Crunchier bits from the Pittsburgh Air Show:

   
   

From the Orlando Sentinel by way of xeno:

NASA devoted much of its final briefing today (which ran from 10:45-11:30 p.m.) to problems with three critical Russian computers on the space station. As explained by NASA station program manager Mike Suffredini, the ISS has lost its "propulsive capability" after these computers mysteriously crashed Tuesday. Only one working computer is needed to command jet firings, but despite repeated attempts to re-boot, none of the trio has come back to life.

Oops!

10:16 < mdxi> "The lights, the fans and, thank God, the potty, all those things are working," Suffredini said.
10:16 < mdxi> (on ISS computer failure)
10:17 < mdxi> note for future designers: don't design a 6-way redundant system which actually fails when two nodes die
10:17 < mdxi> and further, don't hook your oxygen generator up to it

As stated elsewhere, _Lasar has mirrored the entire PPAC discography.

The tracks are, of course, pre-loved.

15:09 < mdxi> "The teleporters used in Star Trek are said to have been based on the idea of quantum entanglement..."
15:09 < mdxi> correction: NOTHING in Star Trek is based on ANYTHING
15:09 < mdxi> it ain't hard scifi
15:10 <@bda> :(
15:10 <@rjbs> dude
15:10 < solios> word.
15:11 <@rjbs> and was anyone talking about entanglement in the sixties?
15:11 < mdxi> GENE RODDENBERRY
15:11 < solios> it's a retcon.
15:11 <@rjbs> Einstein famously derided entanglement as "spukhafte Fernwirkung" or "spooky action at a distance."
15:11 <@rjbs> ok, maybe
15:12 < mdxi> he'd be pulling somebody over for speeding in their Dodge Dart and instead of a ticket, he'd give them a 30 minute lecture on quantum entanglement
15:12 <@rjbs> "Just write me the fucking ticket!"
15:12 <@rjbs> "I have already both written and not written the ticket."
15:13 < mdxi> this was before he became a tv exec, obviously
15:13 <@rjbs> Einstein was a TV exec?
15:13 <@rjbs> Awesome.
15:14 < mdxi> after that he just talked about gin, how great majel barrett's tits were, and what an ass harlan ellison was
15:17 < mdxi> the hed should, of course, read "Breakthrough brings 'Ender's Game' ansible a step closer", but only *really* horrible nerds know what Ender's Game was, and once it is mentioned they are bound by code of honor to have 17 hour internet deathmatches about how far into the series one should read and whether Card's open Mormonism negates all his work

So. If - and only if - the last part of Chapter Seven of The Dualist takes forever to render, I've decided I'll be getting back to DCR this summer. It's the Circle Of Life, or something - DCR got started when it did because Chapter Four was such a bitch in the rendering department.

I'll be getting back to DCR after The Dualist is done, regardless - it's just a question of the comic beginning to update this summer, or this fall. It would be totally awesomely super spiffy if I was somehow able to finish chapter one of DCR at the same time as The Dualist, but I doubt this is going to happen.

The plan at present is to slightly tweak the ATC site after The Dualist is finished, after which I'll start mirroring DCR to ATC in a "compiled" format - strips chunked together into comic-sized pages. Doing so will put the unfolding Book One on the same site as the completed Book Two, and will allow me to coallate all of the ATC cast into one ATC cast page. You'd think it a non-issue now, but come DCR chapters Two, Three and Four, there's going to be a hell of a lot of redundancy. And redundancy is bad, mm-kay?

At this point I'm still undecided on rather or not to dive into Book Three after I've finished The Dualist, but that's a matter for contemplation and discussion over there, not over here. If I do, I'll be getting all of the modelling done first. And there's a lot of modelling.

12:39 < vai> http://mailplaneapp.com/
12:40 < solios> fifteen point deduction for calling the platform MAC.
12:41 <@ejp> solios: wow. you said the EXACT SAME THING last time that url was pasted.
12:41 <@ejp> that's impressive.
12:42 < solios> I did?
12:42 <@ejp> yup
12:42 <@bda> At least he's consistant.
12:42 < solios> uh.
12:42 < solios> when did that happen?
12:42 <@ejp> 6 months ago maybe.
12:42 < solios> fagbot: 8ball did I?
12:42 * fagbot shakes the psychic prismatic sphere...
12:42 < fagbot> It says 'THIS SPACE FOR RENT,' solios
12:44 <@ejp> 129193:11:12 <@ejp> http://mailplaneapp.com/
12:44 <@ejp> 129194-11:13 <solios> fifty point deduction for spelling Mac as MAC.
12:44 * solios ++
12:44 < solios> and they HAVEN'T CHANGED IT.
12:44 < solios> so they're at -65.
12:44 <@ejp> fagbot: doot solios
12:44 < fagbot> SORRY LADY!! I BEAT OFF TO BLONDES, I DON'T TALK TO THEM
12:44 < solios> fagbot: botsnack
12:44 < fagbot> :)