You've been modded Flamebait for some odd reason, bitter Slashdotters? But you're right. 3 years is not a happy, successful, long term marriage. If/when they make it past 10, then we'll talk.
1998 QE2 will be about 3 Million miles away. I think we're pretty safe, no Nukes needed. =)
Wouldn't that make for a good test case though? I'd hope our first attempt at deflecting an asteroid isn't our one shot at survival. With it being so far away you could do a test on it and gather some valuable data.
You can go to Straight Talk (Which is on AT&T network if that is important to you) and get Voice+Data at about $50. Assuming the cost of the phone is $600 every two years, this works out to $25 a month over two years. So a total of $75 a month.$3 a month cheaper and you don't have to add money if you are not using the phone at any point.
.
And when you are done with your phone after two years, you can most likely sell it one ebay for $200 or so (the phone is always unlocked).
When I looked into it last night, Straight Talk is no longer giving out AT&T sims. They use the Sprint network now. And if you get an iPhone 5 you won't get LTE.
While I would agree with you, I don't have much choice until T-mobile gets their network in gear and expanded LTE coverage.
The others aren't an option due to coverage in my area, I'd try something like Net10 or SmartTalk but their coverage and services issues are also bad. T-mobile is about the only option for us and I'd switch tomorrow if they had LTE and decent coverage.
So if I want to use an iPhone5 or 6 with LTE around here without it being crippled, the only real option unfortunately is AT&T. Sure they're screwing you, but for most, it's not worth the fight over $0.61, and they know that.
BTW, on a sad note, does anyone remember when Lucent actually innovated stuff? The legitimate heir of Western Electric and Bell Labs has fallen very far.
Do you mean like this? Light Radio, a programmable cell tower the size of your palm?
While true it has been a while since the hey day of Bell Labs coming out with new tech every few years, they don't seem dead just yet. I blame their current state on chasing quarterly or yearly profits and having a somewhat unfair playing field with companies like Huawei and ZTE instead of investing in the long term tech.
Per wikipedia
On August 28, 2008, Alcatel-Lucent announced it was pulling out of basic science, material physics, and semiconductor research, and it will instead focus on more immediately marketable areas, including networking, high-speed electronics, wireless networks, nanotechnology and software.
That and their merger with Alcatel hasn't been very smooth. Though too, perhaps the wireless tech is maturing so there is not the low hanging fruit anymore?
Also for clarification Bell Labs is still around in at least some form, it is the research arm of Alcatel-Lucent. Lucent merged with Alcatel back in 2006.
All this will result in is more arrests. The average Joe isn't going to know the difference between.08% and.05%; the only result will be a larger probability in jail time for someone who would otherwise be considered fine to drive today. If we're going to change the numbers in this manner, why not just make it 0% and at least be clear about the message: Drink at all, and you'd better be willing to not drive for a couple of hours.
The data shows that it reduces accidents and death. The real question though, is it worth the effort and trouble? At what point do we reach diminishing returns or a reasonable balance. That is for the states to decide, it's not (currently) 'mandatory'.
That would be the "fair use" legislation that already exists, allowing you to make a backup copy, right?
Any "fair use" possibilities get stopped by the DMCA because if it's an encrypted disc you have to first break the encryption which is not protected by fair use.
What happens when flying cars collide with buildings or other infrastructure?
Although modern infrastructure has placed barriers to prevent impact around many road level surfaces (curbs, posts, trees, fences, etc) I'm not sure that's not the correct question on safety. Planes can do that currently.
What is needed to ask is what are the safety mechanisms in place for when something fails in power or structure. At least with a plane you have the ability to glide a certain amount and some steerage if the engine goes out, but I guess with helicopters you really don't. Some even have emergency parachutes but I'm not up on how well they work. Either way they are fairly expensive to get, thereby reducing the access and limiting harm. Hmm, now that I consider it, without automation and computer controlled flight, I'm not sure I'd want ubiquitous and affordable flying vehicles.
If only we had a plan for recurring orbital missions... A "space pickup" that would launch on a regular basis to make pit stops for things like extra helium.
To think how many multi-decade projects like this will "rot on the vine".
I'm going to assume due diligence was done and that with it being so far away, a refillable port and a small, single-use robotic craft to accomplish that would be more expensive than just creating a newer satellite to replace it.
I'm paying $60 a month for 20 Mbps - $70 for 5 times as much? $100 for 50 times as much? Not to mention by 'Symmetric bandwidth' I assume upstream = downstream speeds. It's no Google but it still isn't a bad deal.
I get 15Mbps for ~ $55 (fairly consistent according to tests), it's one of the lower tiers around here with Cox. I'm not sure I would want any faster as I doubt I'd see much benefit. We stream Netflix and other stuff all the time plus I work from home. Never had an issue with the speed of the connection, even with multiple users. So yeah, another $10+ for 5x as much sounds good, except when you wouldn't notice it.
Disney is about making money and if the bad directors like Abrahms don't deliver, they will find others. And if not... well... after the prequels surely things can only get better well, if Abrahams dies a horrid dead at least.
Just because you say it, doesn't 'make it so'. I liked (as most did) JJA's latest Trek reboot and am looking forward to what he does with SW7.
What I don't get is why people aren't all raging about how broken window focus management has been since Windows 7. It used to be you could <alt>+<tab> and cycle through windows in a predictable manner, so you weren't required to remove your hands from the freakin' keyboard when you're working at 90 miles an hour. Or is this just a dual-monitor fsckup?
What you don't understand is that most people don't keep both hands on the keyboard. They either have one down on a laptop mouse area or a stand alone mouse in their right hand. Most don't know any shortcuts including alt-tab. They only one they may know, out of necessity sometimes, is ctrl-alt-del. F# keys? Forget it. Some fancy users have figured out with the PrtSc means cause their kid showed them. Windows key? never used. This new metro design is beyond confusing, and for no apparent reason, to most users. Instead of a desktop with shortcuts to your programs, and a start menu to find others, they've overrun your view with a bunch of meaningless icons and constantly changing pictures. You and I can understand it and work around it, most find it too confusing and agravating because it's not like what they know.
When you give non technical people instructions you tell them you can do it this way, or this way, or this way. No. They memorize that one way to do things and move on. Win8 is different and they don't know the steps to manage it like they learned with XP or Vista or Win7, all those were similar.
I had one. Sadly when I got rid of my CRT monitor the LCD one could no longer flash the full screen bar codes to program it. It was fairly neat at the time at holding some information.
I believe the problem with the coming crop of "smart watches" is that they all need a phone to connect to. They're really more of an extra terminal to your phone rather than a standalone device.
Smart watches are the modern day Palm Foleo. And will likely be as successful.
Q6600 @ 2.4Ghz
8GB DDR2 800
Two 9800GTX cards in SLI
two 500GB Hard Drives RAID 0
Windows 7 64-bit
Runs fantastically. I don't see the point in replacing it
Wow, you don't say. You either forgot the/s tag or you have a distorted view of "old".
Touch screens are inefficient and need to die eventually, we simply haven't found the right solution to the problem according to most people. In my opinion it comes under the form of the keyboard but oh well. And tablets will never be useful for professional activities, for starters they lack the processing power to go through a few gigabytes of data quickly and the quick and easy to use interface. And that's becoming a common requirement these days.
I have a feeling you're gonna be disappointed in the future...
Not really any big deal to me, or my kids, which seem to be more entertained with their iPod or DS these days anyway. Given their ease of use and cost (our used iPhones turned into iPods for them) I'm wondering if I'll even invest in the next console from any maker. I'd thought about the next Xbox as my kids mature but I'm not so sure given the reports. There's so much entertainment for them already, I'd rather them be outside playing or interacting with friends or reading and less screen time, not more.
There was a proposed lightbulb a few years ago, using some sort of technology that would have generated a signal that would wipe out every Wifi signal for a block.
To get the Energy Star certification, the bulbs need to have a projected lifetime of 25000 on-hours (where lifetime means the bulb can emit no less than 70% of its rated light output during that time). If there's going to be planned obsolescence, it's going to be from better bulbs replacing them even though they're still working.
As it is with CFL's it will likely be true with LED's. Sure the bulb will last that long or meet those requirements. The cheap electronics controlling it though is another story and is the reason many of my CFL's from various brands have failed. YMMV.
it appears that a lot more things should be prohibited than actually are.
I'm going to disagree with you on the grounds that there are already laws on the books about distracted driving. That is specific enough. There doesn't need to be a new law for each and every possible distraction or variation thereof, else you are in a continual cycle of new laws as technology and culture changes.
If I have a machine running XP just fine, why should I spend money to upgrade to Windows 7? What "got to have it" feature is included in Windows 7 that isn't in XP?
The primary one is the focus of the article, MS is shutting off support which means no more security updates. If you are a private user then you can take that risk, most businesses will not.
What dialogs are you using to shut down? I go to the start menu and click "shut down."
And yet people here still think PCs are intuitive to use for the average person. How is it common sense to look for the off switch under the label "start" ?
It doesn't matter what it's labeled as it has been that way since Win95, pushing 18+ years now. That and now in Win7 it doesn't have a label, just a nice big shiny button which removes any "Start" confusion.
Because XP does everything most people want and there's no compelling reason to switch?
This. My company is a large multinational (80k) and I'm still running XP and will be until our transition plan finally hits me before the cutoff. We had laptops that came with Win7 but they were wiped and installed XP. Now b/c of the deadline the Thinkpad will get Win7 installed again, likely early next year. For many corp, there is little reason to upgrade except for continued support.
Slashdot Mirror
You've been modded Flamebait for some odd reason, bitter Slashdotters? But you're right. 3 years is not a happy, successful, long term marriage. If/when they make it past 10, then we'll talk.
1998 QE2 will be about 3 Million miles away. I think we're pretty safe, no Nukes needed. =)
Wouldn't that make for a good test case though? I'd hope our first attempt at deflecting an asteroid isn't our one shot at survival. With it being so far away you could do a test on it and gather some valuable data.
You can go to Straight Talk (Which is on AT&T network if that is important to you) and get Voice+Data at about $50. Assuming the cost of the phone is $600 every two years, this works out to $25 a month over two years. So a total of $75 a month .$3 a month cheaper and you don't have to add money if you are not using the phone at any point.
.
And when you are done with your phone after two years, you can most likely sell it one ebay for $200 or so (the phone is always unlocked).
When I looked into it last night, Straight Talk is no longer giving out AT&T sims. They use the Sprint network now. And if you get an iPhone 5 you won't get LTE.
While I would agree with you, I don't have much choice until T-mobile gets their network in gear and expanded LTE coverage.
The others aren't an option due to coverage in my area, I'd try something like Net10 or SmartTalk but their coverage and services issues are also bad. T-mobile is about the only option for us and I'd switch tomorrow if they had LTE and decent coverage.
So if I want to use an iPhone5 or 6 with LTE around here without it being crippled, the only real option unfortunately is AT&T. Sure they're screwing you, but for most, it's not worth the fight over $0.61, and they know that.
BTW, on a sad note, does anyone remember when Lucent actually innovated stuff? The legitimate heir of Western Electric and Bell Labs has fallen very far.
Do you mean like this? Light Radio, a programmable cell tower the size of your palm?
While true it has been a while since the hey day of Bell Labs coming out with new tech every few years, they don't seem dead just yet. I blame their current state on chasing quarterly or yearly profits and having a somewhat unfair playing field with companies like Huawei and ZTE instead of investing in the long term tech.
Per wikipedia
On August 28, 2008, Alcatel-Lucent announced it was pulling out of basic science, material physics, and semiconductor research, and it will instead focus on more immediately marketable areas, including networking, high-speed electronics, wireless networks, nanotechnology and software.
That and their merger with Alcatel hasn't been very smooth. Though too, perhaps the wireless tech is maturing so there is not the low hanging fruit anymore?
Also for clarification Bell Labs is still around in at least some form, it is the research arm of Alcatel-Lucent. Lucent merged with Alcatel back in 2006.
All this will result in is more arrests. The average Joe isn't going to know the difference between .08% and .05%; the only result will be a larger probability in jail time for someone who would otherwise be considered fine to drive today. If we're going to change the numbers in this manner, why not just make it 0% and at least be clear about the message: Drink at all, and you'd better be willing to not drive for a couple of hours.
The data shows that it reduces accidents and death. The real question though, is it worth the effort and trouble? At what point do we reach diminishing returns or a reasonable balance. That is for the states to decide, it's not (currently) 'mandatory'.
That would be the "fair use" legislation that already exists, allowing you to make a backup copy, right?
Any "fair use" possibilities get stopped by the DMCA because if it's an encrypted disc you have to first break the encryption which is not protected by fair use.
What happens when flying cars collide with buildings or other infrastructure?
Although modern infrastructure has placed barriers to prevent impact around many road level surfaces (curbs, posts, trees, fences, etc) I'm not sure that's not the correct question on safety. Planes can do that currently.
What is needed to ask is what are the safety mechanisms in place for when something fails in power or structure. At least with a plane you have the ability to glide a certain amount and some steerage if the engine goes out, but I guess with helicopters you really don't. Some even have emergency parachutes but I'm not up on how well they work. Either way they are fairly expensive to get, thereby reducing the access and limiting harm. Hmm, now that I consider it, without automation and computer controlled flight, I'm not sure I'd want ubiquitous and affordable flying vehicles.
If only we had a plan for recurring orbital missions... A "space pickup" that would launch on a regular basis to make pit stops for things like extra helium.
To think how many multi-decade projects like this will "rot on the vine".
I'm going to assume due diligence was done and that with it being so far away, a refillable port and a small, single-use robotic craft to accomplish that would be more expensive than just creating a newer satellite to replace it.
I'll bet you feel stupid for filling all those party balloons last week.
Party balloons? "Those are my everyday balloons." -Kramer
I'm paying $60 a month for 20 Mbps - $70 for 5 times as much? $100 for 50 times as much? Not to mention by 'Symmetric bandwidth' I assume upstream = downstream speeds. It's no Google but it still isn't a bad deal.
I get 15Mbps for ~ $55 (fairly consistent according to tests), it's one of the lower tiers around here with Cox. I'm not sure I would want any faster as I doubt I'd see much benefit. We stream Netflix and other stuff all the time plus I work from home. Never had an issue with the speed of the connection, even with multiple users. So yeah, another $10+ for 5x as much sounds good, except when you wouldn't notice it.
Disney is about making money and if the bad directors like Abrahms don't deliver, they will find others. And if not... well... after the prequels surely things can only get better well, if Abrahams dies a horrid dead at least.
Just because you say it, doesn't 'make it so'. I liked (as most did) JJA's latest Trek reboot and am looking forward to what he does with SW7.
What I don't get is why people aren't all raging about how broken window focus management has been since Windows 7. It used to be you could <alt>+<tab> and cycle through windows in a predictable manner, so you weren't required to remove your hands from the freakin' keyboard when you're working at 90 miles an hour. Or is this just a dual-monitor fsckup?
What you don't understand is that most people don't keep both hands on the keyboard. They either have one down on a laptop mouse area or a stand alone mouse in their right hand. Most don't know any shortcuts including alt-tab. They only one they may know, out of necessity sometimes, is ctrl-alt-del. F# keys? Forget it. Some fancy users have figured out with the PrtSc means cause their kid showed them. Windows key? never used. This new metro design is beyond confusing, and for no apparent reason, to most users. Instead of a desktop with shortcuts to your programs, and a start menu to find others, they've overrun your view with a bunch of meaningless icons and constantly changing pictures. You and I can understand it and work around it, most find it too confusing and agravating because it's not like what they know.
When you give non technical people instructions you tell them you can do it this way, or this way, or this way. No. They memorize that one way to do things and move on. Win8 is different and they don't know the steps to manage it like they learned with XP or Vista or Win7, all those were similar.
I had one. Sadly when I got rid of my CRT monitor the LCD one could no longer flash the full screen bar codes to program it. It was fairly neat at the time at holding some information.
I believe the problem with the coming crop of "smart watches" is that they all need a phone to connect to. They're really more of an extra terminal to your phone rather than a standalone device.
Smart watches are the modern day Palm Foleo. And will likely be as successful.
old gaming computer, and it is running perfectly.
Q6600 @ 2.4Ghz 8GB DDR2 800 Two 9800GTX cards in SLI two 500GB Hard Drives RAID 0 Windows 7 64-bit Runs fantastically. I don't see the point in replacing it
Wow, you don't say. You either forgot the /s tag or you have a distorted view of "old".
Touch screens are inefficient and need to die eventually, we simply haven't found the right solution to the problem according to most people. In my opinion it comes under the form of the keyboard but oh well. And tablets will never be useful for professional activities, for starters they lack the processing power to go through a few gigabytes of data quickly and the quick and easy to use interface. And that's becoming a common requirement these days.
I have a feeling you're gonna be disappointed in the future...
Not really any big deal to me, or my kids, which seem to be more entertained with their iPod or DS these days anyway. Given their ease of use and cost (our used iPhones turned into iPods for them) I'm wondering if I'll even invest in the next console from any maker. I'd thought about the next Xbox as my kids mature but I'm not so sure given the reports. There's so much entertainment for them already, I'd rather them be outside playing or interacting with friends or reading and less screen time, not more.
And Gizmodo has those interviews all wrong, because the interviewees aren't telling the full truth.
A small bit of clarification, this is from Gizmag, NOT the juveniles over at Gizmodo. Not the same thing, but have an unfortunate similarity in name.
There was a proposed lightbulb a few years ago, using some sort of technology that would have generated a signal that would wipe out every Wifi signal for a block.
I think they made a TV show about it. http://www.hulu.com/revolution
To get the Energy Star certification, the bulbs need to have a projected lifetime of 25000 on-hours (where lifetime means the bulb can emit no less than 70% of its rated light output during that time). If there's going to be planned obsolescence, it's going to be from better bulbs replacing them even though they're still working.
As it is with CFL's it will likely be true with LED's. Sure the bulb will last that long or meet those requirements. The cheap electronics controlling it though is another story and is the reason many of my CFL's from various brands have failed. YMMV.
it appears that a lot more things should be prohibited than actually are.
I'm going to disagree with you on the grounds that there are already laws on the books about distracted driving. That is specific enough. There doesn't need to be a new law for each and every possible distraction or variation thereof, else you are in a continual cycle of new laws as technology and culture changes.
If I have a machine running XP just fine, why should I spend money to upgrade to Windows 7? What "got to have it" feature is included in Windows 7 that isn't in XP?
The primary one is the focus of the article, MS is shutting off support which means no more security updates. If you are a private user then you can take that risk, most businesses will not.
What dialogs are you using to shut down? I go to the start menu and click "shut down."
And yet people here still think PCs are intuitive to use for the average person. How is it common sense to look for the off switch under the label "start" ?
It doesn't matter what it's labeled as it has been that way since Win95, pushing 18+ years now. That and now in Win7 it doesn't have a label, just a nice big shiny button which removes any "Start" confusion.
I really don't understand the slow uptake to 7.
Because XP does everything most people want and there's no compelling reason to switch?
This. My company is a large multinational (80k) and I'm still running XP and will be until our transition plan finally hits me before the cutoff. We had laptops that came with Win7 but they were wiped and installed XP. Now b/c of the deadline the Thinkpad will get Win7 installed again, likely early next year. For many corp, there is little reason to upgrade except for continued support.