Yes, indeed, you might speed up the conversion *time* but you're still not going to get any more *energy* than what is provided by sunlight and starter chemicals.
Is there some kind of sunlight shortage that I'm unaware of?
Doesn't this then obviate the need for Orwellian monitoring of it's citizens since their stated justification is such a low level threat?
Probably -- but it would depend on the cost of allowing a terrorist plot to succeed. (e.g. if the plot was using pressure cookers, that's one thing, but if it's using stolen nuclear weapons, the risk/reward calculations are different)
why is there a "need" for all of this. they arent stopping "terrorism" nor are they really using it in a way thats stopping any major crimes.
I don't mean to defend the program, but what makes you so certain it does not (and cannot) detect terrorist plots? That would be the stated purpose, anyway, and when a plot is detected and pre-empted, they wouldn't publicize how they did it, as doing so would give other terrorists information on how to avoid detection.
Binary thinking is an oversimplification -- it's perfectly possible for a program to be both an Orwellian privacy nightmare AND an effective tool for catching terrorists.
Depends on how often the supercharger is in use. Obviously they aren't going to power the supercharger directly from the solar panels; rather they pull power from the grid when a car is charging, and then use the panels to "roll back the meter" to (ideally) zero again.
Imagine the tantrum North Korea will throw when one of these drifts through its airspace and gives the population unfiltered Internet access.
Pissing off the North Korean government is indeed a nice extra feature... we enjoy pissing them off, they enjoy being pissed off. It's win/win!
Of course it won't help the North Koreans citizens much unless they have a compatible antenna and a computer to attach to it, which seems unlikely for the forseeable future.:^(
Most will fall in the sea. Then they will get eaten by turtles. Think of the turtles...
Wi-fi enabled turtles, hacking into through the Google backbone and taking over the Internet. You'll long for the good old days when it was only the NSA...
There is utterly nothing you can do to be sure you're not vulnerable to government snooping.
Well, there's always the air gap -- keep your git-hosting computer in a secret place, never connect it to any network or external hardware, and ideally never power it on either:^)
OTOH, if your software is open-source anyway, it's hard to see why anyone would feel the need to hack the server to get to it.
...make you think it's a really good idea to zap vague areas of your brain with electricity based on the hilariously incomplete field of neuroscience?
Yeah, it's really dumb, but so is sniffing glue, or using meth, or cocaine, or smoking cigarettes, or any of several dozen other unhealthy habits you could name.
There are plenty of people out their who are willing to ignore any amount of long-term consequences in return for a short-term reward.
This all assumes that large-scale interstellar space travel is economically feasible for a sufficiently advanced civilization.
It's just as likely that it isn't (eg sending the Lizard Armada to another star requires way more energy than the Lizards are willing to spend, even if we are delicious) and therefore we as a species are safe wrt being eaten.
I wouldn't really call a Xeon or Dual AMD FirePro GPUs "Laptop Hardware", however putting them in a barely serviceable enclosure surely is laptop-esque.
It looks pretty serviceable to me... take the cover off, and the hardware is all accessible, arranged around the perimeter. I'm probably missing something obvious, though...
Since Apple has advertised the unit as supporting three 4K displays out of the box, obviously at least three of those Thunderbolt 2 ports can be used for DisplayPort video.
I wonder, what is the maximum number of (non-4K) displays this machine can drive simultaneously? I suppose I could physically attach 37....:^)
My first thought was that with its cover off it looks like the Death Star apparatus that Obi Wan shut down to disable the tractor beam. (er, if Obi Wan was 5 inches tall, of course)
Well, mainly because they're Apple and won't be happy until they've covered all of the Platonic solids... but also it looks like they were trying to maximize cooling efficiency via a "central chimney" with a fan at the top and various heat-producing devices around the perimeter. That way the single fan can cool everything at once.
Pray tell us all, just how does a phone tap prevent some fuck with a boxcutter breaking a secured door to an aircraft cockpit and flying it into a building?
By getting him caught and arrested before he gets to the airport... at least that's the intent. I have no idea how effective that might be in practice (and neither do you).
(Note: I fully support what Snowden did here, and I'm against wholesale government monitoring of communications. But let's not pretend that they are entirely ineffective in countering terrorism either; they probably do help in some cases. Whether they work or not isn't the question, the question is whether they are worth the risks they pose to a free society)
The fact that at a later stage, through incompetence on the part of some of the pros, the whole lot got out, isn't the fault of Manning.
That's a charitable reading. I'm sure the intelligence industry would say that it is the fault of Manning, because Manning released the information to people whose competence had not been verified.
The whole program that he exposed was essentially search without warrants on every damn US citizen. That's the fucking crime.
It might be a sin, but it's not a crime. A crime is when someone does something against the law. What the NSA was/is doing isn't against the law, because Congress passed legislation specifically to ensure that the law permits it.
It might be unconstitutional, but it will be up to the Supreme Court to rule on that if/when a related lawsuit reaches them.
Why don't we prosecute unsafe/elderly drivers? That would save far more lives and not risk loss of freedom.
People do get prosecuted for reckless driving.
OTOH if you mean prosecuting people who the government suspects might drive recklessly in the future (Minority Report style?)... it's to imagine how that wouldn't be seen as a loss of freedom.
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Yes, indeed, you might speed up the conversion *time* but you're still not going to get any more *energy* than what is provided by sunlight and starter chemicals.
Is there some kind of sunlight shortage that I'm unaware of?
Doesn't this then obviate the need for Orwellian monitoring of it's citizens since their stated justification is such a low level threat?
Probably -- but it would depend on the cost of allowing a terrorist plot to succeed. (e.g. if the plot was using pressure cookers, that's one thing, but if it's using stolen nuclear weapons, the risk/reward calculations are different)
i didnt say that cant, im saying they arent. if this program was so effective they would be singing its praises nonstop, by their own admission
Only if they thought they could do so without compromising the program's continued effectiveness.
In any case, the more likely answer to your question is that there simply aren't that many terrorist plots around to foil.
why is there a "need" for all of this. they arent stopping "terrorism" nor are they really using it in a way thats stopping any major crimes.
I don't mean to defend the program, but what makes you so certain it does not (and cannot) detect terrorist plots? That would be the stated purpose, anyway, and when a plot is detected and pre-empted, they wouldn't publicize how they did it, as doing so would give other terrorists information on how to avoid detection.
Binary thinking is an oversimplification -- it's perfectly possible for a program to be both an Orwellian privacy nightmare AND an effective tool for catching terrorists.
Depends on how often the supercharger is in use. Obviously they aren't going to power the supercharger directly from the solar panels; rather they pull power from the grid when a car is charging, and then use the panels to "roll back the meter" to (ideally) zero again.
Is creating terror for non-religious, non-political reasons not still terrorism?
Even if the guy's sole motivation is to get his 15 minutes of fame, using terror to achieve that goal makes him a terrorist.
Imagine the tantrum North Korea will throw when one of these drifts through its airspace and gives the population unfiltered Internet access.
Pissing off the North Korean government is indeed a nice extra feature... we enjoy pissing them off, they enjoy being pissed off. It's win/win!
Of course it won't help the North Koreans citizens much unless they have a compatible antenna and a computer to attach to it, which seems unlikely for the forseeable future. :^(
Most will fall in the sea. Then they will get eaten by turtles. Think of the turtles...
Wi-fi enabled turtles, hacking into through the Google backbone and taking over the Internet. You'll long for the good old days when it was only the NSA...
Why would you put control circuitry that doesn't wear out into the replaceable part that *does* wear out instead of into the fixture that holds it?
One of the advantages of LED bulbs is that they don't wear out for a very long time. It wouldn't surprise me if they outlast the control circuitry.
Google Glass is too nerd for common people.
I remember when the name "iPad" would provoke giggles.
There is utterly nothing you can do to be sure you're not vulnerable to government snooping.
Well, there's always the air gap -- keep your git-hosting computer in a secret place, never connect it to any network or external hardware, and ideally never power it on either :^)
OTOH, if your software is open-source anyway, it's hard to see why anyone would feel the need to hack the server to get to it.
...make you think it's a really good idea to zap vague areas of your brain with electricity based on the hilariously incomplete field of neuroscience?
Yeah, it's really dumb, but so is sniffing glue, or using meth, or cocaine, or smoking cigarettes, or any of several dozen other unhealthy habits you could name.
There are plenty of people out their who are willing to ignore any amount of long-term consequences in return for a short-term reward.
This all assumes that large-scale interstellar space travel is economically feasible for a sufficiently advanced civilization.
It's just as likely that it isn't (eg sending the Lizard Armada to another star requires way more energy than the Lizards are willing to spend, even if we are delicious) and therefore we as a species are safe wrt being eaten.
A Volt will do 1000 mpg if you charge it every 40 miles... ;)
I wouldn't really call a Xeon or Dual AMD FirePro GPUs "Laptop Hardware", however putting them in a barely serviceable enclosure surely is laptop-esque.
It looks pretty serviceable to me... take the cover off, and the hardware is all accessible, arranged around the perimeter. I'm probably missing something obvious, though...
Since Apple has advertised the unit as supporting three 4K displays out of the box, obviously at least three of those Thunderbolt 2 ports can be used for DisplayPort video.
I wonder, what is the maximum number of (non-4K) displays this machine can drive simultaneously? I suppose I could physically attach 37.... :^)
My first thought was that with its cover off it looks like the Death Star apparatus that Obi Wan shut down to disable the tractor beam. (er, if Obi Wan was 5 inches tall, of course)
These new machines are going to be obsoleted much faster.
That's a good point. Perhaps this design is more like a high-end Mac Mini than an upgraded Mac Pro?
I mean really... why?
Well, mainly because they're Apple and won't be happy until they've covered all of the Platonic solids... but also it looks like they were trying to maximize cooling efficiency via a "central chimney" with a fan at the top and various heat-producing devices around the perimeter. That way the single fan can cool everything at once.
MacOS and iOS need to merge - We need to be able to use our data and our applications no matter what the hardware.
So this would be like the Mac version of Windows 8?
No thanks. :P
which will unfortunately wipe the hard-disk reducing its usefulness significantly but the hipsters won't notice because it pretty.
Hard... disk? Was that some sort of primitive SSD? ;)
Pray tell us all, just how does a phone tap prevent some fuck with a boxcutter breaking a secured door to an aircraft cockpit and flying it into a building?
By getting him caught and arrested before he gets to the airport... at least that's the intent. I have no idea how effective that might be in practice (and neither do you).
(Note: I fully support what Snowden did here, and I'm against wholesale government monitoring of communications. But let's not pretend that they are entirely ineffective in countering terrorism either; they probably do help in some cases. Whether they work or not isn't the question, the question is whether they are worth the risks they pose to a free society)
The fact that at a later stage, through incompetence on the part of some of the pros, the whole lot got out, isn't the fault of Manning.
That's a charitable reading. I'm sure the intelligence industry would say that it is the fault of Manning, because Manning released the information to people whose competence had not been verified.
The whole program that he exposed was essentially search without warrants on every damn US citizen. That's the fucking crime.
It might be a sin, but it's not a crime. A crime is when someone does something against the law. What the NSA was/is doing isn't against the law, because Congress passed legislation specifically to ensure that the law permits it.
It might be unconstitutional, but it will be up to the Supreme Court to rule on that if/when a related lawsuit reaches them.
Why don't we prosecute unsafe/elderly drivers? That would save far more lives and not risk loss of freedom.
People do get prosecuted for reckless driving.
OTOH if you mean prosecuting people who the government suspects might drive recklessly in the future (Minority Report style?)... it's to imagine how that wouldn't be seen as a loss of freedom.