If you're emergency plan requires a text message you're doing it wrong especially when you're relying on companies like ATT who can't even keep 911 up.
Text messages can work, most people use this on their phones as audio quality is superbad. Problem is getting alerts from places far far away or child kidnapping from a different part of city (not applicable to anyone except family members that are in custody dispute). Like just about all others, I disabled alerts on my phone because annoying loud sounds that when alerts happen, it is always at 2 am (and for an incident beyond my influence).
I grew up in an area that had airraid sirens, they worked just fine. The Government of course pulled the funding for them.
But these days would anyone understand them? But then large area sirens don't require someone to purchase a phone and subscriber service. OTA TV and radio can be quite useful to get the word out but do people watch or listen to those anymore? And if they do, will these stations go into emergency mode if needed. I was talking with someone that was caught in the Santa Rosa fire earlier this year. In middle of night she and her friend at motel happen to wake up smelling smoke. They opened the door to see entire surrounding area in flames, they immediately grabbed car keys and high tailed it or at least try to get out of the area. It was confusing because smoke and limited visibility but eventually found the freeway and start heading south out of the area. She said scanning the radio could not find any station reporting what was happening, eventually found a PBS station with live reports and updates.
Thanks for insightful comment as most I read on this list are simply awful. Anyway, I first saw the movie when it came out, didn't understand it until years later when I read the book. This film still stands iconic, besides special effects the concept of commercial hardware such as Pan Am shuttle, Hilton and Howard Johnson on space station, IBM flat panel displays (unlike dated CRTs shown in "2010"), Whirlpool and General Foods food dispensers though some of these companies have gone out of business. And the people are generally boring like most engineers and scientists when compared to movie stars.
The story is still being debated, i.e. SETI recently had David Stork (his car license is HAL9000) talk about HAL9000 about would it be possible to design a computer today that could reach or outreach HAL’s capabilities? Can today’s software do what HAL did? SETI posted this presentation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
chose the worst parachute rig to jump with, a Navy NB-8. FFS wasn't he aware the Paracommander in a B4 container vastly superior and has some forward speed and excellent turnability compared to a unmodfied round canopy of the NB-8? I didn't RTFA but I don't think this guy was Dan Cooper.
I think they use the word pirate because back in the days real pirates were brutal and ruthless. So they need a nefarious sounding name for radio abusers. However, many people hearing the word pirate they think of a swashbuckling rebels battling the establishment like portrayed in the movies from Errol Flynn to Johnny Depp.
No insult to Korolyov, it was a great rocket for its time... but it's time is long past.
but it continues to live forever and currently the ***only*** vehicle to put people into space. Yes, there are other vehicles being developed but so far all keep pushing their first crewed launch further into future as time marches on. But then one of these days one of these rockets and capsules will put someone into orbit from US soil. Then can it be done repeatibly (or need more flight tests)?
As far as the Angara rocket, I'd put it in the good-luck-with-that dept. unless Putin is willing to give up a few billion he regularly skims from Russian economy. https://themoscowtimes.com/new...
No, consumers only consume. They have no say in where things are made. In fact, most don't know how to make things. Most consumers only see one day ahead, that gadget for $4.95 is just as good as the one for $29.95. CEO has a longer vision, 3 months (or one quarter).
University of Central Florida professor Yanek Mieczkowski taught a class about some of the people who challenged the status quo of the U.S. auto industry from the post-World War II era to the present day. He discussed the successes and failures of people such as Harley Earl, Preston Tucker, John DeLorean and Elon Musk.
Mieczkowski said Musk is not in good company considering these previous auto mavericks all failed. However, Musk has billions to spend where the others do not. Let's see how this plays out (and the drama is unfolding daily!)
Don't know why this was marked down, San Jose and surrounding cities experiencing the same problem. Google given tax breaks to build up more, the common argument is if they are not given these breaks they will go someplace else. In meantime the city struggles to make ends meet (they've done a little better). However, like all tech areas there are immense wealth and dirt poor. Brand new high tech companies surrounded by tent cities. Oh the latest news Bezos earns a few billion more while many Amazon gig workers earn below $40K a year.
Something is seriously out of balance, any solutions presented are shouted down as "socialism" or "communism."
I mean we read stories all the time where military secrets are stolen all the time and yet it seems like Apple's biggest secrets are never leaked. Maybe they are and maybe most of us can't recognize these, just me asking. Trump has advantage that if any of his secrets are stolen (probably of bankrupt value) or disclosed he can simply shout "fake news" and it's end of discussion.
Reminds me a WU story posted here on/. just after they ended telegram service. Someone having a party to celebrate completing his or hers PhD, a friend couldn't attend but sent a telegram to congratulate [just before telegram service ended]. The new PhD was amazed to answer the door to "Western Union telegram" man in the uniform. Very unique and framed the telegram on the wall.
A lecture on CSPAN during weekend (some weeks ago) about big data, one said many see big data will provide many good opportunities, etc. He used analogy of after WWII many saw TV dinners and other prepackaged foods provide many conveniences. But these are loaded with salt and sugar so 50 years later we have large numbers of obese children and record numbers of diabetics, etc. Those conveniences come with a cost.
...priced out of reach for all but the top 10% and not covered by insurance would be a disgrace.
I second that. There's all these medical miracles but if you can't afford them, then they don't exist. Like if you can't afford a Ferrari then it doesn't exist (yes, a silly analogy). Reminds me the other weekend a cyclist took a bad spill at a race, helmet had a good size gash but cyclist's head is ok. EMTs examined him, ask questions like what day it is, where he is at. Cyclist first questions are how much is this medical response going to cost? No cost to race participants. But yet some will probably decline medical services even if tramatic of fear that an airlift could bankrupt them for life.
I'm afraid I agree with you and I really don't like sending money to Comcast so they get more money to conduct all kinds of mischief. But dammit I find watching CSPAN history and BookTV on weekends very interesting. And I have no good alternates for highspeed internet.
Heh, the "non-commies" want to regulate Facebook, or at least what I saw on CSPAN some Republicans griping about social media giants should at least be broken up into smaller companies.
Going offtopic but consider DVD format is more than 20 years old and still going strong (yes, many have gone to other means but there sure is a lot of DVDs still out there). Like the VHS it will take decades to die. Found on the internet someplace, forgot source, here is the text below.
What do the letters DVD stand for?
All of the following have been proposed as the words behind the letters DVD:
- Delayed, Very Delayed (referring to the many late releases of DVD formats)
- Diversified, Very Diversified (referring to the proliferation of recordable formats and other spinoffs)
- Digital Venereal Disease (referring to piracy and copying of DVDs)
- Dead, Very Dead (from naysayers who predicted DVD would never take off)
- Digital Video Disc (the original meaning proposed by some of DVD's creators)
- Digital Versatile Disc (a meaning later proposed by some of DVD's creators)
- Nothing
And the official answer is... "nothing." The original initialism came from "digital video disc." Some members of the DVD Forum (see 6.1) tried to express how DVD goes far beyond video by retrofitting the painfully contorted phrase "digital versatile disc," but this has never been officially accepted by the DVD Forum as a whole. A report from DVD Forum Steering Committee in 1999 decreed that DVD, as an international standard, is simply three letters. Nevertheless, Toshiba —the maintainer of the DVD Forum Web site— still confusingly prefers "digital video disc." And after all, how many people ask what VHS stands for? (Guess what? No one agrees on that one either.)
Also what is new is boring into soils previously too difficult. London has perfect clay soil for boring. San Jose tunnel will be below water table so boring machine has to deal with that (pressurizing). And this gives other cities options, plus Musk's team demonstrating actual working hardware like his other team showed a reusable rocket (this gets people's attention).
Wednesday I attended IEEE-SCV CES meeting where Dennis Ratcliffe presented VTA/BART extension to and under downtown San Jose. The game changer is the single bore tunnel digging, a technique that is new for underground subways. Contrast to the cut-and-cover used for LA Metro and for BART on Market st in 1960s (Dennis said it took 35 years for SF to economically recover from that). They can proceed boring a tunnel under downtown SJ without disrupting downtown. This was done in Barcelona so SJ will not be the first, however, many other cities are looking at how this will proceed.
Another game changer is a single rich guy (single as in not slaved to stock market share holders) who can plunk down a billion dollars and say "build it." Musk still needs to comply with regulatory matters but he doesn't have to deal with bureaucratic tussles to get money. Dennis Ratcliffe said in 2001 when extension was conceived, VTA had to come up with the money to pay for BART extension (guess all the politics in this one). There are funds from Federal Transit Administration but they delayed funding Phase 2 until VTA/BART completes Phase 1. And when this began economy took a dump so all that forecasted tax revenue decreased. But they slowly got moving and economy improved. However, it took a dump again in 2008 (but real estate got cheap so VTA bought property for stations). Elon simply tells his people to start digging on his property. I haven't looked at details but he probably funded others to build smaller and more tailored boring machine than what VTA/BART is using.
Single bore tunneling is not new except for subways. This provides option for many cities, the race may be will it be done by public agencies or by private companies.
If there's one thing the House and Senate can agree on in a bi-partisan way, it's that they don't like when the will of the Congress is stymied by one obstinate guy a few blocks down Pennsylvania Ave.
I don't think there is much the House and Senate can do, both are weak after many years of increasing Executive power in addition to McConnell policy of saying no to everything by Obama. So not much experience and loss of knowledge working with the Executive branch. End result is power vacuum in both House and Senate that Trump can easily fulfill. i.e. void treaty with Iran and House and Senate have absolutely no say in that matter.
Slashdot Mirror
If you're emergency plan requires a text message you're doing it wrong especially when you're relying on companies like ATT who can't even keep 911 up.
Text messages can work, most people use this on their phones as audio quality is superbad. Problem is getting alerts from places far far away or child kidnapping from a different part of city (not applicable to anyone except family members that are in custody dispute). Like just about all others, I disabled alerts on my phone because annoying loud sounds that when alerts happen, it is always at 2 am (and for an incident beyond my influence).
I grew up in an area that had airraid sirens, they worked just fine. The Government of course pulled the funding for them.
But these days would anyone understand them? But then large area sirens don't require someone to purchase a phone and subscriber service. OTA TV and radio can be quite useful to get the word out but do people watch or listen to those anymore? And if they do, will these stations go into emergency mode if needed. I was talking with someone that was caught in the Santa Rosa fire earlier this year. In middle of night she and her friend at motel happen to wake up smelling smoke. They opened the door to see entire surrounding area in flames, they immediately grabbed car keys and high tailed it or at least try to get out of the area. It was confusing because smoke and limited visibility but eventually found the freeway and start heading south out of the area. She said scanning the radio could not find any station reporting what was happening, eventually found a PBS station with live reports and updates.
I miss staying up late at night debating and arguing with others about what does it all mean.
Thanks for insightful comment as most I read on this list are simply awful. Anyway, I first saw the movie when it came out, didn't understand it until years later when I read the book. This film still stands iconic, besides special effects the concept of commercial hardware such as Pan Am shuttle, Hilton and Howard Johnson on space station, IBM flat panel displays (unlike dated CRTs shown in "2010"), Whirlpool and General Foods food dispensers though some of these companies have gone out of business. And the people are generally boring like most engineers and scientists when compared to movie stars.
The story is still being debated, i.e. SETI recently had David Stork (his car license is HAL9000) talk about HAL9000 about would it be possible to design a computer today that could reach or outreach HAL’s capabilities? Can today’s software do what HAL did? SETI posted this presentation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
NASA's Rescue Expertise Is Needed Again - In Thailand http://nasawatch.com/archives/...
Homer Hickam, author of "October Sky" (Rocket Boys), showed this item his dad invented in 1948, https://uploads.disquscdn.com/...
chose the worst parachute rig to jump with, a Navy NB-8. FFS wasn't he aware the Paracommander in a B4 container vastly superior and has some forward speed and excellent turnability compared to a unmodfied round canopy of the NB-8? I didn't RTFA but I don't think this guy was Dan Cooper.
I think they use the word pirate because back in the days real pirates were brutal and ruthless. So they need a nefarious sounding name for radio abusers. However, many people hearing the word pirate they think of a swashbuckling rebels battling the establishment like portrayed in the movies from Errol Flynn to Johnny Depp.
No insult to Korolyov, it was a great rocket for its time... but it's time is long past.
but it continues to live forever and currently the ***only*** vehicle to put people into space. Yes, there are other vehicles being developed but so far all keep pushing their first crewed launch further into future as time marches on. But then one of these days one of these rockets and capsules will put someone into orbit from US soil. Then can it be done repeatibly (or need more flight tests)?
As far as the Angara rocket, I'd put it in the good-luck-with-that dept. unless Putin is willing to give up a few billion he regularly skims from Russian economy. https://themoscowtimes.com/new...
No, consumers only consume. They have no say in where things are made. In fact, most don't know how to make things. Most consumers only see one day ahead, that gadget for $4.95 is just as good as the one for $29.95. CEO has a longer vision, 3 months (or one quarter).
I see references to Tucker so here's an interesting lecture:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?...
University of Central Florida professor Yanek Mieczkowski taught a class about some of the people who challenged the status quo of the U.S. auto industry from the post-World War II era to the present day. He discussed the successes and failures of people such as Harley Earl, Preston Tucker, John DeLorean and Elon Musk.
Mieczkowski said Musk is not in good company considering these previous auto mavericks all failed. However, Musk has billions to spend where the others do not. Let's see how this plays out (and the drama is unfolding daily!)
Don't know why this was marked down, San Jose and surrounding cities experiencing the same problem. Google given tax breaks to build up more, the common argument is if they are not given these breaks they will go someplace else. In meantime the city struggles to make ends meet (they've done a little better). However, like all tech areas there are immense wealth and dirt poor. Brand new high tech companies surrounded by tent cities. Oh the latest news Bezos earns a few billion more while many Amazon gig workers earn below $40K a year.
Something is seriously out of balance, any solutions presented are shouted down as "socialism" or "communism."
I mean we read stories all the time where military secrets are stolen all the time and yet it seems like Apple's biggest secrets are never leaked. Maybe they are and maybe most of us can't recognize these, just me asking. Trump has advantage that if any of his secrets are stolen (probably of bankrupt value) or disclosed he can simply shout "fake news" and it's end of discussion.
Reminds me a WU story posted here on /. just after they ended telegram service. Someone having a party to celebrate completing his or hers PhD, a friend couldn't attend but sent a telegram to congratulate [just before telegram service ended]. The new PhD was amazed to answer the door to "Western Union telegram" man in the uniform. Very unique and framed the telegram on the wall.
I guess that's why I'm not willing to take that job at $14.87/hr that is only 20 hrs a week on the other side of the SF bay.
A lecture on CSPAN during weekend (some weeks ago) about big data, one said many see big data will provide many good opportunities, etc. He used analogy of after WWII many saw TV dinners and other prepackaged foods provide many conveniences. But these are loaded with salt and sugar so 50 years later we have large numbers of obese children and record numbers of diabetics, etc. Those conveniences come with a cost.
...priced out of reach for all but the top 10% and not covered by insurance would be a disgrace.
I second that. There's all these medical miracles but if you can't afford them, then they don't exist. Like if you can't afford a Ferrari then it doesn't exist (yes, a silly analogy). Reminds me the other weekend a cyclist took a bad spill at a race, helmet had a good size gash but cyclist's head is ok. EMTs examined him, ask questions like what day it is, where he is at. Cyclist first questions are how much is this medical response going to cost? No cost to race participants. But yet some will probably decline medical services even if tramatic of fear that an airlift could bankrupt them for life.
there's spying including use of cellphones in the nation's capital.
I'm afraid I agree with you and I really don't like sending money to Comcast so they get more money to conduct all kinds of mischief. But dammit I find watching CSPAN history and BookTV on weekends very interesting. And I have no good alternates for highspeed internet.
Heh, the "non-commies" want to regulate Facebook, or at least what I saw on CSPAN some Republicans griping about social media giants should at least be broken up into smaller companies.
What do the letters DVD stand for?
All of the following have been proposed as the words behind the letters DVD:
- Delayed, Very Delayed (referring to the many late releases of DVD formats)
- Diversified, Very Diversified (referring to the proliferation of recordable formats and other spinoffs)
- Digital Venereal Disease (referring to piracy and copying of DVDs)
- Dead, Very Dead (from naysayers who predicted DVD would never take off)
- Digital Video Disc (the original meaning proposed by some of DVD's creators)
- Digital Versatile Disc (a meaning later proposed by some of DVD's creators)
- Nothing
And the official answer is... "nothing." The original initialism came from "digital video disc." Some members of the DVD Forum (see 6.1) tried to express how DVD goes far beyond video by retrofitting the painfully contorted phrase "digital versatile disc," but this has never been officially accepted by the DVD Forum as a whole. A report from DVD Forum Steering Committee in 1999 decreed that DVD, as an international standard, is simply three letters. Nevertheless, Toshiba —the maintainer of the DVD Forum Web site— still confusingly prefers "digital video disc." And after all, how many people ask what VHS stands for? (Guess what? No one agrees on that one either.)
Also what is new is boring into soils previously too difficult. London has perfect clay soil for boring. San Jose tunnel will be below water table so boring machine has to deal with that (pressurizing). And this gives other cities options, plus Musk's team demonstrating actual working hardware like his other team showed a reusable rocket (this gets people's attention).
article by Dennis Ratcliffe on "Can Single-Bore Tunneling Transform Urban Subway Construction?"
http://www.vta.org/News-and-Me...
ignore that last sentence (leftover from draft)
Wednesday I attended IEEE-SCV CES meeting where Dennis Ratcliffe presented VTA/BART extension to and under downtown San Jose. The game changer is the single bore tunnel digging, a technique that is new for underground subways. Contrast to the cut-and-cover used for LA Metro and for BART on Market st in 1960s (Dennis said it took 35 years for SF to economically recover from that). They can proceed boring a tunnel under downtown SJ without disrupting downtown. This was done in Barcelona so SJ will not be the first, however, many other cities are looking at how this will proceed.
Another game changer is a single rich guy (single as in not slaved to stock market share holders) who can plunk down a billion dollars and say "build it." Musk still needs to comply with regulatory matters but he doesn't have to deal with bureaucratic tussles to get money. Dennis Ratcliffe said in 2001 when extension was conceived, VTA had to come up with the money to pay for BART extension (guess all the politics in this one). There are funds from Federal Transit Administration but they delayed funding Phase 2 until VTA/BART completes Phase 1. And when this began economy took a dump so all that forecasted tax revenue decreased. But they slowly got moving and economy improved. However, it took a dump again in 2008 (but real estate got cheap so VTA bought property for stations). Elon simply tells his people to start digging on his property. I haven't looked at details but he probably funded others to build smaller and more tailored boring machine than what VTA/BART is using.
Single bore tunneling is not new except for subways. This provides option for many cities, the race may be will it be done by public agencies or by private companies.
Elon Musk can sim
If there's one thing the House and Senate can agree on in a bi-partisan way, it's that they don't like when the will of the Congress is stymied by one obstinate guy a few blocks down Pennsylvania Ave.
I don't think there is much the House and Senate can do, both are weak after many years of increasing Executive power in addition to McConnell policy of saying no to everything by Obama. So not much experience and loss of knowledge working with the Executive branch. End result is power vacuum in both House and Senate that Trump can easily fulfill. i.e. void treaty with Iran and House and Senate have absolutely no say in that matter.
No, we really need someone to put up money to restore that Ampex sign on highway 101 in Redwood City.