But now there's a new twist: the Postal Service wants to reclassify DVD mailing [PDF] as a competitive product, where the prices would not be limited by the rate of inflation, because it says that mailed DVDs compete with the internet, streaming services, and kiosks such as Redbox.
Uh.... so let me get this straight.... it sounds like the postal service is explicitly trying to kill off its own customers.
I'll take something the size of a full sized (ie not "Reader's Digest") magazine if, and only if, you can roll it up and/or fold it like a real magazine.
You jest, but in all seriousness, the day someone releases a device that does that, it will be a game-changer.
If it rolls up small enough to fit in the pocket or be used as a phone without looking like Dom Joly, but still has a screen big enough to make it worth using for web browsing, watching films or making video calls, then you will have a device that everyone will want.
I seem to recall some old English dude saying stuff about supply and demand... But sarcasm aside, isn't it about time we had some tangible breakthroughs in battery tech?
The problem isn't the batteries -- battery tech *is* improving year on year.
The problem is that we keep demanding more from our batteries.
Our mobile devices are being loaded up with retina screens, wi-fi, and all the other new goodies you can think of, and simultaneously we're demanding that they're thinner and lighter with every generation. Seriously, a current iPad would choke if it had to survive on the battery tech even from the original iPad.
It also means they are telling you that they didn't make any real changes and are charging you for the service pack they refuse to create for 8.0.
Well, it would mean that, except that it's a free upgrade.
So, uh, it basically is a service pack. They could just as easily have released the same product as Win 8.0 SP1.
The reason they're calling it 8.1 rather than SP1 is marketing -- they want it to *sound* like a bigger upgrade than it is, so that it distances itself a little (but not too much) from the tarnished reputation of 8.0.
In fact, the biggest change in 8.0 -> 8.1 is IE11, which is coming out for Win7 as well anyway.
Halve that for a return trip, and halve it again for a safety margin, and anyone who lives within 6km of work now has a viable method of commuting that completely avoids traffic.
Anyone who lives within 6km of work and earns a bucketload of cash.
That narrows it down a bit further.
Still I'm sure they'll manage to sell enough of them to make some money. At least until the first fatal accident, anyway.
Look back at how things have changed since 1863 and you can't begin to comprehend where we could be in even 100 more years.
I wasn't alive in 1863....and neither were you.
I know you're a troll, but really? 150 years is too much of a stretch, eh? If you're really going to be like that, lets make it a bit smaller. 100 years? 50 years? People who are alive today will tell you how much things have changed even in that time. Heck, even within my own life time things have changed. A lot.
I Welched on my bet and it led to a Mexican standoff with another guy who was an Indian giver. In the end we settled it with a game of Russian Roulette. It was chaos, a real Polish Parliament. In the end, the gun didn't go off and we all felt like we were Gypped and the Canadians were sorry about the whole mess even though they were not involved at all.
That whole post was Double-Dutch to me. As confusing as a game of Chinese whispers.
Take a look to see if there are any corresponding changes in rate of autism? Here's a nice chance to run a natural experiment--the non-vaccinated become the test group...
There wasn't.
This would have became apparent relatively quickly; this measles outbreak may be 15 years after the fact, but the autism rates would have been affected within the first few years if there was anything in this. They weren't.
The research that linked autism with this vaccination was soundly debunked within a few years of being released. The original paper was fully retracted in 2004, and the researcher found guilty of misconduct and fraud.
The really sad part is that even a decade after the story was retracted, there are still some people who are convinced that they shouldn't immunise their kids.
The trouble is that we live in a world where these diseases don't scare us any more because we don't see them. They ought to. If you want to know what happens to populations without immunity that are exposed to measles, try reading up on what happened when the Conquistadors introduced it to South America.
Nah, if you read what he said, he only claims to own the upper case letter. We're safe to keep using the lower case 'e'. (unless someone else owns that, of course, but that would be silly, wouldn't it)
"Chaos Monkey" sounds like it ought to be the name of the next iteration of Firefox's Javascript subsystem.
Hang on.... "Chaos Monkey is a piece of software that deliberately takes out random parts of your live production system".... hmmmm.... maybe it *is* the Firefox Javascript subsystem?
If your site requires JavaScript or Flash or whatever then I can temporarily enable them just for your site if you can convince me that the risk is worth your content.
It's a laudable idea. The only problem I have with that is how practical is it? Virtually every website I've seen in the last few years uses JS and makes a basic assumption that JS is enabled. If you visit a lot of sites, you're going to be spending your whole life switching the JS flag off and on.
And as for convincing yourself that any given site is safe... well, yeah. I can really see you spending hours poring over all the complex minified/compiled JS code that comes with most sites these days.
My point is that for all the earnest good intentions, switching off Javascript is not really a sensible option, even for most power users. Maybe those who are ultra-paranoid might be still using it, but even those users will be finding it a pain.
In my opinion, the decision to remove the option from Firefox is probably a good one. I don't have to deal with front-line support, but if I did, I'd be very happy that options like this are being removed.
Perhaps there's a case to be had for Mozilla to release a separate "paranoid" version that retains options like this? Perhaps. It might be popular among parts of the Slashdot crowd, but overall I doubt it would have enough takers to make it worthwhile.
I think MS is seriously underestimating the reluctance of its base to move off Win7 to Win8 (or even 8.1).
The upgrade we're discussing here is from Win8 to 8.1.
Win7 users can upgrade or not as they please; the point here is that Win8 users can -- and frankly *should* -- upgrade to 8.1. Win 8.1 is really what Win8 should have been in the first place.
Win8 has had its share of criticism, and yes a lot of it has been deserved. 8.1 is a good effort to resolve some of that criticism. They haven't sorted everything, and if Win7 users still want to stick with Win7, I can well understand it. But Win8 users really should move to 8.1; It's a free upgrade from Win8, so there's really no reason not to upgrade.
To those making fun of it, it is *not* a railroad/railway, nor is it slot cars. The vehicle is not on a fixed track.
Railways have had "third rail" power supply systems for a very long time. The biggest issue with them is safety; miles and miles of exposed high voltage terminal that will fry you if you touch them. Ouch. The mitigating factor that makes them a sensible option for a railway is that the railway is dangerous enough even without them that it needs to be fenced off.
This invention is basically giving this system to the roads.
The important point here is that the power is only activated for very short stretches of track at once, when that stretch is directly underneath the vehicle. This makes it safe enough to put it onto the public roads where you can't fence it off.
What it *won't* do is give us battery-less cars any time soon. We might be able to get away with smaller batteries, but we will still need them. The summary states that it won't provide power if you're going at low speed. That means city drivers could go an entire journey without being able to use the system, and even for journeys where you can use it, you'll still have low-speed parts of your journey. Even if we decided to start building it now, it will be many decades before it has widescale coverage; there will be plenty of minor roads that are likely never to be upgraded (there are plenty today that are still dirt-roads). And of course, your own driveway probably won't be connected to the grid either.
The beauty of this is that it is entirely compatible with the existing road network and could be implemented piecemeal. Roads could be upgraded with the system. Cars that can use it would benefit, but older cars could carry on using the same roads just the same as they always have. Likewise, if the electric cars also have a battery, they would be free to continue using roads that didn't have the electric rail as well as those that do.
My prediction is that it will be used initially for bus routes. If all the bus routes in a city like London were converted, it would amount to a significant amount of track. The fuel savings to the bus operator would make it very easy to pitch to the city. Existing electric and hybrid cars owned by the public could then be retro-fitted with power pickups for the system, and where the bus routes are public roads, people could benefit from the same fuel savings. If this was subsidised on the grounds of reducing pollution in the city, then the public take-up for the project would likely be quite big.
As the number of vehicles capable of using the system increases, the road network could be further upgraded beyond just the bus routes.
So yes, it is a clever system. However, don't be fooled into thinking it's a new idea. This system was first used a decade ago for a tram line in France. It was the first electric tram line in the world not to need overhead power cables. Ground-based power lines had never previously safe enough for a tram line that needed to run through city streets. This system has been in use for a decade now and has proved itself well. Building it into the regular road network seems to be the next sensible step.
The great thing about deep-sea trash is that it decomposes extremely slowly compared to stuff at shallower temperatures, so it'll be around for a while...
Awesome! Maybe in a few thousand years, someone will mine it for old copies of the Atari ET game catridge.
If you had insurance on your phone, the carrier would replace it for you for free.
Well yes, but as far as the manufacturer is concerned that's still another sale.
And the carrier doesn't take a direct hit either. Indirect maybe, because their premiums will go up over time if they have to replace a lot of stolen phones, but on a case-by-case basis it wouldn't be enough to move the needle.
Wow what a nothing issue. It's not accurate because it's tied to the machine I view it from??? Then it's the fault of the end user. The BBC have taken the correct approach to this issue they've decided we're too stupid to have a clock!! The scary thing is I suspect that in general they are correct.
The point is that they've done this in response to formal complaints... which means that yes, in some cases the users *are* too stupid to have a clock, and not only that, those same stupid people are willing to kick up a fuss about it and raise complaints.
The fact that Broshuis (his name is misspelled on the original post) was asked to cheat is a good indicator that on talent alone he wasn't good enough for MLB.
Hmmm, well that assumes that everyone else is playing honestly.
If his assertion of rampant cheating is accurate then no, it doesn't indicate anything.
There's only one solution to a completely corrupt system. Walk away from it. Broshius made the correct decision by leaving the game behind him.
You cannot change a corrupted institution from within. I'll repeat that. You cannot change a corrupted institution from within. There are too many people inside who have spent their lives justifying and profiting from their misdeeds, who are not about to turn over a new leaf or air their dirty laundry because you've made an appeal to their conscience. They killed theirs long ago.
The best thing to do is leave the rotten ship to sink all by itself. Every honest person who stands by a rotten game, or bankrupted bank, or broken political party is just propping up an at best amoral system, and usually an immoral and even illegal one. There is no obligation to stay loyal or remain in solidarity with a disloyal and dishonest organisation.
Broshius has done more for baseball as a law student that he ever could have as a player or a fan.
I've quoted the above comment in full because it deserves repeating.
Well said. I came here to post pretty much the same thing, but I won't bother, since you said it so well.
Slashdot Mirror
Listen, moron. PHP is GARBAGE and anyone who defends it is a clueless fool.
Find me a language without major design flaws, and I'll show a language that hardly anyone actually uses.
Are you implying people can't enjoy doing their job? (most don't, but doesn't mean it can't happen...)
No, I think he's just making a typography pun.
A weakly-typed one, if you ask me though.
Yes, but that would require the techie to understand the management speak in the article.
There's the problem again.
Uh.... so let me get this straight.... it sounds like the postal service is explicitly trying to kill off its own customers.
Where is the logic in that?
I'll take something the size of a full sized (ie not "Reader's Digest") magazine if, and only if, you can roll it up and/or fold it like a real magazine.
You jest, but in all seriousness, the day someone releases a device that does that, it will be a game-changer.
If it rolls up small enough to fit in the pocket or be used as a phone without looking like Dom Joly, but still has a screen big enough to make it worth using for web browsing, watching films or making video calls, then you will have a device that everyone will want.
* Youtube link for those who didn't get the Dom Joly reference
I seem to recall some old English dude saying stuff about supply and demand... But sarcasm aside, isn't it about time we had some tangible breakthroughs in battery tech?
The problem isn't the batteries -- battery tech *is* improving year on year.
The problem is that we keep demanding more from our batteries.
Our mobile devices are being loaded up with retina screens, wi-fi, and all the other new goodies you can think of, and simultaneously we're demanding that they're thinner and lighter with every generation. Seriously, a current iPad would choke if it had to survive on the battery tech even from the original iPad.
can we get rid of realtors next? And the general class of human cancers known as middlemen?
Let's build an Ark ship for them and send them to Golgafrincham.
It also means they are telling you that they didn't make any real changes and are charging you for the service pack they refuse to create for 8.0.
Well, it would mean that, except that it's a free upgrade.
So, uh, it basically is a service pack. They could just as easily have released the same product as Win 8.0 SP1.
The reason they're calling it 8.1 rather than SP1 is marketing -- they want it to *sound* like a bigger upgrade than it is, so that it distances itself a little (but not too much) from the tarnished reputation of 8.0.
In fact, the biggest change in 8.0 -> 8.1 is IE11, which is coming out for Win7 as well anyway.
I don't get why this is so difficult.
There are a number of well known open source organisations that fit your bill with no problems at all.
Think Canonical or Red Hat.
They're well established, and well known for selling support contracts for their otherwise free software.
What's the problem here?
Or a Yaris for $14K that seats 4 and gets 30/37 mpg?
Or a Yaris Hybrid that gets 80mpg?
50km/hr for 30 minutes is 25km.
Halve that for a return trip, and halve it again for a safety margin, and anyone who lives within 6km of work now has a viable method of commuting that completely avoids traffic.
Anyone who lives within 6km of work and earns a bucketload of cash.
That narrows it down a bit further.
Still I'm sure they'll manage to sell enough of them to make some money. At least until the first fatal accident, anyway.
Look back at how things have changed since 1863 and you can't begin to comprehend where we could be in even 100 more years.
I wasn't alive in 1863....and neither were you.
I know you're a troll, but really? 150 years is too much of a stretch, eh? If you're really going to be like that, lets make it a bit smaller. 100 years? 50 years? People who are alive today will tell you how much things have changed even in that time. Heck, even within my own life time things have changed. A lot.
I Welched on my bet and it led to a Mexican standoff with another guy who was an Indian giver. In the end we settled it with a game of Russian Roulette. It was chaos, a real Polish Parliament. In the end, the gun didn't go off and we all felt like we were Gypped and the Canadians were sorry about the whole mess even though they were not involved at all.
That whole post was Double-Dutch to me. As confusing as a game of Chinese whispers.
Take a look to see if there are any corresponding changes in rate of autism? Here's a nice chance to run a natural experiment--the non-vaccinated become the test group...
There wasn't.
This would have became apparent relatively quickly; this measles outbreak may be 15 years after the fact, but the autism rates would have been affected within the first few years if there was anything in this. They weren't.
The research that linked autism with this vaccination was soundly debunked within a few years of being released. The original paper was fully retracted in 2004, and the researcher found guilty of misconduct and fraud.
The full sorry story is documented on Wikipedia and many other places.
The really sad part is that even a decade after the story was retracted, there are still some people who are convinced that they shouldn't immunise their kids.
The trouble is that we live in a world where these diseases don't scare us any more because we don't see them. They ought to. If you want to know what happens to populations without immunity that are exposed to measles, try reading up on what happened when the Conquistadors introduced it to South America.
That's Googl.
Nah, if you read what he said, he only claims to own the upper case letter. We're safe to keep using the lower case 'e'. (unless someone else owns that, of course, but that would be silly, wouldn't it)
"Chaos Monkey" sounds like it ought to be the name of the next iteration of Firefox's Javascript subsystem.
Hang on.... "Chaos Monkey is a piece of software that deliberately takes out random parts of your live production system".... hmmmm.... maybe it *is* the Firefox Javascript subsystem?
If your site requires JavaScript or Flash or whatever then I can temporarily enable them just for your site if you can convince me that the risk is worth your content.
It's a laudable idea. The only problem I have with that is how practical is it? Virtually every website I've seen in the last few years uses JS and makes a basic assumption that JS is enabled. If you visit a lot of sites, you're going to be spending your whole life switching the JS flag off and on.
And as for convincing yourself that any given site is safe... well, yeah. I can really see you spending hours poring over all the complex minified/compiled JS code that comes with most sites these days.
My point is that for all the earnest good intentions, switching off Javascript is not really a sensible option, even for most power users. Maybe those who are ultra-paranoid might be still using it, but even those users will be finding it a pain.
In my opinion, the decision to remove the option from Firefox is probably a good one. I don't have to deal with front-line support, but if I did, I'd be very happy that options like this are being removed.
Perhaps there's a case to be had for Mozilla to release a separate "paranoid" version that retains options like this? Perhaps. It might be popular among parts of the Slashdot crowd, but overall I doubt it would have enough takers to make it worthwhile.
I think MS is seriously underestimating the reluctance of its base to move off Win7 to Win8 (or even 8.1).
The upgrade we're discussing here is from Win8 to 8.1.
Win7 users can upgrade or not as they please; the point here is that Win8 users can -- and frankly *should* -- upgrade to 8.1. Win 8.1 is really what Win8 should have been in the first place.
Win8 has had its share of criticism, and yes a lot of it has been deserved. 8.1 is a good effort to resolve some of that criticism. They haven't sorted everything, and if Win7 users still want to stick with Win7, I can well understand it. But Win8 users really should move to 8.1; It's a free upgrade from Win8, so there's really no reason not to upgrade.
This is a very clever idea.
To those making fun of it, it is *not* a railroad/railway, nor is it slot cars. The vehicle is not on a fixed track.
Railways have had "third rail" power supply systems for a very long time. The biggest issue with them is safety; miles and miles of exposed high voltage terminal that will fry you if you touch them. Ouch. The mitigating factor that makes them a sensible option for a railway is that the railway is dangerous enough even without them that it needs to be fenced off.
This invention is basically giving this system to the roads.
The important point here is that the power is only activated for very short stretches of track at once, when that stretch is directly underneath the vehicle. This makes it safe enough to put it onto the public roads where you can't fence it off.
What it *won't* do is give us battery-less cars any time soon. We might be able to get away with smaller batteries, but we will still need them. The summary states that it won't provide power if you're going at low speed. That means city drivers could go an entire journey without being able to use the system, and even for journeys where you can use it, you'll still have low-speed parts of your journey. Even if we decided to start building it now, it will be many decades before it has widescale coverage; there will be plenty of minor roads that are likely never to be upgraded (there are plenty today that are still dirt-roads). And of course, your own driveway probably won't be connected to the grid either.
The beauty of this is that it is entirely compatible with the existing road network and could be implemented piecemeal. Roads could be upgraded with the system. Cars that can use it would benefit, but older cars could carry on using the same roads just the same as they always have. Likewise, if the electric cars also have a battery, they would be free to continue using roads that didn't have the electric rail as well as those that do.
My prediction is that it will be used initially for bus routes. If all the bus routes in a city like London were converted, it would amount to a significant amount of track. The fuel savings to the bus operator would make it very easy to pitch to the city. Existing electric and hybrid cars owned by the public could then be retro-fitted with power pickups for the system, and where the bus routes are public roads, people could benefit from the same fuel savings. If this was subsidised on the grounds of reducing pollution in the city, then the public take-up for the project would likely be quite big.
As the number of vehicles capable of using the system increases, the road network could be further upgraded beyond just the bus routes.
So yes, it is a clever system. However, don't be fooled into thinking it's a new idea. This system was first used a decade ago for a tram line in France. It was the first electric tram line in the world not to need overhead power cables. Ground-based power lines had never previously safe enough for a tram line that needed to run through city streets. This system has been in use for a decade now and has proved itself well. Building it into the regular road network seems to be the next sensible step.
Here's the wikipedia page about the existing tram system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-level_power_supply
Just wait until you hit a pothole with the dame thing.. Sheesh! Picasso, Calder, or Dali could have made a better design.
Meh, Picasso already got his name on a rubbish car -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_Picasso
The great thing about deep-sea trash is that it decomposes extremely slowly compared to stuff at shallower temperatures, so it'll be around for a while...
Awesome! Maybe in a few thousand years, someone will mine it for old copies of the Atari ET game catridge.
If you had insurance on your phone, the carrier would replace it for you for free.
Well yes, but as far as the manufacturer is concerned that's still another sale.
And the carrier doesn't take a direct hit either. Indirect maybe, because their premiums will go up over time if they have to replace a lot of stolen phones, but on a case-by-case basis it wouldn't be enough to move the needle.
Wow what a nothing issue. It's not accurate because it's tied to the machine I view it from??? Then it's the fault of the end user. The BBC have taken the correct approach to this issue they've decided we're too stupid to have a clock!! The scary thing is I suspect that in general they are correct.
The point is that they've done this in response to formal complaints... which means that yes, in some cases the users *are* too stupid to have a clock, and not only that, those same stupid people are willing to kick up a fuss about it and raise complaints.
The fact that Broshuis (his name is misspelled on the original post) was asked to cheat is a good indicator that on talent alone he wasn't good enough for MLB.
Hmmm, well that assumes that everyone else is playing honestly.
If his assertion of rampant cheating is accurate then no, it doesn't indicate anything.
There's only one solution to a completely corrupt system. Walk away from it. Broshius made the correct decision by leaving the game behind him.
You cannot change a corrupted institution from within. I'll repeat that. You cannot change a corrupted institution from within. There are too many people inside who have spent their lives justifying and profiting from their misdeeds, who are not about to turn over a new leaf or air their dirty laundry because you've made an appeal to their conscience. They killed theirs long ago.
The best thing to do is leave the rotten ship to sink all by itself. Every honest person who stands by a rotten game, or bankrupted bank, or broken political party is just propping up an at best amoral system, and usually an immoral and even illegal one. There is no obligation to stay loyal or remain in solidarity with a disloyal and dishonest organisation.
Broshius has done more for baseball as a law student that he ever could have as a player or a fan.
I've quoted the above comment in full because it deserves repeating.
Well said. I came here to post pretty much the same thing, but I won't bother, since you said it so well.