Yet another prime example of why alien civilizations won't contact us openly: How can a truly civilized race possibly take us as anything other than animals when we still do things like this?
Given that we know absolutely bupkis about alien (to Earth) cultures, what makes you think they don't avoid us because we're not violent enough? The Universe is a harsh place, after all.
Seriously, I get what you're saying, but presuming that alien species** think and act to our highest ideals is, well, a non-starter.
** yes, they exist - a mathematical near-certainty. No, I don't presume to know their location, distribution, traveling habits, or suchlike.
You need to update your propaganda. Apple no longer has the lead in tablet market share.
Has nothing to do with propaganda, or even who has the lead. However, it has everything to do with why the Surface RT failed utterly. The UI is confusing and ugly, and the flexibility (read: app support) is simply not there. Battery life is a big question mark, and half the internal storage ("disk") space on the low-end model is eaten by stuff that the consumer sees no use for (the recovery partition, the bloated-as-hell OS, etc.)
Replace "iPad" with "Android" if it makes your phallus turgid - machts nichts, my point still stands. Th3e RT sucks because it fails to meet the requirements I outlined up there.
Joe Sixpack** doesn't give a damn about the lock-in per se (see also the iPad). They want something that has flexibility, durability and (apparent) speed packed into an easy-for-them-to-grok mobile interface. A pretty UI/graphics package is also a must. Note that the iPad does all of that - it doesn't come with an instruction manual, yet most non-techie folks can pick it up for the first time and do what they consider to be useful stuff with it in less than five minutes.
Surface RT OTOH? Pure fail in this department.
** sample size = one spouse, all my relatives, and a handful of non-tech friends. Your own mileage may vary.
It wouldn't take much to circumvent that - Compaq used to get around that limitation (albeit w/ WinCE and their iPAQ PDA product) by providing an "unsupported" bootloader. (sadly, the original HP/Compaq page is no longer available).
Basically, Asus only needs to build and provide an "unofficial" and "unsupported" replacement for their UEFI that turns off the BS Microsoft lockdown, and boom - all set.
But overall, the whole thread represents the wrong approach: If it's the SSL keys in TFA that are being borkified for NSA access, then the NSA would have to stick something between you and Google (and would have to host the SSL key itself, as well as the domain name), so you would be correct if that were the case.
However? Not really sure that Google would want anyone else controlling their domain name/LBs/firewalls/etc, especially when it's easier for some governmental agency (e.g. the NSA) to simply latch onto Google's DB clusters. That way there's no need to compromise any keys.
The government would actually be the best suited to pensions since they can build up enough of a buffer over time that they should effectively be immune to fluctuations in the market and could eventually hit a point where they wouldn't even need to pay in to the pension accounts again. In short, bad fiscal management is the problem, no pensions themselves.
Problem is, Detroit's government did run those pension plans... they had a nasty habit of pilfering them to fund city projects.
Problem with that is that property taxes won't just bite the "rich" - landlords would have to pay those taxes too, which translates to increased rents.
If you exempt groceries and other basic necessities (e.g. rent), that problem goes away.
It should also be noted that, say, a 10% tax would mean only 10% on what the person spends. If a poor person makes only $20k/yr, they'll only spend a maximum of $2k in taxes. I say maximum because whatever they save doesn't get taxed (consumption taxes do encourage saving, after all). Meanwhile a rich person making $200k/yr will spend up to $20k in taxes.
From what I can tell part of the problem in Detroit is that the pension funds invested in city bonds - a financially stupid move.
...it gets even better. Those city bonds were financed by a tax base that has been busy running like hell off to other cities and states. I think Detroit's population has shrunk to only 1/4 of it's 1950's peak... and that's in spite of population growth overall. To top that off, the remaining 1/4 doesn't include the wealthier folks (who were likely among the first to pull the D-ring.)
It may take about 5 minutes to change tax rates in software, but I suspect it'll take a hell of a lot more than five minutes to update pricing policy, sales processes (and processing), to revise revenue/profit forecasts, modify forms (to point out this new tax, so you don't lump it in with generic sales tax), get the finance folks up to speed...
How many businesses can change their processes that quickly?
It won't be collected until the end of the tax year... just that you have to back-date it to the six-days-from-now mark.
Of course, it's going to cost a lot of consulting firms a buttload of money they didn't anticipate (especially if the word "Oracle" is in the specs somewhere), but you know, the government needs their monies (for the children, old, and poor, naturally - though the funds' ultimate destination may differ slightly from what was promised.)
That's the thing - I doubt there's a 3D-printable plastic out there now which could last for one rifle shot, at least outside of sheer luck.
The length of the rifle barrel is what'll kill it. A pistol dumps its internal pressures quickly - the short muzzle doesn't have to hold the pressure for more than a millisecond or two at most. A rifle on the other hand? The longer the barrel, the longer that period of time which the barrel has to hold the higher pressures. Most rifle cartridges also contain a slower-burning powder (to keep pressures at least somewhat constant as the bullet travels down the barrel), which only exacerbates things from a design perspective.
From an industrial perspective, any plastic barrel that doesn't hold up to insane tolerances (at least 3x max pressure) and do so for a very long time? Begging for a lawsuit that'll bankrupt your company, guaranteed. Also, there's no real economic incentive to make plastic barrels commercially - steel is way cheaper to acquire, machine, and temper. Now there are some specialized and niche applications (spies, special ops/forces, whatever), but they don't justify the costs.
Hobbyists OTOH don't have that kind of pressure or limitation - they're just doing it because they can.
Heh - what else did they expect? Rifles keep pressure for longer periods of time (as the bullet travels down the longer barrel), increasing the chance for materials failure. Cheap plastic is not an option here, campers.
7,000+ psi for a.22LR is nothing to screw around with for the relatively sustained period of time the bullet travels down the barrel (let alone the 65,000+ psi you can generate in, oh, a.338 Win Mag.)
1) the iPod was released in 2001 2) USB charging as an industry-wide standard likely didn't happen until later than 2004 (though not 100% certain on this one).
And I still drive with Pete Ashdown sticker on the back of my car since he ran for the US Senate - but it is not easy do win for a Democrat in one of the most Republican states.
Oh, crap! I totally forgot he did that!
As for his odds? Gotta remember that SLC did elect Rocky Anderson awhile back...
I once worked for a company that used XMission's downtown SLC location as its colo location; excellent guys, and kick-ass service. That said, there's one other bit: a large number of their 30k customers are some rather large(-ish) corporations and companies - a few of whom have the ear of Sen. Orrin Hatch, among others in both state and federal government... not to mention (guessing this part, but given their location and name) they likely have a very strong hook into the LDS hierarchy.
(By the by, XMission is one of the few (and IMO lucky) ISP's who provide for/with the UTOPIA fiber-to-home networks, and IIRC the only local/SLC-based one. )
IOW, they're not just some tiny naive dial-up provider. If they didn't have a line to some heavy-hitters, I'd wager that they'd likely buckle to the demands out of sheer survival instinct, if for no other reason.
"Yes: longevity, durability, performance, quality..." based on anything besides your ass?
Defensive, much? Take a look sometime at relative consumer satisfaction rankings, Apple's own product history, etc. Now compare it to the cheapie stuff and tell us what you come up with.
and why would schools go through a web site instead of a vendor with guarantees?
Indeed - but then, having worked in school systems, I've seen crazier things happen. There's also that little niggle of government vendors, who aren't always what you would call 'scrupulous'.
OTOH, any one who compares iPad against 'Android', as opposed to specific manufactures that meet a set of criteria, is stupid.
"Android" is merely shorthand for all vendors who make tablets based on the OS.
Buying a cheap Android tablet bought off of Alibaba is a crapshoot - a rare few of them work very well for a long time, some crap out entirely less than two months later (my last one -- a $90 cheapie model-- did this), and some are just pure shit performance-wise. Sure, they're dirt-cheap... until you try to do the warranty thing on it, in which case you either go without for a few weeks, or pay more to ship the dead one back than you originally paid for the thing.
Anything else is going to be priced either very close to the iPad, not be worth a damn performance-wise, or in some cases even have a higher pricetag.
Carp all you want about the iPad markup, but in all honesty? I've been through some tablets, and the missus' iPad has not only held up under her un-tender mercies, but has excelled. If Apple made some dosh off of it in return, that's okay by me - I figure the money to be well-spent considering the product.
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Yet another prime example of why alien civilizations won't contact us openly: How can a truly civilized race possibly take us as anything other than animals when we still do things like this?
Given that we know absolutely bupkis about alien (to Earth) cultures, what makes you think they don't avoid us because we're not violent enough? The Universe is a harsh place, after all.
Seriously, I get what you're saying, but presuming that alien species** think and act to our highest ideals is, well, a non-starter.
** yes, they exist - a mathematical near-certainty. No, I don't presume to know their location, distribution, traveling habits, or suchlike.
You need to update your propaganda. Apple no longer has the lead in tablet market share.
Has nothing to do with propaganda, or even who has the lead. However, it has everything to do with why the Surface RT failed utterly. The UI is confusing and ugly, and the flexibility (read: app support) is simply not there. Battery life is a big question mark, and half the internal storage ("disk") space on the low-end model is eaten by stuff that the consumer sees no use for (the recovery partition, the bloated-as-hell OS, etc.)
Replace "iPad" with "Android" if it makes your phallus turgid - machts nichts, my point still stands. Th3e RT sucks because it fails to meet the requirements I outlined up there.
If you can prove me wrong, please do so.
Yes and No.
Joe Sixpack** doesn't give a damn about the lock-in per se (see also the iPad). They want something that has flexibility, durability and (apparent) speed packed into an easy-for-them-to-grok mobile interface. A pretty UI/graphics package is also a must. Note that the iPad does all of that - it doesn't come with an instruction manual, yet most non-techie folks can pick it up for the first time and do what they consider to be useful stuff with it in less than five minutes.
Surface RT OTOH? Pure fail in this department.
** sample size = one spouse, all my relatives, and a handful of non-tech friends. Your own mileage may vary.
Maybe they just need to rename the benchmarking binary (I vote quack.exe)?
I jest, but only partly. You see, there is truly nothing new under the sun.
It wouldn't take much to circumvent that - Compaq used to get around that limitation (albeit w/ WinCE and their iPAQ PDA product) by providing an "unsupported" bootloader. (sadly, the original HP/Compaq page is no longer available).
Basically, Asus only needs to build and provide an "unofficial" and "unsupported" replacement for their UEFI that turns off the BS Microsoft lockdown, and boom - all set.
Now will they do it? Dunno.
Even worse than that, when you consider that if Microsoft *paid* people to take them, they would have stood pat.
Me NSA Google. isn't that why they call it MITM?
Actually, it's AITM, or Agency In The Middle.
But overall, the whole thread represents the wrong approach: If it's the SSL keys in TFA that are being borkified for NSA access, then the NSA would have to stick something between you and Google (and would have to host the SSL key itself, as well as the domain name), so you would be correct if that were the case.
However? Not really sure that Google would want anyone else controlling their domain name/LBs/firewalls/etc, especially when it's easier for some governmental agency (e.g. the NSA) to simply latch onto Google's DB clusters. That way there's no need to compromise any keys.
The government would actually be the best suited to pensions since they can build up enough of a buffer over time that they should effectively be immune to fluctuations in the market and could eventually hit a point where they wouldn't even need to pay in to the pension accounts again. In short, bad fiscal management is the problem, no pensions themselves.
Problem is, Detroit's government did run those pension plans... they had a nasty habit of pilfering them to fund city projects.
Problem with that is that property taxes won't just bite the "rich" - landlords would have to pay those taxes too, which translates to increased rents.
If you exempt groceries and other basic necessities (e.g. rent), that problem goes away.
It should also be noted that, say, a 10% tax would mean only 10% on what the person spends. If a poor person makes only $20k/yr, they'll only spend a maximum of $2k in taxes. I say maximum because whatever they save doesn't get taxed (consumption taxes do encourage saving, after all). Meanwhile a rich person making $200k/yr will spend up to $20k in taxes.
From what I can tell part of the problem in Detroit is that the pension funds invested in city bonds - a financially stupid move.
...it gets even better. Those city bonds were financed by a tax base that has been busy running like hell off to other cities and states. I think Detroit's population has shrunk to only 1/4 of it's 1950's peak... and that's in spite of population growth overall. To top that off, the remaining 1/4 doesn't include the wealthier folks (who were likely among the first to pull the D-ring.)
If they need more tax money why not keep things simple and increase the income tax?
Seriously? How are you going to hide a tax hike if you keep it open and honest?
Well, not here in Oregon.
We'd need to have an actual sales tax first, which thankfully we don't have.
It may take about 5 minutes to change tax rates in software, but I suspect it'll take a hell of a lot more than five minutes to update pricing policy, sales processes (and processing), to revise revenue/profit forecasts, modify forms (to point out this new tax, so you don't lump it in with generic sales tax), get the finance folks up to speed...
How many businesses can change their processes that quickly?
It won't be collected until the end of the tax year... just that you have to back-date it to the six-days-from-now mark.
Of course, it's going to cost a lot of consulting firms a buttload of money they didn't anticipate (especially if the word "Oracle" is in the specs somewhere), but you know, the government needs their monies (for the children, old, and poor, naturally - though the funds' ultimate destination may differ slightly from what was promised.)
That's the thing - I doubt there's a 3D-printable plastic out there now which could last for one rifle shot, at least outside of sheer luck.
The length of the rifle barrel is what'll kill it. A pistol dumps its internal pressures quickly - the short muzzle doesn't have to hold the pressure for more than a millisecond or two at most. A rifle on the other hand? The longer the barrel, the longer that period of time which the barrel has to hold the higher pressures. Most rifle cartridges also contain a slower-burning powder (to keep pressures at least somewhat constant as the bullet travels down the barrel), which only exacerbates things from a design perspective.
From an industrial perspective, any plastic barrel that doesn't hold up to insane tolerances (at least 3x max pressure) and do so for a very long time? Begging for a lawsuit that'll bankrupt your company, guaranteed. Also, there's no real economic incentive to make plastic barrels commercially - steel is way cheaper to acquire, machine, and temper. Now there are some specialized and niche applications (spies, special ops/forces, whatever), but they don't justify the costs.
Hobbyists OTOH don't have that kind of pressure or limitation - they're just doing it because they can.
What happens if you try it somewhere else?
It won't apologize so much when it fails.
With a .22 LR rimfilre, it had better be an extremely accurate shot if you intend to kill anything bigger than a rabbit with it.
Heh - what else did they expect? Rifles keep pressure for longer periods of time (as the bullet travels down the longer barrel), increasing the chance for materials failure. Cheap plastic is not an option here, campers.
7,000+ psi for a .22LR is nothing to screw around with for the relatively sustained period of time the bullet travels down the barrel (let alone the 65,000+ psi you can generate in, oh, a .338 Win Mag.)
Two things:
1) the iPod was released in 2001
2) USB charging as an industry-wide standard likely didn't happen until later than 2004 (though not 100% certain on this one).
And I still drive with Pete Ashdown sticker on the back of my car since he ran for the US Senate - but it is not easy do win for a Democrat in one of the most Republican states.
Oh, crap! I totally forgot he did that!
As for his odds? Gotta remember that SLC did elect Rocky Anderson awhile back...
Something to consider:
I once worked for a company that used XMission's downtown SLC location as its colo location; excellent guys, and kick-ass service. That said, there's one other bit: a large number of their 30k customers are some rather large(-ish) corporations and companies - a few of whom have the ear of Sen. Orrin Hatch, among others in both state and federal government... not to mention (guessing this part, but given their location and name) they likely have a very strong hook into the LDS hierarchy.
(By the by, XMission is one of the few (and IMO lucky) ISP's who provide for/with the UTOPIA fiber-to-home networks, and IIRC the only local/SLC-based one. )
IOW, they're not just some tiny naive dial-up provider. If they didn't have a line to some heavy-hitters, I'd wager that they'd likely buckle to the demands out of sheer survival instinct, if for no other reason.
Good point; the only thing that would make the deal is to store enough extra to replace the dead ones.
"Yes: longevity, durability, performance, quality..."
based on anything besides your ass?
Defensive, much? Take a look sometime at relative consumer satisfaction rankings, Apple's own product history, etc. Now compare it to the cheapie stuff and tell us what you come up with.
and why would schools go through a web site instead of a vendor with guarantees?
Indeed - but then, having worked in school systems, I've seen crazier things happen. There's also that little niggle of government vendors, who aren't always what you would call 'scrupulous'.
OTOH, any one who compares iPad against 'Android', as opposed to specific manufactures that meet a set of criteria, is stupid.
"Android" is merely shorthand for all vendors who make tablets based on the OS.
That's a good point - can the iPad's 300% price premium be justified over a Chinese Jelly Bean tablet by some criteria?
Yes: longevity, durability, performance, quality...
Buying a cheap Android tablet bought off of Alibaba is a crapshoot - a rare few of them work very well for a long time, some crap out entirely less than two months later (my last one -- a $90 cheapie model-- did this), and some are just pure shit performance-wise. Sure, they're dirt-cheap... until you try to do the warranty thing on it, in which case you either go without for a few weeks, or pay more to ship the dead one back than you originally paid for the thing.
Anything else is going to be priced either very close to the iPad, not be worth a damn performance-wise, or in some cases even have a higher pricetag.
Carp all you want about the iPad markup, but in all honesty? I've been through some tablets, and the missus' iPad has not only held up under her un-tender mercies, but has excelled. If Apple made some dosh off of it in return, that's okay by me - I figure the money to be well-spent considering the product.