Almost all the time there will not be any useful alternatives to get to your destination. If you are already on the subway there is most likely no quicker alternative. If you check the app before you travel and you happen to be somewhere where there are multiple lines it might be useful but if the delay happens after you start you are probably stuck.
Not really, well-connected public transit systems often have multiple ways to get to the same destination. Heck, there are plenty of popular YouTube videos that take the challenge of going between two subway stations by getting off on one, running to the other, and boarding the same train.
And often the place I'm going to is between stations, so it's a tossup to which station I should get off at and walking. This app could easily tell you which way is better (we got into an argument at work over this - there were two stations you could stop at and which was better to use).
And often times, there are multiple routes you can take, so if one is a bit slower, it can be better to take the alternative.
In places with barely a public transit system, yes, it's too constrained and alternatives are generally terrible. But if you have a well connected system, often the optimal path is something highly debated amongst travellers.
A few years ago I spoke to a blind Linux/Unix developer who was extremely angry that there was no open source reader available. Not sure if that has changed and if both Apple and Microsoft are behind it, I doubt this will not be open source either.
Why do you need Open Source when you have open spec?
Apple and Microsoft worked together to make Braille displays a USB class standard, so you can plug in a compliant Braille display and have it work instantly. Being a class device means Linux devs can easily add support for it as well since the spec is easily available from USB-IF.
This is in contrast with existing Braille displays which often require their own drivers.
Now it is up to the hardware manufacturers to start to make compliant displays.
What's not clear is how they plan to present this to the computer -- is it going to be as a disk device, or is it just going to be mapped to RAM? My understanding is that Optane is still much slower than RAM, so it would seem to make sense to present it as a disk device somehow. I'm not sure any OS would even have a way of dealing with "these memory pages act like non-volatile storage, not like RAM".
Every OS has this ability. We call it a "RAM Disk". Even better, a lot of systems now can have persistent RAM disks as long as power is running
Sure some modifications will be needed - like the kernel recognizing that it shouldn't map it in as normal memory (but it can, but it might destroy RAM disk contents), but to be aware of it. The OS RAM disk driver can then be told those physical DIMMs are persistent storage RAM disks and there you go.
The BIOS/UEFI will probably mark it as special memory when it passes control to the OS loader
A vehicle where the fuel is nearly free, goes the same distance, and has 5x the horsepower along with a nearly immortal lifetime due to nearly no moving parts.
What boggles my mind is that this is only happening because of elon musk, they spent decades and millions of dollars holding back electric vehicles for stupid reasons. This revolution should have happened a long time ago.
Huh? Electriv vehicles were around over 100 years ago. In fact, they were the preferred source of powering a vehicle back then - gas was bad and smoky and sooty and nasty, while steam was, well, steam and had their own issues. Electricity was clean, didn't emit anything, and quiet and thus favored as the energy source.
And this was when batteries were piss-poor.
In fact, Ferdinand Porsche (yes, that Porsche) created the first gas-electric hybrid vehicle with a tiny gas engine charging batteries that drove hub motors way back in the day.
The only reason the entire industry went to ICE was a sudden availability of cheap and plentiful gas that basically rendered all other sources noncompetitive.
Elon Musk simply reintroduced the technology and showed it could be a practical competitor when you upgrade everything to modern day materials and technology.
I foresee an increase in jailbroken iPhones in Russia over the next few months.
No need to jailbreak anymore to install "unsanctioned" apps. This has been true since iOS 8.
XCode can compile and deploy to a device, and if you're on Windows, there are plenty of tools to do so as well.
Apple however doesn't see it as sideloading - they only approve of this method if you compiled the code yourself. It's why when f.lux tried it Apple had them stop since it wasn't open-source.
Problem is, banning the app doesn't remove the app from user's phones. Apple hasn't even demonstrated they can do that - they can potentially disable apps that use location APIs, but that's it.
So banning it just means new users can't install the app, or reinstall the app if they delete it. Existing app works just fine.
And new users can always use the well-documented way to side load the app onto their phones... something easy to do since Telegram is open-source.
...would someone use a payment system that tells everyone else what they're spending money on? Is the Snowflake Generation so narcissistic that they can't keep anything private?
Exactly. It's the braggart payment system.
It's all about the brag - you brag about your vacation on social media, about the new phone you bought, your new clothes, etc.
Venmo sumply capitalizes on that - hey, how you can PROVE you bought those items and not merely borrowed them!. Look at me buying my new phone!
And yes, it's a thing - turns out a lot of people beg/borrow/steal items for their selfies. Like they may take a nice selfie in a fancy car, but it turns out it's owned by a family friend instead. There was one YouTube personality whose mom filmed her daughter using the mom's boss's fancy sports car saying how rich she was. As mom was a realtor, there was plenty of filming to be hand in client houses, too.
It was only news because the mom got fired after she got found out. She now managers her daughter. But you can bet Venmo will be used heavily to prove those items were bought and not borrowed.
More so, if he releases game and it is disaster, then further cash infusions will stop. It doesn't even have to be an outright disaster, just fail to live up to it hype. Anything short of a perfect game and he is unlikely to be trusted again to "work in this town". So it isn't only financial motivation to keep everything in limbo, there is also career considerations.
You do realize it's Chris Roberts you're talking about, who released the whole Wing Commander series back in the 90s?
The real problem is really $200M. That's a huge budget, much larger than quite a few summer blockbusters, and quite a lot more than a few games out there.
The problem is there are a lot of people who contributed to that pot. Enough so that it'll be impossible to actually satisfy all of them, so for a good chunk of people, it will be a disaster.
The other question is will they have a market or did they soak up the dollars of everyone who was interested?
Seriously, though, T is confusing and confounding other nations because of his flip-flops, surprise "temporarily exemptions", vagueness, etc. Today's proclamations maybe be irrelevant tomorrow via a new Tweet. Most world leaders are relatively careful, systematic planners and don't know what to make of his style.
I'm not going to even say T's unpredictable style "doesn't work"; for it's too early to judge. I'm merely saying that it's baffling the h$ll out of world leaders and negotiators.
Maybe there is a method to his madness. I wouldn't bet on it personally because it resembles trolling to me, but can't rule it out yet. It's an interesting experiment; I just hope us lab-rats survive it all.
It's confounding only because most business negotiations are done in secret. When it leaks out it makes a lot of sense.
Trump has done a few things differently than most presidents. First, he's refused to divest himself of his businesses - usually a president puts their business in a trust so any decisions they may won't have potential conflict of interest.
It's why Russia is a big deal - it's one of the few countries where his businesses have done really, really, really well.
Or why ZTE suddenly deserves a lot of support (China dumps a half billion into a Trump hotel).
Next thing you know, Mexico will build a Trump hotel and it'll be "wall? what wall?" or if Mexico wants to build stuff using American equipment, "NAFTA GOOD!"
The problem is, these negotiations are done in private and under the privy of no one, so what looks erratic really turns out to be negotiation tactics to get a better deal.
...that some enterprising busker does not put the reader at waist height in a crowded area and gain hundreds of "taps" from unsuspecting passersby.
Which is why I have a NFC jammer in my pocket. It's just a little card that's powered by NFC and just jams the signal by responding. (Basically, in NFC, you send a clock and the card pulses to indicate a 1 or 0. The cards listen as well and if they detect a pulse they didn't send, it means a collision and the card will temporarily disable further responses until inquired again. The card that responds continue to do so unless it detects a collision from a third card. A card that successfully transmits disables itself for further inquiries while still powered).
So this card continues to send pulses out which prevents all the other cards from responding. NFC readers don't even acknowledge something is happening - they just fail to read anything.
Attempts to "tap" my wallet result in nothing being read.
Please don't let this spread to the U.S. I have some problem that makes the touch of metal silverware on my teeth feel like scratching my fingernails on a chalkboard, and I need to request plastic utensils everywhere I go because of that.
It's spreading.
But there are solutions!
Straws - there are metal (sucks to be you, though) and paper straws (like of old).
Cutlery - instead of plastic, use... bioplastic compostable cutlery.
The problem is that plastic utensils are single use and unless recycled (which most are not), they will clog up landfills and the planet for decades or more, all for something that was used for just a few minutes.
Compostable disposable cutlery is available and a lot of places actually use it these days. They are more expensive, but often feel less... chintzy and the ones I've had, feel much more robust. No more spoons that fold when filled with food, or fork tines that bend rather than poke the food. You put them in the compost bin when you're done. I think it's a soy-based product.
And you can carry your own set with you - they are compostable so you don't even have to wash them when you're done.
Personally, I like straws but I understand why people want them banned. Just I hate when you put ice in sodas and not provide a straw. So no looking at me funny if you don't provide straws and I ask for no ice.
If you follow any one of those "learn to play in 2 hours" type courses, you'd know this. (These are the courses that don't teach from first principles and generally get you playing within about 5 minutes).
You learn that most songs are composed of about 4 chords, and regardless of instrument (piano, guitar, ukelele, etc), those 4 chords are all you need to basically play about 90% of the music out there.
The chords are I, V, vi, and IV.
Which I think in C-major key, is C, G, Am and F. The more interesting thing is, you play these chords in the same order! (On a piano, I think you'd play it with D-major, and guitar is what, G major?)
It's a somewhat harmonious chord relationship, which is why it can be transposed to any key and the songs sound "the same".
To see this, you can google "4 chords music", or watch the following pretty much canonical YouTube video -
I wouldn't put too much trust in physical handbrakes. They are designed to prevent a stationary vehicle from moving, and that's it. They're not designed to arrest a powered, moving vehicle, and odds are pretty good that you'll burn it out before you stop your car in those situations.
So really, the actions are the same as they have been for the last 50 years of driving. Avoid trying to turn the engine off as a steering lock might engage. Disengage the transmission if possible, and apply the brakes, once, in a single forceful manner.
Your car's brakes are very powerful and this can be shown by the fact that it takes 10 seconds to accelerate your car from a standstill to highway speeds, but only 4 seconds to bring it back to a halt - and a lot of that is limited by traction with the road.
Exactly.
It's funny that most people clamoring for the "good old days" here want the "parking brake" to be the "emergency brake". Newsflash - it never was. Especially in the past where we never had 4-wheel disc brakes - it was usually discs in the front, and drum brakes in the rear. The parking brake always worked the drum brakes, which are weaker than disc brakes (and in a lot of systems, the parking brake doesn't activate the ratcheter that compensates for brake shoe wear).
Car manufacturers realized this, coupled with 4-wheel disc brakes, and dual (or quad!) independent brake circuits ensuring redundancy in the brake system. This relegates the handbrake to a parking brake at best, or in cars so equipped, as a stunt brake (for drifts, J-turns, etc).
The pure mechanical design also limits it - you can only pull so much, but the hydraulic system, even in half (one system down) is more powerful than the mechanical cable system. You can experiment and see how much actual force it takes to use the parking brake - it's a lot more than people realize just to even stop, yet you can push on the pedal and do so with much less distance and effort, even without power braking.
In an emergency, push hard on the brakes and they will overpower the engine. If you do it firmly, the brakes will not generate enough heat to fade (disc brakes have this as a major advantage over drum) and once you're stopped, the brakes will not generate heat at all as long as you're not moving, at which point you can calmly shift and turn off the engine.
And if everything works - power brakes and all 4 brakes (normal situation), a car with an engine that's racing can be brought to a safe stop rather non-eventfully.
Oh yeah, using the brake pedal also turns on the brake lights. Useful to warn others behind you that you're actually slowing down and stopping. Parking brake doesn't.
Can you cite any actual real evidence that this is true? Both parents are more likely to work today than in the past, so kids are often left home alone. This means less supervision, the opposite of what you claim.
Well, here in Canada, the Ministry of Children and Family Development got interested in a case where a dad taught his kids how to be independent. Enough so that his eldest (12) can supervise the younger ones to take them to school... using public transit. Now he's under legal threat that if they catch his kids alone, even just to cross the street to go to the store to buy ice cream, they'd be apprehended into foster care.
And yes, our public transit system is very good, and honestly, I took the bus alone as well (and I was even less experienced - the dad taught them the route, they had cellphones and everything, I had none of that).
It's actually sparked quite a bit of controversy - the kids were mature enough to take the bus by themselves, they attended the same school so it wasn't a problem of separation, etc. And now the government demands he hover over his kids - take the bus with them, walk to the store across the road with them to get something, etc.
Hell, I walked to school alone for a good stretch until my mom got a job and I had to go to a neighbour's house until it was time to leave for school. Getting a ride in the car was a small luxury - at the right time it was kicked out the door to walk to school.
While the bank can take the lion's share of blame for having flaky systems, the retailers and customers have to take some responsibility for not being prepared for such events.
And how often does it happen?
What backup systems would there be, other than cash? Payment systems meltdown very rarely - maybe once a year at the high end of the range, and usually only for a day tops.
Having manual cashless methods is not viable for something that infrequent - first off, retail turnover is high, while I know a retail store whose employees worked there for years, most retailers will have 200+% turnover rate, making training for such things pointless because chances are, it won't happen.
If it's something that happens more often, then yes it makes sense to do it. But it still happens really infrequently and while it sucks, you tend to just tolerate it.
I mean, I pump gas when the gauge goes around half or so - so if I can't pump gas one day because payment is down, I can pump it tomorrow, or the day after. There's nothing I generally do that requires me to have something bought immediately on that day that it cannot wait a day. And I have sufficient cash on hand to go through a couple of days worth of expenses (lunches and such, but even then I could whip something up from the pantry).
Well of course they are, how do you think they recognise their code word? There has never been a question of whether they are listening at all times, the question has only ever been if everything is being sent back to be processed by the borg, and as far as anyone has been able to tell the answer to that is no, not until the code word has been identified (or in this case, thought it had been identified).
The question is, the word is supposed to be distinct enough that you're not going to accidentally trigger it. As in, few people can use "OK Google" o r "Hey Siri" in a natural language sentence. The best I can do is something like "It's going to be OK. Google this".
What Amazon is insinuating is they use "Alexa" a lot in their conversation and thus end up triggering their devices "accidentally". While it may be annoying for the few thousand Alexas in real life, it's not something that I can see coming up in ordinary conversation often.
Even worse, doesn't Alexa acknowledge commands? If Amazon say it heard "send message" to a contact, wouldn't it be good for it to say "OK, message sent to John Doe" to acknowledge that yes, it actually did it?
Many weeds like thistle break off and grow back from the roots. (Thistle amazingly has 3 foot long roots for a plant only a few inches above ground.)
The thing is, weeding is extremely hard. If you can get a robot to do it even on a weekly basis, even weeds that evolved anti-pulling measures will have hard pressed to survive. It takes a lot of resources to pop a plant above the surface, and if it keeps getting chopped off every few days, eventually even the long roots will run out of stored energy (food) and it'll die off.
If the plant could live entirely underground, it would. The fact it grows a bit on top means it's getting some resources (air, sunlight) from it. The exercise is to regenerate the resources used growing the top pullable part faster than when it'll get pulled.
And we should encourage this, if nothing more than to help reduce the reliance on Montsanto and RoundUp.
is that I would buy more concessions if I had a movie pass. Now I pay admission and think twice about buying popcorn. If I went with a pass, I would more often buy popcorn and a soda, or beer being as I am in Germany!
Usually I go every two months to the cinemas. I would like to go more, but at between 10 and 14 Euro a ticket, I mostly decide to watch something on streaming or rent it from the library for free instead. If I could pay say 100 Euro a year and go as often as I liked, I would probably go twice a month and buy popcorn every time... cause I like popcorn (and can't sneak it in like M&Ms). Net would be more money spent my me.
Just saying...
Problem is, ticket prices for new movies don't go to the theatres at all - it's basically 100% goes to the movie studios. The theatres make it up by selling concessions. As the weeks wear on, though the share of the ticket price that goes to the studios reduces (to make up for the lower crowd, and thus, lower concession revenue), which is why some theatres get pricing flexibility by offering discounted matinee showings.
The cost for me means I only go to select showings, and they have to be better than what I can get at home - so it means it must have better sound (Dolby Atmos preferred), 3D, D-Box, and all the other fixings. Yes, most of those technologies are available for home, but some are pricey - a good D-Box home setup is in the 5-figure range.
If you're going to offer me just a 2D showing with nothing special? I'll get it on DVD/Blu-Ray, thank you. Yes, that also means paying the higher rate, so if you want to offer me movie passes, they better allow upgrades.
The problem with MoviePass is it goes about the wrong way. Assuming theatres have control over ticket pricing is stupid - they don't, at least for first run movies. Second, the fact that no one really wanted to partner up should be telling - for MoviePass to be successful, they need partnerships.
Perhaps what MoviePass should've done is offer things that make the theatres money - concessions. Offering discounted tickets plus discounted concessions and you could make a very good partnership. It's why no theatre really cares about MoviePass and they're forced to pay full ticket price.
Theatres don't control ticket prices for the popular movies. They do have control over concessions. Had MoviePass added discount concessions to the mix (all they have to do is raise the average per-person concession revenue), then theatres will be happy to partner to offer discount concessions, the only place they have true pricing flexibility.
Design patents sound like trademark to me, are you suggesting that the same standard should apply? I.e. if it wouldn't confuse an average consumer, then it's not infringing?
No, they aren't trademarks. Design patents are different in several ways. First, is the limited time nature - a trademark can last forever (if you keep using it, but a design patent lasts 5 years.
Second, a trademark is infringed by similarity, whereas a design patent is infringed if you implement everything.
You use trademarks if you plan on using a design element or word or sound for a long time consistently. If it's something you plan on using for one item, you do a design patent.
The "rounded corners" patent is a design patent - to violate it, you must have the following things - a device with rounded corners, a screen with a grid of icons, part of that grid of icons has a static collection of icons across pages of the grid. No Android phone (other than Samsung) had those features - rounded corners yes, grid of icons yes, but no static tray of icons as well. The Android home screen has a static tray of icons, but it lacks a grid of icons, because it has widgets (the clock is prominent on the home screen for a reason). The Android app launcher has a grid of icons, but it lacks the static tray of icons.
Just those little element tweaks mean generic Android never violated the patents. But TouchWiz did - other than the actual icons themselves (which weren't part of the patents), Samsung made their app launcher look just like iOS complete with static track, row of dots in the middle showing current page , etc.
I remember seeing back around the time some company was advertising a "free iPod" with purchase of one of their computers. The 'iPod" was a third party clone of the iPod Mini, and within a week, those ads were gone. For about a year or two - they came back, presumably because the patent expired and it was legal to sell an MP3 player that looked like an old iPod.
It's actually a site that the music industry created to host music videos. Yes, the music industry. Presumably they had plans for it, probably some sort of subscription thing, but it never panned out.
Its a music industry thing because on YouTube, you'll find lots of "VEVO" titled channels (usually like ArtistVEVO), which are the "official" music videos of the artist.
As for your other stuff - there is plenty of competition - Vimeo and DailyMotion are the bigger competitors to YouTube, and have been around just as long. There's also LiveLeak and others. And there are plenty more that launched since the "adpocalypse" started.
The only thing you need to know is the problem is not YouTube. YouTube censored few videos, the vast majority of them are de-monetized. As in the creators no longer make money from them, and the simple reason for that is because no advertiser is willing to advertise on those channels.
Back before the President made it his personal goal to find new ways to offend people, nobody cared. But it all changed when raping became "not a big deal" or "everyone throws themselves at me" and the like, and then advertisers suddenly gave a big crap about where their ads ended up. It caused YouTube to lose a LOT of big name advertisers (often with the "we're re-evaluating our online marketing strategies" comment, or "we're not happy with our online marketing return on investments").
Then it happened again, and YouTube lost even MORE advertisers.
It's caused the entire internet industry to have to re-evaluate and make tough decisions because you have to remember ad people have the thinnest skins around, and unless you're charging money from viewers directly (like some of the new sites do), or using those smaller scammy ad sites (you know, the ones that advertise on torrent sites and bring plenty of pop ups and malware and fake download buttons), there really isn't much to go around
Yes, there are a few that charge per view - even one I think is blockchain based.
You might call it the YouTube bubble bursting - the era of any content on YouTube and monetizing it all is over. YouTube has to implement even more rules because the few advertisers left over has to support the site, so the rules for monetization have gotten stricter.
Unfortunately, it also had the side effect of some reputable channels chasing "easy click bait" money now too, which I really hate.
It's only dumping if SpaceX is offering launches below the cost of the launch. If SpaceX is breaking even or worse, making a profit at $50M, it's not dumping.
SpaceX charges $62M for a commercial launch. The only reason they charge $100M for a government launch is because a government launch comes with a whole pile of conditions that SpaceX feels costs them an extra $38M to fulfill.
Presumably, at $50M, they're still making money, perhaps attracting a lot of commercial interests. It's more of an "introductory rate" to EU customers. The problem is Ariane can't compete - they don't have a rocket capable of such cheap costs, and the one in development costs 25% more. Even at $62M for "regular rate" it's still too cheap. (Even the governmental rate is cheaper than ULA and others).
I think the real motivation IS the money. It might not seem like a whole lot of money ($100 isn't a lot) but to a lot of people, that seems like something achievable - I quit smoking, I get $100 per month.
It's real, it's physical, and for a lot of people, it's very concrete - you can show me $100 and wave it in front of them. It then becomes a goal - an extra $100 for literally doing "nothing" (yes, I know withdrawal is painful, but seeing that $100 makes them want to go through with it).
It's especially so when you think "cheating" will cost you that $100. In effect, that cigarette cost you $100. And loss is a very powerful motivator - people are generally loss averse. You can play two games - if you win, you get $50, if you lose, you get $0. Or you can plan this game - you get $50, if you win, you keep it, if you lose, you give it back. Turns out people really will not play the second game - the outcome is the same for both - if you win, you get $50, if you lose, you get $0. And yet having the $50 and "losing" it is far worse than getting $0.
Each day gets you closer to the $100, and it would suck if you lit up on the second to last or last day , so you tough it out .
The internet provides such a sheer volume of content, why provide that artificial protection, at taxpayer expense. What purpose does it serve any more, what is the energy and resource wasted by the content creation industry. Should all of it be protected or only some, like text books and documentaries. Why should be protect porn, why should we protect comics, why should we protect drunken drugged up minstrels selling depravity, how does that serve and protect society, what worthwhile service does it provide. Should it be allowed any tax payer dollars at all, show we have to protect it, all it seems to do is attack core normative values, corrupt democracy and parasite upon the society that foolishly feeds it.
Easy. All content in Singapore goes through the censor board. And that's all content - music, movies, books, etc.
So blocking these sites means basically citizens can't get access to the uncensored content. It ends up being a win-win - the government retains their control over content (must be squeaky-clean) and the content industry gets to have a country block pirate sites.
Sim Lim Square and other places? They already generally sell pre-censored content, so it's OK for piracy. But letting people see the full versions of movies? Well that cannot do.
And enforcement will be via the great firewall. No, not the one in China, but Singapore. Everyone seems to believe the Chinese one is a great evil thing, but most of the countries actually have their own versions of the same. It's just the Chinese one gets the most talk, while the others are quietly blocking all the stuff anyways.
And for the most part, the citizens don't care about things like this - the country is very clean, everything runs on time, etc., so the government must be doing things right. It's scary in its efficiency.
eGPU case cost just as much as gpu for only x4 pci-e best case. And with most intels system that is TB over the X4 dmi bus that is sheard with so much other stuff like pci-e storage / networking / usb / etc.
And what's wrong with it?
I can have a nice thin laptop for moving around mobile. And when I'm at the office, I can plug it into a dock and get high-powered graphics and all that nice stuff.
It has uses for laptops, allowing them to be more mobile in the "mobile" mode, but having awesome power when you're not needing mobility.
Traditionally, you'd require two machines for this - a lightweight mobile laptop to travel around with, and a heavyweight desktop PC. And yes, this is ideal, but it's also more stuff to manage, more data to have to sync, etc.
Yes, one could buy a suitably equipped laptop, but those generally are heavy and big, and generally get very poor battery life.
This is one of the most bizarre trends I've seen on Youtube. Why does anyone give a shit what it looks like out of the box? I'd much rather a Youtube video of someone who has used something for 2 months and then tells me about it afterwards. Or even better, not have to watch a youtube video.
Because there are uses for unboxing videos - checking to see what's in the box, for example.
However, there's a ton of fake reviews on YouTube because... youtube money. You forget YouTube pays "creators" for videos, and it seems a lot of people are basically creating a lot of content. Sometimes they'll review stuff and return it, because reviews will get them clicks and money without costing them a whole lot of money to pay for it.
It's just the way it is.
And EU law has nothing to do with it - Amazon bans these people, which means they can't order anymore stuff period. They may be able to return what they bought, but they can't buy anymore stuff. EU law is happy - they got their returns, and the store basically stops them from buying stuff. Real stores have banned abusers from their premises as well, so if you can't buy, you can't return.
Return abusers are the worst of the lowlifes that do nothing but drive prices up with needless returns of perfectly good product. It costs everyone money - you and I through higher prices (the store has to return the opened product back to the manufacturer, and that isn't free - the shipping and handling is built into the prices you pay), manufacturers who have to repackage the product as refurbished because it's no longer new, everyone because a refurbished product can't sell for as much money as new, etc. And yes, it's why consumer policies like these do drive up prices - if I make a product for $50 retail, and now because an abuser forces me to sell that item for $40, everyone has to eat the $10 less that product makes over a new one (or if someone bought it to use it, rather than return it), plus all the shipping.
It's why all stores have those irritating ID policies too. Too many people are banned from returning stuff at retail for abuse, so now they do it online.
Slashdot Mirror
Not really, well-connected public transit systems often have multiple ways to get to the same destination. Heck, there are plenty of popular YouTube videos that take the challenge of going between two subway stations by getting off on one, running to the other, and boarding the same train.
And often the place I'm going to is between stations, so it's a tossup to which station I should get off at and walking. This app could easily tell you which way is better (we got into an argument at work over this - there were two stations you could stop at and which was better to use).
And often times, there are multiple routes you can take, so if one is a bit slower, it can be better to take the alternative.
In places with barely a public transit system, yes, it's too constrained and alternatives are generally terrible. But if you have a well connected system, often the optimal path is something highly debated amongst travellers.
Why do you need Open Source when you have open spec?
Apple and Microsoft worked together to make Braille displays a USB class standard, so you can plug in a compliant Braille display and have it work instantly. Being a class device means Linux devs can easily add support for it as well since the spec is easily available from USB-IF.
This is in contrast with existing Braille displays which often require their own drivers.
Now it is up to the hardware manufacturers to start to make compliant displays.
Every OS has this ability. We call it a "RAM Disk". Even better, a lot of systems now can have persistent RAM disks as long as power is running
Sure some modifications will be needed - like the kernel recognizing that it shouldn't map it in as normal memory (but it can, but it might destroy RAM disk contents), but to be aware of it. The OS RAM disk driver can then be told those physical DIMMs are persistent storage RAM disks and there you go.
The BIOS/UEFI will probably mark it as special memory when it passes control to the OS loader
Huh? Electriv vehicles were around over 100 years ago. In fact, they were the preferred source of powering a vehicle back then - gas was bad and smoky and sooty and nasty, while steam was, well, steam and had their own issues. Electricity was clean, didn't emit anything, and quiet and thus favored as the energy source.
And this was when batteries were piss-poor.
In fact, Ferdinand Porsche (yes, that Porsche) created the first gas-electric hybrid vehicle with a tiny gas engine charging batteries that drove hub motors way back in the day.
The only reason the entire industry went to ICE was a sudden availability of cheap and plentiful gas that basically rendered all other sources noncompetitive.
Elon Musk simply reintroduced the technology and showed it could be a practical competitor when you upgrade everything to modern day materials and technology.
No need to jailbreak anymore to install "unsanctioned" apps. This has been true since iOS 8.
XCode can compile and deploy to a device, and if you're on Windows, there are plenty of tools to do so as well.
Apple however doesn't see it as sideloading - they only approve of this method if you compiled the code yourself. It's why when f.lux tried it Apple had them stop since it wasn't open-source.
Problem is, banning the app doesn't remove the app from user's phones. Apple hasn't even demonstrated they can do that - they can potentially disable apps that use location APIs, but that's it.
So banning it just means new users can't install the app, or reinstall the app if they delete it. Existing app works just fine.
And new users can always use the well-documented way to side load the app onto their phones... something easy to do since Telegram is open-source.
Exactly. It's the braggart payment system.
It's all about the brag - you brag about your vacation on social media, about the new phone you bought, your new clothes, etc.
Venmo sumply capitalizes on that - hey, how you can PROVE you bought those items and not merely borrowed them!. Look at me buying my new phone!
And yes, it's a thing - turns out a lot of people beg/borrow/steal items for their selfies. Like they may take a nice selfie in a fancy car, but it turns out it's owned by a family friend instead. There was one YouTube personality whose mom filmed her daughter using the mom's boss's fancy sports car saying how rich she was. As mom was a realtor, there was plenty of filming to be hand in client houses, too.
It was only news because the mom got fired after she got found out. She now managers her daughter. But you can bet Venmo will be used heavily to prove those items were bought and not borrowed.
You do realize it's Chris Roberts you're talking about, who released the whole Wing Commander series back in the 90s?
The real problem is really $200M. That's a huge budget, much larger than quite a few summer blockbusters, and quite a lot more than a few games out there.
The problem is there are a lot of people who contributed to that pot. Enough so that it'll be impossible to actually satisfy all of them, so for a good chunk of people, it will be a disaster.
The other question is will they have a market or did they soak up the dollars of everyone who was interested?
It's confounding only because most business negotiations are done in secret. When it leaks out it makes a lot of sense.
Trump has done a few things differently than most presidents. First, he's refused to divest himself of his businesses - usually a president puts their business in a trust so any decisions they may won't have potential conflict of interest.
It's why Russia is a big deal - it's one of the few countries where his businesses have done really, really, really well.
Or why ZTE suddenly deserves a lot of support (China dumps a half billion into a Trump hotel).
Next thing you know, Mexico will build a Trump hotel and it'll be "wall? what wall?" or if Mexico wants to build stuff using American equipment, "NAFTA GOOD!"
The problem is, these negotiations are done in private and under the privy of no one, so what looks erratic really turns out to be negotiation tactics to get a better deal.
Trump bends the way the dollars flow.
Which is why I have a NFC jammer in my pocket. It's just a little card that's powered by NFC and just jams the signal by responding. (Basically, in NFC, you send a clock and the card pulses to indicate a 1 or 0. The cards listen as well and if they detect a pulse they didn't send, it means a collision and the card will temporarily disable further responses until inquired again. The card that responds continue to do so unless it detects a collision from a third card. A card that successfully transmits disables itself for further inquiries while still powered).
So this card continues to send pulses out which prevents all the other cards from responding. NFC readers don't even acknowledge something is happening - they just fail to read anything.
Attempts to "tap" my wallet result in nothing being read.
It's spreading.
But there are solutions!
Straws - there are metal (sucks to be you, though) and paper straws (like of old).
Cutlery - instead of plastic, use ... bioplastic compostable cutlery.
The problem is that plastic utensils are single use and unless recycled (which most are not), they will clog up landfills and the planet for decades or more, all for something that was used for just a few minutes.
Compostable disposable cutlery is available and a lot of places actually use it these days. They are more expensive, but often feel less ... chintzy and the ones I've had, feel much more robust. No more spoons that fold when filled with food, or fork tines that bend rather than poke the food. You put them in the compost bin when you're done. I think it's a soy-based product.
And you can carry your own set with you - they are compostable so you don't even have to wash them when you're done.
Personally, I like straws but I understand why people want them banned. Just I hate when you put ice in sodas and not provide a straw. So no looking at me funny if you don't provide straws and I ask for no ice.
If you follow any one of those "learn to play in 2 hours" type courses, you'd know this. (These are the courses that don't teach from first principles and generally get you playing within about 5 minutes).
You learn that most songs are composed of about 4 chords, and regardless of instrument (piano, guitar, ukelele, etc), those 4 chords are all you need to basically play about 90% of the music out there.
The chords are I, V, vi, and IV.
Which I think in C-major key, is C, G, Am and F. The more interesting thing is, you play these chords in the same order! (On a piano, I think you'd play it with D-major, and guitar is what, G major?)
It's a somewhat harmonious chord relationship, which is why it can be transposed to any key and the songs sound "the same".
To see this, you can google "4 chords music", or watch the following pretty much canonical YouTube video -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
There are at least hundreds more videos that do exactly the same thing, covering 40, 80, 100+ songs.
PS - looks like Wikipedia is in on it too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Exactly.
It's funny that most people clamoring for the "good old days" here want the "parking brake" to be the "emergency brake". Newsflash - it never was. Especially in the past where we never had 4-wheel disc brakes - it was usually discs in the front, and drum brakes in the rear. The parking brake always worked the drum brakes, which are weaker than disc brakes (and in a lot of systems, the parking brake doesn't activate the ratcheter that compensates for brake shoe wear).
Car manufacturers realized this, coupled with 4-wheel disc brakes, and dual (or quad!) independent brake circuits ensuring redundancy in the brake system. This relegates the handbrake to a parking brake at best, or in cars so equipped, as a stunt brake (for drifts, J-turns, etc).
The pure mechanical design also limits it - you can only pull so much, but the hydraulic system, even in half (one system down) is more powerful than the mechanical cable system. You can experiment and see how much actual force it takes to use the parking brake - it's a lot more than people realize just to even stop, yet you can push on the pedal and do so with much less distance and effort, even without power braking.
In an emergency, push hard on the brakes and they will overpower the engine. If you do it firmly, the brakes will not generate enough heat to fade (disc brakes have this as a major advantage over drum) and once you're stopped, the brakes will not generate heat at all as long as you're not moving, at which point you can calmly shift and turn off the engine.
And if everything works - power brakes and all 4 brakes (normal situation), a car with an engine that's racing can be brought to a safe stop rather non-eventfully.
Oh yeah, using the brake pedal also turns on the brake lights. Useful to warn others behind you that you're actually slowing down and stopping. Parking brake doesn't.
Well, here in Canada, the Ministry of Children and Family Development got interested in a case where a dad taught his kids how to be independent. Enough so that his eldest (12) can supervise the younger ones to take them to school... using public transit. Now he's under legal threat that if they catch his kids alone, even just to cross the street to go to the store to buy ice cream, they'd be apprehended into foster care.
https://www.theglobeandmail.co...
And yes, our public transit system is very good, and honestly, I took the bus alone as well (and I was even less experienced - the dad taught them the route, they had cellphones and everything, I had none of that).
It's actually sparked quite a bit of controversy - the kids were mature enough to take the bus by themselves, they attended the same school so it wasn't a problem of separation, etc. And now the government demands he hover over his kids - take the bus with them, walk to the store across the road with them to get something, etc.
Hell, I walked to school alone for a good stretch until my mom got a job and I had to go to a neighbour's house until it was time to leave for school. Getting a ride in the car was a small luxury - at the right time it was kicked out the door to walk to school.
And how often does it happen?
What backup systems would there be, other than cash? Payment systems meltdown very rarely - maybe once a year at the high end of the range, and usually only for a day tops.
Having manual cashless methods is not viable for something that infrequent - first off, retail turnover is high, while I know a retail store whose employees worked there for years, most retailers will have 200+% turnover rate, making training for such things pointless because chances are, it won't happen.
If it's something that happens more often, then yes it makes sense to do it. But it still happens really infrequently and while it sucks, you tend to just tolerate it.
I mean, I pump gas when the gauge goes around half or so - so if I can't pump gas one day because payment is down, I can pump it tomorrow, or the day after. There's nothing I generally do that requires me to have something bought immediately on that day that it cannot wait a day. And I have sufficient cash on hand to go through a couple of days worth of expenses (lunches and such, but even then I could whip something up from the pantry).
The question is, the word is supposed to be distinct enough that you're not going to accidentally trigger it. As in, few people can use "OK Google" o r "Hey Siri" in a natural language sentence. The best I can do is something like "It's going to be OK. Google this".
What Amazon is insinuating is they use "Alexa" a lot in their conversation and thus end up triggering their devices "accidentally". While it may be annoying for the few thousand Alexas in real life, it's not something that I can see coming up in ordinary conversation often.
Even worse, doesn't Alexa acknowledge commands? If Amazon say it heard "send message" to a contact, wouldn't it be good for it to say "OK, message sent to John Doe" to acknowledge that yes, it actually did it?
The thing is, weeding is extremely hard. If you can get a robot to do it even on a weekly basis, even weeds that evolved anti-pulling measures will have hard pressed to survive. It takes a lot of resources to pop a plant above the surface, and if it keeps getting chopped off every few days, eventually even the long roots will run out of stored energy (food) and it'll die off.
If the plant could live entirely underground, it would. The fact it grows a bit on top means it's getting some resources (air, sunlight) from it. The exercise is to regenerate the resources used growing the top pullable part faster than when it'll get pulled.
And we should encourage this, if nothing more than to help reduce the reliance on Montsanto and RoundUp.
Problem is, ticket prices for new movies don't go to the theatres at all - it's basically 100% goes to the movie studios. The theatres make it up by selling concessions. As the weeks wear on, though the share of the ticket price that goes to the studios reduces (to make up for the lower crowd, and thus, lower concession revenue), which is why some theatres get pricing flexibility by offering discounted matinee showings.
The cost for me means I only go to select showings, and they have to be better than what I can get at home - so it means it must have better sound (Dolby Atmos preferred), 3D, D-Box, and all the other fixings. Yes, most of those technologies are available for home, but some are pricey - a good D-Box home setup is in the 5-figure range.
If you're going to offer me just a 2D showing with nothing special? I'll get it on DVD/Blu-Ray, thank you. Yes, that also means paying the higher rate, so if you want to offer me movie passes, they better allow upgrades.
The problem with MoviePass is it goes about the wrong way. Assuming theatres have control over ticket pricing is stupid - they don't, at least for first run movies. Second, the fact that no one really wanted to partner up should be telling - for MoviePass to be successful, they need partnerships.
Perhaps what MoviePass should've done is offer things that make the theatres money - concessions. Offering discounted tickets plus discounted concessions and you could make a very good partnership. It's why no theatre really cares about MoviePass and they're forced to pay full ticket price.
Theatres don't control ticket prices for the popular movies. They do have control over concessions. Had MoviePass added discount concessions to the mix (all they have to do is raise the average per-person concession revenue), then theatres will be happy to partner to offer discount concessions, the only place they have true pricing flexibility.
No, they aren't trademarks. Design patents are different in several ways. First, is the limited time nature - a trademark can last forever (if you keep using it, but a design patent lasts 5 years.
Second, a trademark is infringed by similarity, whereas a design patent is infringed if you implement everything.
You use trademarks if you plan on using a design element or word or sound for a long time consistently. If it's something you plan on using for one item, you do a design patent.
The "rounded corners" patent is a design patent - to violate it, you must have the following things - a device with rounded corners, a screen with a grid of icons, part of that grid of icons has a static collection of icons across pages of the grid. No Android phone (other than Samsung) had those features - rounded corners yes, grid of icons yes, but no static tray of icons as well. The Android home screen has a static tray of icons, but it lacks a grid of icons, because it has widgets (the clock is prominent on the home screen for a reason). The Android app launcher has a grid of icons, but it lacks the static tray of icons.
Just those little element tweaks mean generic Android never violated the patents. But TouchWiz did - other than the actual icons themselves (which weren't part of the patents), Samsung made their app launcher look just like iOS complete with static track, row of dots in the middle showing current page , etc.
I remember seeing back around the time some company was advertising a "free iPod" with purchase of one of their computers. The 'iPod" was a third party clone of the iPod Mini, and within a week, those ads were gone. For about a year or two - they came back, presumably because the patent expired and it was legal to sell an MP3 player that looked like an old iPod.
Vevo is not a competitor to YouTube.
It's actually a site that the music industry created to host music videos. Yes, the music industry. Presumably they had plans for it, probably some sort of subscription thing, but it never panned out.
Its a music industry thing because on YouTube, you'll find lots of "VEVO" titled channels (usually like ArtistVEVO), which are the "official" music videos of the artist.
Here's a nice video that explains what Vevo actually was:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
As for your other stuff - there is plenty of competition - Vimeo and DailyMotion are the bigger competitors to YouTube, and have been around just as long. There's also LiveLeak and others. And there are plenty more that launched since the "adpocalypse" started.
The only thing you need to know is the problem is not YouTube. YouTube censored few videos, the vast majority of them are de-monetized. As in the creators no longer make money from them, and the simple reason for that is because no advertiser is willing to advertise on those channels.
Back before the President made it his personal goal to find new ways to offend people, nobody cared. But it all changed when raping became "not a big deal" or "everyone throws themselves at me" and the like, and then advertisers suddenly gave a big crap about where their ads ended up. It caused YouTube to lose a LOT of big name advertisers (often with the "we're re-evaluating our online marketing strategies" comment, or "we're not happy with our online marketing return on investments").
Then it happened again, and YouTube lost even MORE advertisers.
It's caused the entire internet industry to have to re-evaluate and make tough decisions because you have to remember ad people have the thinnest skins around, and unless you're charging money from viewers directly (like some of the new sites do), or using those smaller scammy ad sites (you know, the ones that advertise on torrent sites and bring plenty of pop ups and malware and fake download buttons), there really isn't much to go around
Yes, there are a few that charge per view - even one I think is blockchain based.
You might call it the YouTube bubble bursting - the era of any content on YouTube and monetizing it all is over. YouTube has to implement even more rules because the few advertisers left over has to support the site, so the rules for monetization have gotten stricter.
Unfortunately, it also had the side effect of some reputable channels chasing "easy click bait" money now too, which I really hate.
It's only dumping if SpaceX is offering launches below the cost of the launch. If SpaceX is breaking even or worse, making a profit at $50M, it's not dumping.
SpaceX charges $62M for a commercial launch. The only reason they charge $100M for a government launch is because a government launch comes with a whole pile of conditions that SpaceX feels costs them an extra $38M to fulfill.
Presumably, at $50M, they're still making money, perhaps attracting a lot of commercial interests. It's more of an "introductory rate" to EU customers. The problem is Ariane can't compete - they don't have a rocket capable of such cheap costs, and the one in development costs 25% more. Even at $62M for "regular rate" it's still too cheap. (Even the governmental rate is cheaper than ULA and others).
I think the real motivation IS the money. It might not seem like a whole lot of money ($100 isn't a lot) but to a lot of people, that seems like something achievable - I quit smoking, I get $100 per month.
It's real, it's physical, and for a lot of people, it's very concrete - you can show me $100 and wave it in front of them. It then becomes a goal - an extra $100 for literally doing "nothing" (yes, I know withdrawal is painful, but seeing that $100 makes them want to go through with it).
It's especially so when you think "cheating" will cost you that $100. In effect, that cigarette cost you $100. And loss is a very powerful motivator - people are generally loss averse. You can play two games - if you win, you get $50, if you lose, you get $0. Or you can plan this game - you get $50, if you win, you keep it, if you lose, you give it back. Turns out people really will not play the second game - the outcome is the same for both - if you win, you get $50, if you lose, you get $0. And yet having the $50 and "losing" it is far worse than getting $0.
Each day gets you closer to the $100, and it would suck if you lit up on the second to last or last day , so you tough it out .
Easy. All content in Singapore goes through the censor board. And that's all content - music, movies, books, etc.
So blocking these sites means basically citizens can't get access to the uncensored content. It ends up being a win-win - the government retains their control over content (must be squeaky-clean) and the content industry gets to have a country block pirate sites.
Sim Lim Square and other places? They already generally sell pre-censored content, so it's OK for piracy. But letting people see the full versions of movies? Well that cannot do.
And enforcement will be via the great firewall. No, not the one in China, but Singapore. Everyone seems to believe the Chinese one is a great evil thing, but most of the countries actually have their own versions of the same. It's just the Chinese one gets the most talk, while the others are quietly blocking all the stuff anyways.
And for the most part, the citizens don't care about things like this - the country is very clean, everything runs on time, etc., so the government must be doing things right. It's scary in its efficiency.
And what's wrong with it?
I can have a nice thin laptop for moving around mobile. And when I'm at the office, I can plug it into a dock and get high-powered graphics and all that nice stuff.
It has uses for laptops, allowing them to be more mobile in the "mobile" mode, but having awesome power when you're not needing mobility.
Traditionally, you'd require two machines for this - a lightweight mobile laptop to travel around with, and a heavyweight desktop PC. And yes, this is ideal, but it's also more stuff to manage, more data to have to sync, etc.
Yes, one could buy a suitably equipped laptop, but those generally are heavy and big, and generally get very poor battery life.
Because there are uses for unboxing videos - checking to see what's in the box, for example.
However, there's a ton of fake reviews on YouTube because ... youtube money. You forget YouTube pays "creators" for videos, and it seems a lot of people are basically creating a lot of content. Sometimes they'll review stuff and return it, because reviews will get them clicks and money without costing them a whole lot of money to pay for it.
It's just the way it is.
And EU law has nothing to do with it - Amazon bans these people, which means they can't order anymore stuff period. They may be able to return what they bought, but they can't buy anymore stuff. EU law is happy - they got their returns, and the store basically stops them from buying stuff. Real stores have banned abusers from their premises as well, so if you can't buy, you can't return.
Return abusers are the worst of the lowlifes that do nothing but drive prices up with needless returns of perfectly good product. It costs everyone money - you and I through higher prices (the store has to return the opened product back to the manufacturer, and that isn't free - the shipping and handling is built into the prices you pay), manufacturers who have to repackage the product as refurbished because it's no longer new, everyone because a refurbished product can't sell for as much money as new, etc. And yes, it's why consumer policies like these do drive up prices - if I make a product for $50 retail, and now because an abuser forces me to sell that item for $40, everyone has to eat the $10 less that product makes over a new one (or if someone bought it to use it, rather than return it), plus all the shipping.
It's why all stores have those irritating ID policies too. Too many people are banned from returning stuff at retail for abuse, so now they do it online.