Medallion cabs respond to disasters by disappearing. It's New York - you can take the subway or the bus if you really need to get home right now in the middle of a disaster.
I have never lived in NYC, but I have lived in a city of even greater population and density (31 million at the time) and the great advantage to living in such a place is the diversity of transportation options. And on the two occasions when there was a general transportation strike, I joined the crowd and walked across the city.
I have a ham radio buddy who used the same strategy. Whenever he moved to a new town, he would set up his big antenna first and left the rest of his rig crated. He would wait about six weeks for all the neighbors to complain about impotence and dead pets. Then he would invite everyone over and show them the setup. Never a peep after that.
"IMO modern sci-fi has been "dumbed" down to just action flicks. Originally, "classic" Sci-Fi dealt with the _social_ issues and problems that technology created. We got some amazing stories."
This is partly due to HP cheaping out now that the engineers no longer run the company, but it's also the inherent limitations of inkjet technology. In my dry climate an inkjet cartridge becomes clogged and useless if you don't print anything for a week. You can usually bring it back to life by using the Deep Clean utility, but that wastes a third of the ink.
Today I steer all my customers to the new generation of low-cost monochrome lasers, including HP's own 1102W. For those occasions when you have to print a photograph, use Snapfish. Problem solved, and for a fraction of the old price.
At any given time, techies are involved in projects ranging from the trivial to the really useful, but the applications that get funded and come to market are those which pass the Great Filter imposed by anti-technology activists. Investors know that they have no problem rolling out the next smartphone feature, while developing Golden Rice to feed the poor is going to have to pass a gantlet of terrorist activism. We're talking about people who will rip up your test fields and assault your workers.
To get the big world-changing projects done, someone is going to have to be willing to go full Duterte.
The whole reason that the patent system replaced trade secrecy is that in return for a specified period of exclusive use an inventor has to reveal how his device works. Theranos treated its process as a trade secret, which should have been a red flag to any investor to not chuck his money into an unknown technology. The Silicon Valley VC culture just got pwned.
The ham service is already regulated in the way I describe, in this case by the FCC and in conformance to international treaties. What you describe would be strictly illegal under the existing rules.
It's you NIMBYs who see the world as an unending series of Pandora's boxes.
This legislation is a needed benefit for the ham community, but the NIMBY problem is far bigger than this. I have seen cases where a small group of Concerned Citizens (aka tinfoil yammerheads) can prevent needed cell towers from being installed in their town because 'radiation'.
What I would like to see is legislation that would strip NIMBYs of court access to prevent the construction of any public infrastructure project that conforms to published specifications for safety, appearance, and environmental impact for the project type, as adjudicated by the relevant regulatory agency. To obstruct a project, an opponent would be burdened with proving that the project did not conform to its type specification.
"After learning that police can compel the use of a fingerprint to unlock a phone, no, I don't enable or use the fingerprint feature."
If you didn't keep your Dabiq subscription app on your phone, you wouldn't need to avoid using the fingerprint. It's a huge convenience for all of us outside the tinfoil sector.
"My 'droid has four physical buttons: Power, home, vol up, vol down. They are reliable, provide good tactile feedback, and comfortable to use."
iPhones have also had the same four physical buttons, plus a ringer on/off. The big change in 7 is that the Home button is now a touch, like the rest of the screen, but with a vibratory feedback.
Next bombshell: screen reflectance from the iPhone 7 causes acne.
"I appreciate that "dwarf" planet doesn't sound too PC but I do wonder whether we should reserve the adjective "tiny" for items too small for their own gravitational mass to pull them into a sphere."
If you're going to invent your own classification system, then I propose we make everyone feel better by classififying them as follows: 'Tall' - A body too small to form a sphere. 'Grande' - Forms a sphere but does not clear its orbit. 'Venti' - Clears its orbit. 'Trenta' - Gas giants.
"And just for the records, scientists have not been "crying wolf" for three decades, they've been pointing out the physics of the greenhouse effect"
It's not the scientists who have been crying wolf, but the Greens. Time after time after time, every discerned environmental problem is going to kill us all: famine, exhaustion of industrial metals, acid rain, the ozone layer, the energy crisis. Small wonder, then, that the average person is having trouble grasping the carbon problem.
Can we all agree to two things: let the science work itself out to find the truth, and set the engineers free to implement any fixes that may be needed?
Slashdot Mirror
Medallion cabs respond to disasters by disappearing. It's New York - you can take the subway or the bus if you really need to get home right now in the middle of a disaster.
I have never lived in NYC, but I have lived in a city of even greater population and density (31 million at the time) and the great advantage to living in such a place is the diversity of transportation options. And on the two occasions when there was a general transportation strike, I joined the crowd and walked across the city.
I have a ham radio buddy who used the same strategy. Whenever he moved to a new town, he would set up his big antenna first and left the rest of his rig crated. He would wait about six weeks for all the neighbors to complain about impotence and dead pets. Then he would invite everyone over and show them the setup. Never a peep after that.
"IMO modern sci-fi has been "dumbed" down to just action flicks. Originally, "classic" Sci-Fi dealt with the _social_ issues and problems that technology created. We got some amazing stories."
All is not lost. Neal Stephenson still lives.
"Apples, oranges, etc."
It must be oranges. The iDick is not on the market yet.
This is partly due to HP cheaping out now that the engineers no longer run the company, but it's also the inherent limitations of inkjet technology. In my dry climate an inkjet cartridge becomes clogged and useless if you don't print anything for a week. You can usually bring it back to life by using the Deep Clean utility, but that wastes a third of the ink.
Today I steer all my customers to the new generation of low-cost monochrome lasers, including HP's own 1102W. For those occasions when you have to print a photograph, use Snapfish. Problem solved, and for a fraction of the old price.
At any given time, techies are involved in projects ranging from the trivial to the really useful, but the applications that get funded and come to market are those which pass the Great Filter imposed by anti-technology activists. Investors know that they have no problem rolling out the next smartphone feature, while developing Golden Rice to feed the poor is going to have to pass a gantlet of terrorist activism. We're talking about people who will rip up your test fields and assault your workers.
To get the big world-changing projects done, someone is going to have to be willing to go full Duterte.
The whole reason that the patent system replaced trade secrecy is that in return for a specified period of exclusive use an inventor has to reveal how his device works. Theranos treated its process as a trade secret, which should have been a red flag to any investor to not chuck his money into an unknown technology. The Silicon Valley VC culture just got pwned.
Public: "Human lives matter!"
Cops: "Bite my shiny metal ass!"
The ham service is already regulated in the way I describe, in this case by the FCC and in conformance to international treaties. What you describe would be strictly illegal under the existing rules.
It's you NIMBYs who see the world as an unending series of Pandora's boxes.
"Or, people would like to be able to own homes in areas unblighted by rooftop antenna towers."
Or on the third hand, they might want to move into a neighborhood and then inveigh against existing ham antennas. This happens all the time.
This legislation is a needed benefit for the ham community, but the NIMBY problem is far bigger than this. I have seen cases where a small group of Concerned Citizens (aka tinfoil yammerheads) can prevent needed cell towers from being installed in their town because 'radiation'.
What I would like to see is legislation that would strip NIMBYs of court access to prevent the construction of any public infrastructure project that conforms to published specifications for safety, appearance, and environmental impact for the project type, as adjudicated by the relevant regulatory agency. To obstruct a project, an opponent would be burdened with proving that the project did not conform to its type specification.
"After learning that police can compel the use of a fingerprint to unlock a phone, no, I don't enable or use the fingerprint feature."
If you didn't keep your Dabiq subscription app on your phone, you wouldn't need to avoid using the fingerprint. It's a huge convenience for all of us outside the tinfoil sector.
"My 'droid has four physical buttons: Power, home, vol up, vol down. They are reliable, provide good tactile feedback, and comfortable to use."
iPhones have also had the same four physical buttons, plus a ringer on/off. The big change in 7 is that the Home button is now a touch, like the rest of the screen, but with a vibratory feedback.
Next bombshell: screen reflectance from the iPhone 7 causes acne.
It's a trans-NEPTUNIAN object. Not trans-NEPTUNIUM. Neptunium is an element (Np. Atomic Number 93).
The term was invented so that cis-neptunian objects can spend the rest of their eons apologizing for their existence.
"I appreciate that "dwarf" planet doesn't sound too PC but I do wonder whether we should reserve the adjective "tiny" for items too small for their own gravitational mass to pull them into a sphere."
If you're going to invent your own classification system, then I propose we make everyone feel better by classififying them as follows:
'Tall' - A body too small to form a sphere.
'Grande' - Forms a sphere but does not clear its orbit.
'Venti' - Clears its orbit.
'Trenta' - Gas giants.
Much worse. I would literally suck a dick to get the mobile plans they have in the states.
For that deal, you would have to sign up with Comcast.
They have stopped reproducing, and the government is desperately seeking ways of improving the birth rate.
I have never had touch disease, or a bending problem, or a dropping problem.
"I second this, I cant stand touch screens and there stupid interfaces."
And my phone is carved out of a single piece of granite! And I carved it myself!
Edit: what goes on in religious communities...
What atheists keep missing is that 99 percent of what he's on in religious communities is culture, not theology.
There should be specially curated phones for kids which will let them learn how to use one, including installing apps, in a safe manner.
This is a technical forum. For the sake of us all, please go find yourself a religious forum.
I'm sure the French know when they are being boiled.
It is only in the last two or three years that this has become apparent to them.
"And just for the records, scientists have not been "crying wolf" for three decades, they've been pointing out the physics of the greenhouse effect"
It's not the scientists who have been crying wolf, but the Greens. Time after time after time, every discerned environmental problem is going to kill us all: famine, exhaustion of industrial metals, acid rain, the ozone layer, the energy crisis. Small wonder, then, that the average person is having trouble grasping the carbon problem.
Can we all agree to two things: let the science work itself out to find the truth, and set the engineers free to implement any fixes that may be needed?