I rank this as a case of Stupid Rednecks Vs a Dufus.
Of course the rednecks with a gun are going to shoot down your helicopter that is spying on them. This is South Carolina. Should they have fired weapons towards a highway? Of course not- even if it was only birdshot. Highways are far from "gun-free" around here anyway- leave the city and just about every deer-crossing sign has been shot at least once.
It was a stupid and rednecky thing to shoot at the drone- if they had accidentally shot the guy with the helicopter- even non-leathally, they could have been in all sorts of trouble.
Responsible gun-owners (and yes, there are plenty of them) would never have fired a weapon at a road- no matter what type of shot the gun contained. This isn't a case of one group was right and one group was wrong- this is a case of both groups were wrong.
Track who buys what by Credit Card #. If 3 months after buying a lot of vaseline and thigh highs their buying trends switch towards buying stretch pants and "hot-dogs and ice cream" together...... and their husband starts buying the vaseline instead... and ear plugs.
I prefer the Wargs from Westeros- not only could they take over the bodies of other animals- some of them can actually control other people.
Imagine if our soldiers could go to sleep and wake up in expendable human bodies when going to battle. We could get our soldiers to take over French soldiers and march them into military victory over Germany.
Grow trees using power of the sun. Sun dries out broken sticks and kindling. Rub stick on piece of wood with bow. When you get a glow- blow on it and light kindling. Cook food over resulting fire. Roast marshmallows- drink beer; get guitar (or sitar) out- everyone starts to sing Eagles songs.
Everyone is happy and goes to bed smelling like campfire smoke. Is there anything better?
And one does have to ask. - and one does figure it out eventually.
It's like the Microsoft office ribbon thing. Yeah, eventually you'll stumble your way around and find what you need- and you can call Microsoft and ask where they moved the "activate clippy" functionality. That doesn't mean it is efficient or the best way to do things. It is counter-intuitive and open for error. Now granted- when you're talking about sub-dollar amounts the amount lost through error is minimal- but it is still annoying and a bad design that they can't even put the value of a coin on the coin.
As for the "color" piece of paper and what it is worth- it's not that hard. If you're in a country that uses simoleans and it says "10" it is worth 10 simoleans. If it says "20" it is worth 20 simoleans. If it has a picture of a train and says "made by milton bradley" - someone is tricking you with monopoly money.
I trust Google- if google is collecting data on me I'm sure it is for the good of man-kind not for any type of profit.
If you're blocking google from collecting information on you- that is information that could have gone to curing cancer, helping little old ladies cross the street, or teaching puppy dogs to avoid being kicked by cranky drugs.
If you hate google then you are pro-cancer; pro-old ladies being hit by cars and pro puppy dogs getting kicked.
Self-driving cars could fit more cars on the road. They can travel closer together as they don't have the half-second danger-response processing a human has before applying the brakes.
Given their faster response times- you need less road per car. So yes, they do deal with that problem.
I imagine a day when a significant-enough portion of the population has Computer Driven Cars.
Imagine a city center with a computer-driver only zone. Traffic flows so much easier- cars can travel closer to each other- at faster speeds. No need for inefficient traffic lights (all cars get 0mpg idling at a traffic light)- instead of traffic lights- cars may change velocities to avoid collisions- with an algorythm saying who goes when- all traffic would slow as approaching the light- and accellerate when it is there turn through- all fitting tightly through gaps with each other.
Given enough time to adapt- the whole country could be computer-driver only.
Traffic would be safer-, faster, more cars could fit on the same stretch of road- saving money in taxes, cars would be more fuel efficient (even if we're still using petrol- a car driven by a human would use more and be less efficient).
It is possible that we could partially see this vision within our lifetime. I certainly expect to see before I die city centers where human drivers are not allowed and traffic lights are done away with. I don't think I will see in my lifetime a time when all roads are for computer drivers only though- but that time will come.
Vending machines don't take pennies- and most new ones don't take nickels- I suspect nickels are going to be used less and less as time goes by. Personally, I don't think it is that much of a worry.
It would cost the average man on the street more than 5cents to make a fake nickel- and no criminal enterprise is going to start faking coins just to trick a small percentage of old vending machines that accept nickels. There just isn't a business case when the profit margain for faking a coin is less than you would save just by buying that same product from a store.
Until there is an underground conspiracy to conquer the world using Andy Capp Hot Fries corn based snacks- it isn't a worry.
Most countries- no matter what the composition of their currency- you can tell at a glance by colour the value. It was certainly a lot easier in England to do. Also, having bills of identical size as they do in the US makes it hard for people with poor or no eye-sight to verify that what they are given is the correct amount.
When bills are of different sizes it is easier for the blind to be more independant. Even coins in many countries have more permutations of their edges to make it easier for those with poor sight.
Then there is the fact that American coins DO NOT HAVE NUMBERS on them. As far as I know America is the only country that does this. Coming to the US the first time it was a pain in the neck trying to figure out at first how much coins were worth. First few weeks I was constantly having to think- OK dime, nickel, which is which value?
There are ways of making if more difficult to counterfeit- transparant windows with holographic images in the centre, etc.
Plus the low value of the coins would make it less of an incentive to counterfeit them. The sheer volume of fake coins they would not only have to make- but find a way to use would make it impracitcal.
Australia (and some other countries) makes bank notes out of plastic. I am sure there are ways to make it more difficult to falsify coins- plus- if the gain is very low (as it would be for coins) - that would deter people who would need to introduce millions of them into circulation to make it worthwhile.
USE PLASTIC!!!!!! Or find a way to metal coat plastic.
Hollow the coin out- like some countries do to use less metal. There are lots of ways to lower the cost of making "useless" coins. If we even need them. I'd be fine with doing away with 1cent coins, 5cent coins, etc.
For those worried about rounding- it already happens? Your gallon of "Gas" is not $3.44 it is $3.4499 - and your total bill never comes to an even penny. Your sales tax rarely calculates out to an even penny. You've been rounding what you spend for years and didn't even know it. Rounding up and down for the 5cents will help you sometimes- hurt you other times. It'll even out fair overall though.
... and I don't disagree at all with the sentiment that diet is the main way to lose weight and it takes a lot of cardio (such as running) to duplicate weight loss.
My only area of concern was if someone in internet-land read the thread and took from it- "if I run mini-marathons on a regular basis I can lose weight." Whereas that is true, and they can- it can also be long-term dangerous if they don't approach doing so from a sensible, scientific and medically approved manner.
Slashdot Mirror
I am Brian, and so is my wife.
Arright la, I warant eh Scouse filta by tomorra.
Damn! I'll have to stop using floxinoxinihilipilification so much in my anonymous posts or people will know it's me!
Using the logic proposed in the article- can we assume that all the anonymous cowards using "the other f word" are all Samuel L Jackson?
I rank this as a case of Stupid Rednecks Vs a Dufus.
Of course the rednecks with a gun are going to shoot down your helicopter that is spying on them. This is South Carolina. Should they have fired weapons towards a highway? Of course not- even if it was only birdshot. Highways are far from "gun-free" around here anyway- leave the city and just about every deer-crossing sign has been shot at least once.
It was a stupid and rednecky thing to shoot at the drone- if they had accidentally shot the guy with the helicopter- even non-leathally, they could have been in all sorts of trouble.
Responsible gun-owners (and yes, there are plenty of them) would never have fired a weapon at a road- no matter what type of shot the gun contained. This isn't a case of one group was right and one group was wrong- this is a case of both groups were wrong.
How to tell they're in the 2nd trimester?
Track who buys what by Credit Card #. If 3 months after buying a lot of vaseline and thigh highs their buying trends switch towards buying stretch pants and "hot-dogs and ice cream" together... ... and their husband starts buying the vaseline instead... and ear plugs.
I prefer the Wargs from Westeros- not only could they take over the bodies of other animals- some of them can actually control other people.
Imagine if our soldiers could go to sleep and wake up in expendable human bodies when going to battle. We could get our soldiers to take over French soldiers and march them into military victory over Germany.
Oh come on. They have a problem with deforestation. They get sick from the open fires indoors. Carrying that wood through the mountains is hard labor.
Fine- go ahead and be rational about it.
Solar powered cooker?
Grow trees using power of the sun. Sun dries out broken sticks and kindling. Rub stick on piece of wood with bow. When you get a glow- blow on it and light kindling. Cook food over resulting fire. Roast marshmallows- drink beer; get guitar (or sitar) out- everyone starts to sing Eagles songs.
Everyone is happy and goes to bed smelling like campfire smoke. Is there anything better?
And one does have to ask. - and one does figure it out eventually.
It's like the Microsoft office ribbon thing. Yeah, eventually you'll stumble your way around and find what you need- and you can call Microsoft and ask where they moved the "activate clippy" functionality. That doesn't mean it is efficient or the best way to do things. It is counter-intuitive and open for error. Now granted- when you're talking about sub-dollar amounts the amount lost through error is minimal- but it is still annoying and a bad design that they can't even put the value of a coin on the coin.
As for the "color" piece of paper and what it is worth- it's not that hard. If you're in a country that uses simoleans and it says "10" it is worth 10 simoleans. If it says "20" it is worth 20 simoleans. If it has a picture of a train and says "made by milton bradley" - someone is tricking you with monopoly money.
They already CAN handle all of the above- not only that- they can handle them better than human drivers.
I use Komodo Dragon which is a free Chromium variant with a higher focus on security and privacy.
I don't know if it really IS more secure and private- but Komodo claims it is; whether Google knows tricks to bypass Komodo's features I don't know.
Yes, but Taco Bell would have the three sea shells in the bathroom. So it would be a good trade-off.
I trust Google- if google is collecting data on me I'm sure it is for the good of man-kind not for any type of profit.
If you're blocking google from collecting information on you- that is information that could have gone to curing cancer, helping little old ladies cross the street, or teaching puppy dogs to avoid being kicked by cranky drugs.
If you hate google then you are pro-cancer; pro-old ladies being hit by cars and pro puppy dogs getting kicked.
SHAME ON YOU!
Self-driving cars could fit more cars on the road. They can travel closer together as they don't have the half-second danger-response processing a human has before applying the brakes.
Given their faster response times- you need less road per car. So yes, they do deal with that problem.
Yeah... and typically he is less human than my desktop.
I imagine a day when a significant-enough portion of the population has Computer Driven Cars.
Imagine a city center with a computer-driver only zone. Traffic flows so much easier- cars can travel closer to each other- at faster speeds. No need for inefficient traffic lights (all cars get 0mpg idling at a traffic light)- instead of traffic lights- cars may change velocities to avoid collisions- with an algorythm saying who goes when- all traffic would slow as approaching the light- and accellerate when it is there turn through- all fitting tightly through gaps with each other.
Given enough time to adapt- the whole country could be computer-driver only.
Traffic would be safer-, faster, more cars could fit on the same stretch of road- saving money in taxes, cars would be more fuel efficient (even if we're still using petrol- a car driven by a human would use more and be less efficient).
It is possible that we could partially see this vision within our lifetime. I certainly expect to see before I die city centers where human drivers are not allowed and traffic lights are done away with. I don't think I will see in my lifetime a time when all roads are for computer drivers only though- but that time will come.
Vending machines don't take pennies- and most new ones don't take nickels- I suspect nickels are going to be used less and less as time goes by. Personally, I don't think it is that much of a worry.
It would cost the average man on the street more than 5cents to make a fake nickel- and no criminal enterprise is going to start faking coins just to trick a small percentage of old vending machines that accept nickels. There just isn't a business case when the profit margain for faking a coin is less than you would save just by buying that same product from a store.
Until there is an underground conspiracy to conquer the world using Andy Capp Hot Fries corn based snacks- it isn't a worry.
In the UK they have an "L" on cars to signify a "Learner" driver.
American money is badly designed as you say.
Most countries- no matter what the composition of their currency- you can tell at a glance by colour the value. It was certainly a lot easier in England to do. Also, having bills of identical size as they do in the US makes it hard for people with poor or no eye-sight to verify that what they are given is the correct amount.
When bills are of different sizes it is easier for the blind to be more independant. Even coins in many countries have more permutations of their edges to make it easier for those with poor sight.
Then there is the fact that American coins DO NOT HAVE NUMBERS on them. As far as I know America is the only country that does this. Coming to the US the first time it was a pain in the neck trying to figure out at first how much coins were worth. First few weeks I was constantly having to think- OK dime, nickel, which is which value?
Self driving cars are a waste of energy.
They should at least be driving goods or people around. But just driving themselves around is such a waste.
There are ways of making if more difficult to counterfeit- transparant windows with holographic images in the centre, etc.
Plus the low value of the coins would make it less of an incentive to counterfeit them. The sheer volume of fake coins they would not only have to make- but find a way to use would make it impracitcal.
Not necessarily.
Australia (and some other countries) makes bank notes out of plastic. I am sure there are ways to make it more difficult to falsify coins- plus- if the gain is very low (as it would be for coins) - that would deter people who would need to introduce millions of them into circulation to make it worthwhile.
PLASTIC!!!!!
USE PLASTIC!!!!!! Or find a way to metal coat plastic.
Hollow the coin out- like some countries do to use less metal.
There are lots of ways to lower the cost of making "useless" coins. If we even need them. I'd be fine with doing away with 1cent coins, 5cent coins, etc.
For those worried about rounding- it already happens? Your gallon of "Gas" is not $3.44 it is $3.4499 - and your total bill never comes to an even penny. Your sales tax rarely calculates out to an even penny. You've been rounding what you spend for years and didn't even know it. Rounding up and down for the 5cents will help you sometimes- hurt you other times. It'll even out fair overall though.
Oh, I wouldn't want immortality... just to live many times longer than what is currently possible.
... and I don't disagree at all with the sentiment that diet is the main way to lose weight and it takes a lot of cardio (such as running) to duplicate weight loss.
My only area of concern was if someone in internet-land read the thread and took from it- "if I run mini-marathons on a regular basis I can lose weight." Whereas that is true, and they can- it can also be long-term dangerous if they don't approach doing so from a sensible, scientific and medically approved manner.