Surprisingly few insurances cover hearing aids. All of my jobs have had insurance that covers a hearing test, but they all explicitly state hearing aids are not covered.
You're paying for the audiologist too and the ability to keep going back to have them adjusted, cleaned, etc at no extra charge as well as someone to advise you. I also get manufacturer repairs done at a reduced rate (about 60% of what I would pay otherwise) through the audiologist. If you buy hearing aids from the manufacturer, they tend to be about 1/4 to 1/3 the price. Is it worth it? To some people, yes. But for most people - especially the younger generations - not as much.
Seems like a lot of wasted RAM to me. Many modern OSes use spare memory for stuff like indexing or to make frequently used apps instantly available. The key here isn't how much RAM it uses idling, but how much of it and how fast it can reallocate that memory to apps that need it. My Windows 7 box has 16GB installed and normally uses 4-8GB idling. My six year old laptop has 2GB installed and normally uses 1-1.5GB idling. Windows 7 scales very nicely between modern hardware and hardware several generations old. Windows 8 is supposed to be even better at it.
As you said, the tablet is a niche device, but I don't think it's entirely a fad. Sure, $600+ tablets are a fad, but the lower end tablets (such as my own Nook Color) fill a nice gap where my smartphone isn't capable enough, but my laptop is overkill. It has replaced my laptop for day or weekend trips when I don't plan on doing more than some web browsing and typing emails. The $150-$300 is a nice price point for tablets... much more than that and you might as well just get a laptop.
How about people that set up many PCs daily or weekly? Sure, home users aren't overtly affected by it but businesses are. Even automating it (IE: WSUS) still makes it a pain in the ass. "You would have had your new PC yesterday, but it's still updating Windows"
Even in goatherder country, you find a fair amount of electronics for communications. Bonus: they're usually older models with even less shielding.
In modern countries, how many buildings are shielded with a Faraday cage? Nuke bunkers, sensitive control centers, not much else. While hitting the brain would be ideal, it's still a pretty good strategy to take out all of the supporting infrastructure and would be too costly to shield everything.
I think this is a pretty good use of our military budget. It knocks out enemy electronics without collateral damage. If it hits the wrong target, no civilian casualties. Granted, it's not too difficult to shield against, but that costs a fair bit of money and not everyplace can easily be shielded. If you can take out enemy electronics, you can effectively kill their communications and even a good portion of their mobility... which are probably the two most important elements in any conflict.
In the past month, I've passed three marked state trooper cars on the expressway while doing 80+ in a 55mph. None of them gave me a second look because I drive like you described above - proper signaling, staying the driving lane except to pass, etc
They're not saying colleges can't use Courseera, they're saying no one in MN can use it. The issue stems from the fact that Coursera is free and doesn't offer degrees - making it little different than watching HowTo videos on YouTube.
Given that it's non-accredited and doesn't give you a degree or anything official, how is it really any different than any article on the Internet? Does YouTube need permission from each state because they have educational videos on a variety of subjects?
Probably the waste product of putting all that CO2 back into the air when we burn it. Unless you thought we were just going to build massive warehouses of petrol and never use it?
Given the relatively short lifespan of cars and the relatively long adoption period of new fuels we would probably just see a a trend over a decade or two where petrol cars are produced in decreasing numbers and alternate energy cars produced in greater numbers. While there is some carbon cost of converting the factories, they have to be upgraded sooner or later even if we stick with petrol. It's unlikely that current cars will be converted in any significant amount.
It requires hydrogen from water. The summary says it uses water vapor, but any water source would likely suffice... with distilled water being the most efficient and the Dead Sea being among the least efficient.
Even if burning it releases 100% of the CO2 it took to make it, you're still carbon neutral. Current sources are a long, long way from carbon neutral as they take non-atmospheric carbon and turn it into atmospheric carbon.
For a fledging technology, it's a good start. Seeing as portable energy will always be less efficient than the grid powered by huge power plants, it's a fair trade. You expend energy in order to turn it into a portable state. Sort of like how rechargeable batteries take more energy to charge than they provide to the device that uses them.
However, there are some legal robo-calls. While these are mostly spam as well, it wouldn't be right to automatically block them as they are legal (unless users request it).
Robocalls are when a computer goes through a list of phone numbers (or sometimes just tries every possible number in an area) to deliver an automated message (usually an advertisement). It's very similar to spam on the computer, but harder to filter out (voice vs text) and legal is some cases (if you opt-in, or have already established a relationship with that company) and can actually cost people money in the form of their time, missed calls and most prominently, cell phone minutes.
As an aside, politicians have made sure to include political campaigning as a legal form of robocalling, even if you've never opted in and have no relationship with that party/campaign/candidate. In my opinion, this is a bigger problem than the illegal corporate robocalling.
So if someone is tapping into your wifi to download kiddie porn, the authorities should just keep fining you for not breaking the law until you figure out a solution rather than going after the people doing the actual illegal activities?
Also remember the cost of living and average wage are lower in China, so without checking any actual numbers, it may be more akin to several dollars per derailment in the US. Still not a lot, but it'd be a nice little side gig and as the other poster mentioned, they may just enjoy doing it.
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Surprisingly few insurances cover hearing aids. All of my jobs have had insurance that covers a hearing test, but they all explicitly state hearing aids are not covered.
You're paying for the audiologist too and the ability to keep going back to have them adjusted, cleaned, etc at no extra charge as well as someone to advise you. I also get manufacturer repairs done at a reduced rate (about 60% of what I would pay otherwise) through the audiologist. If you buy hearing aids from the manufacturer, they tend to be about 1/4 to 1/3 the price. Is it worth it? To some people, yes. But for most people - especially the younger generations - not as much.
Source: I've had hearing aids for 19 years
Seems like a lot of wasted RAM to me. Many modern OSes use spare memory for stuff like indexing or to make frequently used apps instantly available. The key here isn't how much RAM it uses idling, but how much of it and how fast it can reallocate that memory to apps that need it. My Windows 7 box has 16GB installed and normally uses 4-8GB idling. My six year old laptop has 2GB installed and normally uses 1-1.5GB idling. Windows 7 scales very nicely between modern hardware and hardware several generations old. Windows 8 is supposed to be even better at it.
So you're saying that communicating with my family when I'm away from home shouldn't be part of enjoying life? Not all of us want to be hermits.
As you said, the tablet is a niche device, but I don't think it's entirely a fad. Sure, $600+ tablets are a fad, but the lower end tablets (such as my own Nook Color) fill a nice gap where my smartphone isn't capable enough, but my laptop is overkill. It has replaced my laptop for day or weekend trips when I don't plan on doing more than some web browsing and typing emails. The $150-$300 is a nice price point for tablets... much more than that and you might as well just get a laptop.
Just like Windows ME was a service pack for 98 SE?
How about people that set up many PCs daily or weekly? Sure, home users aren't overtly affected by it but businesses are. Even automating it (IE: WSUS) still makes it a pain in the ass. "You would have had your new PC yesterday, but it's still updating Windows"
Satellites are shielded against radiation already, so I'm not sure this would be very effective against one.
Even in goatherder country, you find a fair amount of electronics for communications. Bonus: they're usually older models with even less shielding.
In modern countries, how many buildings are shielded with a Faraday cage? Nuke bunkers, sensitive control centers, not much else. While hitting the brain would be ideal, it's still a pretty good strategy to take out all of the supporting infrastructure and would be too costly to shield everything.
Ok, how about "with far less collateral damage than any conventional missile"?
I think this is a pretty good use of our military budget. It knocks out enemy electronics without collateral damage. If it hits the wrong target, no civilian casualties. Granted, it's not too difficult to shield against, but that costs a fair bit of money and not everyplace can easily be shielded. If you can take out enemy electronics, you can effectively kill their communications and even a good portion of their mobility... which are probably the two most important elements in any conflict.
In the past month, I've passed three marked state trooper cars on the expressway while doing 80+ in a 55mph. None of them gave me a second look because I drive like you described above - proper signaling, staying the driving lane except to pass, etc
They're not saying colleges can't use Courseera, they're saying no one in MN can use it. The issue stems from the fact that Coursera is free and doesn't offer degrees - making it little different than watching HowTo videos on YouTube.
Given that it's non-accredited and doesn't give you a degree or anything official, how is it really any different than any article on the Internet? Does YouTube need permission from each state because they have educational videos on a variety of subjects?
Probably the waste product of putting all that CO2 back into the air when we burn it. Unless you thought we were just going to build massive warehouses of petrol and never use it?
Given the relatively short lifespan of cars and the relatively long adoption period of new fuels we would probably just see a a trend over a decade or two where petrol cars are produced in decreasing numbers and alternate energy cars produced in greater numbers. While there is some carbon cost of converting the factories, they have to be upgraded sooner or later even if we stick with petrol. It's unlikely that current cars will be converted in any significant amount.
It requires hydrogen from water. The summary says it uses water vapor, but any water source would likely suffice... with distilled water being the most efficient and the Dead Sea being among the least efficient.
What portable energy source doesn't take more energy to produce than you get out of it? It's just the cost tradeoff of portability.
Even if burning it releases 100% of the CO2 it took to make it, you're still carbon neutral. Current sources are a long, long way from carbon neutral as they take non-atmospheric carbon and turn it into atmospheric carbon.
For a fledging technology, it's a good start. Seeing as portable energy will always be less efficient than the grid powered by huge power plants, it's a fair trade. You expend energy in order to turn it into a portable state. Sort of like how rechargeable batteries take more energy to charge than they provide to the device that uses them.
However, there are some legal robo-calls. While these are mostly spam as well, it wouldn't be right to automatically block them as they are legal (unless users request it).
Robocalls are when a computer goes through a list of phone numbers (or sometimes just tries every possible number in an area) to deliver an automated message (usually an advertisement). It's very similar to spam on the computer, but harder to filter out (voice vs text) and legal is some cases (if you opt-in, or have already established a relationship with that company) and can actually cost people money in the form of their time, missed calls and most prominently, cell phone minutes.
As an aside, politicians have made sure to include political campaigning as a legal form of robocalling, even if you've never opted in and have no relationship with that party/campaign/candidate. In my opinion, this is a bigger problem than the illegal corporate robocalling.
So if someone is tapping into your wifi to download kiddie porn, the authorities should just keep fining you for not breaking the law until you figure out a solution rather than going after the people doing the actual illegal activities?
Or maybe it's a weird typo and they meant Twitter, not Google, and your rant is utter crap?
Also remember the cost of living and average wage are lower in China, so without checking any actual numbers, it may be more akin to several dollars per derailment in the US. Still not a lot, but it'd be a nice little side gig and as the other poster mentioned, they may just enjoy doing it.