"That receipt it spits out is worthless if the contents of that envelope are misplaced, lost, or stolen."
Not entirely true. The verified deposits should match the amounts inputted. Any differences have to be explained. Banks are rather picky about that.
"Until a human being actually verifies those contents, there is no deposit."
Correct. It also requires more than one person to verify the number.
"And if the envelope, or its contents, pull a disappearing act twixt machine and homo sapiens, you're screwed."
Unlikely. I've serviced ATMs. Accessing the ATM is like accessing the vault. It takes two people. It's more secure than a branch drop slot. If there is a difference, it needs to be explained. Accuracy is important. Being over is just as bad as being under.
That doesn't mean mistakes aren't made. I've seen them. Procedures may not be followed. People may be dishonest. But the receipt you get from the teller may not be any more useful in a dispute. And the human can screw you just as bad.
No they don't. They MAY be equiped with them. And even if they do, it may not be operational, recording, or the recording may be worthless. CSI isn't real life.
"You should get people to come to your lectures by making them interesting, helpful and/or entertaining."
Sorry, I disagree. While I don't think attendance should be mandated, in theory you are going to class to learn. Or to pass a class you don't care about so you can get something you want (the degree). If notes are important to you, then you follow rules set by the expert imparting the knowledge.
Every professor I ever had made it quite clear that every piece of assigned reading noted in the syllabus was fair game for testing. If you knew the material, you never needed notes. At best the notes/lectures allowed you to make educated guesses about what material was most important.
"I guess some counties feel that if they want something done right, they'll do it themselves. Cant' fault India for that."
Considering the error can be traced back to an Indian scientist, I wouldn't be too sure about that...
From your link: "It has also emerged that the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, a little-known Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi."
Maybe next time someone from India will actually read the report for errors before publishing. Kind of like a peer review.
"No. Water vapor is the largest greenhouse gas factor by a large margin."
True, but not relevant. We are not adding additional water vapor to the atmosphere. We are adding additional CO2 that was previously sequestered.
You are correct that there are limits to our confidence about our predictions of temperature rise. You can argue about the proper response to AGW. But attacking the science is generally a strawman.
"Right now, AGW is a hypothesis, no more, and an entirely unsupported one at that."
Absolutely false.
"We don't actually know what our contributions to warming..."
We can calculate this based on first principles. Determine how much CO2 we have added to the atmosphere and determine how much additional heat it can trap.
AGW is real. The debate should be about the response. But most opponents don't like that debate so they attack the science. Because science is easier to misrepresent to the population at large. If you were to debate on the response then the other side could use the same tactics....
"Paperback: Work to produce original content + cost to physically print.
E-book: (Same) Work to produce original content.
I'd assume the E-book would still be much cheaper."
Your assumptions are incorrect. It costs money to create an e-book just as it does to print a paperback. You have all of the same costs of a paperback (as you noted) plus the conversion to the various e-book formats which then have to go through various editing stages to be certain nothing was altered.
More importantly, there is essentially no market for e-books themselves. They don't sell (people buy e-books instead of regular books). So, e-books are created in addition to a hardcover book which adds to the cost and reduces sales (profits) of the hardcover. Unlike music, book publishing is not highly profitable.
"On Jan. 7, it was reported that radioactive tritium was leaking from the Vernon reactor into groundwater; the source of the leak has not been found. The following week, it was revealed that Entergy officials had misled state regulators and lawmakers several times in 2008 and 2009 by saying Vermont Yankee did not have the type of underground pipes that could carry tritium."
So, they haven't found the leak and there is no indication that they are close to finding it. In addition, they repeatedly claimed in the past that they couldn't have such a leak. I find that more than a little troubling and alarming.
Nuclear power is safe when designed, built and run by competent people. At least one of those things is missing here (you can argue about the others). In any case, if some of their pipes are leaking, how many other pipes that have been in service for decades are nearing the end of their life and aren't being sought out via preventive maintenance? This is the poster child for the troubles of nuclear power in the US-you hand the industry an opportunity on a silver platter and they choke on it while stealing the platter.
"Then why do I pay the same per song as if I would by the whole CD? 99 cents ain't cheap. He has kept prices the same."
As you are paying the same price for a compressed version of a song with no cover art or related material and you have to provide the storage, you could make the case that you are in fact paying more.
"A lot of people have serious problems when attempting to read from LCD for an extended period of time..."
To be fair, they have a problem reading a crappy backlit lcd display that is prone to reflections. All of those things can be (and have been) solved with lcd displays.
"There is simply no money at UCLA to keep the IML open on weekends."
I find that hard to believe. The same for the lack of money for library hours. This is a University. If students can't access materials for learning at useful times then what is the point. I can understand closing during low use periods but early evening and weekends!?!
There are plenty of places they can cut back and free up funds. I'm sure they could reduce staff, reduce programs and reduce faculty and reduce salaries. Heck, they could even raise tuition. What they lack is the will to do so. The library and labs (and students) are just easy targets.
"I haven't read any Harry Potter and I have found all the HP films to be very enjoyable, personally."
It's not either/or for me. I've read Dune and like both the book and the Lynch movie. I don't care for the remake. The remake may be more accurate but it seems rather bland (I'd rather read my old political science textbooks).
I like the HP books and the early films. In general, the films get worse as the books get longer. It's not just that the movies are inaccurate (for no apparent reason), it's that they don't seem to be done well.
The HP films are a great example of a subpar translation to film. They remove the essential, keep the irrelevant and add entirely new scenes while cutting massive amounts of material. This often totally changes the character or their motivation. They have been converted into a magical action movie series without a good director.
Which, is of course, very successful due to the fans:)
"Battlefield Earth all but proved that great sci-fi books are often unfilmable."
I wouldn't call Battlefield Earth "great". But it is certainly filmable. Most books are filmable on paper.
The problem is that most books aren't filmable within the contraints of real life film making. A typical film is 90 minutes. You can sometimes go to 150 minutes (2.5 hours). 210 minutes (3.5 hours) is very rare. A minute of film is roughly a page of script. Do the math.
So you have to cut massive amounts of material and keep within a budget that is limited due to the niche product. Remember that Lord of the Rings was considered a gamble. It captured the essence of the books very well.
Of course if those involved don't understand the material, it doesn't have a chance.
Sure it is. By voluntary they mean not required by law.
"About once a decade, some manufacturer is dumb enough to let things go that far."
It happens more often than that. It's actually pretty common how often cars are recalled. Most of the time it's for items most people would consider minor or not very glamorous. And those letters are often ignored.
It's only really a problem when the media takes the story and runs with it. And they have. The Toyota demographic includes a large number of easily scared people (good for media, bad for Toyota).
"The dealership has nothing to do with this; it's got nothing to do with them, and they have just as little interest in taking action that would harm their own sales. Woz isn't just trying to get a refund or something, he's trying to get Toyota to fix the defect before more people die."
And selling cars that have a reputation for killing people will help sales how? Audi got crushed by the mere allegation (no actual fault).
If Woz wants the problem fixed, he's doing it the wrong way. You do to the dealership, reproduce the problem and ask it to be fixed under the warranty. If they refuse, then you complain via the proper channels (company, attorney general, etc.) Then you go to the media.
You only go to the media first if you want attention.
"Extremely rare or not, it is a very significant problem with documented fatal consequences. You bet they should be taking it in the most serious way possible."
Here's the problem in a nutshell. You have reports of a very rare problem with no obvious cause. You review the engineering, try to reproduce the problem and fail. What do you do?
You conclude it is likely user error but continue to look for more information. When you have sufficient data to determine it is something you can fix, you do so.
I don't know what else you expect them to do. Audi was nearly destroyed in the 1980's in the US based on a false accusation of sudden acceleration issue in their cars. People reported that their cars accelerated on their own despite them standing on their brakes (they were actually standing on the accelerator pedal).
"You can tell the user error ones, they are the ones who don't realize the brakes can always stop a car even with a racing engine."
Actually you can't. You can only tell if user error increased the severity of the incident. Braking works equally well when the car accelerates due to a mechanical or electronic failure. Failure to brake fails equally well in either case.
There are probably multiple problems. Some pedals got stuck in the mats. Some people pressed the wrong pedal. And some got really stuck. Maybe there IS a software error. But until you have enough data, you have to assume the most likely problem. User error, then mats, then mechanical, then software. Because if you can't duplicate the problem, you can't fix it.
"Bringing us back on topic, since this is a brand-new, under-warranty car, why has Woz not taken it back to the dealer, grabbed a technician, and demonstrated this behavior with the tech in the car?"
Probably because he believes he has found the "one true cause" rather than likely just an unrelated fault. If it is actually a fault and not a designed behavior.
The problem with all the publicity is that that any acceleration problem will now be blamed on the car whether or not the car actually failed. Witness the 1980's Audi problem which was user error made worse by pedal arrangement rather than an actual fault.
"It involves increasing the car's speed using the cruise control."
Simple fix #1. Don't use the cruise control as an accelator. That's what the pedal on the floor is for. This is not the first time that using the cruise control to accelerate a car caused something funny to happen. I have had that happen on American cars.
In any case, this appears to be a separate issue from the "stuck" accelerator pedals. If he is so concerned why doesn't he bring the car in for service under the warranty.
Simple fix #2. Don't use the cruise control to speed. I don't have a problem with speeding but realize that the car maker can't have tested everything under all conditions. And those outside of legal speeds may have been the first to be ignored.
Finally, is this even a "problem"? Maybe the car assumes that if you are going 83 mph plus and want to go faster that you WANT wide open throttle (that may be the only realistic acceleration option available based on the small engine)?
"A throttle really needs to be designed with safety in mind: IE, under-working not over-working. In other words, the car doesn't "go", never mind not accelerating."
To be fair, a mechanical cable fault can cause a wide open throttle condition (frayed cable). I have been in such a car.
It appears that Toyota has the worst of both worlds without using the benefits of a computer. They have a mechanical fault in a drive by wire system without an electronic override (safety feature). As you said, so much for superior engineering.
"I suspect it would probably reduce the traffic accident rate by a good 30-40% if we extended every on-ramp in the U.S. to at least a quarter mile for accelerating and merging."
Nope. You might as well remove them because idiots will still wait until the last second to see if the lane is empty while they are going 40 mph....
I guess you could teach people how to merge in traffic. But I won't hold my breath.
Assuming ramp accidents are even a real problem versus a traffic flow issue.
"Until then, a law that isn't enforced isn't going to have any real effect."
We have a winner. Of course, if it were actually enforced, it would probably be abandoned. After all, how many people do you see that actually obey the traffic laws?
"Laptops suck for reading in volume. They discipline your body; you must adopt a specific narrow range of postures and locations in order to use a laptop, which is heavy, hot, and fragile. Not good by page 800 when you're still trying to plough on. Not to mention eyestrain and headaches from the backlight."
Then you probably should have looking into a tablet pc in a slate format with a reflective screen (designed for outdoor viewing) that was relatively lightweight. Not any heavier than a typical large book or small textbook.
I would love an ereader but until I can read a full sized sheet of paper in color it's not very useful. Or more correctly, I might as well buy a slate tablet pc that actually has other uses. It will certainly cost about the same.
"I don't mind reading in direct sunlight, but for some reason I have difficulties with bright screens or displays when the surroundings are dim."
I would consider this typical. But the relevence to an lcd is what exactly? ePaper is essentially a non-color reflective lcd with decent dpi. Nothing terribly new (yes, I know it's a different tech). Many people probably have even used such a screen and never realized it (on other handheld devices).
It's just that we currently have ebooks being produced by many sources along with the dedicated devices to read them from many sources. Something that we lacked before. A real market exists.
Slashdot Mirror
"That receipt it spits out is worthless if the contents of that envelope are misplaced, lost, or stolen."
Not entirely true. The verified deposits should match the amounts inputted. Any differences have to be explained. Banks are rather picky about that.
"Until a human being actually verifies those contents, there is no deposit."
Correct. It also requires more than one person to verify the number.
"And if the envelope, or its contents, pull a disappearing act twixt machine and homo sapiens, you're screwed."
Unlikely. I've serviced ATMs. Accessing the ATM is like accessing the vault. It takes two people. It's more secure than a branch drop slot. If there is a difference, it needs to be explained. Accuracy is important. Being over is just as bad as being under.
That doesn't mean mistakes aren't made. I've seen them. Procedures may not be followed. People may be dishonest. But the receipt you get from the teller may not be any more useful in a dispute. And the human can screw you just as bad.
"Every ATM has a camera built into it."
No they don't. They MAY be equiped with them. And even if they do, it may not be operational, recording, or the recording may be worthless. CSI isn't real life.
"You should get people to come to your lectures by making them interesting, helpful and/or entertaining."
Sorry, I disagree. While I don't think attendance should be mandated, in theory you are going to class to learn. Or to pass a class you don't care about so you can get something you want (the degree). If notes are important to you, then you follow rules set by the expert imparting the knowledge.
Every professor I ever had made it quite clear that every piece of assigned reading noted in the syllabus was fair game for testing. If you knew the material, you never needed notes. At best the notes/lectures allowed you to make educated guesses about what material was most important.
"I guess some counties feel that if they want something done right, they'll do it themselves. Cant' fault India for that."
Considering the error can be traced back to an Indian scientist, I wouldn't be too sure about that...
From your link:
"It has also emerged that the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, a little-known Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi."
Maybe next time someone from India will actually read the report for errors before publishing. Kind of like a peer review.
"No. Water vapor is the largest greenhouse gas factor by a large margin."
True, but not relevant. We are not adding additional water vapor to the atmosphere. We are adding additional CO2 that was previously sequestered.
You are correct that there are limits to our confidence about our predictions of temperature rise. You can argue about the proper response to AGW. But attacking the science is generally a strawman.
"Right now, AGW is a hypothesis, no more, and an entirely unsupported one at that."
Absolutely false.
"We don't actually know what our contributions to warming..."
We can calculate this based on first principles. Determine how much CO2 we have added to the atmosphere and determine how much additional heat it can trap.
AGW is real. The debate should be about the response. But most opponents don't like that debate so they attack the science. Because science is easier to misrepresent to the population at large. If you were to debate on the response then the other side could use the same tactics....
"Paperback: Work to produce original content + cost to physically print.
E-book: (Same) Work to produce original content.
I'd assume the E-book would still be much cheaper."
Your assumptions are incorrect. It costs money to create an e-book just as it does to print a paperback. You have all of the same costs of a paperback (as you noted) plus the conversion to the various e-book formats which then have to go through various editing stages to be certain nothing was altered.
More importantly, there is essentially no market for e-books themselves. They don't sell (people buy e-books instead of regular books). So, e-books are created in addition to a hardcover book which adds to the cost and reduces sales (profits) of the hardcover. Unlike music, book publishing is not highly profitable.
"Why have publishers?"
Because the authors want them. They provide useful services.
You might want to read some of the links in the article. They contain information about where all the money goes and why authors use publishers.
To quote from the article:
"On Jan. 7, it was reported that radioactive tritium was leaking from the Vernon reactor into groundwater; the source of the leak has not been found. The following week, it was revealed that Entergy officials had misled state regulators and lawmakers several times in 2008 and 2009 by saying Vermont Yankee did not have the type of underground pipes that could carry tritium."
So, they haven't found the leak and there is no indication that they are close to finding it. In addition, they repeatedly claimed in the past that they couldn't have such a leak. I find that more than a little troubling and alarming.
Nuclear power is safe when designed, built and run by competent people. At least one of those things is missing here (you can argue about the others). In any case, if some of their pipes are leaking, how many other pipes that have been in service for decades are nearing the end of their life and aren't being sought out via preventive maintenance? This is the poster child for the troubles of nuclear power in the US-you hand the industry an opportunity on a silver platter and they choke on it while stealing the platter.
"Then why do I pay the same per song as if I would by the whole CD? 99 cents ain't cheap. He has kept prices the same."
As you are paying the same price for a compressed version of a song with no cover art or related material and you have to provide the storage, you could make the case that you are in fact paying more.
"A lot of people have serious problems when attempting to read from LCD for an extended period of time..."
To be fair, they have a problem reading a crappy backlit lcd display that is prone to reflections. All of those things can be (and have been) solved with lcd displays.
"There is simply no money at UCLA to keep the IML open on weekends."
I find that hard to believe. The same for the lack of money for library hours. This is a University. If students can't access materials for learning at useful times then what is the point. I can understand closing during low use periods but early evening and weekends!?!
There are plenty of places they can cut back and free up funds. I'm sure they could reduce staff, reduce programs and reduce faculty and reduce salaries. Heck, they could even raise tuition. What they lack is the will to do so. The library and labs (and students) are just easy targets.
"I haven't read any Harry Potter and I have found all the HP films to be very enjoyable, personally."
It's not either/or for me. I've read Dune and like both the book and the Lynch movie. I don't care for the remake. The remake may be more accurate but it seems rather bland (I'd rather read my old political science textbooks).
I like the HP books and the early films. In general, the films get worse as the books get longer. It's not just that the movies are inaccurate (for no apparent reason), it's that they don't seem to be done well.
The HP films are a great example of a subpar translation to film. They remove the essential, keep the irrelevant and add entirely new scenes while cutting massive amounts of material. This often totally changes the character or their motivation. They have been converted into a magical action movie series without a good director.
Which, is of course, very successful due to the fans :)
"Battlefield Earth all but proved that great sci-fi books are often unfilmable."
I wouldn't call Battlefield Earth "great". But it is certainly filmable. Most books are filmable on paper.
The problem is that most books aren't filmable within the contraints of real life film making. A typical film is 90 minutes. You can sometimes go to 150 minutes (2.5 hours). 210 minutes (3.5 hours) is very rare. A minute of film is roughly a page of script. Do the math.
So you have to cut massive amounts of material and keep within a budget that is limited due to the niche product. Remember that Lord of the Rings was considered a gamble. It captured the essence of the books very well.
Of course if those involved don't understand the material, it doesn't have a chance.
"That's not exactly "voluntary"."
Sure it is. By voluntary they mean not required by law.
"About once a decade, some manufacturer is dumb enough to let things go that far."
It happens more often than that. It's actually pretty common how often cars are recalled. Most of the time it's for items most people would consider minor or not very glamorous. And those letters are often ignored.
It's only really a problem when the media takes the story and runs with it. And they have. The Toyota demographic includes a large number of easily scared people (good for media, bad for Toyota).
"The dealership has nothing to do with this; it's got nothing to do with them, and they have just as little interest in taking action that would harm their own sales. Woz isn't just trying to get a refund or something, he's trying to get Toyota to fix the defect before more people die."
And selling cars that have a reputation for killing people will help sales how? Audi got crushed by the mere allegation (no actual fault).
If Woz wants the problem fixed, he's doing it the wrong way. You do to the dealership, reproduce the problem and ask it to be fixed under the warranty. If they refuse, then you complain via the proper channels (company, attorney general, etc.) Then you go to the media.
You only go to the media first if you want attention.
No, Woz is an idiot. He has no idea if what he discovered is an actual flaw or a designed feature.
If he were smart or had a clue, he would have taken the car in for service, reproduced the alleged fault and asked for it to be corrected.
But then that wouldn't have gotten him much attention, now would it?
"Extremely rare or not, it is a very significant problem with documented fatal consequences. You bet they should be taking it in the most serious way possible."
Here's the problem in a nutshell. You have reports of a very rare problem with no obvious cause. You review the engineering, try to reproduce the problem and fail. What do you do?
You conclude it is likely user error but continue to look for more information. When you have sufficient data to determine it is something you can fix, you do so.
I don't know what else you expect them to do. Audi was nearly destroyed in the 1980's in the US based on a false accusation of sudden acceleration issue in their cars. People reported that their cars accelerated on their own despite them standing on their brakes (they were actually standing on the accelerator pedal).
"You can tell the user error ones, they are the ones who don't realize the brakes can always stop a car even with a racing engine."
Actually you can't. You can only tell if user error increased the severity of the incident. Braking works equally well when the car accelerates due to a mechanical or electronic failure. Failure to brake fails equally well in either case.
There are probably multiple problems. Some pedals got stuck in the mats. Some people pressed the wrong pedal. And some got really stuck. Maybe there IS a software error. But until you have enough data, you have to assume the most likely problem. User error, then mats, then mechanical, then software. Because if you can't duplicate the problem, you can't fix it.
"Bringing us back on topic, since this is a brand-new, under-warranty car, why has Woz not taken it back to the dealer, grabbed a technician, and demonstrated this behavior with the tech in the car?"
Probably because he believes he has found the "one true cause" rather than likely just an unrelated fault. If it is actually a fault and not a designed behavior.
The problem with all the publicity is that that any acceleration problem will now be blamed on the car whether or not the car actually failed. Witness the 1980's Audi problem which was user error made worse by pedal arrangement rather than an actual fault.
"It involves increasing the car's speed using the cruise control."
Simple fix #1. Don't use the cruise control as an accelator. That's what the pedal on the floor is for. This is not the first time that using the cruise control to accelerate a car caused something funny to happen. I have had that happen on American cars.
In any case, this appears to be a separate issue from the "stuck" accelerator pedals. If he is so concerned why doesn't he bring the car in for service under the warranty.
Simple fix #2. Don't use the cruise control to speed. I don't have a problem with speeding but realize that the car maker can't have tested everything under all conditions. And those outside of legal speeds may have been the first to be ignored.
Finally, is this even a "problem"? Maybe the car assumes that if you are going 83 mph plus and want to go faster that you WANT wide open throttle (that may be the only realistic acceleration option available based on the small engine)?
"A throttle really needs to be designed with safety in mind: IE, under-working not over-working. In other words, the car doesn't "go", never mind not accelerating."
To be fair, a mechanical cable fault can cause a wide open throttle condition (frayed cable). I have been in such a car.
It appears that Toyota has the worst of both worlds without using the benefits of a computer. They have a mechanical fault in a drive by wire system without an electronic override (safety feature). As you said, so much for superior engineering.
"I suspect it would probably reduce the traffic accident rate by a good 30-40% if we extended every on-ramp in the U.S. to at least a quarter mile for accelerating and merging."
Nope. You might as well remove them because idiots will still wait until the last second to see if the lane is empty while they are going 40 mph....
I guess you could teach people how to merge in traffic. But I won't hold my breath.
Assuming ramp accidents are even a real problem versus a traffic flow issue.
"Until then, a law that isn't enforced isn't going to have any real effect."
We have a winner. Of course, if it were actually enforced, it would probably be abandoned. After all, how many people do you see that actually obey the traffic laws?
"Laptops suck for reading in volume. They discipline your body; you must adopt a specific narrow range of postures and locations in order to use a laptop, which is heavy, hot, and fragile. Not good by page 800 when you're still trying to plough on. Not to mention eyestrain and headaches from the backlight."
Then you probably should have looking into a tablet pc in a slate format with a reflective screen (designed for outdoor viewing) that was relatively lightweight. Not any heavier than a typical large book or small textbook.
I would love an ereader but until I can read a full sized sheet of paper in color it's not very useful. Or more correctly, I might as well buy a slate tablet pc that actually has other uses. It will certainly cost about the same.
"I don't mind reading in direct sunlight, but for some reason I have difficulties with bright screens or displays when the surroundings are dim."
I would consider this typical. But the relevence to an lcd is what exactly? ePaper is essentially a non-color reflective lcd with decent dpi. Nothing terribly new (yes, I know it's a different tech). Many people probably have even used such a screen and never realized it (on other handheld devices).
It's just that we currently have ebooks being produced by many sources along with the dedicated devices to read them from many sources. Something that we lacked before. A real market exists.