Risk is one thing, another is viability. Nuclear power is the only viable means to generate the power most European countries need. Due to the population density with the combined energy demand per person you need a lot of energy 24/7. Windmills are beautiful things, unless if they're in your backyard. Not to mention there are several dangers attached to those as well. There's only so much space available where you can put these windmills. Solar panels are a joke without good energy storage systems (good luck on that one with current battery and capacitor technology, and pumping water up a level difference is rather inefficient).
In the end nuclear power is one of the most efficient ways to generate electricity in terms of space usage.
And lets not forget how reliable and predictable it is. A nuclear reactor is certain to output a set amount of energy in a certain configuration no matter what. Not a single one of these "renewable" sources are capable of that. None of the current replacement suggestions are worth it.
I'm not sure where you got the idea that we have the space for such things. Most of our train stations are in cities. Most railways go through cities as well. You can't just knock over some buildings to add a bunch of rails. It took them years to buy up enough land to double the amount of tracks on a 50km trajectory over here. Not to mention that these trains really don't need that much distance to speed up to 140km/h (or faster). This money would be better invested in energy recuperation systems.
You could probably measure the position of such a system with a tension strip. If you put a few of them around the arm you could determine the direction it's pointing at with fairly simple math. And it's a very cheap solution.
Education is a right all of you wish to say. If you can't realistically study due to financial reasons I wouldn't call it a right but more of a privilege. In the end the issue is the amount of useless degrees awarded. You'll never have too much technical and scientific skilled people. You can always find a spot for an engineer, programmer, administrator, lab worker, etc. In fact, over here most of those already have a job with a signed contract by the time they leave college/university.
On the other hand the same doesn't count for all these political "science" majors, historians, and other such frivolous degrees. If you have 500 people applying for a single job you can't expect them all to get it. In fact it's these people that end up working at bus driver, cashier at McDonalds or other such jobs. So what you should really be asking is if these degrees should be able to get student loans. The answer is clearly no. And now that does seem unfair, but lets be realistic. If you already have a privilege system that depends on people having money or being able to pay back a loan then it's not that far of a step.
On the other hand, one must argue that if education is really a right one should be able to study without tuition fees. In other words, the colleges/universities should be non-profit organisations funded with tax payer money. No scholarships either for athletes so they can win pointless competitions between colleges/universities. Education should be about education, not money or political ideology.
I've been using Elnec programmers the past few years. Works great, software isn't bad either. You can often find them on eBay for less than $100. They also have a few programmers specifically for EEPROMs that are a lot cheaper.
Don't go for those weird shaped ergonomic keyboards. They usually slow down work and your fingers end up hurting more cause you're not used to the weird positioning of the keys. The best "new" keyboard I've found up to this point was the Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000, the 3000 is sort of ok but already has a weirder shape. In terms of monitor, get something that isn't reflective (more comfortable for the eyes if there's a lot of sunlight coming in through a window) and about 21", larger requires increased distance and that might be annoying for people who have to wear glasses for things that aren't nearby. Mouse you should just get a normal one that isn't too large. And chair and desk, just go to your local IKEA and try out what sort of desk and chair works best for you.
In very few cases has something like Java been ported to a certain platform though. If you step away from x86 it becomes a lot harder. ARM is still somewhat possible. But beyond that it becomes problematic.
And that's where you're wrong. OpenGL, hardware acceleration of video and audio, webcam support,... are all low level features that require drivers to be written and they're all in the low level programming territory. Only after the low level programming has been done by somebody else there will be high level programming support.
You're mistaken in where the power comes frome. Python/C#/Java are about getting something done, not about getting it done efficiently and right. The real workhorse in the background is still often a combination of a C/C++ program with parts written in assembly. I wouldn't dare to directly communicate with a graphics card in all the languages you named there (required for most of the features you suggest). In C/C++/Assembly that's a different story though.
If I want something to become cross platform at that level I'll just dump all the useless layers. The hardware is often far more standardised than the operating system is. Have the C/C++ compiler and the included linker take care of the addressing and dealing with the operating system if necessary but break out of the cage, surpass the limits of the programming languages their design. In Python/C#/Java you're restricted to the feature set you're given. In C/C++ combined with assembly your only limitation is the hardware.
Actually, if you want something cross platform then take a look at NetBSD. It's about the easiest thing out there to port to a new system. If you get the basic hardware support working it'll generally manage to boot to a useful state. Also note how it uses 0 Java in doing so. The cross platform nature of code depends more on the programmer's skill than the language I'd say. If you think about it that way ISO C is about as cross platform as it gets. An ISO C compatible compiler is one of the first tools made for a new system after an assembler. And it's available on rare and exotic architectures, neither of those can be said about Java (assuming you leave SPARC out of the question).
For those of us in a more technical context (in my case EE to be specific) you'll learn that it's not cross platform at all though.
Yet managers will still believe Sun/Oracle's nice marketing speech. Sadly for us, they then hire java programmers and make our lives a living hell cause we have to work with embedded Java. And once you encountered that you'll learn there is no such thing as a cross platform version of Java. Even basic functionality becomes questionable actually.
Java is only as cross platform as Oracle wants it to be. If they don't port the runtime and tools it's worthless.
So I wish to argue against it being a true cross platform language. As all that happens is the JVM executes commands written in a compressed script.
Actually, if you keep enough of a distance and keep the hard drive platters in a wooden box they should still be erased without the danger of projectiles.
I simply use an arc welder. Sending bursts of about 100A through the platters usually does the job quite well (it tends to screw up the magnetic fields big time).
What would also be worth exploring is exposing them to a MRI.
Most of the hard parts come down more to notation than actual mathematics. Once you figure out the notation it's a lot less complicated. The guys who wrote books on this sort of subject would invent their own symbol for addition if they dared to do so.
That's pretty much exactly what I've been doing. Found a trick to do it for free.
Every once in a while a printer, fax machine or copy machine breaks down and needs to be fixed and off course tested. After buying my share of coffee for the repair guys I managed to get a pretty nice deal. Needless to say 1000 page tests have occurred a few times already.
At the moment it comes down to this:
Cost of coffee: ~€70
Cost of printed documents if I were to normally print them: ~€440
So they spend time making something that already exists. Go to any art store and you'll be able to buy silver ink pens. And the roller variants don't work well on PCBs actually. So you're better of with other versions. I don't get how this sort of things even make it onto news sites. This has about the same quality level as the "force field" thing some computer science students came up with last month.
I'd rather drag an ancient phone box around on a trailer all day than install anything made by Apple Inc. (specifically iTunes and QuickTime) on my computer.
There is one issue with that. Pretty much the entire European Union is against patenting or copyrighting genetic code.
Some company also tried to patent some anti-cancer research a few years ago as well, that also sort of backfired.
Yes, and we should totally talk to a professor in communication and some political "science" majors about genetic manipulation. They have no clue what they're talking about...
Sorry, was mixing up cable types yesterday evening it seems. It'll do 100 meter with twisted pair indeed. The 25 meter is in relation to DisplayPort's twinaxial system.
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Risk is one thing, another is viability. Nuclear power is the only viable means to generate the power most European countries need. Due to the population density with the combined energy demand per person you need a lot of energy 24/7. Windmills are beautiful things, unless if they're in your backyard. Not to mention there are several dangers attached to those as well. There's only so much space available where you can put these windmills. Solar panels are a joke without good energy storage systems (good luck on that one with current battery and capacitor technology, and pumping water up a level difference is rather inefficient). In the end nuclear power is one of the most efficient ways to generate electricity in terms of space usage.
And lets not forget how reliable and predictable it is. A nuclear reactor is certain to output a set amount of energy in a certain configuration no matter what. Not a single one of these "renewable" sources are capable of that. None of the current replacement suggestions are worth it.
I'm not sure where you got the idea that we have the space for such things. Most of our train stations are in cities. Most railways go through cities as well. You can't just knock over some buildings to add a bunch of rails. It took them years to buy up enough land to double the amount of tracks on a 50km trajectory over here. Not to mention that these trains really don't need that much distance to speed up to 140km/h (or faster). This money would be better invested in energy recuperation systems.
You could probably measure the position of such a system with a tension strip. If you put a few of them around the arm you could determine the direction it's pointing at with fairly simple math. And it's a very cheap solution.
And that word is: Drivers
Or at least the lack of them for the cheaper laptops.
Education is a right all of you wish to say. If you can't realistically study due to financial reasons I wouldn't call it a right but more of a privilege. In the end the issue is the amount of useless degrees awarded. You'll never have too much technical and scientific skilled people. You can always find a spot for an engineer, programmer, administrator, lab worker, etc. In fact, over here most of those already have a job with a signed contract by the time they leave college/university.
On the other hand the same doesn't count for all these political "science" majors, historians, and other such frivolous degrees. If you have 500 people applying for a single job you can't expect them all to get it. In fact it's these people that end up working at bus driver, cashier at McDonalds or other such jobs. So what you should really be asking is if these degrees should be able to get student loans. The answer is clearly no. And now that does seem unfair, but lets be realistic. If you already have a privilege system that depends on people having money or being able to pay back a loan then it's not that far of a step.
On the other hand, one must argue that if education is really a right one should be able to study without tuition fees. In other words, the colleges/universities should be non-profit organisations funded with tax payer money. No scholarships either for athletes so they can win pointless competitions between colleges/universities. Education should be about education, not money or political ideology.
I've been using Elnec programmers the past few years. Works great, software isn't bad either. You can often find them on eBay for less than $100. They also have a few programmers specifically for EEPROMs that are a lot cheaper.
Don't go for those weird shaped ergonomic keyboards. They usually slow down work and your fingers end up hurting more cause you're not used to the weird positioning of the keys. The best "new" keyboard I've found up to this point was the Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000, the 3000 is sort of ok but already has a weirder shape. In terms of monitor, get something that isn't reflective (more comfortable for the eyes if there's a lot of sunlight coming in through a window) and about 21", larger requires increased distance and that might be annoying for people who have to wear glasses for things that aren't nearby. Mouse you should just get a normal one that isn't too large. And chair and desk, just go to your local IKEA and try out what sort of desk and chair works best for you.
In very few cases has something like Java been ported to a certain platform though. If you step away from x86 it becomes a lot harder. ARM is still somewhat possible. But beyond that it becomes problematic.
And that's where you're wrong. OpenGL, hardware acceleration of video and audio, webcam support, ... are all low level features that require drivers to be written and they're all in the low level programming territory. Only after the low level programming has been done by somebody else there will be high level programming support.
You're mistaken in where the power comes frome. Python/C#/Java are about getting something done, not about getting it done efficiently and right. The real workhorse in the background is still often a combination of a C/C++ program with parts written in assembly. I wouldn't dare to directly communicate with a graphics card in all the languages you named there (required for most of the features you suggest). In C/C++/Assembly that's a different story though.
If I want something to become cross platform at that level I'll just dump all the useless layers. The hardware is often far more standardised than the operating system is. Have the C/C++ compiler and the included linker take care of the addressing and dealing with the operating system if necessary but break out of the cage, surpass the limits of the programming languages their design. In Python/C#/Java you're restricted to the feature set you're given. In C/C++ combined with assembly your only limitation is the hardware.
Actually, if you want something cross platform then take a look at NetBSD. It's about the easiest thing out there to port to a new system. If you get the basic hardware support working it'll generally manage to boot to a useful state. Also note how it uses 0 Java in doing so. The cross platform nature of code depends more on the programmer's skill than the language I'd say. If you think about it that way ISO C is about as cross platform as it gets. An ISO C compatible compiler is one of the first tools made for a new system after an assembler. And it's available on rare and exotic architectures, neither of those can be said about Java (assuming you leave SPARC out of the question).
For those of us in a more technical context (in my case EE to be specific) you'll learn that it's not cross platform at all though. Yet managers will still believe Sun/Oracle's nice marketing speech. Sadly for us, they then hire java programmers and make our lives a living hell cause we have to work with embedded Java. And once you encountered that you'll learn there is no such thing as a cross platform version of Java. Even basic functionality becomes questionable actually.
Java is only as cross platform as Oracle wants it to be. If they don't port the runtime and tools it's worthless. So I wish to argue against it being a true cross platform language. As all that happens is the JVM executes commands written in a compressed script.
Actually, if you keep enough of a distance and keep the hard drive platters in a wooden box they should still be erased without the danger of projectiles.
I simply use an arc welder. Sending bursts of about 100A through the platters usually does the job quite well (it tends to screw up the magnetic fields big time). What would also be worth exploring is exposing them to a MRI.
Most of the hard parts come down more to notation than actual mathematics. Once you figure out the notation it's a lot less complicated. The guys who wrote books on this sort of subject would invent their own symbol for addition if they dared to do so.
That's pretty much exactly what I've been doing. Found a trick to do it for free. Every once in a while a printer, fax machine or copy machine breaks down and needs to be fixed and off course tested. After buying my share of coffee for the repair guys I managed to get a pretty nice deal. Needless to say 1000 page tests have occurred a few times already.
At the moment it comes down to this:
Cost of coffee: ~€70
Cost of printed documents if I were to normally print them: ~€440
At the moment I like the profit margin.
A Japanese company already made a similar laptop that was cheaper and lighter last year. Don't really understand the fuzz about this.
What is not in the article is that they had to charge the plane before it left Brussels.
So they spend time making something that already exists. Go to any art store and you'll be able to buy silver ink pens. And the roller variants don't work well on PCBs actually. So you're better of with other versions. I don't get how this sort of things even make it onto news sites. This has about the same quality level as the "force field" thing some computer science students came up with last month.
I'd rather drag an ancient phone box around on a trailer all day than install anything made by Apple Inc. (specifically iTunes and QuickTime) on my computer.
There is one issue with that. Pretty much the entire European Union is against patenting or copyrighting genetic code. Some company also tried to patent some anti-cancer research a few years ago as well, that also sort of backfired.
Belgium is not the US. Situations like Monsanto aren't likely to happen here.
Yes, and we should totally talk to a professor in communication and some political "science" majors about genetic manipulation. They have no clue what they're talking about...
It's hard to write new software that doesn't violate some US patent considering how broad they often are.
Sorry, was mixing up cable types yesterday evening it seems. It'll do 100 meter with twisted pair indeed. The 25 meter is in relation to DisplayPort's twinaxial system.