Slashdot Mirror

Yes of course road quality varies, and who knows exactly why some jurisdictions have much better roads than others. It's definitely not as simple as "the voters to want it." In an ideal world, that would be true. But like I replied to another comment, there are all kinds of things standing in the way of true representation like that such as corruption, lobbying, lust for power, the legislators personally disagreeing, etc.

Take a look at this from economist Walter Block, it's pretty good: The privatization of roads

You missed it, it's actually here

You should have linked to the YouTube video which, sadly, Microsoft doesn't seem able to access.

Entire video here:
http://youtu.be/Dx3Jghr-LYA

That's a lot of money for space research. . Do they know something we don't?

What are you talking about? No it is not!

They use some of that money for manned space missions rather than for research. Still, their previous $3 billion annual budget could afford to send men to space while NASA's $18 billion annual budget apparently cannot. Now Russia announces a spending increase up to USD$68.71 billion over eight years (USD$8.59b a year), roughly half of what NASA's sliced up budget is currently.

Neil deGrasse Tyson's video pleas We Stopped Dreaming and its follow-up A New Perspective proposed we increase NASA spending to 1% of the US Federal Budget (current spending: 0.49%) suggests we could go to Mars and innovate the way we did in the 70s. That's significantly more than Russia's new investment and would help us keep our lead. Otherwise, we're losing both innovation and innovators.

I'd like NASA to be funded by the largest of:
* 1% of the US Federal Budget ($3.8t -> $38b in 2011)
* Half of the US DOD's Research, Development, Testing & Evaluation budget ($79b -> $39b in 2010)
* 5% of the whole US Military budget ($550b -> $27b in 2011, $708b -> $35b in 2012)

This extra funding would come from otherwise allotted military spending (so an increase to the military budget would typically increase NASA's budget as well). As I noted a few paragraphs earlier, this would roughly double the current $18b budget and would bring us to Mars.

That's a lot of money for space research. . Do they know something we don't?

What are you talking about? No it is not!

They use some of that money for manned space missions rather than for research. Still, their previous $3 billion annual budget could afford to send men to space while NASA's $18 billion annual budget apparently cannot. Now Russia announces a spending increase up to USD$68.71 billion over eight years (USD$8.59b a year), roughly half of what NASA's sliced up budget is currently.

Neil deGrasse Tyson's video pleas We Stopped Dreaming and its follow-up A New Perspective proposed we increase NASA spending to 1% of the US Federal Budget (current spending: 0.49%) suggests we could go to Mars and innovate the way we did in the 70s. That's significantly more than Russia's new investment and would help us keep our lead. Otherwise, we're losing both innovation and innovators.

I'd like NASA to be funded by the largest of:
* 1% of the US Federal Budget ($3.8t -> $38b in 2011)
* Half of the US DOD's Research, Development, Testing & Evaluation budget ($79b -> $39b in 2010)
* 5% of the whole US Military budget ($550b -> $27b in 2011, $708b -> $35b in 2012)

This extra funding would come from otherwise allotted military spending (so an increase to the military budget would typically increase NASA's budget as well). As I noted a few paragraphs earlier, this would roughly double the current $18b budget and would bring us to Mars.

"NASA Johnson Style" ("Gangnam Style" Parody) was not affect either. Thank goodness! I could even watch it a billion more times! http://youtu.be/zulxSCb4ZVk

Umm, excuse me Mr Piss, Surely you don't mean the Ferrari beating Cadillac CTS-V?

To prevent this type of violence we definitely need God on our side

I'm with Neil! http://youtu.be/qDLrwwOxnaA

Sorry to burst your bubble but the warming has stalled about 15 years ago while CO2 levels in the atmosphere keep rising, every year the chances that this could be a statistical fluctuations in a long term trend diminishes, all you have to do is look at IPCC AR5 draft figure 1-4 to see how badly the models have failed to predict reality; as Richard Feyman said "When you've got morons talking about something they don't understand, you get something hilarious"

FTFY. Anyway this explains it.

Main thing is that combination of Arduino and MK802 removes the need for the cable as seen in this case: http://youtu.be/jf-cEB3U2UQ#t=11m28s And yes, by shown example all the computing power for machine vision etc. is now on board. Not to mention node.js javascript and firmata. Your observation about new computing power on board which becomes available is right. Lame? ... I'm sorry to hear that.

Sorry to burst your bubble but the warming has stalled about 15 years ago while CO2 levels in the atmosphere keep rising, every year the chances that this could be a statistical fluctuations in a long term trend diminishes, all you have to do is look at IPCC AR5 draft figure 1-4 to see how badly the models have failed to predict reality; as Richard Feyman said "When actual observations over a period of time contradict predictions based on a given theory, that theory is wrong!"

http://youtu.be/MaF9nbLo8as (Caution! NSFW)

I wasn't even talking about Crowder. I even agree that unions are necessary in many instances. You are proving my point about having blinders on when it comes to something you believe in. For just one example since you seem incapable of using Google (or Bing or DuckDuckGo) here is a raw feed of them tearing down a tent with people inside. I cannot abide people who throw around the word tolerance and then show none. It is apparent you do not wish to discuss this but to simply tell me I am wrong. You cite examples of violence and then justify them.

TechReport analysed the nVidia 680 a bit after its release and had a piece on adaptive vsync which should answer your question.

Quoted from an nVidia software engineer:

There are two definitions for triple buffering. One applies to OGL and the other to DX. Adaptive v-sync provides benefits in terms of power savings and smoothness relative to both.

- Triple buffering solutions require more frame-buffer memory than double buffering, which can be a problem at high resolutions.

- Triple buffering is an application choice (no driver override in DX) and is not frequently supported.

- OGL triple buffering: The GPU renders frames as fast as it can (equivalent to v-sync off) and the most recently completed frame is display at the next v-sync. This means you get tear-free rendering, but entire frames are affectively dropped (never displayed) so smoothness is severely compromised and the effective time interval between successive displayed frames can vary by a factor of two. Measuring fps in this case will return the v-sync off frame rate which is meaningless when some frames are not displayed (can you be sure they were actually rendered?). To summarize- this implementation combines high power consumption and uneven motion sampling for a poor user experience.

- DX triple buffering is the same as double buffering but with three back buffers which allows the GPU to render two frames before stalling for display to complete scanout of the oldest frame. The resulting behavior is the same as adaptive vsync (or regular double-buffered v-sync=on) for frame rates above 60Hz, so power and smoothness are ok. It's a different story when the frame rate drops below 60 though. Below 60Hz this solution will run faster than 30Hz (i.e. better than regular double buffered v-sync=on) because successive frames will display after either 1 or 2 v-blank intervals. This results in better average frame rates, but the samples are uneven and smoothness is compromised.

- Adaptive vsync is smooth below 60Hz (even samples) and uses less power above 60Hz.

- Triple buffering adds 50% more latency to the rendering pipeline. This is particularly problematic below 60fps. Adaptive vsync adds no latency.

So triple buffering is bad because it could cause an intermediary frame to be dropped, resulting in a small visual stutter despite being 60fps. There's a video of adaptive vsync on YouTube.

Hack into a foreign government's computer system and cause $800k worth of damage, violating international laws in the process? Extradition is blocked.

But if you're Richard O'Dwyer and do something completely legal in the UK and causing no direct monetary damage? Theresa May goes out of her way to bend over and let Uncle Sam do his dirty work.

The difference? One guy was looking for UFOs, the other had a website that had links to pirated content. Logic, right?

My feelings could be summed quite well by a lovable Tim Minchin

When I first read the summary of TFA, I quietly said to myself, "Good. I am glad we have solved all the big problems on our planet."

There are two things that immediately come to mind:

1. First world "problems" aren't problems: http://youtu.be/fxyhfiCO_XQ

2. Our perspectives and focus in life are highly myopic. For our species to survive, we must think broadly and deliberately. We need to have awe at the world around us. We need to take time to be still and listen. The latest gadgets and toys are great, but what we do with the gadgets and how we use them is far more important. The short time we are given on this earth is more important than most of us can conceive.

What I am trying to say is that there is so much more to life than the volume of television commercials. During this time of year, take time to turn off the tap of the media giants and spend some time with your loved ones...the people who helped shape you, and the people you are helping to shape.

Mr Rogers says it better than I can during his lifetime achievement award acceptance speech. You need to hear it if you haven't: http://youtu.be/Upm9LnuCBUM

Here's a video to help explain this broad overview perspective that I speak of: http://vimeo.com/55073825

Now, what was that about some new FCC legislation taking effect today?

When I first read the summary of TFA, I quietly said to myself, "Good. I am glad we have solved all the big problems on our planet."

There are two things that immediately come to mind:

1. First world "problems" aren't problems: http://youtu.be/fxyhfiCO_XQ

2. Our perspectives and focus in life are highly myopic. For our species to survive, we must think broadly and deliberately. We need to have awe at the world around us. We need to take time to be still and listen. The latest gadgets and toys are great, but what we do with the gadgets and how we use them is far more important. The short time we are given on this earth is more important than most of us can conceive.

What I am trying to say is that there is so much more to life than the volume of television commercials. During this time of year, take time to turn off the tap of the media giants and spend some time with your loved ones...the people who helped shape you, and the people you are helping to shape.

Mr Rogers says it better than I can during his lifetime achievement award acceptance speech. You need to hear it if you haven't: http://youtu.be/Upm9LnuCBUM

Here's a video to help explain this broad overview perspective that I speak of: http://vimeo.com/55073825

Now, what was that about some new FCC legislation taking effect today?

Macquarie Uni - also in Sydney - completed a 70m new university library March 2012 with automated book retrieval. And just to get competitive, It's got heaps of space with whiteboards, projectors and even a million litres of water on the roof for aircon (five green star rating). NB I'm not a Macquarie staff but former student who goes to the library any chance I can get. http://youtu.be/_4If8xFSDgg

That is assuming the US even uses soldiers on the ground, as nukes are useless against air targets, and they're less than optimally effective in water as well (it is amazing how much energy even modest amounts of water can absorb by vaporizing. Absolutely unbelievable).

It has actually been tested that an atomic explosion more than 200 meters away from an aircraft carrier, while it would kill anyone on in line of sight from the explosion, wouldn't sink the ship (tested on a model, not with an actual aircraft carrier).

Actually tests have been made, such as Operation Crossroads, Baker eventand not against models, but real full sized ships and the Lexington-class air craft carrier, the USS Saratoga (CV-3) did in fact sink from damage caused by the the underwater baker detonation, 8 hours later.
  Also you greatly under-estimate the effect of a nuclear explosion on aircraft, both EMP and blast waves have devastating effect on the airframes and electronics, even hardened military grade electronics; and the fleshies inside are very susceptible to blinding and dazzle from the flash, absorb neutron radiation like a sponge and there is the psychological effects also.

Our ally was not "Russia", it was the Soviet Union. Second, our enemy was not the Soviet Union, it was the Nazis, and we won a victory against them quite well. Third, according to the Oliver Stone documentary on WWII I just watched on Showtime, the Soviet Union rightly feared a joint Germano-Polish invasion. Inconvenient truths, eh? You right-wing nutbags will never learn. Stop watching Fox News!

Umm.. I don't quite get whats 'right wing" about the post you're responding to, and certainly not how your obligatory, gratuitous anti-Fox News rant applies. (Of course, I always go to Oliver Stone and Showtime for my history lessons 8-/)
Is it because runeghost wasn't saying how wonderful FDR and Truman were or something? Because aside from the USSR/Russia mixup, his post wasn't off-base. He never said the USSR was not a US ally at the time of the war, his point seemed to be chiefly that they weren't squeaky clean, much as the US wasn't. What's so right wing about that? Or did I just step in the middle of a personal feud?

pink doesn't exist, ti's an illusion created by your mind.

That's what I tell my daughter, anyways

http://youtu.be/S9dqJRyk0YM

Our ally was not "Russia", it was the Soviet Union. Second, our enemy was not the Soviet Union, it was the Nazis, and we won a victory against them quite well. Third, according to the Oliver Stone documentary on WWII I just watched on Showtime, the Soviet Union rightly feared a joint Germano-Polish invasion. Inconvenient truths, eh? You right-wing nutbags will never learn. Stop watching Fox News!

It's a myth that automation is bad because it leads to unemployment, but no-doubt that myth will be perpetuated here. Someone might even say "yeah it frees people up, frees them up to STARVE." Let's try to address that before it happens.

As processes become more automated, the things we want become cheaper because the cost of labor is the dominant cost in almost every business. This means people have more spare money available, and it will be spent on things that before would have been considered too wasteful. This creates new industries and new jobs.

At one time, people would have spent virtually all their wealth on food. Because of improvements in automation, most people in the U.S. now spend a small fraction of their wealth on food, and this leaves extra money for, say, entertainment. At one time, having many people devote their whole lives to entertaining others would have seemed hugely wasteful -- those people should be out gathering food, after all -- but the wealth created by automation means that it's now a reality.

Some folks also make the claim that the new wealth will be concentrated in too few hands, and most people won't get wealthier. That, too, is false: automation makes things so cheap that just about everyone ends up owning things like microwaves, air conditioners, and computers -- things that before were reserved for the rich. Here's a good explanation of this: http://youtu.be/OkebmhTQN-4

Even more video! A guy tries to light a diesel spill with a blowtorch.

http://youtu.be/xMJQFl4az9I

Everybody likes video!

http://youtu.be/3LeRSPuA5Z4

Description: Gasoline is spilled on the ground and lit with a match. Then diesel is spilled on the ground and numerous attempts are made to light it with one then several matches.

There's a good documentary on that matter called The Brussels Business. clip

Depends on who made the fries.

http://youtu.be/e8pLQvzHFow?t=3m13s

Y'all are making excuses for a much larger phenomenon. The implosion of the middle class. Here's a comparison of wage growth for Americans from 1967 until 2011. Look at the various jumps in the curve. You can see the big jump in the late sixties of the lowest quartile, the clear results of the war on poverty. The economic doldrums at the end of the Carter Administration. The sudden increase during the Reagan first term, but take special notice of how the rise benefits the upper quintile and even more so the top 5% (and if you could see the top 1% and top 0.01% I think you'd see something shocking.) The subsequent fall during the senior Bush Administration followed by the boom of the Clinton years (and make no mistake, the booms during both Reagan and Clinton involved huge economic expansions in industry, heavy industry for Reagan and information industries for Clinton. Then junior Bush's Terms, and here's where it get's interesting. Notice the steady decline in advancement. The majority of Americans are seeing their wages crashing towards stagnation or worse. In fact looking at the lowest quintile, over the last 10 years they've had a 20% drop in real wealth. Even the first quintile has remained stagnant with extreme fluctuation. So this is not just an IT thing. The only folks to see dramatic increase in personal wealth over the last 10 years I in a group smaller than the top 1%.

While that was going on, the real wealth of Americans at large has been disappearing. Here's a brilliant lecture on the looming collapse of the Middle Class and the economic forces responsible for the situations we all face today. Contrary to pundits conversations Americans spend significantly fewer inflation adjusted dollars on food, clothes, appliances and cars. Where they are getting killed is Cost of Housing, revolving credit and loan debt, Medical Insurance and drugs, Child Day Care, Cost of Fuel/Energy, that and there are new expenses surrounding electronic gadgets that have been a steadily growing part of the cost of living since the late 80s.

The Banks (both in banking, loans and real estate), Big Medicine/Pharma, and Energy have put the American Family in such a precarious position, that any small disruption or disturbance results in almost immediate financial collapse. The critical events facing Americans are Death of a spouse, Injury or Serious Illness, Divorce and extended Unemployment. Any of these (singly or in combination) are enough to initiate a cycle of debt, penalties and ultimate bankruptcy. Add to this growing inflation and the erosion of our savings and investments, and you can see that the American Family is under extraordinary financial stress. The American dream for a growing population is just being able to get by.

The Arrogant Worms have the perfect response to this http://youtu.be/iIT15HJMRqQ

Too Late.http://youtu.be/9BnLbv6QYcA

Hopefully, being a "nerd" site, this will be taken for what it's worth rather than condemned suddenly and viciously: I know a young man, we'll call him "Tim", who has among the severest forms of autism. Essentially it is a diagnosis of "will never be functional: always need assistance/direction and extreme oversight".

For whatever reason he was taken from a parent and put with another relative. Something along the lines of "Italian matriarchal type", and she had the old-school, conservative-like prejudices of "practically anything mammalian can be conditioned like Pavlov's dogs" and "things related by blood should be given lots of love", so she did both: when he "misbehaved", he got beatings, and the neural malformation or dysfunction that makes conditioning of behavior hard just meant that the discipline had to be that much more severe; at all other times, though discipline was very stringent, he was very much treated with love too.

So now the doctors and "experts" haven't a clue why, call him a miracle and mystery, but the guy functions with extreme...normality. He doesn't like to speak: he has both received a communications board (think Steven Hawkings) and been taught sign language, but seems to have something against language itself, and only talks with those he is very, very close to, but otherwise seems completely normal--slower than others yes, but he can get along, go out with people to enjoy himself, whether for a movie or playing put put.

Of course he really doesn't write, not that people with something against language could even be expected to try, much less people with extreme problems in neural development, but then again, nobody but family and insiders know why it is that he can actually function the way he does.

Or to summarize, he was viewed as a child with extreme behavior tendencies and a very strong will who had to be broken for his own benefit, and those around him, so that he could benefit from being social with those around him rather than isolated, and it worked. I think this suggest that the problem may lie partially in the "experts" picking-up some of the thinking from the damn social workers in schools and other "professional" fields: "O, Jonny has a syndrome that means he can't behave" (and yes, there is a diagnosis for this: it's also the symptom that portends that good teachers will quit public schools, and yes I have known a few of those too).

p.s. He is an adult now. Also, I do not say these things lightly: I was beaten--quite unjustly--rather frequently through certain portions of my childhood, by an inconsiderate father, who was often drunk (I ran away too: twice, the second time permanent), and just as mean the next day or days on "residual". I would be beaten over simple and trifling things, and even for things that I was not told were wrong or I shouldn't do, but simply because my father thought they either might make him look bad, or were not in accord with his ideals: also, the guy has few to no ideals and his opinions constantly move and shift: it was unpredictable, could come at any moment for anything, and it was living in hell day to day. There is a significant difference between discipline (for another's good) and that sort of abuse (beating someone with no appreciable reason or intended good, but out of mere anger).

It is by FAR the most powerful tablet on the market, so obviously the battery life will suffer.

Which means that it will run hot. Will it be possible to fry eggs on it ? Because it has the possibility to become the best kitchen tool EVER !

Let's just put more fans in it!

In 6 months, offices and homes will sound like active roadways. But you'll have a literally cool tablet running an operating system that doesn't really bring anything to the table that hasn't already been put there.

It is by FAR the most powerful tablet on the market, so obviously the battery life will suffer.

Which means that it will run hot. Will it be possible to fry eggs on it ? Because it has the possibility to become the best kitchen tool EVER !

And for the people who don't remember it I've recently recorded a longplay where you can see the computer programming in action:

http://youtu.be/MpQhiYzGVdo

I hereby officially announce George Carlin to be our prophet.

Use MongoDB, it's web scale!

I'm sorry AI, but do you sound a little like this guy in person?

I want a Roomba with a Taser and a water canon... "Halt, you're trespassing, if you do not lay down with your hands over your head and wait for the authorities to arrive, I will be forced to neutralize you!" Yeah like what can a vacuum cleaner do to meEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!. "Thank you for complying, the authorities will be here in 3 minutes." Of course if it had one of those RoboCop ED 209 errors... I'd just have to learn to live with it.

Or, you could go for a Solar Sterling...

It's pretty bad in the long term, according to this guy from last year's Chaos Communication Congress.

Thermite cooking

Now if we can just combine this invention with the water-powered car...

...we will have a really slow car in more ways then one.

Just attach a sail to the car instead, because it's equally ridiculous. As a plus, it's an existing technology. (Top Gear's car-boat challenge)

Need to clarify...

Gaza is not an Occupied Territory. Israel did occupy it after capturing it from Egypt in 1967 when Egypt lost it's war against Israel, however, Israel forcibly removed (using it's own military) all Jews living in Gaza in 2005 and unoccupied the land. Doing so almost led to civil war within Israel, but they succeeded in doing it with the hopes that if the occupation went away, there would be peace.

Following this withdrawal in 2005 the borders were open and there was no naval blockade. All of that stuff came much later after years of Gaza rocket attacks and the kidnapping of Shalit.

The main problem with Hamas...if you listen to them speak...is that they talk about Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and all of Israel as being occupied. They view Gaza as the staging ground for the plans for the total destruction of the Jews/Israel.

Hamas youtube video evidence
http://youtu.be/qMkQGjQ8dWI

The Mythbusters did an entire thanksgiving using a car engine as their heat source:
http://youtu.be/tqABijWMlxA

Do you see anything here about "Mechanical Exoskeleton Jox?"

No?

NO, I DIDN'T FUCKING THINK SO

*thumbs-up fist bump*

The Post Office is not broke. The Post Office is required to set aside bilions in a retirement account that is covering people who have not yet been hired. The Post Office could use improvement in the way customers are served at the counters, but lots of people depend on them. http://youtu.be/KWKMPRFNowM?hd=1.l;

http://youtu.be/eaScyfSHc-Y

You might want to have a look at this nice video about the scientific method :)