 | | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) I disagree. Douglas Adams is more a satirist. His books use incredible and unbelievable situations to bring to light many human characteristics, mainly greed and waste. Take his stuff in the same view as Mark Twain. Cheers, - jsproat (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Transit Time to Mars
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(...) By way of a purely information-gathering question, as opposed to some smart- alec sniping, I ask the following: Using this 1G acceleration, rather than having some last minute braking once you get to Mars, could you (or would you want to) (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) A personal favorite here, as well, but it suffers from Pratchett's formerly widespread problem of creating a problem too big to solve by the end of the book. That is, the crisis escalates and escalates, then in the course of two paragraphs he (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) I can't manage to slog my way through most of the Lampoon stuff. I got about three pages farther into "Bored" than I did into "Doon" Good Omens, on the other hand, is one of my all-time favorite books. "A demon who did not so much fall as (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Transit Time to Mars
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(...) Oddly enough most of the technology being discussed here actually exists, even though many of you would debate that fact. I would like to share my thoughts on this matter, as well as addressing the poster's original question here. Flight Time (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) it (...) Ugh! I found "Bored" to be perfectly dreadful! As for Pratchett, he differs from Adams, and always has, in that Pratchett's work has been satire without being baggy-pants farce in line with the stereotypical (as commonly held by some (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) I do think it's canonical farce, up there with Harvard Lampoon's "Bored of the Rings" and Gaimen/Pratchett's "Good Omens." -- jthompson@esker.com "Float on a river, forever and ever, Emily" (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) The post-nuclear-war smart-house story near the end is wonderful. (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Has anyone ever been missing a piece?
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(...) Ugh. Add in some more RAM though, and that'll manage KDE just fine. I suggest KDE because of the single-click-operation paradigm -- seems like that'd solve most of the problem. (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) Possibly because, while it's entertaining, it's also fairly straightforward farce with uneven characterization and plot. Don't get me wrong--I've read it all, and I quite enjoy it, but it lacks, to me, much of the strength of these other (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Transit Time to Mars
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(...) (the web page has more info, I just knew it was more effiecent than a conventional rocket...V is not the problem, it is the Specific R that is higher than with a chemical rocket (around 825 on NERVA test plant, verses about 450 for "O2H2" (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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Michael Horvath <mikehorvath@juno.com> wrote in message news:FMutJp.8yG@lugnet.com... (...) mattdm@mattdm.org (...) (URL) > (...) her (...) you (...) I like her books. They are different, though. Much less technology, much more social tid bits. (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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Jasper Janssen <jasper@janssen.dynip.com> wrote in message news:387994b8.189490...net.com... (...) book (...) (another (...) Like gasoline and lighther?..:-) Great book anyway. Movie was also very nice. By the way, why no body mentions Douglas (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: laser Safety and cats
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I like the claim that the laser light is Invisible, and then produces a bright spot that the Cat chases... Duh?? (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Real Audio files
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(...) I don't know. I don't understand the format of how the Real Audio file is presented to a visitor. I haven't seen stuff like that before. Sorry, Mike (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) 2001 is more "Let's find out what God is saying" and less "Let's figure out how to survive this mess". I found it to be less enjoyable than _Rama_, but more profound. (...) I personally love his Beowulf Schaeffer stories. Actually, most of his (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Real Audio files
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(...) Okay, the protocol is the same. Try adding the appropriate port number after the host (protocol://username...filename). The appropriate port number might be 8000 or 8080, but I can't be sure. Try using a packetsniffer. Jasper (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) It's good. I still need to read 2001 some time, though, to compare. Oh, and I think the space-elevator one (first edition hardback, whoopee!) is as good as Rama. (...) Yup. All of the sequels sucked. (...) _Heorot_ was a great book. Up there (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) Fahrenheit. Definitely Fahrenheit. Jasper (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Transit Time to Mars
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(...) Ah, right. What's the v on the gas? You're still using reaction mass. (...) Well yeah, but the stuff does hang there waiting for the next rocket to bump into that. That's what I was asking about. (...) Yick. To be honest. I mean, Nukyuler (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Has anyone ever been missing a piece?
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(...) That would be "admin-friendly", and if I had the time to get DOSEMU working, it'd be there, like, now. Minus KDE of course. What the hell are you thinking - this is a 486DX2-66/8M/420M. ;) Jasper (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: laser Safety and cats
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(...) I dunno if I'd count that as the dumbest ever though -- unfortunately, there's a lot of really bad patents out there. I think the dumbest would have to be something out of the "take a standard business model, add 'on the internet'" class. (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: laser Safety and cats
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(...) Hmmm. I've been using this patented technique with my dog for a while now. It's gotten so popular, I am getting requests to exercise my sister-in-law's dog similarly. I was considering starting a business based upon this practice, but I now (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Real Audio files
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(...) I've tried this -- replacing the pnm: with http: doesn't work. Similar results with mms: protocol as well... Do you know if there is a download utility that understands the mms: and pnm: protocols? (...) Actually, Bob's my dad. :-, Cheers, - (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: laser Safety and cats
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(...) Speaking of which, here's the dumbest patent I've ever seen: (URL) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) Anyone read Ursula K. LeGuin? My favorite is "The Lathe of Heaven". All her books make me kind of paranoid. Probably because of how she integrtates religion so seamlessly. But then, religious ideas do tend to hit you in a certain spot more (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) I agree- my favorite author and onr of my favorite of his books. It seems that early on he was more about hard sf and moved later into social questions. I really liked "To Sail Beyond the Sunset"- he actually has a father sleep with his (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) Have you read The Big U? (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) Spider. One of my friends swears by him, I tend to find him somewhat blindly optimisitic. That being said, though, Calahan's (et al) is fantastic. James (URL) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) Haven't read it, actually, so no opinion. (...) Of the Card books I've read: definitely. (...) Either _Dune_ or _The Dosadi Experiment_, in my opinion. (Yes, Herbert did write some non-Dune-series books. Most of them were _really_ bad.) (...) (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is beter. I think it originated (or developed to a much greater degree) several neat topics, including magnetic catapults, kinetic weapons, and a computer that becomes self aware spontaneously and makes his (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) Well, this book is kinda cheating in a list like this, because it's actually a collection of short stories. For novels, I'd hafta go with Fahrenheit 451. (...) Agreed. Which is why I chose the first one. :) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) I loved The Folk OF the Fringe. I'd never read Card until I recieved that book as a Christmas present about 10 years ago. I had never seen anything like his style of writing, and I liked it. Recently I've read (all but the last half of (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Transit Time to Mars
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(...) (URL) some information on the subject in question. apparently it is not all that bad even in atm, but 250 K lbs thrust is not all that much when launching large objects, especially from a 15-20K lb + fuel motor. (It's the burn times that are (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) Ain't that the truth. I pretend in my mind that Gentry Lee wrote those entirely by himself and that Clarke just, in a display of incipent senility, allowed his name to be used to give the books more sales oomph. (...) I have "The Gods (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) Agreed. I read this in one night when I was 15. Couldn't put the dang book down. (...) _The Worthing Saga_ might be a close second, though it's an collection and not technically a "book" per se. And then there's _Folk on the Fringe_, but that (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Transit Time to Mars
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(...) Care to expand on these "USAF experiments"? Got links? Steve (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) **snip of several authors about whom my opinion varies widely** (...) I like some of his short stories, but I haven't read much of his stuff overall. (...) I haven't read it all the way through, but I understand Mona Lisa Overdrive is quite (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Re: Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) Quite possibly. Ironically, the sequels are some of his worst. (...) Definitely. (...) Dune, I'd say. (...) Caves of Steel, I think. I'm not too big a fan of the Foundation series. Ray Bradbury: The Martian Chronicles William Gibson: (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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| | Science Fiction (was Re: Transit Time to Mars)
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(...) I smell a fun geek topic. Best books by these authors? I would submit: "Rendezvous with Rama" as Clarke's best work. "Ender's Game" as Card's. Either "Dune" (the obvious choice) or "God Emperor of Dune" for Herbert. "The Mote In God's Eye" by (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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