Externally, the USA peaked right around 2000. The economy was bubbling like crazy. The tech was spreading everywhere. The USSR was long gone. We just mopped the floor with a dictator, proving that we could when nobody else could. Everyone else was marveling at the super-weapons, stealth planes, and wondering what else was in secret store. USA domestic issues were trivial and the biggest problem _seemed_ to be in the pants of the president. Remember that time of bliss? Not superpower, unchallenged hyperpower.
In 2001, the tech bubble burst, the lost jobs to outsourcing became obvious and painful, we pissed off our friends one after the other until late summer, and when they came to offer help, we started behaving like an angry bully who got punched back, as we underestimated what turned into a 13-year war, and planned another one against their best advice. And everyone foreign and domestic became a threat, from 2-year-olds in Iran to wheelchair-bound grandma. Some people got very rich. They probably don't only have assets in dollars.
I'm really annoyed at the US car market. Take any car that is available in Europe, and the only engine you can get here is the biggest one that's available there. I drove on European highways with a 1.1l Fiesta. It won't win any races, but it goes fast enough, and sips fuel. Same car, US side? 1.6l engine. Still pretty good mileage by US standards, but few people would buy it across the pond with the "big" wasteful engine. Diesel? over 60% of the market in multiple Euro countries. Small HDI engines that give you more oomph than a 2.0l gas one, and torque like a small V6, for two drops of fuel per mile. States-side? Gotta buy a VW/Audi at a premium, or trust GM to have finally made a reliable econobox. For starter, the GM solution with a urea tank is probably not really happy today in the northwest (freezes at 12F according to the web).
So yeah, I'd love a diesel, or a European car, so I can say bye-bye to the fuel pump without lugging batteries and paying a repair premium (and no 10yr resale value). But you can't get them here, because someone decided that Americans NEED MORE POWAAAAR, or something. To drive 65MPH.
Oh wait, I can't afford it. Please give me grooves for an extra 2 miles a gallon in a way that the local shop can fix (looking at you, battery/hybrid-CVT/regen-braking monster).
Are you getting regular web upgrades to your fleshlight? My wife isn't getting updates anymore, I have to keep running the old bugs. Should I consider switching over?
My smart TV is running windows. It runs every browser and most of my favorite apps, flash, video, and it even runs productivity software, games, and non-latin websites.
Just don't mind the little box behind the flat screen.
"gas giant that had the bulk of its atmosphere ripped away by stellar radiation"
I take your extinction-level supervolcano and I raise you an atmosphere-shredding red dwarf formation! (Who's going to be the main actor for that movie?)
I'm pretty sure a good portion of the world knows how to operate despite very dim sunlight and half of the US gone. It takes power to make light to make food, and we can do that on a pretty decent scale, even if it takes burning the bodies of those who couldn't. We're a pretty resilient pest.
Just what we need. Management will say "just print it, you have the files" and not realize that titanium was specced for a reason. You mean you actually needed that stabilizer to not shear off at mach 2?
I've spent the last 7 years with a 37" 1080p screen as a primary monitor. I sit about 4 feet from it, can't see pixels, but almost (I see them at 3'). Games looks absolutely awesome. Since it's showing signs of aging, if I can get a cheap 60" 4k screen in 2-3 years, I'll sit 5-6 feet from it, except when I have to display three datasheets side-by-side. Games will look awesome.
The governments already know anything important about you. Non-phone utilities provide necessary basic services, and have an undeserved reputation of trailing tech by decades. They are heavily regulated. What do you get in exchange for giving all your life details for FB and Google to package and resell? Convenience Guess which ones I'd rather hand confidential details to.
I remember watching a show 20 years ago about gauging the accuracy of advertising by using eye tracking. They took people off the street into a special truck (it was bulky equipment), and they could very precisely see how the men's gazes never quite reached the lingerie brand name in the ad's corner.
There is no way anyone would ever want to use an updated version to track your ad viewing while browsing. Nope. Not gonna happen. Totally not running to the patent office (if Samsung doesn't have that one yet, someone needs to be fired).
They don't seem to be stopping after a few PR stunts. Not waging proxy wars all over the place does give them the resources to keep going, and going, and...
According to mister Goebbels, a lot of the recent problems of the USA could probably be solved by having a friendly discussion with dictionary editors, about that incorrect definition of the word "privacy"
Because Hollywood needs a new device holding the end-of-the-world vial precariously, while being driven at full speed on an almost empty battery with a timer counting down to 00:01.
Last time someone decided that the dollar wasn't worth using to sell his oil barrels, he had to hide in a hole while a few aircraft carriers and tanks showed him the error of his ways. A few hundred years earlier, a few people learnt about applied gravity (with their necks) for forgetting that people need enough buying power to stay peaceful. More recently, letting a currency slide down too far left a few not-so-nice people seize power and cause the wrong kind of economic boom,
That's why people believe in "normal" fiat currencies. There's real power behind them.
If BTC drops to 5 cents tomorrow, people will just say "oh well, it could have been nice" and move on. Only a few speculators will be harmed. They'll have a nice shiny set of numbers in a file. With Banksi, they'd at least have a wall to shelter against and something nice to look at.
The US dollar does carry the signature of the Treasury secretary of the US government, and a big stick to whack you if you try to make one which looks the same.
Bitcoin is like Bansky, You don't even know who started it but it's got value because it's an original concept. Copycats can be made by anyone with even less consequences.
Slashdot Mirror
Externally, the USA peaked right around 2000.
The economy was bubbling like crazy. The tech was spreading everywhere. The USSR was long gone. We just mopped the floor with a dictator, proving that we could when nobody else could. Everyone else was marveling at the super-weapons, stealth planes, and wondering what else was in secret store. USA domestic issues were trivial and the biggest problem _seemed_ to be in the pants of the president.
Remember that time of bliss? Not superpower, unchallenged hyperpower.
In 2001, the tech bubble burst, the lost jobs to outsourcing became obvious and painful, we pissed off our friends one after the other until late summer, and when they came to offer help, we started behaving like an angry bully who got punched back, as we underestimated what turned into a 13-year war, and planned another one against their best advice. And everyone foreign and domestic became a threat, from 2-year-olds in Iran to wheelchair-bound grandma. Some people got very rich. They probably don't only have assets in dollars.
I'm really annoyed at the US car market.
Take any car that is available in Europe, and the only engine you can get here is the biggest one that's available there. I drove on European highways with a 1.1l Fiesta. It won't win any races, but it goes fast enough, and sips fuel. Same car, US side? 1.6l engine. Still pretty good mileage by US standards, but few people would buy it across the pond with the "big" wasteful engine.
Diesel? over 60% of the market in multiple Euro countries. Small HDI engines that give you more oomph than a 2.0l gas one, and torque like a small V6, for two drops of fuel per mile. States-side? Gotta buy a VW/Audi at a premium, or trust GM to have finally made a reliable econobox. For starter, the GM solution with a urea tank is probably not really happy today in the northwest (freezes at 12F according to the web).
So yeah, I'd love a diesel, or a European car, so I can say bye-bye to the fuel pump without lugging batteries and paying a repair premium (and no 10yr resale value). But you can't get them here, because someone decided that Americans NEED MORE POWAAAAR, or something. To drive 65MPH.
This is 2014, where's my flying car?
Oh wait, I can't afford it.
Please give me grooves for an extra 2 miles a gallon in a way that the local shop can fix (looking at you, battery/hybrid-CVT/regen-braking monster).
Are you getting regular web upgrades to your fleshlight?
My wife isn't getting updates anymore, I have to keep running the old bugs. Should I consider switching over?
My smart TV is running windows.
It runs every browser and most of my favorite apps, flash, video, and it even runs productivity software, games, and non-latin websites.
Just don't mind the little box behind the flat screen.
"gas giant that had the bulk of its atmosphere ripped away by stellar radiation"
I take your extinction-level supervolcano and I raise you an atmosphere-shredding red dwarf formation!
(Who's going to be the main actor for that movie?)
I'm pretty sure a good portion of the world knows how to operate despite very dim sunlight and half of the US gone.
It takes power to make light to make food, and we can do that on a pretty decent scale, even if it takes burning the bodies of those who couldn't.
We're a pretty resilient pest.
"Be safe from Yellowstone, move to Mauritius with a container of Twinkies"
I'm curious for a good reference comparing metal strength and fatigue resistance between printed/machined/welded/forged parts.
Just what we need. Management will say "just print it, you have the files" and not realize that titanium was specced for a reason.
You mean you actually needed that stabilizer to not shear off at mach 2?
I've spent the last 7 years with a 37" 1080p screen as a primary monitor. I sit about 4 feet from it, can't see pixels, but almost (I see them at 3').
Games looks absolutely awesome.
Since it's showing signs of aging, if I can get a cheap 60" 4k screen in 2-3 years, I'll sit 5-6 feet from it, except when I have to display three datasheets side-by-side.
Games will look awesome.
That's what killing network neutrality is about.
"The only way to get these 4k images are if you download from my pay-per-view"
3840x2160 for "video" (four full-HD screens per display)
4096x2160 for "movies"
At $3K for a 4k screen, that's indeed cheap per pixel, but it's time for the chicken-and-egg of prices/adoption vs available content.
The governments already know anything important about you.
Non-phone utilities provide necessary basic services, and have an undeserved reputation of trailing tech by decades. They are heavily regulated.
What do you get in exchange for giving all your life details for FB and Google to package and resell? Convenience
Guess which ones I'd rather hand confidential details to.
I remember watching a show 20 years ago about gauging the accuracy of advertising by using eye tracking. They took people off the street into a special truck (it was bulky equipment), and they could very precisely see how the men's gazes never quite reached the lingerie brand name in the ad's corner.
There is no way anyone would ever want to use an updated version to track your ad viewing while browsing. Nope. Not gonna happen. Totally not running to the patent office (if Samsung doesn't have that one yet, someone needs to be fired).
"The success of this product will rely on how many doctors prescribe it"
I'm too cynical to read stuff like this.
Millenia-old "law" of the high seas: A ship is in distress, all ships capable of safely helping shall reroute to assist.
No-one who sails for a living wants to be the guy known to break that sacred rule.
I'm a proponent of intelligent falling, you insensitive clod!
They don't seem to be stopping after a few PR stunts.
Not waging proxy wars all over the place does give them the resources to keep going, and going, and...
Will it be satellites all the way up?
According to mister Goebbels, a lot of the recent problems of the USA could probably be solved by having a friendly discussion with dictionary editors, about that incorrect definition of the word "privacy"
Someone resigning after being entrusted with power by the people should definitely go for seppuku instead.
Because Hollywood needs a new device holding the end-of-the-world vial precariously, while being driven at full speed on an almost empty battery with a timer counting down to 00:01.
Last time someone decided that the dollar wasn't worth using to sell his oil barrels, he had to hide in a hole while a few aircraft carriers and tanks showed him the error of his ways.
A few hundred years earlier, a few people learnt about applied gravity (with their necks) for forgetting that people need enough buying power to stay peaceful. More recently, letting a currency slide down too far left a few not-so-nice people seize power and cause the wrong kind of economic boom,
That's why people believe in "normal" fiat currencies. There's real power behind them.
If BTC drops to 5 cents tomorrow, people will just say "oh well, it could have been nice" and move on. Only a few speculators will be harmed. They'll have a nice shiny set of numbers in a file. With Banksi, they'd at least have a wall to shelter against and something nice to look at.
The US dollar does carry the signature of the Treasury secretary of the US government, and a big stick to whack you if you try to make one which looks the same.
Bitcoin is like Bansky, You don't even know who started it but it's got value because it's an original concept. Copycats can be made by anyone with even less consequences.