zain

I think it is fairly straightforward to get something tiny to the moon. The challenge comes in making it broadcast back to earth. For wireless transmissions, you need considerable bulk and you add a lot of cost.

Wouldn't it be cool if, instead, it was connected to earth by a ridiculously long insulated wire? Then you might even be able to cut down the size to well under a pound for the rover itself (not including the fuel needed to get there). It shouldn't have problems transmitting as long as the wire is insulated well enough, right?

Some back-of-a-napkin calculations lead me to believe that you wouldn't need more than 60 cubic miles to store enough wire to reach the moon (200,000 miles long, 1 inch thick).

what do you think? flame away :)

Per the 20th amendment[1], the new president's term begins immediately after the old president's term ends. This means that Obama became president at 12:00, even without being sworn in. He couldn't "enter on the execution of his office" until he was sworn in, but he was nonetheless president.

[1] http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am20

Source: Scribd says so, according to washingtonpost http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12...

How do you become a partner?

  if (a)
    return (some && complicated || boolean && calculation);
  else
    return (some || other && boolean || calculation);

Has anyone tried it? I've always wanted to try the effects of the miracle berry and it seems like a cheap way to do so.

I think this applies.

Just to test it out, I entered in my name (zain). It suggested http://za.in/ and said it was available. I was ecstatic!

But, sadly, no, it was wrong. "whois za.in" says NOT FOUND, but I can't find a single .in registrar who says it is available. Bummer.

flagged

Calling it the end of web 2.0 might be too much, but you have to appreciate the juxtaposition in some of the most beautiful and successful people in the valley partying on an island paradise while the world that made them so successful is crashing down.

flagged

If you've ever played the game, you get harassed by gold farmers all the time. It has been a constant arms race between WOWGlider and Blizzard, and in the times that WOWGlider is ahead, gold farmers are a significant annoyance in the game.

And therein lies the problem: this isn't a conceptual exercise, it is a problem in practice. Blizzard will never be able to ban 100% of WOWGlider users, and they will never be able to make their software 100% secure to this stuff. So, they have to attack it from all sides: they ban cheaters (I personally know someone banned after running the WOWGlider trial just once), they secure their software (I'm sure you've heard of the Blizzard Warden), and they go after the people who make this software.

Like I said, I agree with everything you said in concept. But in the real world, it isn't so easy to generalize everything into black and white.

PS: They aren't suing their customers, they are suing a company that ruins the experience of their customers.

If you really want to run unauthorized apps, you can just jailbreak.