"Seriously, the Oceana launch that happened today is having exactly the same problems..."
That is because this is NOT about DRM--this is about killing the Used PC Game market. The server connection is to verify first-install. After that, the game will not work on any other machine (or be whittled down to Demo functionality). That being said, all EA PC games will have this "feature" from this time forward as they and every other major game developer/publisher are all involved in a major assault on First Sale doctrine.
Corporate Gaming is dying...don't throw it a life-preserver by purchasing their bullshit. There are a TON of Emulators and Kickstart projects out there--give THOSE folks your money.
As you can see, Sony has, in the past, made the fingerprint scanner a security vulnerability by combining it with another security function that was not so secure. Unless the touchpad on the device under discussion can be manipulated with a stylus, it too can have a similar vulnerability and may actually be used to harvest fingerprints.
I was sitting here reading your post thinking to myself "This doesn't sound anything like the other posts in this thread...", but then I noticed your user name and it all made perfect sense.
In all seriousness, Slashdot has just been subverted--for money--and you all see it. It's as plain as day. Sure, the website needs to pay for itself, but I don't think that was the plan when Dice bought Slashdot. I think it had more to do with placing themselves as a middleman between YOU and potential employers, for that is where the real money presents itself.
I was not kidding when I suggested a replacement for Slashdot--I see a lot of dissatisfied people, people that are quite capable of creating something that serves them instead of the other way around. It was done once before, but someone lost focus and sold out. It can be done again, hopefully without the loss of focus.
If I had the technical skills to pull it off, I would, but unfortunately my skill set is largely non-applicable. I know that is not the case with many Slashdot users. I think it would be childs-play for most of you.
Do we need to Kickstart this to get it moving? That is one place I can help.
One possible pattern would be everyone heading for the door.
Seriously, the time I suspected would come, has finally come--Slashdot has now gone over to the enemy. The Corporate PR/Advert/Cronyism monster has arrived, and begins to feed. What we now see as simple product placement will eventually turn into censorship and biased "opinion" pieces.
What do you think is the best method to get people to update old data? Require them to prove themselves in order to delete it, then simply ignore their request to delete it.
The moment you touch that old data, you've updated it with your current IP address. Once they have that, they can then connect the dots between new and old data, thus providing them with a much greater amount of information.
The best I've seen yet was a kid (I'm guessing around 16 yrs old) I watched in action at a concert at the Cow Palace in San Francisco many years ago.
A friend and I were waiting in line at a Judas Priest concert when I noticed this guy, wearing a light-blue button-up shirt and slacks, using one of them sweeper things--you know, the little broom and a pivot mounted dustpan thing on a long handle that is used to sweep trash into. He was working his way along the line, sweeping up all the crap the people in line were dropping. I watched as he filled the dustpan with trash, walked over to a trashcan near the door, emptied it and went back to work around the entrance--he swept the place clean, then started working his way around the inside of the front door area, even asking one of the security personnel to step aside so he could get to a soda can just behind him. I remember telling myself "What a lame job".
45 mins later, he was standing next to me about 10 feet from the stage, smoking a joint and obviously enjoying himself. After asking him if he minded passing that thing, I asked him where his broom was. He said with a big, stoned grin on his face that he usually leaves it in the bathroom until after the show. Sure enough, when I went to the bathroom between acts, his sweeper and broom were sitting in the corner.
"Under the guise of protecting jobs, the sugar lobby bribed congress and congress instituted a sugar import quota system. The result is sugar..."...being replaced by High-Fructose Corn Syrup in most prepared foods.
Speaking from experience, I can attest to the conclusions of the article.
The machine I am using as I write this is similar to the machine descibed, though I am running 3.25GB of DDR3 (the most this motherboard can utilize for some odd reason). This computer was one of the 1st-generation "Built for Vista" machines--it's a Gateway my daughter bought intending on putting XP on it. Turns out much of the hardware had no drivers for XP, and...well, to be honest, it sucked so bad she bought ANOTHER computer (Best Buy wouldn't give her a refund).
I ended up with it eventually. I up-graded the RAM as best I could (had sticks laying around), installed Windows 7, and dropped a HD7550 in it--While it isn't a screamer, I actually use it as my gaming machine. The biggest visually noticeable performance gains were, by far, from installing Windows 7. The drivers that Windows found worked great. The video card was the next increase in performance, and it was astounding.
But here is the important thing I discovered with this arrangement--the gains are entirely dependent on the software being used. Some games use massive amounts of CPU when they could be handing off some of that load to the video card, and those games don't run so well. Other games are better in this regard and take advantage of the video card and those games I can usually run at maximum settings.
I play an emulator of Star Wars Galaxies and most times I have two instances of the game running concurrently as well as a browser on a secondary monitor. I usually have Ventrilo running at the same time. Sure, only one instance of the game is actually being rendered, but the CPU load is doubled...and this machine handles it wonderfully, with game settings maxed out. I've also run Skyrim easily on this machine, mods galore.
Once a month, I spend an entire evening tabbing back to/. so I can meta-moderate the Firehose. I am amazed at how many advertisements show up...MOST of them are advertisements. The inundation never stops.
So, if you dislike the advertisements, hop over to the submissions page and start killing some adverts. I've gotten to the point that I ask myself "Is this person trying to sell something?"--if the answer is even a vague yes, they get voted down without further thought. I don't care what the product is...
This particular ad is not only selling a book, but the entire book is trying to sell you shit you don't need in your kitchen. Not only that, the author has used many marketing tricks such as combining statements like "That's Stupid" and "I want one!".
Marketing 101. Get it off/. by meta-moderating. Only YOU can do this...
I don't see why--the adaptation allows Eskimo and Inuit (among others) to STORE fat--in large quantities--to allow for the generation of heat directly rather then through the much slower chemical process that the rest of us utilize. While you and I would sit there shivering our asses off, the Eskimo sitting next to you would simply be burning fat reserves, comfortably. I've experienced this exact situation while ice fishing--shivering makes it really hard to bait a hook without including your finger in the deal.
Most Eskimo/Inuit that I've met (I lived in Central Alaska for 10 years) were what most people would call "chubby"--they had a consistent, yet normal layer of fat that could provide them with emergency heating in the event they REALLY needed it. Falling through the ice in the middle of winter would be an example of such an emergency. Otherwise, they carry that fat around all year. Even in summer, fatty foods are a large part of the Eskimo/Inuit diet. But, I'd like to point out that I've never met a truly obese Native Alaskan--I'm guessing because they don't eat all the crap that most other Americans do--it costs too much to ship it there. While most of us would trim fat off of our meat, the fat is the important part of the catch up North. Muktuk (a common Eskimo/Inuit food) is pure whale fat--there is no meat whatsoever.
Interestingly, the Athabaskan peoples traditional range overlaps that of the Eskimo and Inuit where there are no large mountains that block travel between the interior and the coast (like the Brooks Range does). This is interesting because Athabaskan folks are built much different--they tend to be much slimmer in both bone and tissue--yet share many of the same foods and climate. They one thing missing from the Athabaskan diet is marine mammals of the large and fatty variety--whales, seals and walrus. Eskimo and Inuit eat them but the Athabaskans do not really, unless social circles overlap (more of a modern development). Both groups eat salmon, as the rivers from the coast reach far inland where the Athabaskan group historically occupied, and the interior (Athabaskan group) can actually get much colder then the North Slope of Alaska. The three characteristics discussed in this article also exist in most marine mammals.
Perhaps there is some difference to the fat in marine mammals that isn't present in the other main source of fat, namely salmon, and that consuming it led to the adaptation, rather then this being an environmental adaptation? After all, the Athabaskan peoples live in much the same environment, yet are built totally different (ie, do not have large fat reserves).
While most of you think that's a cute HHGttG reference (OK, it is...), this is the Northwest...it rains. A lot. An umbrella wouldn't be a bad idea. Really.
If you're staying in a local motel, AVOID THOSE LOCATED ON SOUTH SAMISH BLVD. The local cops keep all the crack-heads, tweakers and other various riff-raff confined to the daily/weekly/monthly motels along this street--no need for you to go looking for trouble, it will find you if you stay there for long. The better motels are located north of Lakeway Blvd. (including the Quality Inn right on Lakeway. It's one of those fancy ones). The one exception to this rule is the Shamrock Motel in North Bellingham--I hear more call-outs on the police-dispatch frequencies referencing this motel then any other address in Bellingham. Avoid it.
Bring an UP TO DATE street map, especially if you're going to be driving anywhere besides the Technical College--Bellingham has the most ill-designed street layout of any city I've ever been to, including San Francisco. Not going to vouch for Google maps or TomTom like devices either...really, get a map.
Bellingham is notorious for having the highest fuel prices in the Northwest. If you're driving in from the south, gas up at the Skagit Valley Casino--lowest gas prices in the area as it is on native lands (Upper Skagit Indian Tribe). They also have cheap, decent buffets. They're located 15 mins south of Bellingham. If you're driving in from the North, the same can be found at the Silver Reef Casino just north of Bellingham, west on Slater Dr. from I-5 (Lummi Indian Tribe).
Every single one of them is exposed to attack by anyone that takes the time to fill a backpack with home-made Thermite and a safety flare. Hitting all of these pipelines at the same time would pretty much shut the country down for a month or so. Everything would shut down--gas stations, energy production facilities, chemical production facilities, etc. Sure, some of these facilities get resources from non-pipeline sources, but what about the electricity those plants consume, the oil to feed the back-up gennies, etc?
Until such places are protected physically, the rest of this is kind of moot and stinks of theater and fear-mongering to me.
"The patchy availability will be resolved soon I hope..."
So, I got this buddy in New Zealand and he calls me up this morning and just starts yakking away like he's in the same room. After about 10 minutes, I asked him if he got a free pre-paid phone or something, and he says "Nope, calls are free now, Mate." I ask him what the hell he was talking about and he says "This bloke from the Tele company knocks on me door and says that if we give them permission to put this device on our land-line they won't charge us for phone calls anymore. How fucking cools is that, Mate?" Pretty fucking cool, I says.
Now I'm sitting here wondering how much a 50GB hard drive and a 256k modem costs...
" The batteries are Japanese (Yuasa) in origin, sourced by a French company (Alcatel/Thales)."
Yuasa has been around the block--they've been making batteries for many years.
I used to have a Kawasaki KT 120 trail-bike that had a Yuasa battery in it--the original that came with the bike-- and that bike had suffered no less then half a dozen complete submersions, had the head warped several times from numerous creeks crossings at high speed, been subjected to insane G-forces (being tossed end over end down hills in failed hill-climb attempts) and lived it's entire life exposed to sea-salt, including beach rides.
The only thing I ever had to do to the Yuasa battery in it was add some acid once.
"It's a fairly safe bet that there won't be enough people doing what you describe to really make a significant difference."
Nice to see some optimism.
A lot of people said that about SOPA and PIPA, as well. I am willing to bet your opinion on the matter might change if you were to try streaming Netflix over a 256k connection...and knowing that it isn't getting better for two weeks (also realizing that you are still paying full price to Netflix, but not able to access it for two weeks). And then realizing that they are essentially increasing your cost of internet access anywhere from 1000% to 20000% (depending on your previous connection speed). How long do you think you could sit through that before you'd had enough?
I noticed that there is no mention of a complete disconnection--leaving the door open for continued billing even though you have an almost useless connection for two weeks. Me thinks Verizon is afraid they will start losing customers permanently if they disconnect them, even for a short time. There is no discussion of a 7th strike, or an 8th...what happens then? You get another two weeks of shit connection. Will they charge you less? Doubtful.
Make their fears a reality.
The solution is to drop them the moment they throttle you...and never come back...and NEVER COME BACK. Trust me--when they start seeing ANY loss of revenue, they will rethink this. Verizon is obligated, by law, to act in the best interest of their shareholders--how long do you think shareholders will put up with lost revenue?
"... but there isn't a lot of earth-moving equipment around, not much ground has been disturbed yet..."
Actually, there is. Most of it is located in the lighter area towards the top of the map--it is hard to see them, but that place is littered with many little roads. Most of these end at some excavation--the deposits are coming from the top of the map and are then being brought down these roads to the facilities.
Aye, I noticed the water as well. But it is already being used for the very reasons you stated--irrigation and the town downstream. Wet-mining uses massive amounts of water and leaves you with lakes of toxic slurry to get rid of--there is nowhere to get rid of something like that but flush it downstream right into town. Dry-mining solves this issue.
The "U"-shaped building has a pretty extensive ramp going up the dike to the row buildings--It wouldn't surprise me if a large conveyor belt is constructed down this ramp, connecting the two structures.
Slashdot Mirror
"As for TFA this is another trend I've noticed from the militant feminists..."
Fuck 'em.
I'll get my Porn from North Korea.
"Seriously, the Oceana launch that happened today is having exactly the same problems..."
That is because this is NOT about DRM--this is about killing the Used PC Game market. The server connection is to verify first-install. After that, the game will not work on any other machine (or be whittled down to Demo functionality). That being said, all EA PC games will have this "feature" from this time forward as they and every other major game developer/publisher are all involved in a major assault on First Sale doctrine.
Corporate Gaming is dying...don't throw it a life-preserver by purchasing their bullshit. There are a TON of Emulators and Kickstart projects out there--give THOSE folks your money.
"How about just a flash drive with a capacitive finger print reader..."
How about we look at the history of fingerprint bio-locks on storage devices...
http://www.pcworld.com/article/136439/article.html
As you can see, Sony has, in the past, made the fingerprint scanner a security vulnerability by combining it with another security function that was not so secure. Unless the touchpad on the device under discussion can be manipulated with a stylus, it too can have a similar vulnerability and may actually be used to harvest fingerprints.
Lest we become hypocrites...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Susana_Field_Laboratory
"So ... Hugh Pickens wants everyone to be unemployed?"
Who the fuck is Hugh Pickens anyway?
Clicking his name in the article (as well as the one you just linked) brings you to...
http://researchandideas.com/index.php?title=An_Independent_Evaluation_of_Phillips_66,_its_Business_Strategy,_and_Execution#How_Much_Money_Does_the_Marland_Refinery_in_Ponca_City_Earn_for_Phillips_66.3F
What the fuck? Is Hugh Pickens really just Dice?
I was sitting here reading your post thinking to myself "This doesn't sound anything like the other posts in this thread...", but then I noticed your user name and it all made perfect sense.
+5 Insightful
I hope that means someone is working on it.
In all seriousness, Slashdot has just been subverted--for money--and you all see it. It's as plain as day. Sure, the website needs to pay for itself, but I don't think that was the plan when Dice bought Slashdot. I think it had more to do with placing themselves as a middleman between YOU and potential employers, for that is where the real money presents itself.
I was not kidding when I suggested a replacement for Slashdot--I see a lot of dissatisfied people, people that are quite capable of creating something that serves them instead of the other way around. It was done once before, but someone lost focus and sold out. It can be done again, hopefully without the loss of focus.
If I had the technical skills to pull it off, I would, but unfortunately my skill set is largely non-applicable. I know that is not the case with many Slashdot users. I think it would be childs-play for most of you.
Do we need to Kickstart this to get it moving? That is one place I can help.
"Maybe they can pick up on pattern recognition."
One possible pattern would be everyone heading for the door.
Seriously, the time I suspected would come, has finally come--Slashdot has now gone over to the enemy. The Corporate PR/Advert/Cronyism monster has arrived, and begins to feed. What we now see as simple product placement will eventually turn into censorship and biased "opinion" pieces.
So, who is going to start Slashdot 2.0?
Sneaky fuckers...
What do you think is the best method to get people to update old data? Require them to prove themselves in order to delete it, then simply ignore their request to delete it.
The moment you touch that old data, you've updated it with your current IP address. Once they have that, they can then connect the dots between new and old data, thus providing them with a much greater amount of information.
The best I've seen yet was a kid (I'm guessing around 16 yrs old) I watched in action at a concert at the Cow Palace in San Francisco many years ago.
A friend and I were waiting in line at a Judas Priest concert when I noticed this guy, wearing a light-blue button-up shirt and slacks, using one of them sweeper things--you know, the little broom and a pivot mounted dustpan thing on a long handle that is used to sweep trash into. He was working his way along the line, sweeping up all the crap the people in line were dropping. I watched as he filled the dustpan with trash, walked over to a trashcan near the door, emptied it and went back to work around the entrance--he swept the place clean, then started working his way around the inside of the front door area, even asking one of the security personnel to step aside so he could get to a soda can just behind him. I remember telling myself "What a lame job".
45 mins later, he was standing next to me about 10 feet from the stage, smoking a joint and obviously enjoying himself. After asking him if he minded passing that thing, I asked him where his broom was. He said with a big, stoned grin on his face that he usually leaves it in the bathroom until after the show. Sure enough, when I went to the bathroom between acts, his sweeper and broom were sitting in the corner.
"Under the guise of protecting jobs, the sugar lobby bribed congress and congress instituted a sugar import quota system. The result is sugar..." ...being replaced by High-Fructose Corn Syrup in most prepared foods.
The funny part? Congress doesn't give refunds.
"The current issue of there being a weak battery, or the weight, or the thickness is all temporary."
How so? Is your shiny, new Pro going to lose weight and get thinner somehow? Some form of consumer electronics liposuction you have planned?
Or did you mean temporary as in "fuck this shit", or perhaps even "temporary, kind of like cash"?
"... though I am running 3.25GB of DDR3 (the most this motherboard can utilize for some odd reason)..."
I was incorrect--4 sticks of Crucial 1GB DDR2.
Speaking from experience, I can attest to the conclusions of the article.
The machine I am using as I write this is similar to the machine descibed, though I am running 3.25GB of DDR3 (the most this motherboard can utilize for some odd reason). This computer was one of the 1st-generation "Built for Vista" machines--it's a Gateway my daughter bought intending on putting XP on it. Turns out much of the hardware had no drivers for XP, and...well, to be honest, it sucked so bad she bought ANOTHER computer (Best Buy wouldn't give her a refund).
I ended up with it eventually. I up-graded the RAM as best I could (had sticks laying around), installed Windows 7, and dropped a HD7550 in it--While it isn't a screamer, I actually use it as my gaming machine. The biggest visually noticeable performance gains were, by far, from installing Windows 7. The drivers that Windows found worked great. The video card was the next increase in performance, and it was astounding.
But here is the important thing I discovered with this arrangement--the gains are entirely dependent on the software being used. Some games use massive amounts of CPU when they could be handing off some of that load to the video card, and those games don't run so well. Other games are better in this regard and take advantage of the video card and those games I can usually run at maximum settings.
I play an emulator of Star Wars Galaxies and most times I have two instances of the game running concurrently as well as a browser on a secondary monitor. I usually have Ventrilo running at the same time. Sure, only one instance of the game is actually being rendered, but the CPU load is doubled...and this machine handles it wonderfully, with game settings maxed out. I've also run Skyrim easily on this machine, mods galore.
I am quite pleased with the arrangement
"Freedom from slashvertisments."
Once a month, I spend an entire evening tabbing back to /. so I can meta-moderate the Firehose. I am amazed at how many advertisements show up...MOST of them are advertisements. The inundation never stops.
So, if you dislike the advertisements, hop over to the submissions page and start killing some adverts. I've gotten to the point that I ask myself "Is this person trying to sell something?"--if the answer is even a vague yes, they get voted down without further thought. I don't care what the product is...
This particular ad is not only selling a book, but the entire book is trying to sell you shit you don't need in your kitchen. Not only that, the author has used many marketing tricks such as combining statements like "That's Stupid" and "I want one!".
Marketing 101. Get it off /. by meta-moderating. Only YOU can do this...
I really don't care about cameras watching rock crushers...
Can someone please post a short-list of the ones covering strip clubs? 58,000 is a lot to sort through. Thanks in advance.
"...and the weight loss industry. ;-)"
I don't see why--the adaptation allows Eskimo and Inuit (among others) to STORE fat--in large quantities--to allow for the generation of heat directly rather then through the much slower chemical process that the rest of us utilize. While you and I would sit there shivering our asses off, the Eskimo sitting next to you would simply be burning fat reserves, comfortably. I've experienced this exact situation while ice fishing--shivering makes it really hard to bait a hook without including your finger in the deal.
Most Eskimo/Inuit that I've met (I lived in Central Alaska for 10 years) were what most people would call "chubby"--they had a consistent, yet normal layer of fat that could provide them with emergency heating in the event they REALLY needed it. Falling through the ice in the middle of winter would be an example of such an emergency. Otherwise, they carry that fat around all year. Even in summer, fatty foods are a large part of the Eskimo/Inuit diet. But, I'd like to point out that I've never met a truly obese Native Alaskan--I'm guessing because they don't eat all the crap that most other Americans do--it costs too much to ship it there. While most of us would trim fat off of our meat, the fat is the important part of the catch up North. Muktuk (a common Eskimo/Inuit food) is pure whale fat--there is no meat whatsoever.
Interestingly, the Athabaskan peoples traditional range overlaps that of the Eskimo and Inuit where there are no large mountains that block travel between the interior and the coast (like the Brooks Range does). This is interesting because Athabaskan folks are built much different--they tend to be much slimmer in both bone and tissue--yet share many of the same foods and climate. They one thing missing from the Athabaskan diet is marine mammals of the large and fatty variety--whales, seals and walrus. Eskimo and Inuit eat them but the Athabaskans do not really, unless social circles overlap (more of a modern development). Both groups eat salmon, as the rivers from the coast reach far inland where the Athabaskan group historically occupied, and the interior (Athabaskan group) can actually get much colder then the North Slope of Alaska. The three characteristics discussed in this article also exist in most marine mammals.
Perhaps there is some difference to the fat in marine mammals that isn't present in the other main source of fat, namely salmon, and that consuming it led to the adaptation, rather then this being an environmental adaptation? After all, the Athabaskan peoples live in much the same environment, yet are built totally different (ie, do not have large fat reserves).
Bring a towel.
While most of you think that's a cute HHGttG reference (OK, it is...), this is the Northwest...it rains. A lot. An umbrella wouldn't be a bad idea. Really.
If you're staying in a local motel, AVOID THOSE LOCATED ON SOUTH SAMISH BLVD. The local cops keep all the crack-heads, tweakers and other various riff-raff confined to the daily/weekly/monthly motels along this street--no need for you to go looking for trouble, it will find you if you stay there for long. The better motels are located north of Lakeway Blvd. (including the Quality Inn right on Lakeway. It's one of those fancy ones). The one exception to this rule is the Shamrock Motel in North Bellingham--I hear more call-outs on the police-dispatch frequencies referencing this motel then any other address in Bellingham. Avoid it.
Bring an UP TO DATE street map, especially if you're going to be driving anywhere besides the Technical College--Bellingham has the most ill-designed street layout of any city I've ever been to, including San Francisco. Not going to vouch for Google maps or TomTom like devices either...really, get a map.
Bellingham is notorious for having the highest fuel prices in the Northwest. If you're driving in from the south, gas up at the Skagit Valley Casino--lowest gas prices in the area as it is on native lands (Upper Skagit Indian Tribe). They also have cheap, decent buffets. They're located 15 mins south of Bellingham. If you're driving in from the North, the same can be found at the Silver Reef Casino just north of Bellingham, west on Slater Dr. from I-5 (Lummi Indian Tribe).
Hope that helps.
"It's not surprising actually.....because attacking that infrastructure is not as easy as it sounds."
You've got to be kidding me.
This country has an amazing amount of pipelines, carrying anything from crude oil to coal slurry, water, natural gas, etc. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_pipeline#For_oil_or_natural_gas).
Every single one of them is exposed to attack by anyone that takes the time to fill a backpack with home-made Thermite and a safety flare. Hitting all of these pipelines at the same time would pretty much shut the country down for a month or so. Everything would shut down--gas stations, energy production facilities, chemical production facilities, etc. Sure, some of these facilities get resources from non-pipeline sources, but what about the electricity those plants consume, the oil to feed the back-up gennies, etc?
Until such places are protected physically, the rest of this is kind of moot and stinks of theater and fear-mongering to me.
"The patchy availability will be resolved soon I hope..."
So, I got this buddy in New Zealand and he calls me up this morning and just starts yakking away like he's in the same room. After about 10 minutes, I asked him if he got a free pre-paid phone or something, and he says "Nope, calls are free now, Mate." I ask him what the hell he was talking about and he says "This bloke from the Tele company knocks on me door and says that if we give them permission to put this device on our land-line they won't charge us for phone calls anymore. How fucking cools is that, Mate?" Pretty fucking cool, I says.
Now I'm sitting here wondering how much a 50GB hard drive and a 256k modem costs...
" The batteries are Japanese (Yuasa) in origin, sourced by a French company (Alcatel/Thales)."
Yuasa has been around the block--they've been making batteries for many years.
I used to have a Kawasaki KT 120 trail-bike that had a Yuasa battery in it--the original that came with the bike-- and that bike had suffered no less then half a dozen complete submersions, had the head warped several times from numerous creeks crossings at high speed, been subjected to insane G-forces (being tossed end over end down hills in failed hill-climb attempts) and lived it's entire life exposed to sea-salt, including beach rides.
The only thing I ever had to do to the Yuasa battery in it was add some acid once.
Just sayin'.
Let the Rare-Moon metals land-rush begin....
"It's a fairly safe bet that there won't be enough people doing what you describe to really make a significant difference."
Nice to see some optimism.
A lot of people said that about SOPA and PIPA, as well. I am willing to bet your opinion on the matter might change if you were to try streaming Netflix over a 256k connection...and knowing that it isn't getting better for two weeks (also realizing that you are still paying full price to Netflix, but not able to access it for two weeks). And then realizing that they are essentially increasing your cost of internet access anywhere from 1000% to 20000% (depending on your previous connection speed). How long do you think you could sit through that before you'd had enough?
Little weasels...
I noticed that there is no mention of a complete disconnection--leaving the door open for continued billing even though you have an almost useless connection for two weeks. Me thinks Verizon is afraid they will start losing customers permanently if they disconnect them, even for a short time. There is no discussion of a 7th strike, or an 8th...what happens then? You get another two weeks of shit connection. Will they charge you less? Doubtful.
Make their fears a reality.
The solution is to drop them the moment they throttle you...and never come back...and NEVER COME BACK. Trust me--when they start seeing ANY loss of revenue, they will rethink this. Verizon is obligated, by law, to act in the best interest of their shareholders--how long do you think shareholders will put up with lost revenue?
"... but there isn't a lot of earth-moving equipment around, not much ground has been disturbed yet..."
Actually, there is. Most of it is located in the lighter area towards the top of the map--it is hard to see them, but that place is littered with many little roads. Most of these end at some excavation--the deposits are coming from the top of the map and are then being brought down these roads to the facilities.
Aye, I noticed the water as well. But it is already being used for the very reasons you stated--irrigation and the town downstream. Wet-mining uses massive amounts of water and leaves you with lakes of toxic slurry to get rid of--there is nowhere to get rid of something like that but flush it downstream right into town. Dry-mining solves this issue.
The "U"-shaped building has a pretty extensive ramp going up the dike to the row buildings--It wouldn't surprise me if a large conveyor belt is constructed down this ramp, connecting the two structures.