Actually I'm pretty sure I used to pay $14/ month to Bell for an unlisted number. Now that I think about it, AT&T put anonymous call rejection on on my land line 15 years ago and charged me $5/ month for it until I noticed it an cancelled it. I didn't even have caller-ID at the time, so it made no sense at all.
Exactly. The real question is "how safe would you feel with bad drivers in the air?". Or even better, high speed chases in the air. Ouch.
I've heard that, statistically speaking, flying is the safest form of transportation. The sooner we can get everybody into the air, the safer travel will become.;-)
The question ought to have been asked 60 years ago; not today.
Well it wasn't. And wishing it was really doesn't help, unless you have a time machine you're not telling us about.
Of course no one seems to be all that concerned with what we're going to do with all of the EOLed solar panels that are out there now. Nor how big a problem that would become if they become mainstream. Or the issues that their production entails. There's a lot of really nasty shit that's left over from solar panel production. And a lot of not-so-good for you stuff in them too.
This seems to be a problem for us as a species. We didn't worry about dumping sewage into rivers until it was a big issue.We didn't think about AWG when we started burning dinosaur remains, etc. We tend to do stuff that creates a problem, and so far have been lucky enough to fix it after the fact. Let's hope we can keep doing that.
Great idea. Fire off a missile with an HE head. Decide en-route that you didn't really mean it, after all. Fly large, explosive missile back to your own launch site. Watch friendly ground forces scatter as weapon approaches.
Brings a whole new element to "friendly fire"
How is what is described in the summary any different than when a Reaper lands without deploying all of it's ordnance? Or a manned aircraft that still has unfired missiles or bombs. I didn't RTFA, but it sounds like it's similar to an armed drone with the ordnance built in rather than being something that can be deployed separately. Such a drone may never be used for anything other than surveillance. However, if a high value" target is located, then the drone can act as a weapon.
I have a feeling that they will be one of those corporations that rise back from the grave in a few years to continue to attempt to survive off others.
Can we just skip ahead to whatever comes after, "the lawyers will suck the marrow from the carcass and leave the bones to bleach out in the sun."? These guys are like one of those bad zombie movies where the zombies keep coming back; even after the credits are done.
We do know that smoking is the greatest single cause of statistics. But if you want your study funded you better be prepared to come down on the side of conventional wisdom.
There have been several more recent studies that back this up. I think one Dutch study indicated that smokers cost an average of $325K from age 20 to 80 whereas non-smokers cost almost $100K more. Hell, even obese people cost around $50K less. I don't think any of these studies take into account the amount of taxes that smokers pay into the system either. I'm thnking it would have been more patriotic for me to have not quite years ago.;-)
There's not really that much differentiation going on anymore, what the OEMs make is not that different from what I'd do myself - even if I started from scratch. The only real advantage you have is the ability to replace one and one component.
Because no one ever looks at the specs of a power supply, this is one area in which OEM's tend to skimp. This is one major reason I will not buy a per-assembled computer. Some of the cheaper brands don't even use a PSU that meets the minimum requirements for the hardware they put in it. Even ones that do, generally don't leave you a lot to go on if you want to add a hard drive or two, or upgrade the VGA. But they still give you 4+ empty bays to add drives. Or two empty PCI-e slots that you don't stand a chance of even being able to power up a single mid-range VGA. I've seen numerous cases where a low cost PSU fried everything but the DVD-ROM in a system when they die. I've not had this issue with quality brand units though, and I've seen several fail over the years.
I've also found that even on OEM systems with a reasonable amount of RAM, the CAS latency is awful. Even when it is only a couple dollars more for better. Crappy sleeve bearing fans are also an issue. They are generally fairly quiet, but either seize or get unbearably loud long before the system needs to be replaced. Of course they are held in by plastic clips that usually break when you try to replace the fan too.
I agree that up front costs make an OEM system seem like a better deal, but I still find that building computers works out better in the long run. Plus I don't keep sending perfectly good cases, PSU, CD.DVD/BD drives, etc. to the landfill.
The RadioShack nearest to me has all sorts of electronic parts. The guy I know who works there even has all the colors memorized for the different specs (such as the resistor color codes and fuse amperage) and he is insanely knowledgeable in general. Maybe that is what I get for living in a college town.
I remember when that pretty much described every Radio Shack I remember going to in the 80's. Something changed in the 90's and they are more about mobile phones than anything these days. I have three within 5 miles of where I live. One still carries resisters, transistors, capacitors and such. They're all stuffed into flip up metal drawers now. I think it's some kind of child proofing to keep the employees from choking on them. Most of the employees I've talked to get that "deer caught in the headlights" look when I ask them for anything.
My father was having issues with connecting to his cable modem a couple of weeks ago. Since I wasn't sure what the issue was I wanted to have an ethernet card ready in case the integrated one was fried. Strangely no one carries them anymore. I suppose most computers have them integrated these days. Anyhow I asked the guy at Radio Shack if they had them. When he handed me a WiFi card I explained that I needed a wired one with a RJ45 jack, he handed me another WiFi card and told me it should work. I explained it to him again and he just stared at me. I did end up finding a USB adapter at Radio Shack, which was better than I could find anywhere else. My father is not a tech savvy person at all, but he was surprised by how little the people at Radio Shack knew.
Old mechanical typewriters don't work very will with Dvorak. People and modern computers are quite a different matter. I know a few people who use it and it's amazing how little their fingers have to move to type. I wish it wouldn't be such an effort to switch, or I would.
Skin has been an overlooked part of robotics", says Ciocarlie, because it poses such a challenging problem: in addition to being robust, sensitive and flexible, it needs to be made in very large sheets."
Yes. And it needs to feel good to the person touching it or who is being touched by it.
They also need to have the skin have different textures and colors. For example - and it's the only one I can think of - skin needs to feel different between an arm and a female nipple. Also, the nipples need to be able to change as if during sexual excitement.
The other thing they need to do is to allow skin to secret fluids. For example - it's the first thing that popped in my head - a vagina and differentiate between sexual arousal or lack thereof. And also produce sweat.such when - just the first thing that popped in my head, again - sexual arousal and intercourse.
Also, anal tissue needs to feel different and be resistant to personal lubricants..
These are just some thoughts I've had on where robotic science could take their research on artificial skin.
I tried pursuing this research myself and comparing the results with co-eds, but the University dismissed me for some reason.
Wow. Science is just at the preliminary stages of being able to provide a decent sense of touch to a machine and you already want to fuck it.
I was under the impression that locking the phone doesn't actually provide any security for the contents of the SD card, but only prevents the phone from being used. In other words, they could pop the SD card out and insert it into any suitably equipped PC and browse the data to their hearts content.
The implication of your comment is that Concorde could easily avoid disturbing the populace between New York and Los Angeles by limiting its flight path to the oceans between New York and Los Angeles-- which do not exit,
Sure there is. It's just not the most direct route.
I had lawn darts. Flying Death From Above is what we called them, and that's the way we liked it!
I still have a set of those. I keep want to get them out, but I'm too lazy to check if the state I live in has banned them being used, or just being sold.
"You might have heard there's a problem with our products...
THIS IS NOT TRUE.
A government agency (the Consumer Product Safety Commission) is saying they should be recalled because children occasionally get ahold of them. This is unfair. We market exclusively to adults. We are vigorously defending our right to market these products you love. Let us know how you feel about this: Comment on Facebook; send a tweet; tell your friends; complain loudly; or just buy a set to stick it to the CPSC. Read more here."
See the part that says "exclusively to adults".
Apparently at least one of those parents is not very good at their profession.
Most USA'sian brains are destined to be fucked up by the illogical measuring system so don't blame it all on the digital clock....
I used to think that when I was younger. But I've decided that it keeps our brains more active as we can't simply look at our fingers to convert measures like the rest of the world. It also has the additional benefit of making it easy to tell when someone is from another country or really stupid.
Now what I am really looking forward to is when these computers can output directly to my retina:)
I have mixed feeling about this. It will be incredibly convenient and cool. But I also am realistic enough to realize we don't live in a utopian Star Trek world. The thought of loosing my vision because of a glitch is scary enough. But even worse, can you imagine if someone hacks such a system and you are forced to look at goatse, and no matter what you do you cannot turn your head or close your eyes to make it go away.
I'm sure the theater owners ought to be able to block signal to cellphones, so it's not a question of intent any more - you just can't use them.
The tech has been available to do this for some time now. But the law does not permit it. On one hand I can understand why you should be able to keep you phone on vibrate. Particularly in the case of parents who want their sitter to be able to contact them in case of an emergency. Or for someone who is taking a break from caring for a terminally ill family member. Unfortunately this is not something that you can differentiate from the idiot who feels the need to yell the details about their vasectomy into the phone during a movie.
You're right though, the experience isn't what it once was. Aside from anything else, some of the theaters in my area don't seem to employ projectionists who have a damn clue what they are doing. As a result the picture slips out of focus, among other irritating glitches. I might not have as big a screen at home, but I get a nice sharp picture all the way through, and nobody kicks the back of my chair.
It's funny that you mention that. I have a fairly decent 5.1 home theater setup with a decent LCD. The last time we went to the theater I was a little shocked at how much better our home setup was. My wife generally doesn't notice the difference between the sound of mono and 7.1 HD-DTS. OK, that's a slight exaggeration. But even she commented on how much better our home system sounded. For what it costs for me, my wife and daughter to go to a movie, it's much cheaper to buy it on blu-ray when it comes out. As a bonus we don't have to put up with obnoxious people either.
"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe." - Frank Zappa
--
BMO
And this is why he didn't win the presidential election.
He maybe chairman but he does nothing with daily operation nor guiding teams and telling them what to do. Windows 8 with Metro would not be so pathetic and Vista never would have happened in its current form he was the actual CEO and ran the company.
It shows. Vista was rushed to get it out and so was Windows 8 with Metro. Metro is truly terrible even for a tablet OS that even iOS 1.0 and Andriod 1.x are more functional and feature filled. The integration with the desktop is wrong as well as taking away instant search to the abomination and many many more small things that add with attention to detail.
Judging by your screen name, Mr. Gates., I think you may be a little biased when commenting about how much better Vista or Win8 would have been.
Slashdot Mirror
That “adversaries” includes us. Especially us.
.
This is the USAF, not the NSA, CIA, FBI, DIA, TSA, etc. Three initial agencies are the ones you need to be afraid of, ;-)
Actually I'm pretty sure I used to pay $14/ month to Bell for an unlisted number. Now that I think about it, AT&T put anonymous call rejection on on my land line 15 years ago and charged me $5/ month for it until I noticed it an cancelled it. I didn't even have caller-ID at the time, so it made no sense at all.
$5 per month is no longer in the realm of "nickel& dime", it's bare-faced robbery.
I guess I'm old, but I recall Bell charging more than that to keep land lines unlisted.
Exactly. The real question is "how safe would you feel with bad drivers in the air?". Or even better, high speed chases in the air. Ouch.
I've heard that, statistically speaking, flying is the safest form of transportation. The sooner we can get everybody into the air, the safer travel will become. ;-)
The question ought to have been asked 60 years ago; not today.
Well it wasn't. And wishing it was really doesn't help, unless you have a time machine you're not telling us about.
Of course no one seems to be all that concerned with what we're going to do with all of the EOLed solar panels that are out there now. Nor how big a problem that would become if they become mainstream. Or the issues that their production entails. There's a lot of really nasty shit that's left over from solar panel production. And a lot of not-so-good for you stuff in them too.
This seems to be a problem for us as a species. We didn't worry about dumping sewage into rivers until it was a big issue.We didn't think about AWG when we started burning dinosaur remains, etc. We tend to do stuff that creates a problem, and so far have been lucky enough to fix it after the fact. Let's hope we can keep doing that.
Great idea. Fire off a missile with an HE head. Decide en-route that you didn't really mean it, after all. Fly large, explosive missile back to your own launch site. Watch friendly ground forces scatter as weapon approaches.
Brings a whole new element to "friendly fire"
How is what is described in the summary any different than when a Reaper lands without deploying all of it's ordnance? Or a manned aircraft that still has unfired missiles or bombs. I didn't RTFA, but it sounds like it's similar to an armed drone with the ordnance built in rather than being something that can be deployed separately. Such a drone may never be used for anything other than surveillance. However, if a high value" target is located, then the drone can act as a weapon.
I have a feeling that they will be one of those corporations that rise back from the grave in a few years to continue to attempt to survive off others.
Can we just skip ahead to whatever comes after, "the lawyers will suck the marrow from the carcass and leave the bones to bleach out in the sun."? These guys are like one of those bad zombie movies where the zombies keep coming back; even after the credits are done.
A famous study you never heard of - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/background_briefings/smoking/86599.stm
This kind of result is quickly covered up.
We do know that smoking is the greatest single cause of statistics. But if you want your study funded you better be prepared to come down on the side of conventional wisdom.
There have been several more recent studies that back this up. I think one Dutch study indicated that smokers cost an average of $325K from age 20 to 80 whereas non-smokers cost almost $100K more. Hell, even obese people cost around $50K less. I don't think any of these studies take into account the amount of taxes that smokers pay into the system either. I'm thnking it would have been more patriotic for me to have not quite years ago. ;-)
There's not really that much differentiation going on anymore, what the OEMs make is not that different from what I'd do myself - even if I started from scratch. The only real advantage you have is the ability to replace one and one component.
Because no one ever looks at the specs of a power supply, this is one area in which OEM's tend to skimp. This is one major reason I will not buy a per-assembled computer. Some of the cheaper brands don't even use a PSU that meets the minimum requirements for the hardware they put in it. Even ones that do, generally don't leave you a lot to go on if you want to add a hard drive or two, or upgrade the VGA. But they still give you 4+ empty bays to add drives. Or two empty PCI-e slots that you don't stand a chance of even being able to power up a single mid-range VGA. I've seen numerous cases where a low cost PSU fried everything but the DVD-ROM in a system when they die. I've not had this issue with quality brand units though, and I've seen several fail over the years.
I've also found that even on OEM systems with a reasonable amount of RAM, the CAS latency is awful. Even when it is only a couple dollars more for better. Crappy sleeve bearing fans are also an issue. They are generally fairly quiet, but either seize or get unbearably loud long before the system needs to be replaced. Of course they are held in by plastic clips that usually break when you try to replace the fan too.
I agree that up front costs make an OEM system seem like a better deal, but I still find that building computers works out better in the long run. Plus I don't keep sending perfectly good cases, PSU, CD.DVD/BD drives, etc. to the landfill.
The RadioShack nearest to me has all sorts of electronic parts. The guy I know who works there even has all the colors memorized for the different specs (such as the resistor color codes and fuse amperage) and he is insanely knowledgeable in general. Maybe that is what I get for living in a college town.
I remember when that pretty much described every Radio Shack I remember going to in the 80's. Something changed in the 90's and they are more about mobile phones than anything these days. I have three within 5 miles of where I live. One still carries resisters, transistors, capacitors and such. They're all stuffed into flip up metal drawers now. I think it's some kind of child proofing to keep the employees from choking on them. Most of the employees I've talked to get that "deer caught in the headlights" look when I ask them for anything.
My father was having issues with connecting to his cable modem a couple of weeks ago. Since I wasn't sure what the issue was I wanted to have an ethernet card ready in case the integrated one was fried. Strangely no one carries them anymore. I suppose most computers have them integrated these days. Anyhow I asked the guy at Radio Shack if they had them. When he handed me a WiFi card I explained that I needed a wired one with a RJ45 jack, he handed me another WiFi card and told me it should work. I explained it to him again and he just stared at me. I did end up finding a USB adapter at Radio Shack, which was better than I could find anywhere else. My father is not a tech savvy person at all, but he was surprised by how little the people at Radio Shack knew.
People don't work too well on Dvorak. FTFY
I kid, I kid.
Old mechanical typewriters don't work very will with Dvorak. People and modern computers are quite a different matter. I know a few people who use it and it's amazing how little their fingers have to move to type. I wish it wouldn't be such an effort to switch, or I would.
Be right back, dumping several countries worth of Coca Cola into the ocean.
Let's see you try and gum us to death now. YOUR MOVE, SHARKS.
Too bad a shark continually grows new teeth throughout it's entire life.
Skin has been an overlooked part of robotics", says Ciocarlie, because it poses such a challenging problem: in addition to being robust, sensitive and flexible, it needs to be made in very large sheets."
Yes. And it needs to feel good to the person touching it or who is being touched by it.
They also need to have the skin have different textures and colors. For example - and it's the only one I can think of - skin needs to feel different between an arm and a female nipple. Also, the nipples need to be able to change as if during sexual excitement.
The other thing they need to do is to allow skin to secret fluids. For example - it's the first thing that popped in my head - a vagina and differentiate between sexual arousal or lack thereof. And also produce sweat.such when - just the first thing that popped in my head, again - sexual arousal and intercourse.
Also, anal tissue needs to feel different and be resistant to personal lubricants..
These are just some thoughts I've had on where robotic science could take their research on artificial skin.
I tried pursuing this research myself and comparing the results with co-eds, but the University dismissed me for some reason.
Wow. Science is just at the preliminary stages of being able to provide a decent sense of touch to a machine and you already want to fuck it.
I was under the impression that locking the phone doesn't actually provide any security for the contents of the SD card, but only prevents the phone from being used. In other words, they could pop the SD card out and insert it into any suitably equipped PC and browse the data to their hearts content.
Yes, but DropBox in not on the SD card.
The implication of your comment is that Concorde could easily avoid disturbing the populace between New York and Los Angeles by limiting its flight path to the oceans between New York and Los Angeles-- which do not exit,
Sure there is. It's just not the most direct route.
I had lawn darts. Flying Death From Above is what we called them, and that's the way we liked it!
I still have a set of those. I keep want to get them out, but I'm too lazy to check if the state I live in has banned them being used, or just being sold.
We have three boys with Engineering and Lawyer parents.
From: https://www.getbuckyballs.com/order/buckyballs/
"You might have heard there's a problem with our products... THIS IS NOT TRUE. A government agency (the Consumer Product Safety Commission) is saying they should be recalled because children occasionally get ahold of them. This is unfair. We market exclusively to adults. We are vigorously defending our right to market these products you love. Let us know how you feel about this: Comment on Facebook; send a tweet; tell your friends; complain loudly; or just buy a set to stick it to the CPSC. Read more here."
See the part that says "exclusively to adults".
Apparently at least one of those parents is not very good at their profession.
The first test is finding it.
So it's sponsored by the NSA.
Most USA'sian brains are destined to be fucked up by the illogical measuring system so don't blame it all on the digital clock ....
I used to think that when I was younger. But I've decided that it keeps our brains more active as we can't simply look at our fingers to convert measures like the rest of the world. It also has the additional benefit of making it easy to tell when someone is from another country or really stupid.
Now what I am really looking forward to is when these computers can output directly to my retina :)
I have mixed feeling about this. It will be incredibly convenient and cool. But I also am realistic enough to realize we don't live in a utopian Star Trek world. The thought of loosing my vision because of a glitch is scary enough. But even worse, can you imagine if someone hacks such a system and you are forced to look at goatse, and no matter what you do you cannot turn your head or close your eyes to make it go away.
I'm sure the theater owners ought to be able to block signal to cellphones, so it's not a question of intent any more - you just can't use them.
The tech has been available to do this for some time now. But the law does not permit it. On one hand I can understand why you should be able to keep you phone on vibrate. Particularly in the case of parents who want their sitter to be able to contact them in case of an emergency. Or for someone who is taking a break from caring for a terminally ill family member. Unfortunately this is not something that you can differentiate from the idiot who feels the need to yell the details about their vasectomy into the phone during a movie.
You're right though, the experience isn't what it once was. Aside from anything else, some of the theaters in my area don't seem to employ projectionists who have a damn clue what they are doing. As a result the picture slips out of focus, among other irritating glitches. I might not have as big a screen at home, but I get a nice sharp picture all the way through, and nobody kicks the back of my chair.
It's funny that you mention that. I have a fairly decent 5.1 home theater setup with a decent LCD. The last time we went to the theater I was a little shocked at how much better our home setup was. My wife generally doesn't notice the difference between the sound of mono and 7.1 HD-DTS. OK, that's a slight exaggeration. But even she commented on how much better our home system sounded. For what it costs for me, my wife and daughter to go to a movie, it's much cheaper to buy it on blu-ray when it comes out. As a bonus we don't have to put up with obnoxious people either.
"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe." - Frank Zappa
-- BMO
And this is why he didn't win the presidential election.
He's still chairman of the board.
He maybe chairman but he does nothing with daily operation nor guiding teams and telling them what to do. Windows 8 with Metro would not be so pathetic and Vista never would have happened in its current form he was the actual CEO and ran the company.
It shows. Vista was rushed to get it out and so was Windows 8 with Metro. Metro is truly terrible even for a tablet OS that even iOS 1.0 and Andriod 1.x are more functional and feature filled. The integration with the desktop is wrong as well as taking away instant search to the abomination and many many more small things that add with attention to detail.
Judging by your screen name, Mr. Gates., I think you may be a little biased when commenting about how much better Vista or Win8 would have been.
Continuing to fund a search for extraterrestrial intelligence?
It calls into question the claims that terrestrial intelligence does exist, itself.
Judging by our elected leaders in the US, I'm starting to wonder.
There's nothing wrong with the company as it exists right now.
Perhaps, but there soon will be a big fucking problem.