So long as you have parents buying the hardware, it's gonna come with all the usual MS crap pre-installed.
Only if they buy a computer with the pre-installed Microsoft crap. You can buy pre-installed Linux computers (in the UK at least - e.g. Evesham Technology's ELinux series).
Besides, if it comes down to cash - just tell them to compare the prices...
So you're implying that Scotty accomplished his miracles with the warp engines simply to avoid downsizing by Starfleet.
Well of course. That and having to work with a minimal number of assistants. Starfleet were big on downsizing, even if they disguised it rather better than we did.
20th Century - "You've been downsized. Here's a box, fill it with your stuff and leave"
Star Trek - "We're transferring you to security. Here's your red jersey, put it on and beam down to the planet with the captain"
You understate - not only do people still use bronze, it is used widely - Google for "bronze bearings", or look at the major bearings outside the drive train on any piece of off-road or earth moving equipment. Not only do plenty of people still know about bronze, they also know that which mix is best depends on your application. I'd say more people know about bronze than have ever done in the past. More people know about crop rotation than have ever previously done. Even in 'dead languages' this can apply - there are more people able to read Babylonian now than there were in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar.
Interesting reference. But... the bit after you quoted says
However, if fuel cells were used to recharge the batteries, there would be significant reductions in emissions from the power-generation and transport industries.
Also, that appears to be a five year old letter to the magazine. A
more recent article sums up all the alternatives for 'green' motoring. As another article from the same issue states, there are some countries where these alternatives make more sense - e.g. Iceland, rich in geothermal and hydroelectric energy, and with no fossil fuel reserves whatsoever.
One other thing to remember - you have a much higher concentration of voters in cities than in the countryside. Spreading that pollution thinly over a large area may look as bad to you as having it concentrated on busy roads, but to many of the people along the busy roads, not in their backyard is nearly as good as not at all.
How much more can we learn about the moon? Well, how many scientists did the US land on the moon? One, Apollo 17 Lunar Module Pilot Harrison "Jack" Schmitt.
Well, unless you count the small amount of Eugene Shoemaker's remains that were on NASA's Lunar Prospector.
A robotic vaccuum cleaner sounds great to me, since I've got 3 kids under the age of 16 months
ooh, does the robot pick things up as well? What, it just vacuums empty bit of carpet? Not going to be much use to either of us then, I'm afraid. So it's just a toy, a gadget. For many people who really need something to do the vacuuming for them - i.e. you - it has serious flaws.
but I want a wind-up radio even less. If it isn't likely to sell, who will pay for development?
~The wind up radio? Trevor Bayliss developed it at his own cost, and Christopher Staines and South African entrepreneur Rory Stear put up the finance to make production a reality. Previously, people had to spend more on batteries than they did on the radio. Batteries are more expensive and less reliable in rural Africa than they are in the rich parts of the world.
Are they any use? Read this and make your mind up. But I'd say they're a damn sight more useful to many more people than a 3G phone.
Of course. I have in fact tried, but the links in both the original article and your reply here give me 404 errors
Tried it again, yes, still works fine for me. What I was pointing to was the discussion document. With their suggestions. None of which is necessarily going to be made law. But the relevant bit to the duration of the reply is -
17. One expert thought that the requirement that the reply should be available for at least 24 hours was not flexible enough. The publisher might have to take down the reply before 24 hours had passed, for example due to its defamatory nature. Another expert suggested that the reply should be offered for as long as the person or entity affected so demanded, but at the most for one month.
That does not appear to be the same as 'one month plus the length of time the original was there' to me.
why should I have to put the speech of somebody I criticized on it?
You don't. You might have to link to it. Ignore the biased article. Try reading the actual report summary. Oh look, they're not enforcing the draft, they're still discussing it! And they've spotted everything you've complained about.
What about the stipulation that the response must be made available for a period of time at least equal to the duration of the original criticism and at least 24 hours?
There's a description of the requirement for corrections in various countries here. In the UK, the right to reply is generally 'governed' by the Press Complaints Commission - note that this isn't actually a legal body, it's an independent body set up by the media in a desperate attempt to regulate themselves just enough to avoid the government doing it for them...
Oh please, AirBus is give customers 20% discounts.
On the list price. No-one ever pays the list price, no-one is ever expected to pay the list price.
Their planes are dirt cheap and they are being subsidized by European government aid.
Hello? Illegal US tax breaks for exporters mean anything to you? The ones that they give to big companies like GE, Boeing and Microsoft?
Plus they aren't making a profit that is for sure.
In this market? No. Boeing suffered a first quarter loss of $478m, and they get plenty of nice, fat US military orders. EADS (major shareholders of Airbus) have reported a first quarter loss for 2003 of 93 million Euros, so they appear to be doing rather better.
I have a weather alert device adjacent to my computer. Despite being called a 'window', it hasn't crashed yet, although as I'm in England, I do regularly get the grey screen of dampness from it.
As long as you are looking for a virtual cache, are you okay?
That depends. Are you following park authority-established paths and tracks, or are you forcing your way through the undergrowth, or rather, along what was undergrowth before 200 people also marched this way?
Naturally, the headline is a bit of an exaggeration of the article - only some parks are talking about banning it outright, and they do have a point - some of the material being left is unsuitable, large numbers of people traipsing to the same point causes erosion, etc. But if the caches are moved regularly, and only suitable material is left, then it wouldn't be a problem - except who would regulate it?
Oh yes, why would we want to be like those European countries, with their higher productivities, lower working hours, and their generally being richer than the UK. As for monetary union - well, at the moment, we're referred to as 'Treasure Island' in commercial circles, as companies can charge a whole whack more for products in the UK and get away with it.
Damn, I forgot to change the title after I deleted the bit accusing him of being a tech-scared luddite who wants to throw all the useful stuff out because it might be taken too far. Oh well, I'll still stand by it as my Karma burns.
Absolutely, I demand the right to drive at 90mph in a 30mph zone, carving down any small children who run out into the road with the bullbars on the front of my 4x4, while firing my shotgun out the window, and get away with it.
For crying out loud, if someone is speeding and causes an accident, they deserve to get stiffed by the law because they are a dangerous, arrogant, son-of-a-bitch. These people kill. Having a box that records five seconds worth of data is not a problem. You think you should have a right to endanger other people's lives and break the law? If you think the law on speeding is wrong, campaign against the law. If you think the speed limit is too low, campaign to raise the speed limit. But if you think it's right, then why on earth should you have the right to break it and not get caught?
Not all your points are garbage - the police should not be capable of recording onto such devices, and Insurance companies shouldn't have access to the things, but people who drive well already tend to get lower premiums than people who drive badly - don't you have 'no claims bonuses' in your part of the world? Age-related insurance levels?
Sometimes, yes. Although I don't need a car to get groceries in the UK, as the major supermarkets deliver (to where I live, anyway) - and it is more environmentally friendly to have one van deliver twenty people's groceries than twenty people all drive to the supermarket.
The same reason you need a car in every city...because women don't like riding back from bars to your place on the subway or in a tiny electric car. Trust me.
So, she's going to be impressed when you get pulled over and lose your licence for drunk driving?
Why on earth haven't they told people about these devices? It's an obvious dangerous driving deterrent - if you speed and have an accident, your car will tell us.
This isn't some nasty privacy thing - cars are dangerous things. If someone is driving like an idiot and causes an accident, they need to be banned from driving, and if these black boxes - which only record the last five seconds of data before the airbag inflates anyway - are the only way to get the evidence to do so, then so be it. Conversely of course, if the other driver claims you were speeding and your black box records that you were doing 30mph in the last five seconds, it'll let you off the hook.
These things aren't recording your speed over large periods of time, they aren't downloading info to any police car that asks for it, they aren't transmitting your position to some control centre. So the engineer can look at it, so what, he/she gets to see how slowly you drove the car across their service station forecourt. So at the moment, I see them as nothing but good.
Slashdot Mirror
Only if they buy a computer with the pre-installed Microsoft crap. You can buy pre-installed Linux computers (in the UK at least - e.g. Evesham Technology's ELinux series).
Besides, if it comes down to cash - just tell them to compare the prices...
Well of course. That and having to work with a minimal number of assistants. Starfleet were big on downsizing, even if they disguised it rather better than we did.
20th Century - "You've been downsized. Here's a box, fill it with your stuff and leave"
Star Trek - "We're transferring you to security. Here's your red jersey, put it on and beam down to the planet with the captain"
Can't see. Hold it closer. Closer. Ah yes. It's on fire.
So these Incas were like your average businessmen with a powerpoint presentations then?
You understate - not only do people still use bronze, it is used widely - Google for "bronze bearings", or look at the major bearings outside the drive train on any piece of off-road or earth moving equipment. Not only do plenty of people still know about bronze, they also know that which mix is best depends on your application. I'd say more people know about bronze than have ever done in the past. More people know about crop rotation than have ever previously done. Even in 'dead languages' this can apply - there are more people able to read Babylonian now than there were in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar.
However, if fuel cells were used to recharge the batteries, there would be significant reductions in emissions from the power-generation and transport industries.
Also, that appears to be a five year old letter to the magazine. A more recent article sums up all the alternatives for 'green' motoring. As another article from the same issue states, there are some countries where these alternatives make more sense - e.g. Iceland, rich in geothermal and hydroelectric energy, and with no fossil fuel reserves whatsoever.
One other thing to remember - you have a much higher concentration of voters in cities than in the countryside. Spreading that pollution thinly over a large area may look as bad to you as having it concentrated on busy roads, but to many of the people along the busy roads, not in their backyard is nearly as good as not at all.
How much more can we learn about the moon? Well, how many scientists did the US land on the moon? One, Apollo 17 Lunar Module Pilot Harrison "Jack" Schmitt.
Well, unless you count the small amount of Eugene Shoemaker's remains that were on NASA's Lunar Prospector.
Well, would we be able to call them 'annoying little shits' then? I believe that legally, that's viewed as merely abuse...
ooh, does the robot pick things up as well? What, it just vacuums empty bit of carpet? Not going to be much use to either of us then, I'm afraid. So it's just a toy, a gadget. For many people who really need something to do the vacuuming for them - i.e. you - it has serious flaws.
~The wind up radio? Trevor Bayliss developed it at his own cost, and Christopher Staines and South African entrepreneur Rory Stear put up the finance to make production a reality. Previously, people had to spend more on batteries than they did on the radio. Batteries are more expensive and less reliable in rural Africa than they are in the rich parts of the world.
Are they any use? Read this and make your mind up. But I'd say they're a damn sight more useful to many more people than a 3G phone.
Tried it again, yes, still works fine for me. What I was pointing to was the discussion document. With their suggestions. None of which is necessarily going to be made law. But the relevant bit to the duration of the reply is -
17. One expert thought that the requirement that the reply should be available for at least 24 hours was not flexible enough. The publisher might have to take down the reply before 24 hours had passed, for example due to its defamatory nature. Another expert suggested that the reply should be offered for as long as the person or entity affected so demanded, but at the most for one month.
That does not appear to be the same as 'one month plus the length of time the original was there' to me.
You don't. You might have to link to it. Ignore the biased article. Try reading the actual report summary. Oh look, they're not enforcing the draft, they're still discussing it! And they've spotted everything you've complained about. What about the stipulation that the response must be made available for a period of time at least equal to the duration of the original criticism and at least 24 hours?
Does a Google cache count?
There's a description of the requirement for corrections in various countries here.
In the UK, the right to reply is generally 'governed' by the Press Complaints Commission - note that this isn't actually a legal body, it's an independent body set up by the media in a desperate attempt to regulate themselves just enough to avoid the government doing it for them...
On the list price. No-one ever pays the list price, no-one is ever expected to pay the list price.
Their planes are dirt cheap and they are being subsidized by European government aid.
Hello? Illegal US tax breaks for exporters mean anything to you? The ones that they give to big companies like GE, Boeing and Microsoft?
Plus they aren't making a profit that is for sure.
In this market? No. Boeing suffered a first quarter loss of $478m, and they get plenty of nice, fat US military orders. EADS (major shareholders of Airbus) have reported a first quarter loss for 2003 of 93 million Euros, so they appear to be doing rather better.
What, you want to be buried with it? Oh, and leaving all the money to the children untaxed is a good way to enforce a class system...
VAT was introduced in 1973. Oh, and income tax was removed a year after the Battle of Waterloo, but was reintroduced in 1842.
I have a weather alert device adjacent to my computer. Despite being called a 'window', it hasn't crashed yet, although as I'm in England, I do regularly get the grey screen of dampness from it.
That depends. Are you following park authority-established paths and tracks, or are you forcing your way through the undergrowth, or rather, along what was undergrowth before 200 people also marched this way?
Naturally, the headline is a bit of an exaggeration of the article - only some parks are talking about banning it outright, and they do have a point - some of the material being left is unsuitable, large numbers of people traipsing to the same point causes erosion, etc. But if the caches are moved regularly, and only suitable material is left, then it wouldn't be a problem - except who would regulate it?
Oh yes, why would we want to be like those European countries, with their higher productivities, lower working hours, and their generally being richer than the UK. As for monetary union - well, at the moment, we're referred to as 'Treasure Island' in commercial circles, as companies can charge a whole whack more for products in the UK and get away with it.
Damn, I forgot to change the title after I deleted the bit accusing him of being a tech-scared luddite who wants to throw all the useful stuff out because it might be taken too far. Oh well, I'll still stand by it as my Karma burns.
For crying out loud, if someone is speeding and causes an accident, they deserve to get stiffed by the law because they are a dangerous, arrogant, son-of-a-bitch. These people kill. Having a box that records five seconds worth of data is not a problem. You think you should have a right to endanger other people's lives and break the law? If you think the law on speeding is wrong, campaign against the law. If you think the speed limit is too low, campaign to raise the speed limit. But if you think it's right, then why on earth should you have the right to break it and not get caught?
Not all your points are garbage - the police should not be capable of recording onto such devices, and Insurance companies shouldn't have access to the things, but people who drive well already tend to get lower premiums than people who drive badly - don't you have 'no claims bonuses' in your part of the world? Age-related insurance levels?
Sometimes, yes. Although I don't need a car to get groceries in the UK, as the major supermarkets deliver (to where I live, anyway) - and it is more environmentally friendly to have one van deliver twenty people's groceries than twenty people all drive to the supermarket.
So, she's going to be impressed when you get pulled over and lose your licence for drunk driving?
This isn't some nasty privacy thing - cars are dangerous things. If someone is driving like an idiot and causes an accident, they need to be banned from driving, and if these black boxes - which only record the last five seconds of data before the airbag inflates anyway - are the only way to get the evidence to do so, then so be it. Conversely of course, if the other driver claims you were speeding and your black box records that you were doing 30mph in the last five seconds, it'll let you off the hook.
These things aren't recording your speed over large periods of time, they aren't downloading info to any police car that asks for it, they aren't transmitting your position to some control centre. So the engineer can look at it, so what, he/she gets to see how slowly you drove the car across their service station forecourt. So at the moment, I see them as nothing but good.