The problem isn't the procedure, it's the prep. No food, a gallon of unpleasant-tasting liquid, and hours and hours of watery diarrhea.
Ask your doctor about a product called Pico-Salax. I've had it twice now for colonoscopies, and it's so much better than the 'gallon of antifreeze' prep that I'll never go back. It's still not pleasant, but no terrible taste, and no nausea.
Another tip - spread Vaseline in the ol' butt crack before your date with the toilet, and re-apply as necessary. It prevents the 'diaper rash' that makes the experience even more miserable.
In addition to not wanting any more of my life in Google's hands than they already possess, I just always thought the UI of their webmail was worse than average - and that's saying a lot when the best webmail interfaces are merely sucky instead of terrible.
Arguably, the only smart feature everyone needs is the spam filter.
Nope, don't need that either. It's valuable to some extent on my throwaway email addresses, where I might get a dozen or two spam emails in a week. But I simply don't get spam on my primary email address, and I never run spam filters on it. I've been careful with my email address, and I do everything I can to make sure that spammers don't inconvenience me even to the extent of having to dig through a spam folder to find the stuff that doesn't belong there.
My biggest problem with Gmail is that some of my friends us it. That's at least as much of a liability as having friends who use Facebook. And I feel the same way about Gmail as I do about Facebook - I wish it would just die.
One could argue that monitoring people’s movement with WIFI signals and without their consent is still a privacy violation. It is no different than using hidden cameras, just different wavelengths.
Average citizens no longer care about privacy invasion. Hell, they're no longer in a position to even define privacy. 'Reality' TV shows, pervasive video surveillance, selling out themselves and all their acquaintances on Facebook, and turning a blind, (or not so blind), eye to the advertisers that stalk them around the Web - I'd say "privacy" is pretty much a meaningless word now among the majority of folks.
Thanks for saying what needed to be said, and for doing it so well:
OK, so were removing from your phone any app that isn't G+ or Facebook. Its for your protection and that's the entire internet anyway.
Still feel safe?
How about we prohibit any retail store not called McDonald's, Walmart, Pizza Hut, and Lowes to cut down on illegal products and bad local service providers?
Want more?
Starting today Comcast is the only ISP allowed in America, as they have a vested interest in your protection that no one else has.
Also Verizon is now the only allowed cellphone provider in the US for obvious reasons.
If you can't figure out what the red light in an intersection is for, you shouldn't be driving a car. The same is true about extensions or any code for that matter. If there isn't a known reason why you need it beyond "because we said so", you shouldn't install it. And if you can't figure out how to remove them, then you shouldn't be using one period. Actually think before you click yes to everything, and you might not get hosed so easily. That's not the fault of others. Its your own fault, and you need to learn to take responsibility for your own actions instead of whining to the rest of us for protection at our detriment. I have a better idea: if you can't learn to use a web browser correctly, then you should be kicked off the internet.
I love reading stories like this. They best way to protect the environment is to make it profitable to do so. This is absolutely how we win.
I fully agree. I would add that the fuels created by this new process would be even more profitable in comparison with fossil fuels, if said fuels were realistically priced to reflect their true cost. Governments should be taxing oil to a degree that fully funds remediation for spills and the environmental damage they cause, the health impacts of fracking on local water supplies, AGW, depletion of non-renewable resources, deferred costs passed on to future generations, etc. Pricing fuels according to their true cost, (as opposed to the current voodoo economics calculations currently in use), would make even very expensive carbon-neutral options cheap by comparison.
Guarantee you that The Expanse was saved by pirates downloading the show. If it wasn't for the response of the pirate community on forums and chats to go buy the show on Amazon, it would have been cancelled.
It just amazes me how little these idiots underestimate this medium and the pirate community. How completely under utilized it is for many shows to gauge if a show is popular or not. You can actually tell if a tv show is absolutely shit by looking how many seeders it has on torrent sites.
People pirate because they want to see if it's worth watching.
Importantly, what this is saying is that a portion of the population that pirates do so for reasons that the distributors control or can address.
Increasingly draconian DRM and punitive punishment does little to either decrease piracy or create more customers.
Increasing the ease of access to content and either lowering price and/or offering some kind of tiered pricing will do both.
Exactly. Sometimes I'll simply order CD's and videos from Amazon or from my local used-CD-and-video store. Sometimes I torrent stuff because I want it now, and I'm just not into subscribing to anything. I may keep only the torrent - possibly because I don't like the content as much as I thought I would, or I can't find it elsewhere, or it's ridiculously expensive because of various 'artificial scarcity' mechanisms. But in a fairly high percentage of cases, I'll buy a CD after I download an album. I like having something I can hold and look at, and the sound may be better than what I downloaded.
I also like to have the 'hold in my hand and put on a shelf' experience with movies. But the DRM, and the unskippable FBI warnings, advertisements, and other 'action not allowed' shit that videos are encumbered with, makes buying the physical object a much less compelling prospect. If they were easier to rip and copy, then I'd buy, rip, and have the content conveniently on my Patriot Player and on my computer. But since ripping is a pain in the ass, and somebody else has graciously already done that part and posted it for others to enjoy, I often torrent it and forego the actual disc.
I do my best to buy stuff that enables and supports my autonomy and my right to do with my purchases as I see fit. But those who cause prices to be too high via artificial scarcity, or who want me to pay more for something that's less convenient and flexible, or who attempt to control what I buy AFTER I buy it - well, they get WAY less of my money than they would if they weren't such cowering control freaks.
Listening to all that shit is enough to want to off myself.
Seriously, it's finger pointing and blaming you lefties are doing which is driving everyone down the hole.
"Finger pointing" is usually taken to mean singling out a person or group for blame. I didn't see that anywhere in the post you're whining about. OTOH - "lefties"? Who's doing the finger pointing here? Look in the mirror, Mr. AC Dolt!
Sanctimonious bunch of hypocrites the lot of you... Keep destroying the family... Keep promoting divisions between folks.
Who's more sanctimonious and divisive? The OP, who is simply pointing out legitimate problems? Or you, who clings to 'family values' tropes, and blames a statement of verifiable facts for "promoting divisions"?
You're all so blind you've lost touch with reality.
Say what? You've just stuck your fingers in your ears and started singing "la la la la", so don't be lecturing others about their hold on reality.
You cross the line, forget to respect the boundries that maintain a healthy medium for everyone else.
In the context of this discussion, there's so much out of place in what you've just said, that it's hard to know where to start. What line was crossed in the OP? What "boundries" weren't respected? How does one maintain a "healthy medium" when the suicide rate is up 30% and the planet is crumbling? Here's a hint - your cherished family values ain't worth shit unless you accept that your "family" is the entire human race. That includes the creepy uncles, serial killers, and despots, as well as the kind aunts, great artists, and those who put their lives on the line for their fellow man - and everybody in between.
If you were trolling - and I suspect you were - then please continue. I'm happy to build houses with your sticks and stones - especially when they fail to hit the mark and simply fall at my feet, ready to be turned into something that's possibly helpful.
Texting is fun, lightly asynchronous, and possible to do with many people simultaneously.
I find texting to be a distracting pain in the ass, and if a text thread goes beyond a few messaged in the space of an hour, I'm either placing a call or dropping the thread. Texting is a thoroughly inefficient way of communicating when compared with two-way speech, even if you don't consider that it's WAY harder to text and do something else than it is to talk and do something else.
... words mixed with emoji, Bitmoji, reaction gifs...
I hate those damned things - they're un-subtle, annoying, tacky, and cheesy. Fortunately, I only get stuck with Emoji - I had to look up the other two for this comment. And if THEY start showing up, I'm going back to a flip phone.
Texting definitely has its uses, and I appreciate what it brought to the party; but it is in NO WAY a substitute for talking, and any graphic elements beyond specific and personal pictures and videos are the ugly garden trolls and velvet paintings of the smartphone world. Now get off of my lawn, dammit!
I'm probably missing something glaringly obvious that will make me look stupid, but I'll throw this out there anyway. Wouldn't there be a pretty specific IR / spectral absorption profile for CFC-11, or at least for CFC's in general? If the rate of release is that great, wouldn't there be a chance of satellite fly-overs narrowing down the location significantly, if not actually pinpointing it?
What about the discrimination on the part of potential employers against applicants who simply don't use social media at all, and therefore aren't on FB? That can't be fixed by any action on the part of FB or partners. It's also difficult to prove, grossly unfair, and pretty much impossible to do anything about in the absence of legislation and a serious effort at enforcement.
+1 Insightful - it's at least an ideology, and perhaps even a religion.
In the case of operating systems, for example, or let's take iOS on Apple iPhones, there is not really the expectation of being able to put Android on it.
You need to stop being enslaved by Corporate ideology, and stop arguing against your best interest.
Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'. Governments should not get involved in this.
Seems to me that it IS a right, similar to and related to 'right to repair'. In what fundamental way is after-market software different from the after-market hardware used to repair phones? And how is locking the software down to one vendor's offering different from locking the hardware against third-party replacement services and parts?
Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'... Vote with your wallet. If people want phones whose bootloader they can unlock, they should stop buying Huawei phones immediately.
And what happens when ALL vendors refuse to allow bootloader unlocking? In that scenario "vote with your wallet" means not owning a phone, period.
Governments should not get involved in this.
Too late - governments are already involved. And to the extent that those governments practise various forms of corporate welfare, they also have the right to exercise a certain amount of control and direction when it comes to such things as unlockable bootloaders in phones.
that the CEO of one of the world's largest and most important tech companies can spout so much blatant, blithering nonsense? This missive sounds like one those pseudo-profound 'revelations' that rock the worlds of people who are very stoned on really good weed. Most of these people, when they come down from the high, recognize the sophomoric and pedestrian nature of their 'insights'. Maybe Satya is still stoned - or maybe he simply has that combination of narcissism and stupidity that that is the hallmark of those who habitually have their heads up their own asses.
Thanks for the link. I've never heard of that movie before - and I'm old enough to have seen Coburn's 'Flint' movies in first run at the local theatre. Now all I have to do is find a copy...
... will be available in the vast majority of mobile devices
... will be mandated for every phone sold in North America
Eventually, owning and carrying a smartphone will be compulsory - it will serve as your government ID and will sub for driver's licence, passport, Social Insurance / Social Security card, health card, etc. There will be no rooting, no disabling of location services, no turning off mobile data and WiFi. 'Airplane Mode' will be turned off and on automatically - there will be a separate always-on low-power RF transceiver specifically for that purpose. If you are allowed to turn your phone off, it won't be fully off - it will be recording audio all the time. Letting your battery die without a damned good excuse will be a criminal offence. As will putting your phone in a Faraday cage.
Part of me kinda thinks I'm just trolling here - but the bigger part is afraid that much of what I've outlined above may really come to pass. After all, if I could go back to 1980 and tell my then-self what happens in the world after 2000, that earlier self would be totally incredulous.
That's irrelevant. The idea has been conceived and disseminated. The initial dissemination was among people with the power and the resources to make it a real-world experiment. Do you really Google doesn't have the arrogance, the hubris, and the power-lust to start implementing this?
This was a video that the source reports was released internally with the intention of showing unsettling things they do not plan on doing.
They may "not plan on doing", but do they "plan on not doing"? Besides, to hear Google tell it, they planned to not be evil - and look at them now.
Another non-story.
Google has a history of at least trying out the wild shit their people dream up. And I'm pretty sure the insularity of Silly Valley's denizens renders many of them immune to the consideration that using the rest of as lab rats is in any way immoral or inappropriate. Even at that, this would be a non-story only if Google wasn't already fully capable of rolling out such a scheme in a short time frame.
...the tube amp distortion might sound good to some people, but it is still distortion.
I am getting so sick of this "tubes sound good because they add distortion" meme that I'm ready to spit. A GOOD tube amplifier, (single-ended, built with triodes that have very linear specs), sounds better than just about any solid-state amp. The subject is way too complex to go into here, but have a look at Lynn Olson's investigations at http://www.nutshellhifi.com/li.... In short, The way THD is calculated makes it a very poor metric for the quality of audio reproduction. Here are a few hints: 1) Odd-order harmonics, and higher-order harmonics, are both much more audible and much more objectionable than low-order and even-order harmonics. This has been known since at least the 1940's, perhaps earlier. 2) THD measurements treat ALL spurious harmonics as if they contribute equally to degradation of sound quality. 3) Solid-state devices, pentode tubes, and push-pull amplifier topologies using any kind of amplifying device, require fairly large amounts of negative feedback. Although NFB results in better THD performance, it also results in more high-order and odd-order harmonic content. 4) Good triode tubes in a competently-designed amplifier have better intrinsic linearity than any other amplifying device available. Consequently, they require less NFB, and therefore generate less high-order and odd-order distortion.
In short, THD is a shitty figure-of-merit because its manner of calculation was chosen to make pentode-based push-pull amps look good on paper. Well-respected audio engineers at the top of their field argued for THD being calculated using either the square, or even the cube, of the order of the harmonic. They lost the argument, likely 'because business'. And since then, generations of techs have blindly believed that if it measures low in THD, it's all good. Distressingly often, that just ain't so.
And then there's the consideration of IMD, which adds a whole 'nother level of complexity.
It's true that he can easily evade this if he wants to, although it is kinda embarrassing to be effectively barred from visiting a country because you don't want to answer questions about the scandals you presided over.
I think it's a little more than just embarrassing. The optics of him NOT going are pretty dismal - especially given Facebook's implicit reliance on the 'if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear' meme. If he has nothing to hide, why shouldn't he just go and face the British parliament?
Besides, if things start to get rough, he can always call out the British government on its own extensive surveillance network and its own privacy-busting legislation.
The question is "will the merger bring more competition." This is one of the areas where there valid debate. Generally fewer players = less competition, but in the case that you have two market dominators and two minor market participants, the merger of the two minor market participants to create a third market dominator class organization, the answer is more ambiguous and would require a real in depth analysis to come up with a reasonable conclusion.
My guess is that there will be more competition initially, both to gain the new entity a greater market share, and to lull the critics and the regulators into a false sense of security. After the growth of new accounts starts to level off, and the critics are focused on the next big example of capitalistic abuse, SprintMobile's prices will go up and/or their service quality will decline, and there will be a 'triopoly'. Ineffectual mutterings and remonstrations will follow, but will be ignored and forgotten in a couple of news cycles.
I don't think "in depth analysis" is any likelier to result in an accurate prediction here than my wild-assed guess is.
it can be regularly updated with not just fixes, but new features, too.
Sure - new "features". I bet that includes, (if it hasn't already), disabling / removing applications without regard to the customer's wishes, and/or turning off a previously free application or feature until the customer pays for it.
I'm so glad I was able to leave the Windows ecosystem behind. For all the flaws I find in Linux, I'm so, so grateful for it, and for the people who keep it alive. Any time I have to use Windows, I feel vaguely unclean.
The AM broadcast-band, (and its close relatives, the short wave bands), allow for long-distance radio communications. Even in the daytime the coverage is pretty good; but at night, when the ionosphere allows for 'running skip', its reach is truly impressive. There may be times in the future when that's crucial for reaching people over very large geographical areas. We really need to backstop our wired networks with wireless analog broadcast capability. It can reach anybody who has a $5 pocket radio, it continues to work even when all you have is batteries or generators and a tower, and it doesn't rely on hard links that can easily be broken. And it's already there, fer chrissake - all we have to do is maintain it.
They're the genetic counterpart of Facebook. Even when you explicitly don't sign on for that crap, you're still swept up in it. It's good that they caught the guy and all; but it's going to be bad when insurance companies and potential employers use genealogy databases to deny coverage and jobs to blood relatives of those who have 'undesirable' or 'risky' something-something-somethings.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem isn't the procedure, it's the prep. No food, a gallon of unpleasant-tasting liquid, and hours and hours of watery diarrhea.
Ask your doctor about a product called Pico-Salax. I've had it twice now for colonoscopies, and it's so much better than the 'gallon of antifreeze' prep that I'll never go back. It's still not pleasant, but no terrible taste, and no nausea.
Another tip - spread Vaseline in the ol' butt crack before your date with the toilet, and re-apply as necessary. It prevents the 'diaper rash' that makes the experience even more miserable.
In addition to not wanting any more of my life in Google's hands than they already possess, I just always thought the UI of their webmail was worse than average - and that's saying a lot when the best webmail interfaces are merely sucky instead of terrible.
Arguably, the only smart feature everyone needs is the spam filter.
Nope, don't need that either. It's valuable to some extent on my throwaway email addresses, where I might get a dozen or two spam emails in a week. But I simply don't get spam on my primary email address, and I never run spam filters on it. I've been careful with my email address, and I do everything I can to make sure that spammers don't inconvenience me even to the extent of having to dig through a spam folder to find the stuff that doesn't belong there.
My biggest problem with Gmail is that some of my friends us it. That's at least as much of a liability as having friends who use Facebook. And I feel the same way about Gmail as I do about Facebook - I wish it would just die.
One could argue that monitoring people’s movement with WIFI signals and without their consent is still a privacy violation. It is no different than using hidden cameras, just different wavelengths.
Average citizens no longer care about privacy invasion. Hell, they're no longer in a position to even define privacy. 'Reality' TV shows, pervasive video surveillance, selling out themselves and all their acquaintances on Facebook, and turning a blind, (or not so blind), eye to the advertisers that stalk them around the Web - I'd say "privacy" is pretty much a meaningless word now among the majority of folks.
Thanks for saying what needed to be said, and for doing it so well:
OK, so were removing from your phone any app that isn't G+ or Facebook. Its for your protection and that's the entire internet anyway.
Still feel safe?
How about we prohibit any retail store not called McDonald's, Walmart, Pizza Hut, and Lowes to cut down on illegal products and bad local service providers?
Want more?
Starting today Comcast is the only ISP allowed in America, as they have a vested interest in your protection that no one else has.
Also Verizon is now the only allowed cellphone provider in the US for obvious reasons.
If you can't figure out what the red light in an intersection is for, you shouldn't be driving a car. The same is true about extensions or any code for that matter. If there isn't a known reason why you need it beyond "because we said so", you shouldn't install it. And if you can't figure out how to remove them, then you shouldn't be using one period. Actually think before you click yes to everything, and you might not get hosed so easily. That's not the fault of others. Its your own fault, and you need to learn to take responsibility for your own actions instead of whining to the rest of us for protection at our detriment. I have a better idea: if you can't learn to use a web browser correctly, then you should be kicked off the internet.
I love reading stories like this. They best way to protect the environment is to make it profitable to do so. This is absolutely how we win.
I fully agree. I would add that the fuels created by this new process would be even more profitable in comparison with fossil fuels, if said fuels were realistically priced to reflect their true cost. Governments should be taxing oil to a degree that fully funds remediation for spills and the environmental damage they cause, the health impacts of fracking on local water supplies, AGW, depletion of non-renewable resources, deferred costs passed on to future generations, etc. Pricing fuels according to their true cost, (as opposed to the current voodoo economics calculations currently in use), would make even very expensive carbon-neutral options cheap by comparison.
Guarantee you that The Expanse was saved by pirates downloading the show. If it wasn't for the response of the pirate community on forums and chats to go buy the show on Amazon, it would have been cancelled.
It just amazes me how little these idiots underestimate this medium and the pirate community. How completely under utilized it is for many shows to gauge if a show is popular or not. You can actually tell if a tv show is absolutely shit by looking how many seeders it has on torrent sites.
People pirate because they want to see if it's worth watching.
Importantly, what this is saying is that a portion of the population that pirates do so for reasons that the distributors control or can address.
Increasingly draconian DRM and punitive punishment does little to either decrease piracy or create more customers.
Increasing the ease of access to content and either lowering price and/or offering some kind of tiered pricing will do both.
Exactly. Sometimes I'll simply order CD's and videos from Amazon or from my local used-CD-and-video store. Sometimes I torrent stuff because I want it now, and I'm just not into subscribing to anything. I may keep only the torrent - possibly because I don't like the content as much as I thought I would, or I can't find it elsewhere, or it's ridiculously expensive because of various 'artificial scarcity' mechanisms. But in a fairly high percentage of cases, I'll buy a CD after I download an album. I like having something I can hold and look at, and the sound may be better than what I downloaded.
I also like to have the 'hold in my hand and put on a shelf' experience with movies. But the DRM, and the unskippable FBI warnings, advertisements, and other 'action not allowed' shit that videos are encumbered with, makes buying the physical object a much less compelling prospect. If they were easier to rip and copy, then I'd buy, rip, and have the content conveniently on my Patriot Player and on my computer. But since ripping is a pain in the ass, and somebody else has graciously already done that part and posted it for others to enjoy, I often torrent it and forego the actual disc.
I do my best to buy stuff that enables and supports my autonomy and my right to do with my purchases as I see fit. But those who cause prices to be too high via artificial scarcity, or who want me to pay more for something that's less convenient and flexible, or who attempt to control what I buy AFTER I buy it - well, they get WAY less of my money than they would if they weren't such cowering control freaks.
Listening to all that shit is enough to want to off myself.
Seriously, it's finger pointing and blaming you lefties are doing which is driving everyone down the hole.
"Finger pointing" is usually taken to mean singling out a person or group for blame. I didn't see that anywhere in the post you're whining about. OTOH - "lefties"? Who's doing the finger pointing here? Look in the mirror, Mr. AC Dolt!
Sanctimonious bunch of hypocrites the lot of you... Keep destroying the family... Keep promoting divisions between folks.
Who's more sanctimonious and divisive? The OP, who is simply pointing out legitimate problems? Or you, who clings to 'family values' tropes, and blames a statement of verifiable facts for "promoting divisions"?
You're all so blind you've lost touch with reality.
Say what? You've just stuck your fingers in your ears and started singing "la la la la", so don't be lecturing others about their hold on reality.
You cross the line, forget to respect the boundries that maintain a healthy medium for everyone else.
In the context of this discussion, there's so much out of place in what you've just said, that it's hard to know where to start. What line was crossed in the OP? What "boundries" weren't respected? How does one maintain a "healthy medium" when the suicide rate is up 30% and the planet is crumbling? Here's a hint - your cherished family values ain't worth shit unless you accept that your "family" is the entire human race. That includes the creepy uncles, serial killers, and despots, as well as the kind aunts, great artists, and those who put their lives on the line for their fellow man - and everybody in between.
If you were trolling - and I suspect you were - then please continue. I'm happy to build houses with your sticks and stones - especially when they fail to hit the mark and simply fall at my feet, ready to be turned into something that's possibly helpful.
Texting is fun, lightly asynchronous, and possible to do with many people simultaneously.
I find texting to be a distracting pain in the ass, and if a text thread goes beyond a few messaged in the space of an hour, I'm either placing a call or dropping the thread. Texting is a thoroughly inefficient way of communicating when compared with two-way speech, even if you don't consider that it's WAY harder to text and do something else than it is to talk and do something else.
... words mixed with emoji, Bitmoji, reaction gifs ...
I hate those damned things - they're un-subtle, annoying, tacky, and cheesy. Fortunately, I only get stuck with Emoji - I had to look up the other two for this comment. And if THEY start showing up, I'm going back to a flip phone.
Texting definitely has its uses, and I appreciate what it brought to the party; but it is in NO WAY a substitute for talking, and any graphic elements beyond specific and personal pictures and videos are the ugly garden trolls and velvet paintings of the smartphone world. Now get off of my lawn, dammit!
I'm probably missing something glaringly obvious that will make me look stupid, but I'll throw this out there anyway. Wouldn't there be a pretty specific IR / spectral absorption profile for CFC-11, or at least for CFC's in general? If the rate of release is that great, wouldn't there be a chance of satellite fly-overs narrowing down the location significantly, if not actually pinpointing it?
What about the discrimination on the part of potential employers against applicants who simply don't use social media at all, and therefore aren't on FB? That can't be fixed by any action on the part of FB or partners. It's also difficult to prove, grossly unfair, and pretty much impossible to do anything about in the absence of legislation and a serious effort at enforcement.
+1 Insightful - it's at least an ideology, and perhaps even a religion.
In the case of operating systems, for example, or let's take iOS on Apple iPhones, there is not really the expectation of being able to put Android on it.
You need to stop being enslaved by Corporate ideology, and stop arguing against your best interest.
Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'. Governments should not get involved in this.
Seems to me that it IS a right, similar to and related to 'right to repair'. In what fundamental way is after-market software different from the after-market hardware used to repair phones? And how is locking the software down to one vendor's offering different from locking the hardware against third-party replacement services and parts?
Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'... Vote with your wallet. If people want phones whose bootloader they can unlock, they should stop buying Huawei phones immediately.
And what happens when ALL vendors refuse to allow bootloader unlocking? In that scenario "vote with your wallet" means not owning a phone, period.
Governments should not get involved in this.
Too late - governments are already involved. And to the extent that those governments practise various forms of corporate welfare, they also have the right to exercise a certain amount of control and direction when it comes to such things as unlockable bootloaders in phones.
that the CEO of one of the world's largest and most important tech companies can spout so much blatant, blithering nonsense? This missive sounds like one those pseudo-profound 'revelations' that rock the worlds of people who are very stoned on really good weed. Most of these people, when they come down from the high, recognize the sophomoric and pedestrian nature of their 'insights'. Maybe Satya is still stoned - or maybe he simply has that combination of narcissism and stupidity that that is the hallmark of those who habitually have their heads up their own asses.
Thanks for the link. I've never heard of that movie before - and I'm old enough to have seen Coburn's 'Flint' movies in first run at the local theatre. Now all I have to do is find a copy...
... will be available in the vast majority of mobile devices
... will be mandated for every phone sold in North America
Eventually, owning and carrying a smartphone will be compulsory - it will serve as your government ID and will sub for driver's licence, passport, Social Insurance / Social Security card, health card, etc. There will be no rooting, no disabling of location services, no turning off mobile data and WiFi. 'Airplane Mode' will be turned off and on automatically - there will be a separate always-on low-power RF transceiver specifically for that purpose. If you are allowed to turn your phone off, it won't be fully off - it will be recording audio all the time. Letting your battery die without a damned good excuse will be a criminal offence. As will putting your phone in a Faraday cage.
Part of me kinda thinks I'm just trolling here - but the bigger part is afraid that much of what I've outlined above may really come to pass. After all, if I could go back to 1980 and tell my then-self what happens in the world after 2000, that earlier self would be totally incredulous.
Probably because this was a thought experiment.
That's irrelevant. The idea has been conceived and disseminated. The initial dissemination was among people with the power and the resources to make it a real-world experiment. Do you really Google doesn't have the arrogance, the hubris, and the power-lust to start implementing this?
This was a video that the source reports was released internally with the intention of showing unsettling things they do not plan on doing.
They may "not plan on doing", but do they "plan on not doing"? Besides, to hear Google tell it, they planned to not be evil - and look at them now.
Another non-story.
Google has a history of at least trying out the wild shit their people dream up. And I'm pretty sure the insularity of Silly Valley's denizens renders many of them immune to the consideration that using the rest of as lab rats is in any way immoral or inappropriate. Even at that, this would be a non-story only if Google wasn't already fully capable of rolling out such a scheme in a short time frame.
to cause stupid
You're talking about HIPPA regulations...
"HIPPA"? It's HIPAA, dammit! As in Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
...the tube amp distortion might sound good to some people, but it is still distortion.
I am getting so sick of this "tubes sound good because they add distortion" meme that I'm ready to spit. A GOOD tube amplifier, (single-ended, built with triodes that have very linear specs), sounds better than just about any solid-state amp. The subject is way too complex to go into here, but have a look at Lynn Olson's investigations at http://www.nutshellhifi.com/li.... In short, The way THD is calculated makes it a very poor metric for the quality of audio reproduction. Here are a few hints: 1) Odd-order harmonics, and higher-order harmonics, are both much more audible and much more objectionable than low-order and even-order harmonics. This has been known since at least the 1940's, perhaps earlier. 2) THD measurements treat ALL spurious harmonics as if they contribute equally to degradation of sound quality. 3) Solid-state devices, pentode tubes, and push-pull amplifier topologies using any kind of amplifying device, require fairly large amounts of negative feedback. Although NFB results in better THD performance, it also results in more high-order and odd-order harmonic content. 4) Good triode tubes in a competently-designed amplifier have better intrinsic linearity than any other amplifying device available. Consequently, they require less NFB, and therefore generate less high-order and odd-order distortion.
In short, THD is a shitty figure-of-merit because its manner of calculation was chosen to make pentode-based push-pull amps look good on paper. Well-respected audio engineers at the top of their field argued for THD being calculated using either the square, or even the cube, of the order of the harmonic. They lost the argument, likely 'because business'. And since then, generations of techs have blindly believed that if it measures low in THD, it's all good. Distressingly often, that just ain't so.
And then there's the consideration of IMD, which adds a whole 'nother level of complexity.
It's true that he can easily evade this if he wants to, although it is kinda embarrassing to be effectively barred from visiting a country because you don't want to answer questions about the scandals you presided over.
I think it's a little more than just embarrassing. The optics of him NOT going are pretty dismal - especially given Facebook's implicit reliance on the 'if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear' meme. If he has nothing to hide, why shouldn't he just go and face the British parliament?
Besides, if things start to get rough, he can always call out the British government on its own extensive surveillance network and its own privacy-busting legislation.
The question is "will the merger bring more competition." This is one of the areas where there valid debate. Generally fewer players = less competition, but in the case that you have two market dominators and two minor market participants, the merger of the two minor market participants to create a third market dominator class organization, the answer is more ambiguous and would require a real in depth analysis to come up with a reasonable conclusion.
My guess is that there will be more competition initially, both to gain the new entity a greater market share, and to lull the critics and the regulators into a false sense of security. After the growth of new accounts starts to level off, and the critics are focused on the next big example of capitalistic abuse, SprintMobile's prices will go up and/or their service quality will decline, and there will be a 'triopoly'. Ineffectual mutterings and remonstrations will follow, but will be ignored and forgotten in a couple of news cycles.
I don't think "in depth analysis" is any likelier to result in an accurate prediction here than my wild-assed guess is.
it can be regularly updated with not just fixes, but new features, too.
Sure - new "features". I bet that includes, (if it hasn't already), disabling / removing applications without regard to the customer's wishes, and/or turning off a previously free application or feature until the customer pays for it.
I'm so glad I was able to leave the Windows ecosystem behind. For all the flaws I find in Linux, I'm so, so grateful for it, and for the people who keep it alive. Any time I have to use Windows, I feel vaguely unclean.
The AM broadcast-band, (and its close relatives, the short wave bands), allow for long-distance radio communications. Even in the daytime the coverage is pretty good; but at night, when the ionosphere allows for 'running skip', its reach is truly impressive. There may be times in the future when that's crucial for reaching people over very large geographical areas. We really need to backstop our wired networks with wireless analog broadcast capability. It can reach anybody who has a $5 pocket radio, it continues to work even when all you have is batteries or generators and a tower, and it doesn't rely on hard links that can easily be broken. And it's already there, fer chrissake - all we have to do is maintain it.
They're the genetic counterpart of Facebook. Even when you explicitly don't sign on for that crap, you're still swept up in it. It's good that they caught the guy and all; but it's going to be bad when insurance companies and potential employers use genealogy databases to deny coverage and jobs to blood relatives of those who have 'undesirable' or 'risky' something-something-somethings.