I'll give you one big point: the ability to search for specific text strings (e.g. if I am researching some kind of driver weirdness or system behaviour) and get all matches across every single group that has a match on that search term... and then to be able to view the entire discussion in a consistent, threaded format.
Google has recently been doing a better job of finding search results across all the many, many, many esoteric discussion boards out there, but it's still far from optimal.
So basically, this is crime scene preservation training 101. If an officer stumbles around a physical murder scene, eating hot chicken wings, randomly picking up pieces of evidence, and leaving delicious buffalo sauce all over everything, he will destroy the physical evidence before it can be expertly analyzed. But hopefully with adequate training, he learns how to take adequate precautions.
Also, if the entire Gulf of Mexico as well as the Atlantic Gulf Stream are covered in giant slicks of oil, it will effectively shut down the heat-transfer mechanism that fuels hurricanes. Really, we ought to schedule a blowout like this every year around April or May just to be safe.
The question becomes: In which case is the rich gulf fishery more fucked? If it's killed off by a massive and ongoing petrochemical spill, or if the sea life is rendered inedible for decades by radioactivity?
In approximately 10^40 years, every galaxy will be nothing but black holes. By then, all stars will either have become white dwarfs or black holes, and the white dwarfs will have even cooled off to become black dwarfs.
So what the hell is the point of even getting up in the morning?
And just how much of that cultural knowledge do you think would survive after 2 or 3 generations of what is essentially an illiterate society? I think you drastically underestimate the amount of information needed to support even a modest technological society... or you drastically overestimate the available bandwidth of oral storytelling in a tribal society.
AFAWK, North Korea hasn't even achieved uncontrolled fusion yet. All their atomic tests to date have employed enriched uranium as a fissile material. So that means they are ~60 years behind the US and USSR, and ~5 years ahead of Iran.
I'm guessing that if you put the critters inside something like a drinking straw, that could be used to surreptitiously deliver the payload down the back of a shirt collar. Ideally the shirt is tucked into the pants.
But there is a non-zero probability you'll be discovered in the act and receive a punch in the face for your troubles (but your victim still gets crabs!)
To badly paraphrase Noam Chomsky, capitalists are actually big fans of socialism. They love the idea of socializing harm... it's the profits they don't like sharing.
This reminds me of an application user who has no idea what they're doing. Once things start going wrong and the app starts doing unexpected things, they just try a bunch of random actions and hope that by pushing enough buttons and clicking enough things on the screen, they will eventually solve the problem.
Close. What I am saying is that in 20-40 years mankind will have somehow managed to create sensors and hardware that fail less often than humans do, along with relatively bug-free software that can handle the vast majority of driving situations better than humans, as well as being able to fail gracefully better than most humans.
My "magical thinking" is based on two underlying assumptions:
1) A significant number of people out there really suck at driving, and barely manage to keep out of trouble during "normal" conditions.
2) I don't care whether a machine or a person makes the mistake; I am equally dead or injured if I get hit by a moving car. Failure of automatic systems makes for good headline news, but if the statistical incidence of crashes is reduced when compared to a 100% of vehicles being piloted by (highly fallible) humans, then that is a win for society.
Driving is among the most dangerous everyday activities that people engage in. It isn't exactly a high bar we're setting when we expect that machines will someday do better than humans.
We can only use Earth's orbital parallax to accurately measure distances out to 800 light years or so. Beyond that, we have to rely on various yardsticks such as Cepheid variables.
Like it or not, automotive technology is headed toward fully autonomous vehicles. And the result will be safer roads. Once these systems are perfected (or perfected to within a few hundredths of a percent of perfection), the statistical likelihood of an accident due to malfunction will be infinitesimal compared to the statistical likelihood of an accident due to the fact many humans are complete fucking idiots behind the wheel. The sooner we remove these people from any equation involving my safety on the road, the better. And this is coming from somebody who is a "car guy" who loves driving.
Other advantages - such as the ability to safely increase traffic densities by 100% or more - are just icing on the cake.
Slashdot Mirror
Every single Radio Shack had a tube tester up until the mid- to late 80's, and a few into the 90's.
Yes, well, Radio Shack is a somewhat special case.
... or methane
But what exactly was the main point of Usenet?
I'll give you one big point: the ability to search for specific text strings (e.g. if I am researching some kind of driver weirdness or system behaviour) and get all matches across every single group that has a match on that search term ... and then to be able to view the entire discussion in a consistent, threaded format.
Google has recently been doing a better job of finding search results across all the many, many, many esoteric discussion boards out there, but it's still far from optimal.
So basically, this is crime scene preservation training 101. If an officer stumbles around a physical murder scene, eating hot chicken wings, randomly picking up pieces of evidence, and leaving delicious buffalo sauce all over everything, he will destroy the physical evidence before it can be expertly analyzed. But hopefully with adequate training, he learns how to take adequate precautions.
Also, if the entire Gulf of Mexico as well as the Atlantic Gulf Stream are covered in giant slicks of oil, it will effectively shut down the heat-transfer mechanism that fuels hurricanes. Really, we ought to schedule a blowout like this every year around April or May just to be safe.
... unless you happen to like seafood.
The question becomes: In which case is the rich gulf fishery more fucked? If it's killed off by a massive and ongoing petrochemical spill, or if the sea life is rendered inedible for decades by radioactivity?
In approximately 10^40 years, every galaxy will be nothing but black holes. By then, all stars will either have become white dwarfs or black holes, and the white dwarfs will have even cooled off to become black dwarfs.
So what the hell is the point of even getting up in the morning?
As made up words go, google-itis is particularly stupid, since it literally means "inflammation or irritation of the google."
Well, the forums are pretty big, but membership goes up and down.
I wonder if the software would be able to recognize a speech impediment?
Wow. That was a great comment schon.
And just how much of that cultural knowledge do you think would survive after 2 or 3 generations of what is essentially an illiterate society? I think you drastically underestimate the amount of information needed to support even a modest technological society ... or you drastically overestimate the available bandwidth of oral storytelling in a tribal society.
Even it it were a hundred bucks, 5 minutes isn't a vacation ... at best it's a quickie.
AFAWK, North Korea hasn't even achieved uncontrolled fusion yet. All their atomic tests to date have employed enriched uranium as a fissile material. So that means they are ~60 years behind the US and USSR, and ~5 years ahead of Iran.
Idle can only destroy those who read it. This clearly includes you.
I'm guessing that if you put the critters inside something like a drinking straw, that could be used to surreptitiously deliver the payload down the back of a shirt collar. Ideally the shirt is tucked into the pants.
But there is a non-zero probability you'll be discovered in the act and receive a punch in the face for your troubles (but your victim still gets crabs!)
Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941
To badly paraphrase Noam Chomsky, capitalists are actually big fans of socialism. They love the idea of socializing harm ... it's the profits they don't like sharing.
You mean like in airplanes?
This reminds me of an application user who has no idea what they're doing. Once things start going wrong and the app starts doing unexpected things, they just try a bunch of random actions and hope that by pushing enough buttons and clicking enough things on the screen, they will eventually solve the problem.
Close. What I am saying is that in 20-40 years mankind will have somehow managed to create sensors and hardware that fail less often than humans do, along with relatively bug-free software that can handle the vast majority of driving situations better than humans, as well as being able to fail gracefully better than most humans.
My "magical thinking" is based on two underlying assumptions:
1) A significant number of people out there really suck at driving, and barely manage to keep out of trouble during "normal" conditions.
2) I don't care whether a machine or a person makes the mistake; I am equally dead or injured if I get hit by a moving car. Failure of automatic systems makes for good headline news, but if the statistical incidence of crashes is reduced when compared to a 100% of vehicles being piloted by (highly fallible) humans, then that is a win for society.
Driving is among the most dangerous everyday activities that people engage in. It isn't exactly a high bar we're setting when we expect that machines will someday do better than humans.
We can only use Earth's orbital parallax to accurately measure distances out to 800 light years or so. Beyond that, we have to rely on various yardsticks such as Cepheid variables.
... just because the beta technology in your car does this, don't assume that production vehicles in 20 years won't have this solved.
Like it or not, automotive technology is headed toward fully autonomous vehicles. And the result will be safer roads. Once these systems are perfected (or perfected to within a few hundredths of a percent of perfection), the statistical likelihood of an accident due to malfunction will be infinitesimal compared to the statistical likelihood of an accident due to the fact many humans are complete fucking idiots behind the wheel. The sooner we remove these people from any equation involving my safety on the road, the better. And this is coming from somebody who is a "car guy" who loves driving.
Other advantages - such as the ability to safely increase traffic densities by 100% or more - are just icing on the cake.