Once the trigger is pulled and the round leaves the barrel, a computer chip inside the projectile
Computer chips are cheap but if you're putting clip after clip of bullets out during an intense firefight, I'm going to guess that on that last clip or magazine you wished that you had opted for more 'dumb bullets' versus less chipped bullets.
The real question is: just who is making those microchips, and what trojans have they also hidden in there?
we can't seem to fight a ground war against a 14th century tribal rabble armed with 1950's eastern bloc shit without getting our stuff blown up all the time...
Because for some reason we insist on not using 14th century tactics, which would be roughly "kill them all, God will know his own" (actually, 13th century). If we didn't care about non-combatant casualties it'd be over in a week.
It's not that the ability to do great harm has grown. It hasn't, by much.
Rather, the frequency at which great harm happens randomly has shrunk greatly. Plagues, building collapses, citywide fires, catastrophic floods and earthquakes, unpredicted hurricanes, routine death from childhood disease -- these are all in the past, or in some third world country that nobody could point to on a map.
Shit happens, and a plane could blow up every day and it would probably still be statistically safer to travel by air than to drive. But people don't grasp statistics, and the media doesn't report on the commonplace (like auto deaths). In 2001, for example, for every person that died in the towers on 9/11, 14 people died in traffic accidents. It's been roughly the same every year since (although dropping in the last couple of years, probably less travel due to the recession). The fatalities from just blowing up a plane (vs ramming it into an occupied skyscraper) would be even lower in comparison.
The TSA is a farce. Let the airlines do their own screening to the extent they feel necessary (cost-effective).
the advance notification requirement and having that information in a government database is well on the way down the slippery slope to "show us your papers".
Well down the slippery slope? It's there, mate. You have to show them your papers before you go through the rest of the security check.
I seem to recall we have DOS flying space shuttles.
Then you recall wrongly. The Shuttle flight computers have their own OS (actually two of them; the fifth of the five parallel computers runs a totally different software set, as an emergency backup in case of a systemic software problem with the main four). The machine architecture isn't compatible with what most people think of as DOS. (It might be a DOS, but it sure isn't MS-DOS or DOS/360 or any of the other off-the-shelf disc operating systems that have been around.)
There might well be some experimental gear running DOS, and the astronauts bring laptops along, but not the flight control systems.
The USSR wasn't just a nuclear power, but one of the two superpowers. Yet they didn't complain about this substantial act of sabotage. That's because they would have to admit to some sleazy stuff.
In both directions. It's a fair bet that some US "tragic accidents" were the result of Soviet (or proxy) agents pushing the edges. It was common both ways throughout the Cold War. Of course both sides covered it up, that's why the war stayed "cold".
Hard to tell from the aerial photo, but with those straightish sides roughly parallel to the field boundaries, it could easily be whats left of an old, now overgrown gravel pit or quarry. That might also explain the bits of metal -- scraps of old tools. How old it would have to be for that overgrowth depends on where it is (local climate, etc.).
There's a sure test for meteoritic metal -- cut a slice, etch it, and see if you find a Widmanstatten pattern.
Of course, the author doesn't see the money, but then he doesn't see it when you buy a used one for $0.02, either.
True. The difference is that the supply of used books is finite, the supply of unauthorized e-copies is effectively infinite.
Up to a point either helps an author by making readers aware of his work, and perhaps encouraging the sale of other titles by that same author. (The whole point behind the Baen Free Library.) Past that point well, it's gonna start hurting.
(There's also the concern that if a publisher wants to contract with an author for a re-issue or new edition, they won't care about existing used copies. They will care about on-going e-distributed copies, and possibly reduce their offer, or decide not to make it at all. Depends on how big a problem they perceive it to be.)
I just looked for a random selection and it seemed that the ebook and the paperback are the same price.
As a rule, publishers are still wary about undercutting their paperback sales. They've already paid to print those things, after all. Exceptions may be for special offers to get new readers into a series, etc. They're less worried about cutting into hardback sales because the profit margin on those is higher and they do smaller print runs, and it's a slightly different market. (Those who buy e-book editions are unlikely to buy a hardcover edition, and (maybe less so) vice versa.)
Authors selling their own backlists tend to price lower, because they don't have the overhead of a NY publisher. To tell those from newbie authors who may be self-publishing (and thus whose quality is unpredictable -- could be good, more likely terrible) you have to start looking at reviews or pay attention to authors which are also in print from a recognized publisher (ie small press or NY house, not self-pubbed).
Just my thought the other day while standing in a TSA security line. A much bigger (at some airports) and softer target.
The "obvious" answer is to hire even more TSA screeners, buy more equipment, and set up a larger security perimeter with lots of small lines.
Sigh. I remember flying in and out of Heathrow when IRA bombings were at a peak. No security lineups, lots of crowds, and any package left unattended for more than few seconds was quietly disappeared.
Yep, even from a mid-50s standing start. Fifteen years to get to the Moon. We've known that we'd have to retire the Shuttles for almost 25 years, when the replacement for Challenger was built partly using long-lead-time spares that were not replaced.
When program managers wail to their congresscritters about how many jobs will be "lost", guess where said congresscritters decide to devote funds. Do most congress people know much about space technology development? No. Who are they going to listen to? Their NASA experts.
The vehicles are getting too old to fly, despite the overhauls they get after every mission. Even the disposable parts (like the tank) because of attrition in the skilled workforce that built them.
Not that we haven't known this was coming for longer than it took to go from a standing start to men walking on the Moon, but too many managers have been more concerned with protecting their turf than ensuring continued manned access to space.
People tend to vote for someone they think might win
And this sort of band-wagonning is stupid. Why vote for someone you think will win rather than for someone whose policies (or at the very least, personality) you agree with?
Of course, the Rs and Ds both have a vested interest in the current de facto two party system, and they encourage just that sort of stupid voting behavior described above. If nothing else, voting 3rd party in sufficient numbers might get the big two to look closer at the policies that 3rd party is proposing. (Still not as good as voting the bastards out, perhaps, but it's a start.)
Who the hell hand edits X config files any more? I've used X since X-10 and I sure as hell don't. Modern systems -- at least, the commerical Linux distros -- do a fine job of autodetecting the hardware and providing a GUI for configuration.
Changing and saving configs shouldn't be part of the X protocol any more than tweaking your browser settings is part of HTTP or HTML. That's up to the particular X server implementation, of which there are more than just x.org's and xfree86's.
Alas, too many libertarians (neo-libertarians?) forget that big corporations are also a product of government. I'd be happier with the Libertarians if one of their planks was establishing that corporations are not people, and should not be allowed to exercise the rights thereof (although OK for the individuals in the corp to exercise those rights -- and yield up the limits on liability that the corp provides.)
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Once the trigger is pulled and the round leaves the barrel, a computer chip inside the projectile
Computer chips are cheap but if you're putting clip after clip of bullets out during an intense firefight, I'm going to guess that on that last clip or magazine you wished that you had opted for more 'dumb bullets' versus less chipped bullets.
The real question is: just who is making those microchips, and what trojans have they also hidden in there?
we can't seem to fight a ground war against a 14th century tribal rabble armed with 1950's eastern bloc shit without getting our stuff blown up all the time...
Because for some reason we insist on not using 14th century tactics, which would be roughly "kill them all, God will know his own" (actually, 13th century). If we didn't care about non-combatant casualties it'd be over in a week.
None. Apple hired PARC engineers when they bought the designs.
It's not that the ability to do great harm has grown. It hasn't, by much.
Rather, the frequency at which great harm happens randomly has shrunk greatly. Plagues, building collapses, citywide fires, catastrophic floods and earthquakes, unpredicted hurricanes, routine death from childhood disease -- these are all in the past, or in some third world country that nobody could point to on a map.
Shit happens, and a plane could blow up every day and it would probably still be statistically safer to travel by air than to drive. But people don't grasp statistics, and the media doesn't report on the commonplace (like auto deaths). In 2001, for example, for every person that died in the towers on 9/11, 14 people died in traffic accidents. It's been roughly the same every year since (although dropping in the last couple of years, probably less travel due to the recession). The fatalities from just blowing up a plane (vs ramming it into an occupied skyscraper) would be even lower in comparison.
The TSA is a farce. Let the airlines do their own screening to the extent they feel necessary (cost-effective).
the advance notification requirement and having that information in a government database is well on the way down the slippery slope to "show us your papers".
Well down the slippery slope? It's there, mate. You have to show them your papers before you go through the rest of the security check.
I seem to recall we have DOS flying space shuttles.
Then you recall wrongly. The Shuttle flight computers have their own OS (actually two of them; the fifth of the five parallel computers runs a totally different software set, as an emergency backup in case of a systemic software problem with the main four). The machine architecture isn't compatible with what most people think of as DOS. (It might be a DOS, but it sure isn't MS-DOS or DOS/360 or any of the other off-the-shelf disc operating systems that have been around.)
There might well be some experimental gear running DOS, and the astronauts bring laptops along, but not the flight control systems.
We aren't the only nation that are concerned about Iran, and what its plans for nuclear weapons actually are.
Heck no. You think the Vatican wants another nuclear-armed Islamic state, with missiles that can reach Italy?
The USSR wasn't just a nuclear power, but one of the two superpowers. Yet they didn't complain about this substantial act of sabotage. That's because they would have to admit to some sleazy stuff.
In both directions. It's a fair bet that some US "tragic accidents" were the result of Soviet (or proxy) agents pushing the edges. It was common both ways throughout the Cold War. Of course both sides covered it up, that's why the war stayed "cold".
Hard to tell from the aerial photo, but with those straightish sides roughly parallel to the field boundaries, it could easily be whats left of an old, now overgrown gravel pit or quarry. That might also explain the bits of metal -- scraps of old tools. How old it would have to be for that overgrowth depends on where it is (local climate, etc.).
There's a sure test for meteoritic metal -- cut a slice, etch it, and see if you find a Widmanstatten pattern.
...would be the cool robots.
Perhaps after hacking in to them to see if there was anyone, like, at home.
Of course, the author doesn't see the money, but then he doesn't see it when you buy a used one for $0.02, either.
True. The difference is that the supply of used books is finite, the supply of unauthorized e-copies is effectively infinite.
Up to a point either helps an author by making readers aware of his work, and perhaps encouraging the sale of other titles by that same author. (The whole point behind the Baen Free Library.) Past that point well, it's gonna start hurting.
(There's also the concern that if a publisher wants to contract with an author for a re-issue or new edition, they won't care about existing used copies. They will care about on-going e-distributed copies, and possibly reduce their offer, or decide not to make it at all. Depends on how big a problem they perceive it to be.)
I just looked for a random selection and it seemed that the ebook and the paperback are the same price.
As a rule, publishers are still wary about undercutting their paperback sales. They've already paid to print those things, after all. Exceptions may be for special offers to get new readers into a series, etc. They're less worried about cutting into hardback sales because the profit margin on those is higher and they do smaller print runs, and it's a slightly different market. (Those who buy e-book editions are unlikely to buy a hardcover edition, and (maybe less so) vice versa.)
Authors selling their own backlists tend to price lower, because they don't have the overhead of a NY publisher. To tell those from newbie authors who may be self-publishing (and thus whose quality is unpredictable -- could be good, more likely terrible) you have to start looking at reviews or pay attention to authors which are also in print from a recognized publisher (ie small press or NY house, not self-pubbed).
Just my thought the other day while standing in a TSA security line. A much bigger (at some airports) and softer target.
The "obvious" answer is to hire even more TSA screeners, buy more equipment, and set up a larger security perimeter with lots of small lines.
Sigh. I remember flying in and out of Heathrow when IRA bombings were at a peak. No security lineups, lots of crowds, and any package left unattended for more than few seconds was quietly disappeared.
You're [sic] powers of mathematics are impressive.
Your powers of English grammar are much less so.
But now that you've managed to argue yourself in circles, I'll declare victory and withdraw from the field. Have a nice day.
Yep, even from a mid-50s standing start. Fifteen years to get to the Moon. We've known that we'd have to retire the Shuttles for almost 25 years, when the replacement for Challenger was built partly using long-lead-time spares that were not replaced.
When program managers wail to their congresscritters about how many jobs will be "lost", guess where said congresscritters decide to devote funds. Do most congress people know much about space technology development? No. Who are they going to listen to? Their NASA experts.
The vehicles are getting too old to fly, despite the overhauls they get after every mission. Even the disposable parts (like the tank) because of attrition in the skilled workforce that built them.
Not that we haven't known this was coming for longer than it took to go from a standing start to men walking on the Moon, but too many managers have been more concerned with protecting their turf than ensuring continued manned access to space.
You and every sci-fi illustrator of the 40s and 50s, yes.
People tend to vote for someone they think might win
And this sort of band-wagonning is stupid. Why vote for someone you think will win rather than for someone whose policies (or at the very least, personality) you agree with?
Of course, the Rs and Ds both have a vested interest in the current de facto two party system, and they encourage just that sort of stupid voting behavior described above. If nothing else, voting 3rd party in sufficient numbers might get the big two to look closer at the policies that 3rd party is proposing. (Still not as good as voting the bastards out, perhaps, but it's a start.)
Who the hell hand edits X config files any more? I've used X since X-10 and I sure as hell don't. Modern systems -- at least, the commerical Linux distros -- do a fine job of autodetecting the hardware and providing a GUI for configuration.
Changing and saving configs shouldn't be part of the X protocol any more than tweaking your browser settings is part of HTTP or HTML. That's up to the particular X server implementation, of which there are more than just x.org's and xfree86's.
Alas, too many libertarians (neo-libertarians?) forget that big corporations are also a product of government. I'd be happier with the Libertarians if one of their planks was establishing that corporations are not people, and should not be allowed to exercise the rights thereof (although OK for the individuals in the corp to exercise those rights -- and yield up the limits on liability that the corp provides.)
Nothing works if spending is not checked. You can't run up a deficit if you're not spending (or worse, giving away) money.
(And yes, I realize that there are some necessary levels of expenditure. We're way beyond that.)
Fair use protects (to a degree) you if you transcribe something to an alternate format to use yourself, not to sell (or give away) to somebody else.
Note also that fair use is a defense that you may bring up (or try to) if sued for/charged with copyright infringement, it is not a right.
...it's Netflix's users.
Unless Netflix has found a way to push feed to people that aren't asking for it. Is it spamming people with movie files now?
Seems like the perfect venue for a handful of blinking infrared LEDs. Won't bother the patrons, but odds are it'll drive the cameras crazy.
I (or my kids) am gonna be rich!