So in the end, he was perhaps better at hiding the cheating, but he was still massively better at actual cycling than any other cyclist at the time who was also very likely cheating as well.
This.
If Lance is lying and has been doping his whole career, I don't think that diminishes much from his accomplishments.
On the other hand, if he's telling the truth, it shows just how incredible he really was.
Spot on, except you missed the part where the cop saves a sample of your breath, just in case sometime in the future they can find a way to prove you were actually drunk.
Yes, and I lumped three different serial data connections into one broad category, too.
When it really comes down to it, does ANY consumer really need three different serial connections? Does any current accessory even use the traditional serial connection? Nothing uses the FireWire connection, that's for sure.
So, now let's talk about analog audio. If you really, really need analog audio, then the 3.5mm jack is there. Or use one of the many readily available adapters. For 99% of all use cases, though, the digital format is actually preferred anyway. Often better audio quality, and you can communicate over a standard USB connection, with all the side benefits that gives.
And what about analog video? Well, it seems that even Apple is phasing that one out with this new connector! It's obsolete and unnecessary.
In other words, USB+MHL gives us all the functionality, while still being completely standard. The answer is an absolute yes.
(Oh, and did I mention that the MHL adapters are half the price of the Apple versions?)
What I love are the cases with bluetooth keyboards for the iPad. Every one I've seen has a micro-USB plug for charging.
And since you don't recharge the keyboard very often, finding that second cable might be a problem, especially if the battery dies while on a business trip. I can just imagine an iPad user bumming a micro-USB charger from an Android user to charge their accessory.
And on the other hand, you have an Apple proprietary connector that carries its own premium in cost. And USB chips are often present anyway for one reason or another (included in your microcontroller, for example).
It's likely that a low-end device would be cheaper to make for an Apple accessory, but in everything else you probably would never notice the price difference.
If customer retention decides to "do him a special favour"...
Is this anything like the "special favours" offered by my local escort service? No wonder Verizon manages to retain so many customers in spite of its business practices.
Each time you convey a covered work, the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensors, to run, modify and propagate that work, subject to this License. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties with this License.
Each infected computer in the chain gets an explicit license to run and propagate the work (a virus can't violate the GPL by spreading itself!), but the original distributor would still be held accountable for providing the source code.
It's in Google's and your own best interest to make your accounts as secure as possible. They get a black eye in the media every time there's a high-profile hacking of a Google account... which in turn hits at their reputation for providing solid, secure services.
Given that most users don't know what's best for them, I think it's completely reasonable for them to pester a little bit about a way to improve security.
Now, that said... there should be a way to turn the reminder off completely. Some people (me) simply can't use it.
I held a similar viewpoint. And then I got a Kindle Fire as a gift, and my viewpoint did a 180.
Here's the highlights, from my experience:
1) Less physical hassle. Just turn on, unlock the screen, and you're ready to go. With a laptop, you need a place to put it (your lap or a table), not to mention opening the lid and waiting for it to boot or wake up.
2) Less software hassle. It's not a full-fledged computer, and that's a good thing in this case. While I don't normally have much praise for Apple's insistence on simplicity, this is one place where they got things right.
3) Incredibly portable. For a 7" device, at least. Fits in a pocket (suit, jeans, cargo pants, outside backpack pocket), albeit awkwardly sometimes, which means I can use my hands for other things. I never carry a charger with me (and it uses micro-usb, which is available most everywhere anyway). Fits in a glove compartment or center console, and other random locations. Can be used while standing up (I keep my calendar on it, and can make appointments without looking for a place to "set up" a laptop for 30 seconds). I can use it while chasing a toddler. If you don't realize how wonderful that is, you aren't a parent. (YMMV with the iPad on all this, however, as it's much bigger).
4) Useful at the "80% level." No, it doesn't do everything I could do with a laptop. Writing this post would be possible, but not exactly fun. Serious work is done with a serious device. But, I find it meets my needs at home about 80% of the time: look something up in Wikipedia or IMDB while watching a movie, check my email or Facebook, read a book, listen to Pandora, or play a small game. That makes it very useful.
A smartphone covers the first three points, which makes the fourth point important. While a smartphone and tablet are nearly identical in functionality, I find that a phone just doesn't cover that 80% level, mostly because of size issues. I can check my email, but writing a response is just that much harder. You can browse the web, but it's just that much harder. You can read a book, but it's just that much harder.
None of the above justifies going "full retard," however -- you're still fully justified in not understanding that reaction. I don't understand it, either.
Small nitpick: Apple defined the 10" tablet market with the iPad. The 7" market is being defined by Amazon, B&N, and more recently Google.
Even though they're just a few inches smaller, it's a remarkably different market from what I can tell. Hybrid tablet/ereader devices. Cheep enough to give to your kids. Still usable for business, but not in the same way as a full 10" tablet. More portable than a full tablet, but less portable than a phone. The markets are different enough that people get into almost religious debates on which form factor is the "right" one.
I think the reason the Kindle has done so well is because it's not competing head-to-head with the iPad, regardless of how many reviews have been written that try to compare them. For now, at least, Apple isn't playing in that market.
Maybe Apple can assert control over the 7" market, too... I'm interested to see what they come up with (if anything).
1) Security questions are often used to confirm identity over the phone. Are you generating answers you'd want to try to say over the phone? 2) Because of the above, the answers are very often stored in plaintext so the help desk can see the answer. Are you really gaining that much in security? (Never mind how often passwords are stored in plaintext as well...)
When analyzing password security measures, your security is only as strong as the weakest link. The way things stand right now, your password isn't that blob of jibberish you type in when you log in, it's actually the set of security questions (which lack any sort of reasonable security right now). What good does it do to enforce 20-character, purely random passwords when people just write them on sticky notes? Or when a hacker can use social engineering to get your support line to reset passwords at will?
When it comes to password reset mechanisms, I don't think there's a good way to do it. Which is why the whole concept of a password has failed and needs to be replaced. With what? Beats me... biometrics aren't very good (too many false positives or false negatives, too easy to bypass with photographs or silicon, etc) and use expensive and uncommon hardware; security tokens are cheaper, but the logistics make it impractical for large-scale implementation (imagine having a token for each web site!). Maybe eventually everyone will have a single token they carry around at all times and is accepted by all web sites, but then we start talking about privacy issues (tracking, for example). And even then, we still haven't solved the problem... what if the token is lost or damaged? Do I call a support line and tell them my mother's maiden name?
Precisely. There's a reason SF gets shelved with Fantasy. That used to annoy me, but I think I understand and agree with it now. Both are part of the Speculative Fiction category. Take reality, modify it in some hypothetical way, and see what happens. If you change science or technology (FTL, time travel, aliens, etc), it usually falls under Science Fiction. If you add magic or elves, it usually falls under fantasy. Making an alternate version of history is also speculative fiction for the same reasons.
Just setting something in the future doesn't necessarily make it science fiction, but since the future probably has more advanced technology than the present and an author can only hypothesize what those advances will be, most anything set in a future time period ends up in the science fiction category by default.
Some people are the exact opposite: taking notes allows them to pay more attention. I fall somewhere inbetween, personally. Some light notes enhance my understanding and retention.
But regardless of how you take notes, the most important thing is to not let the note-taking waste your CPU cycles, so to speak. What the submitter is looking for would most likely detract from his learning. I've seen people use the stylus-on-tablet method, and they're constantly fighting the device while taking notes (changing settings, trying to make the lines connect just right, etc). It's just not worth it.
Everybody learns differently, so there are a few people out there who will benefit from laptops and tablets, etc... but most people should just stick with pencil and paper. Simple, cheap, and effective.
Ok, in most sports, women wouldn't get to compete at the highest level any more, but it would be completely fair towards the non-standard gender community!
Great idea! Let's screw all the female athletes because of a few outliers. (Not that this would be the first time our society did such a thing...)
one should err on the side of inclusiveness instead of exclusiveness.
I'm not so sure. The whole point of the female-only category is to be exclusive. The male category (being more difficult, generally), should be inclusive. Of course, that doesn't mean that anybody that doesn't conform to a strict, traditional definition of female should be automatically lumped in with the men, but it's certainly a fair way of looking at it.
Just to confuse the matter further, what about sports like gymnastics, where the male and the female competitions are dramatically different? My opinion there is... compete where you want. I don't think a man would stand a chance in women's gymnastics anyway (but I could be wrong).
I somewhat disagree on Gymnastics. Men's and women's gymnastics are actually quite different sports. The floor exercise is a great example of why: the elements required for men and women are completely different and highlight the anatomic differences between men and women, with strength and agility being two key examples. How in the world would you combine the two while still being fair to both genders?
About the other sports, I would be very careful before combining them. Downhill skiing, for example... comparing the results from the last winter Olympics shows that the women's gold medalist would have been in 40th place had she competed with the men.
It might be possible to have some co-ed Olympic sports (curling comes to mind), but it's easier just to make a separate category and call it good, rather than deal with issues of fairness.
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So in the end, he was perhaps better at hiding the cheating, but he was still massively better at actual cycling than any other cyclist at the time who was also very likely cheating as well.
This.
If Lance is lying and has been doping his whole career, I don't think that diminishes much from his accomplishments.
On the other hand, if he's telling the truth, it shows just how incredible he really was.
Spot on, except you missed the part where the cop saves a sample of your breath, just in case sometime in the future they can find a way to prove you were actually drunk.
Alternatively, become the bass player for a band. Seems to have a similar effect.
Yes, and I lumped three different serial data connections into one broad category, too.
When it really comes down to it, does ANY consumer really need three different serial connections? Does any current accessory even use the traditional serial connection? Nothing uses the FireWire connection, that's for sure.
So, now let's talk about analog audio. If you really, really need analog audio, then the 3.5mm jack is there. Or use one of the many readily available adapters. For 99% of all use cases, though, the digital format is actually preferred anyway. Often better audio quality, and you can communicate over a standard USB connection, with all the side benefits that gives.
And what about analog video? Well, it seems that even Apple is phasing that one out with this new connector! It's obsolete and unnecessary.
In other words, USB+MHL gives us all the functionality, while still being completely standard. The answer is an absolute yes.
(Oh, and did I mention that the MHL adapters are half the price of the Apple versions?)
Go to your nearest hotel. Most have a bin with every charger imaginable, and will often just give them away.
Apparently, people leave their phone chargers in their rooms quite a lot.
What I love are the cases with bluetooth keyboards for the iPad. Every one I've seen has a micro-USB plug for charging.
And since you don't recharge the keyboard very often, finding that second cable might be a problem, especially if the battery dies while on a business trip. I can just imagine an iPad user bumming a micro-USB charger from an Android user to charge their accessory.
And on the other hand, you have an Apple proprietary connector that carries its own premium in cost. And USB chips are often present anyway for one reason or another (included in your microcontroller, for example).
It's likely that a low-end device would be cheaper to make for an Apple accessory, but in everything else you probably would never notice the price difference.
Let's summarize this list, shall we?
1, 2, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 23, 29, 30 - Power signals
7, 14, 17 - Reserved or unknown
11, 3, 4, 5, 6 - Audio
8, 9, 10 - Video
12, 13 - Serial
22, 24, 26, 28 - FireWire
25, 27 - USB
21 - Accessory type
So, which does USB + MHL replace?
Power? Check!
Audio? Check!
Video? Check!
Data? Check!
You have to give up FireWire and your basic serial port connection, but that's mostly just redundant capability to what USB provides.
Just because there are 30 pins, that does not mean that the connector provides 30 different features.
If customer retention decides to "do him a special favour"...
Is this anything like the "special favours" offered by my local escort service? No wonder Verizon manages to retain so many customers in spite of its business practices.
Pay particular attention to section 10:
10. Automatic Licensing of Downstream Recipients.
Each time you convey a covered work, the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensors, to run, modify and propagate that work, subject to this License. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties with this License.
Each infected computer in the chain gets an explicit license to run and propagate the work (a virus can't violate the GPL by spreading itself!), but the original distributor would still be held accountable for providing the source code.
I've heard people call the GPL "viral" ... but this is ridiculous!
It's in Google's and your own best interest to make your accounts as secure as possible. They get a black eye in the media every time there's a high-profile hacking of a Google account ... which in turn hits at their reputation for providing solid, secure services.
Given that most users don't know what's best for them, I think it's completely reasonable for them to pester a little bit about a way to improve security.
Now, that said ... there should be a way to turn the reminder off completely. Some people (me) simply can't use it.
What part of ...
I'm all for identifying evil as evil, but it would be nice to have some actual evidence before making the accusation.
didn't you understand?
I held a similar viewpoint. And then I got a Kindle Fire as a gift, and my viewpoint did a 180.
Here's the highlights, from my experience:
1) Less physical hassle. Just turn on, unlock the screen, and you're ready to go. With a laptop, you need a place to put it (your lap or a table), not to mention opening the lid and waiting for it to boot or wake up.
2) Less software hassle. It's not a full-fledged computer, and that's a good thing in this case. While I don't normally have much praise for Apple's insistence on simplicity, this is one place where they got things right.
3) Incredibly portable. For a 7" device, at least. Fits in a pocket (suit, jeans, cargo pants, outside backpack pocket), albeit awkwardly sometimes, which means I can use my hands for other things. I never carry a charger with me (and it uses micro-usb, which is available most everywhere anyway). Fits in a glove compartment or center console, and other random locations. Can be used while standing up (I keep my calendar on it, and can make appointments without looking for a place to "set up" a laptop for 30 seconds). I can use it while chasing a toddler. If you don't realize how wonderful that is, you aren't a parent. (YMMV with the iPad on all this, however, as it's much bigger).
4) Useful at the "80% level." No, it doesn't do everything I could do with a laptop. Writing this post would be possible, but not exactly fun. Serious work is done with a serious device. But, I find it meets my needs at home about 80% of the time: look something up in Wikipedia or IMDB while watching a movie, check my email or Facebook, read a book, listen to Pandora, or play a small game. That makes it very useful.
A smartphone covers the first three points, which makes the fourth point important. While a smartphone and tablet are nearly identical in functionality, I find that a phone just doesn't cover that 80% level, mostly because of size issues. I can check my email, but writing a response is just that much harder. You can browse the web, but it's just that much harder. You can read a book, but it's just that much harder.
None of the above justifies going "full retard," however -- you're still fully justified in not understanding that reaction. I don't understand it, either.
Small nitpick: Apple defined the 10" tablet market with the iPad. The 7" market is being defined by Amazon, B&N, and more recently Google.
Even though they're just a few inches smaller, it's a remarkably different market from what I can tell. Hybrid tablet/ereader devices. Cheep enough to give to your kids. Still usable for business, but not in the same way as a full 10" tablet. More portable than a full tablet, but less portable than a phone. The markets are different enough that people get into almost religious debates on which form factor is the "right" one.
I think the reason the Kindle has done so well is because it's not competing head-to-head with the iPad, regardless of how many reviews have been written that try to compare them. For now, at least, Apple isn't playing in that market.
Maybe Apple can assert control over the 7" market, too ... I'm interested to see what they come up with (if anything).
No, but I do remember (not that long ago mind you), ...
Today's XKCD seems appropriate here. By around 2036, the majority of Americans will be too young to remember these things. Probably sooner, honestly.
A good thought, but remember two things:
1) Security questions are often used to confirm identity over the phone. Are you generating answers you'd want to try to say over the phone?
2) Because of the above, the answers are very often stored in plaintext so the help desk can see the answer. Are you really gaining that much in security? (Never mind how often passwords are stored in plaintext as well...)
--
Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by mere idiocy.
I believe this falls under the "malice" category, wouldn't you agree?
Yes, yes, and many more yesses after that.
When analyzing password security measures, your security is only as strong as the weakest link. The way things stand right now, your password isn't that blob of jibberish you type in when you log in, it's actually the set of security questions (which lack any sort of reasonable security right now). What good does it do to enforce 20-character, purely random passwords when people just write them on sticky notes? Or when a hacker can use social engineering to get your support line to reset passwords at will?
When it comes to password reset mechanisms, I don't think there's a good way to do it. Which is why the whole concept of a password has failed and needs to be replaced. With what? Beats me ... biometrics aren't very good (too many false positives or false negatives, too easy to bypass with photographs or silicon, etc) and use expensive and uncommon hardware; security tokens are cheaper, but the logistics make it impractical for large-scale implementation (imagine having a token for each web site!). Maybe eventually everyone will have a single token they carry around at all times and is accepted by all web sites, but then we start talking about privacy issues (tracking, for example). And even then, we still haven't solved the problem ... what if the token is lost or damaged? Do I call a support line and tell them my mother's maiden name?
Precisely. There's a reason SF gets shelved with Fantasy. That used to annoy me, but I think I understand and agree with it now. Both are part of the Speculative Fiction category. Take reality, modify it in some hypothetical way, and see what happens. If you change science or technology (FTL, time travel, aliens, etc), it usually falls under Science Fiction. If you add magic or elves, it usually falls under fantasy. Making an alternate version of history is also speculative fiction for the same reasons.
Just setting something in the future doesn't necessarily make it science fiction, but since the future probably has more advanced technology than the present and an author can only hypothesize what those advances will be, most anything set in a future time period ends up in the science fiction category by default.
Some people are the exact opposite: taking notes allows them to pay more attention. I fall somewhere inbetween, personally. Some light notes enhance my understanding and retention.
But regardless of how you take notes, the most important thing is to not let the note-taking waste your CPU cycles, so to speak. What the submitter is looking for would most likely detract from his learning. I've seen people use the stylus-on-tablet method, and they're constantly fighting the device while taking notes (changing settings, trying to make the lines connect just right, etc). It's just not worth it.
Everybody learns differently, so there are a few people out there who will benefit from laptops and tablets, etc ... but most people should just stick with pencil and paper. Simple, cheap, and effective.
Actually, I wasn't sure if you were serious or not ... I've talked with others who have proposed such a thing and been quite serious about it.
Ok, in most sports, women wouldn't get to compete at the highest level any more, but it would be completely fair towards the non-standard gender community!
Great idea! Let's screw all the female athletes because of a few outliers. (Not that this would be the first time our society did such a thing...)
one should err on the side of inclusiveness instead of exclusiveness.
I'm not so sure. The whole point of the female-only category is to be exclusive. The male category (being more difficult, generally), should be inclusive. Of course, that doesn't mean that anybody that doesn't conform to a strict, traditional definition of female should be automatically lumped in with the men, but it's certainly a fair way of looking at it.
Just to confuse the matter further, what about sports like gymnastics, where the male and the female competitions are dramatically different? My opinion there is ... compete where you want. I don't think a man would stand a chance in women's gymnastics anyway (but I could be wrong).
I somewhat disagree on Gymnastics. Men's and women's gymnastics are actually quite different sports. The floor exercise is a great example of why: the elements required for men and women are completely different and highlight the anatomic differences between men and women, with strength and agility being two key examples. How in the world would you combine the two while still being fair to both genders?
About the other sports, I would be very careful before combining them. Downhill skiing, for example... comparing the results from the last winter Olympics shows that the women's gold medalist would have been in 40th place had she competed with the men.
It might be possible to have some co-ed Olympic sports (curling comes to mind), but it's easier just to make a separate category and call it good, rather than deal with issues of fairness.