True, but this was in times before the telephone. In that time, a proper lady would get up in the morning and write a card inviting her friends for an evening cup of tea and gossip, they would get the card by noon, reply by 3pm they would be there, and by 7pm tea and biscuits would be ready.
Today, there is no need for such service - personally my mailman delivers only bills and parcels, while gossip arrangements are made using sms or email:)
That's tough. Remember, we could not have built the ISS without the shuttle. The shuttle has a huge cargo-carrying capacity. The Soyuz cannot do that, as reliable as it is. The shuttle has had its drawbacks, but it is the workhorse, and it was necessary in order to do the ISS. According to data from Wikipedia:
SS payload to LEO: 24400kg
Orbiter mass: 68,586.6kg
So, to get 24 tons of cargo into orbit, we send nearly 70 tons extra.
As a comparison, Russian Proton rocket launches 22 tons into orbit, and uses 40 years old proven design, and was used for launching the parts of the Mir station.
So, why exactly do we need Space Shuttle? Do I hear someone mentioning Saturn 5?
...since there are several alternative applications for transferring music to your iPod.
There's a plugin for Winamp, there's EphPOD and at least two more applications. Plus, they are not 35 megs in download size and won't require you to install Quicktime.
I don't understand why authorities in the US insist on using voting machines. From my experience, I worked several times as NGO election observer on voting sites in my country (Croatia), and we had no problem with getting all the paper ballots and counting them. On practically every voting site in the country, there were (beside government appointed members) one representative from each political party and one or more NGO observers. Each of us had the chance to review the site and ballot boxes prior to voting, see them sealed, be present during opening of the boxes and counting and recount them himself.
Also, each of us had to sign the final report and any observed irregularities.
I can assure that voting (at least on our site) was fair, since at the table were basically 7 people, and no two people there trusted each other:)
With all that, we managed to count all 1000 ballots for our site within 2-3 hours, and all the ballots were counted at least three times. Such system, in country of 4 million people enables us to get 90% of the sites processed by midnight of the voting day. Further, all the ballots are kept for one year, available for anyone's request for recount.
I don't believe it's much different in any European country.
Don't worry, Soyuz craft is a bullet proof design...
Current version is I believe Soyuz TMA, which was based on Soyuz TM introduced in late 1980's, which was based on Soyuz T introduced around early 1980's, which was based on Soyuz introduced in mid-1970'.
All that is launched with Soyuz 2.5-step rocket, which is based on Vastok rocket, designed in 1960's, on the basis of Sputnik rocket, designed in late 1950's, which was created by the Werner von Braun's engineers which russians picked up in 1940's when they overrun the Third Reich.
So, we are talking about the design which has been essentially the same for the past 50 years, has been tested hundreds of times. If it had any design flaws, they were corrected around late 1960's:) I bet russians have bunch of Soyuz rockets, produced in the time of Breznyev at some hangar in Baykonur, ready to deploy them within a week time. Americans just have to make russians know how badly they want these Soyuz crafts up in the orbit - which is of course counted in mil$. Therefore, I believe that shuttle crews are perfectly safe up there:)
I've been a user of portable music players for almost 20 years - I still remember my first Unisef walkman bought in Austria, and then my first Sony walkman whih I bought almost three years later. After that, I've changed about one walkman every two years, each of them being crushed to pieces after heavy (ab)use.
I tried the Discman, but these things never lived up - they were big, they skipped (I'm talking about mid-1990's models) and just not worth the switch.
Then, in 2001. I tried MiniDisc, and that was the first true change after my first walkman, back in 1986 - minidisc media was nice and slick, you can load your backpack with 5 of them and with LP you would have a reasonable amount of music to be absent for several days from your PC's hard drive. However, MD wasn't perfect - it took ages to record disks from now already huge MP3 collection, you had to use analog interface, and, damn, these things were buggy! MD skipped, mechanics was noisy during reproduction, and just not reliable, which is the most important thing for a music player.
Anyhow, poor machine didn't last much longer than my average walkman, in 2003. it met its destiny. BTW, old walkmans still could withstand a bigger amount of punishment than my MD.
Just about then first iPods showed up in stores. After reading several reviews which basically said than sound was crystal clear and that the machine doesn't skip, I took to the store and bought a 3G 10GB version (only one available at that time, and that for 470$). Yes, machine was great, and for the first time I realized that something ready to displace walkman was here. Several things however, I really hated about iPod:
1. Software is terrible.
2. Accompanying software for sychnronization is terrible (iTunes)
3. It only plays music, no recording option (I had it on my MD), no FM tuner (could be useful sometimes)
4. Battery lasts for pathetic 8 hours of reproduction, it's not replacable.
5. Software is known to crash.
So, in all those things iPod was clearly inferior to my Sony's MD player. But, it was still the best portable player around. If someone asked me if I would recommend him to buy an iPod, answer would be that it is not that it is the good choice, but that all its alternatives (MD, Discman, other players) are bad. OK, there are other HDD based players, but these are still in their first generation, while iPod is now running its 4th. And I generally don't trust v1.0 products:)
Industry in that area still has a long way to go, and it has not yet produced a player with good software, easy synchronization, long battery life, together with all the options to which we were used on walkman/CD/MD platforms.
The Register states paid subscribers are getting upgraded to 2GB and can send attachments upto 20mb.
That is not new feature, paid subscribers have had that option since the Gmail's first appearance on the scene.
I've been a Mail Plus user for several months now (I guess I'm just emotionally tied to my oldest existing email address:), and extra space is just one of the reasons I subscribed. Main reasons are, of course, POP access (which is BTW stil available to yahoo.co.uk users), spam filtering and possibility to archive mail locally on my hard drive. In that way, I managed to collect all my past sent mail since 1998 and import it into my local sent folder. And that feature is AFAIK still missing in Gmail.
The only annoying thing is that, although big ads are not present, they still have a small banner saying that Yahoo is powered by HP. And I don't really think that's fair.:)
So, Gmail doesn't really attract me - ok, their interface and speed are great, but it was easier to cash 20$ for one year than to inform 100+ people of my new address.
This 10000$ to fill an iPod is a bit exaggerated - keep in mind that a typical iPod owner has managed to accumulate a considerable CD collection over time. I have been collecting music ever since CD's became widely available in my area, which means that I've had roughly 10 years to acquire more than 100 disks by the time iPod appeared. And that equals the capacity of iPod mini, even without breaking the law:)
You should check eBay for old Avalon Hill wargames, published mostly during 1970's.
Simplest one is definitely Diplomacy, a game for max 7 players, playing which is also the simplest way to lose a friend:)
A bit more complex is Panzerblitz, a brigade-level armoured warfare on the WW2 eastern front, together with its clone, the Arab-Israeli wars. Note that these are for two players only.
If you are ready to spend a week or two studying rules, best and final wargame solution is definitely Squad Leader (and later Advanced Squad Leader), a simulation of WW2 warfare on tactical level. In (A)SL you control up to bataillon-sized units. Check www.advancedsquadleader.com for ASL modules, which are being re-published now.
Of course, these are NOT something you play in a lazy sunday afternoon - warfare simulations are stressful, they make you bite your nails, become paranoid and probably hate your oponent... No, you can't make your girlfriend play Squad Leader:)
Windows can be a reasonable embedded platform. It provides a consistent user interface, saving the equipment manufacturer a lot of software work that's outside their core competency. System stability isn't too bad since the OEM maintains tight control over the drivers and only run one application.
Not always. Take for example recent General Electric ultrasound units - in a hospital where my company installed some software, they had several ultrasounds connected to a local hospital network. As soon as they got connected, they acquired Blaster and promptly stopped functioning, and I'm talking about 100000$ ultrasound machine. Of course, GE had to be contacted and they upgraded the software.
Still, I'm rather sceptical regarding machines which use embedded Windows, at least until I get firm assurances from service guys.
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True, but this was in times before the telephone. In that time, a proper lady would get up in the morning and write a card inviting her friends for an evening cup of tea and gossip, they would get the card by noon, reply by 3pm they would be there, and by 7pm tea and biscuits would be ready.
Today, there is no need for such service - personally my mailman delivers only bills and parcels, while gossip arrangements are made using sms or email:)
...since there are several alternative applications for transferring music to your iPod.
There's a plugin for Winamp, there's EphPOD and at least two more applications. Plus, they are not 35 megs in download size and won't require you to install Quicktime.
I don't understand why authorities in the US insist on using voting machines. From my experience, I worked several times as NGO election observer on voting sites in my country (Croatia), and we had no problem with getting all the paper ballots and counting them. On practically every voting site in the country, there were (beside government appointed members) one representative from each political party and one or more NGO observers. Each of us had the chance to review the site and ballot boxes prior to voting, see them sealed, be present during opening of the boxes and counting and recount them himself. Also, each of us had to sign the final report and any observed irregularities.
I can assure that voting (at least on our site) was fair, since at the table were basically 7 people, and no two people there trusted each other:)
With all that, we managed to count all 1000 ballots for our site within 2-3 hours, and all the ballots were counted at least three times. Such system, in country of 4 million people enables us to get 90% of the sites processed by midnight of the voting day. Further, all the ballots are kept for one year, available for anyone's request for recount. I don't believe it's much different in any European country.
Don't worry, Soyuz craft is a bullet proof design... Current version is I believe Soyuz TMA, which was based on Soyuz TM introduced in late 1980's, which was based on Soyuz T introduced around early 1980's, which was based on Soyuz introduced in mid-1970'.
All that is launched with Soyuz 2.5-step rocket, which is based on Vastok rocket, designed in 1960's, on the basis of Sputnik rocket, designed in late 1950's, which was created by the Werner von Braun's engineers which russians picked up in 1940's when they overrun the Third Reich.
So, we are talking about the design which has been essentially the same for the past 50 years, has been tested hundreds of times. If it had any design flaws, they were corrected around late 1960's:) I bet russians have bunch of Soyuz rockets, produced in the time of Breznyev at some hangar in Baykonur, ready to deploy them within a week time. Americans just have to make russians know how badly they want these Soyuz crafts up in the orbit - which is of course counted in mil$.
Therefore, I believe that shuttle crews are perfectly safe up there:)
I've been a user of portable music players for almost 20 years - I still remember my first Unisef walkman bought in Austria, and then my first Sony walkman whih I bought almost three years later. After that, I've changed about one walkman every two years, each of them being crushed to pieces after heavy (ab)use.
I tried the Discman, but these things never lived up - they were big, they skipped (I'm talking about mid-1990's models) and just not worth the switch. Then, in 2001. I tried MiniDisc, and that was the first true change after my first walkman, back in 1986 - minidisc media was nice and slick, you can load your backpack with 5 of them and with LP you would have a reasonable amount of music to be absent for several days from your PC's hard drive. However, MD wasn't perfect - it took ages to record disks from now already huge MP3 collection, you had to use analog interface, and, damn, these things were buggy! MD skipped, mechanics was noisy during reproduction, and just not reliable, which is the most important thing for a music player.
Anyhow, poor machine didn't last much longer than my average walkman, in 2003. it met its destiny. BTW, old walkmans still could withstand a bigger amount of punishment than my MD.
Just about then first iPods showed up in stores. After reading several reviews which basically said than sound was crystal clear and that the machine doesn't skip, I took to the store and bought a 3G 10GB version (only one available at that time, and that for 470$). Yes, machine was great, and for the first time I realized that something ready to displace walkman was here. Several things however, I really hated about iPod:
1. Software is terrible. 2. Accompanying software for sychnronization is terrible (iTunes) 3. It only plays music, no recording option (I had it on my MD), no FM tuner (could be useful sometimes) 4. Battery lasts for pathetic 8 hours of reproduction, it's not replacable. 5. Software is known to crash. So, in all those things iPod was clearly inferior to my Sony's MD player. But, it was still the best portable player around. If someone asked me if I would recommend him to buy an iPod, answer would be that it is not that it is the good choice, but that all its alternatives (MD, Discman, other players) are bad. OK, there are other HDD based players, but these are still in their first generation, while iPod is now running its 4th. And I generally don't trust v1.0 products:)
Industry in that area still has a long way to go, and it has not yet produced a player with good software, easy synchronization, long battery life, together with all the options to which we were used on walkman/CD/MD platforms.
The Register states paid subscribers are getting upgraded to 2GB and can send attachments upto 20mb.
That is not new feature, paid subscribers have had that option since the Gmail's first appearance on the scene.
I've been a Mail Plus user for several months now (I guess I'm just emotionally tied to my oldest existing email address:), and extra space is just one of the reasons I subscribed. Main reasons are, of course, POP access (which is BTW stil available to yahoo.co.uk users), spam filtering and possibility to archive mail locally on my hard drive. In that way, I managed to collect all my past sent mail since 1998 and import it into my local sent folder. And that feature is AFAIK still missing in Gmail.
The only annoying thing is that, although big ads are not present, they still have a small banner saying that Yahoo is powered by HP. And I don't really think that's fair.:)
So, Gmail doesn't really attract me - ok, their interface and speed are great, but it was easier to cash 20$ for one year than to inform 100+ people of my new address.
This 10000$ to fill an iPod is a bit exaggerated - keep in mind that a typical iPod owner has managed to accumulate a considerable CD collection over time. I have been collecting music ever since CD's became widely available in my area, which means that I've had roughly 10 years to acquire more than 100 disks by the time iPod appeared. And that equals the capacity of iPod mini, even without breaking the law:)
You should check eBay for old Avalon Hill wargames, published mostly during 1970's. Simplest one is definitely Diplomacy, a game for max 7 players, playing which is also the simplest way to lose a friend:)
A bit more complex is Panzerblitz, a brigade-level armoured warfare on the WW2 eastern front, together with its clone, the Arab-Israeli wars. Note that these are for two players only.
If you are ready to spend a week or two studying rules, best and final wargame solution is definitely Squad Leader (and later Advanced Squad Leader), a simulation of WW2 warfare on tactical level. In (A)SL you control up to bataillon-sized units. Check www.advancedsquadleader.com for ASL modules, which are being re-published now.
Of course, these are NOT something you play in a lazy sunday afternoon - warfare simulations are stressful, they make you bite your nails, become paranoid and probably hate your oponent... No, you can't make your girlfriend play Squad Leader:)
Still, I'm rather sceptical regarding machines which use embedded Windows, at least until I get firm assurances from service guys.
Once I had a 250MHz RGB video splitter in my backpack - I had to show it to the security guys and explain them for five minutes what it does.:)
Damn, I hope they won't be able to detect a letter immersed in LSD solution:)