What if some punter spills something flammable all over the smoking area? What if his battery-powered cell phone catches fire? There are plenty of ways to break things and cause damage without involving an electrical plug.
Really - what's so hard of asking for 50 cents for electricity use?
Please don't do this. I have a deep-seated moral objection to paying 50 cents for something that cost you 0.1 cents.
And regarding airports... well, you're probably going on a BUSINESS TRIP, aren't you? You wouldn't like to be on the plane without being able to use your laptop because you ran out of power.
Actually, most airline travellers aren't on business trips. The fact that all of the business people with expense accounts have made everything in airports far too expensive for me pisses me off to no end.
Having to carry and plug in two bulky and annoying cords instead of just one makes it twice as annoying. Also, running ethernet to every seat is probably more expensive than just setting up a wireless access point.
You don't need to measure. You just need a quote from your electric company, the rating from a laptop's power adapter, and a sixth-grader who knows how to do multiplication and long division.
The number the sixth-grader will finally hand you will, of course, be a gross over-estimate, but it will still come to fractions of a penny per customer.
Talk to your local investment firm. Buying foreign currency is a fairly common investment, although it can be risky. I'm sure they'd be able to help you out, either by handling the transaction or pointing you to someone who can.
However, this is probably the dumbest possible time to buy euros. Remember, you want to buy low and sell high. Right now the euro is high. That's your indicator to sell, not to buy. Buying after it's already gone up 50% with the hope that it might continue is a bad bet.
It only does 4-way conferencing in an unreleased version that will ship with the next version of OS X. The current version of iChat only does one-on-one video and audio.
A rifle bullet will have a velocity that's a relatively small multiple of the airliner's velocity.
You know alot about bullets and rifles, right?;-)
Actually a bullet fired from a good rifle is supersonic, compare to Mach 1.
What was the last time you flew on a supersonic aircraft?
According to your page, a bullet goes about 900m/s. A typical airliner might land at 60m/s. The bullet is therefore going 15 times faster than the airliner. That qualifies as a "small multiple" in my eyes. Having to hit the plane with a bullet that's only going 15 times faster is going to be difficult.
25 years might be harsh, but stupidity is expensive. You should avoid it.
Forget the guy for a second, and look at society. There are very good reasons to provide a sensible, graduated punishment system.
Imagine you're an amoral guy who's been pointing lasers at airplanes for fun. You hear sirens. You know that if they catch you, you'll go away for 25 years. There is very little incentive for you not to flee the cops and put lots of people in danger along the way, because your punishment is already about as high as it will go. In order to be reasonably sure that minor crimes won't turn into major high-speed chases or hostage standoffs, you need to make sure that minor criminals have an incentive not to cause them.
Also, if you can shine a laser into a cockpit...couldn't you also fire a round into the same cockpit?
It would be much harder. A laser in this situation has effectively an infinite velocity. A rifle bullet will have a velocity that's a relatively small multiple of the airliner's velocity. The shooter will have to lead the plane significantly and be very aware of the distance to the plane and how that translates into lead. It certainly could be done, but it won't be easy.
Ok, rupturing a fuel tank isn't going to do that much damage, but a few rounds flying through the cockpit...of an airliner on approach...with pilot and co-pilot busy with the landing and not thinking "hey, we're in a combat zone, watch for ground fire" like the bombers in WWII were. I mean, that's scary stuff!
As soon as any crazy shit starts happening, the first thing the crew will do is shove the throttles to the max and tell the tower that they missed the approach. At that point, unless the airplane is suffering serious mechanical problems, it will be headed upwards and will require minimal intervention from the crew in the short term. Longer term, they'll declare an emergency and ATC will do whatever they can to get them down safely. if the windshield is actually broken, things might get a bit noisy and hard to see in the cockpit, but I'm guessing that they'll get by.
Your markets are totally stuffed. It's not "burgers", it's "fast food", and there are zillions of viable competitors, from Taco Bell on down to the local burrito place.
Likewise, the market isn't "cola", it's "non-alcoholic drinks", which has tons of competition.
Sneakers might be the right market, but there seemed to be plenty of competition last time I was in a shoe store.
For OSes you are right on the mark, of course.
Again, "x86 computers" is the wrong market, the right market is "desktop computers". In any case, Dell and Compaq combined own significantly less than half the market.
The market is right for "graphics cards", but I don't think the companies are right. ATI and nVidia have cornered the high-performance end of things, but there still seem to be others on the low end. I might be wrong here.
The only fields dominated by one or two competitors are either those which are a natural monopoly (OSes on your list) or those where you have to squint very, very hard for your argument to look correct.
It is realy only English that used adjectives in what, if you think about it, is the reverse order. Catalogues, inventories with phrases like "Desk, office, modular, black" sound anal to English speakers, but is the way it would be said in any other language.
Come on, are you actually serious here? Both adjective-noun and noun-adjective orderings are very common in languages. English is far from being the only one.
I think your post needs some more qualifiers. Things like "according to some rumors", and "might, maybe, possibly", would bring it a bit closer to reality.
Don't get me wrong, it's certainly possible, but it's far from certain.
NASA went to Congress and said, "We want to build the next generation spacecraft. It will haul everything we need to orbit, be really cheap, visit the space station, and make coffee. It will totally kick ass."
If mere survival, rather than actual # of current users, is your criterion... then Bolo isn\'t that remarkable, either. Dig up any old 70s or 80s game from any platform and I\'m sure there\'s someone playing it somewhere.
How about games you can play over the internet? Netrek might be older, but I can't think of anything else.
On a completely unrelated topic, why do all of your apostrophes have backslashes in front of them?
Bolo, from about 1987. Of course, the Bolo-playing population is vanishingly small, but it does live on today. I'm sure somebody else will come along with more examples shortly, but people playing eight-year-old network games isn't that remarkable.
When I was about 15, I drove my bicycle at high speed into a parked van because I was daydreaming and nearly broke my leg. It never would have happened if the van had been parked there. If the library had been closed, I wouldn't have been daydreaming in the first place, etc. The blame for my accident must therefore be shared among myself, the owner of the van, the library, the manufacturer of my bicycle, my parents, and the city.
I believe the original poster simply misremembered the combinations mentioned in the book. My memory may have been corrupted by seeing your post, but I'm pretty sure the combinations in this story were 50-25-50 and 25-50-25.
Oh wow, I love Amazon. Find Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! on Amazon and use the search function to look for "Safecracker meets Safecracker". Click on the last link on the first page, and you can find the exact text. The combinations in the book are actually 25-0-25 and 50-25-50. It also turns out that it only opened 1/5th of the safes, not 1/3rd. That book search rules!
Personally, I would put my money on somebody who looks like a lost 16-year-old pizza delivery boy, with the glock inside the pizza box. Social engineering, that's where it's at.
Note that the actions of these "pirates" and their cheerleaders has actually caused unfair taxation in places like Canada and Germany, in the form of tariffs on CDR media, computers, etc. They should not be applauded.
I'm always annoyed to read things like this. The only people who caused unfair taxation are the lunkheads who actually passed the taxes into laws. They're the ones who should get 100% of the blame.
Man, have you even tried Yahoo Messenger? It's like using a really bad CB radio during a violent thunderstorm. The sound quality is atrocious, and the latency is even worse. Skype, on the other hand, sounds even better than a "real" phone. Yahoo Messenger also only does the voice stuff on Windows, which is a serious limitation.
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What if some punter spills something flammable all over the smoking area? What if his battery-powered cell phone catches fire? There are plenty of ways to break things and cause damage without involving an electrical plug.
Really - what's so hard of asking for 50 cents for electricity use?
Please don't do this. I have a deep-seated moral objection to paying 50 cents for something that cost you 0.1 cents.
And regarding airports... well, you're probably going on a BUSINESS TRIP, aren't you? You wouldn't like to be on the plane without being able to use your laptop because you ran out of power.
Actually, most airline travellers aren't on business trips. The fact that all of the business people with expense accounts have made everything in airports far too expensive for me pisses me off to no end.
Having to carry and plug in two bulky and annoying cords instead of just one makes it twice as annoying. Also, running ethernet to every seat is probably more expensive than just setting up a wireless access point.
You don't need to measure. You just need a quote from your electric company, the rating from a laptop's power adapter, and a sixth-grader who knows how to do multiplication and long division.
The number the sixth-grader will finally hand you will, of course, be a gross over-estimate, but it will still come to fractions of a penny per customer.
A fat lot of good that will do you when your laptop comes out of its bag as a big block of ice half the year.
Talk to your local investment firm. Buying foreign currency is a fairly common investment, although it can be risky. I'm sure they'd be able to help you out, either by handling the transaction or pointing you to someone who can.
However, this is probably the dumbest possible time to buy euros. Remember, you want to buy low and sell high. Right now the euro is high. That's your indicator to sell, not to buy. Buying after it's already gone up 50% with the hope that it might continue is a bad bet.
It only does 4-way conferencing in an unreleased version that will ship with the next version of OS X. The current version of iChat only does one-on-one video and audio.
Actually a bullet fired from a good rifle is supersonic, compare to
Mach 1.
What was the last time you flew on a supersonic aircraft?
According to your page, a bullet goes about 900m/s. A typical airliner might land at 60m/s. The bullet is therefore going 15 times faster than the airliner. That qualifies as a "small multiple" in my eyes. Having to hit the plane with a bullet that's only going 15 times faster is going to be difficult.
25 years might be harsh, but stupidity is expensive. You should avoid it.
Forget the guy for a second, and look at society. There are very good reasons to provide a sensible, graduated punishment system.
Imagine you're an amoral guy who's been pointing lasers at airplanes for fun. You hear sirens. You know that if they catch you, you'll go away for 25 years. There is very little incentive for you not to flee the cops and put lots of people in danger along the way, because your punishment is already about as high as it will go. In order to be reasonably sure that minor crimes won't turn into major high-speed chases or hostage standoffs, you need to make sure that minor criminals have an incentive not to cause them.
Also, if you can shine a laser into a cockpit...couldn't you also fire a round into the same cockpit?
It would be much harder. A laser in this situation has effectively an infinite velocity. A rifle bullet will have a velocity that's a relatively small multiple of the airliner's velocity. The shooter will have to lead the plane significantly and be very aware of the distance to the plane and how that translates into lead. It certainly could be done, but it won't be easy.
Ok, rupturing a fuel tank isn't going to do that much damage, but a few rounds flying through the cockpit...of an airliner on approach...with pilot and co-pilot busy with the landing and not thinking "hey, we're in a combat zone, watch for ground fire" like the bombers in WWII were. I mean, that's scary stuff!
As soon as any crazy shit starts happening, the first thing the crew will do is shove the throttles to the max and tell the tower that they missed the approach. At that point, unless the airplane is suffering serious mechanical problems, it will be headed upwards and will require minimal intervention from the crew in the short term. Longer term, they'll declare an emergency and ATC will do whatever they can to get them down safely. if the windshield is actually broken, things might get a bit noisy and hard to see in the cockpit, but I'm guessing that they'll get by.
Your markets are totally stuffed. It's not "burgers", it's "fast food", and there are zillions of viable competitors, from Taco Bell on down to the local burrito place.
Likewise, the market isn't "cola", it's "non-alcoholic drinks", which has tons of competition.
Sneakers might be the right market, but there seemed to be plenty of competition last time I was in a shoe store.
For OSes you are right on the mark, of course.
Again, "x86 computers" is the wrong market, the right market is "desktop computers". In any case, Dell and Compaq combined own significantly less than half the market.
The market is right for "graphics cards", but I don't think the companies are right. ATI and nVidia have cornered the high-performance end of things, but there still seem to be others on the low end. I might be wrong here.
The only fields dominated by one or two competitors are either those which are a natural monopoly (OSes on your list) or those where you have to squint very, very hard for your argument to look correct.
This is why Microsoft makes so much damn money. They've never been foolish enough to get into the hardware business.
Yeah, Microsoft would never get into the hardware business.
It is realy only English that used adjectives in what, if you think about it, is the reverse order. Catalogues, inventories with phrases like "Desk, office, modular, black" sound anal to English speakers, but is the way it would be said in any other language.
Come on, are you actually serious here? Both adjective-noun and noun-adjective orderings are very common in languages. English is far from being the only one.
I think your post needs some more qualifiers. Things like "according to some rumors", and "might, maybe, possibly", would bring it a bit closer to reality.
Don't get me wrong, it's certainly possible, but it's far from certain.
NASA went to Congress and said, "We want to build the next generation spacecraft. It will haul everything we need to orbit, be really cheap, visit the space station, and make coffee. It will totally kick ass."
Congress said, "How much?"
NASA: "Ten billion dollars."
Congress: "What can you do for five billion?"
NASA: "..."
And thus the Shuttle was born.
You forgot a couple of lines:
Ground worker #1: "Repair kit?"
Ground worker #2: "Yep."
Ground worker #1: "Can it reach the ISS?"
Ground worker #2: "Yep."
If mere survival, rather than actual # of current users, is your criterion... then Bolo isn\'t that remarkable, either. Dig up any old 70s or 80s game from any platform and I\'m sure there\'s someone playing it somewhere.
How about games you can play over the internet? Netrek might be older, but I can't think of anything else.
On a completely unrelated topic, why do all of your apostrophes have backslashes in front of them?
Bolo, from about 1987. Of course, the Bolo-playing population is vanishingly small, but it does live on today. I'm sure somebody else will come along with more examples shortly, but people playing eight-year-old network games isn't that remarkable.
This is fun! Here's another analogy:
When I was about 15, I drove my bicycle at high speed into a parked van because I was daydreaming and nearly broke my leg. It never would have happened if the van had been parked there. If the library had been closed, I wouldn't have been daydreaming in the first place, etc. The blame for my accident must therefore be shared among myself, the owner of the van, the library, the manufacturer of my bicycle, my parents, and the city.
Oh wait, no, that doesn't make any sense.
I believe the original poster simply misremembered the combinations mentioned in the book. My memory may have been corrupted by seeing your post, but I'm pretty sure the combinations in this story were 50-25-50 and 25-50-25.
Oh wow, I love Amazon. Find Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! on Amazon and use the search function to look for "Safecracker meets Safecracker". Click on the last link on the first page, and you can find the exact text. The combinations in the book are actually 25-0-25 and 50-25-50. It also turns out that it only opened 1/5th of the safes, not 1/3rd. That book search rules!
Personally, I would put my money on somebody who looks like a lost 16-year-old pizza delivery boy, with the glock inside the pizza box. Social engineering, that's where it's at.
Note that the actions of these "pirates" and their cheerleaders has actually caused unfair taxation in places like Canada and Germany, in the form of tariffs on CDR media, computers, etc. They should not be applauded.
I'm always annoyed to read things like this. The only people who caused unfair taxation are the lunkheads who actually passed the taxes into laws. They're the ones who should get 100% of the blame.
Man, have you even tried Yahoo Messenger? It's like using a really bad CB radio during a violent thunderstorm. The sound quality is atrocious, and the latency is even worse. Skype, on the other hand, sounds even better than a "real" phone. Yahoo Messenger also only does the voice stuff on Windows, which is a serious limitation.
You said their rates were hard to beat, but they're not. That they may be more convenient for you, I will not argue.
That's not the same thing. This would be more like paying a Marijuana Tax on potting soil, because you might use the soil to grow marijuana.