User Information - Jim

No subject

Oct 12, 2007, 13:04

Let the download trickle begin.




Jim

23.

day off

Oct 8, 2007, 19:04

I had the day off. Not really much going on, but its nice to have Sunday feel like a Saturday.

Patriots are 5-0, Red Sox are going to the ALCS, and I got in all of about 10 minutes of observing in across 3 nights (set up the scope under clear skies last night, 5 minutes later, complete overcast!). All in all not a bad weekend.




Jim

Mr. Potato Head in ecstasy bust

Oct 5, 2007, 10:18

Of course with Hasbro being a local company, anytime something happens involving Mr. Potato Head its big news.

"You'll never guess what they found inside Mr. Potato Head! Details coming up next!" Of course I had to guess during the commercial break. I guessed marijuana, but I guessed wrong.




Jim

NASA dammit!

Sep 27, 2007, 12:37

Yeah, you gotta wonder about BBC News. Most of their headlines that put those silly quotes around random words and phrases, but for something like this they don't?

Successful launch for 'Nasa' probe




Jim

Re: No subject

Sep 24, 2007, 12:41

I've about heard ENOUGH about Halo. Gods let the game come out so I can stop hearing about it, drives me nuts. I turn on the TV, Halo, I go to any game news website, Halo, I go take a shit and read a magazine, Halo.

Driving me INSANE!

Well if you don't want to hear about Halo, Blue's is the last place you should come. I haven't heard a whole lot about it except here, and last night I saw an add for something called "game fuel" which I thought was a bit odd. Other than that, I guess I haven't reached saturation point with the game (which I am not a fan of, played H1 once and throught eh...)




Jim

Re: 6 'Things'

Sep 20, 2007, 11:02

News Comments > Wing Commander Soundtrack

Couldn't they have just said 6 clocks you can make with your hard drive?

Yeah the clocks are cool and stuff, but I'd rather do this with them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yISqCAnROh8




Jim

No subject

Aug 28, 2007, 11:53

Is it interspersed with all the Kilrathi taunts one typically faced during battle?




Jim

13.

Re: Crushed Glass to Be Spread on Beach

Aug 28, 2007, 08:46

I am sorry. But for a state with as many people living in it (4th largest population in the US), and being one of the most popular states to vacation/be a tourists in. Does $80 million a year not seem, I dunno, kinda cheap? The main attraction of Florida is the beaches after all.

Are they really complaining about spending $80 million a year on beach restoration? Really?

Washington state can probably afford to spend that much its self on beach restoration...

Come to the Ocean State, we got all your beaches right here. And there are no crowds after Labor Day!




Jim

12.

Re: Flashterbation

Aug 28, 2007, 08:45

Follow up. I'm not against Flash. It serves its purpose. I'm just against those that don't know how to use it properly and pass themselves off as professionals.

Speaking of web development in general (I'm not a Flash developer, although its soon becoming a requirement), its NOT just the developers who are to blame here. I can't recall how many times clients WANTED all that crap in their sites, depsite trying to convnce them otherwise that most users will be turned off by it. Not just flash but anything. For example, they may say "I saw this cool DHTML widget on so-and-so's site and I gotta have it on mine." You try to convince them that it will make the site more difficult to navigate, and that it doesn't fit their particular applicaction or solve a legitimate problem (aka solution looking for a problem), but they still want it because its "cool."




Jim

Evidence for unified theory ...

Aug 28, 2007, 08:36

To continue reading this article, subscribe to New Scientist. Get 4 issues of New Scientist magazine and instant access to all online content for only USD $4.95

Can I make a request that articles that require a paid subscription either not be linked, or at least indicate that its just a teaser?




Jim

13.

new labeling for sunscreen

Aug 24, 2007, 11:58

The new labels would also require manufactures to warn that, in addition to sunscreen, people should wear protective clothing and limit their sun exposure to avoid skin damage.

Why don't they just say stay the fuck indoors? I'm waiting for them to come out with moonscreen. The Moon does reflect 11% of the sunlight that hits it, and that can most certainly kill you also.




Jim

China airlines repaints 737

Aug 24, 2007, 11:50

They even painted over the registration number. That can't be legal.




Jim

Re: No subject

Aug 23, 2007, 12:56

News Comments > Morning Tech Bits

Yeah I went to check the scores right after the Red Sox fell to the D-Rays last night and MLB.com had a picture of the scoreboard for that game on the home page. WOW!

That's better than one run per out, averaged over 9 innings!

This comment was edited on Aug 23, 12:58.




Jim

Re: Google Sky

Aug 23, 2007, 08:22

I have found this program:
http://www.stellarium.org/
Is great for beginners, and even advanced amateurs.

Thanks for the link.




Jim

10.

aerogel article

Aug 23, 2007, 08:19

News Comments > Morning Tech Bits

In 2002 Aspen Aerogel, a company created by Nasa, produced a stronger and more flexible version of the gel. It is now being used to develop an insulated lining in space suits for the first manned mission to Mars, scheduled for 2018.

Wow!




Jim

Google Sky

Aug 22, 2007, 19:28

Well... I played with it for about 10 minutes this morning at work, and I can say that while I was excited to see a sky map with Google's ease of navigability, I wasn't terribly impressed with the data it provided. I was expecting something that would be either a neat tool for beginners to get into stargazing, or something that more advanced amateurs could use to plan an observing session. I found neither. All the DSOs were WAY too bright and colorful, possibly causing beginners to get a false impression of what they can see in the sky with a telescope. Sure its nice to have a Hubble Space Telescope image library as a layer that you can toggle, but when you turn off everything but the stars, it still looked too "photographic". I was hoping for something that more closely resembled what the sky really looks like.

I also noticed that many of the DSOs were mislabeled. Even more well-known ones like the Ring Nebula were listed as the wrong type of object.

Well I guess its still new, and as new datasets become available in this format, we will likely see some improvement, but until then, your desktop planetarium will do a better job demonstrating the night sky (I currently don't use one, but I do have an older copy of Earth Centered Universe http://www.nova-astro.com/).




Jim

Rare dead star near earth

Aug 21, 2007, 10:57

Quick send the Space Shuttle!

Really, I just read this last night on S&T, and it being descibed as possibly the closest neutron star to our solar system, I would hardly classify it as being "near earth", especially on a mainstream media site. And with the BBC News' obsession with quoting random words and phrases in nearly all their headlines, wouldn't it have made sense to title it:

Rare dead star found 'near' earth.




Jim

Space Shuttle foam problems

Aug 14, 2007, 10:54

They could do 1 of 2 things:

1. Go back to the old recipe that didn't flake off.
2. Paint the exterior of the tank after foam applicaton with something that will keep it intact. I think the first 2 shuttle flights had white tanks, then they discontinued the practice due to the extra weight.




Jim

people are dumb

Aug 14, 2007, 10:47

If that's the same ad I'm thinking of, then they certainly need to explain that if people were so smart, why they signed up for bad mortgages in the first place.




Jim

Re: Heh.

Aug 13, 2007, 12:30