1. Add reservation option. Mark the spot as yours before you get there.
Step #1: Locate blocks of available, desirable parking and mark them as "reserved"
Step #2: Put a sign in your window advertising your "premium parking locating service"
Step #3: Collect the parking fee, plus a "service fee" from drivers wishing to park
Step #4: Profit!
In my experience, it's a combination of things. First, the consumer-grade stuff is very cheaply built, especially when it comes to the power supply section. I had to rebuild the power supply section on my old Linksys a couple times before I retired it. Secondly, the firmware tends to be buggy and limited; for some people it may work fine all the time, but it may lock up or reset on you if you push it too hard. I've got an Airlink-101 I bought used, which I loaded D-Link firmware onto (because it was less buggy that way). If I let uTorrent (a BitTorrent client) have all the connections it wants, it'll overload the router's firmware and make it reset. Even without that though, it still resets every so often, for no apparent reason. *shrug* It's a real crapshoot really. I'd have to say, you get what you pay for, really. If you want high reliability, get something designed for commercial use, not for home use, and plan on paying a few hundred dollars for it. Either that or get a FitPC or something physically tiny that is very low-power, run some flavor of Linux on it, and set up the OS to use it as your gateway. That's what I'm planning on doing because of the same sorts of issues that you're having. It may seem like a lot of trouble, but it would also give you the ability to customize the software running on it to include things like a small web server or SSH daemon if those things are useful to you (they are to me).
What about if photovoltaic research increases the efficiency of solar cells to the point where having a roof full of them supplies more power than your house would ever need (even if, say, you were doing arc welding in your garage)? What about advances in hyrdogen fuel cell technology to the point where your water heater is replaced by a combination unit that heats water for your house, and also supplies electricity, yet still runs off of natural gas (BTW this is available in Japan as we speak)? These technologies aren't very far off now, and the combination of them, plus high efficiency batteries for storage of excess power generated would give every homeowner the option of being completely off the grid.
I'm still running Win2K on my desktop. If you turn off all the video acceleration options in Windows Media Player, then you can get screenshots. I'd suspect XP is about the same.
I've never seen that one before -- and it's simultaneously the funniest euphemism for that I've heard in a while, and the most shockingly wrong way to put that!
I'm with you on most of that -- except that electric heating is hideously inefficient; we could use our own supply of natural gas for those things, just as we always have.
As is, China could bring the U.S. to it's knees financially just by cashing in all the bonds it bought; not exporting goods to us and kicking out U.S. businesses that outsourced their labor to China could do almost that, or serve as a finishing stroke.
I know you're out there, I can feel you now, I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us, you're afraid of change. I don't know the future, I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how this is going to begin.
I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you, a world without rules and controls, and boundaries, a world where anything is possible. Where we go from there, is a choice I leave to you.
Isn't it easier to lower the emissions of (and to maintain) a few power plants than it is to do the same to millions of vehicles?
Oh and by the way, last time I checked, fuel cells, while they do work most efficiently on straight hydrogen, can be made to use any source of high-concentration hydrocarbons, like natural gas or propane. I'm also pretty sure that there's other ways to generate hydrogen other than (the highly inefficient practice of) electrolysis of water.
The fact that someone is actually attempting to pass this off as a real news story, or the fact that some people here on/. are accepting it as a real news story. There's no way in hell that something like this would fly (forgive the poor, unintentional pun). If anything would trigger a general uprising, it'd be something like this. Want a good reason why? We're talking about the TSA and the DHS here; they'd insist on putting them on everyone, including the elderly and infants.. and since it'd be a government contract, given to the lowest bidder, and likely rushed to finish it, there'd be malfunctions that would cause someone's near-invalid grandma or baby girl to die or at least be seriously, permanently injured. *shakes head* nope, I don't buy it, not for a second -- and if it is true, then it's time for me to start sharpening my swords (for when everyone runs out of bullets).
Could be worse -- they could be building actual lethal weapons. At least this thing has a chance of not being lethal. Whether or not I'd've had a problem with working on this project or not is a question I'm not sure I can answer now, though..
..so I have to choose between protecting myself from the kinds of predators (identity thieves, spammers, etc) that abound on the internet, and being a felon? Bull-fucking-shit. I can't see where this'll stand up in court. I also can't see how they'd expect to enforce such a thing, since I'd estimate that at least half of the people on MySpace don't use their real name. How about dating sites, in particular the few free dating sites out there? NOBODY uses their real name up-front on a dating site! Do lawmakers expect all these people to expose themselves to the kinds of threats you're faced with on dating sites, too? Stuff and nonsense!
I knew I was sticking my neck out by saying that, but I said it anyway. Not everybody is in a band, and outside of something like that, what do you do? Sing along with the radio? In the shower? Believe me, I have to endure quite a bit of bad at karaoke, but there are places where there are more good singers than bad, the sound system and mixing is decent, and the crowd and staff actually LIKE having it there -- and then it's not so bad.
*shrug* OK, I'm with you on that; if you feel better for doing it, then I'm all for it. It's not like I make a living at it, I do it entirely for my own enjoyment. More power to you.
If you can't deal with singing in front of a coach or teacher, then you're never going to sing in front of ANYONE -- and if that's the case, then you need to find another hobby. If you're singing just for yourself, you're really wasting your time.
Sure, I use a digital tuner to tune my guitars, too. But have you ever noticed that when a band or an orchestra is tuning up, they tune to each other, even after using their tuners? If you've got a piano, for instance, you all tune to the piano (because you can't tune a piano on the fly). I'll grant you that some piece of software might help singers learn the technical skills of their art, but when it comes right down to it, machines don't listen to and show appreciation for music, or in this specific case, vocal performance; people do. Maybe it'll be a different story in a hundred years, but frankly I hope not. Singing is an extremely human art form, and I for one would like to see it stay that way.
They said nothing about the pleasantness of the singing voice. OK Mr. Literal. But what they're working towards being able to quantify with a machine, is someone's singing voice.
This is all well and good, but when it comes right down to it, how pleasant someone's singing voice is, is a completely subjective thing that can only really be properly judged by other human beings. I say this as someone who has had formal vocal training, has performed publicly -- and as someone who is heading out the door in a few minutes to go to karaoke.;-)
That's a common story. My advice? Call your credit card company and tell them your card was lost or stolen. They'll change the account over to a completely different number, and AOL can't charge you anymore. When they call to complain that they can't get their subscription fee, you remind them you cancelled..
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1. Add reservation option. Mark the spot as yours before you get there.
Step #1: Locate blocks of available, desirable parking and mark them as "reserved"
Step #2: Put a sign in your window advertising your "premium parking locating service"
Step #3: Collect the parking fee, plus a "service fee" from drivers wishing to park
Step #4: Profit!
In my experience, it's a combination of things. First, the consumer-grade stuff is very cheaply built, especially when it comes to the power supply section. I had to rebuild the power supply section on my old Linksys a couple times before I retired it. Secondly, the firmware tends to be buggy and limited; for some people it may work fine all the time, but it may lock up or reset on you if you push it too hard. I've got an Airlink-101 I bought used, which I loaded D-Link firmware onto (because it was less buggy that way). If I let uTorrent (a BitTorrent client) have all the connections it wants, it'll overload the router's firmware and make it reset. Even without that though, it still resets every so often, for no apparent reason. *shrug* It's a real crapshoot really. I'd have to say, you get what you pay for, really. If you want high reliability, get something designed for commercial use, not for home use, and plan on paying a few hundred dollars for it. Either that or get a FitPC or something physically tiny that is very low-power, run some flavor of Linux on it, and set up the OS to use it as your gateway. That's what I'm planning on doing because of the same sorts of issues that you're having. It may seem like a lot of trouble, but it would also give you the ability to customize the software running on it to include things like a small web server or SSH daemon if those things are useful to you (they are to me).
What about if photovoltaic research increases the efficiency of solar cells to the point where having a roof full of them supplies more power than your house would ever need (even if, say, you were doing arc welding in your garage)? What about advances in hyrdogen fuel cell technology to the point where your water heater is replaced by a combination unit that heats water for your house, and also supplies electricity, yet still runs off of natural gas (BTW this is available in Japan as we speak)? These technologies aren't very far off now, and the combination of them, plus high efficiency batteries for storage of excess power generated would give every homeowner the option of being completely off the grid.
I'm still running Win2K on my desktop. If you turn off all the video acceleration options in Windows Media Player, then you can get screenshots. I'd suspect XP is about the same.
I've never seen that one before -- and it's simultaneously the funniest euphemism for that I've heard in a while, and the most shockingly wrong way to put that!
Fair enough. but you have to admit, it's rather horrifying that they were even sold the bonds in the first place.
I'm with you on most of that -- except that electric heating is hideously inefficient; we could use our own supply of natural gas for those things, just as we always have.
As is, China could bring the U.S. to it's knees financially just by cashing in all the bonds it bought; not exporting goods to us and kicking out U.S. businesses that outsourced their labor to China could do almost that, or serve as a finishing stroke.
I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you, a world without rules and controls, and boundaries, a world where anything is possible. Where we go from there, is a choice I leave to you.
Based on the current level of your research, what is the best advice you can give to beat aging?
Isn't it easier to lower the emissions of (and to maintain) a few power plants than it is to do the same to millions of vehicles?
Oh and by the way, last time I checked, fuel cells, while they do work most efficiently on straight hydrogen, can be made to use any source of high-concentration hydrocarbons, like natural gas or propane. I'm also pretty sure that there's other ways to generate hydrogen other than (the highly inefficient practice of) electrolysis of water.
You people have NO sense of humor.
The fact that someone is actually attempting to pass this off as a real news story, or the fact that some people here on /. are accepting it as a real news story. There's no way in hell that something like this would fly (forgive the poor, unintentional pun). If anything would trigger a general uprising, it'd be something like this. Want a good reason why? We're talking about the TSA and the DHS here; they'd insist on putting them on everyone, including the elderly and infants.. and since it'd be a government contract, given to the lowest bidder, and likely rushed to finish it, there'd be malfunctions that would cause someone's near-invalid grandma or baby girl to die or at least be seriously, permanently injured. *shakes head* nope, I don't buy it, not for a second -- and if it is true, then it's time for me to start sharpening my swords (for when everyone runs out of bullets).
Could be worse -- they could be building actual lethal weapons. At least this thing has a chance of not being lethal. Whether or not I'd've had a problem with working on this project or not is a question I'm not sure I can answer now, though..
..so I have to choose between protecting myself from the kinds of predators (identity thieves, spammers, etc) that abound on the internet, and being a felon? Bull-fucking-shit. I can't see where this'll stand up in court. I also can't see how they'd expect to enforce such a thing, since I'd estimate that at least half of the people on MySpace don't use their real name. How about dating sites, in particular the few free dating sites out there? NOBODY uses their real name up-front on a dating site! Do lawmakers expect all these people to expose themselves to the kinds of threats you're faced with on dating sites, too? Stuff and nonsense!
Anybody have any idea what division of SNC is working on this? Once upon a time I used to work for those guys..
I knew I was sticking my neck out by saying that, but I said it anyway. Not everybody is in a band, and outside of something like that, what do you do? Sing along with the radio? In the shower? Believe me, I have to endure quite a bit of bad at karaoke, but there are places where there are more good singers than bad, the sound system and mixing is decent, and the crowd and staff actually LIKE having it there -- and then it's not so bad.
*shrug* OK, I'm with you on that; if you feel better for doing it, then I'm all for it. It's not like I make a living at it, I do it entirely for my own enjoyment. More power to you.
If you can't deal with singing in front of a coach or teacher, then you're never going to sing in front of ANYONE -- and if that's the case, then you need to find another hobby. If you're singing just for yourself, you're really wasting your time.
Sure, I use a digital tuner to tune my guitars, too. But have you ever noticed that when a band or an orchestra is tuning up, they tune to each other, even after using their tuners? If you've got a piano, for instance, you all tune to the piano (because you can't tune a piano on the fly). I'll grant you that some piece of software might help singers learn the technical skills of their art, but when it comes right down to it, machines don't listen to and show appreciation for music, or in this specific case, vocal performance; people do. Maybe it'll be a different story in a hundred years, but frankly I hope not. Singing is an extremely human art form, and I for one would like to see it stay that way.
They said nothing about the pleasantness of the singing voice. OK Mr. Literal. But what they're working towards being able to quantify with a machine, is someone's singing voice.
This is all well and good, but when it comes right down to it, how pleasant someone's singing voice is, is a completely subjective thing that can only really be properly judged by other human beings. I say this as someone who has had formal vocal training, has performed publicly -- and as someone who is heading out the door in a few minutes to go to karaoke. ;-)
That's a common story. My advice? Call your credit card company and tell them your card was lost or stolen. They'll change the account over to a completely different number, and AOL can't charge you anymore. When they call to complain that they can't get their subscription fee, you remind them you cancelled..
AOL: Now with 100% more terrible customer service! (Because you have to PAY for it now)
..so you're saying that your grandmother's last name is Slowsky? ;-)