Tag: Quora

Deano’s answer to: “Did the Invisible Woman (Invisible Girl) have a catch phrase?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

For the vast majority of her existence – No.

Susan Storm was largely the token girl[*] on the Fantastic Four team, a good princess-figure in semi-constant need of rescue despite her quite formidable abilities. Indeed, despite the vast number of comely intelligent women in the Marvel Universe, she was fought over fairly constantly by several of the FF’s male antagonists Doctor Doom, Namor, and even occasionally the Mole Man and other 2nd-tier garbage. Perhaps if she had a catch phrase back then, it would’ve been “Save me, Reed!”

(Nothing will save her from this spanking, though – Photo courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/gru…)

Starting in the late 90s/early aughts, however, she has been known to throw the occasional bad pun, especially if it relates to a general “women not being invisible anymore” theme. This was also reflected in various costume changes, which were (ironically?) much more revealing than in her earlier incarnations…

(She’s also awesome to cosplay – you don’t even need to show up to the con – photo courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/vic…)

Digging through back issues, and a few pizza-stained comic geek friends[†], though, the best I can come up is the following: “The Female of the species is more deadly than the male.” 

(Er, Rudyard Kipling was not… visibly a woman, so it makes sense… Photo courtesy of ancient history)

In summary, it’s kinda pulling at straws to come up with a real catchphrase for Sue Storm. And honestly, comics in general are kinda over catchphrases, so I’m not sure we’ll see a good one arise in the future. Still, the FF has almost always been written and drawn by men, and 3/4ths of the team are guys. Perhaps, with a woman’s touch?[ª]

[* as referred to in the question, her original “code name” was Invisible Girl, not Invisible Woman. Get with the times, Stan!]

[† thanks to Robert McCarthy (howcomics.com), especially, for the much needed assist here and there]

[ª Just, please, not this woman: http://barbara.guanabee.com/2011… ]

This answer originally appeared on Quora: Did the Invisible Woman (Invisible Girl) have a catch phrase?

Deano’s answer to: “Where are the best sandwiches in San Francisco?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

Couple of decent sandwiches, including a killer burger, to be had at Absinthe.

Order the spicy fried chickpeas while you wait. No regrets.

Bonus – pretty dead weekdays until pre-dinner, but open for lunch.

398 Hayes Street – absinthe.com

This answer originally appeared on Quora: Where are the best sandwiches in San Francisco?

Deano’s answer to: “How are IP addresses mapped to location?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

At the top of the Internet addressing food chain, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) keeps track of IP addresses assigned across the globe, and meted out through the various Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).

(Photo courtesy Cisco Systems)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are the ones who assign IP addresses to a given customer, in a given place.

For smaller ISPs, their total service area is very geo-specific to a given city/county, which means that all of their IP address pool, purchased and assigned from an upstream “backbone provider” (also an ISP in most cases), will also be specific to that location/area.

Larger ISPs, which are more likely to “own their own backbone”, purchase their IP address space from one or more RIRs or National Internet Registries (NIRs) and could centrally manage their entire IP address space from a single location… But they too choose to sub-divide their address pool into smaller, localized service areas. This serves several purposes:

  • It enables the ISP techs to associate issues with an IP address to a physical service map in case an on-site tech need be assigned,
  • distributes the number of points of failure, and works in concert with their Disaster Recovery and Redundancy plans to ensure outages are localized as much as possible, and
  • it allows the ISP to easily absorb smaller, more local ISPs through acquisition in a smoother manner (making these customers part of a new – if redundant – local service area, rather than adding them to some larger base of users, and confusing them with existing service plans/infrastructure.

IP address geo-mapping companies simply take the information on file with ISPs, NIRs, RIRs, and the IANA; they then create mappings between IP addresses and country/state/city/neighborhood/node locations.

This information used to be highly erratic and outdated, especially once one went “below country level”. These days, however, everyone along the IP assignment chain understands the value in having accurate IP maps in place, even down the the individual node level (at least, this is true in developed countries) – and as such, this information tends to be updated exclusively electronically, from the on-site technician on up the chain.

As a result, you’re now easier to track, service, and yes, even prosecute based on your IP address alone. Thank heavens for the neighbor’s unprotected WiFi!

Answer originally appeared on Quora: How are IP addresses mapped to location?

Deano’s answer to: “Is visiting Japan safe?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

A quick look at one of several radiation/disaster effect maps of Japan shows that the key areas to worry about are all North/Northeast of Tokyo. A wedding South of Tokyo would likely source the majority of its foodstuffs and other supplies from Southern-side sources, and of course the stigma of using foods and components from the affected Fukushima region will likely ensure that it is the case.

Overall, visiting Japan is safe as ever, perhaps in some ways more expensive, and even now still a bit harder to get from point A to B than it used to be, depending on where you’re going. Outside Tokyo, especially to the South, things should be fairly “pre-tsunami” normal… But depending on the date of the wedding itself, the monsoon season, or the near-tropical summer clime might aggravate your experience a bit, or even cause direct safety issues (flooding, heat exhaustion, etc).

Long story short: if you can go, go. It’ll be safe, and you’ll be in one of the most amazing countries to visit as a tourist, for a once in a lifetime event with friends. What could be better?

This answer originally appeared on Quora: Is visiting Japan safe?

Deano’s answer to: “Where can I have carbon dating done, and how much does it cost?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

There are numerous companies on the Internet that will do carbon dating (and/or various other related dating methods) upon request and payment of a fee, including:

For simple radiocarbon dating of common household objects, costs start above $200 per sample, and vary based on turnaround time, material, dating methods, etc.

Sample sizes can be as little as one milligram of material, though you should check with the testing service for guidelines based on your specific test subject.

Where can I have carbon dating done, and how much does it cost?