And that's saying something, considering the current Beast does 0-60 mph / 0-100 km/h in 14 or 15 seconds (due to its weight). It's not exactly the best performing thing on the road, that's for sure;)
The Beast goes everywhere. They load it onto the plane and drive the President around in it when he makes any official visit to a country. So it's not just "on American soil" you need to worry about.
I strongly suspect it's the most-widely-travelled wheeled vehicle on earth actually:)
While I have no doubt that you could build a fully electric vehicle that would meet the specs required for the President's limo, I think the biggest hurdle will be charging it. The Beast is one of the only vehicles in the world that drives in countries all over the world without being registered, or modified in accordance with the local market. I've seen the Beast myself here in Canberra, Australia a couple of times. It is kind of a novelty seeing a left-hand drive vehicle with US license plates cruising around on the 'wrong' side of the road in Australia.:)
But I digress. Countries all use different shaped plugs, different voltages etc. and the charging infrastructure in some places the president might visit is not always reliable. Yes you can ensure that US embassies and the presidential plane/other vehicles have the right systems in place. But you never know what might happen... one day they might be stuck somewhere with insufficient range and no charging options. Gasoline OTOH, you can find almost anywhere, and can carry a spare supply of it quite easily compared to lugging around some kind of backup battery. I think for that reason it'll be a while before you see a vehicle built for this purpose be fully electric. Maybe a hybrid would work. But I think all-electric vehicles need to become more widespread globally and another decade or two of track record behind them before they would fit the bill for this need.
It already weighs a LOT due to all the thick armor plating. In fact some places have issues with allowing it because it exceeds the design tolerances for the pavement. The added weight of battery packs wouldn't really be that significant, especially if they can save weight on the engine or other parts.
Incorrect - iPhone passwords can be alphanumeric, of any length you want. It ~defaults~ to a 4 digit PIN, but you aren't limited to that. Mine's 8 digits.
Furthermore, anyone who cares will have enabled the 'wipe after 10 failed attempts' option.
I dunno. Even if you have kids, for many people the phone is with them 24 hours a day, so kids would be unlikely to get their hands on it for an extended period regardless. My phone is in my pocket during any time I'm awake, and when I'm asleep it's 30 cm from me on my bedside table (at which point the kids are asleep anyway).
Keep in mind there's normally a delay on the "wipe after X failures" options on phones, such that the kid would need to have the phone for several hours in order to reach the limit. I'd notice if I was without my phone for a few hours...
Well I don't know about the Android version of this feature, but on the iPhone, the "wipe after 10 failures" option puts an increasing delay between attempts. Once you get to the last few attempts, the delay is pretty long (I think 30 minutes or an hour, per attempt), so it's pretty unlikely even a kid would trigger it, unless the phone was left alone with them for a long time.
That's not true, at all. Pre-paid is immensely popular here in Australia. Same in NZ and the UK. And Singapore. And possibly others... but those are the countries I've lived in. Around half of mobile phone users are pre-paid - nothing to do with being 'unbanked', they just want control over their spending and to pay for only what they actually use. Also, people like it because it means you don't have recurring bills, don't have to give the phone company any credit card info, etc.
YMMV in different countries of course, but pre-paid is far from the domain of the poor or 'unbanked' here at least. Plenty of people on six-figure salaries with prepaid phones, because they are simply better value, and offer you more control and more freedom.
Indeed, which brings me to the other thing I see 'wrong' with the article (or at least the summary) - the statement "it's cheap enough for the pre-paid phones that are much more common than post-paid".
Outside the US (not just in third-world countries, but most other developed countries), this is a false dichotomy (suggesting that only 'cheap' phones can be put on pre-paid plans). Many people with 'high end' phones (Galaxy S4, iPhone 5/5S) are on pre-paid plans. Often quite cheap ones. Actually I'd say that's the norm in many places - many Asian countries, Australia/NZ, much of Europe. People caught on long ago that tying yourself into a 2+ year contract for a subsidized phone isn't worth it in the long run, because you miss out on being able to jump to different plans/carriers, who are in competition with each other and generally introduce new, better value plans a couple of times per year.
Yes, yes I know the market in the US is different. But in much of the rest of the world the phone and the plan are two unrelated purchase decisions. You can have a cheap-ass phone on an expensive post-paid plan, or the most expensive phone in the world on the cheapest $10 pre-paid...
I don't think it's much to do with narcissism. Since AC posts at 0, you're limiting your audience severely by posting as AC. Even a good comment won't be seen by most (since the default threshold for non-signed-in users is +1 and most registered users probably browse at +1 or +2...)
Is it narcissistic to actually want your post to be seen? I mean, why even comment if no one will see it and/or respond?
Which, given the weak USD and the fact that many US citizens file jointly in a dual-income family, doesn't go very far. In places where the cost of living (and salaries) are a lot higher than in America, $100k USD equivalent isn't that much for a family... very standard middle class.
This effect does exist over the border in HK though, of course (since they use HK dollars). Even though you are perfectly aware the currency is different, it does kind of throw you for a loop when meals cost three-digit amounts and hotel rooms cost 'thousands' etc. At least for a few days until you get used to it. This doesn't apply as much in Japan or mainland China where the unit of currency itself is not 'dollars'.
Around here at least, ISPs often refer to 'network congestion' caused by router outages, DoS, and other things, on their network status pages etc. So it can be used to refer to data networks...
Agreed. There's heaps of excellent new (mostly indie) music being produced these days. Pop, rock, electronica, all genres under the sun. Problem is that most of it doesn't ever make the radio (particularly in the US). You kind of have to go out actively looking for good stuff... it won't hit you in the face by chance as you'll never hear any of it in the mainstream media or in public places etc.
Yep, you're completely right. Many of said 'excellent products' are recent acquisitions, and not in the main spaces that Oracle is known for (DB, ERP, CMS etc.) Smaller, simpler, lightweight apps that are actually pretty decent.
Oracle keeps acquiring more and more companies (I should know, I was in one of them). It's not just integration (from a technical viewpoint) that's difficult about this... even internally within Oracle half the people literally aren't aware of half the products they sell. The result is that one part of Oracle can be actively working against another part of Oracle during bids etc. Or suggesting overly complex solutions to problems that could be better solved with another product that they sell.
Oracle has quite a few individual products that are excellent. Problem is, they don't integrate together quite as well as the sales people will tell you they do. Sure if it's a simple, vanilla implementation you should be OK... but healthcare/health insurance law and policy is insanely complex and requires a buttload of customisations and interactions with external systems that are out of your direct control.
I have some involvement with this project and the above sums up the main issues nicely. Combine that with the fact that the data that you have to handle provided by some of the external systems is incomplete and often very 'unclean' (in some cases outright corrupt) and the fact that the solution you're implementing features dozens of different products integrated with each other and you get some very weird failure modes that are almost impossible to test for adequately.
Well, it most likely has her full name. Many people though only use prepaid iTunes cards to fund their accounts, and thus wouldn't have any CC info on their accounts (or, for that matter, address information, since it's entered for the purposes of the CC billing address most of the time).
You can buy apps without adding a CC - just buy a free app first and when prompted, add credit from an iTunes card. Then subsequent purchases will come out of that balance without needing to enter a CC. It only bugs you on the first purchase IF that purchase is a non-free app.
In most English speaking countries outside the US, the concept of 'lawyer' is split into two types of people: solicitors and barristers (though some individuals may practice law as both). Links above explain the difference.
Ah interesting, thanks for the info. In valleys and other areas where temperature inversions are common this may help a bit. Though I live at a relatively high and exposed location, so air quality is rarely a concern around here.
True... iiNet has swallowed quite a few in the past few years (I know because I used to be on Internode, back in Oz). Still, the situation is much better than here in the US (in terms of competition and price, if not speed).
Yeah, that's what I thought too at first. A bit of Googling suggests that cold results in increased oil viscosity and a need for a higher fuel/air ratio (dictated by the engine computer) in cold weather. Compounding this, tyre rolling resistance is increased in the cold.
On top of that, apparently the fuel companies change their formula/blend in winter in cold-weather markets. The winter blend works more reliably in the cold but is not as efficiently burned.
As someone that moved to the US Midwest recently I can attest that firm suspensions are not the norm and seem not to be as popular here. Like you, I prefer them - better handling and better road feel.
However, after driving here for the better part of a year I can see why. I'm actually kinda cursing buying a sedan with stiff sports suspension here... the roads are freaking AWFUL. They're mostly concrete (loud, with bumpy expansion joints) and have many cracks, ridges, potholes etc... driving along many highways is like ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump constantly. Feels like my poor car will shake itself to bits.
At first I thought it was just shoddy construction, but then I took a work trip to some west coast states (Washington, Oregon) and the quality of the roads was better. Generally smooth, asphalt surfaces on the main highways, without cracks/joints. It was then I realised - it's a climate thing. In the Midwest the roads have to deal with temperature swings ranging from -40 C to +40 C in a given year, which is hell on the roads. I saw it with my own eyes this winter... a previously good road near my house is now a terrible mess with ruptures and ridges and buckling all over it (we have had a harsh winter this year). Literally within the space of a week it went from "great" to "undriveable at more than 30 mph".
So yeah - I like firm cars too, but I wouldn't be surprised if they opt for squishier suspensions on average here in the States.
I was in the market for a new car last year and was kinda considering the Tesla... but unless you live on the coasts of the US (west or east) there simply ain't enough charging stations. I'm in the Midwest. There IS actually a Supercharger station in my town (Madison WI), but that's exactly where I don't need one, as I can charge at home. Anywhere else I would drive TO around here, doesn't have one. Yet.
Give it another 5 years and hopefully a successful release of a mid-level (say, $40k-ish) car by Tesla though, and I suspect you'll start seeing stations pop up everywhere.
Slashdot Mirror
And that's saying something, considering the current Beast does 0-60 mph / 0-100 km/h in 14 or 15 seconds (due to its weight). It's not exactly the best performing thing on the road, that's for sure ;)
The Beast goes everywhere. They load it onto the plane and drive the President around in it when he makes any official visit to a country. So it's not just "on American soil" you need to worry about.
I strongly suspect it's the most-widely-travelled wheeled vehicle on earth actually :)
While I have no doubt that you could build a fully electric vehicle that would meet the specs required for the President's limo, I think the biggest hurdle will be charging it. The Beast is one of the only vehicles in the world that drives in countries all over the world without being registered, or modified in accordance with the local market. I've seen the Beast myself here in Canberra, Australia a couple of times. It is kind of a novelty seeing a left-hand drive vehicle with US license plates cruising around on the 'wrong' side of the road in Australia. :)
But I digress. Countries all use different shaped plugs, different voltages etc. and the charging infrastructure in some places the president might visit is not always reliable. Yes you can ensure that US embassies and the presidential plane/other vehicles have the right systems in place. But you never know what might happen ... one day they might be stuck somewhere with insufficient range and no charging options. Gasoline OTOH, you can find almost anywhere, and can carry a spare supply of it quite easily compared to lugging around some kind of backup battery. I think for that reason it'll be a while before you see a vehicle built for this purpose be fully electric. Maybe a hybrid would work. But I think all-electric vehicles need to become more widespread globally and another decade or two of track record behind them before they would fit the bill for this need.
It already weighs a LOT due to all the thick armor plating. In fact some places have issues with allowing it because it exceeds the design tolerances for the pavement. The added weight of battery packs wouldn't really be that significant, especially if they can save weight on the engine or other parts.
Incorrect - iPhone passwords can be alphanumeric, of any length you want. It ~defaults~ to a 4 digit PIN, but you aren't limited to that. Mine's 8 digits.
Furthermore, anyone who cares will have enabled the 'wipe after 10 failed attempts' option.
I dunno. Even if you have kids, for many people the phone is with them 24 hours a day, so kids would be unlikely to get their hands on it for an extended period regardless. My phone is in my pocket during any time I'm awake, and when I'm asleep it's 30 cm from me on my bedside table (at which point the kids are asleep anyway).
Keep in mind there's normally a delay on the "wipe after X failures" options on phones, such that the kid would need to have the phone for several hours in order to reach the limit. I'd notice if I was without my phone for a few hours...
Well I don't know about the Android version of this feature, but on the iPhone, the "wipe after 10 failures" option puts an increasing delay between attempts. Once you get to the last few attempts, the delay is pretty long (I think 30 minutes or an hour, per attempt), so it's pretty unlikely even a kid would trigger it, unless the phone was left alone with them for a long time.
That's not true, at all. Pre-paid is immensely popular here in Australia. Same in NZ and the UK. And Singapore. And possibly others ... but those are the countries I've lived in. Around half of mobile phone users are pre-paid - nothing to do with being 'unbanked', they just want control over their spending and to pay for only what they actually use. Also, people like it because it means you don't have recurring bills, don't have to give the phone company any credit card info, etc.
YMMV in different countries of course, but pre-paid is far from the domain of the poor or 'unbanked' here at least. Plenty of people on six-figure salaries with prepaid phones, because they are simply better value, and offer you more control and more freedom.
Indeed, which brings me to the other thing I see 'wrong' with the article (or at least the summary) - the statement "it's cheap enough for the pre-paid phones that are much more common than post-paid".
Outside the US (not just in third-world countries, but most other developed countries), this is a false dichotomy (suggesting that only 'cheap' phones can be put on pre-paid plans). Many people with 'high end' phones (Galaxy S4, iPhone 5/5S) are on pre-paid plans. Often quite cheap ones. Actually I'd say that's the norm in many places - many Asian countries, Australia/NZ, much of Europe. People caught on long ago that tying yourself into a 2+ year contract for a subsidized phone isn't worth it in the long run, because you miss out on being able to jump to different plans/carriers, who are in competition with each other and generally introduce new, better value plans a couple of times per year.
Yes, yes I know the market in the US is different. But in much of the rest of the world the phone and the plan are two unrelated purchase decisions. You can have a cheap-ass phone on an expensive post-paid plan, or the most expensive phone in the world on the cheapest $10 pre-paid...
I don't think it's much to do with narcissism. Since AC posts at 0, you're limiting your audience severely by posting as AC. Even a good comment won't be seen by most (since the default threshold for non-signed-in users is +1 and most registered users probably browse at +1 or +2...)
Is it narcissistic to actually want your post to be seen? I mean, why even comment if no one will see it and/or respond?
Hooray - an American (I assume) that actually understands what the word 'liberal' means.
Explaining why the major conservative party here in Australia is called the Liberal Party to visiting Americans is always a nightmare...
Which, given the weak USD and the fact that many US citizens file jointly in a dual-income family, doesn't go very far. In places where the cost of living (and salaries) are a lot higher than in America, $100k USD equivalent isn't that much for a family ... very standard middle class.
In Shenzhen yeah absolutely.
This effect does exist over the border in HK though, of course (since they use HK dollars). Even though you are perfectly aware the currency is different, it does kind of throw you for a loop when meals cost three-digit amounts and hotel rooms cost 'thousands' etc. At least for a few days until you get used to it. This doesn't apply as much in Japan or mainland China where the unit of currency itself is not 'dollars'.
Around here at least, ISPs often refer to 'network congestion' caused by router outages, DoS, and other things, on their network status pages etc. So it can be used to refer to data networks...
Agreed. There's heaps of excellent new (mostly indie) music being produced these days. Pop, rock, electronica, all genres under the sun. Problem is that most of it doesn't ever make the radio (particularly in the US). You kind of have to go out actively looking for good stuff ... it won't hit you in the face by chance as you'll never hear any of it in the mainstream media or in public places etc.
Yep, you're completely right. Many of said 'excellent products' are recent acquisitions, and not in the main spaces that Oracle is known for (DB, ERP, CMS etc.) Smaller, simpler, lightweight apps that are actually pretty decent.
Oracle keeps acquiring more and more companies (I should know, I was in one of them). It's not just integration (from a technical viewpoint) that's difficult about this ... even internally within Oracle half the people literally aren't aware of half the products they sell. The result is that one part of Oracle can be actively working against another part of Oracle during bids etc. Or suggesting overly complex solutions to problems that could be better solved with another product that they sell.
Oracle has quite a few individual products that are excellent. Problem is, they don't integrate together quite as well as the sales people will tell you they do. Sure if it's a simple, vanilla implementation you should be OK ... but healthcare/health insurance law and policy is insanely complex and requires a buttload of customisations and interactions with external systems that are out of your direct control.
This.
I have some involvement with this project and the above sums up the main issues nicely. Combine that with the fact that the data that you have to handle provided by some of the external systems is incomplete and often very 'unclean' (in some cases outright corrupt) and the fact that the solution you're implementing features dozens of different products integrated with each other and you get some very weird failure modes that are almost impossible to test for adequately.
Well, it most likely has her full name. Many people though only use prepaid iTunes cards to fund their accounts, and thus wouldn't have any CC info on their accounts (or, for that matter, address information, since it's entered for the purposes of the CC billing address most of the time).
You can buy apps without adding a CC - just buy a free app first and when prompted, add credit from an iTunes card. Then subsequent purchases will come out of that balance without needing to enter a CC. It only bugs you on the first purchase IF that purchase is a non-free app.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
In most English speaking countries outside the US, the concept of 'lawyer' is split into two types of people: solicitors and barristers (though some individuals may practice law as both). Links above explain the difference.
Ah interesting, thanks for the info. In valleys and other areas where temperature inversions are common this may help a bit. Though I live at a relatively high and exposed location, so air quality is rarely a concern around here.
True ... iiNet has swallowed quite a few in the past few years (I know because I used to be on Internode, back in Oz). Still, the situation is much better than here in the US (in terms of competition and price, if not speed).
Yeah, that's what I thought too at first. A bit of Googling suggests that cold results in increased oil viscosity and a need for a higher fuel/air ratio (dictated by the engine computer) in cold weather. Compounding this, tyre rolling resistance is increased in the cold.
On top of that, apparently the fuel companies change their formula/blend in winter in cold-weather markets. The winter blend works more reliably in the cold but is not as efficiently burned.
As someone that moved to the US Midwest recently I can attest that firm suspensions are not the norm and seem not to be as popular here. Like you, I prefer them - better handling and better road feel.
However, after driving here for the better part of a year I can see why. I'm actually kinda cursing buying a sedan with stiff sports suspension here ... the roads are freaking AWFUL. They're mostly concrete (loud, with bumpy expansion joints) and have many cracks, ridges, potholes etc ... driving along many highways is like ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump constantly. Feels like my poor car will shake itself to bits.
At first I thought it was just shoddy construction, but then I took a work trip to some west coast states (Washington, Oregon) and the quality of the roads was better. Generally smooth, asphalt surfaces on the main highways, without cracks/joints. It was then I realised - it's a climate thing. In the Midwest the roads have to deal with temperature swings ranging from -40 C to +40 C in a given year, which is hell on the roads. I saw it with my own eyes this winter ... a previously good road near my house is now a terrible mess with ruptures and ridges and buckling all over it (we have had a harsh winter this year). Literally within the space of a week it went from "great" to "undriveable at more than 30 mph".
So yeah - I like firm cars too, but I wouldn't be surprised if they opt for squishier suspensions on average here in the States.
I was in the market for a new car last year and was kinda considering the Tesla ... but unless you live on the coasts of the US (west or east) there simply ain't enough charging stations. I'm in the Midwest. There IS actually a Supercharger station in my town (Madison WI), but that's exactly where I don't need one, as I can charge at home. Anywhere else I would drive TO around here, doesn't have one. Yet.
Give it another 5 years and hopefully a successful release of a mid-level (say, $40k-ish) car by Tesla though, and I suspect you'll start seeing stations pop up everywhere.