Unfortunately, textbook publishers generally charge the same amount for "digital" copies, while eliminating the used market through the use of activation codes. So, you still spend the same amount on text books (more, if you were planning to buy used), you cannot recoup any of that cost by reselling after the semester is over, and now you have to buy an iPad on top of it all -- even if it's wrapped up in the cost of tuition, you're still buying it. This is a win for only one group: the publishers.
Well, maybe for people living in downtown New York or Toronto but even there, I am not sure that the space saving in parking mode is relevant.
You're paying for a space to park your car, the space isn't going to be cheaper because your car is only 1.65m long, so it's pretty much irrelevant.
Except as a cute party trick - "Hey guys, watch this!"
If these type of cars catch on, they might designate areas of the lots for 'armadillos only', just like some do for compact cars and motorcycles. If that were the case for paid parking, I could see the smaller spots being offered at a reduced rate...I don't know, does anyone know if you pay a different rate right now for assigned motorcycle parking vs a regular parking spot?
If a car parks within 55 inches behind me, how do I unpark? Hell, how do I get into my car at all?
I would think that these are intended for super short nose-in parking stalls, like the 'compact cars only' or 'motorcycle only' parking spots. It would effectively increase the number of vehicles per square meter, and could make it possible to convert additional spaces to parking for these units as well as motorcycles / scooters. It would be a heck of a lot easier to pick up groceries in one of these than, say, a motorcycle, so long as you are making one trip and unloading everything once you got home...don't forget the eggs in the backseat!
Of course, these concerns could be alleviated somewhat if this vehicle only had the ability to rotate the wheels 90 degrees and slide into / out of a parallel parking spot while folded. Could be a tricky maneuver in heavy traffic, though, considering you'd have to get into / out of the vehicle while in the lane of traffic.
Meh. Interesting idea, I like to see outside the box thinking sometimes:)
Imagine owning one of those things for several years. What happens if the damned thing gets stuck? Or a motor burns out that controls the expansion. Or a gear gets stripped...
And honestly, how small do you need to make a car? The difference between the expanded and contracted versions was not that great. I'd keep it expanded all the time. Why not. Are you ever going to have that little space? Unlikely.
Umm...target market seems to be Korea, where (in Seoul at least) people need all the parking space advantages they can muster. This is a place where it is normal and polite to fold your side view mirrors in every time you park. I'm not sure if this is an automated feature or not, since we took public transit everywhere and just noticed the difference from our 'ordinary'...it was odd at first, but so consistently done that you stopped noticing after a while.
My current car is a nice old Honda Civic EX with a 5 speed. Its way more fun to drive the manual BUT if you get stuck in traffic it becomes a boat anchor. MY advice is to keep the manual for a weekend driver and an auto for daily commutes.
Yeah, that's pretty much what we do:) I love driving standard, but our automatic is more practical and a bit more fuel efficient in the city (I know, go figure...)
Why should my learning and testing be made more difficult because you want to have fun?
Cars are something that are used to get from point A to point B when other methods (mass transit, walking, bikes, etc) are not available. I have no interest in learning how the car works better. I have other things I care about.
Also why would I want to get an internal combustion vehicle? If you look at the EVs they pretty much all don't really have a transmission, they just have a single gear. I don't travel for fun. I just want to get where I am going.
I look forward to self driving vehicles and plan to get one as soon as possible.
Good point, automatic transmissions are becoming the de facto 'standard' for driving (if you'll pardon the pun:)
However, GP's point is that by learning how to drive a stick shift, the driver learns much more than just clutch release: they get a much more thorough feel for a vehicle and how it responds to driver input. Learning to drive an automatic is more akin to 'learning' how to drive a bumper car: it goes, it stops, it moves in the direction you steer it. It provides very little feedback for torque response, traction, speed, etc. etc. It can be compared, perhaps, to a user running a Mac vs. a user running Linux (without kde or gnome). One provides an easier ride for the novice and light user, the other provides way more 'under the hood' control and feedback, if you know how to use it properly:)
Driving a standard also forces drivers to pay more attention to the task of driving, instead of freeing up one hand to text or apply makeup or whatever in stop-and-go traffic. Generally, the most dangerous times for a driver is when making speed changes (accelerating, braking), and that's exactly when standard drivers have to pay attention to the shifting required, so are less likely to let their mind wander from the task at hand. At least, that's been my own experience while driving both types of transmissions.
On the topic of training that *should* be mandatory, however, personally I think it's a crime that everyday drivers are not required to take (and pass) even basic crash avoidance and vehicle awareness training before getting their license. Parallel parking testing provides a relatively puny vehicle awareness check, and frankly, how many people learn just enough to pass that most dreaded part of their driving test, without bothering to perfect or expand on those skills? We may laugh at the antics of people on shows like Canada's Worst Driver, but the sad part is that those are just the ones who are willing to participate in the show. You just know that there is a sizeable percentage of the population that should never be allowed behind the wheel of a motorized vehicle. Heck, I have friends/co-workers who ask me to back them into parking spots, because they aren't confident enough to do it themselves...and without consistent (and maybe repeated) training courses, people like that will never acquire the skills or confidence to do it themselves.
And on another note: taxis (with their drivers) don't communicate traffic-data to each other. Self-driving cars could do that and optimize the route. Then, of course, if I could also personalize the route with things like "please use scenic route", "use fast route", "use a county road", etc - it would be perfect...
Especially the all important "follow that vehicle!" personalization...
Some cars already do work that way. They have automatic breaking when the car senses that you will hit something in front of you.
It would make no sense for it to work the other way round. A human's reaction time is far too slow to intervene when (s)he thinks the car computer will do something bad.
Hmmm...I would think this would be an automatic reaction for most cars upon hitting an object...doing so ahead of time would be rather pointless, although it would keep the body shops happy:)
I've never owned anything but 2x seat sports cars, I've never owned a manual transmission.
I like to drive...I buy cars that are FUN to drive.
But...but...manual transmissions ARE the fun ones to drive! Automatics are boring: press pedal 1 to go, press pedal 2 to stop, put the shift lever in the 'P' spot when you're stopped...yawn...
That being said, automatics are easier for everyday running around in a city. Easier...but still not as fun. Driving a standard gives you a much more visceral connection to your wheels, and even in a little Corolla can make you feel like a race car driver on a straightaway. In a Shelby...mmmm...:)
I'm just going to file this in the "Deeply suspicious" file, shall I?
But you all try it, let me know how it goes.
I'm sure that was the initial response to Zyban and Viagra, too...
You never know, could be legit. Not saying I'd line up for it or anything, but if it were to become commercially available in a few years, I could see giving it a try to help shrink my stubborn spare tire...not big enough to make me care enough to actually hit the gym more often, just big enough to be annoying. Meh.
I blame some of it on portion control, at least in the US...
As a Canadian traveling in the US last week, I was constantly surprised by how much of everything you got on your plate. I certainly never left a table hungry, however I don't think I've ever left so much food behind so consistently, either. I'm of the old-school, "eat what's put in front of you, there are starving children in {third world country of your choice} that are going hungry tonight" philosophy, so I did my level best...but the portions still defeated me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about getting more for (roughly) the same price...but it could be a major contributor to overall weight gain in the US, if people are actually eating that much on a regular basis without increasing their average activity level to compensate.
Now, that being said, it doesn't explain the higher-than-average obesity rate north of the 49th, so there certainly have to be other factors involved...but it could be a significant contributing factor.
That's the problem. Our border is like a sieve. The fat ones can't walk more than a couple of miles, so they say fuck it and stay in Mexico.
Interesting thesis. Considering girth has historically been a sign of prosperity, it could indicate that heavier Mexican citizens are actually quite well off in Mexico, so do not have the impetus to leave that the less well off citizens do.
Really, this is such a first world problem, it angers me every time it comes up. If the biggest crisis people can shout about is that the average citizen is slightly overweight, count your blessings and focus your efforts on helping some third world countries achieve the same 'problem'.
So not only will they sell new computers without a Windows install disc, they won't even install it on a disk drive, it will be preinstalled in RAM and all you have to do is turn it on.
Although it is kind of an interesting idea to consider a computer where there is no distinction between mass storage and RAM, where RAM is rewritable but permanent.
You could even leave programs in a running state but just stop executing them on the CPU. You could install new software in an already-running and configured state (how's that for a backup?).
Hmmm...makes me wonder what types of new and exciting malware and viruses will be making the rounds...
While it has done all it can to evolve the platform, it needs Microsoft to step up and begin innovating
If your company future depends on Microsoft innovating on your behalf... you're already screwed.
I'm hard pressed to think of anything really innovative Microsoft has done in years -- mostly they look at what others are doing and copy it (or buy it).
If they're going to put out the Windows Phone platform and then wait around until people buy it to take it seriously, nobody is ever going to take it seriously.
Oh, I don't know. Making 'Teh Ribbon' replace all menus and toolbars, and the forced, ubiquitous Metro interface spam on Win 8 were pretty innovative. They dreamed up the "one interface to rule them all" concept, at least, all on their own (the Ribbon may have been copied from other platforms, I'm not sure).
Their problem lies more with trying to devise innovations that are actually useful, and not simply huge leaps backwards in terms of user friendliness...
Doctor: "According to your readouts, you've been eating waaay too much ice cream over the last few months! Almost every night, and at some pretty odd hours too! Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"
Patient: "Uhh...yeah. Ice cream...it was ice cream, for sure! Ah, sorry doc, will try to do better..."
Instead of handing out tickets, they could park conspicuously and therefore force everyone to slow down so everyone's doing the limit on that stretch of road.
I grew up in a nice bit of farmland, and for a while a nearby town had a single officer, on duty 9am-5pm. From earlier and busier times, the town had a whopping three patrol cars - the nice big Crown Vics with the full-size light bar that any driver with enough vision to drive could see from several miles down the town's one main road. During a particularly bad summer tourist season, that one cop started moving the cars to good locations just inside the town limits. They'd be parked on dirveways (with permission) or lots where they wouldn't be in the way, with just enough cover to look like they were trying to hide, but not enough cover to do so effectively.
It worked. Traffic usually slowed down, and the one officer could spend his limited time watching from the one stoplight in the town center.
Some old PIR detectors have a replaceable or adjustable mirror element, which allows you to change focus. Others have an adjustable sliding mask that lets you narrow the area. Use whatever you have to fine tune it.
Or you could do what my parents did to cut down triggers from sidewalk pedestrians; a strategically placed bit of electrical tape on the sensor works wonders.
Tape/trim to get the location profile you want, then adjust the sensitivity to avoid triggering on cats. Waving branches...well, not much you can do about those, unless you can tape-mask that area from the sensor...or cut down the trees:)
And yes, aiming the lights away from your neighbours house is always a good policy, unless you're looking to start a feud.
How could that possibly work? He's actively looking for pr0n, so he'd simply turn off any controls that inhibit that.
And if he couldn't, then he'd go out and get a laptop or something else to feed his addiction with. If he cancelled his ISP, soon he'd be out piggybacking on his neighbors feed, or hanging around the shadier internet cafes...
What, does he think that alcoholics are cured just because their local grocery store is out of beer or decided not to carry it anymore?
Land of the free = land of "you're responsible for your own damn actions"
If this continues, every item sold within the US is going to have a 89-page disclaimer. It is bad enough that insulated cups have warnings about the contents being hot, now electronic devices need to have a disclaimer about the internet having pornography? This guy is literally, blaming the messenger (company that makes the device), for this his own actions and lack of self-control. Plenty of people can use the internet and even peruse sexual content without having their lives destroyed.
Maybe he should have tried getting a life and setting his priorities, instead of watching the Farrah Abraham video.
Indeed, right along the lines of an alcoholic suing the manufacturer of his/her favorite beer. "If it wasn't so damn good I wouldn't want it so often and I wouldn't be addicted, y'r honor!"
I's a BS money grab, or someone seeking his fifteen minutes. Seriously, I thought this kind of thing was what the Jerry Springer show was supposed to be an outlet for...too bad it's cancelled. At least when it was on, it was an automatic skip-channel reflex...now it seems that that's half of the current programming...
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunately, textbook publishers generally charge the same amount for "digital" copies, while eliminating the used market through the use of activation codes. So, you still spend the same amount on text books (more, if you were planning to buy used), you cannot recoup any of that cost by reselling after the semester is over, and now you have to buy an iPad on top of it all -- even if it's wrapped up in the cost of tuition, you're still buying it. This is a win for only one group: the publishers.
...and teh Apple, don't forget them...
You're paying for a space to park your car, the space isn't going to be cheaper because your car is only 1.65m long, so it's pretty much irrelevant.
Except as a cute party trick - "Hey guys, watch this!"
If these type of cars catch on, they might designate areas of the lots for 'armadillos only', just like some do for compact cars and motorcycles. If that were the case for paid parking, I could see the smaller spots being offered at a reduced rate...I don't know, does anyone know if you pay a different rate right now for assigned motorcycle parking vs a regular parking spot?
If a car parks within 55 inches behind me, how do I unpark? Hell, how do I get into my car at all?
I would think that these are intended for super short nose-in parking stalls, like the 'compact cars only' or 'motorcycle only' parking spots. It would effectively increase the number of vehicles per square meter, and could make it possible to convert additional spaces to parking for these units as well as motorcycles / scooters. It would be a heck of a lot easier to pick up groceries in one of these than, say, a motorcycle, so long as you are making one trip and unloading everything once you got home...don't forget the eggs in the backseat!
Of course, these concerns could be alleviated somewhat if this vehicle only had the ability to rotate the wheels 90 degrees and slide into / out of a parallel parking spot while folded. Could be a tricky maneuver in heavy traffic, though, considering you'd have to get into / out of the vehicle while in the lane of traffic.
Meh. Interesting idea, I like to see outside the box thinking sometimes :)
Imagine owning one of those things for several years. What happens if the damned thing gets stuck? Or a motor burns out that controls the expansion. Or a gear gets stripped...
And honestly, how small do you need to make a car? The difference between the expanded and contracted versions was not that great. I'd keep it expanded all the time. Why not. Are you ever going to have that little space? Unlikely.
Umm...target market seems to be Korea, where (in Seoul at least) people need all the parking space advantages they can muster. This is a place where it is normal and polite to fold your side view mirrors in every time you park. I'm not sure if this is an automated feature or not, since we took public transit everywhere and just noticed the difference from our 'ordinary'...it was odd at first, but so consistently done that you stopped noticing after a while.
My current car is a nice old Honda Civic EX with a 5 speed. Its way more fun to drive the manual BUT if you get stuck in traffic it becomes a boat anchor. MY advice is to keep the manual for a weekend driver and an auto for daily commutes.
Yeah, that's pretty much what we do :) I love driving standard, but our automatic is more practical and a bit more fuel efficient in the city (I know, go figure...)
Why should my learning and testing be made more difficult because you want to have fun?
Cars are something that are used to get from point A to point B when other methods (mass transit, walking, bikes, etc) are not available. I have no interest in learning how the car works better. I have other things I care about.
Also why would I want to get an internal combustion vehicle? If you look at the EVs they pretty much all don't really have a transmission, they just have a single gear. I don't travel for fun. I just want to get where I am going.
I look forward to self driving vehicles and plan to get one as soon as possible.
Good point, automatic transmissions are becoming the de facto 'standard' for driving (if you'll pardon the pun :)
However, GP's point is that by learning how to drive a stick shift, the driver learns much more than just clutch release: they get a much more thorough feel for a vehicle and how it responds to driver input. Learning to drive an automatic is more akin to 'learning' how to drive a bumper car: it goes, it stops, it moves in the direction you steer it. It provides very little feedback for torque response, traction, speed, etc. etc. It can be compared, perhaps, to a user running a Mac vs. a user running Linux (without kde or gnome). One provides an easier ride for the novice and light user, the other provides way more 'under the hood' control and feedback, if you know how to use it properly :)
Driving a standard also forces drivers to pay more attention to the task of driving, instead of freeing up one hand to text or apply makeup or whatever in stop-and-go traffic. Generally, the most dangerous times for a driver is when making speed changes (accelerating, braking), and that's exactly when standard drivers have to pay attention to the shifting required, so are less likely to let their mind wander from the task at hand. At least, that's been my own experience while driving both types of transmissions.
On the topic of training that *should* be mandatory, however, personally I think it's a crime that everyday drivers are not required to take (and pass) even basic crash avoidance and vehicle awareness training before getting their license. Parallel parking testing provides a relatively puny vehicle awareness check, and frankly, how many people learn just enough to pass that most dreaded part of their driving test, without bothering to perfect or expand on those skills? We may laugh at the antics of people on shows like Canada's Worst Driver, but the sad part is that those are just the ones who are willing to participate in the show. You just know that there is a sizeable percentage of the population that should never be allowed behind the wheel of a motorized vehicle. Heck, I have friends/co-workers who ask me to back them into parking spots, because they aren't confident enough to do it themselves...and without consistent (and maybe repeated) training courses, people like that will never acquire the skills or confidence to do it themselves.
And on another note: taxis (with their drivers) don't communicate traffic-data to each other. Self-driving cars could do that and optimize the route. Then, of course, if I could also personalize the route with things like "please use scenic route", "use fast route", "use a county road", etc - it would be perfect...
Especially the all important "follow that vehicle!" personalization...
Some cars already do work that way. They have automatic breaking when the car senses that you will hit something in front of you.
It would make no sense for it to work the other way round. A human's reaction time is far too slow to intervene when (s)he thinks the car computer will do something bad.
Hmmm...I would think this would be an automatic reaction for most cars upon hitting an object...doing so ahead of time would be rather pointless, although it would keep the body shops happy :)
The word you're looking for is 'braking' ;o)
I've never owned anything but 2x seat sports cars, I've never owned a manual transmission.
I like to drive...I buy cars that are FUN to drive.
But...but...manual transmissions ARE the fun ones to drive! Automatics are boring: press pedal 1 to go, press pedal 2 to stop, put the shift lever in the 'P' spot when you're stopped...yawn...
That being said, automatics are easier for everyday running around in a city. Easier...but still not as fun. Driving a standard gives you a much more visceral connection to your wheels, and even in a little Corolla can make you feel like a race car driver on a straightaway. In a Shelby...mmmm... :)
I'm just going to file this in the "Deeply suspicious" file, shall I?
But you all try it, let me know how it goes.
I'm sure that was the initial response to Zyban and Viagra, too...
You never know, could be legit. Not saying I'd line up for it or anything, but if it were to become commercially available in a few years, I could see giving it a try to help shrink my stubborn spare tire...not big enough to make me care enough to actually hit the gym more often, just big enough to be annoying. Meh.
Assuming people that need exercise most are actually drink water and not sugary drinks.
So...add it to sugary drinks!
I blame some of it on portion control, at least in the US...
As a Canadian traveling in the US last week, I was constantly surprised by how much of everything you got on your plate. I certainly never left a table hungry, however I don't think I've ever left so much food behind so consistently, either. I'm of the old-school, "eat what's put in front of you, there are starving children in {third world country of your choice} that are going hungry tonight" philosophy, so I did my level best...but the portions still defeated me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about getting more for (roughly) the same price...but it could be a major contributor to overall weight gain in the US, if people are actually eating that much on a regular basis without increasing their average activity level to compensate.
Now, that being said, it doesn't explain the higher-than-average obesity rate north of the 49th, so there certainly have to be other factors involved...but it could be a significant contributing factor.
That's the problem. Our border is like a sieve. The fat ones can't walk more than a couple of miles, so they say fuck it and stay in Mexico.
Interesting thesis. Considering girth has historically been a sign of prosperity, it could indicate that heavier Mexican citizens are actually quite well off in Mexico, so do not have the impetus to leave that the less well off citizens do.
Really, this is such a first world problem, it angers me every time it comes up. If the biggest crisis people can shout about is that the average citizen is slightly overweight, count your blessings and focus your efforts on helping some third world countries achieve the same 'problem'.
So not only will they sell new computers without a Windows install disc, they won't even install it on a disk drive, it will be preinstalled in RAM and all you have to do is turn it on.
Although it is kind of an interesting idea to consider a computer where there is no distinction between mass storage and RAM, where RAM is rewritable but permanent.
You could even leave programs in a running state but just stop executing them on the CPU. You could install new software in an already-running and configured state (how's that for a backup?).
Hmmm...makes me wonder what types of new and exciting malware and viruses will be making the rounds...
Don't they know that resistance is futile?
Pfft. Hand in your geek cards at the door, please... :p
If your company future depends on Microsoft innovating on your behalf ... you're already screwed.
I'm hard pressed to think of anything really innovative Microsoft has done in years -- mostly they look at what others are doing and copy it (or buy it).
If they're going to put out the Windows Phone platform and then wait around until people buy it to take it seriously, nobody is ever going to take it seriously.
Oh, I don't know. Making 'Teh Ribbon' replace all menus and toolbars, and the forced, ubiquitous Metro interface spam on Win 8 were pretty innovative. They dreamed up the "one interface to rule them all" concept, at least, all on their own (the Ribbon may have been copied from other platforms, I'm not sure).
Their problem lies more with trying to devise innovations that are actually useful, and not simply huge leaps backwards in terms of user friendliness...
Doctor: "According to your readouts, you've been eating waaay too much ice cream over the last few months! Almost every night, and at some pretty odd hours too! Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"
Patient: "Uhh...yeah. Ice cream...it was ice cream, for sure! Ah, sorry doc, will try to do better..."
Instead of handing out tickets, they could park conspicuously and therefore force everyone to slow down so everyone's doing the limit on that stretch of road.
I grew up in a nice bit of farmland, and for a while a nearby town had a single officer, on duty 9am-5pm. From earlier and busier times, the town had a whopping three patrol cars - the nice big Crown Vics with the full-size light bar that any driver with enough vision to drive could see from several miles down the town's one main road. During a particularly bad summer tourist season, that one cop started moving the cars to good locations just inside the town limits. They'd be parked on dirveways (with permission) or lots where they wouldn't be in the way, with just enough cover to look like they were trying to hide, but not enough cover to do so effectively.
It worked. Traffic usually slowed down, and the one officer could spend his limited time watching from the one stoplight in the town center.
You grew up in Dog River??! Cool! :)
Some old PIR detectors have a replaceable or adjustable mirror element, which allows you to change focus. Others have an adjustable sliding mask that lets you narrow the area. Use whatever you have to fine tune it.
Or you could do what my parents did to cut down triggers from sidewalk pedestrians; a strategically placed bit of electrical tape on the sensor works wonders.
Tape/trim to get the location profile you want, then adjust the sensitivity to avoid triggering on cats. Waving branches...well, not much you can do about those, unless you can tape-mask that area from the sensor...or cut down the trees :)
And yes, aiming the lights away from your neighbours house is always a good policy, unless you're looking to start a feud.
It freed us from Lotus Notes.
Lucky bastard...
when i saw "safe mode" i thought about Windows safe mode. Press F8 to enter safe mode. gah, i've been using Windows too long. lol
Mr. Chris Sevier meant a browser mode that applied filters to search engines and blocked adult websites.
so Mr. Chris Sevier actually wrote a fifty page complaint. wow, that is a long complaint.
Especially when you're writing it one handed...
"Oracle To Stop Developing Sun Virtualization Technologies"
Huh. I didn't even know they were in the tanning bed business...better grab one while they're 'hot'! :p
I think Snowden is well worth one Nobel Peace Prize.
Unfortunately, a Nobel Peace Prize isn't worth a Nobel Peace Prize these days...Snowden deserves better.
How could that possibly work? He's actively looking for pr0n, so he'd simply turn off any controls that inhibit that.
And if he couldn't, then he'd go out and get a laptop or something else to feed his addiction with. If he cancelled his ISP, soon he'd be out piggybacking on his neighbors feed, or hanging around the shadier internet cafes...
What, does he think that alcoholics are cured just because their local grocery store is out of beer or decided not to carry it anymore?
Land of the free = land of "you're responsible for your own damn actions"
If this continues, every item sold within the US is going to have a 89-page disclaimer. It is bad enough that insulated cups have warnings about the contents being hot, now electronic devices need to have a disclaimer about the internet having pornography? This guy is literally, blaming the messenger (company that makes the device), for this his own actions and lack of self-control. Plenty of people can use the internet and even peruse sexual content without having their lives destroyed.
Maybe he should have tried getting a life and setting his priorities, instead of watching the Farrah Abraham video.
Indeed, right along the lines of an alcoholic suing the manufacturer of his/her favorite beer. "If it wasn't so damn good I wouldn't want it so often and I wouldn't be addicted, y'r honor!"
I's a BS money grab, or someone seeking his fifteen minutes. Seriously, I thought this kind of thing was what the Jerry Springer show was supposed to be an outlet for...too bad it's cancelled. At least when it was on, it was an automatic skip-channel reflex...now it seems that that's half of the current programming...