While We Wait: Part 6

[Matt0088]

Has anyone here ever tried the program, Fractal Terrains Pro, by Profantasy? Looks quite interesting and wondering if it's worth the buy.

 

[Ninja Dude]

Okay, so here's my question from the last WWW thread: Who's Zaerun? North King mentioned him in his last update, and I have seen him viewing the NES subforum. However, he doesn't have any posts.

 

[carmen510]

WoW is okay, its fun for a while.

Then you begin the endless grind and fetching quests.

At least its better than The Witcher which is like a single-player MMO that requires you to study anatomy to find where a frikkin' skull is.

 

[North King]

Okay, so here's my question from the last WWW thread: Who's Zaerun? North King mentioned him in his last update, and I have seen him viewing the NES subforum. However, he doesn't have any posts.

A new person who hasn't posted here before?

 

[Ninja Dude]

A new person who hasn't posted here before?

But you mentioned him in your update. Did he PM you orders or something? Or were you just addressing a random person viewing the NES forum?

 

[andis-1]

WoW is okay, its fun for a while.

Then you begin the endless grind and fetching quests.

Actually it goes the other way around... First you do all the endless grinding and questing, then you hit max level and the game can REALLY begin...

In other news, waiting for my copy of WotLK.

 

[North King]

But you mentioned him in your update. Did he PM you orders or something? Or were you just addressing a random person viewing the NES forum?

PM (ten).

 

[Sheep]

Hahaha it would of been funnier if it was the random person thingy... its like. 'Hi Miss Piggy I know you have been viewing my nes... you should join because your friend Kermit is already playing'

 

[Shadowbound]

The Witcher is beastly.

Why aren't any of you people on the chat channel?

 

[Dachs]

Why aren't any of you people on the chat channel?

IRC doesn't work at this here university.

 

[Symphony D.]

Has anyone here ever tried the program, Fractal Terrains Pro, by Profantasy? Looks quite interesting and wondering if it's worth the buy.

I talked about it several months ago, recommended it to Daftpanzer, and wrote a guide on how to convert its maps to any given projection using ArcGIS. As to if it's worth buying, I can't say, I only used the demo. Saving isn't all that huge a feature unless you manually edit the planet.

 

[Matt0088]

I talked about it several months ago, recommended it to Daftpanzer, and wrote a guide on how to convert its maps to any given projection using ArcGIS. As to if it's worth buying, I can't say, I only used the demo. Saving isn't all that huge a feature unless you manually edit the planet.

Can you give link to this guide please.
I don't trust the search on CFC to bring me there.

Edit: Hey Daft!, what did you think of FTP?
Edit2: What do you know... The search function actually works reliably for such a specific inquiry.
@Symphony, do you know of any other similar programs?

 

[Symphony D.]

Here, if it isn't what you've found. Personally I'm not entirely happy with the way it does things and you have to fiddle with a lot of the values to get good results but it's far and away the best piece of software around, and I looked at several. I'd pay maybe $20 - 25 for it but $40 strikes me as excessive--then again they do have a monopoly.

 

[Daftpanzer]

I don't think many of us could understand how you're feeling Daft . I really wonder what THAT feels like... Maybe, if I'm good enough, I might understand someday!

Are you subtly implying something there, perchance? Something to do with one of my NESes?

Mysterious Michelle Branch references by Daftpanzer...what does it all mean?

Who is Michelle Branch? Really I was posting strange things again while being sleep-deprived (that's my excuse anyway).

"I didn't enjoy Warcraft 3"

3 lost its way.....

3 was meh...

Hey, I feel better now... I thought I was the only one in the world who didn't actually like Warcraft 3. I got it cheap with the expansion a few years after it came out, and never really got into it, though I really tried to like it... The difference between the AI in the early campaign missions and the AI in the skirmishes seemed immense. I don't think I could beat a single skirmish AI on easy mode. It seemed like you had to time all your spells and stuff to perfection with all the hotkeys, or you died horribly. Nice cutscenes though!

I played some warcraft 3 online, but found that people either didn't talk to you or they were very elite-ist, even on the silly custom maps. It didn't seem very welcoming. Then the game version changed and I never got around to downloading another 40-meg patch.

I played Warcraft 1 back in the olden days, on a PC with no soundcard and a 24 (twenty four) mhz processor, but only when you pressed the 'turbo' button, otherwise it was 18. Tell that to the kids today, and they won't believe you

Starcraft on the other hand, I still enjoy. You can see newbs being accepted into a ten-year old community. Especially teamwork custom maps, Impossible Scenarios, kill 20,001 hydralisks etc. I like the 'Phantom' games too, hope they make that a default part of Starcraft 2. /rant

Edit: Hey Daft!, what did you think of FTP?

I don't think I ever got it installed, possibly because I never got it downloaded. All I can say is that I was impressed with the maps Symphony and others created with it.

I did get 'AutoREALM' to work, and that has some nice fractal-line drawing tools in it.

 

[Symphony D.]

So, I sent this way back in June. Formatting is off because CFC doesn't have indentation.

Spoiler :

June 24, 2008

Obama for America
P. O. Box 8102
Chicago, IL 60680

Dear Obama ’08 Campaign Staff,

Republican Party Presidential candidate Senator John McCain has begun making public overtures regarding solutions to America's energy concerns utilizing stop-gap measures and gimmicks. Criticizing these efforts as such by itself is inadequate—what is necessary is a comprehensive plan to reduce America's dependence on fossil fuels and their producers, who all too often view America as a customer rather than a friend. Although Senator Obama has such a plan, it is systematically riddled with in-the-box thinking based on the IPCC’s projections and is insufficient to truly remedy America’s energy ills. What I propose is a plan which would enable Senator Obama to take the bold initiative of bringing not just America, but indeed the entire world to a state of virtually zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2035 through an endeavor comparable to that of the Apollo Program or Manhattan Project.

This summer will mark the fortieth [sic] anniversary of the first Lunar landing on the Moon; a mission that fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to America issued a mere eight years earlier. In throwing down that gauntlet, he united America in a common purpose during a troubled time. The success of his vision was one of the few high-points in a decade wrought with hardship and heartbreak. In the aftermath of the Apollo Program, America has wasted the advantages it once enjoyed in space. We have not returned to the Moon since Apollo 17 and our manned space missions are limited to low Earth orbit. We have lost the lead we once enjoyed and the prestige space exploration and science brought to our nation. Though NASA is currently planning a return mission to the Moon, so too are the Russians and the Chinese, but they are also making plans to go even farther: to Mars. It is clear that a new race for space is on the horizon.

But what does our space program have to do with a visionary energy policy? The answer is: everything—our future is in space, for it is in space that the ultimate solution to our energy concerns may be found, not just for America but for the entire world as well. Let me present my argument.

The energy released by nuclear fusion, the process of fusing two atoms together under extreme pressure and heat, is three to four times greater than energy released by fission and creates no long-term radioactive waste as a by-product like fission. Deuterium-tritium fusion (D-T fusion) is well known and understood by scientists, but it has the unfortunate aspect of producing neutron radiation over time, gradually irradiating any reactor housing and requiring its eventual replacement and (relatively) short-term storage or processing. Aneutronic fusion is a class of fusion reactions which do not produce neutron radiation. The best known of these involves the fusion of two atoms of the isotope helium-3 (He-3 fusion), which is the type of reaction that occurs within our Sun. He-3 fusion is clean, with the only residual output being the fused He-4 that results from the reaction. The efficiency of this reaction is such that fifteen to twenty-five tons of it would be sufficient to power the entire nation for a year with no greenhouse emissions or pollution.

There are two problems with undertaking an energy program that capitalizes on the use of energy released from fusion reactions. First, fusion research, presently based on D-T fusion, has been slow due to a general lack of funding. The current international program, ITER (originally International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, now a non-acronym), had its American funding eliminated for FY2008. This program is not expected to yield a commercial reactor prototype until 2050 under DEMO (DEMOnstration Power Plant), which is the planned successor to ITER. Thus, we will be waiting over forty years for a less efficient process that continues to generate some level of radioactive waste. Secondly, He-3 can only be found in minute amounts on the Moon (which are difficult to extract) or in the gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Of those, Jupiter has an extremely powerful radiation belt which makes the extraction of He-3 from its atmosphere difficult at best, leaving Saturn as the nearest ideal extraction candidate.

In the past, space travel was conducted under the aegis of research and exploration; now, with this plan, it could be used to benefit all mankind and minimize the effects of anthropogenic activities contributing to climate change. Our space program would gain the new mission objective of seeking elements for powering human industrial activities in an sustainable ecologically friendly fashion. Undoubtedly, the resources necessary to pursue such a strategy will be exhaustive and the difficulties will be enormous, but the benefits will far outweigh both.

This plan would likely involve a return to the Lunar surface for the establishment of a permanent base there. Such basing could then be utilized to conduct expeditions to Mars, ideally under the Mars Direct program outlined by Robert Zubrin and David Baker, which is currently utilized as NASA’s “design reference mission.” Phobos or Deimos, one of the Martian moons, could also be used as the site of a permanent base, as could the Martian surface, and would make an ideal launching point for missions into the outer Solar System. From these locations, robotic missions could be undertaken to “mine” the atmosphere of Saturn or, should the difficulties of radiation shielding be overcome, Jupiter. Such extraction would present no risk of pollution or contamination of these planets, as any detritus of human activities there would be easily consumed by the immense pressures and temperatures of the depths of these planets’ atmospheres, under which there is no solid surface. In the intervening time period, He-3 extraction could be conducted on the Moon.

The process of commercially utilizing space will produce a positive feedback loop: as humanity’s grasp extends further and manages to secure the He-3 supply line, in its wake will follow new opportunities and new commercial and industrial enterprises. The demand for commercial spaceflight is likely to soar—cheap access to space will become a necessity, and the cheapest way of getting there is the use of a space elevator (a cable suspended from a body placed in orbit, anchored on Earth). Such a device would lower the cost of access to space from tens of thousands of dollars per pound to hundreds of dollars per pound. This in turn would make later missions cheaper and easier, and pave the way for new activities in space, such as zero-gee manufacturing, or the mining of asteroids for rare elements not easily acquired on Earth. In addition, the hard-line connection provided by a space elevator would allow for the construction of solar power stations in orbit, unhindered by weather or the day-night cycle, which could transfer energy back to Earth utilizing the space elevator itself rather than the poorly understood and potentially dangerous method of wirelessly beaming power back through the atmosphere using microwave transmissions.

If undertaken, this plan would result in the creation of two new industries: practical commercial spaceflight, and space-based energy collection, each likely to become multi-billion if not trillion dollar industries, along with an incalculable host of spin-off technologies, industries, and applications. It would also facilitate and give purpose to exploration of space while at the same time drastically reducing human impact on Earth’s environment. Both the aforementioned form of orbital solar power and He-3 fusion itself would serve to render all non-vehicular fossil fuel power sources (which are the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions) obsolete. The adoption of high-density batteries for vehicles would then eliminate all vehicle-generated pollution excepting perhaps that of aircraft. The follow-on benefits from this would be the possibility of enabling developing and underdeveloped nations to complete their industrialization without negatively impacting the environment, and the reduction of American interventionism in the world at large to secure precious resources.

In short, this proposal will improve the global environment and the health and quality of life not just of Americans, but of every man, woman, and child on this world, and will lead to the era of human spaceflight promised to all of us a half-century ago, but never delivered. It will be as profound a change to humanity as the industrial revolution, and it will be a permanent solution to our energy concerns, which will not be solved by technologies such as ethanol, clean coal, or fuel cells, which simply shift the burden to other similarly strained resources such as crops and fresh water.

I believe this is a goal which is worthy of pursuit. I believe it is an objective, a future, which all humanity could and should enjoy. And I believe that it is vision which fits in line with the objectives thus far stated by Senator Obama and one that he and he alone is capable of convincing the American public to rally behind. It is an objective to which we may begin immediately applying resources, and it is possible with the current state of technology and the advances we will gain in the near-term future.

I am aware that Senator Obama has thus far stated that he intends to derive funding for his education reform plans by delaying NASA’s Project Constellation by five years. It is my hope that this proposal makes it clearly evident that sidelining such a program would be a dangerous mistake. Senator Obama’s stated goal of bolstering America’s educational system, while noble in intent, will ultimately prove to be useless if it is not paired with a program capable of providing hope and inspiration to America’s youth to undertake higher educations and apply such knowledge in the real world to make a difference. This proposal not only achieves such an aim, but furthermore redefines the basic mission objectives of NASA, and updates them to fulfill a specific, critical endeavor worthy of the funding required to undertake it.

Funding for a program on this scale may be acquired in a variety of unique means, such as the issuance of Space Bonds promising a manifold return to public investors who donate to the project, the pursuit of corporate support from the American energy and aerospace industries who would stand much to gain by backing such an endeavor, and the utilization of community service volunteers at the ground level of such an effort to reduce many of the logistics costs and bring overall overhead down.

It is my hope that this letter may be of some utility to Senator Obama and his campaign, and that at least some of its content may be used by him within his platform, as I sincerely do believe it to be our best long-term solution to our ongoing concerns with energy and the environment. Regardless, I thank the recipients for their time in considering this proposal.

Sincerely,

W. Wallace
Concerned Independent
Undergraduate Physics Student
University of Arizona

Yeah, it's long, whatever, stow your bellyaching. If this sounds like a good idea to you, and I would hope it does, go here, type in "Space mining of helium 3 for fusion power" (somebody else already entered the idea in before me) and give it as many votes as you can (you get at least three). Explain it to your friends and get them to vote on it. Post it to your Facebook, or LiveJournal, or MySpace, or whatever.

You want fusion power? Demand it. "Fund Fusion Technology Projects Similar to the ITER" is another.

 

[Dachs]

Votes awarded.

Who is Michelle Branch? Really I was posting strange things again while being sleep-deprived (that's my excuse anyway).

Female American (actually, Dutch-Irish-Indonesian-American) pop rock/altrock/country singer, songwriter, guitarist. One of her songs is "Are You Happy Now".

...I'm sorry.

 

[Matt0088]

Pardon my retardedness Symphony, but do you know how to make land completely white while keeping water blue?
I know how to make it all gray, but I can't find the option to do the above.
You mentioned doing it in your conversation about all of this in WWW#3.

On the other hand, has anyone played Max Dirt Bike?(Someone should have). Damn addictioning game, my personal bast 2:42.

 

[Symphony D.]

Pardon my retardedness Symphony, but do you know how to make land completely white while keeping water blue?
I know how to make it all gray, but I can't find the option to do the above.
You mentioned doing it in your conversation about all of this in WWW#3.

You have to manually edit it in an imaging program.

 

[Supermath]

Really long post

I fully agree with what you said. As I keep on telling people, what would have happened if no one sailed to the New World between Columbus and 1550? Or if all sailing past the horizon was put on hold because Magellan was killed in the Philippines? We as humans have progressed throughout human history, and right now we have decided to stagnate.

 

[Perfection]

My finger hurts