"Social security and disability checks are why the USPS matters today. They have guaranteed delivery" Maybe they do, but nothing else has
guaranteed delivery. Some 1st class mail never makes it here...every month.
I too have worked on projects with seemingly infinite bugs. I concluded that feeling just meant a big (BIG) chunk of code
(perhaps the entire project) should be discarded and rewritten from scratch. Not, of course, that the company would
ever agree to that...
Sonic.net guesses 14000 feet (will be 18000 if it got measured rather than guessed)
There is only one set of phone lines (installed in 1940's)
and one physical base station. Long long ago Rhythms (a company)
had better modems and we could get 356Kb/s for $55 a month, but company paid
for that pitiful service. Satellite is of course pitiful compared to hard line Comcast
speeds. At one time (for a few lucky people) there was a microwave link
to San Bruno Mountain that gave a few Mb/s for $65 a month but the company
lost rights to the spectrum, leaving that business, and anyway few
homes really had good line of site (a
single tree could block the signal).
It is an effective monopoly now, just one service is any good at all.
Comcast works here within 10 miles of San Francisco, but DSL maxes out at 128Kb/S because of old
copper wires and 18000 feet to the TelCo office as-the-wire-exists. It's the norm unless you live
in a narrow corridor near 101 and El Camino on the peninsula. Just one choice.
In 2013 (I think) a Fortune magazine article (I recollect) discussed the serious weather changes in the
US midwest with farmers there. The farmers know the climate there is changing
and are preparing for continuing changes, but the farmers deny it is "climate change."
Senators and Congressmen have threatened to assassinate the people doing the reporting
(such as J. Assange). We know about it, but that is not exactly what
one thinks of as 'press freedom' when the leaders of a country say
they will kill the reporter.
"cramp your style for fear of oblitering an instrument which costs as much as does an automobile."
Some individual instruments in the violin family are worth $millions.
In the last 5 years the estimated cost of a system dropped 50 percent.
Will vary, there is no uniform amount of sun (around here
lots of rather large trees). Have one of the major installers
with local folks make you an estimate. There will be multiple
choices of how to fund it, the folks making the estimate will explain.
Six months ago we had one installed.
Generating about 50% of use, enough to get us down to Tier 1 use level.
The utilities appear to be doing a one-sided analysis from what I have noticed. They complain about their lines being loaded by
customers generating power and don't count the reduction in line use from the local
power a home solar instatllation is helping to power the local neighborhood.
Yes, we have a rooftop solar installation.
Currently around 90,000 of them in California. Increasing fast.
Local solar company is hiring 10-15 new installers *every day* according to local paper.
Goverment does a lot for us!
6. Best health care in the world... um... O'h that obamacare disaster brewing..
You have not been paying attention. In the 1950's US health care was the best. But since then
it fell dramatically in the world list. A change that has been widely reported.
We are now way down the list, and have been for 20 years and more.
Not a recent fall at all.
Software patents are bad since software is mathematics (see groklaw.net) so software should be unpatentable.
Copyright is possibly applicable for software, but only really makes sense if the copyright period
is adjusted (for everything!) to be the original 1913 length, 7 years. Or less in
at the creater's option (ie if I write something I can specify copyright applies
for 1 year and then expires).
For all practical purposes copyright currently applies 'for the life of the universe'
which is absurd, harmful, and inappropriate.
THats partly because of idiots who last year said "See? Global warming" when we had abnormally warm weather.
It was not climate scientists saying such silly things last year, it was media and ordinary folks.
Somehow the climate science prediction that local variability will increase in many places
gets ignored, often by people trying to discredit the warming, sometimes by people just
not wanting to understand.
Those seeing politics in science have been fooled by the merchants
of doubt. It is not the scientists that introduced politics it is
a small group of physicists from the cold war with strong
ties to government claiming (without any proof) that the
real scientists are playing politics (douby weird given
that the merchants of doubt are strongly tied to government).
I have no connection with the book "Merchants of Doubt" but
I strongly recommend it for explaining how science is being
crushed by the anti-science folks.
According to M-theory, ours is not the only universe. Instead, M-theory predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing. Their creation does not require the intervention of some supernatural being or god. Rather, these multiple universes arise naturally from physical law. -- Stephen Hawking
Just Before Internet, regional newspapers (major metro area here) charged US$55 for a 2-line ad to appear for one week.
For anything legal that you wanted to sell.
Which tells me the business model was already failing even if the newspapers did not know it.
Failing because the newspapers were forcing people with US$1000 (and less) items
to find other ways to advertise and thus teaching readers to not bother looking
in the ads in the newspaper. Impulse buyers and many others
simply seized on the Internet when it came along -- it really was the only game
available and it then sucked up everyone's buying.
Slashdot Mirror
Any voting system can be subverted. The cool thing with electronic voting is that the subversion will of course make recounting meaningless.
"Social security and disability checks are why the USPS matters today. They have guaranteed delivery" Maybe they do, but nothing else has guaranteed delivery. Some 1st class mail never makes it here...every month.
What Snowden was turn a suspicion into knowledge. That is a big deal. (Hal Berghel pointed this out first).
I too have worked on projects with seemingly infinite bugs. I concluded that feeling just meant a big (BIG) chunk of code (perhaps the entire project) should be discarded and rewritten from scratch. Not, of course, that the company would ever agree to that...
Sonic.net guesses 14000 feet (will be 18000 if it got measured rather than guessed) There is only one set of phone lines (installed in 1940's) and one physical base station. Long long ago Rhythms (a company) had better modems and we could get 356Kb/s for $55 a month, but company paid for that pitiful service. Satellite is of course pitiful compared to hard line Comcast speeds. At one time (for a few lucky people) there was a microwave link to San Bruno Mountain that gave a few Mb/s for $65 a month but the company lost rights to the spectrum, leaving that business, and anyway few homes really had good line of site (a single tree could block the signal). It is an effective monopoly now, just one service is any good at all.
Comcast works here within 10 miles of San Francisco, but DSL maxes out at 128Kb/S because of old copper wires and 18000 feet to the TelCo office as-the-wire-exists. It's the norm unless you live in a narrow corridor near 101 and El Camino on the peninsula. Just one choice.
In 2013 (I think) a Fortune magazine article (I recollect) discussed the serious weather changes in the US midwest with farmers there. The farmers know the climate there is changing and are preparing for continuing changes, but the farmers deny it is "climate change."
Particularly laughable. In the bible slavery, polygamy, genocide are all fine.
Ask True Believers about this, and they reply with variations on "Oh, that part of the bible does not count." Really.
Senators and Congressmen have threatened to assassinate the people doing the reporting (such as J. Assange). We know about it, but that is not exactly what one thinks of as 'press freedom' when the leaders of a country say they will kill the reporter.
It's unclear why a simulation would be necessary since Douglas Adams already revealed the answer: 42.
Wait. What? You said Iowa?
"cramp your style for fear of oblitering an instrument which costs as much as does an automobile." Some individual instruments in the violin family are worth $millions.
Many musical instruments are made of wood. So I guess they are all at risk if the owners come to the US.
In the last 5 years the estimated cost of a system dropped 50 percent. Will vary, there is no uniform amount of sun (around here lots of rather large trees). Have one of the major installers with local folks make you an estimate. There will be multiple choices of how to fund it, the folks making the estimate will explain. Six months ago we had one installed. Generating about 50% of use, enough to get us down to Tier 1 use level.
The utilities appear to be doing a one-sided analysis from what I have noticed. They complain about their lines being loaded by customers generating power and don't count the reduction in line use from the local power a home solar instatllation is helping to power the local neighborhood. Yes, we have a rooftop solar installation. Currently around 90,000 of them in California. Increasing fast. Local solar company is hiring 10-15 new installers *every day* according to local paper.
Goverment does a lot for us! 6. Best health care in the world... um... O'h that obamacare disaster brewing..
You have not been paying attention. In the 1950's US health care was the best. But since then it fell dramatically in the world list. A change that has been widely reported. We are now way down the list, and have been for 20 years and more. Not a recent fall at all.
They let people drive on snow, ice or gravel?
Really, if they would just think of the children, they would set the speed limit and speed limiter devices at 15MPH everywhere. On bicycles too!
As measured by a proprietary algorithm with no human review of its calculation or of fair use -- you will be judged.
Not sure what a 'full size' mailbox is, but our mailbox (by the curb) is (inches) 12wide, 36 tall, 24 deep. Now that is full sized.
Software patents are bad since software is mathematics (see groklaw.net) so software should be unpatentable.
Copyright is possibly applicable for software, but only really makes sense if the copyright period is adjusted (for everything!) to be the original 1913 length, 7 years. Or less in at the creater's option (ie if I write something I can specify copyright applies for 1 year and then expires).
For all practical purposes copyright currently applies 'for the life of the universe' which is absurd, harmful, and inappropriate.
THats partly because of idiots who last year said "See? Global warming" when we had abnormally warm weather.
It was not climate scientists saying such silly things last year, it was media and ordinary folks. Somehow the climate science prediction that local variability will increase in many places gets ignored, often by people trying to discredit the warming, sometimes by people just not wanting to understand.
Those seeing politics in science have been fooled by the merchants of doubt. It is not the scientists that introduced politics it is a small group of physicists from the cold war with strong ties to government claiming (without any proof) that the real scientists are playing politics (douby weird given that the merchants of doubt are strongly tied to government). I have no connection with the book "Merchants of Doubt" but I strongly recommend it for explaining how science is being crushed by the anti-science folks.
According to M-theory, ours is not the only universe. Instead, M-theory predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing. Their creation does not require the intervention of some supernatural being or god. Rather, these multiple universes arise naturally from physical law. -- Stephen Hawking
Just Before Internet, regional newspapers (major metro area here) charged US$55 for a 2-line ad to appear for one week. For anything legal that you wanted to sell.
Which tells me the business model was already failing even if the newspapers did not know it. Failing because the newspapers were forcing people with US$1000 (and less) items to find other ways to advertise and thus teaching readers to not bother looking in the ads in the newspaper. Impulse buyers and many others simply seized on the Internet when it came along -- it really was the only game available and it then sucked up everyone's buying.