Yes, the A3 is hard to tell whether it's a hatchback or a station wagon; it seems to straddle that line; it's like a mini station wagon.
The A3 is basically the same as a Volkswagen Golf - a "Golf premium", shares the same platform, some of the same engines, etc. So it definitely is a hatchback. But yes, they also offer that (and the Golf, too - for some reason that Golf version is called "Jetta" in the US)) as a different chassis version with larger boot. But it's still a smallish car, so I would not call it a station wagon. Should probably look at the Passat Variant or the Audi A6 Variant for that (not sure if those are offered in the US, though).
I'm not "cheering" anything. I'm saying that the photograph is clearly copied from the other on an artwork level--that being the artistic expression comprised of the subject matter, processing, and overall "tone". It's also a matter of fact that it was specifically intended to be a copy of the original.
I mean, if you saw a movie called "Triassic Park" with a logo using the same font as the original and a different angle for the T-rex silhouette, and the same storyline but with different actors and slightly different shots, and a soundtrack that resembled the original but for a few changed notes, you'd still consider it a rip-off of Jurassic Park. At some level, it's just common sense.
It looks similar, but the point is that it is not clearly copied from that particular photograph. Do a google image search for "bus big ben", and you will see HUNDREDS of photographs which look similar. So I do not know why anybody here should be able to copyright the "look" of these photographs...
The problem with most of these streaming devices is that they can't play all media formats. Yes, you can play Netflix etc., but you can't play all of the existing media you have somewhere on a network share. Most of these devices just decode via some chip, so if there's a new video format (like we have now with Hi10p files), you're out of luck. Also I so far had no luck finding one which could handle styled subtitles (karaoke etc.) well.
So for me the only solution is a home-built PC with a good graphics card which has HDMI. That way it is easy to upgrade codecs/media player software.
Which goes back to the original point that Google should just hire humans to process DMCA notices. This isn't fault in DMCA, this is fault in Google and YouTube.
That would not change anything, because even if they employed humans, they would not have a choice, either whether to take the videos down or not. Google MUST take down the videos affected by the DMCA notices, whether they want to or not, whether it is an obviously wrong DMCA notice or not. It is a flaw in the DMCA system, but one which is hard to fix. Even if the DMCA notice would require PROOF that the video is legally infringing, there still would be the problem that a video could be taken down wrongly, because the proof might be a fake/wrong, and it would be hard for the Google employees to decide that, they are no lawyers and it might be a financial catastrophe to accidentally deny a CORRECT DMCA notice. So the choice is either to a.) take the video down first and then let the two sides fight over it in court or b.) not take the video down and first let the two sides fight in court. And it was decided to go for a.), to go for the option which benefits the big companies more than the possible infringer.
Yeah, I think the "innovation" is that they've made a car radio as smart as a laser printer. Stick a USB key into the front of it, tell it to "print" the firmware file and bam, firmware upgraded.
I would bet anything that you can't upgrade the car's ECU via the USB port.
How long would it take to charge and how many charging stations would there be? If it takes an hour to charge, and all the charging stations are full, you could end up waiting quite a while...
Not really fun if you've got a bunch of kids in the back.
Tesla: For people with too much disposable income who want to look like they care about the environment.
This. Whenever I read about "deploying charging stations", my immediate thought is "Charging an electric car takes time - half an hour minimum to several hours. How many charging places will there be, and how long will the queue be during rush hour when people HAVE to charge because there is no other charging station anywhere near?"
That's the BIG advantage of gasoline: filling up the car takes a minute or two max.
It's the whole slices of pie thing. If it's fair and everyone gets an equal slice, no biggie, unless too many people want some, then the slices get smaller (network congestion, not enough bandwidth to go around). Then along comes Fred who's friends with the guy serving the pie, he slips Fred some cash, and suddenly he's got a slice that's bigger. Since neither the number of people wanting slices hasn't changed nor has the pie gotten larger (the network didn't miraculously gain capacity) everybody else's pieces get smaller. So you see, they not only get a larger piece of pie, they take away pie from everyone else.
This is exactly the types of shenanigans Net Neutrality is supposed to prevent.
Exactly. And then it goes on - everbody else is not happy anymore with the smaller slices of pie they get, so they pay, too. And in the end everybody gets the same size slices of pie they already had at the beginning, just that everybody is paying more now (and that anybody who joins now without paying extra gets a ridiculously small slice of pie, because EVERYBODY else is prioritized over him).
Also, "no dissent"? Tabs on top of the address bar makes way more sense than having them underneath. I mean, duh: the address bar's contents are dependent on the tab. Why would the tabs be underneath, other than "Mozilla Firebird 0.2 did it that way so now everyone has to do that forever!"
two random reasons why "tabs at the top" is a bad idea:
- placing stuff at the top of the screen is a bad idea, because that area of the screen is often covered by other stuff (like e.g. the menus of a RDP session) or is in an area which makes menus pop up if you go near there with the mouse
- tabs should be close to the web page you are looking at, because tabs are used OFTEN, definitely more than bookmarks, so they should be easier to reach with the mouse. Why would you want to place the tabs as far away as possible?
Actually, the Bakken could provide for the entire world for the next 110 years at current consumption. Check out the USGS report on the reserves.
Problem is that "current consumption" does not stay that way, it goes up. If it goes up like 5% each year (which is realistic, considering population increase, more people demanding more stuff, people in developing countries wanting cars, too, etc.), it will DOUBLE in 14 years. And then again 14 years afterwards, to four times what it is now. And double again to 8 times another 14 years later. So the glorious "110 years at current consumption" mean something like maybe 30-40 years in the real world.
While I was never a huge Apple fan (well, I do own an iPhone, but I never owned any Mac), I do admire the work Steve did, and I guess it would be a slight understatement to say that Apple products had quite some influence on how we use our computers today.
My condolences go out to his family. Cancer is a horrible disease, I lost my father last month to it, so I can guess how hard the last few weeks must have been for all of them.
Yes, Switzerland must be a bit more expensive then than e.g. Germany. My iphone contract costs about 40 euros a month, and I had the choice of either free calls to land lines or free calls to other mobile phones of the same provider (t-mobile), plus it has unlimited SMS and unlimited data transfer (well, with a transfer rate reduction after 200MB, but still, you can keep surfing forever without any extra cost).
I really prefer the european model of "caller pays". I would not want any contract where I do not have any control over when I have to pay. And of course it deters people from sending me advertising SMS and calling me to try and sell something to me when they have to pay for it.
There are even cheaper contracts with free calls to land lines/same provider if you don't need an iphone, and a "free calls anywhere" contract costs about 70-80 euros.
Because it takes AGES to get anything resolved, and because most people probably do not feel like investing even MORE time fighting windmills after having already spent a long time writing articles, which then got deleted/reverted.
It's not as if I NEED to write on wikipedia. If I do something in my spare time and feel unwanted there, I just go away and do something else. And that's exactly what happens on wikipedia: new editors feel unwanted, and so they leave.
"take a little time to document your actions" - "take these abuses to a higher authority and get some action taken" - seriously? For something which people are supposed to do in their spare time and enjoy? No, wikipedia, the ball is in your court. Make new editors feel WELCOME instead of telling them to go through some arbitration thing before they can even post their first article successfully.
I am quite happy with my Golf GTI with DSG. Shifts VERY fast. Of course, if you try to downshift when it would be stupid (revs would be too high), it does not let you. But I think the "omg it sometimes shifts so slow" thing mostly comes from the fact that you do not have to do anything except hit the paddle. With a manual, you have to disengage the clutch, use the gear stick, engage clutch again. Which takes definitely longer (half a second to a second even for a good driver) than the DSG needs to shift - except that with the DSG, you do nothing except flick your finger.
Also, on the GTI the DSG sounds very nice if you shift upwards of 3000 revs:)
Whatever happened to Ford's plans to sell a diesel Focus in the U.S. by 2006 or so? I remember that it was a Big Thing for a while, then just... never materialized.
That's too bad, Ford makes quite decent diesel engines. My father used to have a Focus 2.0 TDci sport back in 2004 or so, it had something like 130-140 hp, went really well and had very decent handling (because of the sporty suspension), I just never really cared much for Ford's interior design, all very cheap looking,
A link would be fine, giving a preview or storing cached content would not be.
But the link is part of the article (i.e. the website the newspaper presents the article on). So Google is not allowed to show show you the link, e.g. if the link is "newspaper.com/man-bites-dog.html". Also, if Google is not allowed to store any part of the article, how exactly is Google supposed to be able to figure out that this particular website is relevant for your search? They NEED to store "part of the article" (i.e. the actual text on the website) in their search index for their search. It is not possible to present a link to a website if you a.) are not allowed to present the link and b.) not allowed to store any information about that website in your search index. Google just followed the order.
BTW, amusing that the author of the article complains about "Misaka" and pantyshots, when in the original series, Misaka is wearing SHORTS under her skirt...
They did not seriously want to participate in the "original" party. They went there because they thought it would be fun to have an unorganized party with 10.000 people. I guess kids these days would say "we did it for the lulz".
I guess the only newsworthy thing is that you can use Google maps. I already tried out an exercise bike back in the 90s which used a video/large TV combo together with a course profile which was used to vary the resistance of the bike. So you could choose from a variety of recorded courses (e.g. Tour de France stages, etc.), put the video plus the course profile into the machine, and then when e.g. you saw a climb on the video, the resistance of the bike increased accordingly. So the only difference between that old thing and this news is that now you can choose whatever you want from Google maps (and the difference "tilting bike" vs. "simply increasing the resistance".
Actually hydrogen storage is fraught with problems. And not just "oh, but we can fix that" problems. It is more like hydrogen is just not very convenient. For example, hydrogen has a nasty habit of slowly breaking down metal (embrittlement). There's much more room for improved battery technology than there is for hydrogen storage and transmission. Besides, we already have the infrastructure to deliver electricity to every home. What's the point in introducing the hydrogen middleman?
Hydrogen does not need to be stored as pure hydrogen. There are new ways of storing hydrogen being developed, for example via carbazole: http://www.techthefuture.com/energy/renewable-fuel-offers-alternative-to-battery-powered-electric-cars/ You tank "energy rich" carbazole, and when the hydrogen is discharged (while driving), the energy deficient carbazole is stored in a separate tank. Back at the filling station, that "used" carbazole is pumped back (and reused), and you get your primary tank full of energy rich carbazole again.
The really big advantage of hydrogen is that filling up your car takes exactly as long as it does now for a standard car. No "recharging overnight", you can refill the car in a minute or two. So you can refill in the middle of a journey without having to stay at a hotel - you can use the hydrogen car like a car. And the range of a full tank of hydrogen is also bigger than any affordable battery you can have in a car right now.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.snopes.com/business/secret/jagermeister.asp
The Elk Blood is a myth. Jagermeister is a really nice drink, certainly one to try , it has a cult following round here.
Yup, "elk blood in Jägermeister" is a stupid myth, especially because there are no elks here in Germany :-)
Yes, the A3 is hard to tell whether it's a hatchback or a station wagon; it seems to straddle that line; it's like a mini station wagon.
The A3 is basically the same as a Volkswagen Golf - a "Golf premium", shares the same platform, some of the same engines, etc. So it definitely is a hatchback. But yes, they also offer that (and the Golf, too - for some reason that Golf version is called "Jetta" in the US)) as a different chassis version with larger boot. But it's still a smallish car, so I would not call it a station wagon. Should probably look at the Passat Variant or the Audi A6 Variant for that (not sure if those are offered in the US, though).
I'm not "cheering" anything. I'm saying that the photograph is clearly copied from the other on an artwork level--that being the artistic expression comprised of the subject matter, processing, and overall "tone". It's also a matter of fact that it was specifically intended to be a copy of the original.
I mean, if you saw a movie called "Triassic Park" with a logo using the same font as the original and a different angle for the T-rex silhouette, and the same storyline but with different actors and slightly different shots, and a soundtrack that resembled the original but for a few changed notes, you'd still consider it a rip-off of Jurassic Park. At some level, it's just common sense.
It looks similar, but the point is that it is not clearly copied from that particular photograph. Do a google image search for "bus big ben", and you will see HUNDREDS of photographs which look similar. So I do not know why anybody here should be able to copyright the "look" of these photographs...
The problem with most of these streaming devices is that they can't play all media formats. Yes, you can play Netflix etc., but you can't play all of the existing media you have somewhere on a network share. Most of these devices just decode via some chip, so if there's a new video format (like we have now with Hi10p files), you're out of luck. Also I so far had no luck finding one which could handle styled subtitles (karaoke etc.) well.
So for me the only solution is a home-built PC with a good graphics card which has HDMI. That way it is easy to upgrade codecs/media player software.
Which goes back to the original point that Google should just hire humans to process DMCA notices. This isn't fault in DMCA, this is fault in Google and YouTube.
That would not change anything, because even if they employed humans, they would not have a choice, either whether to take the videos down or not. Google MUST take down the videos affected by the DMCA notices, whether they want to or not, whether it is an obviously wrong DMCA notice or not. It is a flaw in the DMCA system, but one which is hard to fix. Even if the DMCA notice would require PROOF that the video is legally infringing, there still would be the problem that a video could be taken down wrongly, because the proof might be a fake/wrong, and it would be hard for the Google employees to decide that, they are no lawyers and it might be a financial catastrophe to accidentally deny a CORRECT DMCA notice. So the choice is either to a.) take the video down first and then let the two sides fight over it in court or b.) not take the video down and first let the two sides fight in court. And it was decided to go for a.), to go for the option which benefits the big companies more than the possible infringer.
Yeah, I think the "innovation" is that they've made a car radio as smart as a laser printer. Stick a USB key into the front of it, tell it to "print" the firmware file and bam, firmware upgraded.
I would bet anything that you can't upgrade the car's ECU via the USB port.
Seriously though, there is nothing "innovative" about this. Other car manufacturers have been doing that for years (offering updates for stuff like navigation / car infotainment via USB, so that the car owner can do the update himself). Just as an example, here's the download page of Volkswagen (I am sure other car companies are doing the same): http://www.volkswagen.de/de/servicezubehoer/VolkswagenOriginalZubehoer2/Downloads/Software-Updates_und_Anleitungen.html
How long would it take to charge and how many charging stations would there be? If it takes an hour to charge, and all the charging stations are full, you could end up waiting quite a while...
Not really fun if you've got a bunch of kids in the back.
Tesla: For people with too much disposable income who want to look like they care about the environment.
This. Whenever I read about "deploying charging stations", my immediate thought is "Charging an electric car takes time - half an hour minimum to several hours. How many charging places will there be, and how long will the queue be during rush hour when people HAVE to charge because there is no other charging station anywhere near?"
That's the BIG advantage of gasoline: filling up the car takes a minute or two max.
So what you're saying is that the ideal car would be a diesel-powered electric car?
It's the whole slices of pie thing. If it's fair and everyone gets an equal slice, no biggie, unless too many people want some, then the slices get smaller (network congestion, not enough bandwidth to go around). Then along comes Fred who's friends with the guy serving the pie, he slips Fred some cash, and suddenly he's got a slice that's bigger. Since neither the number of people wanting slices hasn't changed nor has the pie gotten larger (the network didn't miraculously gain capacity) everybody else's pieces get smaller. So you see, they not only get a larger piece of pie, they take away pie from everyone else.
This is exactly the types of shenanigans Net Neutrality is supposed to prevent.
Exactly. And then it goes on - everbody else is not happy anymore with the smaller slices of pie they get, so they pay, too. And in the end everybody gets the same size slices of pie they already had at the beginning, just that everybody is paying more now (and that anybody who joins now without paying extra gets a ridiculously small slice of pie, because EVERYBODY else is prioritized over him).
Also, "no dissent"? Tabs on top of the address bar makes way more sense than having them underneath. I mean, duh: the address bar's contents are dependent on the tab. Why would the tabs be underneath, other than "Mozilla Firebird 0.2 did it that way so now everyone has to do that forever!"
two random reasons why "tabs at the top" is a bad idea:
- placing stuff at the top of the screen is a bad idea, because that area of the screen is often covered by other stuff (like e.g. the menus of a RDP session) or is in an area which makes menus pop up if you go near there with the mouse
- tabs should be close to the web page you are looking at, because tabs are used OFTEN, definitely more than bookmarks, so they should be easier to reach with the mouse. Why would you want to place the tabs as far away as possible?
Actually, the Bakken could provide for the entire world for the next 110 years at current consumption. Check out the USGS report on the reserves.
Problem is that "current consumption" does not stay that way, it goes up. If it goes up like 5% each year (which is realistic, considering population increase, more people demanding more stuff, people in developing countries wanting cars, too, etc.), it will DOUBLE in 14 years. And then again 14 years afterwards, to four times what it is now. And double again to 8 times another 14 years later. So the glorious "110 years at current consumption" mean something like maybe 30-40 years in the real world.
and Microsoft at least mentions it on the homepage (under "news") and has a statement by Steve Ballmer.
Google actually DOES show a "Steve Jobs, 1955-2011" message now.
good bye Steve, you will be missed.
While I was never a huge Apple fan (well, I do own an iPhone, but I never owned any Mac), I do admire the work Steve did, and I guess it would be a slight understatement to say that Apple products had quite some influence on how we use our computers today.
My condolences go out to his family. Cancer is a horrible disease, I lost my father last month to it, so I can guess how hard the last few weeks must have been for all of them.
Yes, Switzerland must be a bit more expensive then than e.g. Germany. My iphone contract costs about 40 euros a month, and I had the choice of either free calls to land lines or free calls to other mobile phones of the same provider (t-mobile), plus it has unlimited SMS and unlimited data transfer (well, with a transfer rate reduction after 200MB, but still, you can keep surfing forever without any extra cost).
I really prefer the european model of "caller pays". I would not want any contract where I do not have any control over when I have to pay. And of course it deters people from sending me advertising SMS and calling me to try and sell something to me when they have to pay for it.
There are even cheaper contracts with free calls to land lines/same provider if you don't need an iphone, and a "free calls anywhere" contract costs about 70-80 euros.
Exactly. Hide the status bar, hide the full URL, hide the version number. Obscuring things is apparently their new development model.
Should just hide the webpage too, in case the users might get upset about something they see.
Because it takes AGES to get anything resolved, and because most people probably do not feel like investing even MORE time fighting windmills after having already spent a long time writing articles, which then got deleted/reverted.
It's not as if I NEED to write on wikipedia. If I do something in my spare time and feel unwanted there, I just go away and do something else. And that's exactly what happens on wikipedia: new editors feel unwanted, and so they leave.
"take a little time to document your actions" - "take these abuses to a higher authority and get some action taken" - seriously? For something which people are supposed to do in their spare time and enjoy? No, wikipedia, the ball is in your court. Make new editors feel WELCOME instead of telling them to go through some arbitration thing before they can even post their first article successfully.
If this article is about the same diesel engine which is already on sale in europe, then it is this here: http://www.chevrolet.de/modelle/cruze/cruze-limousine/ausstattungen-und-tech-daten.html (check the LT 2.0 MT / AT engine options).
I am quite happy with my Golf GTI with DSG. Shifts VERY fast. Of course, if you try to downshift when it would be stupid (revs would be too high), it does not let you. But I think the "omg it sometimes shifts so slow" thing mostly comes from the fact that you do not have to do anything except hit the paddle. With a manual, you have to disengage the clutch, use the gear stick, engage clutch again. Which takes definitely longer (half a second to a second even for a good driver) than the DSG needs to shift - except that with the DSG, you do nothing except flick your finger.
Also, on the GTI the DSG sounds very nice if you shift upwards of 3000 revs :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FCMpYUxkm4
Whatever happened to Ford's plans to sell a diesel Focus in the U.S. by 2006 or so? I remember that it was a Big Thing for a while, then just... never materialized.
That's too bad, Ford makes quite decent diesel engines. My father used to have a Focus 2.0 TDci sport back in 2004 or so, it had something like 130-140 hp, went really well and had very decent handling (because of the sporty suspension), I just never really cared much for Ford's interior design, all very cheap looking,
A link would be fine, giving a preview or storing cached content would not be.
But the link is part of the article (i.e. the website the newspaper presents the article on). So Google is not allowed to show show you the link, e.g. if the link is "newspaper.com/man-bites-dog.html". Also, if Google is not allowed to store any part of the article, how exactly is Google supposed to be able to figure out that this particular website is relevant for your search? They NEED to store "part of the article" (i.e. the actual text on the website) in their search index for their search. It is not possible to present a link to a website if you a.) are not allowed to present the link and b.) not allowed to store any information about that website in your search index. Google just followed the order.
or "Sparky", it is has to be English.
BTW, amusing that the author of the article complains about "Misaka" and pantyshots, when in the original series, Misaka is wearing SHORTS under her skirt...
They did not seriously want to participate in the "original" party. They went there because they thought it would be fun to have an unorganized party with 10.000 people. I guess kids these days would say "we did it for the lulz".
I guess the only newsworthy thing is that you can use Google maps. I already tried out an exercise bike back in the 90s which used a video/large TV combo together with a course profile which was used to vary the resistance of the bike. So you could choose from a variety of recorded courses (e.g. Tour de France stages, etc.), put the video plus the course profile into the machine, and then when e.g. you saw a climb on the video, the resistance of the bike increased accordingly. So the only difference between that old thing and this news is that now you can choose whatever you want from Google maps (and the difference "tilting bike" vs. "simply increasing the resistance".
Actually hydrogen storage is fraught with problems. And not just "oh, but we can fix that" problems. It is more like hydrogen is just not very convenient. For example, hydrogen has a nasty habit of slowly breaking down metal (embrittlement). There's much more room for improved battery technology than there is for hydrogen storage and transmission. Besides, we already have the infrastructure to deliver electricity to every home. What's the point in introducing the hydrogen middleman?
Hydrogen does not need to be stored as pure hydrogen. There are new ways of storing hydrogen being developed, for example via carbazole: http://www.techthefuture.com/energy/renewable-fuel-offers-alternative-to-battery-powered-electric-cars/ You tank "energy rich" carbazole, and when the hydrogen is discharged (while driving), the energy deficient carbazole is stored in a separate tank. Back at the filling station, that "used" carbazole is pumped back (and reused), and you get your primary tank full of energy rich carbazole again.
The really big advantage of hydrogen is that filling up your car takes exactly as long as it does now for a standard car. No "recharging overnight", you can refill the car in a minute or two. So you can refill in the middle of a journey without having to stay at a hotel - you can use the hydrogen car like a car. And the range of a full tank of hydrogen is also bigger than any affordable battery you can have in a car right now.