Crackle is interesting because it's owned by Sony and is completely free to the viewer. I think the commercials are pretty minimal as well.
I watched one movie on Crackle, just to see what it was like, and every 15(?) minutes or so, my movie got interrupted, without any regard for whether it was the middle of a scene or not. Each time the same video-game ad was replayed. It was actually an interesting ad, but by the third sudden interruption I was about ready to stop watching and never come back. I think I prefer to pay a monthly fee than to put up with that sort of nonsense.
My car is 29 years old, I record TV shows on a 15 year old VCR, I also have 40+ year old audio devices (a tape recorder and a radio). They all work quite well despite the fact that there are newer versions of these devices out.
Of course, none of the examples you mention are involved in an arms race against hackers and script kiddies who are constantly looking for new ways to remotely reprogram them to steal your credit card info, etc. Therefore, any flaws in those devices that don't bother you personally can be safely overlooked.
If your computer is in any way connected to the outside world, on the other hand, it's a good idea to be running recent software so that known security holes will (hopefully) be patched.
It ignores any modern philosophical arguments for or against the existence of god, and instead mocks the "invisible (straw)man in the sky" view of religion.
True, but here's the thing -- the "invisible man in the sky" grade of religion is, at bottom, exactly what the vast majority of religious laypeople do in fact believe in. They don't like when people phrase it that way, of course, because it makes their religion sound silly. Clergy and philosophers might have more realistic and thoughtful ideas about God, but most people don't. So it's not really a straw man.
What is the point of having a debt limit if you just raise it every time you get up to it?
Originally, Congress had to individually approve every single expenditure, no matter how trivial. As the nation expanded and the number of expenditures grew, that quickly that become impractical. So in order to avoid spending all their time voting on e.g. $5,000 for toilet paper, they agreed to authorize yearly spending up to a given amount instead.
The point wasn't to limit spending, but rather to avoid governmental gridlock.
Re:WARNING! Late-breaking news from the Council!
on
NASA's Next Mars Rover
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Why do aliens have to have such silly names. Why can't they just be called Colin or Tim or something.
"Tim" is impossible to pronounce with pseudopods and a lenticular diaphram. ("Colin", OTOH, is pronounceable, but it translates to "fetid corpse of ancestor", so it's not a popular name)
The government knows that the riots will begin soon in the US, and they are trying to set things up to make it hard to communicate. Beware.
Of course the most insidious part of the government's plan was the pre-planting of paranoid conspiracy theories on all the major tech sites, so that when the time came, the Internet's system operators would turn on each other in a ferocious bloodbath of nerd terror.
Hell, most people can't change a wheel or check the windscreen washer fluid by themselves, how well do you think they'd cope with a quarter tonne battery?
Not very well, unless there was some sort of automated robotic battery-changing system.
But what if the contents of the battery are liquid, and "changing the battery" is just a matter of pumping the fluid out of the car's battery and into the the spare-charger/holding tank in your garage (and vice versa)? If that were the case, then a full recharge could be available for in just a minute or two; hook up the hose and press "Go" and let a pump swap the two volumes of liquid around.
A small fuel tank on a car would mean more stops, but with an electric car the recharge time may be overnight. Not much use.
I don't think there are (or ever will be) any electric cars that require you to recharge them overnight. You might want to recharge them overnight in order to get the charge level up to 100% for maximum range, but in cases where time is of the essence, there is always the option of just recharging for a short while, and completing your trip on the resulting partial charge.
The problem is charging them, and physics won't let you do that any quicker.
If all else fails, there's always double-buffering... keep two batteries (or even two cars), and use one while the other is charging. (Sure, there are issues to be solved with that as well, but they are only engineering problems, not apparently-unsolvable physics problems)
$29? For a software update? And you're happy about it? Wow. I've been running Windows XP for almost 10 years, and haven't spent another dime on it.
Upgrading a 10.x Mac to 10.7 is something like upgrading a Windows XP machine to Windows 7. How much would Microsoft charge you to do that?
Of course, if your main goal is to never spend a dime on your computer, then as a Mac owner you would be free to continue running your pre-installed version of MacOS/X without upgrading. Nobody is forcing anyone to upgrade.
You're right, it's very silly indeed when all you have to do is
You're missing the point... I don't want to "have to do" anything. Ideally, grandma should be able to buy her new Mac, take it home, plug it in, and do what she wants with it, without ever feeling the need to call me for help.
They all used to be in the applications and utilities folder. What could possibly be simpler than that?
Well, since you asked... what's easier is a "home page" that automatically appears, and automatically contains the icons of all your apps -- similar to how it works on the iPhone/iPad.
I agree it's a bit silly, but if it keeps me from having to tell my grandmother over the phone to "double click on the hard drive icon in the corner of the screen", and then spend the next 10 minutes explaining what a hard drive is, what the icon looks like (who outside of computer geeks knows that internal hard drives look like little silver boxes with a bar code?), and how to double-click on it, then I'm okay with that.
Bootstrapping a crypto currency is a fantastic thing to do. Bootstrapping one with the properties of bitcoin is just a disappointment.
Two possible outcomes: either Bitcoin (eventually) becomes a success, in which case yay, or Bitcoin fails for one reason or another, in which case we will have learned what not to do, and the next Bitcoin-like system will be able to take advantage of those lessons in its design. (Assuming Bitcoin hasn't put people off of the idea entirely by then, of course)
I'd guess from that little tidbit that not only have they not solved the problem, but have definitely encountered it in use and have no clue what to do.
They do have a solution -- include a free bag of coffee with each unit.
Slashdot Mirror
surely there must be a cheap way of pushing it? A bomb for example?
Keep in mind that the point of the exercise is to avoid orbital debris, not to create it.
OTOH, also take note of what an economy-class plane ticket used to cost. (Adjust for inflation, of course)
While batteries can't be dumped out of the plane after they are discharged.
Sure they can. ;^)
Why don't these same people complain about the federal budget as much as they have with Netflix?
People complain about taxes (aka the "billing" part of the federal budget).
Crackle is interesting because it's owned by Sony and is completely free to the viewer. I think the commercials are pretty minimal as well.
I watched one movie on Crackle, just to see what it was like, and every 15(?) minutes or so, my movie got interrupted, without any regard for whether it was the middle of a scene or not. Each time the same video-game ad was replayed. It was actually an interesting ad, but by the third sudden interruption I was about ready to stop watching and never come back. I think I prefer to pay a monthly fee than to put up with that sort of nonsense.
My car is 29 years old, I record TV shows on a 15 year old VCR, I also have 40+ year old audio devices (a tape recorder and a radio). They all work quite well despite the fact that there are newer versions of these devices out.
Of course, none of the examples you mention are involved in an arms race against hackers and script kiddies who are constantly looking for new ways to remotely reprogram them to steal your credit card info, etc. Therefore, any flaws in those devices that don't bother you personally can be safely overlooked.
If your computer is in any way connected to the outside world, on the other hand, it's a good idea to be running recent software so that known security holes will (hopefully) be patched.
Now all I need is a light saber and a blindfold, and I can complete my Jedi training.
It ignores any modern philosophical arguments for or against the existence of god, and instead mocks the "invisible (straw)man in the sky" view of religion.
True, but here's the thing -- the "invisible man in the sky" grade of religion is, at bottom, exactly what the vast majority of religious laypeople do in fact believe in. They don't like when people phrase it that way, of course, because it makes their religion sound silly. Clergy and philosophers might have more realistic and thoughtful ideas about God, but most people don't. So it's not really a straw man.
Mutilate what? They just nip the tip to make it look bigger. You don't get upset about breast enlargements do you ;-)
I do get upset when they are performed on infants...
Too bad Bitcoin will always have a demand imbalance compared to currencies that can be used to pay taxes.
OTOH, to the extent that Bitcoin can act as way for people to avoid paying taxes, it might just as easily become more valued instead.
At the end of the day, my computer has to work, or I won't be able to.
At the end of the day you should go home and relax. Don't burn yourself out!
What is the point of having a debt limit if you just raise it every time you get up to it?
Originally, Congress had to individually approve every single expenditure, no matter how trivial. As the nation expanded and the number of expenditures grew, that quickly that become impractical. So in order to avoid spending all their time voting on e.g. $5,000 for toilet paper, they agreed to authorize yearly spending up to a given amount instead.
The point wasn't to limit spending, but rather to avoid governmental gridlock.
Why do aliens have to have such silly names. Why can't they just be called Colin or Tim or something.
"Tim" is impossible to pronounce with pseudopods and a lenticular diaphram. ("Colin", OTOH, is pronounceable, but it translates to "fetid corpse of ancestor", so it's not a popular name)
The government knows that the riots will begin soon in the US, and they are trying to set things up to make it hard to communicate. Beware.
Of course the most insidious part of the government's plan was the pre-planting of paranoid conspiracy theories on all the major tech sites, so that when the time came, the Internet's system operators would turn on each other in a ferocious bloodbath of nerd terror.
Hell, most people can't change a wheel or check the windscreen washer fluid by themselves, how well do you think they'd cope with a quarter tonne battery?
Not very well, unless there was some sort of automated robotic battery-changing system.
But what if the contents of the battery are liquid, and "changing the battery" is just a matter of pumping the fluid out of the car's battery and into the the spare-charger/holding tank in your garage (and vice versa)? If that were the case, then a full recharge could be available for in just a minute or two; hook up the hose and press "Go" and let a pump swap the two volumes of liquid around.
That's because electric cars make no financial sense at this point in time and probably won't any time soon.
.... as long as the price of gas doesn't rise too much.
A small fuel tank on a car would mean more stops, but with an electric car the recharge time may be overnight. Not much use.
I don't think there are (or ever will be) any electric cars that require you to recharge them overnight. You might want to recharge them overnight in order to get the charge level up to 100% for maximum range, but in cases where time is of the essence, there is always the option of just recharging for a short while, and completing your trip on the resulting partial charge.
The problem is charging them, and physics won't let you do that any quicker.
If all else fails, there's always double-buffering... keep two batteries (or even two cars), and use one while the other is charging. (Sure, there are issues to be solved with that as well, but they are only engineering problems, not apparently-unsolvable physics problems)
$29? For a software update? And you're happy about it? Wow. I've been running Windows XP for almost 10 years, and haven't spent another dime on it.
Upgrading a 10.x Mac to 10.7 is something like upgrading a Windows XP machine to Windows 7. How much would Microsoft charge you to do that?
Of course, if your main goal is to never spend a dime on your computer, then as a Mac owner you would be free to continue running your pre-installed version of MacOS/X without upgrading. Nobody is forcing anyone to upgrade.
You're right, it's very silly indeed when all you have to do is
You're missing the point... I don't want to "have to do" anything. Ideally, grandma should be able to buy her new Mac, take it home, plug it in, and do what she wants with it, without ever feeling the need to call me for help.
They all used to be in the applications and utilities folder. What could possibly be simpler than that?
Well, since you asked... what's easier is a "home page" that automatically appears, and automatically contains the icons of all your apps -- similar to how it works on the iPhone/iPad.
I agree it's a bit silly, but if it keeps me from having to tell my grandmother over the phone to "double click on the hard drive icon in the corner of the screen", and then spend the next 10 minutes explaining what a hard drive is, what the icon looks like (who outside of computer geeks knows that internal hard drives look like little silver boxes with a bar code?), and how to double-click on it, then I'm okay with that.
Wow, the video on that page looks and sounds just like a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy excerpt.
Bootstrapping a crypto currency is a fantastic thing to do. Bootstrapping one with the properties of bitcoin is just a disappointment.
Two possible outcomes: either Bitcoin (eventually) becomes a success, in which case yay, or Bitcoin fails for one reason or another, in which case we will have learned what not to do, and the next Bitcoin-like system will be able to take advantage of those lessons in its design. (Assuming Bitcoin hasn't put people off of the idea entirely by then, of course)
Yeah, Satan is the ruler of this system of things. But a new king is coming; be awake and be ready.
Damn straight. And Cthulu's reign of terror is going to make Satan's era look like the good old days...
I'd guess from that little tidbit that not only have they not solved the problem, but have definitely encountered it in use and have no clue what to do.
They do have a solution -- include a free bag of coffee with each unit.