Free options are always going to have privacy issues.
There's no such thing as a "free" option, but there are many options. About the closest you'll get to "free" is one bundled with something you already pay for (e.g. through your ISP). Other than that, you'll pay $$, by viewing ads, by sacrificing privacy, or some combination of the three.
I was very upset and still strongly dislike the fact that Google scans my mail and get creeped out when ads are obviously targeted based on some keyboard within. But, I continue to use them rather than switch to the e-mail provided by my ISP (Comcast - yeah, much better). But if someone objects strongly enough, there's a plethora of e-mail providers out there that they can pick from.
It doesn't make it right, but the most effective complaint form is simply walking away to another provider that treats you better. With ISPs and several other services, that's sometimes tough, but with e-mail it's easy.
But this stuff DOES still go on. No idea about what China's official policy is, but France hardly even hides an official policy of commercial espionage concerning the US. I know there will be nay-sayers, but I'm not going to hunt references at work.
If your goal is to save the environment, please don't bring up batteries. Although I will grant that there are other efficient and interesting power storage mechanisms (molten salt vats are kinda cool.)
2. Transmission lines
I think you underestimate transmission cost when collecting in Texas to power Maine.
3. There has to be some good that came from stealing Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah from the Mexicans a couple of centuries ago.
Texas is good for wind and the whole area is OK for solar if we can figure out how to do it right. But again, the postage necessary to transmit power from Texas to, say, NYC is non-trivial.
As fossil fuels become more expensive, nuclear power will be the world's only option.
I'm a big nuclear proponent, but fossil fuels (coal at least) is still abundant and cheap. It's not a permanent solution, but the expense barrier is mostly moving due to new restrictions rather than a lack of fuel. For the large portion of the population that simply wants cheap power in the short term rather than short-term costly but long-term essential fashion, coal is still attractive unless we can continue to shift public opinion.
I thought of this too. There are occasionally emergency situations where the reasonable course of action is to swerve suddenly into the oncoming lane, on to the shoulder, or suddenly punch your car well above the speed limit. While these maneuvers may or may not technically adhere to the laws of the road, there are situations where they can be life-saving. I'm curious how these cars will handle blatant and sudden violations of road rules in favor of sanity.
Yeah - That seems pretty straight-forward. If I buy my own ED-209 and put him to work trusting that he's been programmed correctly, but he guns down some businessman, the responsibility is going to be on me for turning him on and failing to control him.
Waiting on hold is actually lose-lose approach to queuing: Customers get pissed off, and the company wastes money (keeping the lines open).
I suspect that there's some break even point between cost of keeping the line open, an annoyed customer down-grading or cancelling service due to hold time, and money saved by reducing the size of your operator/service pool and potential savings when an annoyed customer gives up without actually tying up an operator OR down-grading/cancelling (maybe not common among the/. crowd, but likely a realistic option).
So I thought of using the same series for every site, and then simply attaching the first and last alphanumeric character of the website address to the password. That way I'll have a secure password on every site that is easy to remember wherever I use it.
That's what I do, except to be more secure I use the first and last 3 alphanumerics from each site. Conveniently, several of my passwords are identical: "wwwpasswordcom".
Probably right - I know that when I found out that magnets.com's phones were temporarily tied up, the first thing I did was write my congress critter asking him to tap every phone in the district.
I'm saying that a high-school student may not have the same level of respect for a teacher once they've seen them doing a keg-stand - College pics are one thing, but if your teachers comes in with bloodshot eyes and the students have pictures of him/her in a drunken stupor taken over the weekend, they may not give the same level of respect as they might otherwise. And I'm sure you've noticed how damning those pictures of Weiner have been for him, although it doesn't appear that he broke any laws by sharing them.
I'm not saying that it's right or that I agree with it - In a perfect society a person's personal activities should not affect them outside of their private life. But our society bears little semblance to one with that rigid divide. Right or wrong, especially for people in public positions, allowing your private life to become public can cripple you.
All of which are reasons you will lose you your job thanks to this service. (Of course, they wouldn't openly fire you for being gay, but clever HR knows how to tapdance).
No tap dancing necessary depending on the state. TFA specifically points out that Colorado does not prohibit selective employment based on sexual orientation. Just because what you're doing is legal doesn't necessarily mean that your activities in your private life can't legally be used to refuse you employment or fire you. That doesn't necessarily make it right, it just makes it legal.
What does someone's personal life have to do with their ability to conduct themselves professionally?
It depends. If you're hiring a high-school teacher, or a cop, or appointing a public official, for example, a picture of the candidate doing a keg-stand could damage their credibility if made public and impair their ability to effectively do their job.
How would companies get paid if you were allowed to make your own power?
Allowed to make your own power? Are people actually being prevented by companies from installing solar panels now? I know some home-owners associations have blocked them, but they're not the power company and are typically run democratically by the home-owners.
One of the several advantages that this type of plant provides is continuous power - Rain or shine. I guess you COULD set something like that up at home if you've got a big yard for mirrors, but personally I don't want a basement full of molten salt. Not to mention that I enjoy turning my lights on when it's dark, not just when the sun's shining. The battery alternative is just environmentally irresponsible and kind of a PITA. For these plants, you basically need a bunch of glass (where will we ever find that?), a bunch of salt (there must be some floating around somewhere), and a turbine.
If Microsoft say that (made up numbers) a billion people are using pirated copies of Windows for which Microsoft would charge $50 each, then they can legitimately argue that they have lost $50 billion in revenue. It is up to people then to disprove the assumptions made.
If Microsoft says that a billion people are using pirated copies of Windows that they would have otherwise paid $50 for, then they have $50B in losses. But if there are a billion people using pirated copies that never would have bought the product were it not free, it just means that there is software out there that Microsoft claims is worth $50B. That's a big distinction.
Sure they did. Anybody can write a letter, but Apple can choose to comply with their request or ignore it. In this case, they did what they were asked to do. A handful of senators could also write a letter asking Apple to buy air time during the Superbowl filled with footage of his holiness Steve Jobs doing the electric slide. There's nothing wrong with them sending that letter, but Apple would likely blow them off.
OK, LOCAL contractor I'll grant you. But with sufficient real estate and a sufficient supply of indentured laborers, I don't see the hurdle. However be warned, the folks that have opted to use these for vacation homes have taken severely extended vacations. In the words of the prophets, "You can check out any time you'd like, but you can never leave."
Once you've voluntarily handed that data to Facebook, then no, you don't get to dictate how it's used. Check the EULA. Hate to play devil's advocate, but that's the way it works, sorry. Even if somebody else shares data that bears your exact likeness, your issue is with the person that shared it, not Facebook. I'm not a huge FB fan, but I'm not sure they're stepping outside their bounds here, even though it feels uncomfortable.
It doesn't need to be - Very few people need to know to avoid it affecting their normal routine. My ISP (f'n Comcast) isn't helping me out with IPv6 and neither is my employer (a major national lab), but I expect zero effect. I suspect that I'm just a typical example of the vast majority of the population.
Anyone know of any product lines (of any kind) designed specifically for durability?
Pyramids? Maybe not an ideal design, but that's certainly what the engineers of the time were shooting for. You know, durability and difficulty to assemble.
Slashdot Mirror
Free options are always going to have privacy issues.
There's no such thing as a "free" option, but there are many options. About the closest you'll get to "free" is one bundled with something you already pay for (e.g. through your ISP). Other than that, you'll pay $$, by viewing ads, by sacrificing privacy, or some combination of the three.
I was very upset and still strongly dislike the fact that Google scans my mail and get creeped out when ads are obviously targeted based on some keyboard within. But, I continue to use them rather than switch to the e-mail provided by my ISP (Comcast - yeah, much better). But if someone objects strongly enough, there's a plethora of e-mail providers out there that they can pick from.
It doesn't make it right, but the most effective complaint form is simply walking away to another provider that treats you better. With ISPs and several other services, that's sometimes tough, but with e-mail it's easy.
But this stuff DOES still go on. No idea about what China's official policy is, but France hardly even hides an official policy of commercial espionage concerning the US. I know there will be nay-sayers, but I'm not going to hunt references at work.
1. Batteries and other storage forms
If your goal is to save the environment, please don't bring up batteries. Although I will grant that there are other efficient and interesting power storage mechanisms (molten salt vats are kinda cool.)
2. Transmission lines
I think you underestimate transmission cost when collecting in Texas to power Maine.
3. There has to be some good that came from stealing Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah from the Mexicans a couple of centuries ago.
Texas is good for wind and the whole area is OK for solar if we can figure out how to do it right. But again, the postage necessary to transmit power from Texas to, say, NYC is non-trivial.
As fossil fuels become more expensive, nuclear power will be the world's only option.
I'm a big nuclear proponent, but fossil fuels (coal at least) is still abundant and cheap. It's not a permanent solution, but the expense barrier is mostly moving due to new restrictions rather than a lack of fuel. For the large portion of the population that simply wants cheap power in the short term rather than short-term costly but long-term essential fashion, coal is still attractive unless we can continue to shift public opinion.
I thought of this too. There are occasionally emergency situations where the reasonable course of action is to swerve suddenly into the oncoming lane, on to the shoulder, or suddenly punch your car well above the speed limit. While these maneuvers may or may not technically adhere to the laws of the road, there are situations where they can be life-saving. I'm curious how these cars will handle blatant and sudden violations of road rules in favor of sanity.
Yeah - That seems pretty straight-forward. If I buy my own ED-209 and put him to work trusting that he's been programmed correctly, but he guns down some businessman, the responsibility is going to be on me for turning him on and failing to control him.
Waiting on hold is actually lose-lose approach to queuing: Customers get pissed off, and the company wastes money (keeping the lines open).
I suspect that there's some break even point between cost of keeping the line open, an annoyed customer down-grading or cancelling service due to hold time, and money saved by reducing the size of your operator/service pool and potential savings when an annoyed customer gives up without actually tying up an operator OR down-grading/cancelling (maybe not common among the /. crowd, but likely a realistic option).
So I thought of using the same series for every site, and then simply attaching the first and last alphanumeric character of the website address to the password. That way I'll have a secure password on every site that is easy to remember wherever I use it.
That's what I do, except to be more secure I use the first and last 3 alphanumerics from each site. Conveniently, several of my passwords are identical: "wwwpasswordcom".
Was that supposed to mean that each of the thousand CAPTCHAs adds a dollar in cost to spammers?
Yes.
No. Read it again. It adds $1 to each block of 1,000 CAPTCHAs, not each of the 1000 CAPTCHAs.
Probably right - I know that when I found out that magnets.com's phones were temporarily tied up, the first thing I did was write my congress critter asking him to tap every phone in the district.
I'm saying that a high-school student may not have the same level of respect for a teacher once they've seen them doing a keg-stand - College pics are one thing, but if your teachers comes in with bloodshot eyes and the students have pictures of him/her in a drunken stupor taken over the weekend, they may not give the same level of respect as they might otherwise. And I'm sure you've noticed how damning those pictures of Weiner have been for him, although it doesn't appear that he broke any laws by sharing them.
I'm not saying that it's right or that I agree with it - In a perfect society a person's personal activities should not affect them outside of their private life. But our society bears little semblance to one with that rigid divide. Right or wrong, especially for people in public positions, allowing your private life to become public can cripple you.
All of which are reasons you will lose you your job thanks to this service. (Of course, they wouldn't openly fire you for being gay, but clever HR knows how to tapdance).
No tap dancing necessary depending on the state. TFA specifically points out that Colorado does not prohibit selective employment based on sexual orientation. Just because what you're doing is legal doesn't necessarily mean that your activities in your private life can't legally be used to refuse you employment or fire you. That doesn't necessarily make it right, it just makes it legal.
What does someone's personal life have to do with their ability to conduct themselves professionally?
It depends. If you're hiring a high-school teacher, or a cop, or appointing a public official, for example, a picture of the candidate doing a keg-stand could damage their credibility if made public and impair their ability to effectively do their job.
Of course the mirrors could be focused to take down overhead aircraft or satellites as well.
OK - Now I'm sold. The equivalent of burning an ant w/ a magnifying glass, but huge and in space? Count me in!
How would companies get paid if you were allowed to make your own power?
Allowed to make your own power? Are people actually being prevented by companies from installing solar panels now? I know some home-owners associations have blocked them, but they're not the power company and are typically run democratically by the home-owners.
According to TFA, it sounds like this effort is as much to generate jobs in California as it is to generate power.
One of the several advantages that this type of plant provides is continuous power - Rain or shine. I guess you COULD set something like that up at home if you've got a big yard for mirrors, but personally I don't want a basement full of molten salt. Not to mention that I enjoy turning my lights on when it's dark, not just when the sun's shining. The battery alternative is just environmentally irresponsible and kind of a PITA. For these plants, you basically need a bunch of glass (where will we ever find that?), a bunch of salt (there must be some floating around somewhere), and a turbine.
If Microsoft say that (made up numbers) a billion people are using pirated copies of Windows for which Microsoft would charge $50 each, then they can legitimately argue that they have lost $50 billion in revenue. It is up to people then to disprove the assumptions made.
If Microsoft says that a billion people are using pirated copies of Windows that they would have otherwise paid $50 for, then they have $50B in losses. But if there are a billion people using pirated copies that never would have bought the product were it not free, it just means that there is software out there that Microsoft claims is worth $50B. That's a big distinction.
The Senators had no legal legs to stand on.
Sure they did. Anybody can write a letter, but Apple can choose to comply with their request or ignore it. In this case, they did what they were asked to do. A handful of senators could also write a letter asking Apple to buy air time during the Superbowl filled with footage of his holiness Steve Jobs doing the electric slide. There's nothing wrong with them sending that letter, but Apple would likely blow them off.
OK, LOCAL contractor I'll grant you. But with sufficient real estate and a sufficient supply of indentured laborers, I don't see the hurdle. However be warned, the folks that have opted to use these for vacation homes have taken severely extended vacations. In the words of the prophets, "You can check out any time you'd like, but you can never leave."
FriendFace accounts, however...
Once you've voluntarily handed that data to Facebook, then no, you don't get to dictate how it's used. Check the EULA. Hate to play devil's advocate, but that's the way it works, sorry. Even if somebody else shares data that bears your exact likeness, your issue is with the person that shared it, not Facebook. I'm not a huge FB fan, but I'm not sure they're stepping outside their bounds here, even though it feels uncomfortable.
Just saying!!!
It doesn't need to be - Very few people need to know to avoid it affecting their normal routine. My ISP (f'n Comcast) isn't helping me out with IPv6 and neither is my employer (a major national lab), but I expect zero effect. I suspect that I'm just a typical example of the vast majority of the population.
Anyone know of any product lines (of any kind) designed specifically for durability?
Pyramids? Maybe not an ideal design, but that's certainly what the engineers of the time were shooting for. You know, durability and difficulty to assemble.