The hard part isn't building a smart thermostat. The hard part is finding somebody simultaneously dumb enough and rich enough to pay $3.2 billion for a thermostat company.
As one who specializes in Digital Signal Processing (DSP), I was designing DSP circuits with discrete ICs early in my career, then switched over to designing software as DSP became more of a software-based art. So, I replaced myself.
Another thing that probably replaces some EEs are Computer Engineers. That degree didn't exist at my school at the time I went there, but it seems to have become more widespread over the years. I'm still not exactly sure what it is, but it seems to be somewhat like EE except for having more emphasis on digital circuits and software, the latter of which I got very little of in school. And they probably skip stuff like fields and waves, which I got two courses in, and power systems, which I also got two courses in. But you folks probably know better than I do what Computer Engineering really is.
Anyway, the Software Engineer and Computer Engineer cases illustrate that while there may be fewer EEs, strictly speaking, there may not be a net loss of that general category of engineering.
I wasn't thinking of that, but you raise a good point. Since scientific drug testing works so well in the Tour de France, why should birds be exempt from it? That's only fair to the birds' fans and sponsors - and most of all - to the other birds.
Judging by the fact that summaries so frequently contain simple errors (this one seemed to be missing an "a" - which sounds kinda stereotypically Japanese in the context of WWII: I then read "Pratform" instead of "Platform"), it seems as though they post the summaries without editing. If that's the case, the units are whatever the submitter submitted. Maybe he's simply an American who prefers pounds, or someone from the UK over 60.
So, if you use your preferred units in the article summaries that you submit yourself, I doubt they would change them. Even if you use "stone".
Right. I wondered why PCs and phones were even being lumped into the same category for comparison, especially since Apple's OS X and iOS are considered to be separate products. The strongest conceptually similarity between PCs and phones is that they both contain microprocessors. But if that's the criteria, Toyota outsells them all, since every automobile contains multiple microprocessors.
Now that they've got that one nailed down, they should do a similar study to test certain long-held theories about bicyclist behavior in the Tour de France.
I suspect they are lying, given that it seems like they lie about everything, and that we already have reason to suspect they are lying about this in particular. [bbc.co.uk]
Haven't you heard? The NSA just admitted that they lie about everything.
The onus is upon the merchant to prove the charge was legit. For an in-store transaction, this usually means a copy of the signature on the credit card receipt. You send that to the credit card clearinghouse, they compare it to the signature the credit card company provides, and decide if the cardholder really made the purchase or not.
In light of that, it fascinates me that those electronic signature gizmos at stores work so badly. Half the time, I can't even recognize my own signature because half of it's missing. I guess signature comparisons to dispute chargebacks must not happen very often - I assume that merchants just roll over and die most of the time. The fact that we're all faithfully made to sign on those things probably is just psychology to make us feel like we can't commit friendly fraud by disputing our own purchases.
From a merchant's point of view, a system like Bitcoin that puts the merchants back in control of refunds sure sounds appealing. However, I believe most customers appreciate the security of having a third party like a credit-card issuer to go to when there is a dispute. In starker terms, customers enjoy the power they currently hold. So, if the use of Bitcoin eliminates fraudulent chargebacks but reduces overall sales, it still may not be in the merchant's best interest.
Also, from the merchant's point of view, the idea of a totally anonymous transaction isn't very appealing. If your customers know that you know who they are, maybe they'll be a little kinder to you in terms of post-sale behavior like spreading word of mouth and demanding refunds. Just a theory.
Actually, the merchant eats it - at least that's been my experience as a merchant. The ingestion process is called a chargeback. It's one reason why credit card issuers are so glad to make refunds to consumers. Merchants live in fear of chargebacks because not only do they lose the revenue, they also have to pay a penalty.
As a merchant, you quickly figure out that it's best to accommodate any request for a refund, even if you think you're being treated unfairly. For example, I recently had a customer in another country who asked me to pay his local taxes on the sale I had just made to him. So I gave him a refund for the amount of the tax. Easy decision.
(I shouldn't be telling you folks this, it's supposed to be a dirty little secret. Don't tell anybody else.)
Glad you got it, thanks for your support. I'll keep trying, though clearly some part of the population here suffers from HDD, Humor Deficit Disorder, so I guess we gotta live with that.
I guess whoever marked the parent as "Flamebait" didn't get the "Currently" joke. The use of "a modest [editorial] proposal" in the title was a hint, but I guess that wasn't enough.:-)
I've one read a very insightful comment: If you look at any depiction of paradise around the world, they have one thing in common: People all were out of work.
Good point. That must be why Adam and Eve took jobs as apple-pickers.
My favorite sci-fi book is a little-known dystopian novel called One on Me, which centers around a world in which production is fully automated, which makes society so wealthy that no one has to work anymore. In fact, you can just order anything you want on your phone and it will be automatically delivered to you. (Since the book was written in 1980, that part was quite prescient.) Of course, the main character finds life unsatisfying, discovers a purpose for himself, and the story proceeds from there. It's a great read.
Actually, I believe what I reported to be true based on articles I've read over the years but I don't really have the time/energy to dig them out to rigorously prove it for you with references. If rigorous proof becomes required here, the comment submission rate will plummet. This ain't exactly Wikipedia. (Haven't you figured out yet that most of what's written here is the "smoke" you refer to? I'm not sure what part of the anatomy it's intended for, though - personally, I'd rather it go through your eyes into your brain, as text one reads typically does, but you're welcome to apply it in any way you prefer.)
Sorry, I should have remembered at least Skype and Nokia. The Skype one always seemed pretty dumb to me, but the Nokia one makes some sense. Anyway, their ROE still is pretty high despite all that.
Slashdot Mirror
The hard part isn't building a smart thermostat. The hard part is finding somebody simultaneously dumb enough and rich enough to pay $3.2 billion for a thermostat company.
As one who specializes in Digital Signal Processing (DSP), I was designing DSP circuits with discrete ICs early in my career, then switched over to designing software as DSP became more of a software-based art. So, I replaced myself.
Another thing that probably replaces some EEs are Computer Engineers. That degree didn't exist at my school at the time I went there, but it seems to have become more widespread over the years. I'm still not exactly sure what it is, but it seems to be somewhat like EE except for having more emphasis on digital circuits and software, the latter of which I got very little of in school. And they probably skip stuff like fields and waves, which I got two courses in, and power systems, which I also got two courses in. But you folks probably know better than I do what Computer Engineering really is.
Anyway, the Software Engineer and Computer Engineer cases illustrate that while there may be fewer EEs, strictly speaking, there may not be a net loss of that general category of engineering.
If Starbucks offers no grounds for a suit based on liability, at least a tailor's shop is grounds for a suit based on wool.
(I'm going for "Funny" too, but neither one of us is likely to get it. :-)
I wasn't thinking of that, but you raise a good point. Since scientific drug testing works so well in the Tour de France, why should birds be exempt from it? That's only fair to the birds' fans and sponsors - and most of all - to the other birds.
Judging by the fact that summaries so frequently contain simple errors (this one seemed to be missing an "a" - which sounds kinda stereotypically Japanese in the context of WWII: I then read "Pratform" instead of "Platform"), it seems as though they post the summaries without editing. If that's the case, the units are whatever the submitter submitted. Maybe he's simply an American who prefers pounds, or someone from the UK over 60.
So, if you use your preferred units in the article summaries that you submit yourself, I doubt they would change them. Even if you use "stone".
Right. I wondered why PCs and phones were even being lumped into the same category for comparison, especially since Apple's OS X and iOS are considered to be separate products. The strongest conceptually similarity between PCs and phones is that they both contain microprocessors. But if that's the criteria, Toyota outsells them all, since every automobile contains multiple microprocessors.
Darn, this one didn't get any attention but I thought it was my best one all day. As the saying goes, "time and chance happeneth to them all."
Now that they've got that one nailed down, they should do a similar study to test certain long-held theories about bicyclist behavior in the Tour de France.
Except me. I believe the correct term is "Radaranging".
Yes, there is. Think about it - I bet it will hit you like a lightning bolt soon.
I suspect they are lying, given that it seems like they lie about everything, and that we already have reason to suspect they are lying about this in particular. [bbc.co.uk]
Haven't you heard? The NSA just admitted that they lie about everything.
(Quick! Duck before his head explodes!)
The onus is upon the merchant to prove the charge was legit. For an in-store transaction, this usually means a copy of the signature on the credit card receipt. You send that to the credit card clearinghouse, they compare it to the signature the credit card company provides, and decide if the cardholder really made the purchase or not.
In light of that, it fascinates me that those electronic signature gizmos at stores work so badly. Half the time, I can't even recognize my own signature because half of it's missing. I guess signature comparisons to dispute chargebacks must not happen very often - I assume that merchants just roll over and die most of the time. The fact that we're all faithfully made to sign on those things probably is just psychology to make us feel like we can't commit friendly fraud by disputing our own purchases.
From a merchant's point of view, a system like Bitcoin that puts the merchants back in control of refunds sure sounds appealing. However, I believe most customers appreciate the security of having a third party like a credit-card issuer to go to when there is a dispute. In starker terms, customers enjoy the power they currently hold. So, if the use of Bitcoin eliminates fraudulent chargebacks but reduces overall sales, it still may not be in the merchant's best interest.
Also, from the merchant's point of view, the idea of a totally anonymous transaction isn't very appealing. If your customers know that you know who they are, maybe they'll be a little kinder to you in terms of post-sale behavior like spreading word of mouth and demanding refunds. Just a theory.
Not a bad problem to have from a hacker's point of view. As Mae West said, "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful."
Don't they already offer The Red Coin?
Actually, the merchant eats it - at least that's been my experience as a merchant. The ingestion process is called a chargeback. It's one reason why credit card issuers are so glad to make refunds to consumers. Merchants live in fear of chargebacks because not only do they lose the revenue, they also have to pay a penalty.
As a merchant, you quickly figure out that it's best to accommodate any request for a refund, even if you think you're being treated unfairly. For example, I recently had a customer in another country who asked me to pay his local taxes on the sale I had just made to him. So I gave him a refund for the amount of the tax. Easy decision.
(I shouldn't be telling you folks this, it's supposed to be a dirty little secret. Don't tell anybody else.)
The next morning, there in the web, neatly woven, were the words SOME PIGS!
Glad you got it, thanks for your support. I'll keep trying, though clearly some part of the population here suffers from HDD, Humor Deficit Disorder, so I guess we gotta live with that.
I guess whoever marked the parent as "Flamebait" didn't get the "Currently" joke. The use of "a modest [editorial] proposal" in the title was a hint, but I guess that wasn't enough. :-)
I hate interacting with my phone through voice
If that kind of thinking catches on, maybe people will even start using phones to talk with each other again.
How about we change "At present, an ampere is defined as" to "Currently, an ampere is defined as"?
I've one read a very insightful comment: If you look at any depiction of paradise around the world, they have one thing in common: People all were out of work.
Good point. That must be why Adam and Eve took jobs as apple-pickers.
My favorite sci-fi book is a little-known dystopian novel called One on Me, which centers around a world in which production is fully automated, which makes society so wealthy that no one has to work anymore. In fact, you can just order anything you want on your phone and it will be automatically delivered to you. (Since the book was written in 1980, that part was quite prescient.) Of course, the main character finds life unsatisfying, discovers a purpose for himself, and the story proceeds from there. It's a great read.
It's just a joke, son, I say, a joke.
Actually, I believe what I reported to be true based on articles I've read over the years but I don't really have the time/energy to dig them out to rigorously prove it for you with references. If rigorous proof becomes required here, the comment submission rate will plummet. This ain't exactly Wikipedia. (Haven't you figured out yet that most of what's written here is the "smoke" you refer to? I'm not sure what part of the anatomy it's intended for, though - personally, I'd rather it go through your eyes into your brain, as text one reads typically does, but you're welcome to apply it in any way you prefer.)
Sorry, I should have remembered at least Skype and Nokia. The Skype one always seemed pretty dumb to me, but the Nokia one makes some sense. Anyway, their ROE still is pretty high despite all that.
Sorry, I'd like to help you but I prefer not to sully unsubstantiated claims with mere facts and figures.