If you're going to use "standing up for his rights" as an argument then you should realise that the pilot has some rights of his own, including "not letting a passenger on board because he feels like it". Pilots have absolute authority over the safety of their aircraft. Whether he was morally right to do so in this situation is debatable, but if you're going to invoke "rights" then the pilot is the one exercising them, the passenger only has the "right" to choose to fly with a different airline.
Absolutely spot on. I've seen umpteen businesses using iPads simply because they're the Next Big Thing, not realising that they're far better off with the dowdy, sad, old-fashioned netbooks they had previously been using.
Sure, if you just need to browse the odd website, go with an iPad, but they're designed for consuming, not producing.
Sadly, I'm off on a bit of an essay here. If you're the tl;dr type then you do not have my permission to read further and if you do you are expected to burn all your Bieber albums, it's a rite of passage you'll thank me for later.
Slashdot "nigger" trolls aren't necessarily racist. OK, yes, they use that word a lot, but that's simply evolution, they've learned (collectively, not individually) that using the N word is likely to get a reaction, and this promotes further troll activity of this nature. Responding to the N-trolls is akin to not completing your course of antibiotics, you just ensure more, worse and faster.
With this in mind, can I suggest that the Slashdot community, those of us with the balls to put names to our comments and ACs with intelligent arguments alike, all act as one.
From now on we must all solemnly pledge to only respond to the trolls when they come up with something tyruly imaginative, creative and interesting. For example, if they can whip up a (truly extraterrestrial) xenephobia argument then I for one will be happy to argue with them, I've read Ender's Game and everything.
Pocket calculators and computers do essentially the same thing, computers just do it more. It's all moving ones and zeros around at the end of the day.
The opposite end of the market is the Raspberry Pi, which is "disposable" for very different reasons. Moore's Law seems to contain an additional "ubiquity" component.
Yup, also known as "miserable users" on some forum software.
Hey, wacky idea, why not assign a "degree of spamminess" rating and let people decide on their own level of viewing? You could even do it for funny posts, informative posts, troll posts etc. Mind you, it could get out of hand and overly complicated.
It's slightly different in Scotland - you generally do five Highers, which gives you a nice wide range (in my case, Maths, English, Physics, Chemistry and History), this is your basic tertiary entrance exam. You then have a final year when you can either catch up on subjects you didn't do well in, or specialise in a smaller number of subjects at what is roughly 1st year Uni level.
In my case, because I wanted to know more about physics. Ideally I'd have gone on to work on one of the big telescopes in Hawaii, or possibly the Big Secret Hanger in Area 51, but I know when I was going into it that I may work in a field outside physics. Even these days, 15 years later, I still "do physics" on a regular basis, from fixing things to envelope calculations. The reason I went for physics in the first place were, in this order:
1: The pleasure of finding things out.
2: Something I knew would be useful whatever I did.
3: Getting a job.
4: Getting a job in physics.
I have to disagree. There have been several near misses in the last decade, city-killers which have passed inside the moon's orbit, and we only spotted them on the way out. Yes, we'd probably spot something big enough to cause a KT style event, but an asteroid doesn't have to be that big to pretty much end human civilization (or at least cause a several-millennia hiatus). And as to whether we'd be able to deflect one - well, lets say we get lucky and have two years to prepare. What do we do? A gravity tractor might work, but we don't have the heavy lift capability. A nuke will just splinter it and could make things worse. Attaching a solar sail might do the job, but the technology just isn't up to it yet. I really can't imagine a realistic scenario where (with our current capabilities) we could deflect a big asteroid. Remember that the US can't even put a man in space at the moment, and even going to the moon is considered a major financial and technical challenge.
Yes, most likely. There's a huge demand for physics and maths based degrees in the UK. There's a reasonable chance of getting a job in teaching or research, but the real boom area is financial services. Basically, if you can model money with PDEs you'll find a job (although I've known several people drop out of that field because of ethical issues). Physics is probably one of the most adaptable degree subjects, and certainly more employable than being one of the huge number of English Lit / Politics / Philosophy / Economics graduates.
Could you please explain how an extinction level asteroid impact can be ruled out? I believe we're getting to the stage where we might actually get some warning (a big improvement over the last few decades), but I don't believe we're in a position to divert one. Technically, yes, but politically, no chance.
Just so you know, most of the world don't care which "side" you're on, we see the US government as being the US government regardless of who's in charge. So yes, you're right, but bringing Obama into it is the same as arguing over whether MacDonalds or Burger King produce the best burgers to feed to your kids every day.
So the privacy of a thief who steals my device trumps my right to have my device broadcast whatever (legal) information I want it to? Wow, interesting world you live in.
So do I. Not only that, I used to work as a science buyer for a book chain and I still run a blog reviewing science based books from SF to pop-sci and postgrad texts. When working for the bookshop I found the company was split around 50/50 into two camps, the "eBooks are a fad and we should ignore them, paper is the only way" side and the "eBooks are going to be big, we need to be involved in this" faction. I'm in the second camp - real paper books aren't going anywhere in a hurry, I find them to be far more pleasant to read than an eReader, I love the feel, the smell, everything about real books, but eReaders still have their place when it comes to portability. I've got a huge library at home, but you can't carry that number of books on a train, being able to carry the entire works of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and all of the other classic SF writers is worth the cost of an eReader alone - I tend to use my eReader for free Gutenberg texts and buy new books in paper format.
eReaders and paper books aren't competing in my mind, they're complimentary.
Agreed. If you're actually going to be using the thing for reading in a serious way, then eReader without a doubt. Ridiculously long battery life, pleasant to read on, no reflections and usable in direct sunlight, and far cheaper. In fact, for something that can do everything, you can buy a netbook and eReader for less than a tablet, and you get superior reading and superior computing. Tablets are for when you want the reading experience of a netbook and the typing/input interface of an eReader.
Not entirely correct with the "paying for patches" angle, in my experience at least. Within a month of buying Battlefield 3 I had to download a patch, then another a couple of months later, then a third a month after that. Each patch was in the 2Gb range because it included all of the new maps and DLC, the patch itself was only around 50Mb. You couldn't access the DLC without paying for it, although the patch did work. You did, however, have to download it.
Not that any of this is relevant to my life, after the B3 debacle I've decided they're not getting a single penny more from me.
The UK insurance industry has a huge problem with bogus whiplash claims - the slightest little bump and lawyers are pushing for thousands of pounds in compensation for a medical condition which doctors admit is almost impossible to prove either way. This has lead to a fivefold increase in some insurance costs over the last fifteen years. Schemes like this, and others where rolling camera footage is stored, are an attempt to show that these low speed collisions are generating claims far beyond what is reasonable.
It's not the political parties which allow partisan politics to exist, it's the electorate. As soon as we start voting for people who aren't Rep/Dem, Lab/Con or whatever they lose that stranglehold. The people have the power, we just don't use it.
Extraordinarily interesting, +6. Whether that is even vaguely practical is another matter, but it's one of the most interesting SF ideas I've heard in a long time. I'd include religion in there, an outsider's view of the history and theory of religions is a useful thing, and it would be interesting to see how a person's belief system develops with all of the information already there, good and bad.
I do. I do a lot of work for company X, and use a hosting account with company Y to do it. Y have written instructions from me to allow X to take over the hosting account should I be dead or incapacitated. Worth thinking about.
Slashdot Mirror
The pilot IS absolutely allowed to do that. If you want to change this I'd suggest getting a job with the FAA policy dept.
If you're going to use "standing up for his rights" as an argument then you should realise that the pilot has some rights of his own, including "not letting a passenger on board because he feels like it". Pilots have absolute authority over the safety of their aircraft. Whether he was morally right to do so in this situation is debatable, but if you're going to invoke "rights" then the pilot is the one exercising them, the passenger only has the "right" to choose to fly with a different airline.
Neither you or the AC above mention the units you're using. Come on people, primary school science!
Absolutely spot on. I've seen umpteen businesses using iPads simply because they're the Next Big Thing, not realising that they're far better off with the dowdy, sad, old-fashioned netbooks they had previously been using.
Sure, if you just need to browse the odd website, go with an iPad, but they're designed for consuming, not producing.
Sadly, I'm off on a bit of an essay here. If you're the tl;dr type then you do not have my permission to read further and if you do you are expected to burn all your Bieber albums, it's a rite of passage you'll thank me for later.
Slashdot "nigger" trolls aren't necessarily racist. OK, yes, they use that word a lot, but that's simply evolution, they've learned (collectively, not individually) that using the N word is likely to get a reaction, and this promotes further troll activity of this nature. Responding to the N-trolls is akin to not completing your course of antibiotics, you just ensure more, worse and faster.
With this in mind, can I suggest that the Slashdot community, those of us with the balls to put names to our comments and ACs with intelligent arguments alike, all act as one.
From now on we must all solemnly pledge to only respond to the trolls when they come up with something tyruly imaginative, creative and interesting. For example, if they can whip up a (truly extraterrestrial) xenephobia argument then I for one will be happy to argue with them, I've read Ender's Game and everything.
Expanded memory: $80
Replacement heatsink: $30
Owning the newest toy: priceless.
Pocket calculators and computers do essentially the same thing, computers just do it more. It's all moving ones and zeros around at the end of the day.
The opposite end of the market is the Raspberry Pi, which is "disposable" for very different reasons. Moore's Law seems to contain an additional "ubiquity" component.
If I could tell you the answer to that you wouldn't need to worry, you could wait 5 years and I'll give you a couple of million in loose change!
Yup, also known as "miserable users" on some forum software.
Hey, wacky idea, why not assign a "degree of spamminess" rating and let people decide on their own level of viewing? You could even do it for funny posts, informative posts, troll posts etc. Mind you, it could get out of hand and overly complicated.
It's slightly different in Scotland - you generally do five Highers, which gives you a nice wide range (in my case, Maths, English, Physics, Chemistry and History), this is your basic tertiary entrance exam. You then have a final year when you can either catch up on subjects you didn't do well in, or specialise in a smaller number of subjects at what is roughly 1st year Uni level.
In my case, because I wanted to know more about physics. Ideally I'd have gone on to work on one of the big telescopes in Hawaii, or possibly the Big Secret Hanger in Area 51, but I know when I was going into it that I may work in a field outside physics. Even these days, 15 years later, I still "do physics" on a regular basis, from fixing things to envelope calculations. The reason I went for physics in the first place were, in this order:
1: The pleasure of finding things out.
2: Something I knew would be useful whatever I did.
3: Getting a job.
4: Getting a job in physics.
I have to disagree. There have been several near misses in the last decade, city-killers which have passed inside the moon's orbit, and we only spotted them on the way out. Yes, we'd probably spot something big enough to cause a KT style event, but an asteroid doesn't have to be that big to pretty much end human civilization (or at least cause a several-millennia hiatus). And as to whether we'd be able to deflect one - well, lets say we get lucky and have two years to prepare. What do we do? A gravity tractor might work, but we don't have the heavy lift capability. A nuke will just splinter it and could make things worse. Attaching a solar sail might do the job, but the technology just isn't up to it yet. I really can't imagine a realistic scenario where (with our current capabilities) we could deflect a big asteroid. Remember that the US can't even put a man in space at the moment, and even going to the moon is considered a major financial and technical challenge.
Yes, most likely. There's a huge demand for physics and maths based degrees in the UK. There's a reasonable chance of getting a job in teaching or research, but the real boom area is financial services. Basically, if you can model money with PDEs you'll find a job (although I've known several people drop out of that field because of ethical issues). Physics is probably one of the most adaptable degree subjects, and certainly more employable than being one of the huge number of English Lit / Politics / Philosophy / Economics graduates.
Could you please explain how an extinction level asteroid impact can be ruled out? I believe we're getting to the stage where we might actually get some warning (a big improvement over the last few decades), but I don't believe we're in a position to divert one. Technically, yes, but politically, no chance.
So what's worse?
1: Killing people
2: Putting people at risk by revealing they killed people?
Your argument seems to suggest killing people is fine as long as nobody else finds out.
Just so you know, most of the world don't care which "side" you're on, we see the US government as being the US government regardless of who's in charge. So yes, you're right, but bringing Obama into it is the same as arguing over whether MacDonalds or Burger King produce the best burgers to feed to your kids every day.
So the privacy of a thief who steals my device trumps my right to have my device broadcast whatever (legal) information I want it to? Wow, interesting world you live in.
So do I. Not only that, I used to work as a science buyer for a book chain and I still run a blog reviewing science based books from SF to pop-sci and postgrad texts. When working for the bookshop I found the company was split around 50/50 into two camps, the "eBooks are a fad and we should ignore them, paper is the only way" side and the "eBooks are going to be big, we need to be involved in this" faction. I'm in the second camp - real paper books aren't going anywhere in a hurry, I find them to be far more pleasant to read than an eReader, I love the feel, the smell, everything about real books, but eReaders still have their place when it comes to portability. I've got a huge library at home, but you can't carry that number of books on a train, being able to carry the entire works of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and all of the other classic SF writers is worth the cost of an eReader alone - I tend to use my eReader for free Gutenberg texts and buy new books in paper format.
eReaders and paper books aren't competing in my mind, they're complimentary.
Agreed. If you're actually going to be using the thing for reading in a serious way, then eReader without a doubt. Ridiculously long battery life, pleasant to read on, no reflections and usable in direct sunlight, and far cheaper. In fact, for something that can do everything, you can buy a netbook and eReader for less than a tablet, and you get superior reading and superior computing. Tablets are for when you want the reading experience of a netbook and the typing/input interface of an eReader.
Not entirely correct with the "paying for patches" angle, in my experience at least. Within a month of buying Battlefield 3 I had to download a patch, then another a couple of months later, then a third a month after that. Each patch was in the 2Gb range because it included all of the new maps and DLC, the patch itself was only around 50Mb. You couldn't access the DLC without paying for it, although the patch did work. You did, however, have to download it.
Not that any of this is relevant to my life, after the B3 debacle I've decided they're not getting a single penny more from me.
It's not compulsory. Hey, if you have a big powerful car you'll pay higher premiums. Screw them by driving a small car and not crashing it.
The UK insurance industry has a huge problem with bogus whiplash claims - the slightest little bump and lawyers are pushing for thousands of pounds in compensation for a medical condition which doctors admit is almost impossible to prove either way. This has lead to a fivefold increase in some insurance costs over the last fifteen years. Schemes like this, and others where rolling camera footage is stored, are an attempt to show that these low speed collisions are generating claims far beyond what is reasonable.
It's not the political parties which allow partisan politics to exist, it's the electorate. As soon as we start voting for people who aren't Rep/Dem, Lab/Con or whatever they lose that stranglehold. The people have the power, we just don't use it.
Extraordinarily interesting, +6. Whether that is even vaguely practical is another matter, but it's one of the most interesting SF ideas I've heard in a long time. I'd include religion in there, an outsider's view of the history and theory of religions is a useful thing, and it would be interesting to see how a person's belief system develops with all of the information already there, good and bad.
I do. I do a lot of work for company X, and use a hosting account with company Y to do it. Y have written instructions from me to allow X to take over the hosting account should I be dead or incapacitated. Worth thinking about.
Oh...everyone? OK, point taken.