ComradeWolfe

Granted. You are now a fly. Swatting commences in 3... 2... I wish I had a fly swatter.

MacGamer, it takes a rare and amazing individual to enjoy using a Mac, even more-so to play games on one. Well done, my friend, well done!

8/10 That's a nice quote, but I've encountered it often before. Love the Monty Python reference. Polls at bottom are cromulent.

Granted, but you're descended from 5 generations of mediocre fighters and not very useful. I wish I could get a tour of Space X with Elon Musk as the guide.

+5 (+)

Make that four. I've long wanted to dabble in lucid dreaming, but never got past the hurdle of rarely remembering my dreams.

Granted, but the ninja master who taught you will now ensure you take the secret to your grave... *Slash.* You've been [sPELLING REDACTED]. I wish I could focus more when I'm at work instead of browsing these forums.

One small step towards progress for a man can impede the giant leap of progress for mankind.

+2 (+)

Granted... But all the caffeine leads to a light and generally restless sleep from which you wake up still tired. I wish I could have a little house on some land with a stream.

Digital: Copy of the front page of Wikipedia and all linked articles from the day of burial (or thereabouts). Wine suitable for aging (most commercial wines are not suitable and will get funky after a year or two). A list of videos from the "Popular in US" category in Youtube, to show what we were watching as a country. Physical: Bottle caps in case the nuclear apocalypse occurs (some lone wanderer might be able to use them). A treasury bond or other item that accumulates value when forgotten. If you've got any kids in the family, a pair of their shoes so they can see how they have grown.

This link is somewhat relevant at the bottom, and otherwise a good read. It also links to a paper on decreasing ICBM time to target.

Hey Robo, how did it feel standing by something so big? I'd imagine there's a sense of awe, right? Also, did you get to go under the dish or in any buildings? --- After JB put such a setback in the whole program I think they probably didn't bother fixing that particular ground station. :-P

This sounds like something from one of the early Kerbal philisophers... Kerboclese or Kerbistotle.

It almost sounds like you guys are discussing real hardware... "X is a derivative or Y", etc.

I prefer to play sandbox w/ permadeaths and no reverts. This leads to lots of unmanned hardware tests to ensure survivability. Glitches which cause Kerbals to die or go missing are analogous to "critical hardware failures". I also like life support mods. Even if one isn't installed, I still assume that a Kerbal stranded more than a few days away from a crew pod is is doomed and remove them in tracking. Spacecraft must always have some form of launch escape system if going up manned. Usually this means that mission ships go up remotely and are later crewed by a heavily safety tested / validated "space bus" type vehicle. Solar panels are always in action group 4. Engine action groups are always 1-3, accessory items (mining, etc) are always 5+.

My initial reaction was something like "as the parent of a 2-year old I tend to spot lots of messier objects around the house", but now that I know what they are these things are pretty cool. Maybe I'll be able to convince my wife to let me get a decent telescope one of these days...

Voted turnip because I am sheeple... I watch his videos from time to time but find they're often not quite technical enough for my fancy. I can see where they would be great for someone with minimal background wanting a crash course in computer stuff.

The first game I remember playing was Math Rescue on DOS. I wish they had modern games like this one because it was both fun and educational -- modern educational games are a load of junk (present company excepted) because they focus too heavily on a friendly learning experience with too little violence. Runners-up are Apache 1.0 and the original Commanche.

It's mostly because photo-shopping out motherships in color is a pain.

I disagree. If you look at games from the Original Xbox / Windows XP (both X86 Win NT 5.x machines with DirectX) era most games found on both platforms were reasonably well done because the hardware and software were both so similar. Basically you could make a game for PC (or Xbox) and tweak it slightly to release on Xbox (or PC). PS2 ports were a bit more work, but the software was a lot simpler so it was still relatively easy to keep things stable. Once they jumped to the Xbox 360 with its Power PC-based (non X86, non-Windows related codebase) architecture and the PS3's RISC "cell" architecture, issues became a lot more common. A broad-release title now requires three completely different versions instead of two similar and one different. Add that to the growing complexity of games, and suddenly you have a problem. Now we have the current generation of consoles: All X86, all with DirectX-like or OpenGL-like graphics. The Xbone even runs a windows-like OS. In theory this means ports will be cheaper/easier/less buggy (time will tell)... But then we reach the other problem which you brought up (and which I do agree with): During the last console generation most dev love went to console games, PC ports were shoddy attempts at milking out a few more bucks. Once it ran and was "feature complete" things like a PC-friendly UI were just extra money which defeated the purpose of pimping out a PC port. It also didn't help that bigger studios didn't seem to consider PC gaming very important any more. I agree. I think they probably learned a bit from the 1.0 PC launch and subsequent rushes to patch. Console players are less forgiving too, so QC should be a bit higher.

Where I live, cats are prone to being eaten by coyotes. The last thing I ever told my most recent cat was "don't get eaten" as I let her out one morning -- haven't seen her in a couple of years now. I grew up around here so it's no big deal, but my wife took it a bit hard.

Most of my Kerbalisms (yes, it's a word now) were born out of necessity and lack of funds: I had a mower that would not run (later turned out to be a leaky float). What I did have was a blow torch, some tubing, PVC pipe fittings, and duct tape. I believe the air filter involved some of my wife's old underthings... Throttle came in the form of turning the valve as needed. It would run roughly 20 minutes on an 80F day before the tank would freeze. My truck's engine was very much the same... This page inspired me to try water injection. Most of the emissions gear was stripped off by the previous owner, so I got some tubing and a pair of needles. One was inserted in to the side of an old peanut jar full of water, the other was "IV"ed into one of the rubber plugs blocking an old emissions-related port on the carb. Results were underwhelming. That truck also has an electric radiator fan. The stock was belt-driven, but I wanted to play around so I mounted a junkyard pulled electric using bits of scrap from a chain link fence project and wired a switch to the dash. It works great as long as you care to watch the temp guage. I'll also mention something with black powder from my teenage years. I actually recounted the tale for a creative writing assignment once, so if you'll forgive how long it is I will cut and paste: --------- In the field of chemistry, I haven't much to contribute... As a teenager, I did once attempt to make a large trick candle. As a civil war reenactor, I felt there would be some benefit to having full-size candles resistant to wind. The small ones are made by using a wick which is soaked in saltpeter -- a substance which I lacked, however I did have a supply of black powder which is largely comprised of saltpeter. I cleverly ground it up with wooden implements and proceeded to mix the fine black flour in to the white wax of some melted candles. My wick was of jute twine which I assumed would take up sufficient saltpeter thru the wax it would wick up when lit. I poured the candles in to paper dixie cups and dipped the wicks. I filled the first cup with wax nearly as white as when I first had melted it. The second cup and candle was a light grey in color. What remained in my original melting vessel was a small quantity of dark sludge too small to pour a candle, and too viscous anyway. This I formed into a small lumpish mound around a piece of twine. It was now time to see what success could be gleaned from these experiments. After finding a suitable location free of flammables I set out the first candle and proceeded to light it. The wick took the flame readily enough and proceeded to burn as a candle might be expected to -- a small flame of dull yellow like any ordinary candle. It was easily extinguished and gave no sign of re-lighting on the first or any successive attempt. The second candle, grey with powder as it was, fared little better. I lit it with great expectation and stood back. After half a minute or so, I did perceive that the flame was emitting the occasional spark, but not nearly so often as a typical trick candle. A few attempts at extinguishing later and I determined that this too was a failed attempt -- once the flame was gone, the wick would smoulder but never return to life. My attention now turned to the little black lump of wax, formed around its jute wick. Placed in the safe location again, I touched a flame to the wick. Being of hand formed wax, none had melted in to the jute and so it smoldered without holding a flame just as any twine would. Eventually my lighter melted enough of the wax to coax the candle in to providing its own weak flame. I perceived it to be slightly pinkish relative to the previous attempts. As it was observed, the flame began to produce a spark -- then another. About every third or fourth second a small point of sun-colored light would rise on the flame with a faint hiss. Without warning there came a small pink flash accompanied by a burst of sparks, but it subsided nearly as soon as it started. The seconds passed... Nothing but a pathetic flame... Pssht! Another flare, another hiss. Clearly the powder had formed in to pockets within the wax... Psssshht! The half inch flame had jumped for nearly a full second in to a three inch fireball, but again it was gone. Gone too was the bulk of this "candle", as without any cup to contain it the wax had spread in to small pool on the concrete. Amusing as the small show had been, I resolved to put out the flickering remains and consider the attempt at a wind-proof candle a failure as the results were either underwhelming or too volatile to be practical. I suspect closer examination would have revealed that the spreading wax had left behind a lump of paraffin-soaked powder at its core, but I did not have time for such an observation -- as I leaned in to blow out the experiment, the pathetic flame that remained morphed in to a blinding ball of pink the size and shape of a small melon. Accompanied by billowing white smoke and the sound of a small rocket this flame continued undisturbed for a period of perhaps ten or fifteen seconds. It felt like much longer, however, as my teenage brain simultaneously processed senses of both wonder and dread -- amazement at the intense orb, and fear what consequence might come if it decided to spread and include my parents' home. After cleaning up the area and somewhat responsibly discarding any remaining materials in the nearest waste bin, I decided that the risk to home and property was too great for a second attempt. Of course at that age the firmest of resolve is only good for a few days at best -- and much shorter when tempted by the magic and spectacle of home-made pyrotechnics. About a week later, having forgotten how out of control my unintentional flare had been, I proceeded to melt a small quantity of wax and perhaps three or four ounces of powder. My new theory was that if I made the wax as concentrated as possible and applied it by hand to the wick it would yield better results. I did just that, massaging the strange semi-solid in to the fibers of a considerable length of jute twine until it was thoroughly impregnated. For good measure, an additional quantity was formed around it to produce a core the thickness of a pencil. These cores were cut to a length of 6 inches and dipped repeatedly in to fresh clean wax until they became candles of approximately an inch in diameter. From there, the experimentation began anew. Each produced a standard yellow flame of ordinary dimensions, occasionally with a flicker of spark and a sputter of pink. None, however, were self-lighting and none were willing to provide anything resembling the fireball of a week before. Confronted by what was another failure, I melted all remaining candles and wax (powdered or not) in to a metal cup and set it aside to cool. Once safe to handle, I broke the new puck in to small pieces and disposed of them one by one using a second metal cup and the aid of a propane torch. This progressed uneventfully for the most part, save the occasional sputter or flare up as the wax was depleted and the flame found a portion of powder. Perhaps five pieces later, I began to lose patience and began to do two or even three pieces at a time with similar results. Seeing that there was no harm to be had by this method of disposal I decided it would be safe to dispose of the fifteen or twenty pieces that remained all at once. The torch made short work of the wax, melting it in to a pool of perhaps eight or nine ounces liquid which was readily depleted in a few minutes time. As the torch's downward blue flame reached the bottommost dregs within the cup, it was greeted with a short sputter of the familiar pink flame a time or two... Psst... Psshht... Psssshhhhhhhhh!!!! Without perceptible warning, all that was left ignited in to a rocketing inferno of pink flame and white smoke. I recoiled, pulling back the torch but too late to save the hair which once adorned by right forearm. The most I could do was stand aghast at the ever growing column of flame which was now half my height. As it crested four feet and some inches, my concern shifted from the metal cup to what was above. The location of these tests, a tarpaulin covered carport, had been quite reasonable for the small flames emitted by prior experiments. Confronted with a plume so intense, however, my decision of bulk disposal in such a closed space seemed completely reckless. If I had chosen such a secluded spot for privacy from the intrusions of any neighbors, it would likely have not have been so secret if engulfed in flames. As fate would have it, a period of thirty or more seconds was enough time and the flames abated nearly a quick as they had emerged. Save the hair upon my arm which would eventually regrow, there was no lasting damage to be had. All that remained of this folly was a tin cup and a ephemeral yellow flame, the last vapors of paraffin weakly evaporating off of heated metal and burning by a residual heat not their own.

Sounds a lot like this or more recently this... But I like that it's a partnership between Richard Branson and Qualcom. I think this could spark a Musk vs. Branson space-internet-arms-race which would ultimately benefit us all.

With such a stubby wings on such a chubby body I can't help wondering if those tiny propellers would really do much of anything. It almost looks like it would be better off coming in way steep and leveling at the last moment for an unpowered approach and landing. Also, does anyone else think it looks like the French just installed Firespitter?