(The right to have a house on that piece of land, which you would not own, was good until 2000)
This happens in the US of A too, usually in places like indian reservations, where the land is leased up to a specified period. Believe it or not, people actually buy houses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars on leased land. What they expect to do with it, who knows...
15/20 and 90/20 are evaulations of your distance acuity. An astigmatism is usually measured in degrees, since your eye is actually rotating the image before it hits your retina (a gross oversimplification). eg: If you had a very severe stigmatism, the 1 o'clock line of a clock could look like it was in the 12 o'clock position. IANAO, but from what I understand it's hard to correct for astigmatism with contact lenses, especially when higher adjustments are necessary. (I'd guess because the lens can rotate easily in your eye, but I don't really know.)
IANAO, but I do work in the ophthalmic industry. The ability of the eye to focus as a person ages decreases due to the hardening of the cornea, which is a major reason why people's visual accuity decreases over time.
In fact, the hardening is so consistent over time, that you can accurately measure age for most people based on their near-point focal distance. Google around for the 'Krimsky Rule', it's actually pretty interesting.
It's less predictable for young people though, because the cornea is flexible enough that they can squeeze it into shape and focus at very extreme distances. Accomodation causes enough interference that it makes it a challenge to test young children's vision.
You're assuming that the costs are mainly attributed to the product itself. It's certainly arguable that a very large portion of Microsoft's costs in this case are the manufacturing process itself. From the (possibly made up) reports I've seen, most of their problems are due to yield, not production capacity per se. The way I see it, the production costs are mostly fixed but the number of Xboxen being produced is less due to poor yield. The only way to effect losses of manufacturing cost positively would be through sales, not artificial shortage.
I live near Seattle, and the only restrictions here are emissions related. In fact, the county that I live in (Snohomish) doesn't even require those. King county requires the emissions test to renew your vehicle registration. Even so, aircraft regulations here are much more stringent. IIRC, structural inspections are required about twice a year, and after a certain number of hours a complete disassembly and rebuild is required on all load-bearing surfaces. My memory is fuzzy though, and even then my knowledge was only academic, I can't say for sure that this was actually the case in practice.
Actually, I completely agree- although I can see why you might think otherwise from my comment:D
I figure that if something like this does happen, some form of a flight plan would be filed on your behalf by some automated system to a computerized controller of sorts, at least for urban areas that would see more traffic (I certainly would not want to be a controller in Los Angles or Seattle or Chicago). Mechanical inspections would absolutely be necessary- just look at some of the cars on the road. I wouldn't ride in many of them now, let alone if they left the ground. So mostly, I was just venting my frustration at being behind a wheel as opposed to a yoke. (I don't fly, yet.) Also, you hear a lot about flying cars, but not much about flying car legislation. Personally, I think the regulation and logistics of an aircraft in every driveway is a much bigger hurdle than just getting some workable equipment.
Just give us our flying cars then already, damnit!
Oh boy! I can't wait to file my flight plans for to-and-from work, and then request permission to go to the supermarket when I realize I'm out of cat food. I'm also looking forward to requesting permission to leave the driveway and structural inspections for my personal vehicle every six months, government mandated engine overhalls, and you-must-be-a-terrorist shoe removal to get into my own damn car. Oh but to have my very own flying car!
I think the GP was refering to machining and manufacturing costs rather than the costs of additional metal.
Casting or drilling channels into the block to run the steam system through will weaken the engine structure, requiring additional technology or additional structure to keep the engine safe. I never RTFA, but posters here have mentioned an dual system of sorts- a water solution and an alcohol one. I'd guess the water system would transfer heat through to the alcohol system where it's easier to deal with a high system pressure. Even so, all this crap adds a lot of mechanical complexity, a new water pump, additional fluids, some form of steam engine, etc. Adding more complexity will add more manufacturing requirements, making the vehicle more expensive to produce and maintain. I don't see why questioning the effeciency is any problem- perhaps with the added weight and costs it's more effecient overall to go with a smaller diesel car without the steam power. Never know unless you ask:)
Not to mention, replacing a defective unit is a cost in and of itself. A broken unit in this case gets tossed, or refurbished and resold at an even bigger loss at best. Fielding the calls/e-mails/letters from customers that have problems costs employees, time and money. Exagerated news reports of broken units slow sales at a time when a two month delay means a possible sale lost to the competition. Each consumer's opinion of what is acceptable practice is very different, so it's very important for Microsoft to have everything as perfect as possible.
That's just it though- I think if Google makes an OS, it'll be a browser- a small, fast, clean, easily extendable, and bootable. Heck, make it available as a net-boot image or something like it. All they need first as some more web-apps that are common to everybody.
Were there different versions of the game shipped with different soundtracks in Burnout 3? I see a few tracks there that I don't recognize from my copy, and (unless I'm blind) it's missing a track by Blindside there too...
Slashdot Mirror
This happens in the US of A too, usually in places like indian reservations, where the land is leased up to a specified period. Believe it or not, people actually buy houses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars on leased land. What they expect to do with it, who knows...
If this thread follows the current trend, we're sure to be charged with bad conductance. Calls for isolation are certainly grounded.
15/20 and 90/20 are evaulations of your distance acuity. An astigmatism is usually measured in degrees, since your eye is actually rotating the image before it hits your retina (a gross oversimplification). eg: If you had a very severe stigmatism, the 1 o'clock line of a clock could look like it was in the 12 o'clock position. IANAO, but from what I understand it's hard to correct for astigmatism with contact lenses, especially when higher adjustments are necessary. (I'd guess because the lens can rotate easily in your eye, but I don't really know.)
IANAO, but I do work in the ophthalmic industry.
The ability of the eye to focus as a person ages decreases due to the hardening of the cornea, which is a major reason why people's visual accuity decreases over time.
In fact, the hardening is so consistent over time, that you can accurately measure age for most people based on their near-point focal distance. Google around for the 'Krimsky Rule', it's actually pretty interesting.
It's less predictable for young people though, because the cornea is flexible enough that they can squeeze it into shape and focus at very extreme distances. Accomodation causes enough interference that it makes it a challenge to test young children's vision.
You're assuming that the costs are mainly attributed to the product itself. It's certainly arguable that a very large portion of Microsoft's costs in this case are the manufacturing process itself. From the (possibly made up) reports I've seen, most of their problems are due to yield, not production capacity per se.
The way I see it, the production costs are mostly fixed but the number of Xboxen being produced is less due to poor yield. The only way to effect losses of manufacturing cost positively would be through sales, not artificial shortage.
Ah, yes...
But if you teach someone to think for themselves and they do, are they actually thinking for themselves?
Heh, reminds me of something I heard years ago:
Q: What's the best thing to come out of Indiana?
A: Interstate 80
I live near Seattle, and the only restrictions here are emissions related. In fact, the county that I live in (Snohomish) doesn't even require those. King county requires the emissions test to renew your vehicle registration. Even so, aircraft regulations here are much more stringent. IIRC, structural inspections are required about twice a year, and after a certain number of hours a complete disassembly and rebuild is required on all load-bearing surfaces. My memory is fuzzy though, and even then my knowledge was only academic, I can't say for sure that this was actually the case in practice.
Actually, I completely agree- although I can see why you might think otherwise from my comment :D
I figure that if something like this does happen, some form of a flight plan would be filed on your behalf by some automated system to a computerized controller of sorts, at least for urban areas that would see more traffic (I certainly would not want to be a controller in Los Angles or Seattle or Chicago). Mechanical inspections would absolutely be necessary- just look at some of the cars on the road. I wouldn't ride in many of them now, let alone if they left the ground. So mostly, I was just venting my frustration at being behind a wheel as opposed to a yoke. (I don't fly, yet.)
Also, you hear a lot about flying cars, but not much about flying car legislation. Personally, I think the regulation and logistics of an aircraft in every driveway is a much bigger hurdle than just getting some workable equipment.
Oh boy! I can't wait to file my flight plans for to-and-from work, and then request permission to go to the supermarket when I realize I'm out of cat food. I'm also looking forward to requesting permission to leave the driveway and structural inspections for my personal vehicle every six months, government mandated engine overhalls, and you-must-be-a-terrorist shoe removal to get into my own damn car.
Oh but to have my very own flying car!
I believe there's a space in 'GNU Emacs'...
[ducks!]
I think the GP was refering to machining and manufacturing costs rather than the costs of additional metal.
:)
Casting or drilling channels into the block to run the steam system through will weaken the engine structure, requiring additional technology or additional structure to
keep the engine safe. I never RTFA, but posters here have mentioned an dual system of sorts- a water solution and an alcohol one. I'd guess the water system would transfer heat through to the alcohol system where it's easier to deal with a high system pressure.
Even so, all this crap adds a lot of mechanical complexity, a new water pump, additional fluids, some form of steam engine, etc.
Adding more complexity will add more manufacturing requirements, making the vehicle more expensive to produce and maintain. I don't see why questioning the effeciency is any problem- perhaps with the added weight and costs it's more effecient overall to go with a smaller diesel car without the steam power. Never know unless you ask
I'm not sure where researching the spelling of a made up word stands on the Anality-scale (Asshat?); and I'm sure that you don't care about this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embiggen#Embiggen/
Not to mention, replacing a defective unit is a cost in and of itself. A broken unit in this case gets tossed, or refurbished and resold at an even bigger loss at best. Fielding the calls/e-mails/letters from customers that have problems costs employees, time and money. Exagerated news reports of broken units slow sales at a time when a two month delay means a possible sale lost to the competition. Each
consumer's opinion of what is acceptable practice is very different, so it's very important for Microsoft to have everything as perfect as possible.
That's just it though- I think if Google makes an OS, it'll be a browser- a small, fast, clean, easily extendable, and bootable. Heck, make it available as a net-boot image or something like it. All they need first as some more web-apps that are common to everybody.
Wait... Port to OSX? ::sigh::
[goes to re-pack Apple II]
As much as I wish he did make such a dumb screw-up, Jack is a common nickname for John.
Sonylution? I'd always heard Revalony, but maybe that was just a working name that they don't want confused with pasta.
Nethack is great and all, but I like me a game with some curves.
In that instance, I believe the more expensive option is "Write it yourself, pay someone else to write it, or please just shut-up."
There's a difference between taking karate and receiving it:
Skinny guy receives.
--Demetri Martin
Were there different versions of the game shipped with different soundtracks in Burnout 3? I see a few tracks there that I don't recognize from my copy, and (unless I'm blind) it's missing a track by Blindside there too...
The A-Team theme song is sufficiently eradicated by the Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers theme song.
In the military train of thought, this would be properly classified as 'object recovery'.
I would gladly trade you one horse for +5 'Funny' mod points. He has been well taken care of and never been 'snuggled'.
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