The same problems exist in the energy domain as well. California has steadily been making the state hostile to actual manufacturing, the technical domains (bioengineering, mechanical engineering, materials science) are only superficially relevant to Silicon Valley's prime skill set (microlithography, electrical engineering), and the business model is way off (what? There's no exit strategy? You mean we have to actually OPERATE THIS THING OVER THE LONG HAUL?).
This is the direct result of wishful thinking (and huge government bailouts) meeting headlong with technology that isn't up to the task, and political considerations taking precedence. From the Nelson Ireson piece:
For a person that likes cars, appreciates efficiency, and couldn't care less about the definitional semantics the rest of the press is engaged in, that's fantastic.
"Definitional semantics" = "using words everyone else in the industry understands". Maybe in unicorn-land where he lives, the Volt isn't a hybrid, and GM didn't lie to everyone else about the nature of the vehicle, but that's where we are now.
Re Apple's price, you're looking at a $300 phone on the new network. (The old $99 iPhone won't work on the new Verizon network, as the WSJ article makes clear; it's either one or the other, but Verizon won't offer a dual-mode phone.) Add to that maybe $200 to break your existing contract, and yeah, it's $500 deal.
Cisco's hardware business will kill Skype, mainly because overpriced, state-run foreign telecom companies will demand it as a condition of buying Cisco hardware, just as they've successfully weaseled in spying kits into all their routers.
The Obama administration is pressing Britain, Germany, Australia, and other allied Western governments to consider opening criminal investigations of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and to severely limit his nomadic travels across international borders, American officials say.
And later, this:
“It’s amazing how Assange has overplayed his hand,” a Defense Department official marveled. “Now, he’s alienating the sort of people who you’d normally think would be his biggest supporters.”
Wow, who is being alienated? Who are these damn people making these claims, and why isn't The Daily Beast bothering to identify them?
Cowards, the lot of 'em.
Solar's energy density is terrible, it doesn't store readily, and doesn't work when the sun goes down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what the molten salt is for, but tell me this: how long can you afford to be without actual sun (number of consecutive cloudy or mostly cloudy days) before this is neutered?
Thorium fission is the most likely way out of the current energy conundrum. If its proponents aren't lying to us or themselves about its economic viability.
Donald Passman's All You Need To Know About The Music Business details all this stuff. They can still rip you off, for example, for breakage (because shellac recordings are fragile!). Nothing is simple, and the contracts are intentionally impenetrable. Great, great book for anyone trying to break into the record business, though I suspect its advice may well be very dated at this point.
No kidding. ALL -- every last one -- of the "investigations" subsequent to the release of the Climategate data were whitewashes. This one is no different.
Virtually every state in the union has dealership siting laws that stifle competition, and in particular, the sort of business model you speak of (i.e. an automotive analogue to the Apple store). When I was in the car business (aftermarket sales to parts departments) about 20 years ago, the carmakers had very limited options if they wanted to rescind a bad dealership's contract. There are limits on the number of manufacturer-owned franchises available, too, IIRC. The whole thing is a hugely rigged game in favor of the local resellers, who, thanks to the Internet, are now largely superfluous, or would be if the states would let competition play out.
How do you get from "people own devices made by X" to "X has a network"?
Dumbest. Story. Idea. Ever.
Even though Fedora is my desktop of choice
on
Fedora 13 Is Out
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
... it still has some gaping flaws.
gthumb absorbs all memory in sight when downloading images from a camera. This alone makes it useless for anyone into photography. I see gthumb has been replaced by Shotwell, so hopefully this amounts to an improvement.
Printer configuration is insanely complex and obscure. Really, this is a gripe about CUPS, but I just don't like either that much.
NetworkManager is an abortion that doesn't play well with the usual Unixy config files, but is strangely necessary for the desktop to operate correctly. I think this finally got fixed in more recent versions (Fedora 12).
Audio is just plain broken. Major features -- such as the ability to mix external audio -- have been missing since Fedora 11. Nobody seems to care, or know how the new audio system, Pulse Audio, works.
Slashdot Mirror
The same problems exist in the energy domain as well. California has steadily been making the state hostile to actual manufacturing, the technical domains (bioengineering, mechanical engineering, materials science) are only superficially relevant to Silicon Valley's prime skill set (microlithography, electrical engineering), and the business model is way off (what? There's no exit strategy? You mean we have to actually OPERATE THIS THING OVER THE LONG HAUL?).
Volts measure electromotive force, not power. Watts measure power. I would think nerds would know this.
According to him, we should all share in the success of others, even if we took no part in the hard work necessary ourselves.
It's really hard to take this swill seriously, but I see a lot of people here already do.
"Definitional semantics" = "using words everyone else in the industry understands". Maybe in unicorn-land where he lives, the Volt isn't a hybrid, and GM didn't lie to everyone else about the nature of the vehicle, but that's where we are now.
Re Apple's price, you're looking at a $300 phone on the new network. (The old $99 iPhone won't work on the new Verizon network, as the WSJ article makes clear; it's either one or the other, but Verizon won't offer a dual-mode phone.) Add to that maybe $200 to break your existing contract, and yeah, it's $500 deal.
One thing we know about patents: they're overrated.
SPELLING FAIL.
Fingers crossed. Best short-term answer to energy problems I know of. Hope the economics work out.
Cisco's hardware business will kill Skype, mainly because overpriced, state-run foreign telecom companies will demand it as a condition of buying Cisco hardware, just as they've successfully weaseled in spying kits into all their routers.
If you're not testing your code, you're not doing your job. Find ways to automate your tests.
And later, this:
Wow, who is being alienated? Who are these damn people making these claims, and why isn't The Daily Beast bothering to identify them? Cowards, the lot of 'em.
Solar's energy density is terrible, it doesn't store readily, and doesn't work when the sun goes down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what the molten salt is for, but tell me this: how long can you afford to be without actual sun (number of consecutive cloudy or mostly cloudy days) before this is neutered? Thorium fission is the most likely way out of the current energy conundrum. If its proponents aren't lying to us or themselves about its economic viability.
Donald Passman's All You Need To Know About The Music Business details all this stuff. They can still rip you off, for example, for breakage (because shellac recordings are fragile!). Nothing is simple, and the contracts are intentionally impenetrable. Great, great book for anyone trying to break into the record business, though I suspect its advice may well be very dated at this point.
Lindsay Lohan has deployed a killer robot against TMZ.
C.f..
He who smelt it, dealt it.
No kidding. ALL -- every last one -- of the "investigations" subsequent to the release of the Climategate data were whitewashes. This one is no different.
On the Oxburgh "investigation": "The science was not the subject of our study.".
Fark Creator Anoints Self Emperor, Declares Martial Law
Virtually every state in the union has dealership siting laws that stifle competition, and in particular, the sort of business model you speak of (i.e. an automotive analogue to the Apple store). When I was in the car business (aftermarket sales to parts departments) about 20 years ago, the carmakers had very limited options if they wanted to rescind a bad dealership's contract. There are limits on the number of manufacturer-owned franchises available, too, IIRC. The whole thing is a hugely rigged game in favor of the local resellers, who, thanks to the Internet, are now largely superfluous, or would be if the states would let competition play out.
I don't get that. "Daily Kos Pollster" is the pollster used by the website "Daily Kos". If you read the story, Kos was defrauded by the pollster.
Only now they're not quite so goddamn funny.
Waah.
How do you get from "people own devices made by X" to "X has a network"? Dumbest. Story. Idea. Ever.