The big news today is that Verizon launched the Android Nougat (7.0) update for the S7. I think this software update has had a lot more anticipation than the release of the S8.
Yeah, I don't think most people are terribly excited. It's not like five years ago when each new phone crushed the previous one. It's more like seeing what minor tweaks they're making to the previous model, and what things they're taking away that were good. In general, I expect more memory, better camera, longer battery life, and a loss of some feature that I used that most people ignored. Like when they took away the IR that my S5 had, so I couldn't turn off TVs in restaurants anymore.
In my case, I have an S7 now, so I'm curious about the S8, as I'll probably end up with an S9, so this gives me some idea of what to expect next year.
On a serious note, you can approximate this by simply paving an entire square mile. I once heard that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was such an airport in WWII, allowing damaged aircraft to land without having to line up for a runway. I don't know if that's true or not (it was a naval air base according to Wikipedia, so it might be), but the idea may be valid.
If you have a location with high winds that approach from many directions, and you have a wide open area, then something along these lines would work. Of course, there aren't going to be many locations where you have those wind conditions and the space, so you could approximate it with several different runways aligned based on the predominant wind conditions. That would work great! And that's pretty much exactly what they do at all major airports.
A circular runway has too many problems as others have pointed out: Weather making the runway slippery, the need for approach lights, etc. So why not stick with straight runways, but gain the advantage of a circular runways by putting the entire airport on a giant turntable? Then you can rotate the runways to always be at the optimal alignment for the wind.:)
The phrase in question is "crossing a hill which is more than 300 meters high." It reads as a general observation, not as a specification, so I'll disagree in this case. I will grant, however, that you're correct that you can't assume the number of significant digits simply because the number happens to end in zeros.
And they're both wrong because the original has only one significant digit, so the conversion shouldn't add false precision. The correct conversion is "about a thousand feet."
When people are done seeing a movie, there should be a shop that sells copies of the soundtrack, copies of the other movies in the franchise, related toys (as appropriate), etc. They could even sell the Blu-Ray of the movie you just saw (whether restricted sales to movie-goers, sold to anyone, or pre-sold with day-of-release delivery).
There is so much in the way of movie merchandising, and the theaters seem to completely miss it. Even if they're contractually locked out (which is stupid), they could lease a separate store adjacent to the theater that sells movie merchandise. (Perhaps I should start that chain--too bad I already have a good job.)
So if you're running Gentoo, the ebuilds should configure Firefox for you just like always, and you'll never notice this change. Or at least until version 54 when it really goes away and suddenly you're wondering why media-sound/pulseaudio is a required dependency for upgrading.
With regular meat, the animal's growth is controlled by hormones, so I'm wondering if the lab meat is grown using various added hormones to force the growth. I know one of the reasons some people prefer organic meat is because they know it doesn't have added hormones. What are the health impacts of eating whatever added stuff they have to use to make the lab meat grow?
With all the shortcuts the food industry has taken, if they get this lab meat to be cheaper than real meat, it will be a long time before people are convinced it's healthy meat.
I remember writing a DM assistant in BASIC on my Atari 800 back in the 80s that did many of the tables we frequently used (treasure tables, combat, random weather from a Dragon article, etc.). People have been doing this sort of thing for at least 30 years. My Echo will do arbitrary dice rolls. "Alexa, roll a 17-sided die."
Can we stop with this reinventing of the language and stick with the words that really describe what they're doing? They're doing remakes. The only reboot I've seen is Star Trek, where they used time travel to radically change the universe, but it's technically the same universe (or multiverse) as everything that had preceded it. The new Battlestar Galactica pushed the term "reImagining" to stress that they were changing the story and doing it differently, but it was still a remake (a fantastic one).
Movies in a franchise are generally either a remake or a sequel (or prequel). I'm not sure I would use the term "sequel" for the James Bond movies, where each one tends to be an independent storyline with few sequential aspects, but loosely speaking they fit the definition.
Well, anything they wanted to do in the S8 that didn't make it into the final product is something they have another year to work on to get it in the S9. So if you don't like the S8 design, stick with an older phone for one more year. And remember that you can get an S7 at a steep discount now, and that will only get better.
While I disagree on third-party clients, I can see wanting control if you're running a business. It also reduces the chances of the whole system getting bad press due to a security flaw in a single third-party client (and you know that would happen).
It's hard to avoid a centralized directory server for a messaging system without opening the system up to spam. It's hard to avoid the centralized directory at all, but it can be done. Of course, eliminating the central server also eliminates central control, which again makes it hard to run as a business.
Signal is trying to be the answer. They certainly cover instant messaging, and I think they're adding video and audio. I'm not sure about email, but like any encryption system, it only works if you get both ends using the same system, and to use it, you have to go with their interface. Maybe with plugins for Outlook, GMail, Thunderbird, and whatnot, it might work, but it still requires everyone switching to it.
The talk of Comcast makes a lot of sense to me. The writing is on the wall for wired home services--it's just a matter of time before the cell companies decide to push hard into that market. For most consumers, they could swap out their cable boxes and cable modem for versions that use LTE instead of coax. It would just be a matter of the cell companies having sufficient bandwidth.
Certainly Comcast sees this coming. Buying Sprint would be their best move to stay relevant as the market shifts. Instead of sitting around while the cell companies eat into their market, they can use Sprint to eat into the markets of their competitors.
Now I would much rather see Alphabet (Google) buy Sprint. That could enhance the competitive marketplace for home Internet and video instead of constrict it.
Skype was one of the few remaining programs where the only available Linux version was still 32-bit. I still have the old version installed, though I haven't used it in ages.
I think the only other 32-bit program I still have around is Adobe's Acroread, which they've discontinued for Linux.
As soon as they start blocking the obviously forged numbers, then all the spammers will switch to forging real numbers. Then they'll have to switch to routing-based blocking. If the number is assigned to a Verizon customer, and the call isn't being routed in a manner that Verizon uses, drop it.
Of course, this means Verizon customers couldn't use VoIP robo-callers with their own number, at least without registering it in some database first. Those customers wouldn't like the extra step, so they'll complain and block the rule.
What we really need is some unforgeable authentication system. This would require some trusted authority to give a public/private key pair for each phone number, so that each call would be accompanied by digitally signed Caller ID. For most customers, this would be handled transparently by their provider. Verizon and the like could even charge a fee for providing keys for use with VoIP dialers. Of course, this would be a major change in how calls are handled, so it would likely take many years and lots of equipment upgrades.
The call only sends the number. The name is added by a database lookup by your phone provider. If the lookup doesn't get a hit, it uses the area code and prefix to provide a location. I expect that often means it's a spoofed number that hadn't been assigned, which is exactly the sort of thing this will block.
I might be interested in something like this. My wife uses an ancient voice-only prepaid cell phone ($20/year on a grandfathered T-Mobile plan). Having an in-car hotspot would mean being able to use her iPad when I'm not in the car with my phone. (She listens to podcasts while driving, and our son like to use the iPad, too.)
I could see lots of similar family situations where tethering to a cell phone isn't always an option or isn't a desirable option, and the $20/month works out to the best deal for providing WiFi in the car.
Just because it doesn't make sense for your usage patterns doesn't mean it doesn't make sense for others.
Verizon and AT&T have home Internet businesses already that they don't want to cannibalize. Sprint and T-Mobile just need to expand their capacity, but it's just a matter of time before they start offering home Internet over LTE. This will be a bloodbath for Comcast.
I was thinking that the blue light issue is something that the programmable LED lights could come in useful. Have them put out regular white light normally, but have them shift towards the red spectrum an hour before bedtime.
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The big news today is that Verizon launched the Android Nougat (7.0) update for the S7. I think this software update has had a lot more anticipation than the release of the S8.
Yeah, I don't think most people are terribly excited. It's not like five years ago when each new phone crushed the previous one. It's more like seeing what minor tweaks they're making to the previous model, and what things they're taking away that were good. In general, I expect more memory, better camera, longer battery life, and a loss of some feature that I used that most people ignored. Like when they took away the IR that my S5 had, so I couldn't turn off TVs in restaurants anymore.
In my case, I have an S7 now, so I'm curious about the S8, as I'll probably end up with an S9, so this gives me some idea of what to expect next year.
On a serious note, you can approximate this by simply paving an entire square mile. I once heard that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was such an airport in WWII, allowing damaged aircraft to land without having to line up for a runway. I don't know if that's true or not (it was a naval air base according to Wikipedia, so it might be), but the idea may be valid.
If you have a location with high winds that approach from many directions, and you have a wide open area, then something along these lines would work. Of course, there aren't going to be many locations where you have those wind conditions and the space, so you could approximate it with several different runways aligned based on the predominant wind conditions. That would work great! And that's pretty much exactly what they do at all major airports.
A circular runway has too many problems as others have pointed out: Weather making the runway slippery, the need for approach lights, etc. So why not stick with straight runways, but gain the advantage of a circular runways by putting the entire airport on a giant turntable? Then you can rotate the runways to always be at the optimal alignment for the wind. :)
The phrase in question is "crossing a hill which is more than 300 meters high." It reads as a general observation, not as a specification, so I'll disagree in this case. I will grant, however, that you're correct that you can't assume the number of significant digits simply because the number happens to end in zeros.
And they're both wrong because the original has only one significant digit, so the conversion shouldn't add false precision. The correct conversion is "about a thousand feet."
No. 300 meters is 1000 feet. Don't add significant digits.
Why don't movie theaters do merchandising?
When people are done seeing a movie, there should be a shop that sells copies of the soundtrack, copies of the other movies in the franchise, related toys (as appropriate), etc. They could even sell the Blu-Ray of the movie you just saw (whether restricted sales to movie-goers, sold to anyone, or pre-sold with day-of-release delivery).
There is so much in the way of movie merchandising, and the theaters seem to completely miss it. Even if they're contractually locked out (which is stupid), they could lease a separate store adjacent to the theater that sells movie merchandise. (Perhaps I should start that chain--too bad I already have a good job.)
So if you're running Gentoo, the ebuilds should configure Firefox for you just like always, and you'll never notice this change. Or at least until version 54 when it really goes away and suddenly you're wondering why media-sound/pulseaudio is a required dependency for upgrading.
No, you're thinking OSS. ALSA fixed that.
With regular meat, the animal's growth is controlled by hormones, so I'm wondering if the lab meat is grown using various added hormones to force the growth. I know one of the reasons some people prefer organic meat is because they know it doesn't have added hormones. What are the health impacts of eating whatever added stuff they have to use to make the lab meat grow?
With all the shortcuts the food industry has taken, if they get this lab meat to be cheaper than real meat, it will be a long time before people are convinced it's healthy meat.
I was copying how it was used in the story blurb above, but I agree that your way is much better.
I remember writing a DM assistant in BASIC on my Atari 800 back in the 80s that did many of the tables we frequently used (treasure tables, combat, random weather from a Dragon article, etc.). People have been doing this sort of thing for at least 30 years. My Echo will do arbitrary dice rolls. "Alexa, roll a 17-sided die."
Can we stop with this reinventing of the language and stick with the words that really describe what they're doing? They're doing remakes. The only reboot I've seen is Star Trek, where they used time travel to radically change the universe, but it's technically the same universe (or multiverse) as everything that had preceded it. The new Battlestar Galactica pushed the term "reImagining" to stress that they were changing the story and doing it differently, but it was still a remake (a fantastic one).
Movies in a franchise are generally either a remake or a sequel (or prequel). I'm not sure I would use the term "sequel" for the James Bond movies, where each one tends to be an independent storyline with few sequential aspects, but loosely speaking they fit the definition.
Well, anything they wanted to do in the S8 that didn't make it into the final product is something they have another year to work on to get it in the S9. So if you don't like the S8 design, stick with an older phone for one more year. And remember that you can get an S7 at a steep discount now, and that will only get better.
I hadn't heard that. Interesting.
While I disagree on third-party clients, I can see wanting control if you're running a business. It also reduces the chances of the whole system getting bad press due to a security flaw in a single third-party client (and you know that would happen).
It's hard to avoid a centralized directory server for a messaging system without opening the system up to spam. It's hard to avoid the centralized directory at all, but it can be done. Of course, eliminating the central server also eliminates central control, which again makes it hard to run as a business.
Signal is trying to be the answer. They certainly cover instant messaging, and I think they're adding video and audio. I'm not sure about email, but like any encryption system, it only works if you get both ends using the same system, and to use it, you have to go with their interface. Maybe with plugins for Outlook, GMail, Thunderbird, and whatnot, it might work, but it still requires everyone switching to it.
And none of that fixes the spam problem.
The talk of Comcast makes a lot of sense to me. The writing is on the wall for wired home services--it's just a matter of time before the cell companies decide to push hard into that market. For most consumers, they could swap out their cable boxes and cable modem for versions that use LTE instead of coax. It would just be a matter of the cell companies having sufficient bandwidth.
Certainly Comcast sees this coming. Buying Sprint would be their best move to stay relevant as the market shifts. Instead of sitting around while the cell companies eat into their market, they can use Sprint to eat into the markets of their competitors.
Now I would much rather see Alphabet (Google) buy Sprint. That could enhance the competitive marketplace for home Internet and video instead of constrict it.
Skype was one of the few remaining programs where the only available Linux version was still 32-bit. I still have the old version installed, though I haven't used it in ages.
I think the only other 32-bit program I still have around is Adobe's Acroread, which they've discontinued for Linux.
As soon as they start blocking the obviously forged numbers, then all the spammers will switch to forging real numbers. Then they'll have to switch to routing-based blocking. If the number is assigned to a Verizon customer, and the call isn't being routed in a manner that Verizon uses, drop it.
Of course, this means Verizon customers couldn't use VoIP robo-callers with their own number, at least without registering it in some database first. Those customers wouldn't like the extra step, so they'll complain and block the rule.
What we really need is some unforgeable authentication system. This would require some trusted authority to give a public/private key pair for each phone number, so that each call would be accompanied by digitally signed Caller ID. For most customers, this would be handled transparently by their provider. Verizon and the like could even charge a fee for providing keys for use with VoIP dialers. Of course, this would be a major change in how calls are handled, so it would likely take many years and lots of equipment upgrades.
The call only sends the number. The name is added by a database lookup by your phone provider. If the lookup doesn't get a hit, it uses the area code and prefix to provide a location. I expect that often means it's a spoofed number that hadn't been assigned, which is exactly the sort of thing this will block.
Of course you can't buy a GM car without OnStar. GM owns OnStar.
I might be interested in something like this. My wife uses an ancient voice-only prepaid cell phone ($20/year on a grandfathered T-Mobile plan). Having an in-car hotspot would mean being able to use her iPad when I'm not in the car with my phone. (She listens to podcasts while driving, and our son like to use the iPad, too.)
I could see lots of similar family situations where tethering to a cell phone isn't always an option or isn't a desirable option, and the $20/month works out to the best deal for providing WiFi in the car.
Just because it doesn't make sense for your usage patterns doesn't mean it doesn't make sense for others.
Exactly!
Verizon and AT&T have home Internet businesses already that they don't want to cannibalize. Sprint and T-Mobile just need to expand their capacity, but it's just a matter of time before they start offering home Internet over LTE. This will be a bloodbath for Comcast.
I was thinking that the blue light issue is something that the programmable LED lights could come in useful. Have them put out regular white light normally, but have them shift towards the red spectrum an hour before bedtime.