Just for the heck of it...

[hatman]

Ask me anything, and you will get an answer. Ask about me, ask about something you think I might know, ask... anything. Seriously or otherwise. Whatever you want. You will get an answer. In most cases, that answer will have something to do with the question. In some cases, it may even make sense! (I'll do my best, anyway. Depending on the question.)

You can ask me directly, or, if you've got a quarter handy, you can ask my buddy...

Comments

[laramoon.livejournal.com]

Heeee!

Let me tell you a quick story. (if you weren't already convinced of my nerdiness, this should do the trick!) When I was a kid, I used to ask my parents the most ridiculously complicated questions (or the weirdest ones) and they rarely knew the answers. So they would direct me to the children's encyclopedia. Sadly enough the "good one" was in English and I couldn't read English yet, at the time. I still looked at the pictures and had my mom translate things for me... ;) Anyway, back then, my biggest dream was of a place that I could go to -- like an information booth in a shopping mall -- where I could ask them any question at all and the person at the booth would know the answer. (How fast does a leopard run? How does a photocopier work? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? How is chocolate made? Who really shot JFK? -- these were actual questions I kept asking my parents. They bought me books for all but the last one...) So, a booth I could go to and ask them questions and, just like that, right off the bat, they would know the answer to my question. I dreamed of a place like that for *years*. ...and then one day, when I was 26, I realized they had invented it, although it looked nothing like what I thought it would. It's called "the internet" - the one place you can go to and find information about anything that you can possibly wonder about.

Anyhow... your post totally reminded me of this. It's a cherished childhood memory, however ridiculous it might sound.

So... um... a question... (actually, I kinda want to ask if I could have a free pass in order to ask anything anytime I like. *giggles*) OK, seriously, here's a question for you: what was the first car to be manufactured and sold? I know the Ford Model T is the first *affordable* car to be made and that's the one most people remember, but... obviously something had to come before "T" anyway, right?

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

Great story! :) Thanks for sharing. And yes, welcome to the club. *g*

A cheetah can run up to about 60mph. An ostrich, the fastest bird, can go about 40. Leopards are relatives of cheetahs, but they can't go quite as fast. I think they're in the 40mph range, when going flat out, but I'm not certain.

I trust you know all you want about photocopiers by now. ;)

The chicken or the egg is actually a question of belief. A creationist will tell you that the chicken was created as-is, and therefore came first. A darwinist, however, will tell you that eggs existed long before chickens. If you want to talk specifically about chicken eggs, then you just go back to when chickens evolved. At some point, there was a proto-chicken. A creature very like a chicken, but one evolutionary step away from it. It laid an egg, and out of that egg, a mutant hatched - the first chicken. So, again... the egg came first.

Chocolate creation... Alton Brown did a whole Good Eats ep about that. I'd recommend watching.

JFK... well, anyone who's watched a particular episode of the UK sci-fi comedy show "Red Dwarf" can tell you that JFK was actually shot by a version of himself from an alternate future.

And yes, the internet is awesome in its information-giving powers. All hail the mighty internet.

And, of course. Ask anything at any time. Same rules apply.

On to your actual question...

The stuff above, I answered off the top of my head. This, I actually did some research.

Ford did start with the Model A (and the revamped successor to the Model T was also called the Model A). In between were several production models, but also quite a few prototypes that never made it to the market.

Long before that, however...

According to the Colombia Encyclopedia, there were steam-driven cars built as early as 1789. The first internal combustion engine car, however, was (according to Britannica's concise encyclopedia) the "Motorwagon" built by Karl Benz in 1885 and patented the next year.

[laramoon.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the answers!

I trust you know all you want about photocopiers by now. ;)

Actually... no. *lol* I mean, I know what it is and I can see how it works, but I'd still have to look up the info to figure out how the heck it actually works. I know I read that in a book when I was a kid - one about all manners of appliances - but the only one I remember from that was the camera. *shrugs* I guess you remember the things you use more than you do the others. (granted, we did have a photocopier at home, but as a kid, I wasn't allowed to touch it!)

About the chicken, I think I should have asked "Why did the chicken cross the street?" instead. That would have been more amusing. But, then, of course, I know the answer to that already: "To boldly go where no chicken has gone before!"

Many thanks for the automotive info. :) ...which reminds me that the F1 season is about to begin. Hee! And suddenly I wonder if there have been cars that could go faster than a Formula 1 race car...mmm... /off to Google.

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

I haven't looked up photocopiers in a while, either. Most photocopiers these days, I believe, use a digital scanner. I believe older ones, however, used a photoelectric sheet. You bounce light off the thing you're going to copy, and it hits the sheet, leaving a temporary image...

Why did Chicken cross Road? Well, this will only make sense if you're familiar with vector math, but... [Chicken] cross [Road] is normal to [Chicken]. But I like your answer, too. *g*

Glad to help on the car thing. And yes, of course there are cars that go faster than Formula 1. F1 imposes limits to keep things fair. But there are rocket cars and all sorts of things. Drag racers don't turn so well, but they go way faster than F1.

[beansideirae.livejournal.com]

oh yeah, my sister points out that she, as a creationist, believes the chicken and the egg came at the same time. because the chicken was created with an egg inside it ;)

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

Ah, interesting. That's a new one. Thanks. :)

[beansideirae.livejournal.com]

your buddy is a little scary looking. not sure if it's as scary as that you had good answers for all those questions up there off the top of your head ;p

i do have a question, but i dont know if i want to bother you with it. it involves a computer issue, heh.

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

Hey! I spent all of 10 minutes (or thereabouts) making him!

And having random answers is just fun. *g*

Not so good with the ins and outs of computer issues, but if you've got a quarter, maybe Swami Ghumbali can come up with an interesting non-answer? Or I could technobabble at you. Or, who knows? Maybe I would have a real answer. It could happen.

Or not. Whatever floats your virtual boat.

[beansideirae.livejournal.com]

technobabble is fun, if sometimes confusing :) see my comment to laramoon, below, for the issue.

propel propel propel your (virtual) craft, placidly down the liquid solution...

[laramoon.livejournal.com]

Cool icon ;) ...I don't think we've ever met, but if you need help with a computer issue, perhaps I can lend you a hand?

I'm a QA tester/test tool developer in a software company - just so you know I'm not just pretending to be able to assist. ;)

[beansideirae.livejournal.com]

lol, hi. i've seen you 'around' but dont think we've 'met', no.

well i need to track down someone and double check something before i have a good handle on the problem, but here's where it stands.

i play this online game that runs out of telnet. (well, i run linux..or try to...heh...so for me it runs in terminal.) but a friend of mine is trying to start playing, and i was helping him set up. he's running vista. which apparently comes with telnet disabled? he supposedly enabled it, but when we clicked the link in the game website, it didnt recognize telnet.

now, i need to go back and open telnet independently, if it will, and if it will then punch in the game from there. as far as i know that has not been tried yet, and the friend isnt around at the moment. but assuming that doesnt work, i'm not sure where to go from there...

he could just download a client, but he doesnt want to. heh.

if that made any sense at all, do you have any idea what we could try next after that last thing?

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

Okay. I'm not big on Vista. Never actually used it. But yes, according to a quick bit of web research, Telnet does need to be specifically enabled. Once that's done, of course, you have to open the program. (Start -> Run -> Telnet should do it, I think. Or Start -> Run -> cmd -> Telnet). But Telnet usually needs to initiate contact, in my experience. I'm not sure that it accepts incoming connections. So... yeah. I think that's pretty much what you said. Open Telnet and then try to open the game from within the program.

I'd have to know more specifics about the game to figure anything else. Lara or brigal might be of more help (though the latter hasn't volunteered her services, she'd be a good one to ask if she was willing).

Other than that... yeah, my next suggestion would be to download a client.

Does the game's website have any kind of technical FAQs?

[ksarasara.livejournal.com]

Why, in Manhattan, are the avenues more windy than the streets?

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

Avenues are a little wider, allowing more wind with less obstruction.

They're also longer. They basically form artificial canyons that channel the wind.

(Interestingly, the "canyon effect" can also amplify street noise as heard from several stories up, due to echoes bouncing back and forth across the streets.)

Of course, it also depends on wind direction. Avenues go north-south while streets go east-west. So on days when the wind is primarily from the south, the avenues will be windier, but on days when the wind is coming from the west, the streets will be windier.

[ksarasara.livejournal.com]

Ah! Way more than I thought! And interesting, too. Thanks!

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

Glad I could help, and that you found it interesting. :)

OT - comment test

[stellar-dust.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

Ok, let's see what happens!

Re: OT - comment test

[stellar-dust.livejournal.com]

Test for comment email notification!

Re: OT - comment test

[stellar-spectra.livejournal.com]

This should test if it's an OID thing or an email address thing.

Re: OT - comment test

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

As advised, I deleted the problem comment. Seems to have fixed things. :)

Re: OT - comment test

[beansideirae.livejournal.com]

hi..i dont know you, but if you dont mind my asking, how did you get insanejournal to post on livejournal?

Re: OT - comment test

[stellar-dust.livejournal.com]

Well, I was all set to sing the praises of OpenID, but every time I try to reply here with helpful links as my openID account, it fails!

Anyway, there's an OpenID tutorial here (http://mercurychaos.insanejournal.com/311701.html?format=light) and the LJ FAQ is also helpful (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=283&q=openid). Bascially, if you have an IJ, sign into it, then come back to LJ to comment, chose "more posting options," click the OpenID option, and enter yourname.insanejournal.com.

Although it appears any sort of link in an OpenID comment will cause issues ....

Re: OT - comment test

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

Do we know exactly what link character caused the problem? Is it any link from an OID post, or was there an issue with the specific link you posted? Or maybe a typo in the posted link itself?

Hmm, going back to the comment notification email, the LJ FAQ link you posted looks a little funny. The end (after the /support/) looks like this:

faqbrowse.bml?faqid=283&q=openid%C3%A2%C5%92%C2%A9=

And when I hover the mouse over the link, it looks even weirder in the statusbar. It's an a with a ^ over it, some kind of weird thing that looks like a CE merged into a single character, and then a copyright symbol and finally and =.

Re: OT - comment test

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

The other link you posted, BTW - the IJ tutorial - came out just fine in the same post.

Has this happened anywhere else? Maybe it was a one-time posting glitch?

Re: OT - comment test

[beansideirae.livejournal.com]

ok, for a while there, every time i tried to respond to your reply, i couldnt even get back to this page. weird.

anyway i followed your instructions, thanks. it worked ok. but it doesnt seem to have any useful value, since i'm essentially logging in under a new half-livejournal account, rather than my insanejournal. it gives a link to it, but i cant see anything on livejournal from my insanejournal, and vice versa. oh well, it was a thought.