It's standard practice that hardware reviewers are sent 'golden samples', or chips determined to be the most stable and functional. They tend to be the most overclockable, thus leading to exaggerations of how overclockable the chips are in general. Can't find it now but I recall a site having an image macro of Fry with the caption "Not sure if golden sample or super-fast video card".
A few years ago, AMD was found to be sending out video cards (the 290x IIRC) that ran hot and were heavily affected by thermal throttling, yet sent cards with modified firmware to hardware reviewers. This modified firmware caused the fans to spin at a faster RPM than consumer versions of the card, which made the cards cooler (and louder) and thus throttle less due to overheating.
Any reviewer worth their salt will know the stock and boost clocks for the part they're testing, and use software to check current clock speed. Pre-overclocked hardware is only a problem for lazy reviewers who didn't check.
Since everyone's hating on replacing 3.5mm jacks, I'm going to play devil's advocate. 6 reasons that 3.5mm jacks will go the way of the 3.5" floppy drive:
1) Analog audio cables need shielding from outside interference. Cheaper cabling is inadequately shielded. Digital signals are more resistant to minor interference.
2) 3.5mm jacks are finicky. I've owned many extension cables with 3.5mm plugs that need fiddling with. If I don't rotate it just so, and plug it in at just the right depth, I get abnormally low volume, one of the channels won't work, or certain frequency ranges won't play.
3) 3.5mm plugs aren't universal. There are ones with 1, 2, or even 3 rings, and the above problems are more prevalent if a plug is connected to a receptacle/adapter engineered to expect a different number of rings.
4) Data sent through the 3.5mm jack is an unencrypted analog signal. This means it's vulnerable to side-channel attacks and surveillance. Someone could surveil/inject data going through the microphone channel (assuming the phone uses an analog microphone), or the headphone channel. A simple 'not' inserted into or removed from a sentence could cause substantial disruption to a target. Of course phone networks and smartphones are often surveillable in multiple ways, but not by everyone; also, phones are sometimes used as personal audio recorders, which may not be surveillable. An encrypted digital signal, with a handshake protocol but no master key (i.e. backdoor), could prevent these attacks.
5) Phones tend to come with noisy/cheap amplifiers/DACs. This means that even if you plug in your $500 headphones you're going to get noise, and there's nothing you can do about it. Moving these components into the headphones means that phones can accommodate top-end audio. For some reason, smartphones have their cameras heavily scrutinized, yet their audio components are glossed over by reviewers and consumers. Go figure.
6) 3.5mm jacks add cost and thickness to smartphones. This is the real reason (of course) why they're being ditched. Just like laptop makers are aiming for the thinnest laptops, phone makers want to make the thinnest smartphones. USB type C (which Thunderbolt 3 uses) has a height of ~2.6mm, meaning a full millimeter can be shaved off the device thickness. They could add a bump around the 3.5mm jack like they do for rear cameras, but I suspect that's considered ugly. there are 2mm audio jacks, but all the above problems remain, and people would still need an adapter or new headphones.
The DRM issue is orthogonal to the encrypted digital signal issue. If an unencrypted MP3 file is sent over an encrypted interface, then who cares? The 'protected content being stolen via the analog hole' is the potential bogeyman, but it's not going to be an issue. Music is sold DRM-free today, and people are unlikely to start buying DRM-ed music in the future; it won't matter unless CDs go away, anyways. In the unlikely event the encryption protocol isn't cracked, it will only matter for content that is only available via streaming, which will probably be a minority of audio that people would care to preserve. Furthermore, just as you can buy (outside America) HDCP-compliant devices that decode the signal and then happily pass it on unencrypted, you'll be able to get the same for audio, if there's demand for it.
Every time a foreign country refuses to enforce draconian IP laws shoved down their throats via omnibus treaties, the MAFIAA gets another digit of the nuclear launch codes. You don't want to let their bean-counters decide that a smoking ruin where $0 of piracy takes place, is more profitable than allowing the victim the grace of their price-fixed goods.
This reminds me of Groupon. Seems people stopped offering free stuff through Groupon (due to incidents like this one), and I never heard of them again.
But the new hypothesis suggests that when apoptosis -- and the other safeguards -- don't work like they're supposed to, cancer just might be the final 'checkpoint' that steps in and gets rid of the rogue cells before their DNA can be passed on... by, uh, killing us, and removing our genetic material from the gene pool.
Couldn't the exact same argument be made about suicide?
I have a feeling that theater/club shootings are becoming a trend, since they're: dark, crowded, noisy, and confined. They're probably the softest target for mass-shooters, so concentrating efforts there makes the most sense, followed by schools. I suggest some kind of automated shooter-suppression system, mounted up high on the walls or ceiling, in a few spots in each room. It'd detect gunshots (filtering out ones coming from speakers), and use image analysis to determine where the gun is, and then suppress it, somehow. Some kind of disintegrating anti-materiel round, perhaps, which destroys the firearm. Shooting at someone's gun is discouraged normally, since you're likely to miss it, but if a robot with perfect aim is making the shot, why not? Alternatively, upon detecting a gunshot, it could discharge a flashbang type device at the shooter, or cause dozens of loaded pistols to lower from the ceiling on tethers (suggest this at an NRA meeting for shits and giggles!), fire a net, drop a section of the floor into a padded pit, launch a cease-and-desist letter in their direction while notifying the MPAA that they're infringing IP law, etc. In practice, I have a feeling that it'll be legally required to stop the music/movie/concert and slowly turn the lights on when a gunshot is detected.
If a bulletproof fabric were invented (helical auxetics?), civilians in ordinary situations wouldn't wear it unless it were mandated to be woven into all clothes at a high enough concentration to significantly retard bullet penetration. In practice, such fabric will almost certainly be heavy enough that it wouldn't be put into lightweight clothes (t-shirts, sheer dresses etc.), and doesn't do anything about shooters (e.g. VT shooting) that specifically aim for the head at close range.
How about instead of complaining that children are doing mildly subjectively annoying things, they inure their children (and themselves, while they're at it) to rudeness so that it doesn't bother them. Then, repeated question asking will no longer be a problem. A bonus effect is that talking to people who know more than they do won't make them angry or defensive.
I suggest that, rather than playing recordings of classical music for your babies, instead play recordings of Call of Duty and League of Legends voice chats. I guarantee that they'll be completely unfazed by 'faggot', 'noob' and 'lol learn to play' by second grade, thus preparing them for adulthood.
I did a comparison. A 1080p 60fps youtube video (HTML5) used 28-44% of my quad-core in Firefox 46 (usually around 33%). Upgraded to Firefox 47, and it only used 4-6%. I turned off Firefox's hardware acceleration and it still only used 22-25%. I know my friend with a core 2 duo was having trouble with HD youtube videos on Firefox.
If someone wanted to live as a wanderer, backpacking continuously across America, they'd be free to do so. People would be allowed to move to houses in other parts of the country.
I agree this is more likely to actually happen, yet it's an inferior solution compared to the govt. owning all land/buildings, since they'd pay more over time.
While people could potentially spend more, perception might be that many people will quit the workforce and live off their BI, leading to a LOWER average income, causing landlords to believe that they can't actually do that (if it's a lower-scale neighborhood); other people will believe that salaries will drop by the same amount as the UBI, so that total income will remain the same. I'm talking about BELIEF, not necessarily reality, and belief affects how people set pricing. Furthermore, due to competition, it would take collusion (or a monopoly) to successfully raise rent prices in an area. The regional cost of rent is for the most part due to the cost of the land plus what regional builders demand. If the builders live nearby, that means nearby rent costs... which comes back to the cost of nearby land. Add in a little for expected return on investment over a given time period (opportunity cost). This is the price floor; with insufficient competition, or lack of supply (overcrowding) then the price goes up. Inflation only comes into play if the extra money in circulation causes people to move into a more upscale neighborhood, or into a poor neighborhood when they otherwise would've lived homeless/in their car/with friends, straining supply in the area for that price range. In other words, only if alot of people move up a social class. Considering about 10% of all homes in the US are vacant, constrained supply will likely have a smaller effect than real-estate speculation.
One of the bigger problems with a UBI that I've seen mentioned is: if you're giving money to unemployed people with the assumption that they'll use it on food and housing, what do you do about people who squander their money on drugs or gambling? What about the people who can't manage money, and get evicted because they spend money immediately and can't save up for rent? Other people will have their money taken from them by parasitic 'friends' and family members who hound them for money, or outright stolen due to fraud/burglary etc. A large portion of society's members who currently fall through the cracks, will continue to, even with a UBI, due to these reasons.
The superior solution is foodstamps combined with nationalized housing. I would say "government paying rent" but then wheee let's all move to the Bay Area and watch private landowners charge the government as many digits of money as they can think to ask for. Therefore, the govt. owning and distributing land (think of it as a limited resource, like the airwaves the FCC regulates). Want to build a farm? Apply for a permit, and the govt. will grant you as much as you need. Have a plan for a more efficient farm that uses the land more efficiently? You're more likely to get a plot, or replace an existing one. It's different from feudalism in that there is no inherited rule over other households, or taxes on land, or govt. service or social class required to obtain land. One could say "but you need social class in order to get a permit", but this is akin to obtaining a bank loan today. Yes, Cuba does this (or did, last I heard), but the red tape was the primary problem, it can be made more efficient. But wait, the govt. has to pay for all of the buildings, who's going to build and maintain them? Well, the govt. will. You'll be required to work for a bit helping build houses (if you can). Doesn't have to be all at once, or very many hours per week. As home production gets more automated, the requisite amount goes down. It'll be seen as comparable to compulsory military service.
I'm disappointed noone has yet brought up Pascal's Wager. The idea that "there is an infinitesimal chance we're not living in a computer simulation" is akin to Pascal's wager: "an infinitesimal chance of heaven existing means we should worship god", in that they both make difficult-to-prove claims about the nature of the universe which are (or border on) religion.
These were actually announced a while ago. You can make one yourself by putting a gaming laptop inside a backpack (and figuring out how to ventilate it). The upcoming ones are more like NUCs with decent GPUs and big batteries. As GPUs improve, the size/weight/battery draw will shrink, until it can clip onto your belt. Hopefully the HMD will be down to a single thin cable by this point. In the near term, external graphics card docks will be used, as HMD advances will track closely with GPU advances for the next several years. An HMD was announced (can't find it now) that uses a usb 3.1 type C cable to connect to a smartphone that you clip onto your waist, which will be the low-power version of the same thing, but I think this form-factor is going to become standard for mobile VR until the processor is so fast (decades from now) it can be put in the HMD itself. Sliding the phone into the HMD imbalances it, and counterweighting it is difficult if the HMD supports multiple models/weights of phone; furthermore, HMDs will eventually have 5k+ resolution screens, overkill for a phone to have otherwise.
I was wondering why Oculus didn't acquire Ossic. Now we know. Glad I held off, there are going to be so many competing hardware/software solutions for VR audio in a year, paying $300 to get something in 6 months that might already be obsolete/unsupported didn't make much sense (even though the tech seems solid). Add in the prototype headphones that do galvanic vestibular stimulation and there's two important VR advances begging to be rolled into one device, both of which will probably be part of the HMD in the near future.
You're empowered if people are pointing and making disapproving looks? Maybe while laughing at your 'shrinkage'? Doing something you're not ashamed of that others disapprove of doesn't automatically empower you; society has a counterbalancing force, generally the police enforcing 'disturbing the peace' type laws. Now, if you mean being nude at work (casual fridays at Pornhub?), rather than in public, then, ignoring sexual harrassment issues, that'd only give you -- at most -- the power to get people to leave your visual vicinity. Reread that last sentence in the voice of Christopher Walken. I imagine about as many men as women are comfortable being seen nude by strangers/coworkers.
The heart rate increases were actually due to taking a moment to think about how to approach a problem... while slamming a Mt. Dew. Or taking a gulp of coffee. Whichever caffeine delivery vehicle is preferred.
The linked inflation statistics are from the US Government, which are widely accepted to be heavily manipulated (i.e. much lower than inflation for most things that matter to most people).
It's possible that depression and deflation aren't correlated because countries which are capable of causing deflation monitor their economy enough to realize they should increase stimulus spending in order to prevent a recession from turning into a depression, or modify the policies leading to deflation. Deflation could still be very bad for an economy even if it doesn't itself lead to a depression. OTOH, the flipside of people saving rather than spending is that they're later able to afford more expensive things they would be unable to ever purchase if they were spending all their income as they received it; for example, buying a car instead of a year of fast food.
Social sciences have a fuzziness to them that's difficult to cut through; many theories have been proven and experiments that returned interesting conclusions, but there are always more hidden variables and unknown mechanics that inhibit a full understanding. Many macroeconomists are part of the upper classes, and have a conflict of interest to optimistically promote policies which just so happen to benefit themselves.
Something I haven't seen talked about much is the unemployed being a drain on friends and family; an employed person's income may on paper be the same or higher than it was, but now that they're supporting an unemployed person or three, their standard of living goes down. Even someone with a nice secure middle-class job can only take so much of that before they start feeling like the economy is hurting them... even aside from taxes. We may go back to the days of extended family all living in one house, rather than just a nuclear family; of course many immigrants are already doing this just as they did at home.
The companies are most likely encouraging their employees to use prostitutes, due to the lack of single women in the Seattle area. Given that Vancouver is ~3 hours' drive from Seattle, it might make more sense to encourage them to take a day off to go somewhere that prostitution is legal. If it weren't for the bad PR, they'd probably just directly lobby for prostitution to be regulated and legalized in WA. Given the souring economy (and the momentum of the marijuana legalization effort), this is likely to occur anyway.
However there are some restrictions, such as users not being allowed to carry out Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on Pornhub, or even carry out physical attacks on the company's offices or data centers. Social engineering tactics are also not allowed, such as phishing attacks against Pornhub employees, and researchers are not allowed to compromise user accounts.
This should be obvious, as it's a BUG bounty. That is, the point is to find and fix bugs in computer code, not to recite a Security 101 list of potential attack vectors. However, given that pen testers use social engineering, and probably some try to sneak into offices to test physical security, it makes sense to clarify that it's bugs only and not full pen testing. DDoS isn't even really fixable, just mitigatable.
Slashdot Mirror
It's standard practice that hardware reviewers are sent 'golden samples', or chips determined to be the most stable and functional. They tend to be the most overclockable, thus leading to exaggerations of how overclockable the chips are in general. Can't find it now but I recall a site having an image macro of Fry with the caption "Not sure if golden sample or super-fast video card".
A few years ago, AMD was found to be sending out video cards (the 290x IIRC) that ran hot and were heavily affected by thermal throttling, yet sent cards with modified firmware to hardware reviewers. This modified firmware caused the fans to spin at a faster RPM than consumer versions of the card, which made the cards cooler (and louder) and thus throttle less due to overheating.
Any reviewer worth their salt will know the stock and boost clocks for the part they're testing, and use software to check current clock speed. Pre-overclocked hardware is only a problem for lazy reviewers who didn't check.
Since everyone's hating on replacing 3.5mm jacks, I'm going to play devil's advocate.
6 reasons that 3.5mm jacks will go the way of the 3.5" floppy drive:
1) Analog audio cables need shielding from outside interference. Cheaper cabling is inadequately shielded. Digital signals are more resistant to minor interference.
2) 3.5mm jacks are finicky. I've owned many extension cables with 3.5mm plugs that need fiddling with. If I don't rotate it just so, and plug it in at just the right depth, I get abnormally low volume, one of the channels won't work, or certain frequency ranges won't play.
3) 3.5mm plugs aren't universal. There are ones with 1, 2, or even 3 rings, and the above problems are more prevalent if a plug is connected to a receptacle/adapter engineered to expect a different number of rings.
4) Data sent through the 3.5mm jack is an unencrypted analog signal. This means it's vulnerable to side-channel attacks and surveillance. Someone could surveil/inject data going through the microphone channel (assuming the phone uses an analog microphone), or the headphone channel. A simple 'not' inserted into or removed from a sentence could cause substantial disruption to a target. Of course phone networks and smartphones are often surveillable in multiple ways, but not by everyone; also, phones are sometimes used as personal audio recorders, which may not be surveillable. An encrypted digital signal, with a handshake protocol but no master key (i.e. backdoor), could prevent these attacks.
5) Phones tend to come with noisy/cheap amplifiers/DACs. This means that even if you plug in your $500 headphones you're going to get noise, and there's nothing you can do about it. Moving these components into the headphones means that phones can accommodate top-end audio. For some reason, smartphones have their cameras heavily scrutinized, yet their audio components are glossed over by reviewers and consumers. Go figure.
6) 3.5mm jacks add cost and thickness to smartphones. This is the real reason (of course) why they're being ditched. Just like laptop makers are aiming for the thinnest laptops, phone makers want to make the thinnest smartphones. USB type C (which Thunderbolt 3 uses) has a height of ~2.6mm, meaning a full millimeter can be shaved off the device thickness. They could add a bump around the 3.5mm jack like they do for rear cameras, but I suspect that's considered ugly. there are 2mm audio jacks, but all the above problems remain, and people would still need an adapter or new headphones.
The DRM issue is orthogonal to the encrypted digital signal issue. If an unencrypted MP3 file is sent over an encrypted interface, then who cares? The 'protected content being stolen via the analog hole' is the potential bogeyman, but it's not going to be an issue. Music is sold DRM-free today, and people are unlikely to start buying DRM-ed music in the future; it won't matter unless CDs go away, anyways. In the unlikely event the encryption protocol isn't cracked, it will only matter for content that is only available via streaming, which will probably be a minority of audio that people would care to preserve. Furthermore, just as you can buy (outside America) HDCP-compliant devices that decode the signal and then happily pass it on unencrypted, you'll be able to get the same for audio, if there's demand for it.
Was hoping for a TIS-100 reference. Left satisfied.
Every time a foreign country refuses to enforce draconian IP laws shoved down their throats via omnibus treaties, the MAFIAA gets another digit of the nuclear launch codes. You don't want to let their bean-counters decide that a smoking ruin where $0 of piracy takes place, is more profitable than allowing the victim the grace of their price-fixed goods.
Keeping our citizens at the brink of starvation is how we maintain power. Increasing access to food weakens our political position.
This reminds me of Groupon. Seems people stopped offering free stuff through Groupon (due to incidents like this one), and I never heard of them again.
But the new hypothesis suggests that when apoptosis -- and the other safeguards -- don't work like they're supposed to, cancer just might be the final 'checkpoint' that steps in and gets rid of the rogue cells before their DNA can be passed on... by, uh, killing us, and removing our genetic material from the gene pool.
Couldn't the exact same argument be made about suicide?
Kind? As in the granola bar company? Suddenly I wonder about those hemp seed & chia bars...
I have a feeling that theater/club shootings are becoming a trend, since they're: dark, crowded, noisy, and confined. They're probably the softest target for mass-shooters, so concentrating efforts there makes the most sense, followed by schools. I suggest some kind of automated shooter-suppression system, mounted up high on the walls or ceiling, in a few spots in each room. It'd detect gunshots (filtering out ones coming from speakers), and use image analysis to determine where the gun is, and then suppress it, somehow. Some kind of disintegrating anti-materiel round, perhaps, which destroys the firearm. Shooting at someone's gun is discouraged normally, since you're likely to miss it, but if a robot with perfect aim is making the shot, why not? Alternatively, upon detecting a gunshot, it could discharge a flashbang type device at the shooter, or cause dozens of loaded pistols to lower from the ceiling on tethers (suggest this at an NRA meeting for shits and giggles!), fire a net, drop a section of the floor into a padded pit, launch a cease-and-desist letter in their direction while notifying the MPAA that they're infringing IP law, etc.
In practice, I have a feeling that it'll be legally required to stop the music/movie/concert and slowly turn the lights on when a gunshot is detected.
If a bulletproof fabric were invented (helical auxetics?), civilians in ordinary situations wouldn't wear it unless it were mandated to be woven into all clothes at a high enough concentration to significantly retard bullet penetration. In practice, such fabric will almost certainly be heavy enough that it wouldn't be put into lightweight clothes (t-shirts, sheer dresses etc.), and doesn't do anything about shooters (e.g. VT shooting) that specifically aim for the head at close range.
How about instead of complaining that children are doing mildly subjectively annoying things, they inure their children (and themselves, while they're at it) to rudeness so that it doesn't bother them. Then, repeated question asking will no longer be a problem. A bonus effect is that talking to people who know more than they do won't make them angry or defensive.
I suggest that, rather than playing recordings of classical music for your babies, instead play recordings of Call of Duty and League of Legends voice chats. I guarantee that they'll be completely unfazed by 'faggot', 'noob' and 'lol learn to play' by second grade, thus preparing them for adulthood.
I did a comparison. A 1080p 60fps youtube video (HTML5) used 28-44% of my quad-core in Firefox 46 (usually around 33%). Upgraded to Firefox 47, and it only used 4-6%. I turned off Firefox's hardware acceleration and it still only used 22-25%. I know my friend with a core 2 duo was having trouble with HD youtube videos on Firefox.
If someone wanted to live as a wanderer, backpacking continuously across America, they'd be free to do so. People would be allowed to move to houses in other parts of the country.
I agree this is more likely to actually happen, yet it's an inferior solution compared to the govt. owning all land/buildings, since they'd pay more over time.
Precious bodily fluids! And uhh our brains produce electricity, or something? I heard it from a documentary once...
While people could potentially spend more, perception might be that many people will quit the workforce and live off their BI, leading to a LOWER average income, causing landlords to believe that they can't actually do that (if it's a lower-scale neighborhood); other people will believe that salaries will drop by the same amount as the UBI, so that total income will remain the same. I'm talking about BELIEF, not necessarily reality, and belief affects how people set pricing. Furthermore, due to competition, it would take collusion (or a monopoly) to successfully raise rent prices in an area.
The regional cost of rent is for the most part due to the cost of the land plus what regional builders demand. If the builders live nearby, that means nearby rent costs... which comes back to the cost of nearby land. Add in a little for expected return on investment over a given time period (opportunity cost). This is the price floor; with insufficient competition, or lack of supply (overcrowding) then the price goes up.
Inflation only comes into play if the extra money in circulation causes people to move into a more upscale neighborhood, or into a poor neighborhood when they otherwise would've lived homeless/in their car/with friends, straining supply in the area for that price range. In other words, only if alot of people move up a social class. Considering about 10% of all homes in the US are vacant, constrained supply will likely have a smaller effect than real-estate speculation.
One of the bigger problems with a UBI that I've seen mentioned is: if you're giving money to unemployed people with the assumption that they'll use it on food and housing, what do you do about people who squander their money on drugs or gambling? What about the people who can't manage money, and get evicted because they spend money immediately and can't save up for rent? Other people will have their money taken from them by parasitic 'friends' and family members who hound them for money, or outright stolen due to fraud/burglary etc.
A large portion of society's members who currently fall through the cracks, will continue to, even with a UBI, due to these reasons.
The superior solution is foodstamps combined with nationalized housing. I would say "government paying rent" but then wheee let's all move to the Bay Area and watch private landowners charge the government as many digits of money as they can think to ask for. Therefore, the govt. owning and distributing land (think of it as a limited resource, like the airwaves the FCC regulates). Want to build a farm? Apply for a permit, and the govt. will grant you as much as you need. Have a plan for a more efficient farm that uses the land more efficiently? You're more likely to get a plot, or replace an existing one. It's different from feudalism in that there is no inherited rule over other households, or taxes on land, or govt. service or social class required to obtain land. One could say "but you need social class in order to get a permit", but this is akin to obtaining a bank loan today. Yes, Cuba does this (or did, last I heard), but the red tape was the primary problem, it can be made more efficient. But wait, the govt. has to pay for all of the buildings, who's going to build and maintain them? Well, the govt. will. You'll be required to work for a bit helping build houses (if you can). Doesn't have to be all at once, or very many hours per week. As home production gets more automated, the requisite amount goes down. It'll be seen as comparable to compulsory military service.
I'm disappointed noone has yet brought up Pascal's Wager. The idea that "there is an infinitesimal chance we're not living in a computer simulation" is akin to Pascal's wager: "an infinitesimal chance of heaven existing means we should worship god", in that they both make difficult-to-prove claims about the nature of the universe which are (or border on) religion.
These were actually announced a while ago. You can make one yourself by putting a gaming laptop inside a backpack (and figuring out how to ventilate it). The upcoming ones are more like NUCs with decent GPUs and big batteries. As GPUs improve, the size/weight/battery draw will shrink, until it can clip onto your belt. Hopefully the HMD will be down to a single thin cable by this point. In the near term, external graphics card docks will be used, as HMD advances will track closely with GPU advances for the next several years.
An HMD was announced (can't find it now) that uses a usb 3.1 type C cable to connect to a smartphone that you clip onto your waist, which will be the low-power version of the same thing, but I think this form-factor is going to become standard for mobile VR until the processor is so fast (decades from now) it can be put in the HMD itself. Sliding the phone into the HMD imbalances it, and counterweighting it is difficult if the HMD supports multiple models/weights of phone; furthermore, HMDs will eventually have 5k+ resolution screens, overkill for a phone to have otherwise.
I was wondering why Oculus didn't acquire Ossic. Now we know. Glad I held off, there are going to be so many competing hardware/software solutions for VR audio in a year, paying $300 to get something in 6 months that might already be obsolete/unsupported didn't make much sense (even though the tech seems solid). Add in the prototype headphones that do galvanic vestibular stimulation and there's two important VR advances begging to be rolled into one device, both of which will probably be part of the HMD in the near future.
You're empowered if people are pointing and making disapproving looks? Maybe while laughing at your 'shrinkage'? Doing something you're not ashamed of that others disapprove of doesn't automatically empower you; society has a counterbalancing force, generally the police enforcing 'disturbing the peace' type laws.
Now, if you mean being nude at work (casual fridays at Pornhub?), rather than in public, then, ignoring sexual harrassment issues, that'd only give you -- at most -- the power to get people to leave your visual vicinity. Reread that last sentence in the voice of Christopher Walken.
I imagine about as many men as women are comfortable being seen nude by strangers/coworkers.
The heart rate increases were actually due to taking a moment to think about how to approach a problem... while slamming a Mt. Dew. Or taking a gulp of coffee. Whichever caffeine delivery vehicle is preferred.
The NSA led Stone through a figurative Potemkin village.
The linked inflation statistics are from the US Government, which are widely accepted to be heavily manipulated (i.e. much lower than inflation for most things that matter to most people).
It's possible that depression and deflation aren't correlated because countries which are capable of causing deflation monitor their economy enough to realize they should increase stimulus spending in order to prevent a recession from turning into a depression, or modify the policies leading to deflation. Deflation could still be very bad for an economy even if it doesn't itself lead to a depression. OTOH, the flipside of people saving rather than spending is that they're later able to afford more expensive things they would be unable to ever purchase if they were spending all their income as they received it; for example, buying a car instead of a year of fast food.
Social sciences have a fuzziness to them that's difficult to cut through; many theories have been proven and experiments that returned interesting conclusions, but there are always more hidden variables and unknown mechanics that inhibit a full understanding. Many macroeconomists are part of the upper classes, and have a conflict of interest to optimistically promote policies which just so happen to benefit themselves.
Something I haven't seen talked about much is the unemployed being a drain on friends and family; an employed person's income may on paper be the same or higher than it was, but now that they're supporting an unemployed person or three, their standard of living goes down. Even someone with a nice secure middle-class job can only take so much of that before they start feeling like the economy is hurting them... even aside from taxes. We may go back to the days of extended family all living in one house, rather than just a nuclear family; of course many immigrants are already doing this just as they did at home.
The companies are most likely encouraging their employees to use prostitutes, due to the lack of single women in the Seattle area. Given that Vancouver is ~3 hours' drive from Seattle, it might make more sense to encourage them to take a day off to go somewhere that prostitution is legal.
If it weren't for the bad PR, they'd probably just directly lobby for prostitution to be regulated and legalized in WA. Given the souring economy (and the momentum of the marijuana legalization effort), this is likely to occur anyway.
However there are some restrictions, such as users not being allowed to carry out Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on Pornhub, or even carry out physical attacks on the company's offices or data centers. Social engineering tactics are also not allowed, such as phishing attacks against Pornhub employees, and researchers are not allowed to compromise user accounts.
This should be obvious, as it's a BUG bounty. That is, the point is to find and fix bugs in computer code, not to recite a Security 101 list of potential attack vectors. However, given that pen testers use social engineering, and probably some try to sneak into offices to test physical security, it makes sense to clarify that it's bugs only and not full pen testing. DDoS isn't even really fixable, just mitigatable.