CurrentSuperchargers take 10 minutes to charge. That's longer than a fill up, but not by much. I'd estimate it takes at least 4 minutes to fill a tank from empty. You can "guarantee" that no one will find a way to improve charging time by 60% in 16 years? That's pretty pessimistic IMO.
In practice, we'd probably have to cover all of Nevada to power the world. Are solar power advocates really okay with that?
No, but I'd cover a fairly sizable chunk and power most of the US with it. I'd rather just put them in orbit but until someone proves the concept of capturing and mining an asteroid and processing the results in situ into solar panels it probably isn't economically viable.
Piracy is a fraction of the level that it was before decent distribution channels and lower prices were available. Just because a vocal 2% keeps complaining doesn't mean that nothing has changed.
Does a cell phone not have a unique identifier when it connects to a tower? Does the government not have the authority, by force if necessary, to force the cell providers to connect that unique identifier up with the subscriber? Don't be ridiculous, they have everything they need put thousands of people on a watch list. Of course, you'll get a bunch of false positives, but what's a few (extra) ruined lives in the name of state security?
As the supply of bitcoin drops, the value increases. As the value increases, the number of bitcoins any given individual holds will decrease. As the number of bitcoins in any given wallet decreases, so also decreases the number of coins lost in any given incident.
It is inherently deflationary (which is, IMO, the real problem), but that doesn't mean the supply will eventually fall to zero.
You're confusing the nuclear engineering word "meltdown" with what it has come to mean in standard speech. In nuclear engineering, a meltdown occurs when the fuel reacts with enough heat to melt itself. Once your fuel is melted you have much fewer options to bring the reactions under control because you no longer control the geometry of the situation, you can't just insert control rods or even inject a neutron absorber.
Losing his job is one thing, losing what little cooperation he was getting is another thing entirely. Let's assume for the moment that the man isn't a psychopath (the only reason we have to assume otherwise is that he managed to reach the political position he did, which I don't think is enough to blindly warrant the assumption). The life and limb of the people under his command depend upon cooperation from the very people he would like to publicly name and shame. Regardless of how satisfying it might have been, putting those people at risk for a short term, PR image only improvement in coordination would have been highly difficult for him to do.
If a state actor really wants your passwords, they'll just use the wrench anyway.
At least with the wrench I'll know that someone has my passwords. Might be small consolation in that situation but it is what it is and having a lawyer served stack of legal documents (including the inevitable gag order) isn't likely to end in your favor.
Wait, so this doctor now knows that his patient has a decades old history of drug abuse, at least one near overdose, and the rest of her stay was uneventful and he never brought it up... Am I the only one who says "WTF" to that? That seems like a much, much larger failure on the part of the doctor than googling a patient.
Asimov thought we'd automate everything and everyone would basically have access to everything they really desired. He thought everyone living like kings and never having to work would make everyone a bit depressed and dissatisfied with their lives.
The science and technology are amazingly accurate, the social and cultural changes are not even close; and really the social and cultural issues are far more important. A guaranteed income, mass joblessness, and and strict population controls would all have much, much larger effects on the world we live in than video conferencing and drones on Mars.
Does "drugs" block sites such as those advocating an end to marijuana prohibition? Does "gay sex" block sites such as support sites for homosexual teens? I suspect yes and yes; if not intentionally every time then at least unintentionally some of the time. So no, you damn well won't censor any of my communications with the outside world.
It would be difficult, but not impossible to come up with a system of time travel that would not have this problem. Wormholes are frequently used in science fiction and by some calculations would allow backwards time travel. Of course, that requires one end of the wormhole to be nearby (and still requires the use of unrealistically good spaceships). Alternatively, you could say that while traveling back through time you continue to interact with the universe gravitationally a la dark matter. Then all you'd need to do is put your time machine somewhere with a stable orbit for the duration of your trip and start coming back.
It is confusing. On the one hand we have the networks, complaining (if you follow the summaries logic) about not being able to turn a profit with ads. On the other, you have Hulu complaining about not being able to turn a profit with subscriptions.
I've had my CC stolen twice. Plus another 4-5 false alarms. Every time was the exact same thing, got a call, verified/denied a half dozen or so chargers. If there were charges that weren't mine I was told to dispose of my card and that a new one was on the way. Other than being without a card for a few days the hassle level was basically zero. In at least one of those cases the card was denied on the first fraudulent charge, most likely based on it being impossible for me to have physically been in 2 places at once.
They are liable, they know they are liable, they work hard to keep what they are liable for as small as possible.
My point is that making the entire monetary system susceptible to a single black swan is much more dangerous than the gold standard people seem to believe. And I disagree with the statement that gold standard advocates don't think gold has a nearly fixed value, in fact you do as well when you say "a fixed _supply_ which is good (the argument goes) because it stabilizes the value". It's true that you largely, baring unforeseen and unforeseeable events, insulate the monetary supply from meddling governments, but you expose it to other random events that are potentially much more destabilizing.
I hope we move back to the gold standard and someday soon the asteroid mining companies start flooding the markets with more gold than has been mined in the entirety of human existence. Or a bunch of special new uses for gold are discovered and drive the demand up 10x what it is today. This illusion that gold has an inherently fixed value is just ludicrous.
If I pay my factory workers 1/100th as much as an engineer costs and it takes a single hour to retrain them on a new project, I can still spending 1,000 engineering hours programming, testing, and debugging a SW update for the robot and come out significantly a head.
I actually disagree... 1920x1080 doesn't give enough vertical space but it's (just barely) enough room to split the screen vertically and still have usable space. Obviously more space is better, but considering that I often have 10+ windows visible on my dual 1280x1024 monitors at work I don't consider 960x1080 per window to be worthless.
It's not "memory is cheap" as much as "memory is cheaper than engineering time". A good engineer will understand when that statement is true and also when it isn't. A crap engineering will have no idea how to reduce the footprint anyway, so knowing the difference is moot.
He started a charitable foundation with a donation of about 40 billion dollars, and while it isn't perfect (what $40 billion venture is?) it has made great strides in alleviating poverty and eradicating disease around the world. And he did this well after gathering more money than any one man could have any hope of using in his or his grand children's lifetimes; what exactly does he need PR for again?
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CurrentSuperchargers take 10 minutes to charge. That's longer than a fill up, but not by much. I'd estimate it takes at least 4 minutes to fill a tank from empty. You can "guarantee" that no one will find a way to improve charging time by 60% in 16 years? That's pretty pessimistic IMO.
In practice, we'd probably have to cover all of Nevada to power the world. Are solar power advocates really okay with that?
No, but I'd cover a fairly sizable chunk and power most of the US with it. I'd rather just put them in orbit but until someone proves the concept of capturing and mining an asteroid and processing the results in situ into solar panels it probably isn't economically viable.
Piracy is a fraction of the level that it was before decent distribution channels and lower prices were available. Just because a vocal 2% keeps complaining doesn't mean that nothing has changed.
Does a cell phone not have a unique identifier when it connects to a tower? Does the government not have the authority, by force if necessary, to force the cell providers to connect that unique identifier up with the subscriber? Don't be ridiculous, they have everything they need put thousands of people on a watch list. Of course, you'll get a bunch of false positives, but what's a few (extra) ruined lives in the name of state security?
As the supply of bitcoin drops, the value increases. As the value increases, the number of bitcoins any given individual holds will decrease. As the number of bitcoins in any given wallet decreases, so also decreases the number of coins lost in any given incident.
It is inherently deflationary (which is, IMO, the real problem), but that doesn't mean the supply will eventually fall to zero.
Things that have been illegal (or at least, could get you into legal trouble) in the past:
Marrying outside your race.
Protesting an ongoing war.
Homosexuality, anal sex in particular.
Being a member of the communist party.
I'm sure there are more, that's just off the top of my head.
You're confusing the nuclear engineering word "meltdown" with what it has come to mean in standard speech. In nuclear engineering, a meltdown occurs when the fuel reacts with enough heat to melt itself. Once your fuel is melted you have much fewer options to bring the reactions under control because you no longer control the geometry of the situation, you can't just insert control rods or even inject a neutron absorber.
Current law not appropriate for future technology! News at 11!
Losing his job is one thing, losing what little cooperation he was getting is another thing entirely. Let's assume for the moment that the man isn't a psychopath (the only reason we have to assume otherwise is that he managed to reach the political position he did, which I don't think is enough to blindly warrant the assumption). The life and limb of the people under his command depend upon cooperation from the very people he would like to publicly name and shame. Regardless of how satisfying it might have been, putting those people at risk for a short term, PR image only improvement in coordination would have been highly difficult for him to do.
And that is a major failing on the doctor's part. Old people can be addicts too.
If a state actor really wants your passwords, they'll just use the wrench anyway.
At least with the wrench I'll know that someone has my passwords. Might be small consolation in that situation but it is what it is and having a lawyer served stack of legal documents (including the inevitable gag order) isn't likely to end in your favor.
Wait, so this doctor now knows that his patient has a decades old history of drug abuse, at least one near overdose, and the rest of her stay was uneventful and he never brought it up... Am I the only one who says "WTF" to that? That seems like a much, much larger failure on the part of the doctor than googling a patient.
Asimov thought we'd automate everything and everyone would basically have access to everything they really desired. He thought everyone living like kings and never having to work would make everyone a bit depressed and dissatisfied with their lives.
The science and technology are amazingly accurate, the social and cultural changes are not even close; and really the social and cultural issues are far more important. A guaranteed income, mass joblessness, and and strict population controls would all have much, much larger effects on the world we live in than video conferencing and drones on Mars.
Does "drugs" block sites such as those advocating an end to marijuana prohibition? Does "gay sex" block sites such as support sites for homosexual teens? I suspect yes and yes; if not intentionally every time then at least unintentionally some of the time. So no, you damn well won't censor any of my communications with the outside world.
It would be difficult, but not impossible to come up with a system of time travel that would not have this problem. Wormholes are frequently used in science fiction and by some calculations would allow backwards time travel. Of course, that requires one end of the wormhole to be nearby (and still requires the use of unrealistically good spaceships). Alternatively, you could say that while traveling back through time you continue to interact with the universe gravitationally a la dark matter. Then all you'd need to do is put your time machine somewhere with a stable orbit for the duration of your trip and start coming back.
It is confusing. On the one hand we have the networks, complaining (if you follow the summaries logic) about not being able to turn a profit with ads. On the other, you have Hulu complaining about not being able to turn a profit with subscriptions.
I've had my CC stolen twice. Plus another 4-5 false alarms. Every time was the exact same thing, got a call, verified/denied a half dozen or so chargers. If there were charges that weren't mine I was told to dispose of my card and that a new one was on the way. Other than being without a card for a few days the hassle level was basically zero. In at least one of those cases the card was denied on the first fraudulent charge, most likely based on it being impossible for me to have physically been in 2 places at once.
They are liable, they know they are liable, they work hard to keep what they are liable for as small as possible.
My point is that making the entire monetary system susceptible to a single black swan is much more dangerous than the gold standard people seem to believe. And I disagree with the statement that gold standard advocates don't think gold has a nearly fixed value, in fact you do as well when you say "a fixed _supply_ which is good (the argument goes) because it stabilizes the value". It's true that you largely, baring unforeseen and unforeseeable events, insulate the monetary supply from meddling governments, but you expose it to other random events that are potentially much more destabilizing.
I hope we move back to the gold standard and someday soon the asteroid mining companies start flooding the markets with more gold than has been mined in the entirety of human existence. Or a bunch of special new uses for gold are discovered and drive the demand up 10x what it is today. This illusion that gold has an inherently fixed value is just ludicrous.
Perhaps he has a media center PC which he'd like to drive from his smartphone? Only thing that makes any sense in my mind.
If I pay my factory workers 1/100th as much as an engineer costs and it takes a single hour to retrain them on a new project, I can still spending 1,000 engineering hours programming, testing, and debugging a SW update for the robot and come out significantly a head.
I actually disagree... 1920x1080 doesn't give enough vertical space but it's (just barely) enough room to split the screen vertically and still have usable space. Obviously more space is better, but considering that I often have 10+ windows visible on my dual 1280x1024 monitors at work I don't consider 960x1080 per window to be worthless.
It's not "memory is cheap" as much as "memory is cheaper than engineering time". A good engineer will understand when that statement is true and also when it isn't. A crap engineering will have no idea how to reduce the footprint anyway, so knowing the difference is moot.
He started a charitable foundation with a donation of about 40 billion dollars, and while it isn't perfect (what $40 billion venture is?) it has made great strides in alleviating poverty and eradicating disease around the world. And he did this well after gathering more money than any one man could have any hope of using in his or his grand children's lifetimes; what exactly does he need PR for again?