I can understand how the early capitalists may not have foreseen the future (or maybe they did and that's why they were capitalists;-).
That doesn't bear on this discussion, though. Capitalism wasn't "designed". It was observed and analyzed. Current limits set in place by various governements are set up when observations conclude that an unregulated aspect of capitalism is bad for [the economy | the consumers | the workers | a political career].
Capitalism has no inherent natural limitations of the kind you are talking about.
So what you are really complaining about is unequal income distribution. However, the "American Dream" is based on the idea that there is an unequal distribution, and that under capitalism one can rise from low income to high income with a good idea/hard work/well executed thieving.
Sam Walton did not start off with huge capital, and by saying that one needs to be 'lucky in the past' in order to succeed today you are saying there is no way someone couldn't do the same thing today.
Pre-Walmart no one thought K-Mart and that-other-big-chain would ever topple. Who are you to say that an enterprising group couldn't eat Walmart's lunch? If you were succesful in putting limits back into capitalism that mirrored the effects of the 'natural limits' you mentioned, would that also limit the ability for other people to enter the market? Do you think Walmart couldn't get around them?
Maybe short term it is, but in the long term if it ends up destroying your local economy, then maybe not.
I call red herring. This response is somewhat like saying, "Maybe short term it is, but in the long term if it ends up inviting nuclear holocaust, then maybe not."
Unless it's clear to the consumer that buying from the smaller company is better for the local economy, then there is no basis for discussion along these lines. If the small chain isn't growing, then the only local benefit it has is the salary of the employees. This may be marginally better per employee than the chain, but the chain may employ more people. It may be spending more on the retail location and local services (window cleaning, rugs, etc). By providing lower prices consumers can spend more money elsewhere in the community.
So even if there were more benefits to purchasing from the smaller outfit, there is no way to quantify them (ie, you could be hurting the local economy by buying from them, so it's not a good general rule to buy from small places) and even if it were bad it's impossible to know that it would 'destroy the local economy' as you so melodramatically put it.
Sometimes being a consumer involves more than just the price of an item.
I imagine that if you could have received the same price breaks as B&N then you would have jumped at the opportunity. Then you would sell them at a lower cost to the consumer.
Assuming that's true, then you are doing what you counsel against. As a bookstore you are a consumer buying from distributers, but you always look for the better deals, just as the end consumer does.
The next argument usually made is, "We would have to just to survive," which is also made by the end consumer. If I can buy the same product for less, is it in my best interest to buy it for more? The store has to make the same decision, and the result is the same - it's not in the store's best interest to buy from a higher cost distributer, and it's not in the consumer's best interest to buy from a higher cost store.
This is capitalism. It's nice to believe in a rosy utopia where everyone gets what they want, but the reality is that our economy does not support that model.
To paraphrase the GPL people, "If you don't like it, invent your own currency and enforce your own economic model. You have the tools."
Shame they didn't work in some of those cool Greek characters, though.
The conversation went something like this:
Reporter: Hey, this is great and all, and I'd love to write it up - I really would. But the only special character I know our printing process will print is the u umlaut. Can you get rid of the others?
Professor: Never! You can't redefine math to meet your whims!
Reporter: It might get covered on Slashdot...
Professor: Oh, all right. But you owe me a big beta next fluff piece you call me for.
Toaster oven soldering. My first batch turned out ok, and with some heavy handed big tip desoldering with desoldering braid they cleaned up very nicely. I have to learn to apply less solder paste.
It's not trivial, but it's not harder than soldering 40 pin dip packages.
I suppose, however, that were the MSP430 4xx available in dip I would have used that since it's cheaper to assemble (LCD is dip, not surface mountable).
Remember to stack all the power adaptors and all the laptops into a large pyre - er, pile - to help with natural heat convection. If you leave them evenly displaced about the room the heat won't move, instead staying around each laptop and power adaptor.
I'm sure this will relieve you of any future problems with these Dell laptops.
And for my part I thought it was very left leaning. It made some clearly false accusations about Kerry (gay? Bin Laden supports? Right!) but pulls a few punches about Bush and Co going staying in Iraq purely for money, which is not so clearly false. Who cares about ketchup? The only 'possible' issues it brings up about either candidate are bad for Bush.
Doesn't matter, though, I thought it was funny. If you believe it will affect the undecided then you are essentially saying that enough of the american public is less intelligent than you that they will affect the outcome of the election.
I fail to see what exactly they are going to arrest or prosecute people for.
This is a radio transciever operating completely within legal regulations.
If you don't want me to listen to your router's packets, don't transmit them.
If you don't want you router to respond to my 'specially crafted' transmissions, then tell it to ignore me.
Of course, it's far more complex than that, but current law does not seem to apply to this on the surface. It may apply to your actions once you are using their resources, but only marginally.
a lot of soon-to-be-coastal property along the California-Nevada border.
Bleah. If you thought the reports of syringes and needles washing ashore were bad, wait until you see what California was really made of as it washes on shore...
Apparently #38 is the common cat. I hadn't thought of cats as invasive, but I'm surprised that it's considered so invasive. I imagine they are so high on the list because of their numbers, and few people think of them in this way.
Just always wondered why newspapers go out on a limb like that.
Like Soylent Green, newspapers are made out of people.
The fact is that some journalists go into reporting as a way to satisfy their desire to be listened to. They report what they want you to hear in the way they want to you hear it.
Many uphold and respect the idea of no bias, but only the stupid believe that they are really unbiased.
Small town papers don't pay well, and won't necessarily have the kind of reporter that can be as unbiased as you seem to desire. Good reporters move on to better paying jobs.
Larger newspapers are often owned by someone with a slant who only hires others with a slant, and fires those who oppose.
Newspapers aren't meant to provide unbiased editorials. They are meant to present facts as facts and opinions as opinions - this is about the best standard you can hope for, though you will not always find it.
For a car with cruise control, there should be an emergency lever that shuts off the hoses supplying fuel to the engine.
There is, but it's tucked away in the trunk (or boot, for you british) of the car and typically requires a collision to activate. Alternately the switch (or another one) can also be activated by rolling the car over.
Either of these maneuvers can readily be performed even when speeding, so I don't see any reason the driver couldn't stop if he had to.
Speaking from an engineer's perspective, however, The cruise control has an on/off switch which is also actived by tapping the brakes lightly. These are redundant and should completely cut power to the cruise control module if the watch dog timer hasn't kicked it around a bit already. This is the ideal spot to increase safety, not with a fuel cut off which will produce the same problems that ignition cutoff does - no power brakes or steering.
Alternately the brakes should be able to completely stop the car even when the engine is putting out full power. This can be shown by the idea that the car can always decellerate more quickly than it can accelerate. Therefore the driver should simply brake to a complete stop, then put the car into neutral or park with the parking brake on and turn off the ignition. Ideally the ignition should still be operable (ie, he should be able to turn it off even if he's holding a mag or rfid card/chip). The idea that the car doesn't turn off until the driver has left the seat is ridiculus - I hope that this isn't true in this particular car. Too many accidents can happen while exiting the vehicle (bump the gear lever) if the ignition is on.
I believe that either the driver is not competant enough to drive this vehicle, or is blaming the car for various reasons. It may be simply to get a free high speed ride, but it's possible that they want to highlight possible problems that people should be aware of in newer, 'smarter' cars. Could also be a simple smear campaign against Renault.
But what about.. uhm.. say Neutral.. ? or don't european cars have that?
No, Europeans don't believe in neutral. It's either forward or backward, but never neutral!
Don't ask which gears the American's don't believe in...
We need a "If nations were tansmissions..." page. We;ve got automatic, manual, continuously variable, single speed, bicycle derailleur, hydraulic, no transmission...
Actually, as reported yesterday on WUOM (Stateside - audio archive) yesterday it is possible to have a tie in the electoral college. There are two states that do not vote as a block - one allocates two votes to the state leader, and three votes to three congressional districts. The other is similar with only two congressional districts.
When a tie happens the House of representaives votes (1 vote per state) to elect the president. If they tie then the Senate chooses a president to serve until the House comes into agreement. I can't remember the details completely, somehow the vice president candidates are involved (perhaps these are chosen to serve temporarily?)
In the last election it would have taken only two specific states changing places to cause a tie.
* Do you arrange your credit and other raised number cards alternately for a thinner package
* Where you walk late at night
* Coins in the wallet, pocket, or trash
* Account balances and CC limits
* Pictures, and of whom
I'm sure this information will help me become much more efficient in the use of your resources. Thanks!
Personally, I liked advertisement articles on slashdot when they were more subtle. Now they pretty much don't care.
The software looks nice, and there is a free edition, but I don't like to tie myself to software tools that may change at the whim of the company (see Activestate's Komodo as an example, or CDDB, etc)
So I'd say that 1 full resolution, lightly compressed photo every 10 seconds is a no brainer. I'd also say that getting 1 photo per second with good compression and perhaps lower resolution would be almost trivial. Compressing a photo to 1/6 its size in storage space can be done with very little degradation.
It would be nice to see the context of each quote.
For my part, I simply added the following grain of salt: Consider that when quoted perhaps the president in question was actively trying to avoid making a decision on going war.
It then becomes a way to avoid getting the president involved in a discussion which he does not wish to comment on.
I see little value in this list of quotes. Did the "researcher" also look into the opposite view from those same presidents? While it's nice to have a little taste of each, did the researcher fully consider all the views of the president, or are they letting their users assume that this sound byte represents each president's complete perspective on executive power?
Typical cheap safe rooms consist of simple 2x4 frame with a layer of 1/2 plywood, then a layer of 16 guage steel.
A 2x4 at hurricane velocity might breach both the steel and plywood, but it would generally splinter and lose any and all useful energy by the time it gets through - and that's assuming it had enough energy to even make it to the room since it has to go throgh some regular walls/windows/siding/furniture/etc to get to the safe room.
So yes, such a room can be built cheaply and still have more than adequate protection.
See what FEMA has to say about safe room construction. In particular safe rooms cost between $3,000 and $5,000 depending on the type you build and where it is situated. It's much cheaper to build it when the house is built than later, so I can easily see a cost of $3,000 for an average safe room.
PC boards are generally soldered en masse, either with an IR reflow oven or wave soldering. They use copius amount of flux to remove oxidation and other residues that form before soldering so a good joint forms. This flux is essentally a heat activated acid, and must be removed after soldering.
Most places use the equivilant of glorified dishwashers to wash the boards.
You have to use distilled water, no detergents. You might try using rubbing alcohol as a rinse to remove more grime than hot water alone will remove. The water could be up to 140 degrees Celsius (ie, steam) which will also help in the removal.
However there is little that you can do to completely remove the odor without also damaging the components.
Before you immerse or wash the boards close up any small holes, such as the processor socket, with a good quality removable tape. Cover parts that appear to have paper or fiber based construction. Cover the pci and isa connectors across the top, etc.
Use an oven to dry the boards.
Be aware that any efforts you make to remove the gunk which do not actually remove it may end up turning it into a worse situation than it already is operationally. You might turn it into a solvent that attacks plastic, for instance.
Another good option is ultrasonic cleaning, and there is an entire industry that is built around electronics cleaning using ultrasonic and mild solvents.
Sounds like it's too much work, IMHO, but I suppose that you don't have the option to completely replace everything. Good luck!
Slashdot Mirror
I can understand how the early capitalists may not have foreseen the future (or maybe they did and that's why they were capitalists ;-).
That doesn't bear on this discussion, though. Capitalism wasn't "designed". It was observed and analyzed. Current limits set in place by various governements are set up when observations conclude that an unregulated aspect of capitalism is bad for [the economy | the consumers | the workers | a political career].
Capitalism has no inherent natural limitations of the kind you are talking about.
So what you are really complaining about is unequal income distribution. However, the "American Dream" is based on the idea that there is an unequal distribution, and that under capitalism one can rise from low income to high income with a good idea/hard work/well executed thieving.
Sam Walton did not start off with huge capital, and by saying that one needs to be 'lucky in the past' in order to succeed today you are saying there is no way someone couldn't do the same thing today.
Pre-Walmart no one thought K-Mart and that-other-big-chain would ever topple. Who are you to say that an enterprising group couldn't eat Walmart's lunch? If you were succesful in putting limits back into capitalism that mirrored the effects of the 'natural limits' you mentioned, would that also limit the ability for other people to enter the market? Do you think Walmart couldn't get around them?
-Adam
Maybe short term it is, but in the long term if it ends up destroying your local economy, then maybe not.
I call red herring. This response is somewhat like saying, "Maybe short term it is, but in the long term if it ends up inviting nuclear holocaust, then maybe not."
Unless it's clear to the consumer that buying from the smaller company is better for the local economy, then there is no basis for discussion along these lines. If the small chain isn't growing, then the only local benefit it has is the salary of the employees. This may be marginally better per employee than the chain, but the chain may employ more people. It may be spending more on the retail location and local services (window cleaning, rugs, etc). By providing lower prices consumers can spend more money elsewhere in the community.
So even if there were more benefits to purchasing from the smaller outfit, there is no way to quantify them (ie, you could be hurting the local economy by buying from them, so it's not a good general rule to buy from small places) and even if it were bad it's impossible to know that it would 'destroy the local economy' as you so melodramatically put it.
-Adam
Sometimes being a consumer involves more than just the price of an item.
I imagine that if you could have received the same price breaks as B&N then you would have jumped at the opportunity. Then you would sell them at a lower cost to the consumer.
Assuming that's true, then you are doing what you counsel against. As a bookstore you are a consumer buying from distributers, but you always look for the better deals, just as the end consumer does.
The next argument usually made is, "We would have to just to survive," which is also made by the end consumer. If I can buy the same product for less, is it in my best interest to buy it for more? The store has to make the same decision, and the result is the same - it's not in the store's best interest to buy from a higher cost distributer, and it's not in the consumer's best interest to buy from a higher cost store.
This is capitalism. It's nice to believe in a rosy utopia where everyone gets what they want, but the reality is that our economy does not support that model.
To paraphrase the GPL people, "If you don't like it, invent your own currency and enforce your own economic model. You have the tools."
-Adam
Shame they didn't work in some of those cool Greek characters, though.
The conversation went something like this:
Reporter: Hey, this is great and all, and I'd love to write it up - I really would. But the only special character I know our printing process will print is the u umlaut. Can you get rid of the others?
Professor: Never! You can't redefine math to meet your whims!
Reporter: It might get covered on Slashdot...
Professor: Oh, all right. But you owe me a big beta next fluff piece you call me for.
-Adam
You must be an engineer and a mathmatician.
Only an engineer would get something new and look for ways to break it.
Only a mathmatician could break it.
-Adam
Toaster oven soldering. My first batch turned out ok, and with some heavy handed big tip desoldering with desoldering braid they cleaned up very nicely. I have to learn to apply less solder paste.
It's not trivial, but it's not harder than soldering 40 pin dip packages.
I suppose, however, that were the MSP430 4xx available in dip I would have used that since it's cheaper to assemble (LCD is dip, not surface mountable).
-Adam
For low-end applications, 32-bit doesn't make sense, especially if its going to add $1 to the cost of manufacture.
For low end applications, even $0.01 difference can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
-Adam
Remember to stack all the power adaptors and all the laptops into a large pyre - er, pile - to help with natural heat convection. If you leave them evenly displaced about the room the heat won't move, instead staying around each laptop and power adaptor.
I'm sure this will relieve you of any future problems with these Dell laptops.
-Adam
Yes. [3.89MB]
At least until they change it...
-Adam
And for my part I thought it was very left leaning. It made some clearly false accusations about Kerry (gay? Bin Laden supports? Right!) but pulls a few punches about Bush and Co going staying in Iraq purely for money, which is not so clearly false. Who cares about ketchup? The only 'possible' issues it brings up about either candidate are bad for Bush.
Doesn't matter, though, I thought it was funny. If you believe it will affect the undecided then you are essentially saying that enough of the american public is less intelligent than you that they will affect the outcome of the election.
-Adam
I fail to see what exactly they are going to arrest or prosecute people for.
This is a radio transciever operating completely within legal regulations.
If you don't want me to listen to your router's packets, don't transmit them.
If you don't want you router to respond to my 'specially crafted' transmissions, then tell it to ignore me.
Of course, it's far more complex than that, but current law does not seem to apply to this on the surface. It may apply to your actions once you are using their resources, but only marginally.
-Adam
a lot of soon-to-be-coastal property along the California-Nevada border.
Bleah. If you thought the reports of syringes and needles washing ashore were bad, wait until you see what California was really made of as it washes on shore...
-Adam
Apparently #38 is the common cat. I hadn't thought of cats as invasive, but I'm surprised that it's considered so invasive. I imagine they are so high on the list because of their numbers, and few people think of them in this way.
-Adam
Just always wondered why newspapers go out on a limb like that.
Like Soylent Green, newspapers are made out of people.
The fact is that some journalists go into reporting as a way to satisfy their desire to be listened to. They report what they want you to hear in the way they want to you hear it.
Many uphold and respect the idea of no bias, but only the stupid believe that they are really unbiased.
Small town papers don't pay well, and won't necessarily have the kind of reporter that can be as unbiased as you seem to desire. Good reporters move on to better paying jobs.
Larger newspapers are often owned by someone with a slant who only hires others with a slant, and fires those who oppose.
Newspapers aren't meant to provide unbiased editorials. They are meant to present facts as facts and opinions as opinions - this is about the best standard you can hope for, though you will not always find it.
-Adam
For a car with cruise control, there should be an emergency lever that shuts off the hoses supplying fuel to the engine.
There is, but it's tucked away in the trunk (or boot, for you british) of the car and typically requires a collision to activate. Alternately the switch (or another one) can also be activated by rolling the car over.
Either of these maneuvers can readily be performed even when speeding, so I don't see any reason the driver couldn't stop if he had to.
Speaking from an engineer's perspective, however, The cruise control has an on/off switch which is also actived by tapping the brakes lightly. These are redundant and should completely cut power to the cruise control module if the watch dog timer hasn't kicked it around a bit already. This is the ideal spot to increase safety, not with a fuel cut off which will produce the same problems that ignition cutoff does - no power brakes or steering.
Alternately the brakes should be able to completely stop the car even when the engine is putting out full power. This can be shown by the idea that the car can always decellerate more quickly than it can accelerate. Therefore the driver should simply brake to a complete stop, then put the car into neutral or park with the parking brake on and turn off the ignition. Ideally the ignition should still be operable (ie, he should be able to turn it off even if he's holding a mag or rfid card/chip). The idea that the car doesn't turn off until the driver has left the seat is ridiculus - I hope that this isn't true in this particular car. Too many accidents can happen while exiting the vehicle (bump the gear lever) if the ignition is on.
I believe that either the driver is not competant enough to drive this vehicle, or is blaming the car for various reasons. It may be simply to get a free high speed ride, but it's possible that they want to highlight possible problems that people should be aware of in newer, 'smarter' cars. Could also be a simple smear campaign against Renault.
-Adam
But what about .. uhm .. say Neutral .. ? or don't european cars have that?
No, Europeans don't believe in neutral. It's either forward or backward, but never neutral!
Don't ask which gears the American's don't believe in...
We need a "If nations were tansmissions..." page. We;ve got automatic, manual, continuously variable, single speed, bicycle derailleur, hydraulic, no transmission...
-Adam
Actually, as reported yesterday on WUOM (Stateside - audio archive) yesterday it is possible to have a tie in the electoral college. There are two states that do not vote as a block - one allocates two votes to the state leader, and three votes to three congressional districts. The other is similar with only two congressional districts.
When a tie happens the House of representaives votes (1 vote per state) to elect the president. If they tie then the Senate chooses a president to serve until the House comes into agreement. I can't remember the details completely, somehow the vice president candidates are involved (perhaps these are chosen to serve temporarily?)
In the last election it would have taken only two specific states changing places to cause a tie.
-Adam
I suppose you missed the part where they tested floors in many locations and found no bacteria or fungus.
Therefore, they concluded, it is generally safe - not because transfer doesn't happen, but because we are fairly fanatical about keeping floors clean.
-Adam
I'd also like to know:
* Do you arrange your credit and other raised number cards alternately for a thinner package
* Where you walk late at night
* Coins in the wallet, pocket, or trash
* Account balances and CC limits
* Pictures, and of whom
I'm sure this information will help me become much more efficient in the use of your resources. Thanks!
-Adam
Personally, I liked advertisement articles on slashdot when they were more subtle. Now they pretty much don't care.
The software looks nice, and there is a free edition, but I don't like to tie myself to software tools that may change at the whim of the company (see Activestate's Komodo as an example, or CDDB, etc)
-Adam
in high res, snapping a bunch of pics with this and transmitting them over 802.11g isn't going to go very fast
Well, let's do the math, shall we?
14,000,000 pixels @ 24 bits/pixel = 336,000,000 bits (raw, uncompressed)
336,000,000 bits @ 54,000,000 bits/second = 6.22 seconds (not counting overhead of 802.11g)
So I'd say that 1 full resolution, lightly compressed photo every 10 seconds is a no brainer. I'd also say that getting 1 photo per second with good compression and perhaps lower resolution would be almost trivial. Compressing a photo to 1/6 its size in storage space can be done with very little degradation.
-Adam
It would be nice to see the context of each quote.
For my part, I simply added the following grain of salt: Consider that when quoted perhaps the president in question was actively trying to avoid making a decision on going war.
It then becomes a way to avoid getting the president involved in a discussion which he does not wish to comment on.
I see little value in this list of quotes. Did the "researcher" also look into the opposite view from those same presidents? While it's nice to have a little taste of each, did the researcher fully consider all the views of the president, or are they letting their users assume that this sound byte represents each president's complete perspective on executive power?
-Adam
Actually, the first draft started out something like this:
"You want a piece of me, punk? Let me personally kick..."
Fortunately he revised.
-Adam
Typical cheap safe rooms consist of simple 2x4 frame with a layer of 1/2 plywood, then a layer of 16 guage steel.
A 2x4 at hurricane velocity might breach both the steel and plywood, but it would generally splinter and lose any and all useful energy by the time it gets through - and that's assuming it had enough energy to even make it to the room since it has to go throgh some regular walls/windows/siding/furniture/etc to get to the safe room.
So yes, such a room can be built cheaply and still have more than adequate protection.
See what FEMA has to say about safe room construction. In particular safe rooms cost between $3,000 and $5,000 depending on the type you build and where it is situated. It's much cheaper to build it when the house is built than later, so I can easily see a cost of $3,000 for an average safe room.
-Adam
PC boards are generally soldered en masse, either with an IR reflow oven or wave soldering. They use copius amount of flux to remove oxidation and other residues that form before soldering so a good joint forms. This flux is essentally a heat activated acid, and must be removed after soldering.
Most places use the equivilant of glorified dishwashers to wash the boards.
You have to use distilled water, no detergents. You might try using rubbing alcohol as a rinse to remove more grime than hot water alone will remove. The water could be up to 140 degrees Celsius (ie, steam) which will also help in the removal.
However there is little that you can do to completely remove the odor without also damaging the components.
Before you immerse or wash the boards close up any small holes, such as the processor socket, with a good quality removable tape. Cover parts that appear to have paper or fiber based construction. Cover the pci and isa connectors across the top, etc.
Use an oven to dry the boards.
Be aware that any efforts you make to remove the gunk which do not actually remove it may end up turning it into a worse situation than it already is operationally. You might turn it into a solvent that attacks plastic, for instance.
Another good option is ultrasonic cleaning, and there is an entire industry that is built around electronics cleaning using ultrasonic and mild solvents.
Sounds like it's too much work, IMHO, but I suppose that you don't have the option to completely replace everything. Good luck!
-Adam