How about a true popular vote? Instead of selecting two candidates, make them all compete in a two round election - first round would have all candidates and the second round would have two candidates who got the most votes in the first round (if a candidate got 60% of votes in the first round, then he wins and there is no second round).
You know, maybe this happens because the Republicans are better at optimizing the results in the current system?
I think the campaigning would be different if the elections were decided by a popular vote instead of electoral college. But as it is right now, you only have to win by a small amount to get all votes of a state, meaning that if you think you have achieved that, you can stop campaigning there and save some money. Under a different system, you would campaign more to get as many votes in any state as possible, but right now it doesn't matter.
But you still have to know the time offset. Just that instead of saying it's GMT+5 (or whatever), you will be saying tat they go to work 5 hours later... Also, the date issue remains. Or do we specify that in country X a new day stars at 20:00 and in country Y a new day starts at 16:00. That would seriously mess people up.
However, the inconvenience of knowing the time zone only affects the minority, while saying that "now midday is 22:00" would affect everyone, but only be slightly more convenient for the telecommuters.
With current technology, if I am told that the meeting should take place at 13:00 ET, I can just google "13:00 ET in EET" and get an answer "1:00 PM Wednesday, Eastern Time (ET) is 8:00 PM Wednesday, Eastern European Time (EET)". And this does not require a huge change (which would be bigger than converting the USA to metric units".
DST is evil, but it is a separate issue from time zones (because it could just as easily be implemented in a single timezone).
A single timezone would be more inconvenient to most people. While specifying time in a phone conversation would be easier (not that it is difficult to look up the local time on the internet etc), it would be just as inconvenient or worse than the current system in other cases.
For example: 1. Current system allows me to easier determine whether it's day or night at the remote location. 01:00 will be night, 13:00 will be day. With the proposed system I would have to look up "day-or-night" tables or "how later is day at location X compared to where I live". So, either the same or worse. 2. Going to another place. Now I can just set my clock to the clock at the airport or wherever in my destination country and know the approximate time when the stores are open and closed (will definitely be open at 13:00 and closed at 03:00). With the new system, I would either have to remember "stores here open at 22:00" or keep a table of the opening/closing times. 3. How would days be counted? Would a lot of people start working one day and finish the next day? It would complicate contracts. For example, let's say that under the new system people come to work at 20:00 and go home at 5:00. 3a. My contract states that I have to start working at the first day of the month. So, do I come in at 00:00 (mid-shift) or 20:00? 3b. November 1st is a national holiday. Do I go home at November 1st 00:00 (hey, its; the holiday) and go back to work at November 2nd 00:00 or do I go home November 1st 5:00 (finish the workday) and go back to work at November 3rd 20:00? 3c. Some law gets changed and it takes effect on January 1st. So, does it mean January 1st 00:00 (like it is now), January 1st 05:00 or December 31st 22:00 (so that one workday is under one version of the law).
You know what can solve these problems? We could define a clock offset so that midday in any place is 12:00 local time. Then my clock would "remember" the offset for me (I arrive at the destination, I set my clock to the local time) and dates would neatly line up with work days for the majority of people (those who work day-shift). Oh wait, I just reinvented the current system.
If you didn't have to stop and charge, you could just go without eating.
If you didn't have to stop and charge, you could just eat at your destination, presumably cheaper. Or eat less and be not as fat (at least for some people).
I actually target this at myself. If it took 30 minutes (or more) to fill up the gas tank in my car, I would eat some fast food (or whatever the gas station offers) since I have nothing better to do while waiting. OTOH, since it takes me only a few minutes to fill the tank (with me standing near the car holding the hose), buying food at a gas station becomes an additional delay in my trip (fill the tank, eat, continue to drive the car), since I do not eat while driving. So I do not buy it unless I am really hungry.
To me, a reboot is just as inconvenient if it is due to a crash or an update. I usually save my data (after all, even once every two years crash is still a crash), but I cannot save the running programs, open files and window positions (yes, I would very much like to back up and be able to restore RAM contents of my PC). Some websites auto-logout me if I do not keep a tab open (sometimes with autorefresh set).
This only applies to my main PC (and one virtual machine on a server). I can reboot other servers because they come up fast and I usually do not need to do anything other than check that the various services (apache etc) have started. I can also reboot my laptop, because I use it rarely enough that I usually do not keep open programs etc on it.
No doubt you'll be the first to complain when your computer crashes due to a fixed issue by some update you blocked.
Not really. When my PC crashes, I check to see if there is an update that solves that particular problem. If there is, I install it, if there isn't, well, whatever.
Windows 7 is much more stable than XP in this regard. It was difficult to keep XP running even a year, maybe the lack of memory (4GB) contributed to this. Windows 7 runs great. In case you are wondering, both XP and 7 computers use ECC RAM (as do my servers). The only computers with non-ECC RAM are my laptop, UMPC and a PC connected to the TV (that even got updated every time I shut it down, until Microsoft decided to add telemetry and GWX updates).
You could probably do it with an ipset. The only two problems I see is that 1)how can you be certain that you got all of the addresses it can use to send the data and 2) the computer cannot be used with an internet connection that does not go through your router, which can be a problem for a laptop.
What's the problem with that? My Windows 7 PC is stable, last time it went for almost 2 years uptime before crashing. When I mainly used Windows XP, it was less stable, crashing maybe two-three times a year (max uptime I got was something around 400 days).
So, when I leave my PC, I expect to see it not-rebooted when I come back (if only to keep the various programs open and various Firefox tabs open with sites that would auto-logout me if I closed the tabs).
So, the setting of "reboot your PC at random" vs "reboot your PC at random but with 1 hour warning" is completely unacceptable to me.
Can I register on Uber and offer my services to twice the average rate (I have a classic car people would probably like to ride in, so they might pay more)? Half the average rate (I really need the money and have an efficient car)? Can I register on Uber and also other sites? I mean I would be more likely to get a "sale" if I used more sites...
I can offer an item for sale on e-bay for any price I want. People may not buy it for that price, but my ad is still there. If I have more than one item (that is, I am manufacturing them), I can offer them for sale on e-bay, craigslist and other sites at the same time.
Yes, somebody potentially could duplicate your fingerprint to use your gun, but it would be so much easier to just get a "dumb" gun, that it would not really be worth it.
However, this system malfunctioning (or if I forget to take my gloves off before firing) is a much bigger problem because when you need a gun, you really need it and fast,because you usually cannot ask the attacker to take a break, smoke a cigarette while you reboot the gun.
Why being unable to see the lane markings is considered "driving blind"?
Some streets in my city are not marked at all, some have double markings (the street was widened, new markings were put in place, but the old ones are still visible) or the markings may just be under a layer of snow, but I can perfectly see other cars and the sidewalk.
I do not think that my boss would let me work from home or take the day off just because there was 1cm layer of snow on the street.
Removable batteries have to have protection circuitry built in the battery (AFAIK it is the law). Protection circuits that cut off power (sometimes permanently) in case of overcharge, overdischarge or overheat. Protection circuits that you can leave out when making the battery non-removable.
Here are the reasons I came up with why the batteries exploded: 1. Bad batteries - not very likely as the new (supposedly good) batteries still exploded. 2. Bad charger circuits leading to overcharge or overheat. The protection circuits should have prevented that. 3. Incorrectly set low voltage cut-out resulting in overdischarge. The protection circuits should have prevented that too. 4. Battery overheat due to being near some hot chip or other component. The protection circuits should have cut off power. 5. Battery case squished or pierced by some component in the phone. The double case of a removable battery should have prevented that. May have helped with insulating the battery from the hot component as well.
So your phone components really get only another sticker's worth of isolation.
Both the battery case and the phone case under the battery compartment is thicker than a sticker, at least in my phones.
The phone needs to have a replaceable battery for two reasons: 1. To be able to replace the battery if it turns out that the battery is defective and prone to catching fire. If Note 7 had a replaceable battery, Samsung could have told the buyers to just bring the battery to the recycling center etc instead of shipping the entire phone in a flame proof box. 2. To protect the battery from the other phone components.
I use older phones that have replaceable batteries. The battery has a case tat is quite sturdy (I cannot bend it or push it in easily) and also the phone has an internal case, which means that when the battery is in use, it is protected by two layers of plastic: phone circuit board - phone case - battery case - battery - battery case - battery cover - outside.
Psychopath with a gun then. I know that if somebody was standing in the middle of the road aiming a gun at me (and not wearing the required uniform and signs that show him to be a police officer), I would not stop. I would either try to go around him or hit him.
The trolley problem, to me, is incomplete. If only strangers are tied to the tracks (if it was a choice between a loved one and 10 strangers of course I would choose to save the loved one), then I would do the thing that lands me in the least amount of trouble with the authorities (I do not want to go to jail for a stranger).
Russia is backing the Syrian government. I am quite sure that they sould gladly allow the US to nuke, say, Raqqa or some other rebel held city, hell, the Russians would most likely help with their own nukes.
Though nukes are not the answer - contaminating the area for a long time is ineffective. Better use neutron bombs or poison gas, that way the still intact buildings can be left intact, while still solving the problem.
When I read stuff like this, I get happy that this mentality was not present in WW2.
Just think - the Nazis occupy a city and stay there (maybe even strap a Jew to each tank - they are going to be exterminated either way, so might as well put them to good use). The Allies now cannot attack the city because civilians will get killed, they cannot even destroy the tanks because there are Jew children strapped to them. All the allies can do is to use sniper rifles to try to kill the soldiers or just politely ask them to "come out and fight". They cannot even lay siege to the city without providing food, water and medical aid for those inside.
You and me both. I like my E90 so much that if it completely failed today, I would most likely just buy another used one, assuming my current one would be unrepairable.
Because my Nokia Communicator E90 fits nicely in my pocket. Will I be able to fit a phone, the bluetooth keyboard and whatever support structure is required for me to be able to use it while standing? If I can somehow make a regular Android phone+bluetooth keyboard as convenient to use as the E90 that would be great. Oh, this contraption would need to be as durable as the Nokia phone too, I sometimes accidentally drop my phone from ~1m height.
Samsung could always sell their phones in carry cases made of asbestos (or whatever the modern equivalent is). In fact, I think that selling fireproof phone cases may be profitable now...
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And yet, both Carolinas voted for Trump.
How about a true popular vote? Instead of selecting two candidates, make them all compete in a two round election - first round would have all candidates and the second round would have two candidates who got the most votes in the first round (if a candidate got 60% of votes in the first round, then he wins and there is no second round).
You know, maybe this happens because the Republicans are better at optimizing the results in the current system?
I think the campaigning would be different if the elections were decided by a popular vote instead of electoral college. But as it is right now, you only have to win by a small amount to get all votes of a state, meaning that if you think you have achieved that, you can stop campaigning there and save some money. Under a different system, you would campaign more to get as many votes in any state as possible, but right now it doesn't matter.
But you still have to know the time offset. Just that instead of saying it's GMT+5 (or whatever), you will be saying tat they go to work 5 hours later... Also, the date issue remains. Or do we specify that in country X a new day stars at 20:00 and in country Y a new day starts at 16:00. That would seriously mess people up.
However, the inconvenience of knowing the time zone only affects the minority, while saying that "now midday is 22:00" would affect everyone, but only be slightly more convenient for the telecommuters.
With current technology, if I am told that the meeting should take place at 13:00 ET, I can just google "13:00 ET in EET" and get an answer "1:00 PM Wednesday, Eastern Time (ET) is
8:00 PM Wednesday, Eastern European Time (EET)". And this does not require a huge change (which would be bigger than converting the USA to metric units".
DST is evil, but it is a separate issue from time zones (because it could just as easily be implemented in a single timezone).
A single timezone would be more inconvenient to most people. While specifying time in a phone conversation would be easier (not that it is difficult to look up the local time on the internet etc), it would be just as inconvenient or worse than the current system in other cases.
For example:
1. Current system allows me to easier determine whether it's day or night at the remote location. 01:00 will be night, 13:00 will be day. With the proposed system I would have to look up "day-or-night" tables or "how later is day at location X compared to where I live". So, either the same or worse.
2. Going to another place. Now I can just set my clock to the clock at the airport or wherever in my destination country and know the approximate time when the stores are open and closed (will definitely be open at 13:00 and closed at 03:00). With the new system, I would either have to remember "stores here open at 22:00" or keep a table of the opening/closing times.
3. How would days be counted? Would a lot of people start working one day and finish the next day? It would complicate contracts. For example, let's say that under the new system people come to work at 20:00 and go home at 5:00.
3a. My contract states that I have to start working at the first day of the month. So, do I come in at 00:00 (mid-shift) or 20:00?
3b. November 1st is a national holiday. Do I go home at November 1st 00:00 (hey, its; the holiday) and go back to work at November 2nd 00:00 or do I go home November 1st 5:00 (finish the workday) and go back to work at November 3rd 20:00?
3c. Some law gets changed and it takes effect on January 1st. So, does it mean January 1st 00:00 (like it is now), January 1st 05:00 or December 31st 22:00 (so that one workday is under one version of the law).
You know what can solve these problems? We could define a clock offset so that midday in any place is 12:00 local time. Then my clock would "remember" the offset for me (I arrive at the destination, I set my clock to the local time) and dates would neatly line up with work days for the majority of people (those who work day-shift).
Oh wait, I just reinvented the current system.
I can say "a couple of meters" or "about two meters thirty" and people would understand that I am making a rough observation.
If you didn't have to stop and charge, you could just go without eating.
If you didn't have to stop and charge, you could just eat at your destination, presumably cheaper. Or eat less and be not as fat (at least for some people).
I actually target this at myself. If it took 30 minutes (or more) to fill up the gas tank in my car, I would eat some fast food (or whatever the gas station offers) since I have nothing better to do while waiting. OTOH, since it takes me only a few minutes to fill the tank (with me standing near the car holding the hose), buying food at a gas station becomes an additional delay in my trip (fill the tank, eat, continue to drive the car), since I do not eat while driving. So I do not buy it unless I am really hungry.
No. If you want a crash report, then ask for it and let me see the data that is going to be sent.
To me, a reboot is just as inconvenient if it is due to a crash or an update. I usually save my data (after all, even once every two years crash is still a crash), but I cannot save the running programs, open files and window positions (yes, I would very much like to back up and be able to restore RAM contents of my PC). Some websites auto-logout me if I do not keep a tab open (sometimes with autorefresh set).
This only applies to my main PC (and one virtual machine on a server). I can reboot other servers because they come up fast and I usually do not need to do anything other than check that the various services (apache etc) have started. I can also reboot my laptop, because I use it rarely enough that I usually do not keep open programs etc on it.
No doubt you'll be the first to complain when your computer crashes due to a fixed issue by some update you blocked.
Not really. When my PC crashes, I check to see if there is an update that solves that particular problem. If there is, I install it, if there isn't, well, whatever.
Windows 7 is much more stable than XP in this regard. It was difficult to keep XP running even a year, maybe the lack of memory (4GB) contributed to this. Windows 7 runs great. In case you are wondering, both XP and 7 computers use ECC RAM (as do my servers). The only computers with non-ECC RAM are my laptop, UMPC and a PC connected to the TV (that even got updated every time I shut it down, until Microsoft decided to add telemetry and GWX updates).
You could probably do it with an ipset. The only two problems I see is that 1)how can you be certain that you got all of the addresses it can use to send the data and 2) the computer cannot be used with an internet connection that does not go through your router, which can be a problem for a laptop.
Can I set it to "when the power goes out long enough for both UPSs to discharge or when I decide to change some hardware"?
What's the problem with that? My Windows 7 PC is stable, last time it went for almost 2 years uptime before crashing. When I mainly used Windows XP, it was less stable, crashing maybe two-three times a year (max uptime I got was something around 400 days).
So, when I leave my PC, I expect to see it not-rebooted when I come back (if only to keep the various programs open and various Firefox tabs open with sites that would auto-logout me if I closed the tabs).
So, the setting of "reboot your PC at random" vs "reboot your PC at random but with 1 hour warning" is completely unacceptable to me.
Match-making, so, something like e-bay, right?
Can I register on Uber and offer my services to twice the average rate (I have a classic car people would probably like to ride in, so they might pay more)? Half the average rate (I really need the money and have an efficient car)?
Can I register on Uber and also other sites? I mean I would be more likely to get a "sale" if I used more sites...
I can offer an item for sale on e-bay for any price I want. People may not buy it for that price, but my ad is still there. If I have more than one item (that is, I am manufacturing them), I can offer them for sale on e-bay, craigslist and other sites at the same time.
Reliability is the big problem here.
Yes, somebody potentially could duplicate your fingerprint to use your gun, but it would be so much easier to just get a "dumb" gun, that it would not really be worth it.
However, this system malfunctioning (or if I forget to take my gloves off before firing) is a much bigger problem because when you need a gun, you really need it and fast,because you usually cannot ask the attacker to take a break, smoke a cigarette while you reboot the gun.
Why being unable to see the lane markings is considered "driving blind"?
Some streets in my city are not marked at all, some have double markings (the street was widened, new markings were put in place, but the old ones are still visible) or the markings may just be under a layer of snow, but I can perfectly see other cars and the sidewalk.
I do not think that my boss would let me work from home or take the day off just because there was 1cm layer of snow on the street.
Removable batteries have to have protection circuitry built in the battery (AFAIK it is the law). Protection circuits that cut off power (sometimes permanently) in case of overcharge, overdischarge or overheat. Protection circuits that you can leave out when making the battery non-removable.
Here are the reasons I came up with why the batteries exploded:
1. Bad batteries - not very likely as the new (supposedly good) batteries still exploded.
2. Bad charger circuits leading to overcharge or overheat. The protection circuits should have prevented that.
3. Incorrectly set low voltage cut-out resulting in overdischarge. The protection circuits should have prevented that too.
4. Battery overheat due to being near some hot chip or other component. The protection circuits should have cut off power.
5. Battery case squished or pierced by some component in the phone. The double case of a removable battery should have prevented that. May have helped with insulating the battery from the hot component as well.
So your phone components really get only another sticker's worth of isolation.
Both the battery case and the phone case under the battery compartment is thicker than a sticker, at least in my phones.
The phone needs to have a replaceable battery for two reasons:
1. To be able to replace the battery if it turns out that the battery is defective and prone to catching fire. If Note 7 had a replaceable battery, Samsung could have told the buyers to just bring the battery to the recycling center etc instead of shipping the entire phone in a flame proof box.
2. To protect the battery from the other phone components.
I use older phones that have replaceable batteries. The battery has a case tat is quite sturdy (I cannot bend it or push it in easily) and also the phone has an internal case, which means that when the battery is in use, it is protected by two layers of plastic: phone circuit board - phone case - battery case - battery - battery case - battery cover - outside.
Psychopath with a gun then. I know that if somebody was standing in the middle of the road aiming a gun at me (and not wearing the required uniform and signs that show him to be a police officer), I would not stop. I would either try to go around him or hit him.
The trolley problem, to me, is incomplete. If only strangers are tied to the tracks (if it was a choice between a loved one and 10 strangers of course I would choose to save the loved one), then I would do the thing that lands me in the least amount of trouble with the authorities (I do not want to go to jail for a stranger).
Syria is backed by Russia in the same way.
Russia is backing the Syrian government. I am quite sure that they sould gladly allow the US to nuke, say, Raqqa or some other rebel held city, hell, the Russians would most likely help with their own nukes.
Though nukes are not the answer - contaminating the area for a long time is ineffective. Better use neutron bombs or poison gas, that way the still intact buildings can be left intact, while still solving the problem.
When I read stuff like this, I get happy that this mentality was not present in WW2.
Just think - the Nazis occupy a city and stay there (maybe even strap a Jew to each tank - they are going to be exterminated either way, so might as well put them to good use). The Allies now cannot attack the city because civilians will get killed, they cannot even destroy the tanks because there are Jew children strapped to them. All the allies can do is to use sniper rifles to try to kill the soldiers or just politely ask them to "come out and fight". They cannot even lay siege to the city without providing food, water and medical aid for those inside.
You and me both. I like my E90 so much that if it completely failed today, I would most likely just buy another used one, assuming my current one would be unrepairable.
Because my Nokia Communicator E90 fits nicely in my pocket. Will I be able to fit a phone, the bluetooth keyboard and whatever support structure is required for me to be able to use it while standing? If I can somehow make a regular Android phone+bluetooth keyboard as convenient to use as the E90 that would be great. Oh, this contraption would need to be as durable as the Nokia phone too, I sometimes accidentally drop my phone from ~1m height.
Samsung could always sell their phones in carry cases made of asbestos (or whatever the modern equivalent is). In fact, I think that selling fireproof phone cases may be profitable now...
Wouldn't that need fake documents that showed the car being manufactured earlier than the cutoff date instead of the distance the car has traveled.
Why would you want to run the odometer forward? I mean running it backward would make the car look less used, but forward?