There's been many years between cavemen and now, and in that time, we got up at sunrise, and went to bed at sunset. Only in the past 200 years or so did we have sufficient artificial light that we no longer were tied to the sun.
Because I mean, they said Galaxy line, which is a LOT of phones. In 2014 alone, Samsung released around 2-3 new phones a week. (They released about 1 new tablet a week, too - 54 different models!)
We're talking well over 100 new Android phones in 2014 alone. Granted, a lot are just variants for carriers, but that's still a LOT of phones and models and builds.
Yes, Samsung has a HUGE software development force - larger than Google, Apple and Microsoft combined (well over 100K software developers), but still, we're talking a huge number of builds, and a huge amount of testing.
And many of those phones are basically sold at disposable prices because they were built to basically be free.
The story would be more believable if they only kept to say, the Galaxy S6 or Note 5 or Edge 6, the three flagships, even though that's only around 10% of their sales.
And we have a Prime Minister who's vowing and trying to get TPP ratified just before the vote. He's disappointed he couldn't get it ratified before the election call, but in the middle of his campaigning, that's one of his key pillars.
Might also try to participate in that debate as well and ask about it. Though given bill C-51, and the other bills he's trying to get passed, website blocking might be the least of your problems.
And always - go vote. I know he also passed a new law making it harder to do so, and the courts have even admitted that while the law is bad, they won't overturn it because it will screw with the election. All the forms and all that were printed out and it's too troublesome for the courts to repeal the bad law because it's too close to an election. Between that and his efforts to disenfranchise voters through other means (including fake phone calls directing people to the wrong location - and handcuffing the officials in charge of investigating election fraud...), well, make sure you have all your ducks in a row, because unless you bring in a Conservative party member card, they're going to make it hard for you to vote.
unless someone dumped 777 parts in the ocean as a diversion
Well, that's why they went to check the part to see if it could've been a part form MH370. There are plenty of identifying marks they can choose form so if some are gone, they still have extras to choose from.
Basically when we found the piece, we were basically confident it was, but then we subject the article to extra verification and we know for sure.
(Such identifying marks include serial numbers and other marks that can be traced back to when Boeing assembled the plane, or lot numbers that were identical, etc. Aircraft are regulated so much that everything is tracable... which is why the parts cost so much - you're not paying for the part, you're paying for all the documentation behind the part).
It really was only a matter of time until drugs and other stuff started getting dropped into prisons. People have been doing low tech versions of this for decades, if not centuries.
Heck, I'm surprised prisons haven't started putting up nets to prevent this. Especially after a helicopter (full size) was forced to land in the middle of a prison yard in Quebec so two inmates can escape.
For this attack is great if you have to identify the model/gyroscope and have done testing to get a value of the resonant frequencies of the gyroscope before hand and send a sound loud enough to disable it. 140 Db causes permanent hearing damage and that only makes it effective to 40 meters. I hardly think a system that deafens everyone in a large radius to take down a drone for the off chance that you even know the frequency to disable a drone is hardly practical. And if like the ones tested in the article you can attach a speaker to the device before hand, I doubt you even need to think about a system like this to disable the drone.
You can direct sound quite readily through the use of parametric speakers. Heck, you can buy one or two for experimentation (those things come with a warning because in high power mode, they do 110dB).
Because the sound is emitted as ultrasonic frequencies, it inherits the directionality of the high frequency.
Ancient and non-Indo-European languages can be particularly good, as learning these requires engagement with the logical underpinnings of "how a language works". French/Spanish/German etc, unfortunately often tend to be taught using a "phrasebook" approach that might result in a faster route to a passable fluency (provided the conversation remains within comfortable bounds), but doesn't bring the same wider benefits.
European languages reflect the history of the world quite well.
You've got the Romantic languages (from the Roman Empire), Germanic lanuguages, English (really, Barbaric), Greek, etc. French, Italian, Spanish are Romantic, and share a great deal of similarity - enough so that if you know one, you can passably survive in the other two countries. But that's because the roots are common (Roman Empire).
Trace the history of the world and you'll see how the languages evolved as one race conquers another.
I don't think it would matter as they were a corp with money and you are most likely not.
No, it's more likely BoingBoing owns a bunch of IP addresses. They dedicated one of them for a Tor exit node, much like you'd have another for web servers, etc.
As in, that IP address most likely does not belong to a leaf user - it's in Boing Boing's address space, and they simply replied that that server does not keep logs as is the nature of a Tor exit node. And since that machine is only a Tor exit node, that's it. It never was a webserver or any other service.
Whereas you and I are leaf nodes - we don't just run Tor exit nodes, but also we browse the web, download files, stream movies, etc through the connection. So you cannot claim innocence like Boing Boing can - because it could very well have been you that downloaded the files and not Tor.
The basic rule in play is this - if you run a Tor exit node, make sure that's the ONLY thing running at that IP. Do not do your web surfing or run any other service on that IP - ever. If you did, make sure you keep really good notes on when you switched over, and make it complete and absolute.
I'm trying to think of what games people play competitively on consoles, and none come to mind. Keyboard and mouse flat out destroys controllers when it comes to competitive play. Sure you'll have the occasional console player swear how much better they do with a controller, but the fact is they'll get trashed if they try to compete against a legit keyboard/mouse user.
Actually, Halo's been pretty big at the online competition arena - there's at least a couple of tournaments a year for it. (MLG, anyone?). It's not as bright as it used to be, but there's still some hardcore players and teams who compete. I know my Xbox still has highlight reels from the various Halo tournaments that were held.
And while PC or keyboard/mouse can trounce controller any day, things may be more evenly matched if the players all used controllers.
Basically, this is Microsoft getting behind competitive game playing and being a sponsor to promote their Xbone. And it really isn't unusual - Microsoft has done similar things in the past. I think right now there's a Halo tournament online going on in the leadup to Halo 5.
Note the FBI asked for logs and stuff - they were assuming the IP address in question was loaned out - either they were an ISP, or maybe a VPN provider, or some other thing.
Presumably Boing Boing owns enough IP addresses that they can dedicate it just for TOR exit nodes. And nothing else - I mean, if they had a webserver on it, they presumably they would have logs to hand over.
If it was you or I with a leaf connection to our ISP, then most likely things will not be so easy - since they will go after the ISP, who will happily give up your information. Unless of course, you decide you want to give Comcast more money and buy a connection just to run Tor on.
So the trick may work in the limited case where yes, it's a dedicated Tor exit node and not used for anything else. But if there's a chance it was used for personal reason or there were logs for some other service, then maybe things won't be so good.
Wow I didn't even make it that far. This guy is clearly an idiot. He didn't get rid of his dirty fuel burning ways, he just outsourced them to others. Ordering new clothes is way worse than washing some. And as far as this soylent stuff is concerned wasn't it proven that supplements aren't very good and you need actual food to be healthy? Absorption rates of supplements aren't good from what I read and they should be used to supplement an actual healthy diet.
Exactly. He "cut his consumption" down by externalizing it all. Basically pushing it off somewhere else and hiding it.
That's like every other company out there - they pollute because the cost of pollution is basically free - the cost is externalized (well, it was until Obama introduced those regulations). When people complain about the "cost of complyihg" it means they're no longer externalizing the cost (free) and now having to pay for it.
Basically this idiot is making himself feel better by making society worse. He doesn't do laundry - but the charity he donates clothes is forced to do it. He's basically pushed the environmental impact, energy and cost of laundry onto some other 3rd party. Or if they deem it too dirty, they'll just toss it in the garbage. To him, he's "in the clear" still because he didn't throw it away directly.
Basically, the stuff this guy did was offload onto someone else - you can conceptualize this by asking - what happens if EVERYOHE did it? If it's truly for the environment, then if everyone did it, we'd be better off. If not, then no, it's not as good.
For an example - say check your tire pressure - most people will probably be on the slightly low side. But if everyone then pumped their tires to the right pressure, society benefits from the reduced fuel consumption, cleaner air (less fuel, less pollutants, etc). That's a real net plus.
Using less energy - that's a good thing too - or more renewables. But if you're claiming your coal-powered server in a datacenter isn't your concern if you remote into it, well...
What this guy did would be like RMS asking someone to open Microsoft Word for him because he needs to do something, while claiming to be only using free software. (Yes, I know RMS doesn't do this, but it's an example).
Plus, I'm sure he's got the income to support this kind of lifestyle - enough to make a point, but really, I think I'd give it to the climate change deniers. For they can poke enough holes in his "living arrangements" to basically say "if we agree to cut back, look at how we'll live - and look,he's not even green if he needs all that stuff!".
I'd say he's among the worst kind of "environmentalist" around - a green-washer.
I know that nothing has truly been invented until Apple invents it, but such intelligent IVR"s have been around for years with varying levels of success. The reason the simple "Press N for X" phone trees continue to be popular is because they are easy to implement in the phone system, easy to maintain using a simple GUI, and easy for companies (even small companies) to understand.
And actually, less prone to error and less frustrating for users to use.
Ask anyone with a heavy accent how well IVRs work, and the meme of someone yelling into the phone while the IVR fails to recognize their speech is common.
Pressing numbers works, though is slightly less convenient on modern cellphones, and is generally recognizable even in the worst conditions (because well, they were designed that way - the frequencies were specially chosen to accommodate really, really, really terrible connections).
Then there's the whole yelling thing - people tend to lose it after the 3rd "I'm sorry, would you please repeat your request?".
The trick though is to realize that numbers still work, and hitting "0" often works to get you to a human the fastest.
An init daemon could re-run the init script with the "status" option, and if that exited non-true then it could re-run it with the "start" option, and if that exited non-true then it could give up and interrupt the boot process. That systemd can't do this is not my problem. That systemd won't do this has caused us all problems.
Wow... that's inefficient. Polling to see if a service is running then restart it.
And that's the problem with the init scripts - they make the whole thing less efficient. If a process spawns another process, that parent gets notification by default when something happens to its child. See SIGCHLD - the kernel sends it to the parent of a child process when the child process exits or terminates.
And with that, init is notified. In fact, even SysVInit has to do this - as PID 1, it's the parent of all processes - if a child process exits or terminates after its parent has terminate, init adopts the child process, and it gets the SIGCHLD. It then quietly reaps the zombie process.
FYI - SysVInit is also a service manager - it's perfectly capable of restarting processes when they quit, even rate limiting start up - if a process dies too many times in a minute, it'll be disabled for 5 minutes. Of course, few services in Linux actually USE the fact that init can restart processes automatically.
As a Canadian, I agree. Cellphone companies here are playing a strange game. As a potential customer, the only winning move is not to pay.
Anyone want to play a nice game of chess?
People wonder why I keep my plan, but it's because years ago (around a decade), Fido (back when they were independent) had two data plans - 100MB or unlimited.
So yeah, I've been grandfathered into an unlimited plan. And ot be honest, they're going to have a hard time getting me off of it. I mean, getting a contract is silly for me - if I buy an iPhone, getting a no-commitment one means it's unlocked if I buy from Apple, and carriers sell the Nexus phones for ridiculous prices...
Here in Canada it's generally more then a few cents. In my neck of the woods gas is $1.16/L(~$4.90/gal), if I travel 30km(~18mi), I can buy it for $0.82(~$3.15/gal).
So if your car averages around 10L/100km, 60 km round trip is 6L of gas. At 82 cents, that's $4.92 in gas for the trip. Using that gas station saves you 34 cents/L, so to break even would require 14.4L. That doesn't count the added wear, or your time, which would basically mean roughly an hour trip. If you put in 50L, then you'd have saved about $12.10 after accounting for the trip. For that hour trip just for gas to save $12, it's debatable - it is better than minimum wage...
Now, if you're routinely doing that trip, then it completely makes sense to fill up there. But if you're doing the trip just to fill up, it's in the realm of false economy. Unless you have a lot of time to kill, that is.
And if anyone reading is wondering, those prices are in Canadian dollars, which makes it roughly US$3.76/gal and US$2.42/gal at the current exchange rate.
Don't you just long for the days when sendmail and bind would be always in the news because of some flaw or other? Heck, didn't we all run alternatives because sendmail and bind were so buggy...
How long has it been since we last had a Bind security issue...
I've always wondered about people who buy these kind of cables. I mean, they're expensive cables, but what do they plug them into? Do they spend $340/$4000/$10000+ on a cable only to plug them into a cheap $15 D-Link switch?
I mean, what are the "audiophile" switches out there? Do they buy those $10,000 Cisco Catalyst switches? Or do they prefer HP ProCurve? Or do they just plug them in any old switch or whatever came with their $20 router?
It's just like power cables. You're telling me that the power, which came from a power station hundreds or thousands of miles away, travelling through copper wires, then coming into your house wired with regular Romex style house wiring, that some special cable used in the last 6 feet really matter? Or do they rewire their house with special audio quality wire? Do they buy special electrons from their power company? Or paid to have their house wired using the special cable? Are you telling me that after hundreds/thousands of miles, the last 6 feet really matter?
Wasn't the ability for other browsers to set themselves as the default browser part of the DoJ settlement? So now Microsoft is deciding that doesn't apply?
Sorry, but Microsoft has gone well into the "we can do anything we want to your computer, any time we want, and unless you have an enterprise license you can't stop us".
That is complete bullshit. If they're going to assert ownership of my computer, they can help me pay for it. Until they do, it's my computer.
Here's the problem - Firefox/Chrome/etc ask you if you want them to be the default browser. The ability for the program to set the preference is the problem.
If you don't see the problem, let me rephrase it. I create SuperWebBrowser. I think it's so super, I will make it the default browser on everyone's machine. So I do that. Why should I ask the user? It's so super they'll want it.
If you still don't get it, then how about, I create WebBrowserSpy and set it as default. It launches an instance of your normal web browser but hooked so it can spy at your traffic and even get at HTTPS data after it's been decrypted.
Just because the good guys ask, doesn't mean everyone else has to. In fact, if you're particularly nasty, if that setting is changed, you can always reset it back.
And you'll be surprised, but both scenarios are common - many management types can't understand that people might just want to use your software as necessary, and they don't need or want it to be the default shell, the default web browser, to pin itself to the task bar and start menu and all sorts of other things. After all, after buying a copy of SuperApplication, why wouldn't you want it in your face everywhere you look? I mean, it's a great application.
It's why Microsoft doesn't provide APIs to pin applications to the task bar, start menu and a few other things. Heck, I'm surprised no installer decides to go change your desktop wallpaper on you after you install an app. After all, it's super, and you'll not want to live without it...
I do kind of wonder about one thing, though... why are the engineers who designed that beast not being indicted? After all, nearly all of the vital pumps and generators were in the basements of both the Daiichi and Daini sites, with much of the critical equipment right next to the water, instead of uphill where they should have been (and at least not in basements... WTH, people?)
Actually, the generators being under was not the problem. You can run generators underwater, provided you have a source for fuel and air above water and can keep it reasonably water tight.
The real problem was the distribution gear got flooded.
As in the electrical panels. Once the tsunami flooded the panels, they shorted out. The generators were running just fine with the water level, and even then, the generators were a backup to a backup.
The first thing is if the reactors go offline, the power station draws power from the grid to run the equipment. And the plant was doing that since there was still power going in. That's the first backup. The second backup is if the grid power goes offline, then you have local generators.
All of which means diddly when your electrical distribution panels get soaked and short out your switchgear, taking with it BOTH backup mechanisms. So now it doesn't matter that the generators or grid power was available - the panel's shorted out and you can't use either system.
The wireless card in the laptop is Atheros. The entire lower mac is in hardware in this card, so binary blobs are not needed. Wifi should work fine. Obviously the card can DMA over PCIe to the main memory so it could still compromise the machine.
Which really makes the whole "freedom" thing kind of a cheat.
I mean, if I stick RAM on my hardware, and have the driver load that RAM with firmware, it's seen as "non-free" because there's this binary blob on there.
Yet, if I stick some flash on it, pre-load that at the factory with the same binary blob, it's see as "free" because the driver is open and doesn't have to load a binary blob.
I can keep the driver and everything else the same - one is seen as "non-free" because the driver has to load a binary blob into hardware, and the other is seen as "free" because it doesn't.
Especially if you are looking to wirelessly transmit 1080i/p reliably. I've tried and wireless was so unreliable (display artifacts and whatnot not present with wired) that I wound up going to the crawlspace and running wires to every device in the house.
There are proprietary solutions, and generic solutions.
I've seen proprietary HDMI to wireless to HDMI adapters - one end plugs into an HDMI ouput, the other end plugs into an HDMI input and it's supposed to work, but no idea how it works internally.
Then there's non-proprietary solutions like Miracast which is built into Windows 8/8.1 and can cast your screen to it, but it's laggy as all heck.
Which is to be expected - a raw RGB888 HDMI image at 1080p60 is a large datarate (4Gbps) so you're going to lose something due to compression unless you run 10gE through your house.
The future will be driverless cars, mass transit and bicycles in urban/suburban areas.
The sea change is already happening - car ownership of all kinds is lowest among millenials. In fact, having a driver's license is no longer the rite of passage it once was - there's a growing group of millenials who do not have a driver's license and have no intention of getting one. Granted, they're generally limited to areas with good public transit, but the car as a form of status symbol no longer applies.
And public transit, especially subways and the like, often get people around faster than being stuck in traffic. (The daily grind of traffic jams will rapidly wear down even the strongest driving advocate). And we know this because distracted driving is either #1 or rapidly becoming the #1 cause of accidents (drunk driving is/was #1) - because driving is boring and horrendous.
Heck, some employers have reported difficulty recruiting people because of the commute. And what was once a good idea to move to an industrial park where land is cheap and you can stuff people in like cattle, businesses are finding that they need to be more urban to attract employees who don't want, or can't, do the commute and want to be close to amenities.
If not, then Microsoft will not have the opportunity "to push the web browsing experience" for me.
No. Windows 7 fell out of mainstream support January 13, 2015. That means no new features. It's currently in extended support, which runs out January 14, 2020, at which point there will be no more security updates, either.
Windows 8 will probably get it as it should be in mainstream support still.
So below are all the rules for flying an RC plane. Why don't we simply apply the rules to drones? As a matter of fact, you have to explain to me why the don't automatically apply anyway?
Fly below 400 feet and remain clear of surrounding obstacles Keep the aircraft within visual line of sight at all times Remain well clear of and do not interfere with manned aircraft operations Don't fly within 5 miles of an airport unless you contact the airport and control tower before flying Don't fly near people or stadiums Don't fly an aircraft that weighs more than 55 lbs Don't be careless or reckless with your unmanned aircraft Ã" you could be fined for endangering people or other aircraft
They're not rules, they're just guidelines.
I repeat, they are not rules, they are guidelines.
All things in the air are classified under the FAA jurisdiction, including those little toy hobby drones you fly in your backyard.
The reason the FAA released the advisory circular (it's not official law or anything) is because the FAA recognizes the silliness of trying to enforce rules for "normal" aircraft on those who want to fly little models for recreation.
So they released a set of guidelines that generally will keep you safe from the FAA, but not always - the NTSB has ruled that the FAA has the right to charge hobbyists with dangerous flying. (A drone pilot was observed dodging and weaving their drone in a public park at people, buzzing them and flying through an underpass tunnel with people in them. The FAA pressed charges, the initial NTSB official ruled against the FAA (per the advisory circular), and the FAA appealed to the NTSB board saying despite the circular, it's still an aircraft under their jurisdiction and they did have the right to prosecute the owner. The FAA won.).
Anyhow, the guy probably should've swung at the drone - they still are vulnerable beasts and if you can disable a rotor, most will be uncontrollable. Whacking it with a stick is sufficient.
And yeah, I too would like to see the drone owner charged.
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There's been many years between cavemen and now, and in that time, we got up at sunrise, and went to bed at sunset. Only in the past 200 years or so did we have sufficient artificial light that we no longer were tied to the sun.
Either way, we tend to respond to light.
Good point.
Because I mean, they said Galaxy line, which is a LOT of phones. In 2014 alone, Samsung released around 2-3 new phones a week. (They released about 1 new tablet a week, too - 54 different models!)
We're talking well over 100 new Android phones in 2014 alone. Granted, a lot are just variants for carriers, but that's still a LOT of phones and models and builds.
Yes, Samsung has a HUGE software development force - larger than Google, Apple and Microsoft combined (well over 100K software developers), but still, we're talking a huge number of builds, and a huge amount of testing.
And many of those phones are basically sold at disposable prices because they were built to basically be free.
The story would be more believable if they only kept to say, the Galaxy S6 or Note 5 or Edge 6, the three flagships, even though that's only around 10% of their sales.
And we have a Prime Minister who's vowing and trying to get TPP ratified just before the vote. He's disappointed he couldn't get it ratified before the election call, but in the middle of his campaigning, that's one of his key pillars.
Might also try to participate in that debate as well and ask about it. Though given bill C-51, and the other bills he's trying to get passed, website blocking might be the least of your problems.
And always - go vote. I know he also passed a new law making it harder to do so, and the courts have even admitted that while the law is bad, they won't overturn it because it will screw with the election. All the forms and all that were printed out and it's too troublesome for the courts to repeal the bad law because it's too close to an election. Between that and his efforts to disenfranchise voters through other means (including fake phone calls directing people to the wrong location - and handcuffing the officials in charge of investigating election fraud...), well, make sure you have all your ducks in a row, because unless you bring in a Conservative party member card, they're going to make it hard for you to vote.
Well, that's why they went to check the part to see if it could've been a part form MH370. There are plenty of identifying marks they can choose form so if some are gone, they still have extras to choose from.
Basically when we found the piece, we were basically confident it was, but then we subject the article to extra verification and we know for sure.
(Such identifying marks include serial numbers and other marks that can be traced back to when Boeing assembled the plane, or lot numbers that were identical, etc. Aircraft are regulated so much that everything is tracable... which is why the parts cost so much - you're not paying for the part, you're paying for all the documentation behind the part).
Heck, I'm surprised prisons haven't started putting up nets to prevent this. Especially after a helicopter (full size) was forced to land in the middle of a prison yard in Quebec so two inmates can escape.
You can direct sound quite readily through the use of parametric speakers. Heck, you can buy one or two for experimentation (those things come with a warning because in high power mode, they do 110dB).
Because the sound is emitted as ultrasonic frequencies, it inherits the directionality of the high frequency.
European languages reflect the history of the world quite well.
You've got the Romantic languages (from the Roman Empire), Germanic lanuguages, English (really, Barbaric), Greek, etc. French, Italian, Spanish are Romantic, and share a great deal of similarity - enough so that if you know one, you can passably survive in the other two countries. But that's because the roots are common (Roman Empire).
Trace the history of the world and you'll see how the languages evolved as one race conquers another.
No, it's more likely BoingBoing owns a bunch of IP addresses. They dedicated one of them for a Tor exit node, much like you'd have another for web servers, etc.
As in, that IP address most likely does not belong to a leaf user - it's in Boing Boing's address space, and they simply replied that that server does not keep logs as is the nature of a Tor exit node. And since that machine is only a Tor exit node, that's it. It never was a webserver or any other service.
Whereas you and I are leaf nodes - we don't just run Tor exit nodes, but also we browse the web, download files, stream movies, etc through the connection. So you cannot claim innocence like Boing Boing can - because it could very well have been you that downloaded the files and not Tor.
The basic rule in play is this - if you run a Tor exit node, make sure that's the ONLY thing running at that IP. Do not do your web surfing or run any other service on that IP - ever. If you did, make sure you keep really good notes on when you switched over, and make it complete and absolute.
Actually, Halo's been pretty big at the online competition arena - there's at least a couple of tournaments a year for it. (MLG, anyone?). It's not as bright as it used to be, but there's still some hardcore players and teams who compete. I know my Xbox still has highlight reels from the various Halo tournaments that were held.
And while PC or keyboard/mouse can trounce controller any day, things may be more evenly matched if the players all used controllers.
Basically, this is Microsoft getting behind competitive game playing and being a sponsor to promote their Xbone. And it really isn't unusual - Microsoft has done similar things in the past. I think right now there's a Halo tournament online going on in the leadup to Halo 5.
Note the FBI asked for logs and stuff - they were assuming the IP address in question was loaned out - either they were an ISP, or maybe a VPN provider, or some other thing.
Presumably Boing Boing owns enough IP addresses that they can dedicate it just for TOR exit nodes. And nothing else - I mean, if they had a webserver on it, they presumably they would have logs to hand over.
If it was you or I with a leaf connection to our ISP, then most likely things will not be so easy - since they will go after the ISP, who will happily give up your information. Unless of course, you decide you want to give Comcast more money and buy a connection just to run Tor on.
So the trick may work in the limited case where yes, it's a dedicated Tor exit node and not used for anything else. But if there's a chance it was used for personal reason or there were logs for some other service, then maybe things won't be so good.
Exactly. He "cut his consumption" down by externalizing it all. Basically pushing it off somewhere else and hiding it.
That's like every other company out there - they pollute because the cost of pollution is basically free - the cost is externalized (well, it was until Obama introduced those regulations). When people complain about the "cost of complyihg" it means they're no longer externalizing the cost (free) and now having to pay for it.
Basically this idiot is making himself feel better by making society worse. He doesn't do laundry - but the charity he donates clothes is forced to do it. He's basically pushed the environmental impact, energy and cost of laundry onto some other 3rd party. Or if they deem it too dirty, they'll just toss it in the garbage. To him, he's "in the clear" still because he didn't throw it away directly.
Basically, the stuff this guy did was offload onto someone else - you can conceptualize this by asking - what happens if EVERYOHE did it? If it's truly for the environment, then if everyone did it, we'd be better off. If not, then no, it's not as good.
For an example - say check your tire pressure - most people will probably be on the slightly low side. But if everyone then pumped their tires to the right pressure, society benefits from the reduced fuel consumption, cleaner air (less fuel, less pollutants, etc). That's a real net plus.
Using less energy - that's a good thing too - or more renewables. But if you're claiming your coal-powered server in a datacenter isn't your concern if you remote into it, well...
What this guy did would be like RMS asking someone to open Microsoft Word for him because he needs to do something, while claiming to be only using free software. (Yes, I know RMS doesn't do this, but it's an example).
Plus, I'm sure he's got the income to support this kind of lifestyle - enough to make a point, but really, I think I'd give it to the climate change deniers. For they can poke enough holes in his "living arrangements" to basically say "if we agree to cut back, look at how we'll live - and look ,he's not even green if he needs all that stuff!".
I'd say he's among the worst kind of "environmentalist" around - a green-washer.
And actually, less prone to error and less frustrating for users to use.
Ask anyone with a heavy accent how well IVRs work, and the meme of someone yelling into the phone while the IVR fails to recognize their speech is common.
Pressing numbers works, though is slightly less convenient on modern cellphones, and is generally recognizable even in the worst conditions (because well, they were designed that way - the frequencies were specially chosen to accommodate really, really, really terrible connections).
Then there's the whole yelling thing - people tend to lose it after the 3rd "I'm sorry, would you please repeat your request?".
The trick though is to realize that numbers still work, and hitting "0" often works to get you to a human the fastest.
Wow... that's inefficient. Polling to see if a service is running then restart it.
And that's the problem with the init scripts - they make the whole thing less efficient. If a process spawns another process, that parent gets notification by default when something happens to its child. See SIGCHLD - the kernel sends it to the parent of a child process when the child process exits or terminates.
And with that, init is notified. In fact, even SysVInit has to do this - as PID 1, it's the parent of all processes - if a child process exits or terminates after its parent has terminate, init adopts the child process, and it gets the SIGCHLD. It then quietly reaps the zombie process.
FYI - SysVInit is also a service manager - it's perfectly capable of restarting processes when they quit, even rate limiting start up - if a process dies too many times in a minute, it'll be disabled for 5 minutes. Of course, few services in Linux actually USE the fact that init can restart processes automatically.
People wonder why I keep my plan, but it's because years ago (around a decade), Fido (back when they were independent) had two data plans - 100MB or unlimited.
So yeah, I've been grandfathered into an unlimited plan. And ot be honest, they're going to have a hard time getting me off of it. I mean, getting a contract is silly for me - if I buy an iPhone, getting a no-commitment one means it's unlocked if I buy from Apple, and carriers sell the Nexus phones for ridiculous prices...
So if your car averages around 10L/100km, 60 km round trip is 6L of gas. At 82 cents, that's $4.92 in gas for the trip. Using that gas station saves you 34 cents/L, so to break even would require 14.4L. That doesn't count the added wear, or your time, which would basically mean roughly an hour trip. If you put in 50L, then you'd have saved about $12.10 after accounting for the trip. For that hour trip just for gas to save $12, it's debatable - it is better than minimum wage...
Now, if you're routinely doing that trip, then it completely makes sense to fill up there. But if you're doing the trip just to fill up, it's in the realm of false economy. Unless you have a lot of time to kill, that is.
And if anyone reading is wondering, those prices are in Canadian dollars, which makes it roughly US$3.76/gal and US$2.42/gal at the current exchange rate.
Don't you just long for the days when sendmail and bind would be always in the news because of some flaw or other? Heck, didn't we all run alternatives because sendmail and bind were so buggy...
How long has it been since we last had a Bind security issue...
I've always wondered about people who buy these kind of cables. I mean, they're expensive cables, but what do they plug them into? Do they spend $340/$4000/$10000+ on a cable only to plug them into a cheap $15 D-Link switch?
I mean, what are the "audiophile" switches out there? Do they buy those $10,000 Cisco Catalyst switches? Or do they prefer HP ProCurve? Or do they just plug them in any old switch or whatever came with their $20 router?
It's just like power cables. You're telling me that the power, which came from a power station hundreds or thousands of miles away, travelling through copper wires, then coming into your house wired with regular Romex style house wiring, that some special cable used in the last 6 feet really matter? Or do they rewire their house with special audio quality wire? Do they buy special electrons from their power company? Or paid to have their house wired using the special cable? Are you telling me that after hundreds/thousands of miles, the last 6 feet really matter?
Here's the problem - Firefox/Chrome/etc ask you if you want them to be the default browser. The ability for the program to set the preference is the problem.
If you don't see the problem, let me rephrase it. I create SuperWebBrowser. I think it's so super, I will make it the default browser on everyone's machine. So I do that. Why should I ask the user? It's so super they'll want it.
If you still don't get it, then how about, I create WebBrowserSpy and set it as default. It launches an instance of your normal web browser but hooked so it can spy at your traffic and even get at HTTPS data after it's been decrypted.
Just because the good guys ask, doesn't mean everyone else has to. In fact, if you're particularly nasty, if that setting is changed, you can always reset it back.
And you'll be surprised, but both scenarios are common - many management types can't understand that people might just want to use your software as necessary, and they don't need or want it to be the default shell, the default web browser, to pin itself to the task bar and start menu and all sorts of other things. After all, after buying a copy of SuperApplication, why wouldn't you want it in your face everywhere you look? I mean, it's a great application.
It's why Microsoft doesn't provide APIs to pin applications to the task bar, start menu and a few other things. Heck, I'm surprised no installer decides to go change your desktop wallpaper on you after you install an app. After all, it's super, and you'll not want to live without it...
Actually, the generators being under was not the problem. You can run generators underwater, provided you have a source for fuel and air above water and can keep it reasonably water tight.
The real problem was the distribution gear got flooded.
As in the electrical panels. Once the tsunami flooded the panels, they shorted out. The generators were running just fine with the water level, and even then, the generators were a backup to a backup.
The first thing is if the reactors go offline, the power station draws power from the grid to run the equipment. And the plant was doing that since there was still power going in. That's the first backup. The second backup is if the grid power goes offline, then you have local generators.
All of which means diddly when your electrical distribution panels get soaked and short out your switchgear, taking with it BOTH backup mechanisms. So now it doesn't matter that the generators or grid power was available - the panel's shorted out and you can't use either system.
Which really makes the whole "freedom" thing kind of a cheat.
I mean, if I stick RAM on my hardware, and have the driver load that RAM with firmware, it's seen as "non-free" because there's this binary blob on there.
Yet, if I stick some flash on it, pre-load that at the factory with the same binary blob, it's see as "free" because the driver is open and doesn't have to load a binary blob.
I can keep the driver and everything else the same - one is seen as "non-free" because the driver has to load a binary blob into hardware, and the other is seen as "free" because it doesn't.
There are proprietary solutions, and generic solutions.
I've seen proprietary HDMI to wireless to HDMI adapters - one end plugs into an HDMI ouput, the other end plugs into an HDMI input and it's supposed to work, but no idea how it works internally.
Then there's non-proprietary solutions like Miracast which is built into Windows 8/8.1 and can cast your screen to it, but it's laggy as all heck.
Which is to be expected - a raw RGB888 HDMI image at 1080p60 is a large datarate (4Gbps) so you're going to lose something due to compression unless you run 10gE through your house.
If it isn't wired, you're not gonna game with it.
The sea change is already happening - car ownership of all kinds is lowest among millenials. In fact, having a driver's license is no longer the rite of passage it once was - there's a growing group of millenials who do not have a driver's license and have no intention of getting one. Granted, they're generally limited to areas with good public transit, but the car as a form of status symbol no longer applies.
And public transit, especially subways and the like, often get people around faster than being stuck in traffic. (The daily grind of traffic jams will rapidly wear down even the strongest driving advocate). And we know this because distracted driving is either #1 or rapidly becoming the #1 cause of accidents (drunk driving is/was #1) - because driving is boring and horrendous.
Heck, some employers have reported difficulty recruiting people because of the commute. And what was once a good idea to move to an industrial park where land is cheap and you can stuff people in like cattle, businesses are finding that they need to be more urban to attract employees who don't want, or can't, do the commute and want to be close to amenities.
No. Windows 7 fell out of mainstream support January 13, 2015. That means no new features. It's currently in extended support, which runs out January 14, 2020, at which point there will be no more security updates, either.
Windows 8 will probably get it as it should be in mainstream support still.
Out of the box, no. But there are plenty of apps to solve that problem.
They're not rules, they're just guidelines.
I repeat, they are not rules, they are guidelines.
All things in the air are classified under the FAA jurisdiction, including those little toy hobby drones you fly in your backyard.
The reason the FAA released the advisory circular (it's not official law or anything) is because the FAA recognizes the silliness of trying to enforce rules for "normal" aircraft on those who want to fly little models for recreation.
So they released a set of guidelines that generally will keep you safe from the FAA, but not always - the NTSB has ruled that the FAA has the right to charge hobbyists with dangerous flying. (A drone pilot was observed dodging and weaving their drone in a public park at people, buzzing them and flying through an underpass tunnel with people in them. The FAA pressed charges, the initial NTSB official ruled against the FAA (per the advisory circular), and the FAA appealed to the NTSB board saying despite the circular, it's still an aircraft under their jurisdiction and they did have the right to prosecute the owner. The FAA won.).
Anyhow, the guy probably should've swung at the drone - they still are vulnerable beasts and if you can disable a rotor, most will be uncontrollable. Whacking it with a stick is sufficient.
And yeah, I too would like to see the drone owner charged.