No I'm right. The things I mentioned, electrical plugs, standardized fireplugs/conections, and timezones were all developed by *private* standardization groups and other cooperative efforts.
And the U.S. timezones were invented by the railroads for purposes of making train schedules easier-to-follow.
"These days?" More like "always". I used to do that circa 1985 in 6th grade with an old-fashioned paper encyclopedia. It's nothing new, and yes you get caught when you do it.
My workplace has one, that explains various esoteric concepts like how to get that ancient Windows 3 test program to run on XP, but as far as I know it's only a local resource.
Is there public version of Wikipedia designed for engineers & technicians?
>>>poor management and budgetary practice is just as widespread in the private sector.
Yes that's true but poorly-managed companies get driven out of business. Look at Circuit City - customers grew tired of the crap and effectively "voted" with their dollars to put CC out of business. - Or if they don't completely go out of business, they get shaken up, as happened when the poorly-run, almost-dead Sears was bought-out by the more efficient Kmart. Private markets are self-correcting and weed out inefficiency.
In contrast poorly-managed government just continues forward, without end, and wasting taxpayer dollars. Plus because government is a monopoly, you're stuck with it. They just keep sucking the money out of your wallet.
At least with a private company, like Circuit City, I can tell them to go "frak off" and stop supporting them. And then they'll either improve or disappear.
>>>Except the people that 'own' the backbone won't let you in.
First off the METAL pipes belong to my local city/county are owned by the *government* and they would not deny access to running my fiber wire through their pipes, so long as I convince my local politicians that I will not disturb existing phone/cable service.
I don't know what you're talking about in regards to the "backbone"? Unless you're referring to the internet as a whole, but of course that would be illegal to deny service to a new company. Any company who wants to hook into the internet may do so.
>>>collecting money for copies of implementations of math equations and other natural phenomena hardly counts as work
Yes you are right, however you are not paying for current work, but for PAST work:
(1) MPEG creates the mathematical algorithsm and standards. (2) This costs money, not only to pay their bills but also the labor to pay the staff and assembled experts. (3) Therefore they must collect money AFTER the work has already been performed, to retroactively pay the bills incurred over the previous year.
Got it?
If MPEG stopped collecting money, and gave MPEG1, 2, 3, and 4 away for free, then their previous bills used to develop those standards would go unpaid. And bill collectors would come knocking. And MPEG would cease to exist.
Those are good acts but still unconstitutional (per Bill of Rights 9 and 10). The U.S. Constitution should be AMENDED to specifically grant Congress said power to regulate the air and water's clarity. I support the Clean Air & Water Acts, but also believe in following the Supreme Law as written, and amending it as needed..... not create a lawless society where congress can do whatever the hell it feels like doing, without restraint.
.
>>>THIS is why Free Trade is a BAD idea -- how can someone who likes to breathe compete with a country who doesn't give a damn how filthy and poisoned their country is? >>>
The typical argument is that Free Trade will raise China to our economic level, and then its wealthy citizens will demand clean air and water, just as the Americans and Europeans and Japanese did. (Please note I'm not saying I agree with that argument... just repeating what Free Traders' claim.)
Completely and totally wrong. To quote Jefferson: "The Congress are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare.... [G]iving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please."
And James Madison the AUTHOR of the constitution (and therefore knows better than anyone what he meant when HE wrote it): "If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one. There is nothing more natural than to start with a general phrase, and than qualify that phrase with a list of limited, particular powers."
In other words, you need to read the WHOLE sentence, and while I can find many lines to give Congress power to build roads, and erect a post office, and regulate commerce AMONG the states (not inside the states), there is not one word to regulating the quality of air or water.
And therefore I repeat: We should amend the constitution to give Congress that power, rather than ignore the Bill of Rights 9th and 10th and create a unbounded government with no Law to restrain it. I think I'm being reasonable in my opinion, and do not deserve to be labeled a "troll" for expressing it.
>>>you'll be able to drink and then sober up before your car is done charging since I have a hunch that our friendly oil industry lobbyist friends might make sure we're safe by limiting the amount of power >>>
Power is usually limited so that the battery does not blowup. Batteries like to be slow-charged at 1/10th C over several hours. Faster charging will work, but it typically damages the internal components and causes premature death, while the "15 minute" charging suggested by the article would make most batteries explode.
Which makes me wonder - How on earth did the Japanese develop 15 minute charging? That's a LOT of energy to dump into a car.
>>>America should let the free market come up with at least 3 competing, mutually incompatible charging standards
How do you think America came-up with standardized electric plugs today? Or firehose connections? Or timezones? It wasn't via government mandate, but by voluntary association between companies to make their systems compatible.
My dad thinks an electric car could be powered by tying a generator to the wheels, and therefore never need to charge the battery, because the spinning wheels would keep it charged.
I wasted about a half hour of my life explaining why this won't work (because more energy is used moving the car than recovered by the wheel-generators), but when he started getting angry and insisting it's a conspiracy by the oil companies, I decided I'd had enough. Let the idiot continue to believe stupid stuff. Or put another way: Let sleeping dragons lie.
>>>create large, comfortable urban lodging for families close to work
Live in the concrete hell that is a modern American city? No. I'd probably have an attack of claustrophobia. Also your concept of "large" is incompatible with having to squeeze those ~15 million ex-suburbanites into the small area a city occupies. You'd be left with homes about the size of one dorm per family (like in Asimov's Caves of Steel).
Now maybe if you moved the workplaces to the suburbs, rather than concentrating them all inside the city, you could find a solution. I've never understood why all companies want to locate themselves in Baltimore when there's plenty of room in nearby Frederick or Bel Air or Annapolis.
Knuth collects money from his students (indirectly). So just like MPEG, he is collecting money in order to continue moving forward, rather than starve or go bankrupt.
The idea of "working for free" sounds nice until you move out of your parents' home and get your first bill at circa age 22. In the real world, people and organizations need money to continue operations. MPEG and Knuth is no different.
Those are good acts but still unconstitutional (per Bill of Rights 9 and 10). The U.S. Constitution should be amended to specifically grant Congress said power to regulate the air and water's clarity. I believe in following the Supreme Law as written, and amending it as needed to assign new powers to the U.S. government as time advances. .
>>>THIS is why Free Trade is a BAD idea -- how can someone who likes to breathe compete with a country who doesn't give a damn how filthy and poisoned their country is? >>>
The typical argument is that Free Trade will raise China to our economic level, and then its wealthy citizens will demand clean air and water, just as the Americans and Europeans and Japanese did.
IMHO it makes more sense to save our resources while the rest of the world's supplies dwindle to nothing. Then the United States (and Canada) can charge a small fortune since we will be the sole supplier for coal, oil, and other rare minerals. We will be as wealthy as Arab shieks.
BUT that's long term thinking. It will be ignored.
I was reading an interesting story about how enterprising New Englanders would transport frozen lake ice from Massachusetts/New Hampsphire, down the Alantic coast, and sell it to Carolinians/Georgians to provide refrigeration (in the 1700s). Where has that kind of bravado gone? It seems Americans would rather let the Chinese take those kinds of risks, and that's why they have mineral processing plants while we do not.
This is somewhat similar to how most of the productivity in the late Roman Republic moved away from Italy and into the provinces. Of course that eventually led to heavy taxation to support the central Italian power/welfare state, and eventually feudalism in the 300s as the middle classes lost their private lands, and became serfs.
But unfortunately Flash is the only way to access my VirginMobile site in order to check my cellphone's account settings. Using Opera's Turbo compression helps alleviate some of the pain, but nevertheless I still have to use Flash.
The same is true if I want to access my Sirius XM online account.
How would the MPEG fund its activities (and pay salaries for its employees) without collecting royalties? You sound like one of those who wants a firetruck for your town, but doesn't want to have to pay for its maintenance or salary of its firefighters.
If I recall correctly, Opera 10 does the same thing - passes the ACID3 but fails the test requirement for smoothness. (Maybe they fixed it in later 10.1 or 10.5 releases? Don't know.)
Yeah except not really. I'm on dialup with my laptop and sometimes block Flash to speedup the connection, but there are many sites that simply don't work. You need to either use Adobe's software or an open-source Flash Alternative.
Also H.264/MPEG4 is really no different than the MPEG2 we used in our HDTV/DVDs or the MPEG4 in our HD Radios/Bluray players. These formats are "proprietary" but open standards which are maintained by a neutral non-profit organization. Is it perfect? No but still better than if the standard was owned by just one single company (like the CD and VHS formats).
Buying a coffin makes sense for burial, but what about cremation? Ridiculous. Watch this clip of "Bullshit" by Penn & Teller, especially the last two minutes:
If there's no way to get a Xbox360 new (i.e. we're already on the next generation Xbox 3), then I certainly wouldn't bury it. I'd sell my broken unit on Ebay. Lots of people like to buy things for either parts or the challenge of repair. EXAMPLE: When my Compaq DVD died, I bought a broken laptop for 10 bucks and ripped out the DVD player. Now my laptop is working again. Maybe someone would want a RROD 360 for the same reason.
>>>Health Care on the other hand is a bit different. Without health care, people tend to die or become financially ruined and dependent on the state and/or charity for survival. >>>
Without healthcare people die. With healthcare people die.
Either way it's the same result, so what's the point? IMHO better to accept fate, and maybe have some catastrophic insurance that covers major bills (over $10,000), but that's it. There's no need health insurance/government insurance rammed down my throat. I don't want it.
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No I'm right. The things I mentioned, electrical plugs, standardized fireplugs/conections, and timezones were all developed by *private* standardization groups and other cooperative efforts.
And the U.S. timezones were invented by the railroads for purposes of making train schedules easier-to-follow.
No government was involved.
Perhaps this is why "they" are pushing Fuel Cell Cars. They have all the advantages of a gasoline-fueled vehicle (quick recharge == unlimited range).
"These days?" More like "always". I used to do that circa 1985 in 6th grade with an old-fashioned paper encyclopedia. It's nothing new, and yes you get caught when you do it.
My workplace has one, that explains various esoteric concepts like how to get that ancient Windows 3 test program to run on XP, but as far as I know it's only a local resource.
Is there public version of Wikipedia designed for engineers & technicians?
>>>poor management and budgetary practice is just as widespread in the private sector.
Yes that's true but poorly-managed companies get driven out of business. Look at Circuit City - customers grew tired of the crap and effectively "voted" with their dollars to put CC out of business. - Or if they don't completely go out of business, they get shaken up, as happened when the poorly-run, almost-dead Sears was bought-out by the more efficient Kmart. Private markets are self-correcting and weed out inefficiency.
In contrast poorly-managed government just continues forward, without end, and wasting taxpayer dollars. Plus because government is a monopoly, you're stuck with it. They just keep sucking the money out of your wallet.
At least with a private company, like Circuit City, I can tell them to go "frak off" and stop supporting them. And then they'll either improve or disappear.
>>>Except the people that 'own' the backbone won't let you in.
First off the METAL pipes belong to my local city/county are owned by the *government* and they would not deny access to running my fiber wire through their pipes, so long as I convince my local politicians that I will not disturb existing phone/cable service.
I don't know what you're talking about in regards to the "backbone"? Unless you're referring to the internet as a whole, but of course that would be illegal to deny service to a new company. Any company who wants to hook into the internet may do so.
>>>collecting money for copies of implementations of math equations and other natural phenomena hardly counts as work
Yes you are right, however you are not paying for current work, but for PAST work:
(1) MPEG creates the mathematical algorithsm and standards.
(2) This costs money, not only to pay their bills but also the labor to pay the staff and assembled experts.
(3) Therefore they must collect money AFTER the work has already been performed, to retroactively pay the bills incurred over the previous year.
Got it?
If MPEG stopped collecting money, and gave MPEG1, 2, 3, and 4 away for free, then their previous bills used to develop those standards would go unpaid. And bill collectors would come knocking. And MPEG would cease to exist.
>>>Clean Air Act and the Clean Water act
Those are good acts but still unconstitutional (per Bill of Rights 9 and 10). The U.S. Constitution should be AMENDED to specifically grant Congress said power to regulate the air and water's clarity. I support the Clean Air & Water Acts, but also believe in following the Supreme Law as written, and amending it as needed..... not create a lawless society where congress can do whatever the hell it feels like doing, without restraint.
.
>>>THIS is why Free Trade is a BAD idea -- how can someone who likes to breathe compete with a country who doesn't give a damn how filthy and poisoned their country is?
>>>
The typical argument is that Free Trade will raise China to our economic level, and then its wealthy citizens will demand clean air and water, just as the Americans and Europeans and Japanese did. (Please note I'm not saying I agree with that argument... just repeating what Free Traders' claim.)
>>> "to promote the general welfare".
Completely and totally wrong. To quote Jefferson: "The Congress are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare.... [G]iving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please."
And James Madison the AUTHOR of the constitution (and therefore knows better than anyone what he meant when HE wrote it): "If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one. There is nothing more natural than to start with a general phrase, and than qualify that phrase with a list of limited, particular powers."
In other words, you need to read the WHOLE sentence, and while I can find many lines to give Congress power to build roads, and erect a post office, and regulate commerce AMONG the states (not inside the states), there is not one word to regulating the quality of air or water.
And therefore I repeat: We should amend the constitution to give Congress that power, rather than ignore the Bill of Rights 9th and 10th and create a unbounded government with no Law to restrain it. I think I'm being reasonable in my opinion, and do not deserve to be labeled a "troll" for expressing it.
>>>you'll be able to drink and then sober up before your car is done charging since I have a hunch that our friendly oil industry lobbyist friends might make sure we're safe by limiting the amount of power
>>>
Power is usually limited so that the battery does not blowup. Batteries like to be slow-charged at 1/10th C over several hours. Faster charging will work, but it typically damages the internal components and causes premature death, while the "15 minute" charging suggested by the article would make most batteries explode.
Which makes me wonder - How on earth did the Japanese develop 15 minute charging? That's a LOT of energy to dump into a car.
>>>America should let the free market come up with at least 3 competing, mutually incompatible charging standards
How do you think America came-up with standardized electric plugs today? Or firehose connections? Or timezones? It wasn't via government mandate, but by voluntary association between companies to make their systems compatible.
My dad thinks an electric car could be powered by tying a generator to the wheels, and therefore never need to charge the battery, because the spinning wheels would keep it charged.
I wasted about a half hour of my life explaining why this won't work (because more energy is used moving the car than recovered by the wheel-generators), but when he started getting angry and insisting it's a conspiracy by the oil companies, I decided I'd had enough. Let the idiot continue to believe stupid stuff. Or put another way: Let sleeping dragons lie.
>>>create large, comfortable urban lodging for families close to work
Live in the concrete hell that is a modern American city? No. I'd probably have an attack of claustrophobia. Also your concept of "large" is incompatible with having to squeeze those ~15 million ex-suburbanites into the small area a city occupies. You'd be left with homes about the size of one dorm per family (like in Asimov's Caves of Steel).
Now maybe if you moved the workplaces to the suburbs, rather than concentrating them all inside the city, you could find a solution. I've never understood why all companies want to locate themselves in Baltimore when there's plenty of room in nearby Frederick or Bel Air or Annapolis.
I'd be willing to live in any of those towns.
Knuth collects money from his students (indirectly). So just like MPEG, he is collecting money in order to continue moving forward, rather than starve or go bankrupt.
The idea of "working for free" sounds nice until you move out of your parents' home and get your first bill at circa age 22. In the real world, people and organizations need money to continue operations. MPEG and Knuth is no different.
>>>Clean Air Act and the Clean Water act
Those are good acts but still unconstitutional (per Bill of Rights 9 and 10). The U.S. Constitution should be amended to specifically grant Congress said power to regulate the air and water's clarity. I believe in following the Supreme Law as written, and amending it as needed to assign new powers to the U.S. government as time advances.
.
>>>THIS is why Free Trade is a BAD idea -- how can someone who likes to breathe compete with a country who doesn't give a damn how filthy and poisoned their country is?
>>>
The typical argument is that Free Trade will raise China to our economic level, and then its wealthy citizens will demand clean air and water, just as the Americans and Europeans and Japanese did.
IMHO it makes more sense to save our resources while the rest of the world's supplies dwindle to nothing. Then the United States (and Canada) can charge a small fortune since we will be the sole supplier for coal, oil, and other rare minerals. We will be as wealthy as Arab shieks.
BUT that's long term thinking. It will be ignored.
I was reading an interesting story about how enterprising New Englanders would transport frozen lake ice from Massachusetts/New Hampsphire, down the Alantic coast, and sell it to Carolinians/Georgians to provide refrigeration (in the 1700s). Where has that kind of bravado gone? It seems Americans would rather let the Chinese take those kinds of risks, and that's why they have mineral processing plants while we do not.
This is somewhat similar to how most of the productivity in the late Roman Republic moved away from Italy and into the provinces. Of course that eventually led to heavy taxation to support the central Italian power/welfare state, and eventually feudalism in the 300s as the middle classes lost their private lands, and became serfs.
>>>that's exactly why PNG was added to web standards.
Yep. And yet all my nudie pics still come in the proprietary GIF or JPG formats. Poor, neglected PNG just doesn't get used much.
.
I probably shouldna told ya that.
So when I uninstall Mozilla/Netscape 9 this weekend, can I uninstall Mozilla/Firefox too? Is it heading towards the same grave?
Nah.
SIG:
I use Mosaic because it makes me feel like 1993.
Hahhaha... cute funny.
But unfortunately Flash is the only way to access my VirginMobile site in order to check my cellphone's account settings. Using Opera's Turbo compression helps alleviate some of the pain, but nevertheless I still have to use Flash.
The same is true if I want to access my Sirius XM online account.
How would the MPEG fund its activities (and pay salaries for its employees) without collecting royalties? You sound like one of those who wants a firetruck for your town, but doesn't want to have to pay for its maintenance or salary of its firefighters.
>>>The test explicitly states smooth animation.
If I recall correctly, Opera 10 does the same thing - passes the ACID3 but fails the test requirement for smoothness. (Maybe they fixed it in later 10.1 or 10.5 releases? Don't know.)
>>>Flash is an optional addon.
Yeah except not really. I'm on dialup with my laptop and sometimes block Flash to speedup the connection, but there are many sites that simply don't work. You need to either use Adobe's software or an open-source Flash Alternative.
Also H.264/MPEG4 is really no different than the MPEG2 we used in our HDTV/DVDs or the MPEG4 in our HD Radios/Bluray players. These formats are "proprietary" but open standards which are maintained by a neutral non-profit organization. Is it perfect? No but still better than if the standard was owned by just one single company (like the CD and VHS formats).
Buying a coffin makes sense for burial, but what about cremation? Ridiculous. Watch this clip of "Bullshit" by Penn & Teller, especially the last two minutes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i4JdUNimEA
If there's no way to get a Xbox360 new (i.e. we're already on the next generation Xbox 3), then I certainly wouldn't bury it. I'd sell my broken unit on Ebay. Lots of people like to buy things for either parts or the challenge of repair. EXAMPLE: When my Compaq DVD died, I bought a broken laptop for 10 bucks and ripped out the DVD player. Now my laptop is working again. Maybe someone would want a RROD 360 for the same reason.
If you have a wired controller (like me) you can use it with your PC to play emulated Atari, Nintendo, Sega, and Playstation games.
Those old games like Mario64 or Skies of Arcadia may look primitive but they are hella fun.
And free. :-)
>>>Health Care on the other hand is a bit different. Without health care, people tend to die or become financially ruined and dependent on the state and/or charity for survival.
>>>
Without healthcare people die.
With healthcare people die.
Either way it's the same result, so what's the point? IMHO better to accept fate, and maybe have some catastrophic insurance that covers major bills (over $10,000), but that's it. There's no need health insurance/government insurance rammed down my throat. I don't want it.
And that's my choice as a free person.