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Bitcoin is the same push of technology somewhat comparable to the very early car prototype that actually worked, which is MB model 1886, https://www.youtube.com/watch?... Both prototypes are operational. Both are not really good at how energy is consumed. Both have a capacity that is realy low However, both deliver from point A to B. Also, they both served a prototype, a grandaddy for the future models. MB 1886 still runs they way it has been designed 130 years ago and Bitcoin will run they way it is designed 130 years from now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

It really could be this simple.

So wait, your vehicle can't pull a 747 like a Volkswagen Toureg can?

Don't know, but my vehicle can pull a truck out of a snowbank, that seems more useful than trying to use a SUV (arguably a crossover) as an airline tug

Indeed, their miniaturisation is at the front.
But the TU Delft's MAVLab (http://mavlab.tudelft.nl) has autonomous flapping wing vehicles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

VW did this a while ago with their Toureg. Of course, they didn't chicken out with a 787, they went with the queen of the skies, the 747, which weighs 100 tons more than the smallish 787.

So wait, your vehicle can't pull a 747 like a Volkswagen Toureg can? Note the 747 is a solid 100 tons more weight than the 787 the X managed here...

Making heavy loads oh so much less heavy.

How does that compare to a train?

So... your name came up in a wikileak?

Obligatory Clerks Reference:

"Anyone working on that death star knew the risk involved. It's their own fault."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

I have a hunch this is Tesla's true end game. I don't think Musk honestly believes he'll reach $650B market cap in 10 years by selling cars. I think he believes he'll reach $650B market cap by selling these. By turning his gigafactory into a "product" that can be mass-produced, he'll be able to scale up and deploy at a rate and cost that nobody else can match

It should be more than a hunch. Tesla is really a battery/power company and should be regarded as such. Yes they are trying to sell cars because they need to develop the market for their real products. Same thing with their roof and battery pack products. They have the unenviable task of trying to both build a market and build a company. I think their purchase of SolarCity is more than a financing play. I think it really speaks to their real goals which are more about electric power technology rather than any specific product.

In a sense it is like several other companies in that their core business isn't what you probably know them best for. Honda is really an engine company but they make products like cars and lawn equipment to sell their engines. Apple is really a software company but they make cool hardware to sell their software. Anheuser-Busch is (well, was) really an entertainment company (they own amusement parks) which uses alcohol as a key product to provide that entertainment.

Leaving the gigafactory off as collateral in Tesla's last bond issue is pretty interesting as well.

Bear in mind the gigafactory is a partnership with Panasonic and Panasonic is the one doing much of the heavy lifting there since they are the largest battery maker in the world. Tesla probably couldn't use it as collateral because they don't own it (Panasonic financed the majority of it) and Panasonic probably wouldn't agree to allow it to be used in such a fashion.

Alright, they are not electric, still impressive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

This is totally lame. Has been done by
Porsche pulling A-380: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Volkswagen Touareg pulling a 747: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Man pulling Globemaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

I guess even these guys would be able to pull an airplane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

This is totally lame. Has been done by
Porsche pulling A-380: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Volkswagen Touareg pulling a 747: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Man pulling Globemaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

I guess even these guys would be able to pull an airplane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

This is totally lame. Has been done by
Porsche pulling A-380: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Volkswagen Touareg pulling a 747: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Man pulling Globemaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

I guess even these guys would be able to pull an airplane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

This is totally lame. Has been done by
Porsche pulling A-380: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Volkswagen Touareg pulling a 747: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Man pulling Globemaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

I guess even these guys would be able to pull an airplane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Rain on Quantas parade? This is what they want to happen. It is a commercial stunt, not an engineering one.
And as we are talking about it, it was a successful one.

And anybody who has ever been to an airport knows that planes get pushed around by vehicles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... is a bit more impressive

Cars have been used as prosthesis for shortcomings in other departments for ages.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the Mini-Cooper ad.

The towing limit on most cars is because cars accelerate and brake going up and down hills, and have to cope with lateral acceleration forces on the trailer in turns.

In this case, the Tesla is pulling a lot of weight on a dead-flat surface at low speed. All it has to overcome is the inertia of the airliner's mass when accelerating to the 2 mph it seems to be doing in the video, and then overcome the friction of the plane's tires and wheel bearings once up to speed. Electric cars would be especially good at this, as they have no clutch and the highest torque at low rpm.

If you're not convinced any vehicle can tow heavy masses on flat ground with limited frictional forces, check out this video. Or this one...

The towing limit on most cars is because cars accelerate and brake going up and down hills, and have to cope with lateral acceleration forces on the trailer in turns.

In this case, the Tesla is pulling a lot of weight on a dead-flat surface at low speed. All it has to overcome is the inertia of the airliner's mass when accelerating to the 2 mph it seems to be doing in the video, and then overcome the friction of the plane's tires and wheel bearings once up to speed. Electric cars would be especially good at this, as they have no clutch and the highest torque at low rpm.

If you're not convinced any vehicle can tow heavy masses on flat ground with limited frictional forces, check out this video. Or this one...

Look:

Plane-pulling bollock man

Federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison. It's a phrase from the movie Office Space.

Out of sync YT clip here.

However China doesn't think that tariffs are the wrong approach to the U.S. Nor do they think intellectual property theft is a problem. In fact the tariffs Trump has levied are still tiny in comparison to the ones China has on us, they just seem bigger (an in raw, no percentages taken into account it does mean more money) due to the huge trade imbalance.

As a libertarian I'm against tariffs.

I'm also against slavery, and to one degree or another China engages in it. I would argue the income tax system is slavery to, so the U.S. engages in it, but it's a matter of degree, many non-libertarians would argue by their measuring sticks that the U.S. does not engage in slavery through income tax but China still enslaves their people by the same measure.

I don't think tariffs are the right approach, but we are playing a game where China has established the way they're playing that game. It's up to us to play with the rules they have established in mind, and our president has chosen to answer in kind, in percentages that are smaller than the ones they've presented against us. I can't fully fault Trump for his approach. My general approach to someone not playing by a rule set I agree with is to take my ball and go home, and I agree that probably isn't the right approach in this case.

Everybody Knows

AC wrote: "cheap loans and massive debt are the foundation of the inertia that is the US economy"

And the reason for that is because in the USA the gains for increased productivity have gone to shareholders instead of workers due to decades of flat real wages -- and then the shareholders loan the money to the workers to keep the economy going (until perhaps the house of cards collapses due to unrepayable debts). See Richard Wolff and "Capitalism Hits the Fan". https://youtu.be/0HTkEBIoxBA?t...

The real issue is the resulting wealth inequality, which affects not only healthcare but many other aspects of US American society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

If the USA would reinstate overtime pay rules for *all* worker -- and further if workers could claim the same percent of productivity they got in the 1950s -- that would go a long way towards resolving the worst of wealth inequality.
https://it.slashdot.org/story/...

I've actually talked with prison guards, and they would very much like to see these sorts of changes. You're right about actual implementation, though: we need to do it right.

I've frequently pointed out violations of the Nelson Mandela Rules in our prisons and in general--including that the Perp Walk is a violation of Rule 73--so no, it's not technically what we have right now. It's bigger than just implementing the rules, and we need a powerful justice reinvestment approach overall.

"WildThing" https://tech.slashdot.org/comm... (join us, won't you?) LOL!

* I've dusted the hell out of you here & am EXPOSING it elsewhere (see link above).

Thought you MIGHT like exposure in the limelight, but, then again?

Germs like YOU simply WITHER in sunlight - come, wither some more, lol!!!

APK

P.S.=> For YOUR listening pleasure (lol, not) & "dramatic effects"? THIS is ME (vs. YOU 'domesticated do-nothing ZERO "ne'er-do-well" SoyBOY TROLLS' like you) WildThing https://www.youtube.com/watch?... ... apk

Apple could ask This guy on how to do it.

> Then along came google and we began to see invented names like Skype. In fact who had even heard of a "google" until then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Hillary's flunky at State is on video - in front of banners for western oil companies - bragging about how the U.S. spent five biiiiiiiilion dollars to "bring Ukraine the future it deserves". And then you melting snowflakes complain about a few thousand dollars in online ads from a Twitter troll farm changing your election.

So even if the crap about Russia invading Ukraine wasn't just bs pulled out of the CIA's ass, it would be infinitely more justified than any American "intervention" you can name. As for China, it's always laid claim to those islands - and who are you to dispute that with them? You're free to tell the whole world what to do, but China can't even play around in its Gulf of Mexico? Get the fuck outta here.

It just sucks to live in a country responsible (not just actively pursuing - actually *responsible*) for the freedoms enjoyed by a large part of the world we live in, which is also honest enough to fess up to its mistakes. I was just born on the wrong side of the planet, I guess.

No. You were born with your head in a warm, dark place, given the fact that the U.S. has overthrown dozens of democracies since WWII, is responsible for tens of millions of deaths, and supports three quarters of the world's dictatorships. Including the worst one, Saudi Arabia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... for its video.

Also, Rick voice acted in last week's Goldbergs S5E21: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyl... ...

It all sounds ideal....until you actually have to deal with the type of people you actually have to deal with in prison.

In practice, this is what happens. You treat people like animals and they become animals; you treat them like decent people and they become decent people.

We've been changing the way prisons operate around the United States and the results are that magic shit that happen in Norway suddenly happens here.

America didn't invent slavery, but it was the last western nation to make it illegal

You mean, besides Spain, Portugal, Cuba, Brazil, Italy, France, Netherlands, Russia, Germany, among others? Don't forget to include their full colonies and territorial possessions.

First off, you are so incorrect you deserve a QI klaxon

By western, he meant European and you knew that.

Germany as a unified state did not exist until 1871 and has never permitted slavery (if we exclude the Nazis).
Spain made slavery illegal in 1818 (did not take effect until 1820) as part of a treaty with the United Kingdom (plus we had kicked their arses in the Napoleonic war).
Portugal eliminated slavery in 1818 due to a treaty with the United Kingdom (we did this a lot).
Italy was the same as Germany, it didn't unify until 1848 and never permitted slavery.
France, Slavery was abolished in all French territories and possessions in 1794.
The Netherlands made slavery illegal in their colonies in 1863.
Russia abolished slavery in 1723 but retained serfdom until 1861.

The last actual slaves in the US were emancipated in 1865... Seeing as I've counted serfdom, systemic mistreatment of blacks continued under US law until 1964 (as in the Civil Rights Act of).

Ironically the one nation you could have mentioned that would have earned you points was the United Kingdom... Slavery here was not ruled illegal until 2012. Of course there was a reason for this, we never really tolerated it. We never really had a mass of slaves so it never occurred to anyone that we needed a law against it. Hell, even serfs (whom had to be paid and cared for by their lords, lords who mistreated serfs were punished) were emancipated in 1574 by Elizabeth I.

It pays to know what you're talking about, before talking about it.

He had quite a sense of humor, and use it to cope with his condition. In 2009 when the threw a Time Traveller's Party and no one attended, he indicated that this was confirmation that time travel was not possible.

And as far as we can tell, it isn't, to the point of ridiculousness, and our physics is validated and complete enough on this to be almost certain. Time travel introduces unresolvable paradoxes (ie sending a single particle backwards far enough in time would completely change future atmospheric patterns, weather events and thus affect who was born, including those doing the sending) and and would require unfathomable physics to carry out (on the order of constraining the energy of a hydrogen bomb in the volume occupied by a human such that no damage or radiation occurred.)

Not going to happen. If it ever did, being time travel, it already would have.

This. The keyboard comes out with a few screws and a connector or two. Anyone with a bit of mechanical talent can grok how to replace it. No "Genius(tm)" needed.

No need to "replace the top case" or whatever Apple's boneheaded, crappy-ass design requires people to do.

Unfortunately, it is NOT simple on a Unibody MacBook Pro (or any of the various Laptops trying to COPY that design, like my work Samsung RV511) to replace the keyboard. In fact, it is one of the worst packaging decisions Apple has ever made, IMHO.

About 2 weeks after I got it, something really big and heavy accidently got dropped on my 2012 MacBook Pro's keyboard. Instant death for 3 keytops! They keys still work, but it's kind of ugly. Of course, no way would that be covered under ANYONE's warranty (I didn't even try). So I looked into replacing the keyboard myself.

Although I have been an electronic bench-tech at certain times in my life, I QUICKLY decided it wasn't worth the effort to replace the keyboard. So I didn't.

BTW, interestingly enough, when my work's Samsung RV511 laptop's keyboard developed some keys that just-won't-work, no matter what, I looked into replacing ITs keyboard. Same fucking thing! You have to disassemble the laptop just about down to the last fucking screw to FINALLY reach the keyboard! Only THEN is it a matter of undoing the few mounting screws and taking 30 seconds to replace the keyboard. But by then, you have quite a display of different-sized screws, daughter boards, etc. sitting BESIDE what USED to be your laptop!

Don't believe me?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Howard Zinn talks about a possible revolt of the guards: http://www.historyisaweapon.co...
"However, the unexpected victories-even temporary ones-of insurgents show the vulnerability of the supposedly powerful. In a highly developed society, the Establishment cannot survive without the obedience and loyalty of millions of people who are given small rewards to keep the system going: the soldiers and police, teachers and ministers, administrators and social workers, technicians and production workers, doctors, lawyers, nurses, transport and communications workers, garbage men and firemen. These people-the employed, the somewhat privileged-are drawn into alliance with the elite. They become the guards of the system, buffers between the upper and lower classes. If they stop obeying, the system falls."

And here is the inequitable financial reality of that system given wealth is control under capitalism:
"Wealth Inequality in America"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

I wonder if the problem as seen by the ruling class may be that techies have their hands on the key infrastructure of modern society (including banking infrastructure)? If US techies were really well-off (e.g. all millionaires), techies might have some time and energy for creating alternatives. So, best to keep them down by making them insecure by importing cheap labor rather than train US Americans and provide them higher salaries, more benefits, and more equity. Techies may think they are doing well because they are doing better than the average US American -- but what they are paid in general does not reflect how key their contributions are these days to the digital infrastructure of control and surveillance.

I remember back in the 1990s when independent contractors got 2X to 3X what regular employees did. The H1Bs, even at prevailing wages for employees, also greatly undermined the earnings for contractors too. Many H1Bs don't really replace employees as much as they replace contractors.

Oh lighten up Francis!

Not to mention the spanish inquisition.

In a "fair" world it would be "GNU/Linux" - "Linux" is the kernel, GNU provides other necessary "operating system" functions.

I've taught an "intro to Linux class" a couple times and can say that most textbooks only mention the GNU project in passing (if at all - in the beginning "history" type chapter) - so from that perspective everyone knows when you say "Linux" you are referring to an operating system (if they know what an OS is)

my personal preference is to talk about "distributions" (Ubuntu/Red Hat/whatever) but don't mention GNU unless I'm in a classroom setting (and then more to drive home the technical difference between "kernel" and "operating system").

I used "Revolution OS" to fill up some class time - if you are curious (and didn't live through it). In the documentary Bill Gates is the "bad guy", Stallman the crusader/fanatic, and Linus the practical applier of knowledge.

with all of that said - my official answer to the question is "no one cares"

How do you pronounce “Linux”?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

The HR people and hiring managers I've spoken to tell me the climate regarding hiring H1-B's has shifted dramatically. The are very concerned about the increased scrutiny from the government to justify the hires and as a result they are looking elsewhere.

Correct, now it's a better bargain to hire kids straight out of college.

Check out this video where an immigration lawyer is whining about the increased requests for evidence and denials. She even acknowledges that lack of specialized skills is justification to deny a petition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

my latest video update on the Surface Pro 3 touch issues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Ahh, memories.

> by a nation that considers the U.S. to be its biggest enemy

I'll leave this here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bowhUWl6rxQ

Yep, that's what we all say.

Well, unfortunately yes: https://www.youtube.com/result...

In March, I met a lawyer named Anas Joudeh, who took part in some of the 2011 protests. Joudeh no longer considers himself a member of the opposition. I asked him why. “No one is 100 percent with the regime, but mostly these people are unified by their resistance to the opposition,” Joudeh told me. “They know what they don’t want, not what they want.” In December, he said, “Syrians abroad who believe in the revolution would call me and say, ‘We lost Aleppo.’ And I would say, ‘What do you mean?’ It was only a Turkish card guarded by jihadis.” For these exiled Syrians, he said, the specter of Assad’s crimes looms so large that they cannot see anything else. They refuse to acknowledge the realities of a rebellion that is corrupt, brutal and compromised by foreign sponsors. This is true. Eastern Aleppo may not have been Raqqa, where ISIS advertised its rigid Islamist dystopia and its mass beheadings. But as a symbol of Syria’s future, it was almost as bad: a chaotic wasteland full of feuding militias — some of them radical Islamists — who hoarded food and weapons while the people starved.

And, deliberately revealed that:

[PHOTO of a bombed hospital]
The roof of the Aleppo Eye Hospital, which rebels used as a military headquarters.

smugfunt: It is undeniable that the White Helmets and the Syrian American Medical Society are western funded yet operate only in jihadi held territory.

And one would wonder why there is no White Helmets in Yemen, why no Western funded "NGO" has ever operated in Yemen and/or is deliberately frequently promoted in MSM like White Helmets.
Everyone who question the role, motive, credibility of White Helmets, no mater who they are, they were/are/will be immediately labeled as problematic/propagandist/misinformed, as if only Russians run fake news:
https://medium.com/@caityjohns...
https://www.rt.com/news/424078...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Also, it's so easy to debunk the rescue videos of White Helmets: no first aid, all are dramatical runnings, the victims are either without or with very little dirt, bruises, etc.

These are the same organizations who, when Russia deliberately bombs hospitals or civilians standing in bread lines in Syria, claim "terrorists" were targeted. And then, when the white helmets show up to do their work, Russia bombs them again so pictures and news of the deliberate attacks will be suppressed.

These are the same organizations who reported on the killing of a 10-year old girl in Eastern Ukraine when the Ukrainian military and volunteers were fighting the Russian invasion in 2015. The claim was she was killed outright in an artillery attack.

Only problem, the girl never existed. It was the literal embodiment of fake news. In fact, when a BBC news crew tracked down some of the Russian news teams who reported on the "incident", they asked why the Russians reported the fake news. On camera one guy said the girl never existed while another guy said, "We had to broadcast it."

Consider the development of fighter aircraft props from two blades, up to five in 1945, and counter rotating, for six, and paddle blades.

And then there was Thunderscreech. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... F84H .

This is all pretty simple for NASA to simulate except for the gravity. So I expect if they can get one flying here, it will do okay on Mars.

Taking the matter in a different direction, this should be a tremendous enhancement to a rover. An eye in the sky to scan for interesting things to examine, elimination of some of the guesswork involved in moving the rover around. Then a return to the rover to sip some of that nice electricity for dinner, then ready for the next day's adventure.

if and when they get their hands on these bots answering any unknown call will turn to hell.

Have your Duplex answer unknown calls. It's not like a contract between the robocaller and your Duplex will be valid.

It will be something like Lenny talks to a spectacularly bad robocaller

Since they switched to the N-trig touch screen and digitiser since with the Surface Pro 3 they also have a phantom touch and dead zone issue that remains unsolved: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... Running some –not even designed for that model!– "Sony" n-trig calibration tool can sometimes help, a little bit, temporarily at least, or so (your milage may vary), I find it ridiculous that many users need to live with a mostly brocken touchscreen for years! Also it can be really hard and sometimes impossible to even log in and reach the device manager to a actually switch the f*cking HID off, if it produces too many random touches, ..!

Is in what is called "ancillary services".

An ongoing issue with operating and maintaining an electrical grid is how to balance electrical generation with electrical consumption. The two vary throughout the day; for example, solar energy adds a surge of power to the grid during sunlight hours, while peak consumer demand for electricity happens around 7-8pm. If you have five minutes, I suggest you watch this video, produced by Vox, discussing it further.

How do electrical companies then compensate for the differences? Or for contingencies, like when an electrical generator needs to be brought offline for emergencies or maintenance? This is where "ancillary services" plays a vital importance. Utilities are desperate to find an efficient way to store surplus power generated when supply is higher than demand, so that it can then be released when demand is higher than supply. Currently, when supply is too high, it is reduced (ex: solar panels and wind turbines turned off), wasting energy. When supply is too low, expensive generators are brought online to meet demand. But if we can make battery technology cost-efficient to store surplus electricity for peak-demand use, it would save vast sums of money, as this article highlights.

My only real concern is how much battery waste this will lead to. Cells need to be replaced every 3-5 years. Until superconductors or high-energy-plasma devices become reality, the only somewhat-environmentally-safe way to store energy long-term is thermal. Hopefully molten-salt storage technology succeeds in this regard.

Ancillary services are generally not load peaking support but rather VAR and frequency control in relatively rare/extreme conditions, for short durations.