It was not intentional but Finland's economy is.was very dependent on two things cell phones and paper. Yes Nokia blew it when they sold to Microsoft and did not embrace their own Linux os that looked so promising, forked Android like Amazon, or went with Android. I think Nokia could have had a real winner with an Android phone with a Nokia camera. Nokia hardware was always good as are the cameras.
"Yes, that's great until you start running out of living humans with the ability to actually operate that stuff." Actually the US government is pretty good at keeping old tech alive. The B-52 for example. The last model is the H and it was last built in 1962 and is still in use. Sure some of the avionics have been updated but the tf-30 engines are the same. KC-135 tanker is still in service and is just as old or older. The USS-Enterprise that just retired a few years ago was finished in 1962. The military used to be great about documenting everything. You can get a complete set of blueprints for the P-51 Mustang if you want. Also computers where different back then as well. The where completely documented and computers where made out of parts. Even if they used ICs the ICs where usually parts that you assembled into a computer unlike today where the ICs are the computer. If you read the article it is the typical let's scare people. For example they are complaining that the backend systems for the VA and SSA are both written in COBOL... Yes so? Code doesn't stop working.
"That doesn't mean they should starve." That is where the government comes in. A social safety net has value. It is not business's place to be the social safety net. Supply resources for the social safety net sure but not be it. The problem is that too many people do not have skills needed today.
"Will the battery last very long on my Pi running Android?" The Pi does not come with a battery so what are you talking about?
"Will there be support for any cellular devices so I can talk, text and/or run data any time soon?" Huh??? Use a USB cellular modem and VOIP?
"Face it, the Pi is not much more than a toy, a cheap learning device used to teach in places where the cost of even a low end computer is too much. Great for teaching and learning, not so great as a basis of any kind of practical commercial hardware design." Uhhh...... It is a practical commercial hardware design and has sold a lot of units. The Pi 3 is not designed to be the heart of a commercial hardware design. You can use it as a prototype and then buy the parts and use the pi as a reference design. You can use it as the heart of one off commercial design.
The people that make the robots and repair them. You know you do know that farms used to pay for crews of thrashers way back when. If you can do a job in a cheaper way it only makes sense to do it that way. The idea is that frees humans to do work that is more rewarding. AKA if the best you can do is make frys then you were in deep trouble to start with.
"We take anything as long it is not nuclear. You seem to forget that Germany got hit very badly by Chernobyl." 1. How many deaths? 2. Fearing nuclear power because of Chernobyl is like fearing aviation because of the Hindenburg or cruise ships because of the Titanic.
Fine so keep building new coal plants and pumping out CO2 but stop living in a fantasy world where you are doing everything in your power to reduce CO2 emissions.
Your paranoid nut case but thanks for the link to myCroft. It looks really interesting I have some ideas for a better echo than echo but the Echo's api is too limited. I want the option to use it as a multi room speaker system, intercom, support for google music, and some other functions as well. myCroft looks like it will really help me out.
After I get home from work I put my phone on the charger so I do not have it with me all the time at home. You could of course put this software on your tablet and or smart phone. The idea of the Echo and probably the home is a little different. Being a stand alone device that is always plugged in does have some advantages. 1. It can have much bigger speakers for better quality sound. 2. It can have a much more complex microphone array for better voice recognition. The Echo is not that much more expensive than a good bluetooth speaker and it can do home automation and some other functions. Love the idea but I really want a more open API.
I suggest you look at this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Germany shutting down it's nuclear plants while building new coal plants will cause an increase in CO2 emissions. Frankly if CO2 is your major concern then replacing one coal plant with a new coal plant is still an issue while Nuclear and natural gas offer a much lower carbon output for BTU than any new coal plant will.
As a MacBook Pro users all I can say is NO NO NO. Make MacBook Pro with at least one M.2 slot and user upgradeable ram! The price of ram and SSDs keep dropping! It is insane to lot let you upgrade them after purchase on a "professional" machine.
My guess is that they are counting all the coal available in this study. Natural Gas produces a lot less CO2 per BTU than coal or oil. Oil produces less CO2 per BTU than oil. While all fossil fuels produce CO2 not all fossil produce the same amount per BTU. So shifting from a coal fired power plant to a natural gas fired power plant can produce a large decrease in CO2 emissions. Of course Germany shifting from Nuclear and increasing coal is pretty much making all their solar and wind projects close to a wash. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I had a windows phone for a while and it really was not bad. I had a super cheap Lumia and it was still a good device. The OS was also really good.and was very responsive. The problem that WindowsPhone had for me is the same problem that Linux on the desktop and OS/X has. I could not get the applications I wanted to use on the platform. People are not going to write apps until you have enough users. You will not have a lot of users until you have the apps. The lack of Google apps for Windows phone was a real issue for me. If you look at how it breaks down it is really interesting IMHO. 1. IOS has all the Apple, Google, and Microsoft apps. 2. Android has all the Google and Microsoft apps. 3. WindowsPhone has the Microsoft apps. Frankly I think it is a real shame because Windows Phone is a good OS and the Lumia phones are good hardware. If Microsoft can help Intel get x86 mobile SOCs on the market or get developers to compile Windows Desktop Apps for ARM, or Microsoft can create a really good X86 to ARM JIT then the unified OS project might really pay off.
I think you do not understand just how little power can be stored this way. Let's say that the train is heavy enough to take equivalent of 4 PH37ACmi GE power hauls up the mountain in 1 hour. That is a pretty big train and a pretty good sized hill/mountain. That comes to a grand total of only 8.64 MW hours assuming 80% efficiency. To put that into perspective the Riviera Beach Next Generation Clean Energy Center produces 1,250MW. so you are looking at 0.9% of the output of that plant in an hour. So if you wanted to store 30% of the power output for 5 hours during off peak it would take 823 trains. And that is an average sized natural gas power plant. The math really does not work out really well. People do not understand just how much power a power plant can produce. Even if you cut that amount in half it is still really ugly.
"A thin, light version of something uses less raw materials than a bulky version of the same thing." No a thin version will use more than a thicker phone with the same rigidity. Lighter will often use more expensive material than a slightly heaver version. So an iPhone that is one mm thicker and uses a stainless steel frame instead of aluminum will be stronger and use less expensive materials and have room for a larger battery if needed and or slightly better optics for the camera.
For a lot of people that is not a downside. The iPhone is simple. Wireless charging? Nice to have but it is not a must have. As I said can Apple fail? Yes. Will Apple fail? I do not see it anytime soon. Want to take a guess about the long term smartphone market? Microsoft's one OS for phones and PC could mean that Phones become a lot of people's PCs. Plug in the USB 3.1 connector to a monitor and use the monitor, keyboard, and mouse to run desktop apps using your phone. If Intel ever makes a good x86 mobile SOC you could see it. Will it replace all PCs? No but it could replace a lot of low end PCs and you take your apps and data with you everywhere. Boom Windows wins the phone market. Or just replace Microsoft with Google and have Google add real desktop apps to the Android ecosystem... You know like letting Android apps run on Chromebooks.
"VB6 is great for one REALLY specific job, which just happens to be a job that small to medium businesses require quite often, which is "make a quick and simply GUI to a DB" and it does that job very very well. In fact I've never seen anything else that could whip off a GUI to a DB as easily or as quickly as VB." Might I suggest Java? It is also multi-platform.
You are correct in that VB was good for that very common task. Today they all seem to want to use a web interface but you know sometimes I do not want to have to set up a webserver and a database server. If you want to keep track of your record collection or books and do not want to have to use the internet and or setup a server then VB or java with a simple database like the access engine or sqllite can be a good solution.
Today you are right but not long ago many people would tell you that Apple didn't have a chance in the cellphone space compared to Motorola, Nokia, and RIM. They were late to the game and didn't even support apps. Heck you could not even swap batteries. IBM does not make PCs any longer. DEC, Control Data, Data General are all gone. In the microcomputer market Atari, Ti, Tandy, Commodore, Kaypro, Zenith/Heathkit, and Osborne are all gone. Yes Apple could mess up and go the way of DEC and Commodore or they may not. I would bet on Apple not failing and staying relevant but they might not. Frankly Apples pushing design over function is what I think will get them in the end. I think the they are doing just fine with the iPhone and iPad but they do not need to make the iPhone thinner or lighter.
reference? Of course the funny part is that none of the programs in the story are being funded by NASA. Also one projects is being funded by India which has a much higher poverty rate than the US.
And you have got to stop wasting time posting on slashdot, playing video games, watching tv, and going to the movies. You should also eat the cheapest food possible and work as much as humanly possible. You should then take all that money and use it to help the homeless....
Let me teach you about the logical fallacy called the fool's dilemma. Shutting down NASA will not fix the homeless problem. At no time has there been a vote in congress to spend x on the space program or spend it on the homeless. Do you want to give up weather satellites? Communications satellites? How about GPS? I don't and I do not want to give up all the basic research that NASA does as well as space exploration. I am willing to bet that the majority of people on slashdot agree with me. So NO YOU ARE WRONG!
Probably not. You will find COBOL in a lot of banks and other companies that computerized a long time ago. This is all back end code that runs things like accounting. The code works and has for decades. It was well written and updated over time very carefully. As for UIs you will often see web based UIs to this back end code. So you have a stable well tested foundation and an easy to update light UI. The hardware on a mainframe is super stable and highly reliable. If you want to migrate from a mainframe simply recompile.
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It was not intentional but Finland's economy is.was very dependent on two things cell phones and paper. Yes Nokia blew it when they sold to Microsoft and did not embrace their own Linux os that looked so promising, forked Android like Amazon, or went with Android. I think Nokia could have had a real winner with an Android phone with a Nokia camera. Nokia hardware was always good as are the cameras.
or they need to be super cheap.
an e book should be 1/3 third the cost of a paperback.
"Yes, that's great until you start running out of living humans with the ability to actually operate that stuff."
Actually the US government is pretty good at keeping old tech alive.
The B-52 for example. The last model is the H and it was last built in 1962 and is still in use. Sure some of the avionics have been updated but the tf-30 engines are the same.
KC-135 tanker is still in service and is just as old or older.
The USS-Enterprise that just retired a few years ago was finished in 1962.
The military used to be great about documenting everything. You can get a complete set of blueprints for the P-51 Mustang if you want.
Also computers where different back then as well. The where completely documented and computers where made out of parts. Even if they used ICs the ICs where usually parts that you assembled into a computer unlike today where the ICs are the computer.
If you read the article it is the typical let's scare people. For example they are complaining that the backend systems for the VA and SSA are both written in COBOL... Yes so? Code doesn't stop working.
"That doesn't mean they should starve."
That is where the government comes in. A social safety net has value. It is not business's place to be the social safety net. Supply resources for the social safety net sure but not be it.
The problem is that too many people do not have skills needed today.
"Will the battery last very long on my Pi running Android?"
The Pi does not come with a battery so what are you talking about?
"Will there be support for any cellular devices so I can talk, text and/or run data any time soon?"
Huh??? Use a USB cellular modem and VOIP?
"Face it, the Pi is not much more than a toy, a cheap learning device used to teach in places where the cost of even a low end computer is too much. Great for teaching and learning, not so great as a basis of any kind of practical commercial hardware design."
Uhhh...... It is a practical commercial hardware design and has sold a lot of units. The Pi 3 is not designed to be the heart of a commercial hardware design. You can use it as a prototype and then buy the parts and use the pi as a reference design. You can use it as the heart of one off commercial design.
The people that make the robots and repair them.
You know you do know that farms used to pay for crews of thrashers way back when.
If you can do a job in a cheaper way it only makes sense to do it that way. The idea is that frees humans to do work that is more rewarding.
AKA if the best you can do is make frys then you were in deep trouble to start with.
"We take anything as long it is not nuclear. You seem to forget that Germany got hit very badly by Chernobyl."
1. How many deaths?
2. Fearing nuclear power because of Chernobyl is like fearing aviation because of the Hindenburg or cruise ships because of the Titanic.
Fine so keep building new coal plants and pumping out CO2 but stop living in a fantasy world where you are doing everything in your power to reduce CO2 emissions.
Your paranoid nut case but thanks for the link to myCroft.
It looks really interesting I have some ideas for a better echo than echo but the Echo's api is too limited.
I want the option to use it as a multi room speaker system, intercom, support for google music, and some other functions as well. myCroft looks like it will really help me out.
After I get home from work I put my phone on the charger so I do not have it with me all the time at home. You could of course put this software on your tablet and or smart phone.
The idea of the Echo and probably the home is a little different. Being a stand alone device that is always plugged in does have some advantages.
1. It can have much bigger speakers for better quality sound.
2. It can have a much more complex microphone array for better voice recognition.
The Echo is not that much more expensive than a good bluetooth speaker and it can do home automation and some other functions. Love the idea but I really want a more open API.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Says 25% renewables.
So you want CO2 instead of nuclear.
I suggest you look at this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Germany shutting down it's nuclear plants while building new coal plants will cause an increase in CO2 emissions.
Frankly if CO2 is your major concern then replacing one coal plant with a new coal plant is still an issue while Nuclear and natural gas offer a much lower carbon output for BTU than any new coal plant will.
45% of our power is coal. If you closed down coal plants and kept the nuclear you would decrease your total CO2 output more than you are now.
As a MacBook Pro users all I can say is NO NO NO.
Make MacBook Pro with at least one M.2 slot and user upgradeable ram!
The price of ram and SSDs keep dropping! It is insane to lot let you upgrade them after purchase on a "professional" machine.
My guess is that they are counting all the coal available in this study.
Natural Gas produces a lot less CO2 per BTU than coal or oil.
Oil produces less CO2 per BTU than oil.
While all fossil fuels produce CO2 not all fossil produce the same amount per BTU.
So shifting from a coal fired power plant to a natural gas fired power plant can produce a large decrease in CO2 emissions.
Of course Germany shifting from Nuclear and increasing coal is pretty much making all their solar and wind projects close to a wash.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I had a windows phone for a while and it really was not bad.
I had a super cheap Lumia and it was still a good device. The OS was also really good.and was very responsive.
The problem that WindowsPhone had for me is the same problem that Linux on the desktop and OS/X has.
I could not get the applications I wanted to use on the platform.
People are not going to write apps until you have enough users. You will not have a lot of users until you have the apps.
The lack of Google apps for Windows phone was a real issue for me.
If you look at how it breaks down it is really interesting IMHO.
1. IOS has all the Apple, Google, and Microsoft apps.
2. Android has all the Google and Microsoft apps.
3. WindowsPhone has the Microsoft apps.
Frankly I think it is a real shame because Windows Phone is a good OS and the Lumia phones are good hardware. If Microsoft can help Intel get x86 mobile SOCs on the market or get developers to compile Windows Desktop Apps for ARM, or Microsoft can create a really good X86 to ARM JIT then the unified OS project might really pay off.
I think you do not understand just how little power can be stored this way.
Let's say that the train is heavy enough to take equivalent of 4 PH37ACmi GE power hauls up the mountain in 1 hour. That is a pretty big train and a pretty good sized hill/mountain. That comes to a grand total of only 8.64 MW hours assuming 80% efficiency.
To put that into perspective the Riviera Beach Next Generation Clean Energy Center produces 1,250MW. so you are looking at 0.9% of the output of that plant in an hour. So if you wanted to store 30% of the power output for 5 hours during off peak it would take 823 trains.
And that is an average sized natural gas power plant. The math really does not work out really well. People do not understand just how much power a power plant can produce. Even if you cut that amount in half it is still really ugly.
"A thin, light version of something uses less raw materials than a bulky version of the same thing."
No a thin version will use more than a thicker phone with the same rigidity. Lighter will often use more expensive material than a slightly heaver version.
So an iPhone that is one mm thicker and uses a stainless steel frame instead of aluminum will be stronger and use less expensive materials and have room for a larger battery if needed and or slightly better optics for the camera.
For a lot of people that is not a downside. The iPhone is simple. Wireless charging? Nice to have but it is not a must have.
As I said can Apple fail?
Yes.
Will Apple fail? I do not see it anytime soon.
Want to take a guess about the long term smartphone market?
Microsoft's one OS for phones and PC could mean that Phones become a lot of people's PCs. Plug in the USB 3.1 connector to a monitor and use the monitor, keyboard, and mouse to run desktop apps using your phone.
If Intel ever makes a good x86 mobile SOC you could see it.
Will it replace all PCs? No but it could replace a lot of low end PCs and you take your apps and data with you everywhere.
Boom Windows wins the phone market.
Or just replace Microsoft with Google and have Google add real desktop apps to the Android ecosystem... You know like letting Android apps run on Chromebooks.
"VB6 is great for one REALLY specific job, which just happens to be a job that small to medium businesses require quite often, which is "make a quick and simply GUI to a DB" and it does that job very very well. In fact I've never seen anything else that could whip off a GUI to a DB as easily or as quickly as VB."
Might I suggest Java? It is also multi-platform.
You are correct in that VB was good for that very common task. Today they all seem to want to use a web interface but you know sometimes I do not want to have to set up a webserver and a database server. If you want to keep track of your record collection or books and do not want to have to use the internet and or setup a server then VB or java with a simple database like the access engine or sqllite can be a good solution.
Today you are right but not long ago many people would tell you that Apple didn't have a chance in the cellphone space compared to Motorola, Nokia, and RIM.
They were late to the game and didn't even support apps. Heck you could not even swap batteries.
IBM does not make PCs any longer.
DEC, Control Data, Data General are all gone.
In the microcomputer market Atari, Ti, Tandy, Commodore, Kaypro, Zenith/Heathkit, and Osborne are all gone.
Yes Apple could mess up and go the way of DEC and Commodore or they may not. I would bet on Apple not failing and staying relevant but they might not. Frankly Apples pushing design over function is what I think will get them in the end. I think the they are doing just fine with the iPhone and iPad but they do not need to make the iPhone thinner or lighter.
reference?
Of course the funny part is that none of the programs in the story are being funded by NASA. Also one projects is being funded by India which has a much higher poverty rate than the US.
And you have got to stop wasting time posting on slashdot, playing video games, watching tv, and going to the movies. You should also eat the cheapest food possible and work as much as humanly possible.
You should then take all that money and use it to help the homeless....
Let me teach you about the logical fallacy called the fool's dilemma.
Shutting down NASA will not fix the homeless problem. At no time has there been a vote in congress to spend x on the space program or spend it on the homeless.
Do you want to give up weather satellites? Communications satellites? How about GPS?
I don't and I do not want to give up all the basic research that NASA does as well as space exploration. I am willing to bet that the majority of people on slashdot agree with me.
So NO YOU ARE WRONG!
Not going to work well anyplace without mountains.
Probably not.
You will find COBOL in a lot of banks and other companies that computerized a long time ago. This is all back end code that runs things like accounting. The code works and has for decades. It was well written and updated over time very carefully.
As for UIs you will often see web based UIs to this back end code. So you have a stable well tested foundation and an easy to update light UI. The hardware on a mainframe is super stable and highly reliable.
If you want to migrate from a mainframe simply recompile.
Or look at some other CMSs.
Node.JS is nto a replacement for Wordpress.