back when they first started. They were such assholes that I've only used them once or twice since. And even then, it was only their credit card processing service that I used, and only because I really, really wanted to donate money and that was the only way to do it. In the meantime there have been lots of musical artists, software authors, etc. that I wanted to give some money to - but not badly enough to suck it up and support a company that I'd like to see die. As for making purchases, if PayPal is the only way to pay, then I simply don't buy. I've made special arrangements to do Interac transfers, both to make a point with a vendor, and as a 'fuck you' to PP. As for an actual PayPal account with my money in it? I wouldn't be caught dead with one of those. PayPal is utterly evil, and I'm glad that the choice to never support them in any way is a viable one. Now if only I found it viable to make the same choice with Google...
I'd like to hope that this latest report about PayPal will hurt their business. Sadly, I don't think it will.
I can assure you it was not written with trollish intent.
It simply is my evaluation of Amazon as it is currently run.
The thing that's starting to bother me is that he's building an empire.
I worry about who will inherit his throne... and his desk!
I believe you - I didn't really think that you were trolling, just that on second reading the thought crossed my mind. I'm glad your first comment was modded up. But I see someone has modded your second comment down, seemingly also without good reason. Maybe somebody has it in for you?
As for 'empire, throne, desk', I totally agree, and it worries me too. Amazon is shaping up to be the monopoly of all monopolies. And because a very large percentage of the people who make the stuff we buy, would have NO problem with a single-company middle man selling everything they make, things could get really ugly.
When you ask "Who needs iHeart ?", you're effectively asking "Who needs radio?". I, for one, don't want to have to rely on Internet infrastructure for music and news. I don't have Internet in my car, and I specifically plan NOT to. I seldom have data enabled on my cell phone, and I plan to continue that practice. I like radio because I often hear new stuff that I really like - that keeps me out of the musical 'echo chamber' that results from playing only music I already have. I also hear tuff I don't like - but I'm happy to have it challenge me, and I'm happy that I occasionally come to like it. I like listening to radio stations fade out when I'm on a long car trip, and I like searching for new ones - it adds to the adventure, and makes the car less of a soporific cocoon. I also think that radio stations are probably more resilient than the Internet during natural disasters, and in any case they can serve as a kind of backup. Plus, if mainstream radio dies, then pirate radio may die too, and that would be a REAL shame. Outcasts and outliers shouting at us from the fringes are important in many ways, and we need more of them, not fewer.
I've expanded beyond many of the traditions I grew up with. I spend a lot of time on the Web, and I've found a lot of new music on YouTube that I would never have found otherwise. I also download movies and TV shows. But I'm in no hurry to cede control over ALL of my access to news, music, and culture in general, to the assholes who currently control much of the Internet and are trying to control even more. I'll fight for net neutrality, but it's not a fight that I'm confident we'll win. I like having a backup plan, however retro and rustic and primitive it might be. Candles are primitive too, but they're still used to create a warm, inviting atmosphere. They're also damned useful sometimes, and they're still a recommended item for emergency kits. Just think of radio stations dotting the landscape, just waiting to be discovered by travellers, as the cozy candles in our cultural, social, and political emergency kits.
Bezos clearly does NOT subscribe to the "maximize shareholder value" religion, and is not running Amazon as the typical modern "paper clip maximizer" that so many corporations have become. Instead, he emphasizes quality service, low prices, and acts (horrors!) as if customers are people and not simply cows to be milked.
The result is, if I need something, I check Amazon FIRST, and frequently last, as well.
Modern corporations would do well to learn from Amazon, instead of quaking in terror.
I had difficulty deciding whether to mod you up or reply instead. At first I wasn't sure why you were modded down; but on re-reading your post it does seem just a little bit trollish. Nevertheless, I think you're making a valid point. Maybe the downmod was a response to your implicit support for ruthless sharks. But as far as I'm concerned the other corps that are so afraid of Amazon, are all ruthless sharks themselves. And since I can't fight the ruthless sharks, I'm happy to grab a bag of popcorn and watch the show.
FWIW I try to support local bricks-and-mortar stores; but increasingly I simply can't find the stuff I'm looking for anywhere BUT Amazon, at ANY price. And among the few companies from which I've ordered stuff on the Web, Amazon's customer service is hands-down the best. I mistrust them because of their size and power, and because of what I've heard about how they treat their employees. I'd love to hate them, but somehow I just can't. Some ruthless sharks are just a bit lovable, I guess...
Born in '59. When I was little we had stores called 'dime stores' which were filled with toys, but everything in the store was five or ten cents.
Born in '58. Did you grow up in Canada? I know we called them 'dime stores' here, but I had the impression that Americans used the terms '5 and 10 cent store' or '5 and dime'. Anyway, Mom used to wheel me through Woolworth's and Kresge's in a stroller. Lots of toys to be sure, but even at the age of 3 I was much more interested in the hardware section, with its electrical connectors and batteries. My most beloved 'toys' were batteries, motors, magnets, old radios to take apart, flashlights and their bulbs - along with wire, and nails for making electromagnets. Also blocks of wood, disposable aluminum pie plates to cut into strips, and thumbtacks. I used those to make switches.
When I got a bit older, I used to go to the hobby store downtown. A bit older still, and it was Niagara TV Supply, then Radio Shack. I never even heard of Toys 'R'Us until I was an adult.
This just points out that we can't really rely on our existing models of global warming and the weather changes it might bring. The entire system is so complex that our current understanding of it is woefully incomplete. We're at the stage where, while we know a lot, there's still too much of 'we don't know what we don't know' for us to make detailed predictions with any confidence.
We need to be putting A LOT more money and effort into understanding and predicting these changes and their associated timeframes. First, we'll need to plan how to protect ourselves. Second, all that data and understanding will increase our chances of finding and evaluating safe ways to slow, and perhaps reverse, AGW.
Then I am SO outta there. I already have to dodge and weave - and issue threats which I fully plan to make good on if push comes to shove - just to keep pictures of myself off of Facebook. If I so much as SEE an Alexa-based device or its equivalent, then I'm packing up my tools and walking out the door.
Humans seem wired to become addicted to chemicals that change our emotional state. These include both external substances, (alcohol, cocaine, meth - the list goes on), and substances that our bodies make, such as the endorphins that result in so-called "runner's high". It makes sense that inflammatory media content which causes adrenaline flooding and all sorts of other bio-chemical storms, might also induce a craving for further such experiences.
Maybe it's time to start framing our addictions to various stimuli as an epidemiological problem, so we can treat them as we would communicable diseases. We despise and ostracize drug pushers - perhaps we need to recognize that our entire economy is predicated on the success of people and organizations who are simply pushing a less-easily recognized class of addictive 'substances'.
Being able to use more than one photo expands the conversation but does not necessarily make it easier.
I think using a bunch of photos would easily solve the problem of conveying what humanity looks like as a whole. The photos can show people of every visibly different racial background, at every age, in various states of health, and in various types of clothing or lack thereof. Any aliens whose social structures are at an appropriate level of advancement, and/or close enough to those of Man, will be able to extrapolate from that info and would recognize our species, should they ever see us in person. A similar set of photos should also be enough to train AI to recognize humans.
Now, if the purpose of the 'conversation' is to determine how to explain humanity to aliens, (or to AI), then we'd best start by explaining us to ourselves. I'd say that, as a species, we are a long, long way from understanding ourselves and each other. I don't think more pictures will help us much in that endeavour, and they certainly won't convey our essence to either an alien race, nor to an AI.
Intermod products are always much lower than the source signals... Bad guess guys.
Bad guess AC, but thanks for playing. In systems that are designed to be linear, (audio amplifiers, for example), intermod products are very low. But in systems which are very non-linear, either by design, (as in RF mixers), or by accident, (equipment faults, or badly overloaded ears), Intermod products can be within a few dB of the primary signals.
Why would an IMD product be more harmful than any other audio signal of normal intensity and spectral content? That question needs to be answered before this theory can be taken seriously.
The harm isn't specifically because it's an 'IMD product'. The structure of the human ear and the human body are such that even fairly loud sounds at ultrasonic frequencies have little perceptible effect. But the presence of two or more high-amplitude ultrasonic sources of different frequencies can actually create, via intermodulation, very loud audible frequencies in the ears or the head. These frequencies ARE within the range of human hearing. And they can be even more devastating than high-amplitude sounds 'out in the world', because they are being generated very close to, or actually inside of, the ear itself.
When the moron published that fact and millions of users switched off location tracking for the app.
What are you smoking that makes you so unrealistically optimistic about those millions of users? Please tell me - I want some for those days when the blind acquiescence of my fellow citizens makes me want to stick a pencil in my eye.
I didn't imagine that the app would be tracking your location before you even left your home, and then follow you while you drive back or head out for a drink afterwards. Did you?
Dude! Really? You first wrote for an outfit called 'TechCrunch' eleven years ago, yet this app's behaviour surprises you? Just how much time do you spend with your eyes closed and your fingers in your ears singing 'la-la-la'?
Forgive me, but I suppose you spent only a short time in Canada as a kid? Canadians usually say "hydro" rather than "mains" (as Brits do?) because so much of the electricity in Canada is generated hydroelectrically.
Actually, I've lived in Ontario all my life, and was raised in Niagara Falls. I grew up calling it 'Hydro', (as in "the Hydro's off"), and I still call it that in casual conversation. But when I'm talking more specifically about power in electronic terms I tend not to use the word Hydro. Around here that term also, (and perhaps more often), also refers to any or all of the companies / government entities responsible for generating / delivering / charging for electricity. I'm not sure how I ended favouring 'mains' over 'line voltage', which is what I used to call it and which is probably more common among North American techies. It may have been because I'm also into audio, and in that context the word 'line' can be ambiguous. And / or it may be that one term is shorter than the other and rolls off the tongue more easily. Just a personal quirk of mine I guess...
In my experience all these quartz china clocks run fast, some a few seconds and others gain a whole minute a week.
... Battery powered quartz wall clocks might drift two minutes in six months.
In my experience, GP is correct. To be fair, I suspect that if you take the time to adjust the trim on the oscillator, (yes, many of them provide a user-adjustable control to tweak the oscillator frequency), then the wall clock's accuracy will be on par with that of a quartz watch. But I can confirm GP's contention that their accuracy out-of-the-box can be pretty abysmal. We have some clocks here in the house that I haven't tweaked, and they can easily be out by ten minutes or more in six months. I suspect that watches are set more carefully at the factory because they don't want people taking them apart to calibrate them. With a wall clock they can easily cut costs by having the purchaser do the final calibration.
It has nothing to do with the accuracy. Actually the grid will vary about +-0.05Hz.
Actually, I'm pretty sure the grid frequency is allowed to vary by up to one percent, which in Europe would mean +-0.50 Hz, or an order of magnitude worse than what you stated.
I don't know if it's still true, but back when I was a kid here in Canada and the overwhelming majority of electric clocks used the mains frequency to keep accurate time, the grid was required to ensure that the average frequency in any given 24 hour period was spot on 60Hz. So on the whole, mains-powered clocks were as accurate as the people who set them. So much so that the early clock radios and electronic digital alarm clocks didn't have crystals; they simply connected the power transformer secondary to the clock input of a counter via a few passive components and a Schmitt trigger. I still have one of those Radio Shack alarm clocks - dead accurate and stable unless there's a power failure, at which time the backup battery powers up a crappy RC oscillator that drifts like hell.
Does not fulfill all of your requirements, but it is simple, and has web and mobile apps:
https://trello.com/
I'm not sure why you've been modded up, even taking into account that "all your requirements" caveat you tossed in. TFS has only five sentences, the second of which says "For a variety of reasons, I need something I host myself...". That seems like a pretty immutable part of the spec, and Trello doesn't satisfy it.
Why should they. They have their little monopolies. So they are kings of their empires. Better off giving crappy products, but crappy in a different way so you can show how you are better then the competition, compared to everyone being equal and high quality, where you are just competing on price alone.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why we need to enact legislation rendering internet access essential infrastructure and mandating a 5- to 10-year transition period between private and public ownership. Too bad we're going in the wrong direction with that - we're already ceding things that are and should be public, (schools, prisons, healthcare, etc.), to private ownership and control.
On the whole we're sheep. We're being fleeced - and if it ever becomes profitable or otherwise necessary, we will also be slaughtered.
As far as I'm concerned, anything that slows the adoption of privacy-stealing, security-hole-ridden IOT gear like Nest, (and Alexa for that matter), is ultimately smart and pro-consumer. Putting this kind of thing in the hands of the average non-tech-savvy person is kind of like emptying a box of knives on a nursery-school floor. Somebody's gonna get hurt, and the damage won't necessarily be limited to the kids who actually pick up the knives and start playing with them.
The biggest problem with super-caps is energy density, currently less than a tenth that of lithium batteries.
Another big problem is the initial steepness of the discharge curve. The voltage across a battery is much more constant, requiring less regulation and therefore delivering higher efficiency.
that many of the people who are pushing back against right-to-repair legislation and sentiments, are the same ones who are pushing STEM education and mandatory comp sci courses in high school. Do they really think that having greater numbers of technically skilled citizens won't result in a much bigger, more knowledgeable, and more effective push for right-to-repair? I rather think the swelling ranks of the tech savvy will insist on using their hard-won skills on their own behalf to repair, manage, and control the devices and machines they depend on.
It's hard to tell if Big Tech simply hasn't spotted this contradiction, or if they're in damage control mode. Or maybe they're confident that the social engineering and propaganda mechanisms they've put in place are up to the challenge of controlling their future wage slaves' self-interested impulses.
and I found myself laughing both before and after I realized that they're actually fucking serious.
They aren't really that serious. At least not in the sense you appear imply.
If the accusation that NRA was taking Russian money is true (Apparently FBI is currently looking into this.) then their job is to polarize and disrupt the US as much as possible.
Essentially that would mean that they would be paid trolls, and this is some pretty hardcore trolling.
NRA and Ajit Pai are working in pretty orthogonal fields. There is no particular reason for NRA to care about Pai.
The reason to give him the award is because they now he is unpopular with anyone sane and by doing this they can troll up a lot of rage.
After a while people gets so tired of every new outrageous thing that you can get away with pretty much anything.
That is why it is important to not fall for the trolling.
NRA awards means nothing, it is nothing to be upset over.
Ignore it and focus on the important things instead.
That was most insightful. I think you're largely right, but I can't be sure, because I no longer trust my own sense of which conspiracy theories are credible and which are off the wall. But your comment about "the important things instead" hits home. I keep telling people that the real story isn't Trump. The real story is all the nasty shit going on in the background - Trump is just the noisy distraction from the sleight-of-hand feats being performed by those who REALLY run the country (into the ground). Thanks for reminding me that Trump is just one of many such distractions.
that I honestly laughed at this. It came across so powerfully as a funny parody, and I found myself laughing both before and after I realized that they're actually fucking serious. There are no words. Stick a fork in the ass of American social discourse and turn it over, because it is well and truly done.
Slashdot Mirror
back when they first started. They were such assholes that I've only used them once or twice since. And even then, it was only their credit card processing service that I used, and only because I really, really wanted to donate money and that was the only way to do it. In the meantime there have been lots of musical artists, software authors, etc. that I wanted to give some money to - but not badly enough to suck it up and support a company that I'd like to see die. As for making purchases, if PayPal is the only way to pay, then I simply don't buy. I've made special arrangements to do Interac transfers, both to make a point with a vendor, and as a 'fuck you' to PP. As for an actual PayPal account with my money in it? I wouldn't be caught dead with one of those. PayPal is utterly evil, and I'm glad that the choice to never support them in any way is a viable one. Now if only I found it viable to make the same choice with Google...
I'd like to hope that this latest report about PayPal will hurt their business. Sadly, I don't think it will.
I can assure you it was not written with trollish intent. It simply is my evaluation of Amazon as it is currently run.
The thing that's starting to bother me is that he's building an empire. I worry about who will inherit his throne ... and his desk!
I believe you - I didn't really think that you were trolling, just that on second reading the thought crossed my mind. I'm glad your first comment was modded up. But I see someone has modded your second comment down, seemingly also without good reason. Maybe somebody has it in for you?
As for 'empire, throne, desk', I totally agree, and it worries me too. Amazon is shaping up to be the monopoly of all monopolies. And because a very large percentage of the people who make the stuff we buy, would have NO problem with a single-company middle man selling everything they make, things could get really ugly.
When you ask "Who needs iHeart ?", you're effectively asking "Who needs radio?". I, for one, don't want to have to rely on Internet infrastructure for music and news. I don't have Internet in my car, and I specifically plan NOT to. I seldom have data enabled on my cell phone, and I plan to continue that practice. I like radio because I often hear new stuff that I really like - that keeps me out of the musical 'echo chamber' that results from playing only music I already have. I also hear tuff I don't like - but I'm happy to have it challenge me, and I'm happy that I occasionally come to like it. I like listening to radio stations fade out when I'm on a long car trip, and I like searching for new ones - it adds to the adventure, and makes the car less of a soporific cocoon. I also think that radio stations are probably more resilient than the Internet during natural disasters, and in any case they can serve as a kind of backup. Plus, if mainstream radio dies, then pirate radio may die too, and that would be a REAL shame. Outcasts and outliers shouting at us from the fringes are important in many ways, and we need more of them, not fewer.
I've expanded beyond many of the traditions I grew up with. I spend a lot of time on the Web, and I've found a lot of new music on YouTube that I would never have found otherwise. I also download movies and TV shows. But I'm in no hurry to cede control over ALL of my access to news, music, and culture in general, to the assholes who currently control much of the Internet and are trying to control even more. I'll fight for net neutrality, but it's not a fight that I'm confident we'll win. I like having a backup plan, however retro and rustic and primitive it might be. Candles are primitive too, but they're still used to create a warm, inviting atmosphere. They're also damned useful sometimes, and they're still a recommended item for emergency kits. Just think of radio stations dotting the landscape, just waiting to be discovered by travellers, as the cozy candles in our cultural, social, and political emergency kits.
Bezos clearly does NOT subscribe to the "maximize shareholder value" religion, and is not running Amazon as the typical modern "paper clip maximizer" that so many corporations have become. Instead, he emphasizes quality service, low prices, and acts (horrors!) as if customers are people and not simply cows to be milked.
The result is, if I need something, I check Amazon FIRST, and frequently last, as well.
Modern corporations would do well to learn from Amazon, instead of quaking in terror.
I had difficulty deciding whether to mod you up or reply instead. At first I wasn't sure why you were modded down; but on re-reading your post it does seem just a little bit trollish. Nevertheless, I think you're making a valid point. Maybe the downmod was a response to your implicit support for ruthless sharks. But as far as I'm concerned the other corps that are so afraid of Amazon, are all ruthless sharks themselves. And since I can't fight the ruthless sharks, I'm happy to grab a bag of popcorn and watch the show.
FWIW I try to support local bricks-and-mortar stores; but increasingly I simply can't find the stuff I'm looking for anywhere BUT Amazon, at ANY price. And among the few companies from which I've ordered stuff on the Web, Amazon's customer service is hands-down the best. I mistrust them because of their size and power, and because of what I've heard about how they treat their employees. I'd love to hate them, but somehow I just can't. Some ruthless sharks are just a bit lovable, I guess...
... Amazing memories. I hope children will still get to experience the same thing elsewhere.
Between other posts about online shopping and my late-night dyslexia, I mis-read that as "Amazon Memories". O tempora o mores!
Born in '59. When I was little we had stores called 'dime stores' which were filled with toys, but everything in the store was five or ten cents.
Born in '58. Did you grow up in Canada? I know we called them 'dime stores' here, but I had the impression that Americans used the terms '5 and 10 cent store' or '5 and dime'. Anyway, Mom used to wheel me through Woolworth's and Kresge's in a stroller. Lots of toys to be sure, but even at the age of 3 I was much more interested in the hardware section, with its electrical connectors and batteries. My most beloved 'toys' were batteries, motors, magnets, old radios to take apart, flashlights and their bulbs - along with wire, and nails for making electromagnets. Also blocks of wood, disposable aluminum pie plates to cut into strips, and thumbtacks. I used those to make switches.
When I got a bit older, I used to go to the hobby store downtown. A bit older still, and it was Niagara TV Supply, then Radio Shack. I never even heard of Toys 'R'Us until I was an adult.
This just points out that we can't really rely on our existing models of global warming and the weather changes it might bring. The entire system is so complex that our current understanding of it is woefully incomplete. We're at the stage where, while we know a lot, there's still too much of 'we don't know what we don't know' for us to make detailed predictions with any confidence.
We need to be putting A LOT more money and effort into understanding and predicting these changes and their associated timeframes. First, we'll need to plan how to protect ourselves. Second, all that data and understanding will increase our chances of finding and evaluating safe ways to slow, and perhaps reverse, AGW.
Then I am SO outta there. I already have to dodge and weave - and issue threats which I fully plan to make good on if push comes to shove - just to keep pictures of myself off of Facebook. If I so much as SEE an Alexa-based device or its equivalent, then I'm packing up my tools and walking out the door.
Humans seem wired to become addicted to chemicals that change our emotional state. These include both external substances, (alcohol, cocaine, meth - the list goes on), and substances that our bodies make, such as the endorphins that result in so-called "runner's high". It makes sense that inflammatory media content which causes adrenaline flooding and all sorts of other bio-chemical storms, might also induce a craving for further such experiences.
Maybe it's time to start framing our addictions to various stimuli as an epidemiological problem, so we can treat them as we would communicable diseases. We despise and ostracize drug pushers - perhaps we need to recognize that our entire economy is predicated on the success of people and organizations who are simply pushing a less-easily recognized class of addictive 'substances'.
Being able to use more than one photo expands the conversation but does not necessarily make it easier.
I think using a bunch of photos would easily solve the problem of conveying what humanity looks like as a whole. The photos can show people of every visibly different racial background, at every age, in various states of health, and in various types of clothing or lack thereof. Any aliens whose social structures are at an appropriate level of advancement, and/or close enough to those of Man, will be able to extrapolate from that info and would recognize our species, should they ever see us in person. A similar set of photos should also be enough to train AI to recognize humans.
Now, if the purpose of the 'conversation' is to determine how to explain humanity to aliens, (or to AI), then we'd best start by explaining us to ourselves. I'd say that, as a species, we are a long, long way from understanding ourselves and each other. I don't think more pictures will help us much in that endeavour, and they certainly won't convey our essence to either an alien race, nor to an AI.
Intermod products are always much lower than the source signals... Bad guess guys.
Bad guess AC, but thanks for playing. In systems that are designed to be linear, (audio amplifiers, for example), intermod products are very low. But in systems which are very non-linear, either by design, (as in RF mixers), or by accident, (equipment faults, or badly overloaded ears), Intermod products can be within a few dB of the primary signals.
Why would an IMD product be more harmful than any other audio signal of normal intensity and spectral content? That question needs to be answered before this theory can be taken seriously.
The harm isn't specifically because it's an 'IMD product'. The structure of the human ear and the human body are such that even fairly loud sounds at ultrasonic frequencies have little perceptible effect. But the presence of two or more high-amplitude ultrasonic sources of different frequencies can actually create, via intermodulation, very loud audible frequencies in the ears or the head. These frequencies ARE within the range of human hearing. And they can be even more devastating than high-amplitude sounds 'out in the world', because they are being generated very close to, or actually inside of, the ear itself.
When the moron published that fact and millions of users switched off location tracking for the app.
What are you smoking that makes you so unrealistically optimistic about those millions of users? Please tell me - I want some for those days when the blind acquiescence of my fellow citizens makes me want to stick a pencil in my eye.
I didn't imagine that the app would be tracking your location before you even left your home, and then follow you while you drive back or head out for a drink afterwards. Did you?
Dude! Really? You first wrote for an outfit called 'TechCrunch' eleven years ago, yet this app's behaviour surprises you? Just how much time do you spend with your eyes closed and your fingers in your ears singing 'la-la-la'?
Forgive me, but I suppose you spent only a short time in Canada as a kid? Canadians usually say "hydro" rather than "mains" (as Brits do?) because so much of the electricity in Canada is generated hydroelectrically.
Actually, I've lived in Ontario all my life, and was raised in Niagara Falls. I grew up calling it 'Hydro', (as in "the Hydro's off"), and I still call it that in casual conversation. But when I'm talking more specifically about power in electronic terms I tend not to use the word Hydro. Around here that term also, (and perhaps more often), also refers to any or all of the companies / government entities responsible for generating / delivering / charging for electricity. I'm not sure how I ended favouring 'mains' over 'line voltage', which is what I used to call it and which is probably more common among North American techies. It may have been because I'm also into audio, and in that context the word 'line' can be ambiguous. And / or it may be that one term is shorter than the other and rolls off the tongue more easily. Just a personal quirk of mine I guess...
In my experience all these quartz china clocks run fast, some a few seconds and others gain a whole minute a week.
... Battery powered quartz wall clocks might drift two minutes in six months.
In my experience, GP is correct. To be fair, I suspect that if you take the time to adjust the trim on the oscillator, (yes, many of them provide a user-adjustable control to tweak the oscillator frequency), then the wall clock's accuracy will be on par with that of a quartz watch. But I can confirm GP's contention that their accuracy out-of-the-box can be pretty abysmal. We have some clocks here in the house that I haven't tweaked, and they can easily be out by ten minutes or more in six months. I suspect that watches are set more carefully at the factory because they don't want people taking them apart to calibrate them. With a wall clock they can easily cut costs by having the purchaser do the final calibration.
It has nothing to do with the accuracy. Actually the grid will vary about +-0.05Hz.
Actually, I'm pretty sure the grid frequency is allowed to vary by up to one percent, which in Europe would mean +-0.50 Hz, or an order of magnitude worse than what you stated.
I don't know if it's still true, but back when I was a kid here in Canada and the overwhelming majority of electric clocks used the mains frequency to keep accurate time, the grid was required to ensure that the average frequency in any given 24 hour period was spot on 60Hz. So on the whole, mains-powered clocks were as accurate as the people who set them. So much so that the early clock radios and electronic digital alarm clocks didn't have crystals; they simply connected the power transformer secondary to the clock input of a counter via a few passive components and a Schmitt trigger. I still have one of those Radio Shack alarm clocks - dead accurate and stable unless there's a power failure, at which time the backup battery powers up a crappy RC oscillator that drifts like hell.
Does not fulfill all of your requirements, but it is simple, and has web and mobile apps: https://trello.com/
I'm not sure why you've been modded up, even taking into account that "all your requirements" caveat you tossed in. TFS has only five sentences, the second of which says "For a variety of reasons, I need something I host myself...". That seems like a pretty immutable part of the spec, and Trello doesn't satisfy it.
Why should they. They have their little monopolies. So they are kings of their empires. Better off giving crappy products, but crappy in a different way so you can show how you are better then the competition, compared to everyone being equal and high quality, where you are just competing on price alone.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why we need to enact legislation rendering internet access essential infrastructure and mandating a 5- to 10-year transition period between private and public ownership. Too bad we're going in the wrong direction with that - we're already ceding things that are and should be public, (schools, prisons, healthcare, etc.), to private ownership and control.
On the whole we're sheep. We're being fleeced - and if it ever becomes profitable or otherwise necessary, we will also be slaughtered.
As far as I'm concerned, anything that slows the adoption of privacy-stealing, security-hole-ridden IOT gear like Nest, (and Alexa for that matter), is ultimately smart and pro-consumer. Putting this kind of thing in the hands of the average non-tech-savvy person is kind of like emptying a box of knives on a nursery-school floor. Somebody's gonna get hurt, and the damage won't necessarily be limited to the kids who actually pick up the knives and start playing with them.
The biggest problem with super-caps is energy density, currently less than a tenth that of lithium batteries.
Another big problem is the initial steepness of the discharge curve. The voltage across a battery is much more constant, requiring less regulation and therefore delivering higher efficiency.
that many of the people who are pushing back against right-to-repair legislation and sentiments, are the same ones who are pushing STEM education and mandatory comp sci courses in high school. Do they really think that having greater numbers of technically skilled citizens won't result in a much bigger, more knowledgeable, and more effective push for right-to-repair? I rather think the swelling ranks of the tech savvy will insist on using their hard-won skills on their own behalf to repair, manage, and control the devices and machines they depend on.
It's hard to tell if Big Tech simply hasn't spotted this contradiction, or if they're in damage control mode. Or maybe they're confident that the social engineering and propaganda mechanisms they've put in place are up to the challenge of controlling their future wage slaves' self-interested impulses.
Reading stuff like this makes me very happy, and restores some of the hope that I've been losing as I age.
and I found myself laughing both before and after I realized that they're actually fucking serious.
They aren't really that serious. At least not in the sense you appear imply.
If the accusation that NRA was taking Russian money is true (Apparently FBI is currently looking into this.) then their job is to polarize and disrupt the US as much as possible. Essentially that would mean that they would be paid trolls, and this is some pretty hardcore trolling.
NRA and Ajit Pai are working in pretty orthogonal fields. There is no particular reason for NRA to care about Pai. The reason to give him the award is because they now he is unpopular with anyone sane and by doing this they can troll up a lot of rage.
After a while people gets so tired of every new outrageous thing that you can get away with pretty much anything. That is why it is important to not fall for the trolling. NRA awards means nothing, it is nothing to be upset over. Ignore it and focus on the important things instead.
That was most insightful. I think you're largely right, but I can't be sure, because I no longer trust my own sense of which conspiracy theories are credible and which are off the wall. But your comment about "the important things instead" hits home. I keep telling people that the real story isn't Trump. The real story is all the nasty shit going on in the background - Trump is just the noisy distraction from the sleight-of-hand feats being performed by those who REALLY run the country (into the ground). Thanks for reminding me that Trump is just one of many such distractions.
that I honestly laughed at this. It came across so powerfully as a funny parody, and I found myself laughing both before and after I realized that they're actually fucking serious. There are no words. Stick a fork in the ass of American social discourse and turn it over, because it is well and truly done.