There are, but they are specialist devices for measuring x-ray energies. We've had Lithium-Silicon Detectors (Si-Li) for a long time now, but they were superseded about 10-15 years ago by the Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD).
Granted, they may not be portable, and certainly not wrist-sized, but they do exist. If you sacrificed the ability to measure energy (throw away the sensitive amp, negating the need for active cooling, and use a charge-collector circuit) and made the device much smaller then there is no fundamental reason that I'm aware of why this wouldn't work as a miniature solid-state X-ray/gamma-ray detector.
Sure, but what if the software has to do something with real hardware: machine control, machine vision, network analysis, hardware programming and IO, data logging, etc.... no "webapp" is able to do anything like that. And while a good cross-platform native program will compile cross platform without [much] issue, what about the hardware drivers that you rely on. What if multiple vendors are involved?
All I'm saying is that it can get really complex really quickly. For my work, provided I can get Linux drivers for the hardware (and prefer vendors who provide them) or write my own interface (say take an RS232 specification sheet and write a nice wrapper to expose a simple API for my software) then I'll go Linux every time!
"so if towing is something needed and both adults are working, the tow vehicle needs to double as a commuter."
All the reasons you state are good ones, and well taken.
But this is the flaw. To me (for what that's worth) your choice of compromise just seems the wrong way around! If I'm only going to tow for a few weeks a year then I'll gladly accept sub-optimal towing conditions (basically drive slower while towing) in exchange for optimized commuting for the rest of the year. Doing it the other way around just seems really backwards!
You may be socially conditioned to think otherwise, but *very* few individuals needs big vehicles. If you look into it, you don't actually need a large powerful vehicle to pull a boat (they're light) or a caravan (they're light too) or most trailers when moving house. The only heavy haulage work involves moving concrete, sand, or building supplies, and if that's your gig then you need a light commercial vehicle.
In heavy seas the bow of a ship (otherwise optimized for speed) can sink dangerously low into the waves. The bulb at the front helps to lift the bow out of the ocean and also reduces pitching. The safety aspect diminishes with the size of the ship: the largest-sized vessels don't need it, but ships sized in the 50-150 ton range can benefit significantly.
Of course please don't conflate whether detecting radio receivers is possible, with the fiscal and politial implications of actually driving around and trying to detect unlicensed TVs. Here are some comments and in my opinion, the "TV Detection Van" story is an urban legend being resurrected in today's age to maintain compliance with the BBC tax. It would be easier to just drop the charade and tax everyone to pay for the BBC. Fine, if you want them to be 100% independent, well there must already be a law that allows them to charge the TV license fee, so why not alter that to allow them to charge everyone in the country? Be much easier.
You're right, very few users will be hacking up 100k-word software specifications (my own primary use for a word processor) but for general non-business use there are lots of reasons to need a word processor of some kind:
- Make a CV
- Write a job application
- Write a formal letter to the council complaining about street repairs
- Play around with ideas for a party/wedding invitation (not everyone understands vector arts, let alone use Illustrator or Inkscape)
- Start writing a novel just because you want to......
I'm a big fan of the computer helping us do what we want in life. In my opinion the basics really are: email, web browser, word processor, calculator, document reader, and a media viewer for photos and videos. So in that regard, I think a word processor is essential, and for everything I've listed above, and a lot more, I think Libreoffice gets the job done.
Here is an excerpt from an email I recently wrote to my friends helping them to understand why they can't plug their laptops into their new 4K TV:
--- Anyway, I wanted to point out that the symptoms you describe are in line with how HDCP works. Remember this feature is not actually your friend and unfortunately far from a "winner".
So what happens when the laptop is connected to the TV is the laptop tells the TV "hi, I'm a computer" and the TV replies with "hi I'm a TV" and then they discuss "do you do HDCP?" and they both say yes, then the laptop asks "do you promise to only play DRM content with a valid HDCP signature?" and the TV goes "nah, I'll play anything, that shit's for losers" and the laptop goes "yikes!" and drops the display and you see nothing.
All of that happens regardless of whether a video is playing or not, which would be incredibly frustrating for many people: imagine you'd bought such a screen for use in a school foyer to show news updates...
Anyway, HDCP was dreamed up by the content owners and has wide-spread fallout. Of course collateral damage is just accepted, and really is to be expected, when you treat everyone like a criminal...which brings up an even more important point: copyright infringement is a civil matter and is not a crime, despite what the lobby groups would have everyone believe...
Right, so there are (in theory) some nuclear options for dealing with this. It may be possible to flash the firmware of the TV so that it "lies" about it's promise to only display DRMed content. It should also be possible to flash the graphics adapter firmware so that it doesn't bother with the BS and just pumps out the HDMI signal as it should.
You can also buy "in between" boxes that sit between the computer and the TV and lie to both sides about what is going on, and basically pass through the image so that everything just works. ---
Sorry, of course a mute button, and maybe a smattering of one or two other things I've forgotten about.
Something I'd like to see (and never have) is a "picture mute" button. It's basically an advertisement mute button. The sound goes off/down to a pre-set level, and the screen goes monochrome and darkens. The bullshit from the ads doesn't disturb you, allowing the audience to chat among themselves, yet someone can look and see if the show has resumed. I know the time-shift features make this less attractive.
OK, damn, more buttons for time-shift features, etc...:)
The remote should be very simple with nice easy push buttons.
On/Off Channel Up/Down Volume Up/Down
Menu/Back/Exit Arrow Keys to navigate pretty and efficient on-screen display Yes/No buttons for the menu options
That would be it as a bare minimum. If you want to go all out and add a keypad for digit inputs then I'll allow it, but the usefulness of this is waning, especially as cable TV with gobs of channels is becomming less useful.
What I would consider in addition to the list above would be 4 or 5 shortcut buttons, ideally programmed using the OSD. If not programmable, then the basic shortcuts would be:
I can tell you that my RPi v1 will play most 1080p content "perfectly" but with some caveats.
1. I purchased the hardware decoder keys ($2 or something).
2. Newer H265 content will not play smoothly at all, even at lower resolutions.
I've never tried higher resolution than 1080p, since that works fine and the TV is only roughly 720p (one of those "HD Ready" abominations) anyway.
PS: Am running OpenElec, streaming media over a home made Ethernet-WiFi-WiFi-Ethernet bridge to a local media server. No special hardware any where, it's all old and re-purposed kit.
When using HDMI the new 4K TVs limit what sources they will accept or the sources limit what displays they will output to.
The current HDMI specification with HDCP is a complete joke, and I've wound up attempting and failing to help fiends, family, and neighbors connect their laptops to their new TVs via HDMI.
Each time I tell them to take the TV back and choose another. Of course they don't...
I'm positing that a shrinking population should not be a problem.
In fact, I'm *hoping* beyond *hope* that it is not a problem. Otherwise we are doomed to fill the earth, destroy every last scrap of land, and then collapse as a population once we simply cannot expand any further. Seems pretty bleak doesn't it?
Sure, but as the other response (regarding empty houses, just demolish them and return the land to forest) conflated shrinking with small, I think I need to reiterate:
If your population is massive, then what is the problem with allowing it to shrink to a smaller size?
Economics aside: does our social structure only work when we have a typical demographic curve? If that is the case, then shrinking itself is not a problem, but the rate of shrinking. The end-member case of a sudden end to reproduction would indeed cause major issues once the remaining population reaches old age. But a more gradual reduction in population should not be a problem. If the demand is there for geriatric arse-wiping then wages will go up and more young people can fill that role, rather than make coffee.
You are right that it's interesting to keep an eye on China and their change to family planning. From these data it is hard to be convinced that the growth rate is slowing down by a significant amount. maybe the ruling party in China has decided to out-breed the rest of the world? Or they are planning to stage a hand-to-hand land-war with India?
"We must be careful to avoid ending up like Japan, with a rapidly falling population."
Why?
I'm not being difficult, but I am challenging this assertion that everything has to grow all the time.
If you start citing the requirements of the economy, please reflect on the concept that the economy is supposed to be serving the needs of civilization, not the other way around.
It's a big read but Africa has always had lower rates of caries than other developing nations. However, as my link outlines, this varies regionally within Africa.
The currently accepted wisdom is that Africans have a better genetic predisposition to tooth decay. Locals can grow up on a diet of wild meat and grains, never brush in their life, and have rather stunningly perfect teeth. Here is an article on the genetics of teeth.
Slashdot Mirror
There are, but they are specialist devices for measuring x-ray energies. We've had Lithium-Silicon Detectors (Si-Li) for a long time now, but they were superseded about 10-15 years ago by the Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD).
Granted, they may not be portable, and certainly not wrist-sized, but they do exist. If you sacrificed the ability to measure energy (throw away the sensitive amp, negating the need for active cooling, and use a charge-collector circuit) and made the device much smaller then there is no fundamental reason that I'm aware of why this wouldn't work as a miniature solid-state X-ray/gamma-ray detector.
Well that's what the Geiger counter is for: knowing when the nuclear battery is running out!
"then write low level driver code in standard C"
While a nice modular approach that will most certainly be platform specific.
When it comes to hardware IO there is nothing that offers true write-once compile-anywhere... :(
"a standards compliant webapp"
Sure, but what if the software has to do something with real hardware: machine control, machine vision, network analysis, hardware programming and IO, data logging, etc.... no "webapp" is able to do anything like that. And while a good cross-platform native program will compile cross platform without [much] issue, what about the hardware drivers that you rely on. What if multiple vendors are involved?
All I'm saying is that it can get really complex really quickly. For my work, provided I can get Linux drivers for the hardware (and prefer vendors who provide them) or write my own interface (say take an RS232 specification sheet and write a nice wrapper to expose a simple API for my software) then I'll go Linux every time!
Not that anyone cares by now, but the bulbous bows in my final link are all shown on military vessels where they nearly always contain sonar gear.
"so if towing is something needed and both adults are working, the tow vehicle needs to double as a commuter."
All the reasons you state are good ones, and well taken.
But this is the flaw. To me (for what that's worth) your choice of compromise just seems the wrong way around! If I'm only going to tow for a few weeks a year then I'll gladly accept sub-optimal towing conditions (basically drive slower while towing) in exchange for optimized commuting for the rest of the year. Doing it the other way around just seems really backwards!
"the people who NEED big vehicles."
You may be socially conditioned to think otherwise, but *very* few individuals needs big vehicles. If you look into it, you don't actually need a large powerful vehicle to pull a boat (they're light) or a caravan (they're light too) or most trailers when moving house. The only heavy haulage work involves moving concrete, sand, or building supplies, and if that's your gig then you need a light commercial vehicle.
Just ask them to apologise.
"GNU rootkit for Windows"
Has a nice ring to it.
Comparison should be to something like the Dassault Rafale. This little plane is proving to be very cost effective and useful multirole fighter.
Comes in a carrier variant as well.
Looks boss to boot.
I know this is a US-centric site, but the allies of the USA are also upset with the F-35 program:
UK.
Canada.
Australia.
Also seaworthiness.
In heavy seas the bow of a ship (otherwise optimized for speed) can sink dangerously low into the waves. The bulb at the front helps to lift the bow out of the ocean and also reduces pitching. The safety aspect diminishes with the size of the ship: the largest-sized vessels don't need it, but ships sized in the 50-150 ton range can benefit significantly.
The latest tumblehome design (see Zumwalt class destroyers) is being criticized extensively for it's innate lack of seaworthiness.
Of course please don't conflate whether detecting radio receivers is possible, with the fiscal and politial implications of actually driving around and trying to detect unlicensed TVs. Here are some comments and in my opinion, the "TV Detection Van" story is an urban legend being resurrected in today's age to maintain compliance with the BBC tax. It would be easier to just drop the charade and tax everyone to pay for the BBC. Fine, if you want them to be 100% independent, well there must already be a law that allows them to charge the TV license fee, so why not alter that to allow them to charge everyone in the country? Be much easier.
Super heterodyne receivers can actually be detected. This poster presentation may be of interest.
You're right, very few users will be hacking up 100k-word software specifications (my own primary use for a word processor) but for general non-business use there are lots of reasons to need a word processor of some kind:
- Make a CV ...
- Write a job application
- Write a formal letter to the council complaining about street repairs
- Play around with ideas for a party/wedding invitation (not everyone understands vector arts, let alone use Illustrator or Inkscape)
- Start writing a novel just because you want to...
I'm a big fan of the computer helping us do what we want in life. In my opinion the basics really are: email, web browser, word processor, calculator, document reader, and a media viewer for photos and videos. So in that regard, I think a word processor is essential, and for everything I've listed above, and a lot more, I think Libreoffice gets the job done.
"In my experience it seems the "Office Suite" is becoming less and less relevant."
Without being rude to you, it just sounds like you do less and less work on the computer... :)
I recommend that you educate yourself a little:
http://www.howtogeek.com/20891...
Here is an excerpt from an email I recently wrote to my friends helping them to understand why they can't plug their laptops into their new 4K TV:
---
Anyway, I wanted to point out that the symptoms you describe are in line with how HDCP works. Remember this feature is not actually your friend and unfortunately far from a "winner".
So what happens when the laptop is connected to the TV is the laptop tells the TV "hi, I'm a computer" and the TV replies with "hi I'm a TV" and then they discuss "do you do HDCP?" and they both say yes, then the laptop asks "do you promise to only play DRM content with a valid HDCP signature?" and the TV goes "nah, I'll play anything, that shit's for losers" and the laptop goes "yikes!" and drops the display and you see nothing.
All of that happens regardless of whether a video is playing or not, which would be incredibly frustrating for many people: imagine you'd bought such a screen for use in a school foyer to show news updates...
Anyway, HDCP was dreamed up by the content owners and has wide-spread fallout. Of course collateral damage is just accepted, and really is to be expected, when you treat everyone like a criminal...which brings up an even more important point: copyright infringement is a civil matter and is not a crime, despite what the lobby groups would have everyone believe...
Right, so there are (in theory) some nuclear options for dealing with this. It may be possible to flash the firmware of the TV so that it "lies" about it's promise to only display DRMed content. It should also be possible to flash the graphics adapter firmware so that it doesn't bother with the BS and just pumps out the HDMI signal as it should.
You can also buy "in between" boxes that sit between the computer and the TV and lie to both sides about what is going on, and basically pass through the image so that everything just works.
---
Sorry, of course a mute button, and maybe a smattering of one or two other things I've forgotten about.
Something I'd like to see (and never have) is a "picture mute" button. It's basically an advertisement mute button. The sound goes off/down to a pre-set level, and the screen goes monochrome and darkens. The bullshit from the ads doesn't disturb you, allowing the audience to chat among themselves, yet someone can look and see if the show has resumed. I know the time-shift features make this less attractive.
OK, damn, more buttons for time-shift features, etc... :)
The remote should be very simple with nice easy push buttons.
On/Off
Channel Up/Down
Volume Up/Down
Menu/Back/Exit
Arrow Keys to navigate pretty and efficient on-screen display
Yes/No buttons for the menu options
That would be it as a bare minimum. If you want to go all out and add a keypad for digit inputs then I'll allow it, but the usefulness of this is waning, especially as cable TV with gobs of channels is becomming less useful.
What I would consider in addition to the list above would be 4 or 5 shortcut buttons, ideally programmed using the OSD. If not programmable, then the basic shortcuts would be:
Channel Browser ...and that's about it...
Input Browser
Sound Settings
Picture Settings
I can tell you that my RPi v1 will play most 1080p content "perfectly" but with some caveats.
1. I purchased the hardware decoder keys ($2 or something).
2. Newer H265 content will not play smoothly at all, even at lower resolutions.
I've never tried higher resolution than 1080p, since that works fine and the TV is only roughly 720p (one of those "HD Ready" abominations) anyway.
PS: Am running OpenElec, streaming media over a home made Ethernet-WiFi-WiFi-Ethernet bridge to a local media server. No special hardware any where, it's all old and re-purposed kit.
Er, no.
When using HDMI the new 4K TVs limit what sources they will accept or the sources limit what displays they will output to.
The current HDMI specification with HDCP is a complete joke, and I've wound up attempting and failing to help fiends, family, and neighbors connect their laptops to their new TVs via HDMI.
Each time I tell them to take the TV back and choose another. Of course they don't...
I'm positing that a shrinking population should not be a problem.
In fact, I'm *hoping* beyond *hope* that it is not a problem. Otherwise we are doomed to fill the earth, destroy every last scrap of land, and then collapse as a population once we simply cannot expand any further. Seems pretty bleak doesn't it?
Sure, but as the other response (regarding empty houses, just demolish them and return the land to forest) conflated shrinking with small, I think I need to reiterate:
If your population is massive, then what is the problem with allowing it to shrink to a smaller size?
Economics aside: does our social structure only work when we have a typical demographic curve? If that is the case, then shrinking itself is not a problem, but the rate of shrinking. The end-member case of a sudden end to reproduction would indeed cause major issues once the remaining population reaches old age. But a more gradual reduction in population should not be a problem. If the demand is there for geriatric arse-wiping then wages will go up and more young people can fill that role, rather than make coffee.
You are right that it's interesting to keep an eye on China and their change to family planning. From these data it is hard to be convinced that the growth rate is slowing down by a significant amount. maybe the ruling party in China has decided to out-breed the rest of the world? Or they are planning to stage a hand-to-hand land-war with India?
"We must be careful to avoid ending up like Japan, with a rapidly falling population."
Why?
I'm not being difficult, but I am challenging this assertion that everything has to grow all the time.
If you start citing the requirements of the economy, please reflect on the concept that the economy is supposed to be serving the needs of civilization, not the other way around.
It's a big read but Africa has always had lower rates of caries than other developing nations. However, as my link outlines, this varies regionally within Africa.
The currently accepted wisdom is that Africans have a better genetic predisposition to tooth decay. Locals can grow up on a diet of wild meat and grains, never brush in their life, and have rather stunningly perfect teeth. Here is an article on the genetics of teeth.
This link is not about teeth, but there is a lot about diet that we don't understand.