I think this is where the "X of Y people found this review helpful" comes in on many sites - it's essentially a review of the reviewer, although it can be gamed even easier. However, it does add an additional layer of complexity for people trying to game the system and more often than not, the sheer number of legitimate customers will prevail over the relatively tiny number of people gaming the system. Fake reviews are surprisingly easy to spot in most cases... many come across about as well as an email from a certain Nigerian prince who wants to give me 15% of his fortune.
I like Newegg's system of Pros/Cons/Other Thoughts. For items with just a few reviews, the words are more important than the egg/star system. For items with hundreds of reviews, I usually lump all of the 4 and 5 egg/star reviews together to compare products but I still like to read the Pros/Cons... especially the cons given by the 4/5 star reviewers and the pros given by the 1/2 star reviewers. There have been a number of poorly rated products that I bought anyway because I found the main con people mentioned was something that I didn't care about (IE: a power supply with excessive fan noise has knocked many a decent PSU down to 3 eggs or less. I'm half deaf, so even the loudest fans are barely audible unless there's something actually wrong).
Other decent rating systems I've seen given four or five criteria, such as value, quality, support, etc, and the reviewer rates it on each category. If an item is rated on value, quality and support and it's a great item with crappy support then it only gets a 67%. If you are a a techie and prefer to support yourself, you won't care about that rating and will just look for items with high marks in the other categories.
There's no perfect rating system, especially when you're dealing with a marketplace selling thousands of different things. The star system works for weeding out the crappiest and the reviews usually give you an idea of why people rated an item like they did so you can tell if it is crap or if poor reviews are the result of a quality that doesn't matter to you.
You've never used Windows 8, have you? I've had it for almost a month and I haven't used a single fullscreen app in... well, almost a month. I found them to be buggy, so I just boot straight to the desktop and use Start Menu Classic.
And even if you do use fullscreen apps, it still allows two apps side by side... it's not great, but it's still a far cry from Windows 1.01
What about the sex offenders whose crimes had *nothing to do* with children? What if they took a piss behind a bush and a 70 year old lady happened to see them and reported it? It's not a "touched little kids" list, it's a "any act that uses any part of the part of the body conceivably used for sex" list.
What you're doing is the same as lumping everyone who has ever had a speeding ticket or parking violation in with DWI offenders and then saying that *none of them* are allowed to go to bars just because a small subset of the group has done something bad related to alcohol.
Fixed that for you. Always assume a gun is loaded - even if you have absolute, undeniable proof that it isn't. It's the kind of crap they teach before kindergarten in rural areas.
In my field, I have a bunch of grass, a few shrubs and even a small tree. Lots of rodents and birds. If a computer can survive two weeks sitting in my field and still power on, you have a damned good system. If not, you're left with people wondering why you left your computer in my field for two weeks.
I have a (refurbished) WRT150N, and have bought two others for parents/grandparents. With the stock firmware, they're everything you described. However, with DD-WRT, they've been some of the most reliable devices I've worked with, up to and including Cisco's enterprise hardware. I've had a similar experience with one of their newer models (E2000 or something? I forget the actual number) - ultimate crap with the stock firmware but excellent performance and reliability under DD-WRT.
Even unreasonable Christians already want nothing to do with them. I don't think there's anyone outside the WBC who actually thinks the religion aspect of the church is anything more than an excuse to pull crap like this.
The part that was implied is that you don't need to store the power after it has already been converted to electricity, which is very inefficient compared to storing power as gasoline, kerosene, propane, or a massive ball of hydrogen and helium (in the case of solar panels), so the point still stands quite well.
How is using a gun for target practice anything but its intended purpose?
That's like saying using a hammer to pound in a thumbtack is not using the hammer for its intended purpose because a thumbtack and a nail are two different kinds of targets.
The intended purpose of a gun is to lob a hunk of lead at its target. There is no "intended target" for all guns any more than cars are only intended to go on the freeway. Just like the driver decides if he wants to take the freeway, the avenue or the back streets, the shooter decides what the intended target is... not the gun.
I happen to like target shooting (I prefer a muzzleloader... I find it more fun), but I don't hunt and I've yet to have the urge to shoot someone with it. Man, they really should not sell me a gun since I'll probably never use it for its 'intended use' of killing something.
But if we use the generator to power the pumps, we can have infinite fuel! And then if we plug the surge strips back into themselves, there will be infinite power too!
Portable generators are much more, well, portable than solar panels so I'm not quite sure what your point is. They're also easier to protect from extreme weather, can be used any time of the day without having to store the power...
The reality is that generators and solar panels fill two different needs. Generators are good for short-term, portable electricity generation... a few days or weeks. Solar panels are better as a supplement to year-round energy needs. The best, and most expensive solution, is to have both on hand to even own the downfalls of each other.
There's bureaucracy like you described, and then there is excessive bureaucracy, which is rampant throughout government... especially federal government. When you start having bureaucracy to determine whether all fences in a neighborhood are no taller than 48 inches exactly... and enforcing the law on those people who have a 49" fence... that's excessive (based on a true story in which a small part of the fence was a fraction of an inch taller than the ordnance allowed)
Education is still very affordable in most fields for anyone who bothers to take the time to plan it out before committing. The problem stems from people also wanting a big screen TV and all the major consoles at the same time as working for their degree. I can't speak for most other states, but NY's state university system offers a huge range of degrees and the vast majority of the population lives within a short distance of at least one - often more - two-year state school. Four-year state schools are only a little less common and still very affordable.
I went to a four year state school, got a great education, and am almost out of debt after 30 months of paying on loans in spite of making some horrible financial credit card decisions the six months right after school. It's definitely do-able for anyone willing to put forth just a bit of effort... not even exceptional effort, just a bit.
No tin foil needed for microwave antennae. There's a reason it's called "line of sight" transmission. If you can't see your target (at least with binoculars), then the microwave transmission will be spotty at best to begin with, if it doesn't outright not work.
As for cell phone signal, which has an easier time penetrating normal structures, you still run into issues with regular old construction materials. Some insulation is aluminum-backed, I've even seen apartments with aluminum foil put up underneath the paneling, presumably to help hold heat in. Then for larger buildings, the metal frame itself or the steel rebar in concrete structures poses a huge obstacle for any EM signal.
To be fair, maybe we shouldn't be putting large population centers in those areas that are dangerous to nuke plants. I'll let you know if I find a safe place for them.
Replace river Tarn with River Tam (which looks almost identical in many fonts) and you get a bonus Firefly episode centering around River wandering through a city destroying birds.
Slashdot Mirror
I think this is where the "X of Y people found this review helpful" comes in on many sites - it's essentially a review of the reviewer, although it can be gamed even easier. However, it does add an additional layer of complexity for people trying to game the system and more often than not, the sheer number of legitimate customers will prevail over the relatively tiny number of people gaming the system. Fake reviews are surprisingly easy to spot in most cases... many come across about as well as an email from a certain Nigerian prince who wants to give me 15% of his fortune.
I like Newegg's system of Pros/Cons/Other Thoughts. For items with just a few reviews, the words are more important than the egg/star system. For items with hundreds of reviews, I usually lump all of the 4 and 5 egg/star reviews together to compare products but I still like to read the Pros/Cons... especially the cons given by the 4/5 star reviewers and the pros given by the 1/2 star reviewers. There have been a number of poorly rated products that I bought anyway because I found the main con people mentioned was something that I didn't care about (IE: a power supply with excessive fan noise has knocked many a decent PSU down to 3 eggs or less. I'm half deaf, so even the loudest fans are barely audible unless there's something actually wrong).
Other decent rating systems I've seen given four or five criteria, such as value, quality, support, etc, and the reviewer rates it on each category. If an item is rated on value, quality and support and it's a great item with crappy support then it only gets a 67%. If you are a a techie and prefer to support yourself, you won't care about that rating and will just look for items with high marks in the other categories.
There's no perfect rating system, especially when you're dealing with a marketplace selling thousands of different things. The star system works for weeding out the crappiest and the reviews usually give you an idea of why people rated an item like they did so you can tell if it is crap or if poor reviews are the result of a quality that doesn't matter to you.
You've never used Windows 8, have you? I've had it for almost a month and I haven't used a single fullscreen app in... well, almost a month. I found them to be buggy, so I just boot straight to the desktop and use Start Menu Classic.
And even if you do use fullscreen apps, it still allows two apps side by side... it's not great, but it's still a far cry from Windows 1.01
What about the sex offenders whose crimes had *nothing to do* with children? What if they took a piss behind a bush and a 70 year old lady happened to see them and reported it? It's not a "touched little kids" list, it's a "any act that uses any part of the part of the body conceivably used for sex" list.
What you're doing is the same as lumping everyone who has ever had a speeding ticket or parking violation in with DWI offenders and then saying that *none of them* are allowed to go to bars just because a small subset of the group has done something bad related to alcohol.
It's actually a race between severed zombie limbs.
"you don't point a gun at people EVER"
Fixed that for you. Always assume a gun is loaded - even if you have absolute, undeniable proof that it isn't. It's the kind of crap they teach before kindergarten in rural areas.
It was just after dark when the plane started down
The airspace that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania
Carrying Twenty Thousand Pounds
Of potatoes.
Carrying twenty thousand pounds
(hit it Big John)
Oooooof Potatoooooes
In my field, I have a bunch of grass, a few shrubs and even a small tree. Lots of rodents and birds. If a computer can survive two weeks sitting in my field and still power on, you have a damned good system. If not, you're left with people wondering why you left your computer in my field for two weeks.
I have a (refurbished) WRT150N, and have bought two others for parents/grandparents. With the stock firmware, they're everything you described. However, with DD-WRT, they've been some of the most reliable devices I've worked with, up to and including Cisco's enterprise hardware. I've had a similar experience with one of their newer models (E2000 or something? I forget the actual number) - ultimate crap with the stock firmware but excellent performance and reliability under DD-WRT.
Even unreasonable Christians already want nothing to do with them. I don't think there's anyone outside the WBC who actually thinks the religion aspect of the church is anything more than an excuse to pull crap like this.
Lawyers. The judge outlawed lawyers.
The part that was implied is that you don't need to store the power after it has already been converted to electricity, which is very inefficient compared to storing power as gasoline, kerosene, propane, or a massive ball of hydrogen and helium (in the case of solar panels), so the point still stands quite well.
How is using a gun for target practice anything but its intended purpose?
That's like saying using a hammer to pound in a thumbtack is not using the hammer for its intended purpose because a thumbtack and a nail are two different kinds of targets.
The intended purpose of a gun is to lob a hunk of lead at its target. There is no "intended target" for all guns any more than cars are only intended to go on the freeway. Just like the driver decides if he wants to take the freeway, the avenue or the back streets, the shooter decides what the intended target is... not the gun.
I happen to like target shooting (I prefer a muzzleloader... I find it more fun), but I don't hunt and I've yet to have the urge to shoot someone with it. Man, they really should not sell me a gun since I'll probably never use it for its 'intended use' of killing something.
But if we use the generator to power the pumps, we can have infinite fuel! And then if we plug the surge strips back into themselves, there will be infinite power too!
Portable generators are much more, well, portable than solar panels so I'm not quite sure what your point is. They're also easier to protect from extreme weather, can be used any time of the day without having to store the power...
The reality is that generators and solar panels fill two different needs. Generators are good for short-term, portable electricity generation... a few days or weeks. Solar panels are better as a supplement to year-round energy needs. The best, and most expensive solution, is to have both on hand to even own the downfalls of each other.
There's bureaucracy like you described, and then there is excessive bureaucracy, which is rampant throughout government... especially federal government. When you start having bureaucracy to determine whether all fences in a neighborhood are no taller than 48 inches exactly... and enforcing the law on those people who have a 49" fence... that's excessive (based on a true story in which a small part of the fence was a fraction of an inch taller than the ordnance allowed)
Not to mention reduced heat output (and potentially less fan noise due to lower heat), important in many scenarios
I think having three of the same digit is a problem with accidental dials... be it small children playing with a phone or pocket dialing a cell phone.
Education is still very affordable in most fields for anyone who bothers to take the time to plan it out before committing. The problem stems from people also wanting a big screen TV and all the major consoles at the same time as working for their degree. I can't speak for most other states, but NY's state university system offers a huge range of degrees and the vast majority of the population lives within a short distance of at least one - often more - two-year state school. Four-year state schools are only a little less common and still very affordable.
I went to a four year state school, got a great education, and am almost out of debt after 30 months of paying on loans in spite of making some horrible financial credit card decisions the six months right after school. It's definitely do-able for anyone willing to put forth just a bit of effort... not even exceptional effort, just a bit.
No tin foil needed for microwave antennae. There's a reason it's called "line of sight" transmission. If you can't see your target (at least with binoculars), then the microwave transmission will be spotty at best to begin with, if it doesn't outright not work.
As for cell phone signal, which has an easier time penetrating normal structures, you still run into issues with regular old construction materials. Some insulation is aluminum-backed, I've even seen apartments with aluminum foil put up underneath the paneling, presumably to help hold heat in. Then for larger buildings, the metal frame itself or the steel rebar in concrete structures poses a huge obstacle for any EM signal.
News For Molars, Floss That Matters
To be fair, maybe we shouldn't be putting large population centers in those areas that are dangerous to nuke plants. I'll let you know if I find a safe place for them.
Peace means more than just "no major wars"
Wikipedia has a nice list of conflicts that are still ongoing (be it cold, warm or hot conflicts): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_military_conflicts
And just stay tuned, more are sure to come!
Replace river Tarn with River Tam (which looks almost identical in many fonts) and you get a bonus Firefly episode centering around River wandering through a city destroying birds.
Discussing you disgusts me.