And that would be relevant if they had equivalent sales. As things stand, it actually argues against your point: ebook sales in the US last year
come to about $13 million dollars out of a (roughly) $23 billion dollar a year industry, according to the AAP. If the quality of the product and the
price of the alternatives are the only driving factors, then I conclude that people are unwilling to pay equal amounts for a product that has no
associated baseline costs and a product whose cost is dominated by those factors.
The low numbers are partially because the baseline cost is free - go to the library (or Project Gutenberg for pre-1923 works, the last year to probably ever be public domain). The truth is, the product you buy is not a product, it's a one-platform non-transferable DRM encrusted unresaleable bunch of words that will be disabled when the dot.com at the other end of the wire decides it's profitable to abandon or goes out of business, sold for the same price as a tangible product. Ebooks are massively crippled so they are worth even less than a sherlockholmes.txt ASCII file, and yet have still been priced uncompetitively, almost so they won't make a dent in the centuries-old paper codex business.
The only sheeple customers who can't say no to DRM seem to be those who respond to marketing that tells them they need to buy the latest gadgets to be cool and fashionable. Why do you think iPhone buyers were so upset when the price of the phone dropped from $600 to $400? Because more people could afford to join the fashionista club.
There is no law that researchers need to retain their raw field data(?). After I publish my paper, this kind of hassle could be avoided by dragging the 'research data' directory into the rubbish bin on the desktop. Oops, I just dropped those notebooks into the shredder too, they were a fire hazard anyway...
If someone wants to peer-review, why don't they get their own grad students to drill their own tree cores, measure them, and come up with their own conclusion. It's not like the institution is hoarding a Rosetta Stone for themselves. Collective independent research will converge on the the most likely scenario and prove or disprove the controversial hypothesis put forth, and using data from the suspect study would only pollute further endeavors.
Drive by wire is a product of two 'driving' forces - hybrid-drive technologies, increasing user interaction quality and feel, and more efficient and emission-friendly fully-computer controlled operation.
What should a gas pedal do? It is the device where the driver inputs the amount of acceleration desired from the engine. In an ideal system the amount of power delivered would be a linear progression through the range of the pedal, but that can't be achieved when the pedal actually controls the angle of a butterfly valve in the throttle body. It can be achieved elegantly when the pedal is interpreted by a computer as 'deliver this much power', and the engine management system complies.
In addition, with a 'direct pedal linkage', a mechanical component such as the throttle body is directly controlling airflow, and the computer has to 'react' to the input of the pedal, which is read indirectly with throttle position sensors and airflow sensors, and then computer detects with oxygen sensors how well it did in trying to inject the proper amount of fuel. With a by-wire system, all fuel and air inputs can be operated in tandem for efficient and clean combustion when the computer controls everything by wire and known combustion mapping tables.
With a hybrid, of course, the pedal won't be directly controlling the gasoline motor at all, the car could be running off electric, eh?
No.
The original poster's example refers to pre-loading engine torque against the brakes so the car doesn't roll in the wrong direction when the brake pedal is released. The poster is citing a situation where one would need to be able use the accelerator along with and before releasing the normal brake pedal, to make a point against the 'safety' engine management under discussion which might cut off acceleration or not rev the engine if the brake is pushed.
A hand parking brake is only necessary on roll-back situations on a manual transmission vehicle, where your left foot is occupied with the clutch and can't operate the brake pedal - this situation is irrelevant to the discussion against computers potentially locking out the operation of the accelerator along with the normal brake pedal usage.
>>many (cars) have "push on/push off" foot activated emergency brakes. Try modulating one of those.
You'd only find 'pedal' style e-brakes in cars with automatic transmissions, not cars with manual transmissions, where you indeed might need a hand-operated brake to assist against roll-back during up-hill starts.
Ford Taurus (I have a SHO) automatic has that, at least 1986-1999, a good many of those years during which it was the #1 selling car in America. It's e-brake is a pedal (allowing much easier engagement since you have much more leverage stepping on it), and has a pull lever to release it like a hood popper, although the lever never needs to be pulled because the parking brake automatically pops out and the pedal won't lock down once the car is shifted into gear (meaning you can even use the pedal for slick drifting moves etc). I suppose it's also more convenient for right-hand amputees...
No, I have just allowed them certain rights of distribution per the TOS that I probably clicked-through at some point a decade ago. They still can't claim it as their own work or keep me from distributing it myself.
I was going to reap the massive financial rewards due to the creator and copyright owner of such a wonderful work as the above post....However:
I now license any entity to use full or partial text of the above post in any way they feel fit including publishing it in any forum or venue, or creating any derivative works in any capacity without any credit to the author being required, in a spirit as close to 'public domain' as legally possible. The express exception to this license is Microsoft Corporation or any of its subsidiaries or agents, who are expressly forbidden to retain or store the contents of my work in whole or part in any medium print or electronic, nor possess, use, or employ any derivative works, nor allow transmission of the work in any form through any venue under their control.
The document is mainly facts. Facts themselves can't be copyrighted (if they could, you wouldn't be able to learn the scores of sporting events without paying). As such, it would be possible to create a new work containing all of the facts that are available in this document and publish that. Attempts to take down your work would be very easy to defend against. In truth, showing that a new document created using only facts that are now public is very similar to the original work, one could make an argument that a copyright claim is of little merit.
Such a document could look like this:
Microsoft has online services that retain data on user's connections and the contents of their communications, and that data is available to law enforcement.
Increasing quantities of information will be disclosed depending on whether law enforcement provides Microsoft with a subpoena, court order, or search warrant. This information appears to be available through a handy web interface to the agency requesting the information. Microsoft doesn't clearly state the procedure or availability for non-law enforcement agencies (such as those bringing civil suit) to receive their retained information through court actions.
For Email services (hotmail, msn, live), information retained by Microsoft (and the legal instrument to receive it):
Registration contact info and IP address used to register (available by subpoena)
IP access logs, usage logs, billing information (only subpoena needed)
Full message contents of emails over 180 days old (only subpoena needed)
Address book, contact list, internet usage logs, email headers (available by court order)
Complete disclosure of all contents of all emails including email contents less than 180 days old (search warrant required)
Duration and scope of retention of email information by Microsoft:
Registration details and IP address used to register: retained for entire life of account,
Emails (headers and contents) - any currently stored on servers (no detail given about retention of deleted emails)
Windows Live ID (used to log in) - last 10 connections, IP addresses used, and all sites accessed with that ID
Similar information is retained for instant messaging, windows live spaces, msn groups, windows live domain administrator, online file storage services, and even the xbox live service, although this author is to lazy to detail them.
Notice: The above work (30 minutes of artistic time needed), is protected under copyright of this poster, even though no notice of Copyright is required after 1989, and even though this work is entirely a list of facts regarding how Microsoft retains data and discloses it to authorities.
The UAC prompts became far less common as time went on because publishers fixed their software that was doing things that even in XP they shouldn't have been doing (and getting more secure in the process).
Developers have had over a decade to get in shape. Locking down a domain on Win2000 was nearly impossible because every single app wanted to write data all over the hard drive instead of just the user profile. Letting a bookkeeper run Quickbooks meant making that person at least a local admin and tweaking (unsecuring) permissions on the computer, thus allowing the bookkeeper's computer become spyware central from all the crap WildTangent games and screensavers you couldn't make the idiot not install even after multiple waahs and removals.
When a mall kiosk giving out 'personality tests' is unable to recruit, tax, and imprison new sheeple because it is are flanked by saviours in Guy Fawkes masks holding up 'Scientology=Cult' signs and handing out xenu pamphlets, it offers an obstacle to their operating unopposed. Scientology should be oppressed at every opportunity, as they obfuscate their organized oral onslaught of obscenity, offending equally their outcasts and outsiders by their labeling of those who would tell people the evils experienced in the vipers' den as 'subversive persons', and stalking and persecuting them and their families.
More chilling - a corporation with suspicion of someone not 'busted' can get a court to confiscate every computer and device someone owns, and force them to turn over every password to every account they have so the company can root around for evidence for a civil matter (copyright infringement).
Maybe when the MafIAA alleges an IP address that might have been assigned to you at some point was infringing, and gets the thugs to toss your place and take anything they want and look at all your emails, texts, and friends online you might then want to complain, but you won't own anything electronic anymore to complain with.
Ion thrusters are used on just about every modern satellite needing trajectory correction, but this is one more small step for man. Analogy time - perpendicular recording technology on hard drives: It was not the jump from floppy disk to flash memory, but still a technological leap which made for an acceleration in increasing storage densities that had been stagnating for a while.
You fail to see this jump and potential - imagine a small array of these propulsion chips on both sides of the solar panel wings of normal sized satellites - they could be continuously spraying a few millinewtons of thrust when the attitude of the panels is near tangent to the orbit for the whole mission life to counteract orbital decay - with more efficient thrust per propellant weight than on-board ion thrusters, which could then be smaller or even eliminated if deemed redundant.
Now if we could figure out a way to install attitude control on parent poster...
>But parent had a point on lowered fuel costs, as i could imagine it would help on aerodynamics. A dirty surface equals resistance. The Borg know that. (a forcefield / energy-type hull is very smooth)
...because good aerodynamics are important in space??
It is safe for work if the workplace doesn't mind the fuck word being used on tv, or you trolling the Internet on their time. Considering it was on BBCFour, at least the British aren't tampons (i.e. stuck up cunts).
No, it's more like if I put the message 'yes' in one envelope, and 'no' in the other envelope and mixed them up.
You take one envelope, and your buddy takes the other envelope. When you open your envelope, you now know immediately what is in the other envelope miles away. However, there is no useful communication taking place between either envelope owner. I am just fancy when I call the envelopes with unknown contents a superposition.
This message translated from the original German...
Dear Earth Peoples,
Thank you for the informative gift of your photons from universe age 13 billion earth years. We had to drive all over our galaxy to collect the photons but we put your message back together. We learn a lot of your culture.
To send this reply, we use time machine to modulate one of our pulsars, from what you think is edge of universe at universe age 1 billion. 100 baud is funny joke that makes my jogmook wiggle - pulsar modulation for communication is 8^-12 baud but message goes very far. Haha. Maybe it takes you 70 earth years to receive message? Time machine fixes communication latency though.
We like your message. We also like to make rockets. We also have lottery every 100 Klagmar years to cull dumbest 90% of population. We would like to be friends. Hopefully when you invent time machine you can modulate a proto-star and send us back the recipe for your bratwurst. We have no earth cows but maybe we can make it from Klagmar Zhukoom.
From the cjicia of:
Blaaeerg Greeezxx of Klagmar 7
Ambassador of extra-galaxy cuisine
You, sir, clearly underestimate the ineptitude of the public school system at providing individuals with the skill set to perform even tedious menial tasks. A college degree doesn't mean smart, but it at least means not dumb. Plus, like certifications, it means you are willing to part with some money in order to establish your dedication to a career path.
"But to the most critical aspect of these events it surely lies with the Western World’s continued arrogance in regards to experimenting on both our Planets natural species and human beings, and though who may think that they are ‘gods’, are continuing to give evidence that they are acting more like devils."
I think since the director, Dr Rachel Rosen, is a 31 year old cutie too (linky) there might be some gender self-promotion involved. Another student already discovered the first one..., unfortunately a white male.
Oh, and if you want to see what career path will get you a job searching for pulsars, here's her application for the job (pdf). Personal details not omitted.
Slashdot Mirror
And that would be relevant if they had equivalent sales. As things stand, it actually argues against your point: ebook sales in the US last year come to about $13 million dollars out of a (roughly) $23 billion dollar a year industry, according to the AAP. If the quality of the product and the price of the alternatives are the only driving factors, then I conclude that people are unwilling to pay equal amounts for a product that has no associated baseline costs and a product whose cost is dominated by those factors.
The low numbers are partially because the baseline cost is free - go to the library (or Project Gutenberg for pre-1923 works, the last year to probably ever be public domain). The truth is, the product you buy is not a product, it's a one-platform non-transferable DRM encrusted unresaleable bunch of words that will be disabled when the dot.com at the other end of the wire decides it's profitable to abandon or goes out of business, sold for the same price as a tangible product. Ebooks are massively crippled so they are worth even less than a sherlockholmes.txt ASCII file, and yet have still been priced uncompetitively, almost so they won't make a dent in the centuries-old paper codex business.
The only sheeple customers who can't say no to DRM seem to be those who respond to marketing that tells them they need to buy the latest gadgets to be cool and fashionable. Why do you think iPhone buyers were so upset when the price of the phone dropped from $600 to $400? Because more people could afford to join the fashionista club.
There is no law that researchers need to retain their raw field data(?). After I publish my paper, this kind of hassle could be avoided by dragging the 'research data' directory into the rubbish bin on the desktop. Oops, I just dropped those notebooks into the shredder too, they were a fire hazard anyway...
If someone wants to peer-review, why don't they get their own grad students to drill their own tree cores, measure them, and come up with their own conclusion. It's not like the institution is hoarding a Rosetta Stone for themselves. Collective independent research will converge on the the most likely scenario and prove or disprove the controversial hypothesis put forth, and using data from the suspect study would only pollute further endeavors.
Drive by wire is a product of two 'driving' forces - hybrid-drive technologies, increasing user interaction quality and feel, and more efficient and emission-friendly fully-computer controlled operation.
What should a gas pedal do? It is the device where the driver inputs the amount of acceleration desired from the engine. In an ideal system the amount of power delivered would be a linear progression through the range of the pedal, but that can't be achieved when the pedal actually controls the angle of a butterfly valve in the throttle body. It can be achieved elegantly when the pedal is interpreted by a computer as 'deliver this much power', and the engine management system complies.
In addition, with a 'direct pedal linkage', a mechanical component such as the throttle body is directly controlling airflow, and the computer has to 'react' to the input of the pedal, which is read indirectly with throttle position sensors and airflow sensors, and then computer detects with oxygen sensors how well it did in trying to inject the proper amount of fuel. With a by-wire system, all fuel and air inputs can be operated in tandem for efficient and clean combustion when the computer controls everything by wire and known combustion mapping tables.
With a hybrid, of course, the pedal won't be directly controlling the gasoline motor at all, the car could be running off electric, eh?
>> That's what the handbrake is for.
No.
The original poster's example refers to pre-loading engine torque against the brakes so the car doesn't roll in the wrong direction when the brake pedal is released. The poster is citing a situation where one would need to be able use the accelerator along with and before releasing the normal brake pedal, to make a point against the 'safety' engine management under discussion which might cut off acceleration or not rev the engine if the brake is pushed.
A hand parking brake is only necessary on roll-back situations on a manual transmission vehicle, where your left foot is occupied with the clutch and can't operate the brake pedal - this situation is irrelevant to the discussion against computers potentially locking out the operation of the accelerator along with the normal brake pedal usage.
>>many (cars) have "push on/push off" foot activated emergency brakes. Try modulating one of those.
You'd only find 'pedal' style e-brakes in cars with automatic transmissions, not cars with manual transmissions, where you indeed might need a hand-operated brake to assist against roll-back during up-hill starts.
Think twice, post once.
Ford Taurus (I have a SHO) automatic has that, at least 1986-1999, a good many of those years during which it was the #1 selling car in America. It's e-brake is a pedal (allowing much easier engagement since you have much more leverage stepping on it), and has a pull lever to release it like a hood popper, although the lever never needs to be pulled because the parking brake automatically pops out and the pedal won't lock down once the car is shifted into gear (meaning you can even use the pedal for slick drifting moves etc). I suppose it's also more convenient for right-hand amputees...
No, I have just allowed them certain rights of distribution per the TOS that I probably clicked-through at some point a decade ago. They still can't claim it as their own work or keep me from distributing it myself.
I was going to reap the massive financial rewards due to the creator and copyright owner of such a wonderful work as the above post....However:
I now license any entity to use full or partial text of the above post in any way they feel fit including publishing it in any forum or venue, or creating any derivative works in any capacity without any credit to the author being required, in a spirit as close to 'public domain' as legally possible. The express exception to this license is Microsoft Corporation or any of its subsidiaries or agents, who are expressly forbidden to retain or store the contents of my work in whole or part in any medium print or electronic, nor possess, use, or employ any derivative works, nor allow transmission of the work in any form through any venue under their control.
The document is mainly facts. Facts themselves can't be copyrighted (if they could, you wouldn't be able to learn the scores of sporting events without paying). As such, it would be possible to create a new work containing all of the facts that are available in this document and publish that. Attempts to take down your work would be very easy to defend against. In truth, showing that a new document created using only facts that are now public is very similar to the original work, one could make an argument that a copyright claim is of little merit.
Such a document could look like this:
Microsoft has online services that retain data on user's connections and the contents of their communications, and that data is available to law enforcement.
Increasing quantities of information will be disclosed depending on whether law enforcement provides Microsoft with a subpoena, court order, or search warrant. This information appears to be available through a handy web interface to the agency requesting the information. Microsoft doesn't clearly state the procedure or availability for non-law enforcement agencies (such as those bringing civil suit) to receive their retained information through court actions.
For Email services (hotmail, msn, live), information retained by Microsoft (and the legal instrument to receive it):
Duration and scope of retention of email information by Microsoft:
Similar information is retained for instant messaging, windows live spaces, msn groups, windows live domain administrator, online file storage services, and even the xbox live service, although this author is to lazy to detail them.
Notice: The above work (30 minutes of artistic time needed), is protected under copyright of this poster, even though no notice of Copyright is required after 1989, and even though this work is entirely a list of facts regarding how Microsoft retains data and discloses it to authorities.
The UAC prompts became far less common as time went on because publishers fixed their software that was doing things that even in XP they shouldn't have been doing (and getting more secure in the process).
Developers have had over a decade to get in shape. Locking down a domain on Win2000 was nearly impossible because every single app wanted to write data all over the hard drive instead of just the user profile. Letting a bookkeeper run Quickbooks meant making that person at least a local admin and tweaking (unsecuring) permissions on the computer, thus allowing the bookkeeper's computer become spyware central from all the crap WildTangent games and screensavers you couldn't make the idiot not install even after multiple waahs and removals.
'You must not mask IP or MAC addresses'
My MAC address is only the business of me, my switch, and my router.
I think someone needs to teach their lawyers the OSI model.
Another rhetorical: How enforceable is a contract that says one party can change anything they want in the contract at any time.
When a mall kiosk giving out 'personality tests' is unable to recruit, tax, and imprison new sheeple because it is are flanked by saviours in Guy Fawkes masks holding up 'Scientology=Cult' signs and handing out xenu pamphlets, it offers an obstacle to their operating unopposed. Scientology should be oppressed at every opportunity, as they obfuscate their organized oral onslaught of obscenity, offending equally their outcasts and outsiders by their labeling of those who would tell people the evils experienced in the vipers' den as 'subversive persons', and stalking and persecuting them and their families.
More chilling - a corporation with suspicion of someone not 'busted' can get a court to confiscate every computer and device someone owns, and force them to turn over every password to every account they have so the company can root around for evidence for a civil matter (copyright infringement).
Maybe when the MafIAA alleges an IP address that might have been assigned to you at some point was infringing, and gets the thugs to toss your place and take anything they want and look at all your emails, texts, and friends online you might then want to complain, but you won't own anything electronic anymore to complain with.
Ion thrusters are used on just about every modern satellite needing trajectory correction, but this is one more small step for man. Analogy time - perpendicular recording technology on hard drives: It was not the jump from floppy disk to flash memory, but still a technological leap which made for an acceleration in increasing storage densities that had been stagnating for a while.
You fail to see this jump and potential - imagine a small array of these propulsion chips on both sides of the solar panel wings of normal sized satellites - they could be continuously spraying a few millinewtons of thrust when the attitude of the panels is near tangent to the orbit for the whole mission life to counteract orbital decay - with more efficient thrust per propellant weight than on-board ion thrusters, which could then be smaller or even eliminated if deemed redundant.
Now if we could figure out a way to install attitude control on parent poster...
>But parent had a point on lowered fuel costs, as i could imagine it would help on aerodynamics. A dirty surface equals resistance. The Borg know that. (a forcefield / energy-type hull is very smooth)
...because good aerodynamics are important in space??
This one is the best...
It is safe for work if the workplace doesn't mind the fuck word being used on tv, or you trolling the Internet on their time. Considering it was on BBCFour, at least the British aren't tampons (i.e. stuck up cunts).
No, it's more like if I put the message 'yes' in one envelope, and 'no' in the other envelope and mixed them up.
You take one envelope, and your buddy takes the other envelope. When you open your envelope, you now know immediately what is in the other envelope miles away. However, there is no useful communication taking place between either envelope owner. I am just fancy when I call the envelopes with unknown contents a superposition.
This message translated from the original German...
Dear Earth Peoples,
Thank you for the informative gift of your photons from universe age 13 billion earth years. We had to drive all over our galaxy to collect the photons but we put your message back together. We learn a lot of your culture.
To send this reply, we use time machine to modulate one of our pulsars, from what you think is edge of universe at universe age 1 billion. 100 baud is funny joke that makes my jogmook wiggle - pulsar modulation for communication is 8^-12 baud but message goes very far. Haha. Maybe it takes you 70 earth years to receive message? Time machine fixes communication latency though.
We like your message. We also like to make rockets. We also have lottery every 100 Klagmar years to cull dumbest 90% of population. We would like to be friends. Hopefully when you invent time machine you can modulate a proto-star and send us back the recipe for your bratwurst. We have no earth cows but maybe we can make it from Klagmar Zhukoom.
From the cjicia of:
Blaaeerg Greeezxx of Klagmar 7
Ambassador of extra-galaxy cuisine
and you risk massive lawsuits if you publish this technology in it's early immature stages as it is now
You risk massive lawsuits from people to stupid to just close their eyes?
Oh, wait, I forgot we live in a country full of people too stupid to not jam every bit of food they see into their face...
You, sir, clearly underestimate the ineptitude of the public school system at providing individuals with the skill set to perform even tedious menial tasks. A college degree doesn't mean smart, but it at least means not dumb. Plus, like certifications, it means you are willing to part with some money in order to establish your dedication to a career path.
Oh!
"But to the most critical aspect of these events it surely lies with the Western World’s continued arrogance in regards to experimenting on both our Planets natural species and human beings, and though who may think that they are ‘gods’, are continuing to give evidence that they are acting more like devils."
...Not just reliable, but unbiased too!
New punctuation...are you serious (insert Interrobang here)
I think since the director, Dr Rachel Rosen, is a 31 year old cutie too (linky) there might be some gender self-promotion involved. Another student already discovered the first one..., unfortunately a white male.
Oh, and if you want to see what career path will get you a job searching for pulsars, here's her application for the job (pdf). Personal details not omitted.