Why? The dad could have bought the laptop for her and she does not really care whether the laptop is Winnie the Pooh branded or not.
Also, maybe she likes Winnie and asked her dad to buy the laptop branded as such, but this does not say anything about her technical skills. If my dad offered to buy me a laptop when I was 10 (and had a PC appropriate for my username) I probably would have asked for it to be branded with one of my favorite cartoons too, that does not mean that I could not install Windows on my own (and for extra challenge, the English classes just started at school, so I pretty much couldn't understand most of what was written by the setup).
Obviously the difference between when I was a kid and now is that kids get access to computers earlier than I did because computers are much cheaper now.. So, it is quite possible that she could have downloaded the torrent client and started the download herself (and maybe that's why the download failed?), especially if there are sites in her native language that explain how to do it.
Do you use SSL to access your bank account? Do you use strong passwords? Do you use a firewall and patch whatever OS you are using regularly?
If so, why? Nobody will hack you, after all, hacking is illegal and nobody will blame you for having "password" as your password even if someone does hack your account (and steals your money) or hacks the company that you work for. It's all the fault of the hacker.
Locking your car and house is stupid too - stealing is wrong so nobody would steal even if you left the doors not only unlocked but open. And nobody would laugh at you even if you get your stuff stolen after leaving the door open.
I mean look at Sony - they used bad security practices and got hacked, but nobody blamed them, after all, the hacker should not have hacked even if the password was "12345".
Conclusion: using any security is stupid - it will make the system less convenient to use and nobody will hack you anyway (since it's wrong), so why bother?
Why? DirectX9 offers graphics that are "good enough" so the developer can spend more money on story/gameplay/etc. The difference between DX11 and DX9 is not as noticeable as the difference between DX7 and DX9.
People switch only when software requires.
People do not want to spend money and effort/time to replace a system unless they really need to, what a surprise. For example, I will only upgrade Windows to a newer version than XP when I replace my current PC. My new PC will be powerful enough so that it will be kinda average 5 years after I buy it with minor HW upgrades (like my current 5 year old PC is now). I will probably use Win7 or Win8/9 if the "classic" UI is back (no, I do not want 5cm x 5cm buttons). This is because I do not like reinstalling Windows, so I'd rather do it as infrequently as possible.
Well, I have only tried to play FPS games with a joystick, but I was always disappointed by the turn speed. Watching the lets play videos where the game is played with a gamepad I can see that the turn speed is about the same. I mean even I can turn faster than what you can do in some games (and probably even faster if I though that a guy with an axe was behind me and I had a gun) and most of the player characters are supposed to be physically fit (which I am not) because they are in the army or wherever (or even have superhuman strength/speed).
As for imperfect simulations - yes, the turn speed with a mouse is a bit too fast, but in reality you do not need to turn your whole body to aim (I am sure that a trained soldier could shoot three separate targets really quickly), you can do more actions than just walk/run and turn etc, so I think the twitch aim is OK.
Tactics and caution are OK in some games, but I do not think that limiting the turn speed is that good, unless you were controlling a tank or big power armor. Also, I find it more difficult to aim with a joystick though I guess with a lot of practice I could aim almost as fast as with a mouse.
So, how quickly can you turn 180 degrees in an FPS?
With a mouse the speed of the turn is limited only by the speed at which I can move the mouse (and since I usually turn up the sensitivity, I do not have to move it far), the controller limits the speed of the turn and you also have to do two actions to turn the camera (move the stick in the required direction, move it back to center) instead of just one (move the mouse in the required direction).
I also use arrow keys, not WASD, but that is just my preference.
Well, those games are not that much different from a desktop application. And yes, I had FPS in mind when I wrote that trackballs were awful for gaming.
I do not use wireless mice - one more cable is not a problem and no need to recharge batteries is a big plus. I just use a standard Logitech mouse with a PS/2 connector - my 8 port KVM switch only has PS/2 ports and 8 port KVM switches with USB mouse support are very expensive.
It was also work that Tesla did developing the "Tesla coil" that directly lead to the development of the fly-back transformer, without which Filo Farnsworth wouldn't have been able to develop the TV set.
Why would the flyback transformer be crucial for a TV set?
Yes, all modern CRT TVs have flyback transformers to generate the EHT for the anode (and several other voltages), but this can be easily accomplished with regular 50/60Hz transformers. In fact, early sets actually used linear power supplies for EHT. Those power supplies had a drawback - safety. The CRT needs only a little current (a few mA) for it to work, but the power supplies could provide more than that (not at the nominal voltage, but still), which means that if someone touched the anode wire while the TV set was on, they were toast. The flyback transformer used in modern sets cannot provide enough current to kill a healthy adult, it also has the additional feature that since it is driven by the horizontal deflection circuitry, if the scanning stopped, the EHT voltage would shut down too and the CRT phosphor would not burn in one spot (computer monitors drive the flyback from a separate circuit, so they have separate protection to shut it down in case of a failure).
Yes, Tesla invented many useful technologies, but that does not mean that everything that he attempted to do worked or that it would have worked if he had enough money.
Of course it can work. Crystal radio set can receive broadcasts without any source of power (other than the radio waves) from transmitters many kilometers ways. However, it is extremely inefficient - a 500kW transmission power may only result in a couple of mW to the headphones.
Same with wireless power transmission, except here we care a lot about the efficiency. The RFID chip probably nees miliwatts to operate (and the transmitter is 1W), so how about charging a laptop which needs 100W to operate - how much power will the transmitter have to use just so the user does not have to plug the power cord in?
How can you spoof the caller ID anyway? I mean shouldn't the telephone company know the caller ID of whoever is initiating the call (to know where to send the invoice for the call)? Is this some sort of hack using ISDN since I don't think anything like this would be possible on analog lines. Even with ISDN, shouldn't the company filter out the malformed (spoofed) requests, just like most ISPs do with packets that have spoofed source IP?
You also have to consider the efficiency. Running a 1GW power plant just to light a 100W light bulb a few kilometers away does not seem a good idea.
Yes, it is possible to transfer power without wires - radio has been doing it for a long time (a simple crystal radio set does not need any power other than what it gets from the antenna, but you'd better have some sensitive headphones, a big antenna and a station that is relatively close). The problem is transferring a lot of power efficiently and without huge antennas.
Same here, they check CO, CH and NOx. I do not think that they check whether the emissions equipment is still there, but the requirements are different for those cars (if the car with removed catalytic converter can still pass the test it would be OK, I think).
Specifically for my car they checked CO (the requirement is less than 4%, my car had 0.5%) and CH (the requirement is less than 1200ppm, my car had 358ppm) when the engine was idling. A 2005 car with these emissions probably would not pass the test.
Lithuania. The standards for emissions are based on the year of manufacture of the car and whether the car has a catalytic converter (mine doesn't), so my car (made in 1982) may pass with CO concentration of 1% (IIRC the requirement is <4%), but a new car wouldn't.
As for tuning the carb without the meter - well, if I adjusted enough carbs with the meter, I would probably get the experience needed to roughly adjust it without the meter, but as it is now, I would have to use the meter (and the strobe if I wanted to adjust ignition timing).
I didn't claim that cars were difficult, I just said that people usually understand the basics of a car better than they understand the basics of IT. It seems that IT is in some kind of hole - everyone can be expected to understand the basics of almost any field, except IT.
The thing is that with IT the non-IT people fail at basic understanding more than (most) car drivers understand about cars etc. Then again, you have to pass an exam to get a drivers license.
By the way, the only reason I cannot adjust the air-fuel mixture of my car (so that it passes emissions test) is that I do not have the device that measures the CO concentration in the exhaust. That device is too expensive for me, but if I had it, I would know which screw to turn on the carburetor to adjust the mixture.
If I had a more modern car, I would learn all about its internals so that I would know how to repair a malfunctioning electronics block or at least bypass it so the car works well enough to drive to the mechanic. Similar to how I replaced contact breaker points on a car then went to the mechanic to adjust the ignition timing (as I do not have to strobe lamp). Simple repairs save not only money, but also time, as I can do them faster than it would take to drive to the mechanic (and if it's a weekend I just saved a few days, since the mechanic does not work on weekends).
Unless someone comes up with a way to write text with your thoughts, I think that typing will remain for a long time. Even if speech recognition was perfect, I still would not like to dictate a long document. Especially one that has any mathematical formula in it. Or programming code.
There is a difference between "too hard" (= you can't figure out how to do it) and "inefficient" (=you can figure out how to do it, but doing it takes a lot of time).
It is hard to figure out a command that you can type in a CLI to do what you want. When you figure that out, that task becomes quite fast. On the other hand, imagine a hypothetical user interface where you are asked "are you sure?" 50 times after you click on some button - you can figure out what to do easily (click "yes" 50 times), but doing it will take time and your work will be slower because of that.
Similar stuff with the Win8 interface. I have a big monitor so that a lot of things can fit on my desktop. Making icons bigger negates that (Win7 icons are bigger than XP icons, but not by much and it is easy to make them smaller). I also almost never maximize a window, so forcing me to use only one app at a time will make dragging and dropping things slower.
I understand that the Win8 interface is optimized for tablets. It probably works great there, but not for a desktop. I can use my mouse to point the cursor quite accurately, I do not need 5cm x 5cm buttons to be able to hit them.
As for installing Linux - just installing is not a big problem. The problem starts when you have to choose between various programs that do the same thing and if some driver does not work right after install. Would your son be able to compile and install a driver for a RS422 card (the source for the driver is provided on the CD that came with the card)? Oh, by the way, you need to modify a couple of lines because otherwise it does not compile under Debian.
It depends. A laser that can cut metal is obviously dangerous and you should not place any part of your body that you want to remain attached in the path of the beam. So, a very high power laser is like a disc saw - everyone can see that it's dangerous (it can cut a piece of wood or metal, obviously it can cut off a finger).
The lower power lasers are different. They do not burn, do not cut and are powered by a couple of batteries, like a flash light. To understand that it is still dangerous, you need to understand that the beam is highly concentrated and can still burn the retina, even tough it does not burn a piece of paper and you do not feel it if you place your hand in the path of the beam.
Similar stuff with guns. Most people understand that a real gun is really dangerous and you can kill someone with it (they may not understand all the safety precautions, but will tell you that you should not load the gun, aim it at somebody and pull the trigger if you do not want to kill that somebody). On the other hand, BB guns are not seen as that dangerous, kids shoot each other all the time with them and if nobody manages to hit an eye, it will be OK.
Devices that use high frequencies (like a switching power supply) need low ESR caps. Normal ones will get very hot and fail soon, also you will have more ripple.
Devices that use low frequency (linear power supplies) or low currents (coupling caps in audio amps) can use normal ESR caps. Using low ESR ones will not hurt the device, just that low ESR caps are more expensive and may not be available at the required voltage/capacity.
The hard part will be in picking out caps you need.
This is what I do: Loot at the old cap and note the voltage and capacity. Go to an electronics store and ask for a capacitor of the same or higher voltage, the same or similar capacity, low ESR and made by one of the good companies (nichion, panasonic etc) and rated for 105C.
This. I recently replaced the caps, a shorted diode and a fan (guess why the diode was shorted) in a cheap PC power supply. While it cost me slightly less than the cheap power supply, it will now likely last longer than the more expensive PSUs just because it has good caps, a fan with ball bearings and a bigger diode (I couldn't get a 2x10A diode with the rated voltage drop, so I put a 2x20A one instead - the voltage drop is OK now).
Caps fail in new devices all the time. It's a wonder how a cap made in 1974 and used in a tube tape deck can still work, but a cap made a couple years ago has already failed.
If you have 100M computers in the EU and can reduce the power consumption of each one by 10%, you will reduce the total power consumption of those computers by 10%.
Besides, low end graphics cards do not use 50W and office computers have low end cards, unless they are used for graphics and actually need the fast cards (most don't). Low end cards are also cheaper than the more powerful ones, so businesses use them (or even use integrated graphics).
Floppy stores very little information, at most 32MB or so (LS240 drives can record this much to a regular floppy disk, but the downside is that the disk is unreadable in regular drives and that it has to be recorded in one go (like a CD)), so it is useless for high quality audio. MD has about 160MB capacity. MP3 was not invented when minidisc was released, also, the ATRAC codec was designed specifically to be implemented in hardware (remember how even desktop PCs of the time (486, low speed Pentiums) struggled to decode MP3 fast enough, and you want that processing power in a tiny portable device)).
MD is great, but the DRM sucks. My Hi-MD recorder can play MP3 files and can act as a USB drive to store files, but to be able to play a MP3 on the device I have to transfer it using SonicStage.
Maybe not a complete car, but 3D printing parts of it should be possible. Some car parts are standard and are used in more than one model, these are relatively easy to get, but special parts for an older car are most likely no longer made so the only source of them is other old cars. I doubt that there will ever be a home 3D printer that can print the car body (since the printer would have to be bigger than the car), but some smaller parts (manual gearbox for example), why not?
3D printing car parts would mean that I can use the same car essentially forever.
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Why? The dad could have bought the laptop for her and she does not really care whether the laptop is Winnie the Pooh branded or not.
Also, maybe she likes Winnie and asked her dad to buy the laptop branded as such, but this does not say anything about her technical skills. If my dad offered to buy me a laptop when I was 10 (and had a PC appropriate for my username) I probably would have asked for it to be branded with one of my favorite cartoons too, that does not mean that I could not install Windows on my own (and for extra challenge, the English classes just started at school, so I pretty much couldn't understand most of what was written by the setup).
Obviously the difference between when I was a kid and now is that kids get access to computers earlier than I did because computers are much cheaper now.. So, it is quite possible that she could have downloaded the torrent client and started the download herself (and maybe that's why the download failed?), especially if there are sites in her native language that explain how to do it.
Do you use SSL to access your bank account?
Do you use strong passwords?
Do you use a firewall and patch whatever OS you are using regularly?
If so, why? Nobody will hack you, after all, hacking is illegal and nobody will blame you for having "password" as your password even if someone does hack your account (and steals your money) or hacks the company that you work for. It's all the fault of the hacker.
Locking your car and house is stupid too - stealing is wrong so nobody would steal even if you left the doors not only unlocked but open. And nobody would laugh at you even if you get your stuff stolen after leaving the door open.
I mean look at Sony - they used bad security practices and got hacked, but nobody blamed them, after all, the hacker should not have hacked even if the password was "12345".
Conclusion: using any security is stupid - it will make the system less convenient to use and nobody will hack you anyway (since it's wrong), so why bother?
games need to be cutting edge.
Why? DirectX9 offers graphics that are "good enough" so the developer can spend more money on story/gameplay/etc. The difference between DX11 and DX9 is not as noticeable as the difference between DX7 and DX9.
People switch only when software requires.
People do not want to spend money and effort/time to replace a system unless they really need to, what a surprise.
For example, I will only upgrade Windows to a newer version than XP when I replace my current PC. My new PC will be powerful enough so that it will be kinda average 5 years after I buy it with minor HW upgrades (like my current 5 year old PC is now). I will probably use Win7 or Win8/9 if the "classic" UI is back (no, I do not want 5cm x 5cm buttons). This is because I do not like reinstalling Windows, so I'd rather do it as infrequently as possible.
Well, I have only tried to play FPS games with a joystick, but I was always disappointed by the turn speed. Watching the lets play videos where the game is played with a gamepad I can see that the turn speed is about the same. I mean even I can turn faster than what you can do in some games (and probably even faster if I though that a guy with an axe was behind me and I had a gun) and most of the player characters are supposed to be physically fit (which I am not) because they are in the army or wherever (or even have superhuman strength/speed).
As for imperfect simulations - yes, the turn speed with a mouse is a bit too fast, but in reality you do not need to turn your whole body to aim (I am sure that a trained soldier could shoot three separate targets really quickly), you can do more actions than just walk/run and turn etc, so I think the twitch aim is OK.
Tactics and caution are OK in some games, but I do not think that limiting the turn speed is that good, unless you were controlling a tank or big power armor. Also, I find it more difficult to aim with a joystick though I guess with a lot of practice I could aim almost as fast as with a mouse.
So, how quickly can you turn 180 degrees in an FPS?
With a mouse the speed of the turn is limited only by the speed at which I can move the mouse (and since I usually turn up the sensitivity, I do not have to move it far), the controller limits the speed of the turn and you also have to do two actions to turn the camera (move the stick in the required direction, move it back to center) instead of just one (move the mouse in the required direction).
I also use arrow keys, not WASD, but that is just my preference.
Well, those games are not that much different from a desktop application. And yes, I had FPS in mind when I wrote that trackballs were awful for gaming.
I do not use wireless mice - one more cable is not a problem and no need to recharge batteries is a big plus. I just use a standard Logitech mouse with a PS/2 connector - my 8 port KVM switch only has PS/2 ports and 8 port KVM switches with USB mouse support are very expensive.
Trackballs are nice for laptops (too bad the new ones don't have them built in), but are awful for gaming.
It was also work that Tesla did developing the "Tesla coil" that directly lead to the development of the fly-back transformer, without which Filo Farnsworth wouldn't have been able to develop the TV set.
Why would the flyback transformer be crucial for a TV set?
Yes, all modern CRT TVs have flyback transformers to generate the EHT for the anode (and several other voltages), but this can be easily accomplished with regular 50/60Hz transformers. In fact, early sets actually used linear power supplies for EHT. Those power supplies had a drawback - safety. The CRT needs only a little current (a few mA) for it to work, but the power supplies could provide more than that (not at the nominal voltage, but still), which means that if someone touched the anode wire while the TV set was on, they were toast. The flyback transformer used in modern sets cannot provide enough current to kill a healthy adult, it also has the additional feature that since it is driven by the horizontal deflection circuitry, if the scanning stopped, the EHT voltage would shut down too and the CRT phosphor would not burn in one spot (computer monitors drive the flyback from a separate circuit, so they have separate protection to shut it down in case of a failure).
Yes, Tesla invented many useful technologies, but that does not mean that everything that he attempted to do worked or that it would have worked if he had enough money.
Of course it can work. Crystal radio set can receive broadcasts without any source of power (other than the radio waves) from transmitters many kilometers ways. However, it is extremely inefficient - a 500kW transmission power may only result in a couple of mW to the headphones.
Same with wireless power transmission, except here we care a lot about the efficiency. The RFID chip probably nees miliwatts to operate (and the transmitter is 1W), so how about charging a laptop which needs 100W to operate - how much power will the transmitter have to use just so the user does not have to plug the power cord in?
How can you spoof the caller ID anyway? I mean shouldn't the telephone company know the caller ID of whoever is initiating the call (to know where to send the invoice for the call)? Is this some sort of hack using ISDN since I don't think anything like this would be possible on analog lines. Even with ISDN, shouldn't the company filter out the malformed (spoofed) requests, just like most ISPs do with packets that have spoofed source IP?
You also have to consider the efficiency. Running a 1GW power plant just to light a 100W light bulb a few kilometers away does not seem a good idea.
Yes, it is possible to transfer power without wires - radio has been doing it for a long time (a simple crystal radio set does not need any power other than what it gets from the antenna, but you'd better have some sensitive headphones, a big antenna and a station that is relatively close). The problem is transferring a lot of power efficiently and without huge antennas.
Same here, they check CO, CH and NOx. I do not think that they check whether the emissions equipment is still there, but the requirements are different for those cars (if the car with removed catalytic converter can still pass the test it would be OK, I think).
Specifically for my car they checked CO (the requirement is less than 4%, my car had 0.5%) and CH (the requirement is less than 1200ppm, my car had 358ppm) when the engine was idling. A 2005 car with these emissions probably would not pass the test.
Lithuania.
The standards for emissions are based on the year of manufacture of the car and whether the car has a catalytic converter (mine doesn't), so my car (made in 1982) may pass with CO concentration of 1% (IIRC the requirement is <4%), but a new car wouldn't.
As for tuning the carb without the meter - well, if I adjusted enough carbs with the meter, I would probably get the experience needed to roughly adjust it without the meter, but as it is now, I would have to use the meter (and the strobe if I wanted to adjust ignition timing).
I didn't claim that cars were difficult, I just said that people usually understand the basics of a car better than they understand the basics of IT. It seems that IT is in some kind of hole - everyone can be expected to understand the basics of almost any field, except IT.
The thing is that with IT the non-IT people fail at basic understanding more than (most) car drivers understand about cars etc. Then again, you have to pass an exam to get a drivers license.
By the way, the only reason I cannot adjust the air-fuel mixture of my car (so that it passes emissions test) is that I do not have the device that measures the CO concentration in the exhaust. That device is too expensive for me, but if I had it, I would know which screw to turn on the carburetor to adjust the mixture.
If I had a more modern car, I would learn all about its internals so that I would know how to repair a malfunctioning electronics block or at least bypass it so the car works well enough to drive to the mechanic. Similar to how I replaced contact breaker points on a car then went to the mechanic to adjust the ignition timing (as I do not have to strobe lamp). Simple repairs save not only money, but also time, as I can do them faster than it would take to drive to the mechanic (and if it's a weekend I just saved a few days, since the mechanic does not work on weekends).
Unless someone comes up with a way to write text with your thoughts, I think that typing will remain for a long time. Even if speech recognition was perfect, I still would not like to dictate a long document. Especially one that has any mathematical formula in it. Or programming code.
There is a difference between "too hard" (= you can't figure out how to do it) and "inefficient" (=you can figure out how to do it, but doing it takes a lot of time).
It is hard to figure out a command that you can type in a CLI to do what you want. When you figure that out, that task becomes quite fast. On the other hand, imagine a hypothetical user interface where you are asked "are you sure?" 50 times after you click on some button - you can figure out what to do easily (click "yes" 50 times), but doing it will take time and your work will be slower because of that.
Similar stuff with the Win8 interface. I have a big monitor so that a lot of things can fit on my desktop. Making icons bigger negates that (Win7 icons are bigger than XP icons, but not by much and it is easy to make them smaller). I also almost never maximize a window, so forcing me to use only one app at a time will make dragging and dropping things slower.
I understand that the Win8 interface is optimized for tablets. It probably works great there, but not for a desktop. I can use my mouse to point the cursor quite accurately, I do not need 5cm x 5cm buttons to be able to hit them.
As for installing Linux - just installing is not a big problem. The problem starts when you have to choose between various programs that do the same thing and if some driver does not work right after install. Would your son be able to compile and install a driver for a RS422 card (the source for the driver is provided on the CD that came with the card)? Oh, by the way, you need to modify a couple of lines because otherwise it does not compile under Debian.
I was not talking about those air rifles, but about the ones that kids use. Do you give your air rifle to a kid and let him play with it?
It depends. A laser that can cut metal is obviously dangerous and you should not place any part of your body that you want to remain attached in the path of the beam. So, a very high power laser is like a disc saw - everyone can see that it's dangerous (it can cut a piece of wood or metal, obviously it can cut off a finger).
The lower power lasers are different. They do not burn, do not cut and are powered by a couple of batteries, like a flash light. To understand that it is still dangerous, you need to understand that the beam is highly concentrated and can still burn the retina, even tough it does not burn a piece of paper and you do not feel it if you place your hand in the path of the beam.
Similar stuff with guns. Most people understand that a real gun is really dangerous and you can kill someone with it (they may not understand all the safety precautions, but will tell you that you should not load the gun, aim it at somebody and pull the trigger if you do not want to kill that somebody). On the other hand, BB guns are not seen as that dangerous, kids shoot each other all the time with them and if nobody manages to hit an eye, it will be OK.
Devices that use high frequencies (like a switching power supply) need low ESR caps. Normal ones will get very hot and fail soon, also you will have more ripple.
Devices that use low frequency (linear power supplies) or low currents (coupling caps in audio amps) can use normal ESR caps. Using low ESR ones will not hurt the device, just that low ESR caps are more expensive and may not be available at the required voltage/capacity.
The hard part will be in picking out caps you need.
This is what I do:
Loot at the old cap and note the voltage and capacity.
Go to an electronics store and ask for a capacitor of the same or higher voltage, the same or similar capacity, low ESR and made by one of the good companies (nichion, panasonic etc) and rated for 105C.
This. I recently replaced the caps, a shorted diode and a fan (guess why the diode was shorted) in a cheap PC power supply. While it cost me slightly less than the cheap power supply, it will now likely last longer than the more expensive PSUs just because it has good caps, a fan with ball bearings and a bigger diode (I couldn't get a 2x10A diode with the rated voltage drop, so I put a 2x20A one instead - the voltage drop is OK now).
Caps fail in new devices all the time. It's a wonder how a cap made in 1974 and used in a tube tape deck can still work, but a cap made a couple years ago has already failed.
If you have 100M computers in the EU and can reduce the power consumption of each one by 10%, you will reduce the total power consumption of those computers by 10%.
Besides, low end graphics cards do not use 50W and office computers have low end cards, unless they are used for graphics and actually need the fast cards (most don't). Low end cards are also cheaper than the more powerful ones, so businesses use them (or even use integrated graphics).
Hi-MD devices could store data (and could format regular discs to store more data - more efficient coding).
Floppy stores very little information, at most 32MB or so (LS240 drives can record this much to a regular floppy disk, but the downside is that the disk is unreadable in regular drives and that it has to be recorded in one go (like a CD)), so it is useless for high quality audio. MD has about 160MB capacity.
MP3 was not invented when minidisc was released, also, the ATRAC codec was designed specifically to be implemented in hardware (remember how even desktop PCs of the time (486, low speed Pentiums) struggled to decode MP3 fast enough, and you want that processing power in a tiny portable device)).
MD is great, but the DRM sucks. My Hi-MD recorder can play MP3 files and can act as a USB drive to store files, but to be able to play a MP3 on the device I have to transfer it using SonicStage.
Maybe not a complete car, but 3D printing parts of it should be possible. Some car parts are standard and are used in more than one model, these are relatively easy to get, but special parts for an older car are most likely no longer made so the only source of them is other old cars. I doubt that there will ever be a home 3D printer that can print the car body (since the printer would have to be bigger than the car), but some smaller parts (manual gearbox for example), why not?
3D printing car parts would mean that I can use the same car essentially forever.