it wasn't in the linked article, but in addition to the batteries storing energy for night flight, the craft will use elevation to store energy. it will operate partially as a glider at night and climb back up during the day. the reduces the number and/or size of batteries that would be required relative to what would be required to maintain level flight at night.
For instance, hooking up an RFID scanner to a WinMo phone or PDA, and automagically putting your data into a (desktop) Office-compatible spreadsheet, running totals, adding input, etc. as you go is dead simple (particularly if you've got an older, better non-capacitive screen). You can then just copy the file back over to your desktop, macros and all, and work on it there unchanged.
You might be a happier person if you just used your phone to play angry birds or koi pond instead of whatever it was that you just said.
The sentiment is basically correct, but you may have the wrong target. Commercial and industrial use of electricity is staggering and it's not about convenience or comfort its about producing widgets and selling widgets.
Home electrical use has actally been pretty flat, slightly declining in many areas. some thanks go to the energy star program, some to the replacement of CRT and plasma televisions with LCD panels. CFLs are gaining wider adoption. People are choosing more laptops instead of giant desktop computers.
Your clock example is kind of interesting. I only have one plug-in alarm clock in the whole house. The rest are battery powered (one AA battery lasts a year or more) and NIST time signal controlled. We went with these because we got tired of resetting every clock in the house twice a year for daylight savings time. So a convenience feature (not having to set the clock) can lead to energy savings. They aren't incompatible, you just have to make good choices.
Okay, but reducing labor costs is just another thing that *all* companies do. i'm sorry that your labor was one of the ones that was reduced. I've been there and it's not fun, but blaming companies for engaging in cost-reducing/profit-seeking behavior is like blaming the sun for being warm.
The per-tv charge is probably in their municipal charters in every market they serve. personally i have echostar and they also have a per-tv charge. $5 month is cheaper than almost anything else I can think of. Some people spend that on coffee every *day*.
Changing their tech to eliminate competing DVRs might actually be an anti-trust violation. that's the kind of thing that makes me dislike comcast.
i'm not disputing how evil comcast is or isn't, but why are you talking like it's some evil conspiracy for them to stop serving non-paying customers?
both dish and echostar will disconnect you. also any cell phone carrier, ISP, the electric or gas company. good luck getting groceries or clothes w/o paying for them.
This just proves that it's a great time for people who have been sticking with XP to take the plunge and upgrade to Windows 2000 Professional.
Re:Yes, it is nothing more than a big iPod Touch
on
iPad Review
·
· Score: 3, Funny
Steve Wozniak has already come up with a solution for this problem. He bought 250 iPads and used a hinge on the left side to join them together. That way he can just turn to the next iPad to quickly get to the next page. Genius!
Are you saying Apple should have marketed the iPad as more of a computing device belonging to the MacIntosh line? Then they could call it the Macs iPad.
In addition to the human factors issues and plain old engineering common sense, here's some other things that would help mitigate the unintended acceleration problem. Maybe we don't have to do all of them, but one or two of the less expensive options might be practical and still save some lives.
1. watchdog circuit. there should be a separately engineered CPU and sensor system that just sits around making sure that the ECU is up and running, that's it responding to brake and throttle inputs sensibly, that the airflow through the intake (separately reported from the MAF) is in the right ballpark, engine speed is sensible given throttle opening, gear, and vehicle speed, and that the throttle servo is acting mostly linear and in a timely fashion to inputs, and that the user inputs are sensible given the velocity of the car. Any problems found should return the throttle to idle. if the throttle does not return to idle (based on MAF and engine speed) then cut off ignition. If that doesn't do it, cut off fuel. These cut-offs should be separate circuits and relays from normal operation. As I've described it, this is expensive, but a more modest system that monitors only throttle, brake, engine speed and only cuts off spark would still be helpful.
2. Full or nearly full throttle for more than 15 seconds is probably bad input. Sporty cars could have a competition mode button and low-power cars maybe 20 or 30 seconds is more sensible. Similar to this, nearly full throttle with no dither is a bad sign, as is nearly full throttle plus other input like shifting between auto and manual mode or attempts to downshift into redline or repeated quick up or downshift commands. This would probably be part of the normal ECU rather than a separate circuit. Additionally, the gas pedal should not report 0-100%, but more like 0-95% and then a little extra push to get it to 95-100%. The purpose being that a floor mat or other soft object will probably (though not for sure) only wedge the pedal with limited force, only enough to get to the detent. If the pedal *stays* at the detent (or other fixed position) for too long and the driver does not push past it (an act that would take intent) or back off then there is a very good chance of interference.
3. Linearity. Many manufacturers seem to be using throttle-by-wire to make it so that the throttle opens up faster in response to light pedal pressure and slower towards the end of the pedal travel. This gives a test drive impression of more power and torque than is actually there. However accidental input that just lightly presses the pedal now brings on almost the full force of the engine, giving the driver less time to react to the situation. Somewhat related, some recent automatic transmissions seem to have a high stall but a quick lockup. Again, this presents the illusion of more power earlier, but can surprise a driver. (I have personaly observed both of these problems in my own 2009 vehicle. It is just way too eager to get going).
4. Automatics in manual mode have hard stops for up and down shifts. Instead, they should have substantial detents that are used for normal up-down shifting (so that in normal usage they act the same as they do now) but when pressed beyond the detent the transmission shifts to neutral and engine power is cut. This is a mechanically simple thing and could inexpensively be a separate control circuit.
5. Why on earth do cars allow full throttle in reverse, neutral or park? I can see someone using it when stuck in snow or shallow sand, but this should not be normal operation and in non-forward gears, power should be limited unless specifically requested or as part of turning off traction control or only enabled when traction control detects snow or sand situations itself. Here's the subtle part. I don't just mean that the car should limit RPM while in reverse, neutral or park. That would be short sighted. I mean that plus the car should detect that something is wrong and not just resume full throttle the instant they
thanks to parallax, pillars in a car or plane only block the view to the extent that they exceed the distance between your eyes. on top of that you can just move your head side to side a little bit and see if anything is in your pillar-induced blind spot.
this doesn't work with monitors because the pixels are about the same distance from your eye as the bezels. a head-tracking display would help, but that wasn't mentioned in the article.
My assumption was that to some degree they are just making the police car into a bait car. If someone is dumb enough to steal a police car, they would be more than happy to let him drive off in it in exchange for the pleasure of arresting him in a few minutes.
the universe was completely destroyed and replaced by another universe, identical to the first except it was one in which the button had not been pressed.
Slashdot Mirror
it wasn't in the linked article, but in addition to the batteries storing energy for night flight, the craft will use elevation to store energy. it will operate partially as a glider at night and climb back up during the day. the reduces the number and/or size of batteries that would be required relative to what would be required to maintain level flight at night.
yo dawg, heard you like space elevators so i put a space elevator in your space elevator and elevated it into space.
CA calls it a vehicle license fee but it's basically a property tax on vehicles.
For instance, hooking up an RFID scanner to a WinMo phone or PDA, and automagically putting your data into a (desktop) Office-compatible spreadsheet, running totals, adding input, etc. as you go is dead simple (particularly if you've got an older, better non-capacitive screen). You can then just copy the file back over to your desktop, macros and all, and work on it there unchanged.
You might be a happier person if you just used your phone to play angry birds or koi pond instead of whatever it was that you just said.
The sentiment is basically correct, but you may have the wrong target. Commercial and industrial use of electricity is staggering and it's not about convenience or comfort its about producing widgets and selling widgets.
Home electrical use has actally been pretty flat, slightly declining in many areas. some thanks go to the energy star program, some to the replacement of CRT and plasma televisions with LCD panels. CFLs are gaining wider adoption. People are choosing more laptops instead of giant desktop computers.
Your clock example is kind of interesting. I only have one plug-in alarm clock in the whole house. The rest are battery powered (one AA battery lasts a year or more) and NIST time signal controlled. We went with these because we got tired of resetting every clock in the house twice a year for daylight savings time. So a convenience feature (not having to set the clock) can lead to energy savings. They aren't incompatible, you just have to make good choices.
how many people have to wave at it in order for it to work?
>> MS never, ever, ever prevented software from running on their platform.
but pls note that they have been accused of the reverse: preventing their software from running on someone else's platform:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/11/05/special_caldera_case_report_microsofts/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/11/05/how_ms_played_the_incompatibility/
Okay, please factor 2^infinity-1.
But if we lived in a universe full of mostly anti-matter, we probably still would have named it "matter". Which makes one wonder if it's already so.
how about neither kid gets busted.
move in with your girlfriend, that will save you 3 keys right there
is anyone else disturbed that slashdot is linking to gizmodo stories again?
okay, i guess it's just me, sorry.
Okay, but reducing labor costs is just another thing that *all* companies do. i'm sorry that your labor was one of the ones that was reduced. I've been there and it's not fun, but blaming companies for engaging in cost-reducing/profit-seeking behavior is like blaming the sun for being warm.
The per-tv charge is probably in their municipal charters in every market they serve. personally i have echostar and they also have a per-tv charge. $5 month is cheaper than almost anything else I can think of. Some people spend that on coffee every *day*.
Changing their tech to eliminate competing DVRs might actually be an anti-trust violation. that's the kind of thing that makes me dislike comcast.
A lot.
i'm not disputing how evil comcast is or isn't, but why are you talking like it's some evil conspiracy for them to stop serving non-paying customers?
both dish and echostar will disconnect you. also any cell phone carrier, ISP, the electric or gas company. good luck getting groceries or clothes w/o paying for them.
127.0.0.1 gizmodo.com www.gizmodo.com
This just proves that it's a great time for people who have been sticking with XP to take the plunge and upgrade to Windows 2000 Professional.
Steve Wozniak has already come up with a solution for this problem. He bought 250 iPads and used a hinge on the left side to join them together. That way he can just turn to the next iPad to quickly get to the next page. Genius!
Are you saying Apple should have marketed the iPad as more of a computing device belonging to the MacIntosh line? Then they could call it the Macs iPad.
Ba dump ump!!
In addition to the human factors issues and plain old engineering common sense, here's some other things that would help mitigate the unintended acceleration problem. Maybe we don't have to do all of them, but one or two of the less expensive options might be practical and still save some lives.
1. watchdog circuit. there should be a separately engineered CPU and sensor system that just sits around making sure that the ECU is up and running, that's it responding to brake and throttle inputs sensibly, that the airflow through the intake (separately reported from the MAF) is in the right ballpark, engine speed is sensible given throttle opening, gear, and vehicle speed, and that the throttle servo is acting mostly linear and in a timely fashion to inputs, and that the user inputs are sensible given the velocity of the car. Any problems found should return the throttle to idle. if the throttle does not return to idle (based on MAF and engine speed) then cut off ignition. If that doesn't do it, cut off fuel. These cut-offs should be separate circuits and relays from normal operation. As I've described it, this is expensive, but a more modest system that monitors only throttle, brake, engine speed and only cuts off spark would still be helpful.
2. Full or nearly full throttle for more than 15 seconds is probably bad input. Sporty cars could have a competition mode button and low-power cars maybe 20 or 30 seconds is more sensible. Similar to this, nearly full throttle with no dither is a bad sign, as is nearly full throttle plus other input like shifting between auto and manual mode or attempts to downshift into redline or repeated quick up or downshift commands. This would probably be part of the normal ECU rather than a separate circuit. Additionally, the gas pedal should not report 0-100%, but more like 0-95% and then a little extra push to get it to 95-100%. The purpose being that a floor mat or other soft object will probably (though not for sure) only wedge the pedal with limited force, only enough to get to the detent. If the pedal *stays* at the detent (or other fixed position) for too long and the driver does not push past it (an act that would take intent) or back off then there is a very good chance of interference.
3. Linearity. Many manufacturers seem to be using throttle-by-wire to make it so that the throttle opens up faster in response to light pedal pressure and slower towards the end of the pedal travel. This gives a test drive impression of more power and torque than is actually there. However accidental input that just lightly presses the pedal now brings on almost the full force of the engine, giving the driver less time to react to the situation. Somewhat related, some recent automatic transmissions seem to have a high stall but a quick lockup. Again, this presents the illusion of more power earlier, but can surprise a driver. (I have personaly observed both of these problems in my own 2009 vehicle. It is just way too eager to get going).
4. Automatics in manual mode have hard stops for up and down shifts. Instead, they should have substantial detents that are used for normal up-down shifting (so that in normal usage they act the same as they do now) but when pressed beyond the detent the transmission shifts to neutral and engine power is cut. This is a mechanically simple thing and could inexpensively be a separate control circuit.
5. Why on earth do cars allow full throttle in reverse, neutral or park? I can see someone using it when stuck in snow or shallow sand, but this should not be normal operation and in non-forward gears, power should be limited unless specifically requested or as part of turning off traction control or only enabled when traction control detects snow or sand situations itself. Here's the subtle part. I don't just mean that the car should limit RPM while in reverse, neutral or park. That would be short sighted. I mean that plus the car should detect that something is wrong and not just resume full throttle the instant they
thanks to parallax, pillars in a car or plane only block the view to the extent that they exceed the distance between your eyes. on top of that you can just move your head side to side a little bit and see if anything is in your pillar-induced blind spot.
this doesn't work with monitors because the pixels are about the same distance from your eye as the bezels. a head-tracking display would help, but that wasn't mentioned in the article.
stagger the monitors depthwise so that adjacent bezels overlap from the point of view of the user. this will cut your bezel problem in half.
"blame the victim" doesn't fly in any US court.
it *really* doesn't fly when the victims are children.
My assumption was that to some degree they are just making the police car into a bait car. If someone is dumb enough to steal a police car, they would be more than happy to let him drive off in it in exchange for the pleasure of arresting him in a few minutes.
the universe was completely destroyed and replaced by another universe, identical to the first except it was one in which the button had not been pressed.
No joke here, I just like saying "This Old Space Station"