When we drove from TN to MT and back, 1800 miles each way, we stopped for about 15 minutes every 350 miles to put in gas. Not enough time to recharge batteries during each stop. We had 3 drivers and swapped at each time.
This is not unreasonable method of travel for many. Even with my wife and I drive, we swap driving with the same regularity and the stops are timed to take about the same time.
I don't think our driving habits are to unreasonable or unusual.
To this point, e-driving just isn't up to it. This startup (from what I think I understand) was going to SWAP battery packs, so 'refueling' would be 5 mins or less, batteries were basically leased from them so they would have a continuing cash flow, and they would deal with battery maintenance. Too bad they didn't make it.
This weekend I re-watched minority report.... It is an over-exaggeration of the google glasses concept, but yea, it is creepy and intrusive technology. Some will buy in but I would prefer to have the OPTION to opt in or out.
If you want us in the USA to convert, teach our kids metric.
Metric system is the 'official standard' of the USA for some time now. Gulf Petroleum converted all their gas pumps to Liters many years ago, and it drove customers away. Gulf as a independent petroleum company retail presence doesn't exist now.
Even in woodworking 6MM is not really 1/4 inch, but it is used. 3MM is not 1/8 inch, a 100x150 board 3 meters long is not a 2x4 12' long but the conversion is used. Even 2x4's are really 1.5x3.5 inches anyway.
My Nissan car made in the USA displays Metric OR Imperial units, but not both. If we want to get folks to convert, display Metric units more prominently and in smaller type the Imperial. Folks in the USA will like most, go with the easiest thing. But if we have our auto's converted, we do need all traffic signs and maps display BOTH also.
Will the USA convert totally to metric? Yep. When it makes ECONOMIC -AND- POLITICAL sense. As crazy as BO is, that is one sacred cow even he isn't willing to tip... yet.
And my Gas Sucking Nissan gets between 13 and 27 mpg. Now how many K/L is that?:)
Just determine how to use the backdoors the Chinese have been building into equipment we have purchased from them, and use them. No need to engineer new ones.
We do have a 'overseeing agency' called 'Homeland Security'. I don't trust them either.
As Pogo said: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
Why RPi? Easy, cheap, available. Yep, there are others smaller, but being 'less to engineer' and lots of 'howtos' and examples available to promote the use.
Make a better equivalent (and promote it), and they will come.... It used to be Intel and Motorola embedded products, then PIC, not things keep changing and the RPi is the current implementation.... Wait a while and it will change again.
Given the size and power of the memories, I like the ones with the micro size SD cards.
64G isn't to much for these device to handle, and having a 'library' or several larger cards would be nice for 'special needs' (movie libraries, detail CAD files of the Empire State Building or Golden Gate Bridge, or latest killer development you plan on selling on Etsy or your next killer Kickstarter campaign, while not mixing them with your complete internet cat photo collection!) would be useful.
The 7" tablet is about the size of what we currently know as a 'half sheet' of 8.5x11 sheet of paper. This is roughly the size of the journal that Ben Franklin carried around to write notes in.... Franklin (now Franklin-Covey) has been selling 'Daytimers' of about that size for years. Why have they been such high sellers and adopted by millions? You guessed it, size. Big enough to read and write on, small enough to 'carry everywhere'. The day planners do you no good if you get an inspiration or need to schedule a meeting and it is 'on my desk'. It must be with you.... The same goes for tablets.
Is there a need for bigger and smaller displays? Yes. We do 2" screens to 60+ inch displays all in the home. To carry about, IMHO, there are a few 'critical sizes'. The 'shirt pocket', the 'hand carry', and the 'in the backpack' sizes. Shirt pocket can be small to an iPhone/Android screen phone size. Hand carry is the mini-tablet, 7" or so, I keep thinking that there was a reason why Amazon make the kindle that size and it became their most popular model. It is convenient, it fits in a large pocket or purse, and is a 'thin' novel size. The larger 'backpack' size can be from the large iPad to a 'Windows Surface' to to a full laptop. The 'netbook' fit into the same size as the mini-tablet, but unless you have one that can work with or without the keyboard, the tablets with 'optional' keyboards seem to be a good solution. Still even the netbook is a neat toy to have and covered that range for 'high function' before the full-function tablet technology caught hold in a big way for that form factor.
Many of us still find the keyboard easier to use when writing the great american novel or doing things like posting on slashdot, but the on-screen and blue-tooth addon keyboards for the tablets help a lot when not -on the move- when reading/content consumption rather than generating content is the primary task.
I would still like to try one of the laser projection keyboards, but my toy money only goes so far.
These kinds of technologies are not 'either-or' but both. I still like my desktop (big monitors, all my high power goodies at one spot) but it turns into my server more often anymore. A host for my 'local cloud'. ( My internet connection is slow and expensive for bandwidth, and cable/dsl/Wimax are not options here due to physical location, I may be going satellite soon unless something happens. )... But even around here, I enjoy relatively good wireless internal to my home area that makes devices useful.
Golden Rule - The one with the gold makes the rule
If you don't like the terms and conditions of employment, most of us are 'free' to leave. Then if you can, you can go make your own employment utopia using your rules.
Weaving an un-coated copper wire into it every several threads would help, I am told.
The copper used in plumbing helps ensure water is not contaminated, and just a brush against copper is enough to kill many bacteria, and I am guessing the same would happen here.
The easiest thing is to wash the bags occasionally, and not carry raw produce in them that isn't washed well before consuming.
If this assumption is or is NOT right, I wish someone would find empirical results and make the data available for independent analysis, not just take the posters word for it.
We have found 'scientists' manipulating 'global warming data' in the recent past, so manipulating other data by any means is not beyond anyone's realm of reason.
That is why there are proctored journals (to validate and have independent researchers attempt to reproduce the same observed results) before making statements defined a 'truth' to the public.
Oh well, time to stop ranting and go on with life.
WMT and others are doing JIT (Just In Time) inventory. They don't get stock delivered till it is needed, except for a few seasons where they must stock up ahead of time like Black Friday and Holiday shopping (I think that is why the local WMT here breed 40' storage containers over part of their parking lots). Manufacturers do the same thing with raw stock. And like retailers, the manufacturers that do JIT inventory get caught without raw inventory when it happens sometimes in their supply chain, but seldom get caught with much excess inventory.
If WMT and Amazon are doing it, I am guessing it makes them $$.
They 'do' the same way that UNIX does a defrag. By using increments of storage except for when a physically uber-large item comes in, it will normally not be required.
Computers, like rocks, are neither good nor bad. They just are just there. Rocks are useful many times. So are computers.
Now the difference in being 'moral' or 'immoral' often has to do with the societal perspective. If the Nazi's had won WWII, then history would not have written that the things done by them in the name of 'war' or 'cleansing' were immoral. If the South had won the war between the states, slavery being marked as 'immoral' would have been pushed back. Not that some individuals would not have pointed that direction, but the majority of society would have gone with the 'victors'. Even in situational morality, consider the Dalmer party. Was eating humans 'moral' when the other option was perceived starvation? Some consider large deficit spending 'immoral', others do not. Some consider not being vegetarian or vegan as being immoral. To some having multiple spouses is considered immoral.
So to that extent, even peoples actions, are 'relative' and so it their 'moral compass'.
So can we program moral machines? Yes and No. It depends on the programmer. It depends on the uses.
So who are we to determine if a computer made 'moral decisions' or not?
I suggest: Provide a 'priority support subscription' yes, pay for. Possibly not a phone number, but a 'priority subscriber only' forum for the paid subscription use only. And provide 'free' email or forum only support. So you address issues of 'priority customers' before the 'free'.
Some 'OSS vendors' over the years have done a 'pay for current release', others wait for the free release model. The free release can be one major release back. This works OK if you use a 6 month or 12 month type of release cycle for the major releases.
Just a few thoughts.
I worked for a company that sold systems and supported OSS software. Our customers too seemed to think since the software itself is free, our time and effort is also.
We have addressed issues lie this using various methods over the years. Super computing is just a current area where doing pre-emptive issue resolutions has come in play.
More obvious ways of HELPING (not single item 'resolving') this issue include:
-- Parallelism... similar to RAID for data storage but in various related areas -- High Availability and ruggedization... yep, make it out of 'better stuff'. If you have something 'good' make it better, or 'harder' (like radiation hardening or EMP hardening), -- Multi-pathing of computation and data - we did this back in the '70s& '80s when reducing single points of failure, setting up multiple paths for data in computers, building in diagnostic facilities both in-band and out-of-band to be preemptive on detecting failure options before it causes issues. -- Harden facilities and environmentals - buildings, power, HVAC, ventilation, humidity, water, earthquake and storm vulnerabilities can often be handled but not easily or cheaply after a new facility has been built. -- Redundancy of MPP, and Vertical MIPS of few but larger CPUs, RISC processing - all have been used to make processing faster, cheaper, more reliable over the years in various implementations.
These are just a few techniques off the top of my head I can remember I have been associated with to make computing more 'bullet proof' (yes, we did put kevlar wallboard up too! It protected from 'postal visitors' mainly). So with a bit more work many issues can be resolved by using these and other techniques.
Yes, reliability is an issue, but it always has been, and even if addressed now, will be the next time a 'new' design comes out unless it is re-addressed every step of the way.
Normal common airspace available for airplane and helicopter use is a minimum or 500', sometimes much more depending on the land use and in some areas above that it needs to be legally allowed to fly only in controlled airspace. Check out rules and reg's at FAA.GOV for details. They will also provide links to other agencies that are related including NTSB, Homeland Security, and various law enforcement agencies.
Enjoy your bureaucratic loop hole hunt.
Actually I think blinding the vehicles with infrared (not green) laser pointers is more appropriate. Most CCD cameras are sensitive in the infrared range, even if they are advertised for visable spectrum mainly.
I see it as Andrea is just being a bad attitude person. That is her right, but why is it MY (spelled taxpayer) responsibility to pay for her 'desire to be different'.
IMHO they should allow her to not wear it. But from the time she and her parents sign that she is not wearing it, the she and her parents should be responsible to provide (up front) the equivalent of the state funding for the remainder of the school year. Then her attendance responsibilities are hers and her parents, and the school system gets paid for the 'seat' that is reserved for her. If she doesn't attend, no one will care, and no one will report it. Just those nagging grades, and hey, we already do 'social passing' of students so why should she be any different from the lowest common denominator.
I think it is the right of the school to require attendees to wear this, or they could be 'chipped' (their choice with approval of parents), or to not be allowed to attend the school. If they want to attend school they could be voluntarily incarcerated and attend a 'secure facility' provided by the state. Since no malfeasance is involved (in which case the state would provide this service through everyone's taxes over and above school tax) the parents should be required to pay for the additional fees required to maintain incarcerated persons. (In the order of $30K to $60K/yr in many places).
Or the parents could pay to have the child attend a private school, then it is not the problem of the school district.
Lots of options available. The judicial system (only because they are already being taken to court) just need to be 'creative'!
I just hope he is in a 'right to work' state. Then there is still probably still a notice required, but shutting down a business is probably not against the law in any case... check out the Twinkies makers who are closing their doors because of overbearing union in a market AND lack of growing customer demand.
Slashdot Mirror
When we drove from TN to MT and back, 1800 miles each way, we stopped for about 15 minutes every 350 miles to put in gas. Not enough time to recharge batteries during each stop. We had 3 drivers and swapped at each time. This is not unreasonable method of travel for many. Even with my wife and I drive, we swap driving with the same regularity and the stops are timed to take about the same time. I don't think our driving habits are to unreasonable or unusual. To this point, e-driving just isn't up to it. This startup (from what I think I understand) was going to SWAP battery packs, so 'refueling' would be 5 mins or less, batteries were basically leased from them so they would have a continuing cash flow, and they would deal with battery maintenance. Too bad they didn't make it.
This weekend I re-watched minority report. ... It is an over-exaggeration of the google glasses concept, but yea, it is creepy and intrusive technology. Some will buy in but I would prefer to have the OPTION to opt in or out.
If you want us in the USA to convert, teach our kids metric. Metric system is the 'official standard' of the USA for some time now. Gulf Petroleum converted all their gas pumps to Liters many years ago, and it drove customers away. Gulf as a independent petroleum company retail presence doesn't exist now. Even in woodworking 6MM is not really 1/4 inch, but it is used. 3MM is not 1/8 inch, a 100x150 board 3 meters long is not a 2x4 12' long but the conversion is used. Even 2x4's are really 1.5x3.5 inches anyway. My Nissan car made in the USA displays Metric OR Imperial units, but not both. If we want to get folks to convert, display Metric units more prominently and in smaller type the Imperial. Folks in the USA will like most, go with the easiest thing. But if we have our auto's converted, we do need all traffic signs and maps display BOTH also. Will the USA convert totally to metric? Yep. When it makes ECONOMIC -AND- POLITICAL sense. As crazy as BO is, that is one sacred cow even he isn't willing to tip... yet. And my Gas Sucking Nissan gets between 13 and 27 mpg. Now how many K/L is that? :)
We do have a 'overseeing agency' called 'Homeland Security'. I don't trust them either.
As Pogo said: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
Why RPi? Easy, cheap, available. Yep, there are others smaller, but being 'less to engineer' and lots of 'howtos' and examples available to promote the use. Make a better equivalent (and promote it), and they will come. ... It used to be Intel and Motorola embedded products, then PIC, not things keep changing and the RPi is the current implementation. ... Wait a while and it will change again.
I am looking forward to getting my hands on a Ubuntu tablet and phone.
Given the size and power of the memories, I like the ones with the micro size SD cards.
64G isn't to much for these device to handle, and having a 'library' or several larger cards would be nice for 'special needs' (movie libraries, detail CAD files of the Empire State Building or Golden Gate Bridge, or latest killer development you plan on selling on Etsy or your next killer Kickstarter campaign, while not mixing them with your complete internet cat photo collection!) would be useful.
The 7" tablet is about the size of what we currently know as a 'half sheet' of 8.5x11 sheet of paper. This is roughly the size of the journal that Ben Franklin carried around to write notes in. ... Franklin (now Franklin-Covey) has been selling 'Daytimers' of about that size for years. Why have they been such high sellers and adopted by millions? You guessed it, size. Big enough to read and write on, small enough to 'carry everywhere'. The day planners do you no good if you get an inspiration or need to schedule a meeting and it is 'on my desk'. It must be with you. ... The same goes for tablets.
... But even around here, I enjoy relatively good wireless internal to my home area that makes devices useful.
Is there a need for bigger and smaller displays? Yes. We do 2" screens to 60+ inch displays all in the home. To carry about, IMHO, there are a few 'critical sizes'. The 'shirt pocket', the 'hand carry', and the 'in the backpack' sizes. Shirt pocket can be small to an iPhone/Android screen phone size. Hand carry is the mini-tablet, 7" or so, I keep thinking that there was a reason why Amazon make the kindle that size and it became their most popular model. It is convenient, it fits in a large pocket or purse, and is a 'thin' novel size. The larger 'backpack' size can be from the large iPad to a 'Windows Surface' to to a full laptop. The 'netbook' fit into the same size as the mini-tablet, but unless you have one that can work with or without the keyboard, the tablets with 'optional' keyboards seem to be a good solution. Still even the netbook is a neat toy to have and covered that range for 'high function' before the full-function tablet technology caught hold in a big way for that form factor.
Many of us still find the keyboard easier to use when writing the great american novel or doing things like posting on slashdot, but the on-screen and blue-tooth addon keyboards for the tablets help a lot when not -on the move- when reading/content consumption rather than generating content is the primary task.
I would still like to try one of the laser projection keyboards, but my toy money only goes so far.
These kinds of technologies are not 'either-or' but both. I still like my desktop (big monitors, all my high power goodies at one spot) but it turns into my server more often anymore. A host for my 'local cloud'. ( My internet connection is slow and expensive for bandwidth, and cable/dsl/Wimax are not options here due to physical location, I may be going satellite soon unless something happens. )
Reminds me of : www.outsourcedthemovie.com
Yep, for some odd reason bosses seem to think they are in charge.
The Golden Rule - The one with the gold makes the rule
If you don't like the terms and conditions of employment, most of us are 'free' to leave. Then if you can, you can go make your own employment utopia using your rules.
Weaving an un-coated copper wire into it every several threads would help, I am told.
The copper used in plumbing helps ensure water is not contaminated, and just a brush against copper is enough to kill many bacteria, and I am guessing the same would happen here.
The easiest thing is to wash the bags occasionally, and not carry raw produce in them that isn't washed well before consuming.
If this assumption is or is NOT right, I wish someone would find empirical results and make the data available for independent analysis, not just take the posters word for it.
We have found 'scientists' manipulating 'global warming data' in the recent past, so manipulating other data by any means is not beyond anyone's realm of reason.
That is why there are proctored journals (to validate and have independent researchers attempt to reproduce the same observed results) before making statements defined a 'truth' to the public.
Oh well, time to stop ranting and go on with life.
If you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can always get the support of Paul.
Western mentality doesn't do well with something that isn't 'one cause - one outcome - one 'cure' '
That has brought us lots of good science and technology, but nature doesn't seem to be quite so 'limited'.
WMT and others are doing JIT (Just In Time) inventory. They don't get stock delivered till it is needed, except for a few seasons where they must stock up ahead of time like Black Friday and Holiday shopping (I think that is why the local WMT here breed 40' storage containers over part of their parking lots). Manufacturers do the same thing with raw stock. And like retailers, the manufacturers that do JIT inventory get caught without raw inventory when it happens sometimes in their supply chain, but seldom get caught with much excess inventory.
If WMT and Amazon are doing it, I am guessing it makes them $$.
I think that is what Amazon is doing with their facilities, as fast as they are 'reproducing'.
They 'do' the same way that UNIX does a defrag. By using increments of storage except for when a physically uber-large item comes in, it will normally not be required.
Computers, like rocks, are neither good nor bad. They just are just there. Rocks are useful many times. So are computers.
Now the difference in being 'moral' or 'immoral' often has to do with the societal perspective. If the Nazi's had won WWII, then history would not have written that the things done by them in the name of 'war' or 'cleansing' were immoral. If the South had won the war between the states, slavery being marked as 'immoral' would have been pushed back. Not that some individuals would not have pointed that direction, but the majority of society would have gone with the 'victors'. Even in situational morality, consider the Dalmer party. Was eating humans 'moral' when the other option was perceived starvation? Some consider large deficit spending 'immoral', others do not. Some consider not being vegetarian or vegan as being immoral. To some having multiple spouses is considered immoral.
So to that extent, even peoples actions, are 'relative' and so it their 'moral compass'.
So can we program moral machines? Yes and No. It depends on the programmer. It depends on the uses.
So who are we to determine if a computer made 'moral decisions' or not?
I suggest: Provide a 'priority support subscription' yes, pay for. Possibly not a phone number, but a 'priority subscriber only' forum for the paid subscription use only. And provide 'free' email or forum only support. So you address issues of 'priority customers' before the 'free'.
Some 'OSS vendors' over the years have done a 'pay for current release', others wait for the free release model. The free release can be one major release back. This works OK if you use a 6 month or 12 month type of release cycle for the major releases.
Just a few thoughts.
I worked for a company that sold systems and supported OSS software. Our customers too seemed to think since the software itself is free, our time and effort is also.
We have addressed issues lie this using various methods over the years. Super computing is just a current area where doing pre-emptive issue resolutions has come in play.
More obvious ways of HELPING (not single item 'resolving') this issue include:
-- Parallelism ... similar to RAID for data storage but in various related areas ... yep, make it out of 'better stuff'. If you have something 'good' make it better, or 'harder' (like radiation hardening or EMP hardening),
-- High Availability and ruggedization
-- Multi-pathing of computation and data - we did this back in the '70s& '80s when reducing single points of failure, setting up multiple paths for data in computers, building in diagnostic facilities both in-band and out-of-band to be preemptive on detecting failure options before it causes issues.
-- Harden facilities and environmentals - buildings, power, HVAC, ventilation, humidity, water, earthquake and storm vulnerabilities can often be handled but not easily or cheaply after a new facility has been built.
-- Redundancy of MPP, and Vertical MIPS of few but larger CPUs, RISC processing - all have been used to make processing faster, cheaper, more reliable over the years in various implementations.
These are just a few techniques off the top of my head I can remember I have been associated with to make computing more 'bullet proof' (yes, we did put kevlar wallboard up too! It protected from 'postal visitors' mainly). So with a bit more work many issues can be resolved by using these and other techniques.
Yes, reliability is an issue, but it always has been, and even if addressed now, will be the next time a 'new' design comes out unless it is re-addressed every step of the way.
Normal common airspace available for airplane and helicopter use is a minimum or 500', sometimes much more depending on the land use and in some areas above that it needs to be legally allowed to fly only in controlled airspace. Check out rules and reg's at FAA.GOV for details. They will also provide links to other agencies that are related including NTSB, Homeland Security, and various law enforcement agencies.
Enjoy your bureaucratic loop hole hunt.
Actually I think blinding the vehicles with infrared (not green) laser pointers is more appropriate. Most CCD cameras are sensitive in the infrared range, even if they are advertised for visable spectrum mainly.
I see it as Andrea is just being a bad attitude person. That is her right, but why is it MY (spelled taxpayer) responsibility to pay for her 'desire to be different'.
IMHO they should allow her to not wear it. But from the time she and her parents sign that she is not wearing it, the she and her parents should be responsible to provide (up front) the equivalent of the state funding for the remainder of the school year. Then her attendance responsibilities are hers and her parents, and the school system gets paid for the 'seat' that is reserved for her. If she doesn't attend, no one will care, and no one will report it. Just those nagging grades, and hey, we already do 'social passing' of students so why should she be any different from the lowest common denominator.
I think it is the right of the school to require attendees to wear this, or they could be 'chipped' (their choice with approval of parents), or to not be allowed to attend the school. If they want to attend school they could be voluntarily incarcerated and attend a 'secure facility' provided by the state. Since no malfeasance is involved (in which case the state would provide this service through everyone's taxes over and above school tax) the parents should be required to pay for the additional fees required to maintain incarcerated persons. (In the order of $30K to $60K/yr in many places).
Or the parents could pay to have the child attend a private school, then it is not the problem of the school district.
Lots of options available. The judicial system (only because they are already being taken to court) just need to be 'creative'!
I just hope he is in a 'right to work' state. Then there is still probably still a notice required, but shutting down a business is probably not against the law in any case... check out the Twinkies makers who are closing their doors because of overbearing union in a market AND lack of growing customer demand.