Well, if the ignition coil is shorted out (or even the condenser, on a points-based ignition system like on my 72 VW), then yes, one would be screwed. Those condensers are VERY sensitive. Most smart aircooled owners keep a spare on hand. The question is - would the spare be blown if it wasn't connected? It's 5 minutes to swap it. But there's still the coil. . .
MOST regular fuel-injection systems will still work, even with the brain fried. They'll work in what's called a "degraded mode" crappy performance, rough running, but you'll be able to drive.
Of course, my 30-year old carbed VW will be available as a Taxi service. I think I'll be charging about $1000/mile. That sounds about right.
The next killer app is music downloading and video on demand.
But since our legal system, and bandwidth to the home have not evolved, these two killer apps will not take root, and the home market demand will not escalate. Nobody wants to spend $1500 on a computer so they can then go spend $40/month on internet service, and another $20/month on music downloading, then another $50/month for Video on Demand, on top of their $40/month cable bill.
. .. Also, for the Pentagon strike, I would have tried to hit the CENTER of the building. That would have made it much more difficult for firefighters to put out the fire, and would have likely collapsed a large portion of the roof, instead of most of the impact going into the recently-reinforced side-wall.
If I were Mohommad Atta, and if I could do it all over again, I'd do the following:
Wait until 10 or 11am, so that more people would be in the buildings.
Steer the planes to hit LOWER in the towers, so that more people would have been trapped above the fires.
On the morning of 9/11, I woke up to see the first building already collapsed on the morning news, we knew the second building would most likely also collapse, and it did shortly after I woke. Then figures were quoted that 50,000 people work in those buildings. The fact that only 3000 or so were killed is an amazing stroke of good luck. Especially for the 47,000 who either got out, or hadn't shown up to work yet.
I just got through a rough BSOD incident with NT 4.0 - Although I wouldn't call the assistence I got from Microsoft "helpful", it did technically qualify as "support".
But Apple's really going to have to get their sh1t together on this - or they'll never be taken seriously in the Enterprise.
Now that I think about it - I don't think Apple's ever really put any thought at all to that anyway. The XServe's basically a prosumer device to appeal to the geeks who've always wanted a rack system in their home. You won't really ever see one in a real data center.
In a previous job, my employer had a special team of people called "Product Managers" - but their job was to go visit magazine reviewers, ensure that they got top of the line grade A technical support during the review process, including onsite support, and coded patches directly from the developer's desktop to the reviewer's. Additionally, there was wining and dining, and talk of strippers and lapdances (though I never witnessed that). In that sense, what was reviewed in no way bore any resemblance to the shring-wrapped package some poor sucker paid $699 for.
I'm no longer working in that sector, but for my 10 years, the practice was commonplace. Which is why I never read reviews.
One of the "fun" conspiracy theories out there about HAARP was that by altering the ionosphere, it was also altering the interaction between the earth's and sun's magnetic field, which was going to ultimately cause massive solar flares and knock the earth from it's orbit.
But my favorite one was the "death ray" theory - that one could reflect HAARP's signals off the ionosphere, and wack an entire city.
it's a PISS POOR manager who measures the value of an employee by how many hours they spend.
You measure an employee's value by what they produce. If a manager can't do that, then that person has no business being a manager. And if I could fire that person (all of them), I would.
I'm driving a 31 year old Volkswagen with - - who knows how many miles on it? About 20k since the last engine rebuild. 35 mph highway. Engine rebuild was about $200, top-end only. I should get another 50k miles, as long as I take care of it. Then I'll need a complete rebuild, about $1500. Should run another 100k miles.
Due to all the antique VW enthusiasts, and the fact that this care was the most widely sold car of all time, spare parts are plentiful and cheap.
If you don't need creature comforts like, air conditioning, leather seats, power steering, top speed over 80 mph, it's really an ideal car.
" If OPEC decides it wants to raise the price of oil again, we can just make more nuclear power plants"
No - the current political regime does not see things this way.
OPEC does not raise the price of oil. OPEC cuts supply. This has the effect of raising the price of oil. Which is enormously profitable for domestic oil producers. Who donate huge sums of money to politicians to ensure that this continues to happen.
So you see, there's NO incentive for domestic energy companies to abandon the profitable oil business and compete with other energy sources like nuclear, solar, wind, or faeries, and it doesn't have anything to do with whether a given technology is green or not. Has everything to do with how profitable it is to keep the market dependent on the artificially scarce resource.
You could further process the fuel though, and then get fissile material out of it. But for the Al Qaeda types out there, it'd probably be much easier to dig the stuff out of the ground and process it into weapons-grade, than to try to steal a useful quantity of fuel from one of these things.
I'm reading that series now. . . atomic this, and atomic that. Very amusing. But this article reminded me, we may be getting there. On the other hand, there are smaller radiothermal generators that have been in use for decades on deep space probes. So it's not all that amazing.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, if the ignition coil is shorted out (or even the condenser, on a points-based ignition system like on my 72 VW), then yes, one would be screwed. Those condensers are VERY sensitive. Most smart aircooled owners keep a spare on hand. The question is - would the spare be blown if it wasn't connected? It's 5 minutes to swap it. But there's still the coil. . .
The car-thing is pretty much a myth.
MOST regular fuel-injection systems will still work, even with the brain fried. They'll work in what's called a "degraded mode" crappy performance, rough running, but you'll be able to drive.
Of course, my 30-year old carbed VW will be available as a Taxi service. I think I'll be charging about $1000/mile. That sounds about right.
Damn.
I've never read a slashdot post that I've agreed with more than this one. (check my user id - I've been reading slashdot for a LONG time).
I'm sure that if you charge $1 a vote, it would be a very profitable business, and we'd have companies flocking to build these things.
What the hell, since the SCOTUS said that speech=money, it's not a big leap to say votes=money. Why not? No difference, really.
Prediction:
This will be the one PPC Platform where Microsoft will deliver a version of Virtual PC that works with the G5.
Yes - the freebies are essentially "promotional copies".
The next killer app is music downloading and video on demand.
But since our legal system, and bandwidth to the home have not evolved, these two killer apps will not take root, and the home market demand will not escalate. Nobody wants to spend $1500 on a computer so they can then go spend $40/month on internet service, and another $20/month on music downloading, then another $50/month for Video on Demand, on top of their $40/month cable bill.
. . .
Also, for the Pentagon strike, I would have tried to hit the CENTER of the building. That would have made it much more difficult for firefighters to put out the fire, and would have likely collapsed a large portion of the roof, instead of most of the impact going into the recently-reinforced side-wall.
Actually, we were VERY lucky on 9/11.
If I were Mohommad Atta, and if I could do it all over again, I'd do the following:
Wait until 10 or 11am, so that more people would be in the buildings.
Steer the planes to hit LOWER in the towers, so that more people would have been trapped above the fires.
On the morning of 9/11, I woke up to see the first building already collapsed on the morning news, we knew the second building would most likely also collapse, and it did shortly after I woke. Then figures were quoted that 50,000 people work in those buildings. The fact that only 3000 or so were killed is an amazing stroke of good luck. Especially for the 47,000 who either got out, or hadn't shown up to work yet.
I guess my freedom of speech was abridge at the brainwashing-level. Dang diddly-doodle sunday school teachers. . .
I just got through a rough BSOD incident with NT 4.0 - Although I wouldn't call the assistence I got from Microsoft "helpful", it did technically qualify as "support".
But Apple's really going to have to get their sh1t together on this - or they'll never be taken seriously in the Enterprise.
Now that I think about it - I don't think Apple's ever really put any thought at all to that anyway. The XServe's basically a prosumer device to appeal to the geeks who've always wanted a rack system in their home. You won't really ever see one in a real data center.
The software industry is RIFE with such abuses.
In a previous job, my employer had a special team of people called "Product Managers" - but their job was to go visit magazine reviewers, ensure that they got top of the line grade A technical support during the review process, including onsite support, and coded patches directly from the developer's desktop to the reviewer's. Additionally, there was wining and dining, and talk of strippers and lapdances (though I never witnessed that). In that sense, what was reviewed in no way bore any resemblance to the shring-wrapped package some poor sucker paid $699 for.
I'm no longer working in that sector, but for my 10 years, the practice was commonplace. Which is why I never read reviews.
One of the "fun" conspiracy theories out there about HAARP was that by altering the ionosphere, it was also altering the interaction between the earth's and sun's magnetic field, which was going to ultimately cause massive solar flares and knock the earth from it's orbit.
But my favorite one was the "death ray" theory - that one could reflect HAARP's signals off the ionosphere, and wack an entire city.
Um - rolling blackouts were caused by collusion and fraud among the power companies.
H.A.A.R.P.
try google.
SO I guess the pertenent question is:
Mach 5 at what altitude?
in the truth about basic human nature.
You can find nice people. But you have to look. Most of them aren't.
it's a PISS POOR manager who measures the value of an employee by how many hours they spend.
You measure an employee's value by what they produce. If a manager can't do that, then that person has no business being a manager. And if I could fire that person (all of them), I would.
I'm driving a 31 year old Volkswagen with - - who knows how many miles on it? About 20k since the last engine rebuild. 35 mph highway. Engine rebuild was about $200, top-end only. I should get another 50k miles, as long as I take care of it. Then I'll need a complete rebuild, about $1500. Should run another 100k miles.
Due to all the antique VW enthusiasts, and the fact that this care was the most widely sold car of all time, spare parts are plentiful and cheap.
If you don't need creature comforts like, air conditioning, leather seats, power steering, top speed over 80 mph, it's really an ideal car.
Yes, but by then, we won't give a rat's ass what these people want to do with their own shithole countries.
Outlaw spam, and only outlaws will get spammed?
apparently, mercedes DOES care, because they bought Chrysler. Why else would they buy friggin Chrysler?
" If OPEC decides it wants to raise the price of oil again, we can just make more nuclear power plants"
No - the current political regime does not see things this way.
OPEC does not raise the price of oil. OPEC cuts supply. This has the effect of raising the price of oil. Which is enormously profitable for domestic oil producers. Who donate huge sums of money to politicians to ensure that this continues to happen.
So you see, there's NO incentive for domestic energy companies to abandon the profitable oil business and compete with other energy sources like nuclear, solar, wind, or faeries, and it doesn't have anything to do with whether a given technology is green or not. Has everything to do with how profitable it is to keep the market dependent on the artificially scarce resource.
You could further process the fuel though, and then get fissile material out of it. But for the Al Qaeda types out there, it'd probably be much easier to dig the stuff out of the ground and process it into weapons-grade, than to try to steal a useful quantity of fuel from one of these things.
I'm reading that series now. . . atomic this, and atomic that. Very amusing. But this article reminded me, we may be getting there. On the other hand, there are smaller radiothermal generators that have been in use for decades on deep space probes. So it's not all that amazing.