your image files to DVDs - or stick them on your personal removable hard drive. Next time they have a computer issue, you can reformat/clean install/AND get back to their original settings/preferences/etc in about 15 minutes, by reimaging their computer. Unless they manage to royally screw things up, you don't even need to bring anything but a boot disk/cd, because their backup images should be on their D: drive. You have backups personally just in case too. ONE LAST THING: Before reimaging, temporarily backup their desktop folder and their Favorites folder in the D: drive. If you want to be really safe, backup the entire user directory in C:\Documents and Settings\. ALSO - do a quick search for documents that may have been saved on the C: drive. Then restore their desktop/favorites after reimaging.

8) After re-imaging, do windows updates.

I do this with my parents and friends the moment anyone needs a clean install. It adds about 30 min onto the process but then allows you to repeat it