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It truly is astonishing, isn't it? We take so much for granted these days that this sort of stuff sometimes doesn't even make the general news media - but that is just gobsmacking!
I just wish they would hurry up and invent FTL drives so we can go there & take a close up look!
MVVM # - I did it My Way
___________________________________________
Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011
.\\axxx
(That's an 'M')
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Surely you are aware that the very word 'drive' is just a consequence of lazy scifi writing? Drives and blasters are terms designed to consign the essential boggling-ness of the technology required to the commonplace so that the 'actors' can get on with the job of telling the story, assisted by special effects.
I would not mind if FTL was invented, but I would hate it if they called it a 'drive'.
Anyway, micro rant over. Now off to work in my Petrol-Drive machine. 
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Fact of the matter is that, should a practical FTL engine of some description be invented at some point, it will probably be known as the iDrive, or MS Drive 8.1 or something.
I don't see it as being lazy writing at all - if the gist of a story isn't the specific science - i.e. the fact of being able to travel FTL is a given, then the more mundane it can appear, the better.
noting worse than an author trying to put pseudo-science into a story - especially when you read it years later.
I love it when stories from the 50s and 60s go on about various recording devices that always seem to involve tape, for example - very small, but tape nonetheless; simply referring to it as a recording device has a timelessness about it.
MVVM # - I did it My Way
___________________________________________
Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011
.\\axxx
(That's an 'M')
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I don't understand your objection to the term 'drive'. It's a colloquialism. In a story, the hardware that gets you from point A to point B over interstellar distances could be anything from a mechanism that takes up 99% of the ship (see some of Larry Niven's 'Known Space' stories) to a small cluster of specialized cells in your brain. The characters need to call it something, and 'drive' is as good as anything. Most readers will understand that it's "the hardware that makes the ship go" and leave it at that.
Simon O'Riordan from UK wrote: Now off to work in my Petrol-Drive machine
If you really want to impress us, build a steam-powered starship  .
Software Zen: delete this;
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Steam-powered starship? Ha!
I've already designed a Traffic-cone powered Radar.
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Gary Wheeler wrote: If you really want to impress us, build a steam-powered starship .
David Drake has steam powered star ships in his Leary novels. Of course, the water becomes steam because of heat from a fusion power plant. But still! Steam!
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I've been reading the Leary books over the last few months. They're a guilty sort of fun  .
Software Zen: delete this;
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Please - don't call it a 'drive'. Call it Propulsion or Engine or Motor. Drive belongs with Blaster, to an era of seventies SciFi which was looking to make these mind-cracking inventions commonplace, so that the 'heroes' could get on with the real business of saving the universe while we techies were factored out.
Rant rant rant etc.
Now to drive to work using my Petrol Drive.
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Simon O'Riordan from UK wrote: Surely you are aware that the very word 'drive' is just a consequence of lazy scifi writing? Drives and blasters are terms designed to consign the essential boggling-ness of the technology required to the commonplace so that the 'actors' can get on with the job of telling the story, assisted by special effects.
I would not mind if FTL was invented, but I would hate it if they called it a 'drive'.
Anyway, micro rant over. Now off to work in my Petrol-Drive machine. D'Oh! | 
Simon O'Riordan from UK wrote: Please - don't call it a 'drive'. Call it Propulsion or Engine or Motor. Drive belongs with Blaster, to an era of seventies SciFi which was looking to make these mind-cracking inventions commonplace, so that the 'heroes' could get on with the real business of saving the universe while we techies were factored out.
Rant rant rant etc.
Now to drive to work using my Petrol Drive.
OK then, we got you. No more calling it a drive! 
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Sorry about that. My first posting went into a .... a...... wormhole....damn. I said it.
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Simon O'Riordan from UK wrote: Sorry about that. My first posting went into a .... a...... wormhole....damn. I said it.
That seems infinitely improbable to me, are you sure you don't have access to an Infinite Improbability Drive Engine
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Infinite Improbability Drive? But...but....Douglas Adams was on our side........that means my whole thesis is flawed....aagh! I'm melting....melllltinnnnng.... 
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Seems to me you have travelled through a vortex using your FTL drive with anti-gravity blasters.
MVVM # - I did it My Way
___________________________________________
Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011
.\\axxx
(That's an 'M')
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Sshhh...They'll all want them...why do you think I'm trying to poo-poo the idea?
Coming from the future was hard enough without trying to hide it from those Physics idiotsProfessors.
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:snigger: you said poo-poo
MVVM # - I did it My Way
___________________________________________
Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011
.\\axxx
(That's an 'M')
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Awesome good find.
Pretty soon we'll have GoogleExoplanet and can watch aliens walking around on there world. Well it may be a while NSA will want to tweak it first. 
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So "We live in the future" because we are looking at an image that was sent 3 years before I was born? Doesn't that really mean we can look at the past? Because right now, assuming the planet still exists, it is 63 years older than it was when it sent the image. If that planet has an imager as well, doesn't mean we are living in the past?
If that planet has an imager, then I'll buy we live in the future because they have to wait 63 years to see what we are doing now.
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...occasionally comes out with some great quotes delivered deadpan. After the Wallabies beat the Argies in the Rugby Championship last year:
"This win will have given them an injection and, as we all know, you don't have to give an Aussie too much of an injection for his confidence to start coming out of his mouth."
If your neighbours don't listen to The Ramones, turn it up real loud so they can.
“We didn't have a positive song until we wrote 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue!'” ― Dee Dee Ramone
"The Democrats want my guns and the Republicans want my porno mags and I ain't giving up either" - Joey Ramone
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statement of the bleeding obvious isnt it?
bryce
MCAD
---
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Well, if you can't win, better to lose with an attempt at humour, I suppose
Christian Graus
My new article series is all about SQL !!!
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So I ordered a Beaglebone Black from Sparkfun 10 days or so ago and they were on back order and stated that they had a shipment coming in Jan. 5th so on Jan. 3rd they got a shipment of 240 of them and my order was place on BO Arrived status. I might add that they said on there BBB page that 240 were available!
So here it is 4 days later and they modified my order to New Order again and when I called they said I would have to wait for the next shipment on Feb. 19 because all the BO's head of me got them.
WTF?
If they were all ate up by BO's why did they put on the BBB page that there were 240 available for shipment.
This just seems like bad practice to me or am I just over reacting?
Either way I have cancelled my order and won't do business with them again!
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They're actually really good. The problem is the website doesn't do a great job of relaying status. Those Beagles are selling like mad.
I've never had a problem with Sparkfun.
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I guess I'm just overanxious and over sensitive?, and a little pissed!
I cancelled the order because I saw 2 other sites had them available but when I went back today they were also sold out so I'm thinking it was the same thing with them.
I've never had a problem with Sparkfun either but I emailed them this morning about status and they never answered me so am a little pissed about that.
C'est la vie
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Just one of those things with items in demand. Sit tight and wait or look elsewhere.
The ones I have seen on Ebay are Feb shipping.
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Yeah they rescheduled for Feb. 19, I guess I just don't agree with putting them out for sale when they are already promised. 
I'll reorder at a later date I've got plenty of other stuff to do right now anyway.
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