"all I can say is there's a class of students being taught how to develop for the Android phones, rather than the iPhone precisely because of the locked down environment."
That's good news. The more people are excluded from restrictive environments the better for adoption of less-restricted environments!
I don't care about Apple's business model, I don't own their stock. I don't own any iProducts, and could care less about development for closed systems by a company whose only fundamental difference from MSFT is their fervent frothing fanbase.
Consumers are mechanically illiterate so feature bloat sells. The perception is that featuritis is good.
IMO every automobile engineer should be required to spend a year as a car MECHANIC before being hired. (Wouldn't hurt the aircraft folks either...) They'd design better systems that were also more maintenance-friendly hence cheaper for the purchaser to maintain over time.
The German solution we should copy is a real driving test. In the US, one has to be mentally defective not to be issued a license, driver/rider training sucks, and the result is deadly.
I could care less about manual boxes. I have both, but autos suit the way I use my larger trucks.
Re assertion #2, in what fucking alternate universe is this true?
I've been an aircraft mechanic (26 years USAF avionics, engines, and crew chief) as well as wrenching motorcycles, trucks, cars, and whatever else was worth my time. "Computers" all rely on external wiring harnesses and peripheral sensors. They can be very good, but excepting where a complex systems requires them they are not the ultimate in reliability.
Flight controls need to be fly-by-wire to allow modern flight performance. Landing gear are hydro-mechanical (sometimes with nitrogen assist for when the hydraulic system fails) because they are simple and don't need complexity.
Aircraft engines typically have MECHANICAL stopcock functions run by physical throttle cable to augment their electronic and hydromechanical fuel controls. Even the F-16 and F-15 fighters have cable throttles.
Autos are built to consumer specs, making the mechanical stopcock both cheap and a reasonable solution.
OTR trucks can afford to have more expensive systems because the vehicles overall cost is so much more,
If Russia had been making plastic toys instead of trying to export Stalinist revolution, there WOULDN'T have been anything to fight about.
"I guess in a couple of years they'll be able to invade Taiwan with no more consequences than some really stern speeches from various so-called world leaders."
Who the fuck wants to die for Taiwan (excepting bunch of geezers nostalgic for bar girl poonannie) now that the mainland isn't supporting regimes that endanger the West, and why shouldn't the strong in Asia be its masters?
Do YOU want to die for the Kuomintang? If so, share why, and share why Americans should want their sons and daughters to die too?
Fuck them. If they wanted to be separate from Beijing they'd acquire nukes instead of consumer goods. The cult of US suicide for Chinese needs to have a stake driven through it's heart. The US has an obligation to AMERICANS it forgot during the fascination with Madame Chiang and Pearl S. Buck propaganda (youngsters, look it up for some fun).
Time to let Asians run Asia and concentrate on problems we neglected near to home, such as Mexico, and Latin and South America.
"These people aren't looking for truth, they're looking for belief."
People who do so deserve to be visibly and mercilessly crushed by events as examples to others. Unless there is a punishment for being like that, it will spread to no good.
They worked hard to be in desperate craving gullible denial. Fuck 'em.
"Our communications technology is at a point where it's a serious waste of a human being's time to be driving, and that economic fact is going to be really hard to fight with law."
People babbling over trifles they survived nicely before constant electronic leashes were universally available are hardly acting from economic necessity.
"Personally, I feel the only real solution is to mandate self-driving cars."
If we externalize the costs then we can pretend they don't exist!
We'd be better off with cellphones contributing to crashes than attempting to safely maintain self-driving cars, let alone pay for the staggeringly complex technology. "Aircraft reliability" comes a price of expensive components and constant, professional, scheduled maintenance.
"Unfortunately, implicit in this goal was a massive surge in urban sprawl"
Urban sprawl exists because many people don't like living in dense cities and enjoy more personal space than hive culture allows. Sprawl allowed people to escape obsolete cities (moving is more affordable than replacing deteriorated infrastructure) for a better life in the suburbs. Outrunning inevitable infrastructure deterioration and the people who go with that is key to maintaining a comfortable life.
Which is what it should have been, since it could have faced superior numbers of Warsaw Pact aircraft.
That design philosophy has produced a superb fighter which lasted for decades, killed plenty of MIGs with no end in sight, and brought death and destruction to numerous ground targets.
"But FFS... you would not call the cops on a gang rape? I hope I never become that much of a reptile."
Depends. If I'm for some unlikely reason in the ghetto/barrio/doomed vermin zone and the victim and perps are ghettoids/barriods/doomed vermin, I know they will try to kill ME if I intervene and the victim isn't worth it. That's like getting involved in a domestic dispute.
I don't value all people equally and there is no logical reason for ME to sacrifice myself for people who I do not like. I don't care for thugs, I don't care for their women and children, and I DO care about my life and family. I'm my brothers keeper, but will choose my brothers carefully.
"I'd like to see more debate before labeling this a 'bad' law."
But it obviously IS a bad law, because it is perfect for COERCING people into being a "witness".
Confess you saw the perp, in the level of detail required for conviction, or the full weight of the state (which CANNOT protect most of you from reprisal, and no, sending the meat wagon afterwards ain't protection!) will wreck your life and make you unemployable.
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"all I can say is there's a class of students being taught how to develop for the Android phones, rather than the iPhone precisely because of the locked down environment."
That's good news. The more people are excluded from restrictive environments the better for adoption of less-restricted environments!
I don't care about Apple's business model, I don't own their stock. I don't own any iProducts, and could care less about development for closed systems by a company whose only fundamental difference from MSFT is their fervent frothing fanbase.
Better the engine than me, and most modern engines have rev limiters.
Lest anyone think that a troll, Google the Ford Pinto story...
I can has quad-redundant flight control-quality controls for mie pickup truck???
Consumers are mechanically illiterate so feature bloat sells. The perception is that featuritis is good.
IMO every automobile engineer should be required to spend a year as a car MECHANIC before being hired. (Wouldn't hurt the aircraft folks either...)
They'd design better systems that were also more maintenance-friendly hence cheaper for the purchaser to maintain over time.
The German solution we should copy is a real driving test. In the US, one has to be mentally defective not to be issued a license, driver/rider training sucks, and the result is deadly.
I could care less about manual boxes. I have both, but autos suit the way I use my larger trucks.
Too late for the key switch, which has controlled relays downstream for many years.
At least it can cut the power to some systems, but (see the infamous Ford cruise control switch) lots'o'hots remain even with the key removed.
Re assertion #2, in what fucking alternate universe is this true?
I've been an aircraft mechanic (26 years USAF avionics, engines, and crew chief) as well as wrenching motorcycles, trucks, cars, and whatever else was worth my time. "Computers" all rely on external wiring harnesses and peripheral sensors. They can be very good, but excepting where a complex systems requires them they are not the ultimate in reliability.
Flight controls need to be fly-by-wire to allow modern flight performance. Landing gear are hydro-mechanical (sometimes with nitrogen assist for when the hydraulic system fails) because they are simple and don't need complexity.
With modern solenoid controlled transmissions, pushbutton trannies would be easy. They also make it pointless.
Aircraft engines typically have MECHANICAL stopcock functions run by physical throttle cable to augment their electronic and hydromechanical fuel controls. Even the F-16 and F-15 fighters have cable throttles.
Autos are built to consumer specs, making the mechanical stopcock both cheap and a reasonable solution.
OTR trucks can afford to have more expensive systems because the vehicles overall cost is so much more,
If Russia had been making plastic toys instead of trying to export Stalinist revolution, there WOULDN'T have been anything to fight about.
"I guess in a couple of years they'll be able to invade Taiwan with no more consequences than some really stern speeches from various so-called world leaders."
Who the fuck wants to die for Taiwan (excepting bunch of geezers nostalgic for bar girl poonannie) now that the mainland isn't supporting regimes that endanger the West, and why shouldn't the strong in Asia be its masters?
Do YOU want to die for the Kuomintang? If so, share why, and share why Americans should want their sons and daughters to die too?
Fuck them. If they wanted to be separate from Beijing they'd acquire nukes instead of consumer goods. The cult of US suicide for Chinese needs to have a stake driven through it's heart. The US has an obligation to AMERICANS it forgot during the fascination with Madame Chiang and Pearl S. Buck propaganda (youngsters, look it up for some fun).
Time to let Asians run Asia and concentrate on problems we neglected near to home, such as Mexico, and Latin and South America.
Meetings like ACTA conspiracy (any such hidden meeting certainly qualifies!) are proof Timothy McVeigh got the wrong building.
I don't advocate what he did, but as the proponents of secret government become more and more abusive they are going to provoke the fringe...first.
"These people aren't looking for truth, they're looking for belief."
People who do so deserve to be visibly and mercilessly crushed by events as examples to others.
Unless there is a punishment for being like that, it will spread to no good.
They worked hard to be in desperate craving gullible denial. Fuck 'em.
"we can win the war by trapping the little fucker in IE6."
Don't the Geneva and Hague Conventions prohibit that level of cruelty?
"Our communications technology is at a point where it's a serious waste of a human being's time to be driving, and that economic fact is going to be really hard to fight with law."
People babbling over trifles they survived nicely before constant electronic leashes were universally available are hardly acting from economic necessity.
"Personally, I feel the only real solution is to mandate self-driving cars."
If we externalize the costs then we can pretend they don't exist!
We'd be better off with cellphones contributing to crashes than attempting to safely maintain self-driving cars, let alone pay for the staggeringly complex technology. "Aircraft reliability" comes a price of expensive components and constant, professional, scheduled maintenance.
"I think you underestimate the compulsion to accept hardship as a consequence of reproduction."
Fixed it for you:
"I think you underestimate the willingness to impose hardship as a consequence of reproduction."
"Unfortunately, implicit in this goal was a massive surge in urban sprawl"
Urban sprawl exists because many people don't like living in dense cities and enjoy more personal space than hive culture allows. Sprawl allowed people to escape obsolete cities (moving is more affordable than replacing deteriorated infrastructure) for a better life in the suburbs. Outrunning inevitable infrastructure deterioration and the people who go with that is key to maintaining a comfortable life.
"The point is that, especially when it is taken to such extreme, it is, well, utterly ridiculous."
Never underestimate the buying power of simpletons. There are a vast number of them, and BTW without them geeks would make much less money. :)
"Total overkill."
Which is what it should have been, since it could have faced superior numbers of Warsaw Pact aircraft.
That design philosophy has produced a superb fighter which lasted for decades, killed plenty of MIGs with no end in sight, and brought death and destruction to numerous ground targets.
"But FFS... you would not call the cops on a gang rape? I hope I never become that much of a reptile."
Depends. If I'm for some unlikely reason in the ghetto/barrio/doomed vermin zone and the victim and perps are ghettoids/barriods/doomed vermin, I know they will try to kill ME if I intervene and the victim isn't worth it. That's like getting involved in a domestic dispute.
I don't value all people equally and there is no logical reason for ME to sacrifice myself for people who I do not like. I don't care for thugs, I don't care for their women and children, and I DO care about my life and family. I'm my brothers keeper, but will choose my brothers carefully.
"I'd like to see more debate before labeling this a 'bad' law."
But it obviously IS a bad law, because it is perfect for COERCING people into being a "witness".
Confess you saw the perp, in the level of detail required for conviction, or the full weight of the state (which CANNOT protect most of you from reprisal, and no, sending the meat wagon afterwards ain't protection!) will wreck your life and make you unemployable.
"...when Google goes ahead, tracks your every move, "
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3173
"If somebody puts a keylogger on your Windows box, they'll get what they need no matter how many passwords you are required to type."
Among the reasons I don't do online transactions on Windows machines.
"I think the pilgrims on the Mayflower would be totally sympathetic in that case."
So would the Taliban.
"horny old fat people have tons of money."
This "money" of which you speak, when do I get it?