Hey folks I'm just doing my typical mind games when I hear a nutty idea. Here are some examples where the airbag on a laptop could put you in a world of hurt:
For this thing to work it probably has to detect a sudden accelleration. Detecting a sudden De-celleration would mean the laptop had already hit the deck, thus negating the advantage.
Rapid-Acceleration can occur in everyday settings. Imagine your laptop bag exploding in an elevator. (And yes, I use elevators everyday that pull fractional G-forces.)
There are also a least a few time a year where an aircraft hits turbulance and looses 40,000 feet in seconds, and then coming to a jarring stop before gaining altitude again. Imagine overhead and underseat compartments exploding.
I know it's been pointed out, but happens in a car accident?
If you laptop falls, not far enough to trigger the device, but just far enough to damage the drive, who is liable?
I have enough problems with users jamming network cables in modem ports and vise verse. How am I supposed to tell them that yes, it will take a spill, but NO you don't want to drop it.
You still have the problem of normal hard-drive failures. Get this things living past a year on average, then talk to me about airbags
Last I checked, a hard drive was less than $100, and it was a good idea to back information up anyway considering that laptops tend to grow legs.
And BTW, Gentoo has been ported to the PS/2 which while still requireing the hardware kit, does undo a lot of the limitations of the Linux distro Sony ship. And yes, this was done with Sony's blessing.
Hey, the reason why Linux is so successful is because Tux is built so low it's impossible to kick his ass. OTOH, his legs are too short to kick anyone else's. He's normally content to be morally superior and unassailable.
My point was not that existing laws are failing. It was that they are being circumvented. The poster's contention that we can just sue them if we don't like that idea was silly, and I was trying to illustrate the point.
For clarification, I am an American. And the point I was making was that for most cars 93 octane (the way we measure it here) is a waste of money. If any car has a funky octane requirement, it's usually that it needs 89 instead of 87. (Read your manual, YMMV).
My point is basically that the competition for different grades of gas are right there in front of the consumer. While I have owned cars that needed the 89 octane, 93 is for weird vehicles or folks intent on spending an extra $0.20 a gallon. (About $0.05 / Litre for our European friends.)
And in another twist, I would also like to point out that bottled water usually goes for $1/liter here. Gasoline, at $1.80 for a gallon (3.8 Liters.) You are paying more for bottled water than gasoline people!
Indeed, some investors won't even look twice at an Entrepreneur until he's had at least on good failure. Investors know the new ventures are a crapshoot. They want to invest in someone who is going to get back on the horse after it throws him or her.
Anyone who wants a sure bet should stick to stuffing money in a bank account. Mattresses don't accrue interest. For every other investment avenue there is inherent risk. Stocks dive. Bankrupt companies don't pay back bonds. Real-estate is a giant game of hot-potato.
You can't kill it, not even with armies or nuclear weapons. Despite moving slowly and ploggingly, it somehow overtakes those perky coeds. It's created by lone inventors working at late hours. It has strange power that allow it to do the seemingly impossible. It does not destroy out of passion or design, it just so happens that civilization was in its road.
Employee? Hell no. I'm a contractor with benefits and a different tax status.
Sounds a lot like an old idea...
on
Snail Mail As E-Mail
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· Score: 3, Informative
Back in WWII the Allies used a system call Victory Mail, or V-MAIL,. You would write your message on a postcard that was microfilmed, shipped to the destination, and printed out.
They could pack hundreds of times more V-mail in a container than standard post. When just about every ship crossing the sea was needed for the war effort, this was a Good Thing.
So let me see. You want the rich and powerful to be able to buy time to get their message across, in a way that is only answerable to litigation, requiring another rich and powerful person or organization to back it.
I would be one thing if the practice was not so utterly abused in the past that we wrote a law for it in the first place. (Over the vehiment objection of the Rich and Powerful (tm).) It would be another if we also didn't have case law upholding these laws. Again, already litigated by the Rich and Powerful (tm).
Space is in many respects more like the Sea than the Air. For millenia setting out to see was a harrowing and expensive proposition. The rewards were great for those hardy souls who braved the oceans, but only because they were few and far between.
They tended to traffic on goods that were highly exotic or expensive on one place, but really cheap to obtain in another. Spices, gold, finished goods. When technology finally caught up with the shipping industry (after the steam engine and iron hull) most of the profit eroded. A steamship could make it around the world in a fraction the time of a sailing ship, could carry a lot more, and was not nearly as delicate when faced with inclement weather.
Now shipping is so cheap we are carting cheap things from one end of the earth to the other because there it is slightly less cheap. Thinks like Oil, electronics, cars.
The reason airplanes were so successful so quickly was that they really didn't have to create their own niche. They largely stole their niche from ships and rail. They also had the benefit of investors frothing at the mouth, much the same as our recent Dot.com craze.
We are still at the stage of the vikings setting out to find other places. If anything space will develope like Sea travel developed. Slowly, using unglamorous technology.
Yes, but the 747 and the DC-3 don't do all of those roles at the same time.
There are a number of modifications to the airframe for each specific purpose. An airliner has a reinforced frame and a passenger deck. A cargo plane is as stripped down as possible to maximize payload. A ER plane has extra fuel tanks, and a boatload of electronics.
Also, the 747 used for a laser platform is heavily modified. As is the 747 for Air Force One.
They all look the same from the outside, but inside there is a whole lot of difference.
Nah. The machines will live underground. They save a bundle on cooling, and don't have to worry about weather, erosion, or fleshy thinks with pointed sticks.
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There is a bonus point for shooting from your chair.
I am from Crete. All Cretans are liers.
And BTW, Gentoo has been ported to the PS/2 which while still requireing the hardware kit, does undo a lot of the limitations of the Linux distro Sony ship. And yes, this was done with Sony's blessing.
And yes, you can play with most of the hardware.
Except they would end up curing it through a combination of dermal applicators (patches) and arthopod vectors (bugs.)
Yeah, but that was for a toy Os. Damn it was was the name. Until I remember the project we will refer to it as the X box.
Bill's Insipid Ologopaly Scheme
The off-shore thing started because people in third world countries are cheaper operate than robots.
What do you expect when the addresses they are trying to look up are 10.0.0.1, 192.168.0.2, and 127.0.0.1
Simple, just have copyrighted material use the Evil Bit.
(Waddle waddle)
Hey, I used to badmouth Object Oriented Programming. Now, I find myself "thinking" in OOP. All I have to say for my former sins is OOPs.
Well at least some good came of it.
My point was not that existing laws are failing. It was that they are being circumvented. The poster's contention that we can just sue them if we don't like that idea was silly, and I was trying to illustrate the point.
My point is basically that the competition for different grades of gas are right there in front of the consumer. While I have owned cars that needed the 89 octane, 93 is for weird vehicles or folks intent on spending an extra $0.20 a gallon. (About $0.05 / Litre for our European friends.)
And in another twist, I would also like to point out that bottled water usually goes for $1/liter here. Gasoline, at $1.80 for a gallon (3.8 Liters.) You are paying more for bottled water than gasoline people!
Explain Microsoft again to me then? Bottled water? 93 Octane gasoline?
Anyone who wants a sure bet should stick to stuffing money in a bank account. Mattresses don't accrue interest. For every other investment avenue there is inherent risk. Stocks dive. Bankrupt companies don't pay back bonds. Real-estate is a giant game of hot-potato.
And think of the tax benefits! If you never make a profit, you never pay taxes on corporate profits.
You can't kill it, not even with armies or nuclear weapons. Despite moving slowly and ploggingly, it somehow overtakes those perky coeds. It's created by lone inventors working at late hours. It has strange power that allow it to do the seemingly impossible. It does not destroy out of passion or design, it just so happens that civilization was in its road.
Employee? Hell no. I'm a contractor with benefits and a different tax status.
They could pack hundreds of times more V-mail in a container than standard post. When just about every ship crossing the sea was needed for the war effort, this was a Good Thing.
I would be one thing if the practice was not so utterly abused in the past that we wrote a law for it in the first place. (Over the vehiment objection of the Rich and Powerful (tm).) It would be another if we also didn't have case law upholding these laws. Again, already litigated by the Rich and Powerful (tm).
They tended to traffic on goods that were highly exotic or expensive on one place, but really cheap to obtain in another. Spices, gold, finished goods. When technology finally caught up with the shipping industry (after the steam engine and iron hull) most of the profit eroded. A steamship could make it around the world in a fraction the time of a sailing ship, could carry a lot more, and was not nearly as delicate when faced with inclement weather.
Now shipping is so cheap we are carting cheap things from one end of the earth to the other because there it is slightly less cheap. Thinks like Oil, electronics, cars.
The reason airplanes were so successful so quickly was that they really didn't have to create their own niche. They largely stole their niche from ships and rail. They also had the benefit of investors frothing at the mouth, much the same as our recent Dot.com craze.
We are still at the stage of the vikings setting out to find other places. If anything space will develope like Sea travel developed. Slowly, using unglamorous technology.
There are a number of modifications to the airframe for each specific purpose. An airliner has a reinforced frame and a passenger deck. A cargo plane is as stripped down as possible to maximize payload. A ER plane has extra fuel tanks, and a boatload of electronics.
Also, the 747 used for a laser platform is heavily modified. As is the 747 for Air Force One.
They all look the same from the outside, but inside there is a whole lot of difference.
Nah. The machines will live underground. They save a bundle on cooling, and don't have to worry about weather, erosion, or fleshy thinks with pointed sticks.