Not sure how old this story is, but from among other things from TFA (well blog entry) that appear to be have updated over time:
2. My comment included three @ links. That probably is what triggered the spam classification system.
I don't use Facebook / Twitter but that along with other a few other characteristics of the message in question sound like a pretty reasonable way to set up a spam filter.
Any idea when the next elections are in Australia? What are the chances that Australians will vote for the same party that is doing this to them?
It must be held by the end of November 2013, but could potentially be before-hand.
As for your second question this is the the first I've heard of it, no coverage at all in mainstream media. That implies the opposition party didn't raise too many public concerns so no reason to think they wouldn't have done the same thing.
Why would it be expensive to translate the American texts to Australian English?
Well I'm pretty sure the OP intended it as a joke, but on a serious note most software sold in the Australian market isn't localised anyway. For example in Windows 7 installed with Australia as the locale I have "color management" not "colour management". Microsoft Word comes with an Australian spell-check dictionary but otherwise all menus and documentation are American English. Not that I think many locals would really give a shit either way, especially if it meant paying more.
I can't think of any software off-hand where selecting the locale makes much of a meaningful difference other than timezones and metric units / paper sizes. But considering pretty much all the rest of the world uses metric you need that to export pretty much anywhere.
Plus he mentions concurrency and the confusion it may cause for other developers re-using the code, but doesn't address the obvious divide by zero that will occur if getB is called first even in a single-threaded application.
Remote Vehicle Diagnostics
Beyond allowing you to perform a check of your vehicle's main systems remotely, mbrace2 technology can automatically alert both you and your authorized Mercedes-Benz dealer to potential issues before they become full-fledged problems. In addition, it enables your vehicle to receive software updates wirelessly through the mbrace2 network.
So while maybe undesirable, not sure it's 'secret'.
I believe it's covered under deceptive advertising laws. Normally the ACCC does good work and while I agree with the vibe of what they're trying to achieve - disallowing a banner to display or reference one product but link to a site selling a competitive product, I think in this case they got the wrong target. I'd much rather them go after the entity that placed the ad.
That's been the traditional approach taken with radio, television and print advertisements.
Which makes me doubly pissed that I'd set up a game download overnight last night (my usage is unmetered overnight) and they decided to force an unneeded patch/reboot on me, which fucked up the download.:/
I concur that default does indeed suck, you can do a registry change to disable it though:
Well the TFA is about Telstra not wanting to replace their perfectly fine POTS connection, presumably for that very reason. I was commenting that even with the good old POTS system they expect 100% uptime and immediate fault resolution. In remote areas much of the fiber will run above ground, as does most residential mains power in Australia. About 90% of my local power outages are a result of vehicle accidents, how fast can they expect a fiber cable to be replaced when it's 100KM from a major center and services 10 customers?
I was thinking the same when I first read it. They've also copped flak in the media in the past over sob stories where someone who lives in rural Australia demands their phone have 100% uptime because they have a sick kid, yet they don't want to pay for a satellite phone backup or move to an area with closer medical facilities. It's probably a fair call until long-term reliability is known.
Also it sounds like you only need copper for a traditional phone account, you can still go with cell and/or VoIP only. I guess the main people it sucks for are completely new installations where you may have to pay extra to get a combined copper / fiber install, although the last time I got an extra line installed it must have been subsidised a lot because it was $150 odd even when they had to dig up parts of the street etc.
I'm far from an expert on power distribution, but doing some work with GPS some years a potential client contacted me about a custom IRIG-B timing signal generator using GPS as the clock reference. The project didn't go ahead but from my understanding during initial discussions you're correct about a PLL type sync required to the local grid and that it takes time to adjust a generator's frequency. Where GPS timing comes into play are for grids that aren't normally connected so they can re-route power in case of outages and have it perfectly in phase when it comes online without the delays you mention.
All true apart from a minor knitpick, which way a company rounds is their decision AFAIK. Many go nearest, but a lot of larger chains especially selling higher priced items always round down for the sake of never getting a customer complaining they 'lost' two cents. Alternatively I believe always rounding up is also perfectly legal, but obviously not often used from a customer satisfaction point of view.
When it first came in a friend whose partner worked at a supermarket told me there was a family that would pass through the checkout 20+ times between them to get that few cents rounding benefit.I assume that's fairly rare, but who knows.
Rolf Harris is making a modified versions of his wobble board modified for resonance at RF frequencies. If you go to his official website listed under references the FAQ describes how to construct your own.
Sorry to reply to my own post, but checking the legislation indeed only some people can even request it.There are a few more examples than above of institutions that can request it, but still you aren't obliged to provide it.
I can see why Australia made it illegal for anyone other than the Tax Office, Employers or Superannuation funds to ask for your tax file number
Actually anyone can ask for it, you can just decline to provide it and it's illegal for them to insist on it. You don't have to disclose it to an employer or financial institution, in which case they withold tax on your income at the highest rate marginal tax rate plus any other applicable taxes. If you have income that's already been taxed at maximum possible rate that leaves no chance of "avoidance".
Certainly saves the maintenance nightmere of having hundreds of lithium batteries at $250 ea going flat on you.
I suspect you're quoting the cost of replacement is $250 rather than the battery itself, and I think a lot of people underestimate the cost of labor involved in doing those operations in an industrial environment. Something that takes two minutes on a bench often involves several people, down time, climbing and safety gear and for some applications would actually exceed that amount.
WHAT devices that are similar to "that" size "generate" power?
Piezoelectric elements are common and can be made in a pretty arbitrary size, most are actually smaller than that device. I guess a regular moving-coil microphone could be made fairly small and would generate power. I've seen some pretty small SMD photodiodes and I'm sure they'd be many other examples that generate power, albeit in tiny amounts.
Nothing in that article seems too pie in the sky to me, they are talking about a target of 100 microwatts afterall, not charging your iPhone while you go for a jog. Unlike a lot of other articles the target applications listed seem like fairly plausible applications for the technology.
The page http://www.arissat1.org/v3/ includes the transmission time in UTC and information on some of the other telemtry channels. They begin Monday 11 April 2011 at 14:30 UTC and continue until 10:30 UTC on 13 April 2011. I just tried the 145.950 MHz FM downlink as it passed over Australia without luck, but was using a fairly crappy wideband scanner antenna indoors. I might give it a try tomorrow with a 150MHz antenna which is closest narrowband antenna I've got.
Maybe the travel writer and real-estate CEO actors just told bullshit during the interview? Once during the GFC I was running a bit low on cash and told someone I really enjoyed.NET web development to pick up some interim work.
Slashdot Mirror
But apparently 140 other characters got in before me :/
Not sure how old this story is, but from among other things from TFA (well blog entry) that appear to be have updated over time:
2. My comment included three @ links. That probably is what triggered the spam classification system.
I don't use Facebook / Twitter but that along with other a few other characteristics of the message in question sound like a pretty reasonable way to set up a spam filter.
Any idea when the next elections are in Australia? What are the chances that Australians will vote for the same party that is doing this to them?
It must be held by the end of November 2013, but could potentially be before-hand.
As for your second question this is the the first I've heard of it, no coverage at all in mainstream media. That implies the opposition party didn't raise too many public concerns so no reason to think they wouldn't have done the same thing.
Why would it be expensive to translate the American texts to Australian English?
Well I'm pretty sure the OP intended it as a joke, but on a serious note most software sold in the Australian market isn't localised anyway. For example in Windows 7 installed with Australia as the locale I have "color management" not "colour management". Microsoft Word comes with an Australian spell-check dictionary but otherwise all menus and documentation are American English. Not that I think many locals would really give a shit either way, especially if it meant paying more.
I can't think of any software off-hand where selecting the locale makes much of a meaningful difference other than timezones and metric units / paper sizes. But considering pretty much all the rest of the world uses metric you need that to export pretty much anywhere.
Plus he mentions concurrency and the confusion it may cause for other developers re-using the code, but doesn't address the obvious divide by zero that will occur if getB is called first even in a single-threaded application.
Remote Vehicle Diagnostics Beyond allowing you to perform a check of your vehicle's main systems remotely, mbrace2 technology can automatically alert both you and your authorized Mercedes-Benz dealer to potential issues before they become full-fledged problems. In addition, it enables your vehicle to receive software updates wirelessly through the mbrace2 network.
So while maybe undesirable, not sure it's 'secret'.
I believe it's covered under deceptive advertising laws. Normally the ACCC does good work and while I agree with the vibe of what they're trying to achieve - disallowing a banner to display or reference one product but link to a site selling a competitive product, I think in this case they got the wrong target. I'd much rather them go after the entity that placed the ad.
That's been the traditional approach taken with radio, television and print advertisements.
Which makes me doubly pissed that I'd set up a game download overnight last night (my usage is unmetered overnight) and they decided to force an unneeded patch/reboot on me, which fucked up the download. :/
I concur that default does indeed suck, you can do a registry change to disable it though:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555444
And yes I use Linux too and realise such pointless hacks aren't necessary :P
Well the TFA is about Telstra not wanting to replace their perfectly fine POTS connection, presumably for that very reason. I was commenting that even with the good old POTS system they expect 100% uptime and immediate fault resolution. In remote areas much of the fiber will run above ground, as does most residential mains power in Australia. About 90% of my local power outages are a result of vehicle accidents, how fast can they expect a fiber cable to be replaced when it's 100KM from a major center and services 10 customers?
I was thinking the same when I first read it. They've also copped flak in the media in the past over sob stories where someone who lives in rural Australia demands their phone have 100% uptime because they have a sick kid, yet they don't want to pay for a satellite phone backup or move to an area with closer medical facilities. It's probably a fair call until long-term reliability is known.
Also it sounds like you only need copper for a traditional phone account, you can still go with cell and/or VoIP only. I guess the main people it sucks for are completely new installations where you may have to pay extra to get a combined copper / fiber install, although the last time I got an extra line installed it must have been subsidised a lot because it was $150 odd even when they had to dig up parts of the street etc.
I'm far from an expert on power distribution, but doing some work with GPS some years a potential client contacted me about a custom IRIG-B timing signal generator using GPS as the clock reference. The project didn't go ahead but from my understanding during initial discussions you're correct about a PLL type sync required to the local grid and that it takes time to adjust a generator's frequency. Where GPS timing comes into play are for grids that aren't normally connected so they can re-route power in case of outages and have it perfectly in phase when it comes online without the delays you mention.
Also pedafiles tend to use such language to get kids attracted to them.
Nice you're thinking of the children, but thank fuck you're not an English teacher.
All true apart from a minor knitpick, which way a company rounds is their decision AFAIK. Many go nearest, but a lot of larger chains especially selling higher priced items always round down for the sake of never getting a customer complaining they 'lost' two cents. Alternatively I believe always rounding up is also perfectly legal, but obviously not often used from a customer satisfaction point of view.
When it first came in a friend whose partner worked at a supermarket told me there was a family that would pass through the checkout 20+ times between them to get that few cents rounding benefit.I assume that's fairly rare, but who knows.
Anyone remember when they tried to get people to call fish "sea kittens", so that we wouldn't eat them?
Not really, but I might try "hey kitty kitty" as an alternative to a fishing rod and bait in the future.
Thanks for the idea.
but who is making the rest of the kit?
Rolf Harris is making a modified versions of his wobble board modified for resonance at RF frequencies. If you go to his official website listed under references the FAQ describes how to construct your own.
Sorry to reply to my own post, but checking the legislation indeed only some people can even request it.There are a few more examples than above of institutions that can request it, but still you aren't obliged to provide it.
I can see why Australia made it illegal for anyone other than the Tax Office, Employers or Superannuation funds to ask for your tax file number
Actually anyone can ask for it, you can just decline to provide it and it's illegal for them to insist on it. You don't have to disclose it to an employer or financial institution, in which case they withold tax on your income at the highest rate marginal tax rate plus any other applicable taxes. If you have income that's already been taxed at maximum possible rate that leaves no chance of "avoidance".
Certainly saves the maintenance nightmere of having hundreds of lithium batteries at $250 ea going flat on you.
I suspect you're quoting the cost of replacement is $250 rather than the battery itself, and I think a lot of people underestimate the cost of labor involved in doing those operations in an industrial environment. Something that takes two minutes on a bench often involves several people, down time, climbing and safety gear and for some applications would actually exceed that amount.
WHAT devices that are similar to "that" size "generate" power?
Piezoelectric elements are common and can be made in a pretty arbitrary size, most are actually smaller than that device. I guess a regular moving-coil microphone could be made fairly small and would generate power. I've seen some pretty small SMD photodiodes and I'm sure they'd be many other examples that generate power, albeit in tiny amounts.
Nothing in that article seems too pie in the sky to me, they are talking about a target of 100 microwatts afterall, not charging your iPhone while you go for a jog. Unlike a lot of other articles the target applications listed seem like fairly plausible applications for the technology.
I'd never thought about it that way. I thought it was all about the tech community giving a little fiber to those that give us fibre.
This is the reason I never leave home without a balloon attached to my tin foil hat.
The page http://www.arissat1.org/v3/ includes the transmission time in UTC and information on some of the other telemtry channels. They begin Monday 11 April 2011 at 14:30 UTC and continue until 10:30 UTC on 13 April 2011. I just tried the 145.950 MHz FM downlink as it passed over Australia without luck, but was using a fairly crappy wideband scanner antenna indoors. I might give it a try tomorrow with a 150MHz antenna which is closest narrowband antenna I've got.
Wait a minute when was Linux written? Never mind.
Linux kernel 0.01 was released September 1991.
Just the one collective, resistance is futile!
Maybe the travel writer and real-estate CEO actors just told bullshit during the interview? Once during the GFC I was running a bit low on cash and told someone I really enjoyed .NET web development to pick up some interim work.