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What project(s) to finish before Doomsday 2012? — Parallax Forums

What project(s) to finish before Doomsday 2012?

prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
edited 2011-10-30 00:51 in General Discussion
What projects do you want have completed before the end of the world December 21, 2012? List here and see if you finish by doomsday, so the post apocalypse survivors and/or archeologist space aliens can marvel at your determiniation and enginuity.
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  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2011-10-07 07:53
    I'm big on process, and therefore accurate scheduling. This often involves "deadines", calendar dates indicating when the "window of opportunity" closes. These can be arbitrary, based on external events or both. A problem arises from the mis-interpretation of "deadline", usually nobody is going to actually die, only the window of opportunity will close.

    Unfortunately, management often makes wrong decisions when evaluating the work to be done and the time available. Instead of determining that there is more work than can reasonably be done in the time available, the decision is made to "work harder" and some how cram 10 pounds of work into a 5 pound calendar time frame. Rather than come to the conclusion, "there isn't enough time, let's do something else profitable", the decision is made to "do it anyway". The outcome is usually failure to meet the deadline, and poor quality output (non conformance to requirements due to "skipping steps"); and an unlimited support nightmare for the entire life of the product.

    The resulting stress from such a poor decision can actually lead to death of employees at worst, and a very least results in unnecessary stress and tension on the organization in general.

    As we all have heard, the world will end with the Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012. In this case it is a literal deadline, everybody everywhere is supposed to die on or shortly after the stated date.

    Allowing for several weeks at the end where cizilization deteriorates into mass riots, violence and cannibalism; we can estimate we have about one usable year to complete projects before the dealine.

    What projects do you want have comepleted before the end of the world? List here and see if you finish by doomsday, so the post apocalypse survivors and/or archeologist space aliens can marvel at your determiniation and enginuity.
  • Beau SchwabeBeau Schwabe Posts: 6,568
    edited 2011-10-07 08:33
    So if ...

    y = tan x

    where
    x is our time line
    y represents the current population

    then x is about to reach 270 deg?

    the dinosaurs had trouble at 90 deg .... hmmm
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2011-10-07 08:38
    Time Travel

    My theory is that the Mayan calender ends because they ran out of tablet due one of two scenarios:

    1) Let's stop here at December 12, 2012 because we probably won't be around much longer since there are Spanish ships on the horizon, 'cuz we all heard about the Aztecs!

    2) It actually went on much longer but they needed the tablet with the remainder (post 12/12/2012 dates) for some other more pressing short term project. A management decision was made to reassign resources.

    I've set my Time Machine beta testing deadline for July 2012. One concern I have is that the time dilation control and monitoring system has been designed around the Propeller II......I'm hopeful, but I really don't want to redesign my Time Machine as an Arduino shield!
  • sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
    edited 2011-10-07 09:13
    Interocitor. I'm building it from a kit.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2011-10-07 09:20
    Braino,
    You are starting to worry me that the world might end before I get a chance see a Prop II blinking a LED from some GCC compiled code I have written.
    Is there any chance we can pick up where the Mayans left off and calculate their calandar a bit further out into the future?
    Perhaps we should create a Spin program for the Prop I to do that.
  • lanternfishlanternfish Posts: 366
    edited 2011-10-09 18:18
    @ mindrobots: Maybe it is similar to god giving Moses 3 tablets with the commandments on them. But then ... oops! broke one.
  • lanternfishlanternfish Posts: 366
    edited 2011-10-09 18:18
    More time wasting when I should be working:
    Although the GMT Correlation is the most widely accepted
    beginning and ending dates for the current 13 baktun cycle,
    a wide variety of beginning dates have been suggested which
    spans over a thousand years, with the resulting end date being
    anywhere from 1495 CE to 2534 CE, with 2012 falling near the
    center.

    So it may have already happened then!?
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2011-10-10 06:00
    Or it may happen after I am gone. I never seem to finish projects anyway, so what's the hurry. Buy more parts and make more clutter.
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2011-10-10 08:22
    Assuming that Harold Camping is correct, and October 21st is the end of days. We all better hurry up as we only have 11 days to finish things up!
  • ratronicratronic Posts: 1,451
    edited 2011-10-10 11:23
    My projects are never ending and always changing.
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2011-10-26 07:15
    We defied the odds and survived last Friday's doomsday! Onward to the Mayan apocalypse!
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2011-10-26 08:03
    Does anyone know of a list of all the days the world was supposed to end? Off-hand, I can think of the obvious ones like June 6, 666; June 6 1666, June 6, 1966; January 1, 1999. But there were a bunch were people actually killed themselves in preparation, like the comet cult. It was a pretty long list.

    Then there was the actual critical day when the sixteen bit value for seconds from January 1 1970 (or something) rolled over and all the financial houses lost data, wasn't this Thursday November 26, 1987? Were the people who got burned from NOT performing proper maintenance the same "experts" that predicted the world would end in 1999? The list of critical days that had actual significance was a very short list as I recall.
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2011-10-26 08:19
    There was a very interesting book (can''t find a reference to it online). Anyway, it was about the coming millennium and all the indicators that it would be the end of the world. The fascinating part was that it was about 1000AD, the end of the first millennium. There were a surprising number of events around 1000AD that could portend the "end of the world" as many people back then understood the world. Major conversions to Christendom, The Battle of Hastings in 1066 and all that followed that little event.....a very interesting perspective (retro-perspective?) on the "end of the world".

    Don't think of it as the end of a world....but a new beginning!! :lol:
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2011-10-26 08:29
    The End of the World already happened. It happened 250 million years ago.

    If you were a trilobite, that is.

    comic%20fortune.jpg
  • RiJoRiRiJoRi Posts: 157
    edited 2011-10-26 08:31
    Chances are excellent that my personal world will end first!

    Given the track record for EOTW prophets so far, I'm not losing sleep over it! Someone once said that to find a reasonable(?) date for TEOTW, take a calendar and mark all the EOTW dates on it. Then take and make your mark in one of the empty dates... :D

    --Rich
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2011-10-26 08:33
    It's always something:

    smoking dinosaur.jpg
    353 x 460 - 44K
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2011-10-26 09:26
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2011-10-26 09:29
    What projects do you want have completed before the end of the world December 21, 2012?.

    My daughter's birthday is December 21 - should I give here her presents on the 20th?
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2011-10-26 10:42
    Whit wrote: »

    Great list Whit. I think the prediction of 5,000,000,000 - c. by scientists is the safest one.
  • MicrocontrolledMicrocontrolled Posts: 2,461
    edited 2011-10-26 10:57
    @Martin_H: Yes, I doubt any of us will be around for that one!
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2011-10-26 11:10
    If you lose the significance of the "Millennium" vs "millennium" in this quote, one would really question the value of a Yale education!




    This President of Yale University foresaw the Millennium starting by 2000.






    I'm taking taking a positive approach and updating my daily affirmation: "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, people like me and doggone it, the world isn't going to end today!"
  • william chanwilliam chan Posts: 1,326
    edited 2011-10-27 07:15
    Is the US Dollar going to fall off the cliff soon?
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-10-27 07:27
    The real, one and only project is to bubble wrap the Big Brain and all of its sibling paraphernalia in a protective nuclear blast cosmic rated material, and then at the last moment, crawl inside with the Big Brain and all its stuff for survival. I suggest enough food, water, and waste elimination systems to last until the fallout is no longer harmful. Then once you emerge, make a radiation hardened suit from the bubble wrap and go exploring for some electricity generators and more prop chips.. I'm sure the Brain is going to suggest that if you find a woman along the way, it will be your responsibility to re-start humanity. But don't worry about machines. The Brain has that covered..
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2011-10-27 07:30
    Is the US Dollar going to fall off the cliff soon?

    It would... if it weren't for the fact the bottom of the cliff is already stacked so high with other victims.

    I think what Professor Braino was referring to was the Mayan calendar thing.

    ...

    As we all have heard, the world will end with the Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012. ....

    My kids' school calendar ends before that, so I'm not sure why everyone is fixated on the Mayans when everyone knows the world goes crazy the day school lets out.
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-10-27 07:36
    Some people will opt out to do nothing. I remember the boss/owner at the tool room company - he drove this million dollar car and then walked in when we were programming a robot to talk about a doomsday scenario and what you could do about it when you saw those "incomings." The topic was always in the news too to keep it as a reminder of the human condition. Maybe the Aztecs or the Myans even talked about Doomsday and played a joke on future civilizations by ending their calendar. The boss always said you could only do one thing, "Bend over and kiss your "snarkus" goodbye."
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2011-10-27 07:44
    Martin_H wrote: »
    Assuming that Harold Camping is correct, and October 21st is the end of days. We all better hurry up as we only have 11 days to finish things up!

    Well, shoot. It's already October 27. Another wrong one. How many thousand wrong ones does that make?
  • ajwardajward Posts: 1,130
    edited 2011-10-27 08:18
    My project would be a comfy lawn chair, with a built-in cooler so I can sit back and enjoy the apocalypse. ;-)

    Amanda
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2011-10-27 08:31
    Nothing like enjoying a good apocalypse to give you perspective on your hectic life!!

    How about a propeller driven world time clock so once it starts, you can track it through several time zones?

    Which leads to an important questions is EOTW going to be relative to local time (as in a sweeping apocalypse) or will it be GMT as in an instantaneous event. I guess that could factor into the time zone issue with the clock.

    I need some better requirements gathering before I start designing.
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2011-10-27 09:15
    mindrobots wrote: »
    Nothing like enjoying a good apocalypse to give you perspective on your hectic life!!...

    So true.

    I'm designing an End of the World Alarm Clock, which gives you a 1 hour notice that the world is about to end.

    Money back guarantee if the thing doesn't work.

    Mayans get 10% off while supplies last.
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2011-10-27 13:03
    Whit wrote: »

    Hey, thanks for the link.

    Uh, oh. There's only five dates left in the "future" table.
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