As imagined by Roddenberry, Star Trek is a more or less communist utopia.
As other writers have shown, there's lots of nasty things going on under the hood however, so that the "feel good equality" of society can continue.
In terms of "wealth" as the source of power, we have a great equalizer in Star Trek. The replicator. You can basically create anything you would want to eat or drink, and any tool you could possibly want to use.
Basically any society that can build such things renders wealth more or less meaningless.
We're nowhere even CLOSE to this.
And, as I said, the society of The Federation has its own issues. And there are still people who are (or are trying to become) "more equal".
Maybe not with Intel graphics. But, if Dell's previous problems with mating NV graphics are anything to go on, this machine, while looking pretty and sporting phenomenal stats, will probably also have massive thermal issues resulting in instant system shutdowns.
As sexy as this sucker is, I'd prefer not to be the guinea pig.
Still, 10 hours of battery life? SEXAH! Oh no! A display with a ridiculous resolution doesn't give me 17 hours of battery life! DARN!
The problem is EXCESS of management personnel. Resulting in top-heavy organizations with too many layers of do-nothings between the people actually running the company and the people doing the grunt work. And with each level piled in, progressively less understanding of what's ACTUALLY going on (in both directions).
Getting rid of management COMPLETELY isn't really the answer, as workers have to then take time away from actually doing their jobs to waste time explaining about the job they should be doing if they weren't there wasting time explaining about the job they should be doing...
A good manager should have a decent idea of what the people working under him are doing, and enough loquaciousness to break it down into simpler terms for the person he/she is working for.
When you filter it through multiple levels of management the message going up eventually becomes "we are doing "stuff" right now". Then message coming back down is "We need to keep doing "stuff" right now".
It's like trying to give a best man's speech at a wedding for a complete stranger.
Wait, I'm sane enough to understand that being about to use a keyboard, mouse and maybe a joystick isn't a "sport", and *I* have problems with *MY* self image?
Maybe if you had bottled water, you'd drink it instead of coke and other nasty things. Despite popular belief, tap water, even with a Britta, is nothing like bottled water which is actually nice to drink.
How does it feel to be sitting at that table, Chas?
Uh. Maybe you didn't read what I wrote. You are referencing an episode of Penn and Teller's "Bullshit!" where they covered bottled water. And the fact that a significant chunk of the US industry's bottled water comes from municipal sources (aka TAP WATER).
My "bullshit" was meant to address the person who stated that tap water, even filtered, is "nothing like bottled water".
Maybe if you had bottled water, you'd drink it instead of coke and other nasty things. Despite popular belief, tap water, even with a Britta, is nothing like bottled water which is actually nice to drink.
In many cases, bottled water is coming from a municipal water source. It's treated and filtered the same way all municipal water is. About the only thing that happens is that the companies sometimes re-introduce minerals to enhance the flavor.
The only kinds of ads most people would look at as "acceptable" are the very types of ads most advertisers and indeed, most people looking to profit from ad revenue, would rather not serve. Why? Because there's a low return proposition on them, and they can't really mine for data (which is even more valuable than actual click-throughs) with them.
Most people, given a choice, don't WANT pop ups, pop unders, video ads, flash ads, tracking, etc. But ad networks and content providers have such a hard-on for The Quick Easy Buck, that they don't want to serve anything else.
So, what we get are ad delivery systems that, over time, grow more and more intrusive. And, on the other end of the arms race, we have ad blockers that grow ever more elaborate.
Now, were that the extent of it, the end users would win, eventually. As a maximal number of people would eventually migrate to ad-blocking.
But now we're seeing this sort of tracking and ad crap BUILT RIGHT INTO THE OS AND APPS from the get-go. Sure "most" of it, you can opt out of (or just forego the use of). But the actions required for circumventing these hard-coded methods become ever more esoteric and obtuse. Shutting more and more people out, while stealing more screen real-estate, more time, more bandwidth, and more peace of mind from people.
The ad-driven, metrics/telemetry-driven consumer spying industry is a blight upon the Internet and needs to die. Unfortunately, it's like a hydra on steroids.
It was like this in school for me. Basically it lets all the psychotic little imbeciles feel like they're participating. Meanwhile, I'm sitting there, mile ahead, trying not to be bored into narcolepsy.
Meanwhile, the idiot teachers are telling my parents "Oh! He's so intelligent! But he doesn't apply himself!"
Fucking public schooling was a nightmare for me.
And when I finally DID overcome my antipathy towards school and go to college, I found it wasn't any different.
No, that's 40% out of the total 8760 hours a year. That's, on average, 9.6 hours of sunlight a day. Longer in the summer, when they really need it for power. Shorter in the winter, when they don't need it as badly.
Reno's much further north and closer to the mountains.
Average temperatures are far lower.
Still, as was pointed out, solar power in this area's still a good deal since they see about 40% sunshine throughout the year. There are months when this will be less, but those are also much cooler months of the year, when they can shunt outside air in.
And why are we stunned that a bunch of overpaid, undersocialized steroid-sozzled jock dopes can grasp anything other than their playbook? And, especially, the commentators? They're all a bunch of football-heads. Computers are for fuckin' nerds man!
Slashdot Mirror
Freedom and government are mutually antagonistic concepts.
The problem is that due to the new Puritan SJW "all male sex is bad"
All-male sex IS bad! If you're straight...
Hey, it's not SR's fault that it's the most outstanding specimen of the Cyberpunk genre.
Oh there are LOTS of communities that don't have money.
They're called "ghettos". Or "slums". Or "urban blight".
As imagined by Roddenberry, Star Trek is a more or less communist utopia.
As other writers have shown, there's lots of nasty things going on under the hood however, so that the "feel good equality" of society can continue.
In terms of "wealth" as the source of power, we have a great equalizer in Star Trek.
The replicator. You can basically create anything you would want to eat or drink, and any tool you could possibly want to use.
Basically any society that can build such things renders wealth more or less meaningless.
We're nowhere even CLOSE to this.
And, as I said, the society of The Federation has its own issues. And there are still people who are (or are trying to become) "more equal".
Maybe not with Intel graphics. But, if Dell's previous problems with mating NV graphics are anything to go on, this machine, while looking pretty and sporting phenomenal stats, will probably also have massive thermal issues resulting in instant system shutdowns.
As sexy as this sucker is, I'd prefer not to be the guinea pig.
Still, 10 hours of battery life? SEXAH! Oh no! A display with a ridiculous resolution doesn't give me 17 hours of battery life! DARN!
The problem is EXCESS of management personnel. Resulting in top-heavy organizations with too many layers of do-nothings between the people actually running the company and the people doing the grunt work. And with each level piled in, progressively less understanding of what's ACTUALLY going on (in both directions).
Getting rid of management COMPLETELY isn't really the answer, as workers have to then take time away from actually doing their jobs to waste time explaining about the job they should be doing if they weren't there wasting time explaining about the job they should be doing...
A good manager should have a decent idea of what the people working under him are doing, and enough loquaciousness to break it down into simpler terms for the person he/she is working for.
When you filter it through multiple levels of management the message going up eventually becomes "we are doing "stuff" right now".
Then message coming back down is "We need to keep doing "stuff" right now".
It's like trying to give a best man's speech at a wedding for a complete stranger.
Wait, I'm sane enough to understand that being about to use a keyboard, mouse and maybe a joystick isn't a "sport", and *I* have problems with *MY* self image?
Troll! They name is ad hominem!
Honestly, if bridge and chess are considered sports, why not video games?
As I said, stupidity. Bridge and chess are not sports. Anyone classifying them as a sport is a moron.
Seriously. Someone just fucking shoot me now. This whole "eSport" bullshit is just a demonstration of how stupid society's become.
Maybe if you had bottled water, you'd drink it instead of coke and other nasty things.
Despite popular belief, tap water, even with a Britta, is nothing like bottled water which is actually nice to drink.
Bullshit.
Speaking of bullshit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
How does it feel to be sitting at that table, Chas?
Uh. Maybe you didn't read what I wrote. You are referencing an episode of Penn and Teller's "Bullshit!" where they covered bottled water. And the fact that a significant chunk of the US industry's bottled water comes from municipal sources (aka TAP WATER).
My "bullshit" was meant to address the person who stated that tap water, even filtered, is "nothing like bottled water".
Maybe if you had bottled water, you'd drink it instead of coke and other nasty things.
Despite popular belief, tap water, even with a Britta, is nothing like bottled water which is actually nice to drink.
Bullshit.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH...
http://www.today.com/food/your...
http://www.allaboutwater.org/t...
https://youtu.be/saSgpX186MM
In many cases, bottled water is coming from a municipal water source. It's treated and filtered the same way all municipal water is. About the only thing that happens is that the companies sometimes re-introduce minerals to enhance the flavor.
Seriously.
The only kinds of ads most people would look at as "acceptable" are the very types of ads most advertisers and indeed, most people looking to profit from ad revenue, would rather not serve. Why? Because there's a low return proposition on them, and they can't really mine for data (which is even more valuable than actual click-throughs) with them.
Most people, given a choice, don't WANT pop ups, pop unders, video ads, flash ads, tracking, etc. But ad networks and content providers have such a hard-on for The Quick Easy Buck, that they don't want to serve anything else.
So, what we get are ad delivery systems that, over time, grow more and more intrusive.
And, on the other end of the arms race, we have ad blockers that grow ever more elaborate.
Now, were that the extent of it, the end users would win, eventually. As a maximal number of people would eventually migrate to ad-blocking.
But now we're seeing this sort of tracking and ad crap BUILT RIGHT INTO THE OS AND APPS from the get-go. Sure "most" of it, you can opt out of (or just forego the use of). But the actions required for circumventing these hard-coded methods become ever more esoteric and obtuse. Shutting more and more people out, while stealing more screen real-estate, more time, more bandwidth, and more peace of mind from people.
The ad-driven, metrics/telemetry-driven consumer spying industry is a blight upon the Internet and needs to die. Unfortunately, it's like a hydra on steroids.
It was like this in school for me.
Basically it lets all the psychotic little imbeciles feel like they're participating.
Meanwhile, I'm sitting there, mile ahead, trying not to be bored into narcolepsy.
Meanwhile, the idiot teachers are telling my parents "Oh! He's so intelligent! But he doesn't apply himself!"
Fucking public schooling was a nightmare for me.
And when I finally DID overcome my antipathy towards school and go to college, I found it wasn't any different.
Of course it is. Because it's violated before the ink was ever dry. On BOTH sides most likely.
The idea isn't necessarily for a *complete* offset. But, with enough solar area, they can put a dent in their power bill.
No, that's 40% out of the total 8760 hours a year.
That's, on average, 9.6 hours of sunlight a day. Longer in the summer, when they really need it for power. Shorter in the winter, when they don't need it as badly.
You're probably thinking Vegas.
Reno's much further north and closer to the mountains.
Average temperatures are far lower.
Still, as was pointed out, solar power in this area's still a good deal since they see about 40% sunshine throughout the year. There are months when this will be less, but those are also much cooler months of the year, when they can shunt outside air in.
Call me when a REAL, ENFORCEABLE policy is in place.
This is just a public patty-cake party. Nobody who's out of the public eye will follow this for a second.
Which is great news! Texas is ahead of the world now in being prepared for the huge increase in electricity usage that good electric cars will cause.
You missed the part where this happened at 4AM.
So this surplus is ALMOST as useful as high tide is to a guy buried in the sand at the low tide mark.
Okay, put //a/%%30%30 in the URL bar. Didn't crash anything.
Put it in the search box on the default search page and it puked immediately.
45.0.2454.93
Because that'll stop nutjob regimes like North Korea, or a bunch of terrorists from using nukes to wipe out people.
Right?
How the fuck are people nowadays STILL this naive? (I'd use "fucking moronic", but I'm trying to be nice.)
So. He gets to con ANOTHER group of suckers into believing that Bitcoin is a Good Thing? Right?
Pfft.
And why are we stunned that a bunch of overpaid, undersocialized steroid-sozzled jock dopes can grasp anything other than their playbook?
And, especially, the commentators? They're all a bunch of football-heads. Computers are for fuckin' nerds man!
Everything's an iPad right?
Just like, down south, all cola is "A Coke".
It's a tax on stupidity. That's all Apple's offerings have ever been.
And nobody ever accused Apple of being a charity organization...