The Techno-Cave

[Ithilion]

bear, we are more advanced than we think... but greed is holding the general population back... to a large degree this is because of a moronic patent system

[Don Alexander]

As someone who does keep up recently well with modern technology, I can only agree with bear...

*wants dream machines, total virtual immersion like in Matrix, spaceships, fusion power, turing-grade AIs and autodocs*

NOAW!!!

[Bear]

Oh I know we're more advanced then the majority of people think... heck, they've had hydrogen fuel cell cars for some time now, the power plant of which could run your house, as are we experimenting with nuclear fussion (fusing atoms together rather then busting them appart for energy) , carbon nano tubes which could be tough enough to make a space elevator and loads of other things.... the point is, without the parts of history, and the greed and stupidity of people and corporations... we'd be even more advanced then we are now. Heck.. the forum would be a holosuite by now if we'd not had the periods of being stupid with technology and forgetting things we'd learnt or not believing in new ways.

[Dirty n Evil]

Y'know, all the technological advances in the world don't matter to me unless they develop one things I've always wanted...

A rocket jetpack. C'mon, it's every kid's dream!

Of course, there is always the problem of getting the thing to work without scorching your ass as you fly...

[Retiarius]

And the bugs…and the inevitable collisions with everything…

And the pain in the ass of collecting the six rare parts, blasting your way through Death Watch guards and Super Battle Droids to the bottom of the Death Watch Bunker on Endor, fighting through the poisonous alum mines to the jetpack crafting room, then protecting the Engineering Trader from the guards that spawn when he starts making the jetpack—oh, wait, that’s only for making jetpacks in Star Wars Galaxies.

[Bear]

I think they need to invent heat-proof underoo's before they even think about inventing a real jetpack.

[Radbaron]

Nah, you just to need to use divergent angles of thrust on the jets so that the heat generated is deflected away from your body.

[Radbaron]

Someone has already done it, btw. Yves Rossy , also known as JetMan or FusionMan.

http://jet-man.com/prod/index_en.html

This is the link to his site, where you can watch his videos. Available in French and English.

[Azrael]

I just want my flying car. And not that cheesey little sub-sub-compact they hung wings and a tail on, all though that was kind of neat.

[Tenjen]

Are vibro swords actually possible?

[Nibler]

I'm actually kinda of disapointed that technology isn't more advanced... Theres many things that we've been experimenting with for years now, yet they are only just being taken seriously. Electric car for instance...the principle has been around since the 70's, yet its only now that we're running out of oil that the companies are taking them seriously.

Whats worse I find is that our overall level of technology could have been much improved. Without the Dark Ages, we'd be much more advanced. Think about it... The Romans had engineering, sewer systems, under floor heating, principles for mass manufacture and intensive farming... Yet, the Empire fell and we had a period of hundreds of years where we forgot all of that... Notto mention we could have had computers much sooner if they'd been taken seriously in the 1800's with the Difference Engine being invented...

Electric cars have been around for longer than gasoline and diesel cars technically, but back then people thought gasoline was more environmental friendly, and then they realized that they could make shitloads of money on oil...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car#History

[Tenjen]

oh and lets not forget what we lost with the alexanderian Library going poof.

[Bear]

They already have sonic devices that they use in surgery for cutting, so a vibro-blade wouldn't be a huge leap in logic to construct.

[Radbaron]

A vibro-blade shouldnt be all THAT hard to make. If you use "memory metal" that uses extended as it's heated state and curled up as the cold state, once a charge goes through the wire, it would extend to it's 1-metre length. Setting up a high frequency vibration might require a large oscillating crystal, and the energy source would have to be very powerful. So unless you can shrink a car battery down to a pair of Energizer D cells, you're going to have a backpack for a power supply.

hmmm, back pack power supply.... anyone see Egon around lately?

[JVDifferent]

Is this the correct thread to ask about computery problems? They seem techy enough for the Techno-Cave.

I don't want a repeat of the Vista burning on the Jabber thread that happened last time I asked about a computer issue... as much as I would like to see Vista dying in a fire.

My problem involves iTunes, of all programs. I've been using iTunes since I got my second ever laptop, and I've never had a problem with it before. Or at least I think it involves iTunes, because I really don't want to consider the possibility that the issue is with my 500GB external hard drive. Or the files in it.

I seem unable to play some mp3s. Some of these mp3s were downloaded some years ago, some were ripped off CDs I've honestly bought, but most were mooched off an iTunes fag who actually buys his music downloads. These files have been working for ages. Until last night.

Suddenly some of my mp3s will play normally, some will play a second or so and then skip to the next track along, and some will not register at all. I just get the "file could not be found" message. I've tried deleting and re-importing my entire iTunes library a few times now- yet the only thing that changes is which files will work or not.
During this process iTunes was being exceptionally unresponsive- for example, instead of clicking open its tab down the bottom, I had to minimize everything else so it would show up by default. Only then could I do stuff with it. Or try to.

And occasionally, to my horror, my external hard drive decided to join in on the fun. I almost kicked it when it decided to tell me that all my folders inside the hard drive were empty, yet it was still somehow storing 110 GB. Cringingly I shut the bloody machine off at the power socket and plugged it in again, because it didn't want to respond to the "safely remove USB device" maneuvre, and it then told me everything was alright and still in there.

Even weirder, QuickTime refuses to play any file that decides to not work. I tell a file to open with it, and it just never gets back to me. So far I've decided to uninstall iTunes and QuickTime, and try reinstalling. Let's hope that helps.