If you don't mind writing a script or two, you're not looking at something that's impossible on a lighter budget. The X10 standard is actually pretty sucky, but I put it in my old house and it worked out okay. Raised the value of the house roughy 10X what I put into it, too. Anyway, check out smarthome.com, specifically this product.
Disclaimer: I haven't used this specific product. I have used just about every other X10 product, though, and the smarthome site does a pretty good job of explaining how to set things up. I used to use a wireless transmitter on my Linux box and some scripts put together called "firecracker" to communicate. Simple cron jobs did the rest. If I recall, I also had a device that transmitted/received from a serial port to the power lines directly, but I don't know if they still sell those or not.
If you really want to control your heat and A/C this way, I STRONGLY suggest taking lots of temperature samples of where things are at and ensuring you aren't wasting energy because of poor control systems. One mistake in code and your bills will go wild.
My printer at home still is connected to a computer via a parallel printer cable. It's my server and it's been running for a few months now. But, that's not what you're asking about, is it?
Tune to last week: My son got his picture taken with Santa and the professional photographer had a nice digital camera hooked up to a small computer/printer combo box. Pretty cleaver, really. On the back of this box connected to the parallel port, which couldn't have been more than six-months old, was... a key dongle.
For those who maybe aren't old enough to remember these babies, they are fairly slick little copy-protection keys. They are the hardware solution to software piracy. When the special software starts up, it looks on the port for a key and if it's not there, it bails. And hardware keys are much harder to copy, partly because the good ones destroy themselves if they are tampered with (usually the soldier points or ICs are sensitive to prying).
While these never really got used for major software products, they are practically everywhere in scientific and research environments where companies spend millions on a software package that only a few hundred of specialized applications exist. If you're charging $5,000+ for software, a hardware key starts sounding pretty good. Heck, when I left the university a year and a half ago, we still had three such applications that had been around for years (even through computer upgrades). I'm certain that these programs are still being used, and it will continue for some time.
Spammers make money by a certain percentage of people that view their messages. With the advent of better spam-identfifaction, it's important for the spammers to rewrite their messages to get around those filters. Remember, a spammer can't make money if his/her message is caught by the spam filter and the end-user doesn't see it.
So, what you think looks like a subject and even semi-normal text but seems weird, is really about getting past the spam filters and so that you can see it and make an "informed decision". Sure, you think it looks fishy and hit delete; but others still send out their credit card numbers. And 1 credit card number in 1 million messages is still cheap for the spammer.
Stem cells present their own bit of politics, and really, I don't want to get into that discussion here. Lots of smart, well meaning people believe they should be used regardless of the source. Other smart, well meaning people believe that some restrictions should be in placed on the sources. It's not worth a flame war.
As to the real issue: Marketing. Anyone else recall that soda was first just another cure-all drug, available at the pharmacy? Certainly lots of people have heard of snake-oil. Heck, asperin was also a cure-all.
I'm not saying that stem-cell research doesn't have some nifty possibilities. In fact, I think it'll bring several new advancements to medicine. But, it's also being touted as THE way to solve every current problem that's mystified smart, well meaning scientists for a while. It's like you've got a job to do around your house, but you don't have the right tool for it (and don't even know what tool to use); so when a new tool is invented you immediately wonder how you could use the new tool for your job.
Anyway, as to your post specifically: If you really do have a serious illness, I would want you to get the best medical help that you could get. That means carefully weighing all the options, current medicine and research. Where I have problems is that in many of these cases, a doctor would recommend a certain risky new treatment over one that has marginal success but has been utilized numerous times. And, since you're the one suffering, you may not be able to properly weigh your options. I honestly don't care if people want to volunteer for research--but I don't think that the doctors doing the treatment are always giving the honest, hard facts; and I know it's very difficult to make huge life-and-death decisions when you're suffering. To me, that just makes the whole situation prone to abuse. That's why the FDA exists, and has such high standards. It's to prevent well-meaning doctors and scientists from getting tunnel vision and falling into the trap that "the ends justify the means".
Personally, I don't want a risky treatment if there are other, less dangerous options. That's even if these less-risky treatments have a lower probability of success.
Okay, yes, a coolsuit isn't news for some. What I take issue with is that you seem to have taken the same, unfortunate belief that so many smart people fall into. Military development isn't cheap, and because all the exact details are rarely given out to the public, it's assumed to be mostly waste. While this may be true in some cases, it's not the norm. Believe it or not, the Army does have a limited budget and actually cares about researching many areas simultaneously; thus they do care about waste.
Anyway, there's always a difference between a commercial technology and a military one. Take this suit for example. How many times do you think racecar drivers get shot at while in their cars? If a bullet penetrates through, what will the results be? If there is fluid leakage, will it harm internal tissue or poison the blood stream, or is it so cold that muscles will tense up? If there are wires (and there are), could those short out and cause electrical damage to the wearer? If the system becomes non-functioning, what could happen that would prevent the wearer from continuing the mission? Lastly, what do the soldiers that will be issued this device think about it? You know, the guys that have been there, and will be going back? Yep, the Army gets everyone's input (even privates), and that's a huge benefit mostly unique to our military.
As someone that's in the Army, I can tell you that we don't get issued ANYTHING unless the leadership is confident that it will benefit our mission. That's not a bad thing.
Yes, I know that deaths due to terrorism is low statistically-speaking. Honestly, it's not something that I spend awake nights worried about. Overall, I'm probably a lot like you in feelings about the terrorist threat. Statistically speaking, it's so far into the noise that maybe it should be ignored.
The problem with this way of thinking, though, is that most ordinary people believe that terrorism is not an act of God, and that it is, in some way, a preventable issue. When it comes to auto accidents, ordinary folks want to put controls on those items that can lower the risk of death (preventing DUIs, speed limits, mandatory seat belt laws, etc). It's the same with other deadly issues--like how people want McD's to have healthy choices on their menus because heart disease is so prevalent (now, whether people make good choices is another issue...). Or smoking--how much energy/money has been spent on getting people to stop?
People can accept deaths. It's a normal fact of life, and it sucks when it hits close to home. It sucks even more when those deaths could have been prevented with simple measures. If a party got out of control and a guy that was totally blitzed got behind the wheel and kills your wife/husband/mom/sis/friend/etc, you'd be pretty darned pissed and that incident would leave a hole inside you that might not ever heal completely. That's reality. Also, you, being a responsible citizen and registered voter, would be so upset and hurt that you just might demand more steps be taken to prevent others from feeling how you do. So, you call your local politian.
Economically speaking, no deaths are without consequenses. If it's preventable, then it can be calculated how much the solution would cost and how many deaths it would prevent. Those "non-dead" people earn incomes and pay taxes. If those expected taxes are greater than the proposed solution, then we have a winner. Of course, not all decisions are made based on pure economics. Many people are simply willing to pay higher taxes in favor of more safety, just because we like not having to go to our loved one's funerals.
I do understand what you're saying, and the rational part of my brain agrees. The part that hates going to funerals, though, tells me that if a death can be prevented, maybe we should go out of our way a bit to prevent it.
Anyone else remember making pay phone calls for $0.10? It was that way from when I was born in 1980 until... oh, just about the time they started playing with the notion of deregulating the phone companies. Then it immediately hit $0.25 a call.
Last I looked, you can't make a pay phone call for less than $0.50 now. And if you use a calling card, it's probably closer to $1.00 just to connect.
Of course, cell phones eat into the profitabily of pay phones; but then, at current prices it doesn't take long for someone to think that any cell phone plan is cheaper than using a pay phone, never mind convenience. That wasn't the case, though, when deregulation started.
I've never been one to read the newspaper regularly anyway; however, if I had nothing to do and a paper was around, I would happily read it since I find that reading anything is better than TV, twiddling thumbs, or sitting quietly with a dumb look on my face. Yes, the news is old (so it's not news, exactly), but it's supposed to go more in-depth than TV news can. Friends and family tell me that newspaper reporters have gotten bland, and at times liberal opinion makes it into stories that are supposed to report news, not editorials. Okay, fine.
I do buy the paper now, though, on Sunday. That's it. I read the cartoons, do the crossword, and flip through the advertisements for my favorite stores. My wife clips out the coupons, and reads the cartoons once I'm done with them.
The rest of the 10 lb. brick I receive? Recycled immediately. Every time I actually pick it up and start to read, I find articles that honestly aren't all that exciting beyond what I either all ready know, or I just flat out don't care about some lady's new cookie store. Sorry. That's the breaks. And I pay to recycle all that wasted paper. *sigh*
I, for one, am a minimalist. I hate taking a bunch of crap with me when I'm not certain to use it. That being said, I'm a grunt, too, so I have to carry a craptastic amount of items that I _might_ want/need. I honestly like the feel of cargo pants made from a khaki material. You can pick them up cheap at a lot of stores. Heck, my last pair I got at JC Penney's on clearance in the fatty kid's section.
If you want to have a "cool" solution, buy an assault pack. If you have a friend in the military, he/she can take you on post to get a really nice high-speed pack for about $140. If you get one from CamelBak (example), it will also have an embedded hydration pack (2 or 3 liters) so that you can stay hydrated. Yes, it's cool to drink water.
I tend to agree with you on this one. I'm not about to say that an exoskeleton wouldn't be cool, or even handy. It's long been a desire for humans to lift/carry more weight for longer distances, etc.
Anyway, this particular system wouldn't support a person without control over their lower limbs. For one, the weight distribution for the person is all at the waist and upper thighs. If we were to say that the handicapped individual is extremely light at a mere 80lbs, he or she still would be too heavy to hold vertical for extended periods of time via the waist and upper thighs. I don't even want to imagine how torn up the skin would get. Heck, an improperly configured rucksack of just 50lbs on my back for just a couple of hours will give me two deep wounds about 2"x6" and they will be sore for over a week. And they want to hold a person up, supported, without any weight being supported by the obvious candidate: the butt. Of course, that's why wheelchairs are so effective.
As for the other application, such as holding increased weight... well, this one is actually a little more practical, but it's got a bunch more problems--and the same thing keeps cropping up: how do you get all that added weight to be distributed AROUND the body instead of through it via the person's bones and muscles? Truth is, it's really difficult. It's especially difficult when the person goes to lift--the motors, joints, and structure has to be "thinking" ahead of the person and move into the proper load-bearing position without throwing itself and the person off-balance. Impossible? No. Current reality? Doubtful.
If this particular skeleton supports extra weight at all, I would suspect the joints are all similar to my folding latter's joints that can lock into place and become very rigid. Then, just get the weight into a supported position (by lifting it up yourself), and then the skeleton can be locked in to give you rest. Balance is handled by the person. Add some flash for potential venture capitalists, and you're done. Too easy.
And by the way.... just where is/are the battery(ies)? Nevermind, this thing's got perpetual motion installed, I'm sure.
I'm in the Army currently, and my office computer has access to a bunch of Department of Defense internal networks that suposedly has all the data I could ever want. The problem is it's poorly indexed. So, if I need a particular obscure form or technical manual, it can be near impossible to find. What scares me is that I can often go to Google and find the data I want (or at least a link to a secure server with the data).
google.gov may seem silly to those in the private sector... but if Google did index private government and military sites, and allowed access only to authorized individuals, I wouldn't complain. Heck, I'd be happy at my new efficiency.
I decided to look for all the weirdos that are near my home. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the local Holiday Inn was the first return (or that there seems to be an ample supply of others)...
Here in Columbus (OH), about three years ago the local CBS affiliate started pressuring Time Warner to carry Ohio News Network on their basic analog cable service in order to continue rebroadcasting CBS. It was a mess, and all the other news agencies loved it. Everything went nuts about a month before the contract renewal deadline, and both sides dug in.
About two weeks before the station was to be pulled from the lineup, Time Warner sent rabbit ears to every customer and included instructions (both written and on their special channel running every half hour). If a customer wasn't sure how to set things up, a tech would even come out before the deadline so that CBS would still work seemlessly. Time Warner took the game to a level the CBS affiliate wasn't ready for.
The end result: Time Warner agreed to carry ONN on digital cable, and the CBS station stayed on regular analog cable. I'm not sure, but I don't believe there was even a rate increase given to the CBS station.
I wouldn't be surprised if these tactics by Viacom end up with the exact same result. Dish may lose a few customers in this, but that's nothing compared to the marketshare Viacom loses if people don't just randomly stumble onto their channel and watch for a half hour. If your station isn't even offered, people just can't watch it, and advertisers just don't want to pay lots of money for that. The price of poker is high here, but I'm pretty sure Viacom's in the position with the most to lose (and the potential gains are only modest).
You know, I also hate all the "extra" features that mobile phones seem to have now. We, as cunsumers and/.ers feel that it's silly to have something that's just marginal at many things when it could just be super at one and only one thing.
Okay--that's not how designers are thinking. The problem with phone design is that most people's hands are within a certian range of sizes. The same is (mostly) true with the size of people's heads. A phone just has to be comfortable for its use, and while there are lots of different styles, most are roughly the same width and length (when opened if it's a flip-phone). You can get away with thinner and lighter, though, but even that can be tricky.
So, the designers look at all the space they have to do things with. You typically only select so much battery power to give a day or twos usage to keep the weight down. The processor is capable of handling lots of features. The circuit board itself isn't horribly populated because most things are handling inside each specific chip. Most companies look at these issues and say "why not?". The cost for adding these features for a phone isn't terrible, and if it gets more people to buy the phone, so much the better.
Granted, I just want a mobile phone that has awesome reception. I can't say that I would want to use any camera in my phone--but if it's included anyway, it certainly isn't going to make me upset.
I placed my resume on Monster.com a long time ago and got a relatively large number of companies e-mailing and calling me for interviews and such. My wife also did the same, and got nearly the same results.
Skipping to recently--I don't have a resume available anymore because I was getting too many screwy/shady/questionable "companies" calling and nearly harassing me. My wife was laid-off and she posted her resume, only to get these same people hounding her. Most of them were pyramid-scheme type compaines, or they wanted her to call everyone in the area to see if they could lower their interest rate on their mortgage if they refinanced. Urgh--what a mess. They still call.
I'm really not sure that good companies wouldn't use the online resume sites as a hiring tool. A lot of the problem could just be the economy and how many companies just aren't hiring yet. Once everything starts picking up (hopefully in a few months), I wouldn't be surprised to see my favorite companies even posting jobs to those sites. It's just hard to know where a good place to offer yourself up for employment is when many companies still have hiring freezes in effect. I guess that's where personal contacts become the most valuable asset.
I have to completely agree with this. A fan is by far the best way to get a good night's sleep through about anything, especially once you train yourself to sleep with it. I have two cats that run around the bedroom (with hardwood floors) all night playing or otherwise rattling about. Installing a ceiling fan was the best thing I ever did, although a simple box fan worked okay, too.
While I completely understand your point, part of me remembers the days when I had to deal with several computers that were completely open and people would seemingly intentionally screw up everything such that a complete re-install of the OS was necessary. Granted, there are some nice ghosting utilities out there now that will re-sync the machine after the person logs out or every night; but those aren't always the best solution for everyone. I tend to understand why some admins think it's perfectly acceptable to be very restrictive--it makes their lives slightly easier and hopefully don't have to also worry about the legal ramifications if someone uses a completely open box to do something illegal (because the site is probably somewhat liable for monitoring what goes on; and even if not it could rack up huge legal bills proving it). In the end, you might lose a few customers because of the restrictive policies; but if it lowers the costs of the service (including risks), it may be more desirable.
No, seriously. I'm not a lawyer. Neither is most of the other folks around here. Maybe it would be best to actually call a lawyer in your own area and see what he/she says? Most have initial consultations for free...
My wife had planned to go out on Black Friday and spend somewhere in the ballpark of $400-500 all said and done. I wasn't pleased. I know that she's saving lots and lots of money--but I just can't afford to save any more! We've been living off my grad-student's income and her unemployment since her layoff a couple months back.
Anyway, she ended up not going (thankfully); but she instead blessed me with our first child being born. Now--don't get me wrong... I love this little guy and I'm incredibly happy he's finally here. I'm just starting to think that a few hundred dollars and coping with insane crowds was getting off easy;)
It might surprise you, but folks who have entered the armed services don't have rights. Seriously. I'm sure you've heard that so-and-so signed his life away to the Army? Well, what actually happened was that upon entering the service, the individual gave away his/her own rights to protect the rights of others.
Sure, some people don't like this fact. But it's important that our military have clear understandings that they are not out on a joy-ride and they can't leave whenever they like. They are the property of the govenment and officers do have the authority to use deadly force on a soldier who won't obey orders (at least in time of war). If you're ever drafted, or you sign up for the service, you don't have the right anymore to complain about first ammendment violations and the like (except in protecting others' rights) because frankly, the Bill of Rights doesn't apply to you.
While I agree with you, I don't think there is any reason to fear companies or individuals making this information available to others. Most grocery stores (for example) really only care that you have their card for profiling--but the name isn't a concern at all. They typically ask for a first name and a phone number (in case they find it on the floor), but even the number doesn't have to be given out. Really, all they care about is tying a unique (or semi-unique in the case of husband/wife) number to product purchases. This allows them to see trends. And if it allows me to get a cheaper price on alcohol, condoms, and feminine hygene products, that's good in my book.
I just really don't see how in the current market stores will ever care to track you by "Doe, John" versus "23786138590". To them, a unique number satisfies their needs and so it's risky to push the boundary further into the realm of privacy. That doesn't mean they will never get there, though--so it's good to be careful.
What the article doesn't happen to mention is that InAs (Indium Arsenide) was believed to have a bandgap around 1.6eV (not sure the exact number) and it's now known to be somewhere in the range of ~0.6eV. The article also don't mention phosphide compounds, which are far bigger in research and industry right now.
Fact is, nitrides are bastards to grow. You have to use gas-sources (instead of solid sources that most MBE-ers prefer). There's also no current way to make a nitride-based substrate, which means growing (typically) on sapphire or other lattice mis-matched substrates (GaAs, InP, etc). These lead to HUGE dislocation densities that greatly impact performace.
Now, that doesn't mean this can't be done. And in fact, magic is being done all the time in the world of research. But nitrides aren't going to be realized for some time. Not at least until other technologies pan out first (phosphides and the like). Those are cheaper to grow and allow for much lower defect densities.
Just so you folk's know I'm not just talking out of my ars--do some research and look up some papers. Authors to look for are Steve Ringel (OSU), Gene Fitzgerald (MIT), John Carlin (OSU), Sumitomo (Japan, somewhere), and by-far Yamaguchi (Toyota Technological Institute). Read up on these folks' work and those around them--they know space-based photovoltaics better than most, and very, very, very, very few are working with nitrides right now. Not that it's not going to eventually happen--but until defect densities get low enough, there's simply no way to make a good solar cell (read up on the previous authors' works if you want the theoretical calculations as to why).
I think this article is either missing some rather important details, or wasn't very clear. Is Extended Stay America blocking its customers from viewing Gator content while using the "hotel's" network, or somehow magically blocking Gator from working while someone looks at their website from anywhere in the world?
I don't really see a problem with any hotel or whatever that provides me internet access as a service blocking any particular content. So long as it's in the agreement signed at the front counter--seems fair. And if people don't want this type of service, simply don't stay at their chain. Personally, I like that sort of thing so I would be inclined to stay with them more often knowing this. It's not a first ammendment thing since I'm told about it up-front and I can choose to stay elsewhere.
On the other hand, if Extended Stay America has found a way to disable Gator from working on their website from anywhere--my congrats. Yeah, it's probably going to cost them in this civil suit that they may lose. It's still cool to think that someone's found a way to disable Gator, though.
The unmanned versions are built to a lower spec, as the cargo isn't as important as human life.
The family of the person killed might disagree with you somewhat. Same goes with those who were injured. Of course, we Americans tend to make the same mistakes at times, too--we forget that those working around the site are just as vulnerable as the astronauts themselves. The launch staff just don't go home heros.
The quick response is clearly that you already are supplied with 110VAC, and thus a power strip is your best bet. But that's not what you want, mostly because that's too bulky. Understandible.
The bigger issue is that all these devices have different power requirements. Some want 9VDC, others 12VDC or 5VDC, or even 6VDC. Some want 500mA, others want only 100mA. And all the connectors are different. But you want standards. To do this, you would be required to build a box that could supply any voltage. And at any current. This means the device when connected would have to send a signal back to the power station that says what voltage it's expecting and how much current it wants to draw. Then, the power gets turned up. And if everything goes well there isn't any surges when extra devices are plugged in.
Actually, this question comes up on/. quite often--it's almost routine. The answer is almost always the same, too--just too complicated and ends up being too expensive for the circuitry. People typically like simple devices, with easy to change parts. Wallworts do that. Basic 110 AC is just fine. No need to reinvent the wheel until people are really crying for it.
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If you don't mind writing a script or two, you're not looking at something that's impossible on a lighter budget. The X10 standard is actually pretty sucky, but I put it in my old house and it worked out okay. Raised the value of the house roughy 10X what I put into it, too. Anyway, check out smarthome.com, specifically this product.
Disclaimer: I haven't used this specific product. I have used just about every other X10 product, though, and the smarthome site does a pretty good job of explaining how to set things up. I used to use a wireless transmitter on my Linux box and some scripts put together called "firecracker" to communicate. Simple cron jobs did the rest. If I recall, I also had a device that transmitted/received from a serial port to the power lines directly, but I don't know if they still sell those or not.
If you really want to control your heat and A/C this way, I STRONGLY suggest taking lots of temperature samples of where things are at and ensuring you aren't wasting energy because of poor control systems. One mistake in code and your bills will go wild.
My printer at home still is connected to a computer via a parallel printer cable. It's my server and it's been running for a few months now. But, that's not what you're asking about, is it?
Tune to last week: My son got his picture taken with Santa and the professional photographer had a nice digital camera hooked up to a small computer/printer combo box. Pretty cleaver, really. On the back of this box connected to the parallel port, which couldn't have been more than six-months old, was... a key dongle.
For those who maybe aren't old enough to remember these babies, they are fairly slick little copy-protection keys. They are the hardware solution to software piracy. When the special software starts up, it looks on the port for a key and if it's not there, it bails. And hardware keys are much harder to copy, partly because the good ones destroy themselves if they are tampered with (usually the soldier points or ICs are sensitive to prying).
While these never really got used for major software products, they are practically everywhere in scientific and research environments where companies spend millions on a software package that only a few hundred of specialized applications exist. If you're charging $5,000+ for software, a hardware key starts sounding pretty good. Heck, when I left the university a year and a half ago, we still had three such applications that had been around for years (even through computer upgrades). I'm certain that these programs are still being used, and it will continue for some time.
*Sigh* Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Spammers make money by a certain percentage of people that view their messages. With the advent of better spam-identfifaction, it's important for the spammers to rewrite their messages to get around those filters. Remember, a spammer can't make money if his/her message is caught by the spam filter and the end-user doesn't see it.
So, what you think looks like a subject and even semi-normal text but seems weird, is really about getting past the spam filters and so that you can see it and make an "informed decision". Sure, you think it looks fishy and hit delete; but others still send out their credit card numbers. And 1 credit card number in 1 million messages is still cheap for the spammer.
Stem cells present their own bit of politics, and really, I don't want to get into that discussion here. Lots of smart, well meaning people believe they should be used regardless of the source. Other smart, well meaning people believe that some restrictions should be in placed on the sources. It's not worth a flame war.
As to the real issue: Marketing. Anyone else recall that soda was first just another cure-all drug, available at the pharmacy? Certainly lots of people have heard of snake-oil. Heck, asperin was also a cure-all.
I'm not saying that stem-cell research doesn't have some nifty possibilities. In fact, I think it'll bring several new advancements to medicine. But, it's also being touted as THE way to solve every current problem that's mystified smart, well meaning scientists for a while. It's like you've got a job to do around your house, but you don't have the right tool for it (and don't even know what tool to use); so when a new tool is invented you immediately wonder how you could use the new tool for your job.
Anyway, as to your post specifically: If you really do have a serious illness, I would want you to get the best medical help that you could get. That means carefully weighing all the options, current medicine and research. Where I have problems is that in many of these cases, a doctor would recommend a certain risky new treatment over one that has marginal success but has been utilized numerous times. And, since you're the one suffering, you may not be able to properly weigh your options. I honestly don't care if people want to volunteer for research--but I don't think that the doctors doing the treatment are always giving the honest, hard facts; and I know it's very difficult to make huge life-and-death decisions when you're suffering. To me, that just makes the whole situation prone to abuse. That's why the FDA exists, and has such high standards. It's to prevent well-meaning doctors and scientists from getting tunnel vision and falling into the trap that "the ends justify the means".
Personally, I don't want a risky treatment if there are other, less dangerous options. That's even if these less-risky treatments have a lower probability of success.
Okay, yes, a coolsuit isn't news for some. What I take issue with is that you seem to have taken the same, unfortunate belief that so many smart people fall into. Military development isn't cheap, and because all the exact details are rarely given out to the public, it's assumed to be mostly waste. While this may be true in some cases, it's not the norm. Believe it or not, the Army does have a limited budget and actually cares about researching many areas simultaneously; thus they do care about waste.
Anyway, there's always a difference between a commercial technology and a military one. Take this suit for example. How many times do you think racecar drivers get shot at while in their cars? If a bullet penetrates through, what will the results be? If there is fluid leakage, will it harm internal tissue or poison the blood stream, or is it so cold that muscles will tense up? If there are wires (and there are), could those short out and cause electrical damage to the wearer? If the system becomes non-functioning, what could happen that would prevent the wearer from continuing the mission? Lastly, what do the soldiers that will be issued this device think about it? You know, the guys that have been there, and will be going back? Yep, the Army gets everyone's input (even privates), and that's a huge benefit mostly unique to our military.
As someone that's in the Army, I can tell you that we don't get issued ANYTHING unless the leadership is confident that it will benefit our mission. That's not a bad thing.
Yes, I know that deaths due to terrorism is low statistically-speaking. Honestly, it's not something that I spend awake nights worried about. Overall, I'm probably a lot like you in feelings about the terrorist threat. Statistically speaking, it's so far into the noise that maybe it should be ignored.
The problem with this way of thinking, though, is that most ordinary people believe that terrorism is not an act of God, and that it is, in some way, a preventable issue. When it comes to auto accidents, ordinary folks want to put controls on those items that can lower the risk of death (preventing DUIs, speed limits, mandatory seat belt laws, etc). It's the same with other deadly issues--like how people want McD's to have healthy choices on their menus because heart disease is so prevalent (now, whether people make good choices is another issue...). Or smoking--how much energy/money has been spent on getting people to stop?
People can accept deaths. It's a normal fact of life, and it sucks when it hits close to home. It sucks even more when those deaths could have been prevented with simple measures. If a party got out of control and a guy that was totally blitzed got behind the wheel and kills your wife/husband/mom/sis/friend/etc, you'd be pretty darned pissed and that incident would leave a hole inside you that might not ever heal completely. That's reality. Also, you, being a responsible citizen and registered voter, would be so upset and hurt that you just might demand more steps be taken to prevent others from feeling how you do. So, you call your local politian.
Economically speaking, no deaths are without consequenses. If it's preventable, then it can be calculated how much the solution would cost and how many deaths it would prevent. Those "non-dead" people earn incomes and pay taxes. If those expected taxes are greater than the proposed solution, then we have a winner. Of course, not all decisions are made based on pure economics. Many people are simply willing to pay higher taxes in favor of more safety, just because we like not having to go to our loved one's funerals.
I do understand what you're saying, and the rational part of my brain agrees. The part that hates going to funerals, though, tells me that if a death can be prevented, maybe we should go out of our way a bit to prevent it.
Anyone else remember making pay phone calls for $0.10? It was that way from when I was born in 1980 until... oh, just about the time they started playing with the notion of deregulating the phone companies. Then it immediately hit $0.25 a call.
Last I looked, you can't make a pay phone call for less than $0.50 now. And if you use a calling card, it's probably closer to $1.00 just to connect.
Of course, cell phones eat into the profitabily of pay phones; but then, at current prices it doesn't take long for someone to think that any cell phone plan is cheaper than using a pay phone, never mind convenience. That wasn't the case, though, when deregulation started.
I've never been one to read the newspaper regularly anyway; however, if I had nothing to do and a paper was around, I would happily read it since I find that reading anything is better than TV, twiddling thumbs, or sitting quietly with a dumb look on my face. Yes, the news is old (so it's not news, exactly), but it's supposed to go more in-depth than TV news can. Friends and family tell me that newspaper reporters have gotten bland, and at times liberal opinion makes it into stories that are supposed to report news, not editorials. Okay, fine.
I do buy the paper now, though, on Sunday. That's it. I read the cartoons, do the crossword, and flip through the advertisements for my favorite stores. My wife clips out the coupons, and reads the cartoons once I'm done with them.
The rest of the 10 lb. brick I receive? Recycled immediately. Every time I actually pick it up and start to read, I find articles that honestly aren't all that exciting beyond what I either all ready know, or I just flat out don't care about some lady's new cookie store. Sorry. That's the breaks. And I pay to recycle all that wasted paper. *sigh*
I, for one, am a minimalist. I hate taking a bunch of crap with me when I'm not certain to use it. That being said, I'm a grunt, too, so I have to carry a craptastic amount of items that I _might_ want/need. I honestly like the feel of cargo pants made from a khaki material. You can pick them up cheap at a lot of stores. Heck, my last pair I got at JC Penney's on clearance in the fatty kid's section.
If you want to have a "cool" solution, buy an assault pack. If you have a friend in the military, he/she can take you on post to get a really nice high-speed pack for about $140. If you get one from CamelBak (example), it will also have an embedded hydration pack (2 or 3 liters) so that you can stay hydrated. Yes, it's cool to drink water.
I tend to agree with you on this one. I'm not about to say that an exoskeleton wouldn't be cool, or even handy. It's long been a desire for humans to lift/carry more weight for longer distances, etc.
Anyway, this particular system wouldn't support a person without control over their lower limbs. For one, the weight distribution for the person is all at the waist and upper thighs. If we were to say that the handicapped individual is extremely light at a mere 80lbs, he or she still would be too heavy to hold vertical for extended periods of time via the waist and upper thighs. I don't even want to imagine how torn up the skin would get. Heck, an improperly configured rucksack of just 50lbs on my back for just a couple of hours will give me two deep wounds about 2"x6" and they will be sore for over a week. And they want to hold a person up, supported, without any weight being supported by the obvious candidate: the butt. Of course, that's why wheelchairs are so effective.
As for the other application, such as holding increased weight... well, this one is actually a little more practical, but it's got a bunch more problems--and the same thing keeps cropping up: how do you get all that added weight to be distributed AROUND the body instead of through it via the person's bones and muscles? Truth is, it's really difficult. It's especially difficult when the person goes to lift--the motors, joints, and structure has to be "thinking" ahead of the person and move into the proper load-bearing position without throwing itself and the person off-balance. Impossible? No. Current reality? Doubtful.
If this particular skeleton supports extra weight at all, I would suspect the joints are all similar to my folding latter's joints that can lock into place and become very rigid. Then, just get the weight into a supported position (by lifting it up yourself), and then the skeleton can be locked in to give you rest. Balance is handled by the person. Add some flash for potential venture capitalists, and you're done. Too easy.
And by the way.... just where is/are the battery(ies)? Nevermind, this thing's got perpetual motion installed, I'm sure.
I'm in the Army currently, and my office computer has access to a bunch of Department of Defense internal networks that suposedly has all the data I could ever want. The problem is it's poorly indexed. So, if I need a particular obscure form or technical manual, it can be near impossible to find. What scares me is that I can often go to Google and find the data I want (or at least a link to a secure server with the data).
google.gov may seem silly to those in the private sector... but if Google did index private government and military sites, and allowed access only to authorized individuals, I wouldn't complain. Heck, I'd be happy at my new efficiency.
I decided to look for all the weirdos that are near my home. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the local Holiday Inn was the first return (or that there seems to be an ample supply of others)...
I think I need to move.
Here in Columbus (OH), about three years ago the local CBS affiliate started pressuring Time Warner to carry Ohio News Network on their basic analog cable service in order to continue rebroadcasting CBS. It was a mess, and all the other news agencies loved it. Everything went nuts about a month before the contract renewal deadline, and both sides dug in.
About two weeks before the station was to be pulled from the lineup, Time Warner sent rabbit ears to every customer and included instructions (both written and on their special channel running every half hour). If a customer wasn't sure how to set things up, a tech would even come out before the deadline so that CBS would still work seemlessly. Time Warner took the game to a level the CBS affiliate wasn't ready for.
The end result: Time Warner agreed to carry ONN on digital cable, and the CBS station stayed on regular analog cable. I'm not sure, but I don't believe there was even a rate increase given to the CBS station.
I wouldn't be surprised if these tactics by Viacom end up with the exact same result. Dish may lose a few customers in this, but that's nothing compared to the marketshare Viacom loses if people don't just randomly stumble onto their channel and watch for a half hour. If your station isn't even offered, people just can't watch it, and advertisers just don't want to pay lots of money for that. The price of poker is high here, but I'm pretty sure Viacom's in the position with the most to lose (and the potential gains are only modest).
You know, I also hate all the "extra" features that mobile phones seem to have now. We, as cunsumers and /.ers feel that it's silly to have something that's just marginal at many things when it could just be super at one and only one thing.
Okay--that's not how designers are thinking. The problem with phone design is that most people's hands are within a certian range of sizes. The same is (mostly) true with the size of people's heads. A phone just has to be comfortable for its use, and while there are lots of different styles, most are roughly the same width and length (when opened if it's a flip-phone). You can get away with thinner and lighter, though, but even that can be tricky.
So, the designers look at all the space they have to do things with. You typically only select so much battery power to give a day or twos usage to keep the weight down. The processor is capable of handling lots of features. The circuit board itself isn't horribly populated because most things are handling inside each specific chip. Most companies look at these issues and say "why not?". The cost for adding these features for a phone isn't terrible, and if it gets more people to buy the phone, so much the better.
Granted, I just want a mobile phone that has awesome reception. I can't say that I would want to use any camera in my phone--but if it's included anyway, it certainly isn't going to make me upset.
I placed my resume on Monster.com a long time ago and got a relatively large number of companies e-mailing and calling me for interviews and such. My wife also did the same, and got nearly the same results.
Skipping to recently--I don't have a resume available anymore because I was getting too many screwy/shady/questionable "companies" calling and nearly harassing me. My wife was laid-off and she posted her resume, only to get these same people hounding her. Most of them were pyramid-scheme type compaines, or they wanted her to call everyone in the area to see if they could lower their interest rate on their mortgage if they refinanced. Urgh--what a mess. They still call.
I'm really not sure that good companies wouldn't use the online resume sites as a hiring tool. A lot of the problem could just be the economy and how many companies just aren't hiring yet. Once everything starts picking up (hopefully in a few months), I wouldn't be surprised to see my favorite companies even posting jobs to those sites. It's just hard to know where a good place to offer yourself up for employment is when many companies still have hiring freezes in effect. I guess that's where personal contacts become the most valuable asset.
I have to completely agree with this. A fan is by far the best way to get a good night's sleep through about anything, especially once you train yourself to sleep with it. I have two cats that run around the bedroom (with hardwood floors) all night playing or otherwise rattling about. Installing a ceiling fan was the best thing I ever did, although a simple box fan worked okay, too.
While I completely understand your point, part of me remembers the days when I had to deal with several computers that were completely open and people would seemingly intentionally screw up everything such that a complete re-install of the OS was necessary. Granted, there are some nice ghosting utilities out there now that will re-sync the machine after the person logs out or every night; but those aren't always the best solution for everyone. I tend to understand why some admins think it's perfectly acceptable to be very restrictive--it makes their lives slightly easier and hopefully don't have to also worry about the legal ramifications if someone uses a completely open box to do something illegal (because the site is probably somewhat liable for monitoring what goes on; and even if not it could rack up huge legal bills proving it). In the end, you might lose a few customers because of the restrictive policies; but if it lowers the costs of the service (including risks), it may be more desirable.
No, seriously. I'm not a lawyer. Neither is most of the other folks around here. Maybe it would be best to actually call a lawyer in your own area and see what he/she says? Most have initial consultations for free...
My wife had planned to go out on Black Friday and spend somewhere in the ballpark of $400-500 all said and done. I wasn't pleased. I know that she's saving lots and lots of money--but I just can't afford to save any more! We've been living off my grad-student's income and her unemployment since her layoff a couple months back.
Anyway, she ended up not going (thankfully); but she instead blessed me with our first child being born. Now--don't get me wrong... I love this little guy and I'm incredibly happy he's finally here. I'm just starting to think that a few hundred dollars and coping with insane crowds was getting off easy ;)
It might surprise you, but folks who have entered the armed services don't have rights. Seriously. I'm sure you've heard that so-and-so signed his life away to the Army? Well, what actually happened was that upon entering the service, the individual gave away his/her own rights to protect the rights of others.
Sure, some people don't like this fact. But it's important that our military have clear understandings that they are not out on a joy-ride and they can't leave whenever they like. They are the property of the govenment and officers do have the authority to use deadly force on a soldier who won't obey orders (at least in time of war). If you're ever drafted, or you sign up for the service, you don't have the right anymore to complain about first ammendment violations and the like (except in protecting others' rights) because frankly, the Bill of Rights doesn't apply to you.
While I agree with you, I don't think there is any reason to fear companies or individuals making this information available to others. Most grocery stores (for example) really only care that you have their card for profiling--but the name isn't a concern at all. They typically ask for a first name and a phone number (in case they find it on the floor), but even the number doesn't have to be given out. Really, all they care about is tying a unique (or semi-unique in the case of husband/wife) number to product purchases. This allows them to see trends. And if it allows me to get a cheaper price on alcohol, condoms, and feminine hygene products, that's good in my book.
I just really don't see how in the current market stores will ever care to track you by "Doe, John" versus "23786138590". To them, a unique number satisfies their needs and so it's risky to push the boundary further into the realm of privacy. That doesn't mean they will never get there, though--so it's good to be careful.
What the article doesn't happen to mention is that InAs (Indium Arsenide) was believed to have a bandgap around 1.6eV (not sure the exact number) and it's now known to be somewhere in the range of ~0.6eV. The article also don't mention phosphide compounds, which are far bigger in research and industry right now.
Fact is, nitrides are bastards to grow. You have to use gas-sources (instead of solid sources that most MBE-ers prefer). There's also no current way to make a nitride-based substrate, which means growing (typically) on sapphire or other lattice mis-matched substrates (GaAs, InP, etc). These lead to HUGE dislocation densities that greatly impact performace.
Now, that doesn't mean this can't be done. And in fact, magic is being done all the time in the world of research. But nitrides aren't going to be realized for some time. Not at least until other technologies pan out first (phosphides and the like). Those are cheaper to grow and allow for much lower defect densities.
Just so you folk's know I'm not just talking out of my ars--do some research and look up some papers. Authors to look for are Steve Ringel (OSU), Gene Fitzgerald (MIT), John Carlin (OSU), Sumitomo (Japan, somewhere), and by-far Yamaguchi (Toyota Technological Institute). Read up on these folks' work and those around them--they know space-based photovoltaics better than most, and very, very, very, very few are working with nitrides right now. Not that it's not going to eventually happen--but until defect densities get low enough, there's simply no way to make a good solar cell (read up on the previous authors' works if you want the theoretical calculations as to why).
I think this article is either missing some rather important details, or wasn't very clear. Is Extended Stay America blocking its customers from viewing Gator content while using the "hotel's" network, or somehow magically blocking Gator from working while someone looks at their website from anywhere in the world?
I don't really see a problem with any hotel or whatever that provides me internet access as a service blocking any particular content. So long as it's in the agreement signed at the front counter--seems fair. And if people don't want this type of service, simply don't stay at their chain. Personally, I like that sort of thing so I would be inclined to stay with them more often knowing this. It's not a first ammendment thing since I'm told about it up-front and I can choose to stay elsewhere.
On the other hand, if Extended Stay America has found a way to disable Gator from working on their website from anywhere--my congrats. Yeah, it's probably going to cost them in this civil suit that they may lose. It's still cool to think that someone's found a way to disable Gator, though.
The unmanned versions are built to a lower spec, as the cargo isn't as important as human life.
The family of the person killed might disagree with you somewhat. Same goes with those who were injured. Of course, we Americans tend to make the same mistakes at times, too--we forget that those working around the site are just as vulnerable as the astronauts themselves. The launch staff just don't go home heros.
The quick response is clearly that you already are supplied with 110VAC, and thus a power strip is your best bet. But that's not what you want, mostly because that's too bulky. Understandible.
The bigger issue is that all these devices have different power requirements. Some want 9VDC, others 12VDC or 5VDC, or even 6VDC. Some want 500mA, others want only 100mA. And all the connectors are different. But you want standards. To do this, you would be required to build a box that could supply any voltage. And at any current. This means the device when connected would have to send a signal back to the power station that says what voltage it's expecting and how much current it wants to draw. Then, the power gets turned up. And if everything goes well there isn't any surges when extra devices are plugged in.
Actually, this question comes up on /. quite often--it's almost routine. The answer is almost always the same, too--just too complicated and ends up being too expensive for the circuitry. People typically like simple devices, with easy to change parts. Wallworts do that. Basic 110 AC is just fine. No need to reinvent the wheel until people are really crying for it.