Unfortunately, there's a handful of channels I would not be happy without. I have considered going this route, with Netflix and streaming to a media center. I even have a silent media center PC bolted to the back of my TV for my MP3 and downloaded video collection (it doubles as my home file server), but I would be miffed if I couldn't get BBC Canada, Oasis, eqhd, or TreasureHD. I have grown to really like those channels, especially Oasis. Plus, even for the channels I do watch that're on that list, not all of the shows I watch are available online. Showcase, for example, carries Lost Girl (which is a really great show, love it and can't wait for the next season), but they don't have Sea Patrol (which is fair enough, because it's actually an import from Australia, but I watch it on Showcase HD)
There's also the fact that most of us are pretty limited in terms of our choice of ISP. Many of the mainstream ISPs have pathetically low usage caps, and the CRTC is on the verge of outlawing Internet plans with an unlimited cap thanks to lobbying from Bell and Rogers. If I could get DSL with an unlimited cap in my area, it would be significantly less of a hinderance to my ability to go with streaming. Sadly, all I can get right now is Rogers cable, and good luck getting an unlimited cap with them.
I realize you're trying to play devil's advocate here, but innocent until proven guilty, yeah?
It's not about proving 100% beyond any doubt that he wasn't speeding, it's about casting enough doubt on the idea that he was speeding that they can't uphold the guilty verdict. The burden of proof is on the state, not the accused.
That said, if the state had wanted to prove he had more time to brake, they could have produced information other than the "about 50 feet from the sensor to having the picture taken". They didn't, so the reasonable assumption is that the "sensor" in question is the speed radar reading. For the speed to have dropped enough that the average over 0.363 seconds to have been 35mph from the clocked speed 50 feet earlier would take some very significant and hard braking, especially in a truck. My car could do it in that distance, if I disabled the anti-lock brakes, but my car has rally sport suspension, 4-wheel vented disc brakes, and performance tires. (I wouldn't be locking the brakes, but in order to brake that fast, I'd want to have the brakes at the threshold of locking, and the ABS would kick in before that point). Oh, and the brake lights weren't on in the pictures.
My experience is that the handbrake or e-brake doesn't usually trip the brake lights... but that would be some seriously mad skills to brake that hard using a hand brake while keeping the car going in a straight line....
That's the standard measure, but the standard measure was originally calibrated and defined based on water. 1 cubic metre of distilled water at its densest temperature (4'C) = 1 tonne. 1 tonne = 1000kg. 1kg = 1000g. etc.
The part of the metric system that's completely arbitrary is the celcius temperature system. It's a hell of a lot less arbitrary than Fahrenheit, but it's still based on an atmospheric pressure that may or may not match on other planets (and probably won't). 0'C is the freezing point of water at 101.3kPa, and 100'C is the boiling point of water at 101.3kPa. Anybody who's got access to a vacuum chamber can boil water at 20'C with relative ease, so the measurement system is utterly arbitrary.
Even Kelvins are arbitrary, because while the 0K point is fixed and easily explained to aliens, 1K = 1'C (relatively), so we have to explain where the Celcius temperature system comes from so that the aliens can understand how much energy is represented by 1 Kelvin.
that's why you put on a dvd or a good cd and just zone out... or ignore the fact that you're exercising and just enjoy the show. I live in a part of the world that's frozen 6 months a year, and it's impractical at best to go out running in the dead of the winter. But I *can* put on a DVD in my laptop, put the volume up high, and forget the fact that I'm running on an elliptical for 45 minutes every day. When the weather's warm enough, I'll move outside. When it's frozen, my choices are to curtail my exercise significantly (time/cost considerations for skiing, skating isn't bad but I live too far away from any decent skating surfaces, I do own a pair of xc skis, but there aren't any good ski paths nearby), or to do some of that exercise on a machine.
The one thing it adds is a web-based interface where you can download your files with any web-connected computer, regardless of whether the client is installed.
Personally, I think it's a bad idea to trust your files to the cloud at all... It accomplishes nothing that can't be done without dyndns and a server running on a non-standard port. Even the nooblet user crowd can roll their own quite easily with dyndns... just use RDP with Network-Level-Authentication (RDP with SSL) and a strong password on your user account.... most ISP's won't block the RDP port, even if they block all of the other standard protocols.
Actualy, my Win7-based laptop has IE8 and IE6 installed on it at the same time. There's this wonderful feature called Windows XP Mode, which is just a fancy name for a virtual machine running within a VirtualPC installation. It does wonders.
Try Zenwalk. Basically Slackware, but with a package manager with dependancy checking. Still uses.tgz packages, though, and you can still install a standard Slackware package. You can also install a Zenwalk package on a Slackware system, too, because it still uses pkgtool as the underlying foundation for the packages.
not quite ditto... I'm reading/. on a first gen netbook (Dell Mini 9 n-series), but when I upgrade to a new system, my old system gets passed on to somebody in my family. In order....
My first laptop was a P120 w/ 32MB of RAM. That one was used until I had to take it out and shoot it. Number 2 was an Athlon 1.2GHz w/ 256MB of RAM. When I upgraded to number 3, that one was sold to a friend of the family, who used it until she upgraded to a new system 2 years ago. Number 3 was an AthlonXP 2.2GHz w/ 1GB of RAM. When I upgraded to number 4, that one was passed on to my father, who is still using it. Number 4 was a Core2 Duo w/ 2GB of RAM (later upgraded to 4GB). When I upgraded to number 5, that one was passed on to my cousin's daughter, who is still using it. Number 5 is a Core i7 Quad w/ 4GB of RAM. It's only a year old, and I plan on continuing to use it as long as I can. I'm no longer gaming hardcore, and that one will suit my needs until I need to take it out and shoot it.
As I mentionned, I also run a netbook. That one is for portability, and for when I don't need the full processing power of my main system. It supports RDP, and I use it to remote control in to my main system when I need to do something a little more system-intensive, or when I need to do more than basic computer use. The screen's a little small, but it fits in my purse and is adequate for basic use during the day.
I am considering replacing the netbook... I don't really need to, but recent US customs behaviour has convinced me that I will not be bringing my main laptop across the US border any time soon... that poses a problem, as my partner works for the US government, and though my permanent residence is in Canada, we own a horse farm in North Carolina that I travel to regularly. The netbook is fine, but typing is an uncomfortable exercise, and I am considering replacing it with a 12" or 13" ultraportable laptop. It'd still fit in my purse, so I'd still have the portability, but I'd also have a much more usable form factor than the current 9" system. I haven't made up my mind whether to actually buy a new laptop, but if I do, I'll be buying a $400 ubuntu-based 13" ultraportable from Dell (unless somebody can point me at another ultraportable that's cheaper and still tips the scales about the same as a Mac Air). *IF* I ened up doing that, my mother has expressed an interest in my netbook, so I won't be tossing it out, I'll be passing it on to somebody else in the family.
So I guess my point is simply this: TFA is missing a very major point, and that is that when a company or a person replaces a working system for something else that may use less energy, or may be more powerful, or both, that working system is *never* just thrown on the trash heap. I, like many others, pass on my old system to somebody who can use it but may not be able to afford an upgrade. Many companies will donate their old computers to a program like Computers for Schools or another charity (the tax system is actually set up to make this profitable: you can deduct 1/3 of the system's purchase price per year as depreciation, and you can then deduct the replacement cost of the system if you donate it to charity, meaning that it's actually profitable for a business to buy a new computer every 3 years and donate the old one to charity), and the less charitable organizations will sell their old systems to be refurbished and sold 2nd hand.
Yes, it probably is more energy efficient to keep an old system, but it's probably not more cost efficient for the organization, and don't forget that those working systems are rarely trashed outright. That 2nd hand computer market (and the computer that doesn't need to be built to feed that market) should really be taken into account when you're figuring the "green"-ness of buying a new computer.:)
My laptop has a 110W power supply, actually.... thought it's true, most of the time it's not under load. Even with the 24" LED (one of these) I use as a 2nd display when it's docked at home, the system is using less than 75W total consumption (unless I'm gaming), and you'll struggle to find a desktop that approaches that kind of efficiency without getting something like a VIA C7 or other specialty system (I have a C7 1.5GHz-based system with 2GB of RAM and a 120GB laptop hard drive, and it draws 21W under load, and closer to 5W when idle, not counting the display). A desktop with similar performance characteristics (Core i7 quad, Radeon HD 4870 graphics) is going to draw 150-200W when idle.
If I come across a site that shows me a warning about a missing plug-in, I go to a different website. I have yet to find a single website that actually *needs* Flash to run, with the possible exception of Youtube, which runs fine in HTML5 on both my netbook and my actual work laptop.
With the sheer number of sites out there on the web, I don't really have the patience or the tolerance for some idiot developper who doesn't know how to code a website without a crutch like Flash. And between no flash, and having AdBlock Plus installed, my web surfing experience is not only safer, it's a hell of a lot more enjoyable.
Unfortunately, where I work they have a policy specifically never to replace PC's unless they have no choice. One of my coworkers currently has a system in repairs, even though the system is completely out of warranty and the repairs are costing the company more than buying him a new PC would have cost. (so far, they've replaced the hard drive, the processor, the motherboard, and the RAM). To make matters worse, the system they're so adamant about fixing instead of replacing? It's a Pentium D 2.6GHz with 2GB of RAM.
My own workstation is a Pentium D 3GHz, also with 2GB of RAM. Wouldn't be so bad, except the company standard is Windows XP with IE 6... fortunately I have admin rights on my workstation and have been able to install Firefox and Chrome, but I can't upgrade from IE6 (I have the access to do it, but one of the tools I use on a daily basis will not work outside of IE6 due to its reliance on j-initiator). Le sigh. We're actually holding off rolling out Windows 7 until that tool can be rewritten, because apparently our IT department has never heard of Windows Terminal Services (RDP).
Yes... but are we sure he was working for the Secret Service? Seems a bit far-fetched that the agency tasked with protecting the life of the president would involve itself in something as pedantic as computer hacking in order to catch a few embezzlers....[
And yes, you're right about the distinction between a regular order and a "superior order", but the nomenclature is different in different parts of the world. In Canada, if my superior asks me to do something that's illegal, and I explain that it's illegal, I have a right to not perform the order.
Of course, within certain arms of the military, most of the job description would be illegal for a civilian. I cannot tell you the number of things I learned during my time in radio-telecommunications that would seriously piss off the CRTC in Canada, or the FCC in the US....
Post-Nuremburg trials, it's been a staple of basic training in just about every professional army in the world that soldiers are made aware of the fact that their obligation is to the state, not the government, and if the government (or chain of command) issues an illegal order, their legal (and moral) obligation is to refuse. It was certainly part of my training with the Canadian military.
he did, but he came back to the US and scored a gig playing the tongue in the band Deathtongue, which was later renamed Billy and the Boingers after Steve crumbled under pressure at a congressional obscenity hearing.
It's all documented in the annals Billy and the Boingers Bootleg, which also describes Bill's friend Opus' romance with a tree-hugging dirt-worshipping sculptor named Lola Granola.:)
And if you actually read the post in question, you would have noticed two very important things:
1. nowhere in my post did I make any claims as to actual mileage in a car. in fact, the device was never designed with auto in mind, it was just a side note to the original industrial design for it 2. it wasn't suppressed by big auto, it was never bought by them in the first place, specifically because of the promise of it being suppressed. In the early 1980's.
It would not have been a miraculous invention or a 200mpg engine. It wasn't even a traditional ICE design... again, if you'd actually *read* the post, you would have noticed that I didn't talk about mechanical power being generated, but about hydraulic power being generated. There's also no argument that a lot has changed since the early 1980s, and such an engine wouldn't be more efficient than a modern hybrid, but compared against a 1970's or 1980's car? Absolutely more efficient.
Again, though, had you actually *read* what was said, you would have realized that the initial design had nothing to do with automobiles, and was chiefly intended for industrial use. And as far as my grandfather's credentials... he worked for Rolls Royce during WWII on both the Merlin and the Griffon engines, and then went on to work for Pratt & Whitney Canada after emmigrating in 1954... among his credentials there, he worked on the GG4 engine which is still in use in marine settings today. So unlike the kooks you're so fond of mocking, he actually did have the experience and background to know what the hell he was doing.
My grandfather is dead, and his company is still in probate.:)
But the designs have already been provided to a couple of Universities to develop further with public funds... there's a couple of postgrad engineering students working on it at Queen's, in Kingston, ON.
It's not really a new invention... and the car companies really don't care. My grandfather spent the last 30 years of his life developping what's essentially a combustion-powered hydraulic motor... his plan was to use the hydraulic pressure in large industrial applications (think power generation), but the math showed that it would still be far more efficient than traditional ICE's in cars and trucks. He had a working model in 1982, and a car on the road driven by it in 1984. GM offered him $1million for it, with the explicit promise that they'd sweep it under the rug and never develop it further... being ethical, my grandfather told them to stuff it, and ended up never selling the design.
Car companies won't make him disappear, they just won't care and won't buy his product. If they do buy his product it'll be with the expressed promise that they won't do anything with it. That's not going to change until the car companies are forced to sell off their interests in the oil companies.
Some anti-androgen drugs are not permanent in their disruption of the androgen system... Cyproterone, for example, is normally used to treat prostate cancer (and also used for hirsutism and baldness in females, and for MtF transsexuals (though AFAIK, it's not approved for that use in the US)), and works by binding with testosterone receptors, blocking testosterone uptake, which in turn causes the body to freak out and stop producing the lutenizing hormone, which in turn stops the signal to produce testosterone. Once you stop taking Cyproterone, however, the body starts producing the testosterone again, and normal sexual function should return for males.
Such a drug *could* be used to temporarily stay baldness, but again, as soon as you stopped taking the drug, the mechanism that's causing the baldness would start again.
Though there's another major reason that males shouldn't be taking anti-androgen drugs... you don't have enough estrogen in your systems to stay off osteoperosis without the testosterone in your systems. Females do have the estrogens, and transsexuals are taking the estrogens, but males should *not* be taking an anti-androgen for a prolonged period of time because the lack of testosterone will cause your bone density to fall... IMO, that's a far more serious life problem than losing your hair, but I guess some folks are vain.:(
obligatory disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, but I do know several people who are taking the drug in question, both to treat hirsutism and for transsexualism.
"jew" is the noun. "jewish" is the adjective. A jewish person is a jew./pedant.
And yes, sex offenders are required to be registered. It's absolutely stupid some of the things that can get a person on that registry, but the registry itself exists to protect people by making it easier to track potential re-offenders.
If a police officer has probable cause to believe a crime is being committed, he doesn't need a warrant to intervene. The standard of evicence for probable cause is usually par with what would be needed to actually get a warrant, but does not actually require you go through the hoops to actually secure a warrant. It's usually used in cases where getting a warrant would mean enough time lapsing that the suspect could escape, but could easily be extended to the example in TFA.
You or I probably have nothing to worry about from such a search. I'd be seriously miffed if they decided to take my laptop away for "search", but it wouldn't really cause me any concern at losing my data, as there isn't anything on my laptop that isn't replaceable, and I'm due for buying a new one anyway... when they find nothing incriminating on my laptop I could easily file suit and have them contribute to the cost of a new one. That said, I've crossed the US border from Canada dozens of times, and have never been asked to do more than turn my laptop on. Usually, not even that, they just wave the wand over it to sniff for bombs, x-ray it, and send me on my way. They have never wanted to snoop around my home directory, and even if they did I wouldn't have a problem with that... all of my private files and sensitive information is stored on a fileserver at home (that I can access via VPN if I really need to when I'm on the road), and all they'd find in my "Documents" directory are programs I've downloaded from the web (Firefox, GIMP), savegames from Dragon Age and Civilization, and I think there's probably a couple of lolcat pictures in there that I've been lazy about deleting.
Your body language is a major deciding factor at border crossings, btw. If you're cagey or sketchey in answering the questions of the border guard, that's going to set off some major alarms. I'm usually a very tired person when I cross the border, because I usually take off-hours flights, either a red eye or an early morning departure, and that probably reflects with the border guards. Couple that with the fact that I'm female, have past military experience, and have current military and civilian clearances (all of which probably comes up when they scan my passport), and I'm probably put into a very low risk category for doing something nefarious on a plane. I still have problems with those damned backscatter xray machines though.
The dual cores already on the market address that issue, though. For UI zippiness, a quad core processor won't really help much more than a dual core processor... you just need one processor to handle the background apps, and one to handle the foreground.
Multi-tasking on a phone is kind of a non-issue... the phone screen simply doesn't provide enough real estate to be worth running an app that isn't full screen, and even the "dock" devices like the one with the new Motorola Atrix phone only has 1366x768 resolution on its 11" screen. Better than a netbook, yes, but not really good enough to do a lot of serious multitasking. Usual caveats about statements about being "enough for anybody", but until phones have enough processing power to replace a full desktop, there really isn't any need for more than a dual core phone... and for me, phones will never be able to replace a full desktop (or high end gaming laptop), because I like being able to play modern video games. Give it a few years, though, and the non-gamer facebook generation will be fine with just a cell phone that docks to a laptop-like device with full keyboard and mouse. Of course, most of 'em won't buy one, because they'd rather have a laptop.:)
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Unfortunately, there's a handful of channels I would not be happy without. I have considered going this route, with Netflix and streaming to a media center. I even have a silent media center PC bolted to the back of my TV for my MP3 and downloaded video collection (it doubles as my home file server), but I would be miffed if I couldn't get BBC Canada, Oasis, eqhd, or TreasureHD. I have grown to really like those channels, especially Oasis. Plus, even for the channels I do watch that're on that list, not all of the shows I watch are available online. Showcase, for example, carries Lost Girl (which is a really great show, love it and can't wait for the next season), but they don't have Sea Patrol (which is fair enough, because it's actually an import from Australia, but I watch it on Showcase HD)
There's also the fact that most of us are pretty limited in terms of our choice of ISP. Many of the mainstream ISPs have pathetically low usage caps, and the CRTC is on the verge of outlawing Internet plans with an unlimited cap thanks to lobbying from Bell and Rogers. If I could get DSL with an unlimited cap in my area, it would be significantly less of a hinderance to my ability to go with streaming. Sadly, all I can get right now is Rogers cable, and good luck getting an unlimited cap with them.
I realize you're trying to play devil's advocate here, but innocent until proven guilty, yeah?
It's not about proving 100% beyond any doubt that he wasn't speeding, it's about casting enough doubt on the idea that he was speeding that they can't uphold the guilty verdict. The burden of proof is on the state, not the accused.
That said, if the state had wanted to prove he had more time to brake, they could have produced information other than the "about 50 feet from the sensor to having the picture taken". They didn't, so the reasonable assumption is that the "sensor" in question is the speed radar reading. For the speed to have dropped enough that the average over 0.363 seconds to have been 35mph from the clocked speed 50 feet earlier would take some very significant and hard braking, especially in a truck. My car could do it in that distance, if I disabled the anti-lock brakes, but my car has rally sport suspension, 4-wheel vented disc brakes, and performance tires. (I wouldn't be locking the brakes, but in order to brake that fast, I'd want to have the brakes at the threshold of locking, and the ABS would kick in before that point). Oh, and the brake lights weren't on in the pictures.
My experience is that the handbrake or e-brake doesn't usually trip the brake lights... but that would be some seriously mad skills to brake that hard using a hand brake while keeping the car going in a straight line....
That's the standard measure, but the standard measure was originally calibrated and defined based on water. 1 cubic metre of distilled water at its densest temperature (4'C) = 1 tonne. 1 tonne = 1000kg. 1kg = 1000g. etc.
The part of the metric system that's completely arbitrary is the celcius temperature system. It's a hell of a lot less arbitrary than Fahrenheit, but it's still based on an atmospheric pressure that may or may not match on other planets (and probably won't). 0'C is the freezing point of water at 101.3kPa, and 100'C is the boiling point of water at 101.3kPa. Anybody who's got access to a vacuum chamber can boil water at 20'C with relative ease, so the measurement system is utterly arbitrary.
Even Kelvins are arbitrary, because while the 0K point is fixed and easily explained to aliens, 1K = 1'C (relatively), so we have to explain where the Celcius temperature system comes from so that the aliens can understand how much energy is represented by 1 Kelvin.
Some carriers in Canada aren't as asinine about unlimited data, but they still charge way more than a similar plan in Europe or Asia would be.
that's why you put on a dvd or a good cd and just zone out... or ignore the fact that you're exercising and just enjoy the show. I live in a part of the world that's frozen 6 months a year, and it's impractical at best to go out running in the dead of the winter. But I *can* put on a DVD in my laptop, put the volume up high, and forget the fact that I'm running on an elliptical for 45 minutes every day. When the weather's warm enough, I'll move outside. When it's frozen, my choices are to curtail my exercise significantly (time/cost considerations for skiing, skating isn't bad but I live too far away from any decent skating surfaces, I do own a pair of xc skis, but there aren't any good ski paths nearby), or to do some of that exercise on a machine.
The one thing it adds is a web-based interface where you can download your files with any web-connected computer, regardless of whether the client is installed.
Personally, I think it's a bad idea to trust your files to the cloud at all... It accomplishes nothing that can't be done without dyndns and a server running on a non-standard port. Even the nooblet user crowd can roll their own quite easily with dyndns... just use RDP with Network-Level-Authentication (RDP with SSL) and a strong password on your user account.... most ISP's won't block the RDP port, even if they block all of the other standard protocols.
get bluetooth and put your phone in your glove compartment. lock it if you can. or put it in your trunk. :)
Actualy, my Win7-based laptop has IE8 and IE6 installed on it at the same time. There's this wonderful feature called Windows XP Mode, which is just a fancy name for a virtual machine running within a VirtualPC installation. It does wonders.
Try Zenwalk. Basically Slackware, but with a package manager with dependancy checking. Still uses .tgz packages, though, and you can still install a standard Slackware package. You can also install a Zenwalk package on a Slackware system, too, because it still uses pkgtool as the underlying foundation for the packages.
not quite ditto... I'm reading /. on a first gen netbook (Dell Mini 9 n-series), but when I upgrade to a new system, my old system gets passed on to somebody in my family. In order....
My first laptop was a P120 w/ 32MB of RAM. That one was used until I had to take it out and shoot it.
Number 2 was an Athlon 1.2GHz w/ 256MB of RAM. When I upgraded to number 3, that one was sold to a friend of the family, who used it until she upgraded to a new system 2 years ago.
Number 3 was an AthlonXP 2.2GHz w/ 1GB of RAM. When I upgraded to number 4, that one was passed on to my father, who is still using it.
Number 4 was a Core2 Duo w/ 2GB of RAM (later upgraded to 4GB). When I upgraded to number 5, that one was passed on to my cousin's daughter, who is still using it.
Number 5 is a Core i7 Quad w/ 4GB of RAM. It's only a year old, and I plan on continuing to use it as long as I can. I'm no longer gaming hardcore, and that one will suit my needs until I need to take it out and shoot it.
As I mentionned, I also run a netbook. That one is for portability, and for when I don't need the full processing power of my main system. It supports RDP, and I use it to remote control in to my main system when I need to do something a little more system-intensive, or when I need to do more than basic computer use. The screen's a little small, but it fits in my purse and is adequate for basic use during the day.
I am considering replacing the netbook... I don't really need to, but recent US customs behaviour has convinced me that I will not be bringing my main laptop across the US border any time soon... that poses a problem, as my partner works for the US government, and though my permanent residence is in Canada, we own a horse farm in North Carolina that I travel to regularly. The netbook is fine, but typing is an uncomfortable exercise, and I am considering replacing it with a 12" or 13" ultraportable laptop. It'd still fit in my purse, so I'd still have the portability, but I'd also have a much more usable form factor than the current 9" system. I haven't made up my mind whether to actually buy a new laptop, but if I do, I'll be buying a $400 ubuntu-based 13" ultraportable from Dell (unless somebody can point me at another ultraportable that's cheaper and still tips the scales about the same as a Mac Air). *IF* I ened up doing that, my mother has expressed an interest in my netbook, so I won't be tossing it out, I'll be passing it on to somebody else in the family.
So I guess my point is simply this: TFA is missing a very major point, and that is that when a company or a person replaces a working system for something else that may use less energy, or may be more powerful, or both, that working system is *never* just thrown on the trash heap. I, like many others, pass on my old system to somebody who can use it but may not be able to afford an upgrade. Many companies will donate their old computers to a program like Computers for Schools or another charity (the tax system is actually set up to make this profitable: you can deduct 1/3 of the system's purchase price per year as depreciation, and you can then deduct the replacement cost of the system if you donate it to charity, meaning that it's actually profitable for a business to buy a new computer every 3 years and donate the old one to charity), and the less charitable organizations will sell their old systems to be refurbished and sold 2nd hand.
Yes, it probably is more energy efficient to keep an old system, but it's probably not more cost efficient for the organization, and don't forget that those working systems are rarely trashed outright. That 2nd hand computer market (and the computer that doesn't need to be built to feed that market) should really be taken into account when you're figuring the "green"-ness of buying a new computer. :)
My laptop has a 110W power supply, actually.... thought it's true, most of the time it's not under load. Even with the 24" LED (one of these) I use as a 2nd display when it's docked at home, the system is using less than 75W total consumption (unless I'm gaming), and you'll struggle to find a desktop that approaches that kind of efficiency without getting something like a VIA C7 or other specialty system (I have a C7 1.5GHz-based system with 2GB of RAM and a 120GB laptop hard drive, and it draws 21W under load, and closer to 5W when idle, not counting the display). A desktop with similar performance characteristics (Core i7 quad, Radeon HD 4870 graphics) is going to draw 150-200W when idle.
If I come across a site that shows me a warning about a missing plug-in, I go to a different website. I have yet to find a single website that actually *needs* Flash to run, with the possible exception of Youtube, which runs fine in HTML5 on both my netbook and my actual work laptop.
With the sheer number of sites out there on the web, I don't really have the patience or the tolerance for some idiot developper who doesn't know how to code a website without a crutch like Flash. And between no flash, and having AdBlock Plus installed, my web surfing experience is not only safer, it's a hell of a lot more enjoyable.
http://www.youtube.com/html5
Youtube supports HTML5.
Which is good, until the ads start supporting HTML5 too...
Unfortunately, where I work they have a policy specifically never to replace PC's unless they have no choice. One of my coworkers currently has a system in repairs, even though the system is completely out of warranty and the repairs are costing the company more than buying him a new PC would have cost. (so far, they've replaced the hard drive, the processor, the motherboard, and the RAM). To make matters worse, the system they're so adamant about fixing instead of replacing? It's a Pentium D 2.6GHz with 2GB of RAM.
My own workstation is a Pentium D 3GHz, also with 2GB of RAM. Wouldn't be so bad, except the company standard is Windows XP with IE 6... fortunately I have admin rights on my workstation and have been able to install Firefox and Chrome, but I can't upgrade from IE6 (I have the access to do it, but one of the tools I use on a daily basis will not work outside of IE6 due to its reliance on j-initiator). Le sigh. We're actually holding off rolling out Windows 7 until that tool can be rewritten, because apparently our IT department has never heard of Windows Terminal Services (RDP).
Yes... but are we sure he was working for the Secret Service? Seems a bit far-fetched that the agency tasked with protecting the life of the president would involve itself in something as pedantic as computer hacking in order to catch a few embezzlers....[
And yes, you're right about the distinction between a regular order and a "superior order", but the nomenclature is different in different parts of the world. In Canada, if my superior asks me to do something that's illegal, and I explain that it's illegal, I have a right to not perform the order.
Of course, within certain arms of the military, most of the job description would be illegal for a civilian. I cannot tell you the number of things I learned during my time in radio-telecommunications that would seriously piss off the CRTC in Canada, or the FCC in the US....
Post-Nuremburg trials, it's been a staple of basic training in just about every professional army in the world that soldiers are made aware of the fact that their obligation is to the state, not the government, and if the government (or chain of command) issues an illegal order, their legal (and moral) obligation is to refuse. It was certainly part of my training with the Canadian military.
he did, but he came back to the US and scored a gig playing the tongue in the band Deathtongue, which was later renamed Billy and the Boingers after Steve crumbled under pressure at a congressional obscenity hearing.
It's all documented in the annals Billy and the Boingers Bootleg, which also describes Bill's friend Opus' romance with a tree-hugging dirt-worshipping sculptor named Lola Granola. :)
And if you actually read the post in question, you would have noticed two very important things:
1. nowhere in my post did I make any claims as to actual mileage in a car. in fact, the device was never designed with auto in mind, it was just a side note to the original industrial design for it
2. it wasn't suppressed by big auto, it was never bought by them in the first place, specifically because of the promise of it being suppressed. In the early 1980's.
It would not have been a miraculous invention or a 200mpg engine. It wasn't even a traditional ICE design... again, if you'd actually *read* the post, you would have noticed that I didn't talk about mechanical power being generated, but about hydraulic power being generated. There's also no argument that a lot has changed since the early 1980s, and such an engine wouldn't be more efficient than a modern hybrid, but compared against a 1970's or 1980's car? Absolutely more efficient.
Again, though, had you actually *read* what was said, you would have realized that the initial design had nothing to do with automobiles, and was chiefly intended for industrial use. And as far as my grandfather's credentials... he worked for Rolls Royce during WWII on both the Merlin and the Griffon engines, and then went on to work for Pratt & Whitney Canada after emmigrating in 1954... among his credentials there, he worked on the GG4 engine which is still in use in marine settings today. So unlike the kooks you're so fond of mocking, he actually did have the experience and background to know what the hell he was doing.
My grandfather is dead, and his company is still in probate. :)
But the designs have already been provided to a couple of Universities to develop further with public funds... there's a couple of postgrad engineering students working on it at Queen's, in Kingston, ON.
It's not really a new invention... and the car companies really don't care. My grandfather spent the last 30 years of his life developping what's essentially a combustion-powered hydraulic motor... his plan was to use the hydraulic pressure in large industrial applications (think power generation), but the math showed that it would still be far more efficient than traditional ICE's in cars and trucks. He had a working model in 1982, and a car on the road driven by it in 1984. GM offered him $1million for it, with the explicit promise that they'd sweep it under the rug and never develop it further... being ethical, my grandfather told them to stuff it, and ended up never selling the design.
Car companies won't make him disappear, they just won't care and won't buy his product. If they do buy his product it'll be with the expressed promise that they won't do anything with it. That's not going to change until the car companies are forced to sell off their interests in the oil companies.
Some anti-androgen drugs are not permanent in their disruption of the androgen system... Cyproterone, for example, is normally used to treat prostate cancer (and also used for hirsutism and baldness in females, and for MtF transsexuals (though AFAIK, it's not approved for that use in the US)), and works by binding with testosterone receptors, blocking testosterone uptake, which in turn causes the body to freak out and stop producing the lutenizing hormone, which in turn stops the signal to produce testosterone. Once you stop taking Cyproterone, however, the body starts producing the testosterone again, and normal sexual function should return for males.
Such a drug *could* be used to temporarily stay baldness, but again, as soon as you stopped taking the drug, the mechanism that's causing the baldness would start again.
Though there's another major reason that males shouldn't be taking anti-androgen drugs... you don't have enough estrogen in your systems to stay off osteoperosis without the testosterone in your systems. Females do have the estrogens, and transsexuals are taking the estrogens, but males should *not* be taking an anti-androgen for a prolonged period of time because the lack of testosterone will cause your bone density to fall... IMO, that's a far more serious life problem than losing your hair, but I guess some folks are vain. :(
obligatory disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, but I do know several people who are taking the drug in question, both to treat hirsutism and for transsexualism.
"jew" is the noun. "jewish" is the adjective. A jewish person is a jew. /pedant.
And yes, sex offenders are required to be registered. It's absolutely stupid some of the things that can get a person on that registry, but the registry itself exists to protect people by making it easier to track potential re-offenders.
If a police officer has probable cause to believe a crime is being committed, he doesn't need a warrant to intervene. The standard of evicence for probable cause is usually par with what would be needed to actually get a warrant, but does not actually require you go through the hoops to actually secure a warrant. It's usually used in cases where getting a warrant would mean enough time lapsing that the suspect could escape, but could easily be extended to the example in TFA.
You or I probably have nothing to worry about from such a search. I'd be seriously miffed if they decided to take my laptop away for "search", but it wouldn't really cause me any concern at losing my data, as there isn't anything on my laptop that isn't replaceable, and I'm due for buying a new one anyway... when they find nothing incriminating on my laptop I could easily file suit and have them contribute to the cost of a new one. That said, I've crossed the US border from Canada dozens of times, and have never been asked to do more than turn my laptop on. Usually, not even that, they just wave the wand over it to sniff for bombs, x-ray it, and send me on my way. They have never wanted to snoop around my home directory, and even if they did I wouldn't have a problem with that... all of my private files and sensitive information is stored on a fileserver at home (that I can access via VPN if I really need to when I'm on the road), and all they'd find in my "Documents" directory are programs I've downloaded from the web (Firefox, GIMP), savegames from Dragon Age and Civilization, and I think there's probably a couple of lolcat pictures in there that I've been lazy about deleting.
Your body language is a major deciding factor at border crossings, btw. If you're cagey or sketchey in answering the questions of the border guard, that's going to set off some major alarms. I'm usually a very tired person when I cross the border, because I usually take off-hours flights, either a red eye or an early morning departure, and that probably reflects with the border guards. Couple that with the fact that I'm female, have past military experience, and have current military and civilian clearances (all of which probably comes up when they scan my passport), and I'm probably put into a very low risk category for doing something nefarious on a plane. I still have problems with those damned backscatter xray machines though.
The dual cores already on the market address that issue, though. For UI zippiness, a quad core processor won't really help much more than a dual core processor... you just need one processor to handle the background apps, and one to handle the foreground.
Multi-tasking on a phone is kind of a non-issue... the phone screen simply doesn't provide enough real estate to be worth running an app that isn't full screen, and even the "dock" devices like the one with the new Motorola Atrix phone only has 1366x768 resolution on its 11" screen. Better than a netbook, yes, but not really good enough to do a lot of serious multitasking. Usual caveats about statements about being "enough for anybody", but until phones have enough processing power to replace a full desktop, there really isn't any need for more than a dual core phone... and for me, phones will never be able to replace a full desktop (or high end gaming laptop), because I like being able to play modern video games. Give it a few years, though, and the non-gamer facebook generation will be fine with just a cell phone that docks to a laptop-like device with full keyboard and mouse. Of course, most of 'em won't buy one, because they'd rather have a laptop. :)