Actually, it would not necessarily be worse if the source of the energy was fossil fuels. The reason is that these fossil fuels are being burned in a power plant, which more efficient than burning fuel in an internal combustion engine. So you could still have a net efficiency gain if the process of PowerPlantFossilFuel->breakUpHydrogen->useHydogenI nCar is more effecient than UseFossilFuelInCar.
As to your response to #3 - I think this is one of the most important points, and the one where your response is incomplete. As an engineering law professor at Northwestern once told us, patent exmainers are usually going to be the least skilled graduates in their areas of expertise. Don't believe me? Well, take a look at these two links:
So if I've got a degree in Chemical Engineering, I can start at the US Patent office making a whole $32,819 a year! And it gets better. If I have a masters in Chemical Engineering I can start at $47,240! And my reward for these splendid salaries? I get to sit and stare at patent applications all day. Even in this crappy enconomy, those salaries don't look that good. Imagine the kind of employee they were able to hire in the boom of the previous decade. Yeah.
I realize that I could've been nicer and more politic in this post, but...well I have no excuse. I just didn't feel like it.
Gee, if you click on the link right in the article, you can see a pitcure of this unit, and can see that it has two buttons on the front and TWO SHOULDER BUTTONS, for a grand total of FOUR BUTTONS. Not two. Four. Cripes, you didn't even have to scroll down or actually read anything, just look at the picture.
Actually, I don't believe that inevitability is assumed anywhere, as good slippery slope arguments only explain a possibility or probability of a chain of events occuring. In this way they are very useful, as history can demonstrate.
Take a look at the situation of the Jews in Nazi Germany. They lost their rights in small steps - they're restricted to certain areas, then forced to where identifying marks, then they're personal property is taken, then small groups of them at a time are "relocated" without being told where, though the eventual destination is concentration camps. Elie Wiesel provides an excellent description of this process in "Night", and how because of it few of the Jews were able to face the facts about what was being done with them. Now, had the Nazi's announced to the entire Jewish population that they were being rounded up and sent to death camps, a massive uprising would have occured.
As I said before, real slippery slope arguments express the possibility or probability that something will happen, and in such a fasion they are very useful.
I can't believe nobody picked up on the end of this quote...
'"This is huge," said Jay A. Samit, senior vice president for new media at music label EMI Group PLC. "This is the largest growth area for music companies and our artists"...But for Samit and the rest of the music industry, the most important feature of the new technology is that a fee is automatically added to the monthly cell phone bill every time a ring tone is downloaded. It's a critical development for an industry that has been severely scalded by the ability of millions of people around the world to download songs over the Internet without paying for them. "It's finally easier to buy music than to steal it," Samit said.' (emphasis added)
Hmm, do you think maybe he could take a clue from...himself? Gee, maybe if they make it easier for us to buy real music too, we (at least some of us) wouldn't steal it.
The only logical breakup that comes to mind is separating the display from the keyboard/processor. The reason you can't split those up is because Bluetooth doesn't have nearly the bandwidth to transmit that much information in real time.
On a related note, the Evanston Fire department isn't not a big fan of the Northwestern University's Engineering department. Reason? In the chem labs we have stored the largest concentration (of any university in the US) of substances that are flammable upon contact with water . Oh yea, and the building that the chem labs are in happens to be the third largest low rise office building in the world (behind the pentagon and the KGB headquarters). Seven miles of hallways:).
Actually, I've read the New Scientist for some time, and IMHO it's one of the best science magazines out there. I prefer it to Popular Science, Discover, Scientific American, etc. The articles are generally more thorough, more techincal (but not prohibitively so), more interesting, and less sensationalist than most other publications.
You might want to check up on new/upcoming surgeries which provide "super vision" - these new techniques correct for much finer imperfections in the cornea, making the limiting factor the quality of your retina. Also, supposedly this surgery does away with the risk of night vision haloing (It actually looks to improve night vision). Here's a couple of links -
My experience with these screens was...
on
3D LCD Display
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
...Pretty good. I was lucky enough to get a demo of this technology a couple of years ago when some Sharp guys visited a "certain company that makes processors for a certain company named after a fruit" that I happened to be working at. The effect is very good, however as they noted you have to be sitting at a very specific distance, and dead in front of the screen (at least as of two years ago). This is not too big a deal for games, at least if you're like me and you go into a 3d shooter trance as soon as Quake or the like boots up. However, for CAD type tasks I image keeping your head still for hours on end would be a bit aggravating.
Personally, if they could sell it for only 50% more than a normal moniter, and if the LCD could refresh fast enough w/o ghosting for 3d shooters, I'd pick one up in a heartbeat.
I had a similar problem of not being able to find good laptop review sites, so I made due w/ Cnet and the like.
Weight was important, but I didn't want to make huge sacrifices in screen size or usability. Originally I was looking at the superslim/superlight Toshiba (the 4000 I think?), but while screen size and weight are great it lacks built in CD-rom drive. After a lot more looking, I dug up the Fujitsu Lifebook S series. It got great reviews (especially for service), and it was some wonderful specs. It's the lightest laptop that I came across that had a swappable drive bay, 3.4 pounds w/ the bay empty I think. The only thing it doesn't have is built in WiFi, which does suck, but at least I can get a card for that.
Anyhow, I fully recommend it based on my 1 hour of usage so far:).
-Adam
I'm puzzled why the Morpheus and Grokster have been pushed to these measures. Despite having to fight the 800-Gorrilla named the RIAA, this should not have been a difficult case. The Napster trial set a beautiful precedent that protects any pure peer-to-peer file sharing software (as opposed to Napster's model). Here's why - the old Sony VHS case (where Hollywood wanted to make VHS decks that could record illegal) was decided in Sony's favor, because
1)There was a legitimate use for their product.
2)There was no way for Sony stop people from using their product illegally once it was sold.
This second point is what the Napster case hinged on - the courts said that Napster didn't get protection under the Sony case specifically because they could control which files users could access. In making this decision, the courts implied that any file-sharing program where it is impossible to control users access to material (such as any peer-to-peer setup) would be protected by the Sony ruling.
While I can't say what the actual physical limits will be on a 110 GHz electron based chip, I do know that calculations such as this are flawed. While the maximum speed of an electron may be the speed of light, the maximum speed of an electron through a circuit in a single direction is nowhere near that fast. Because of the voltage difference applied electrons have slight preference for one direction of travel, however 99% of their motion is still completely random. Electrons never shoot down a circuit in one direction at the speed of light.
"I don't think there is anything else on this Earth that would turn a normally law abiding citizen into a criminal any faster then a desire for money. "
I disagree that many geeks have been "fucking over the artists...," reason being that most of us probably haven't altered our spending habits. I used to buy one CD every couple of months. Now I still buy one CD every couple of months, and I also download ~10 songs every month. My downloading isn't screwing artists over, because if I didn't download the music for free I simply wouldn't consume it at all.
Bottom line - if it doesn't affect your spending habits, downloading music isn't screwing over anyone.
Netflix is great because although I love watching movies, I don't go rent them because it seems like too much of a hassle or because I don't want to spend $3. These are both BS reasons, as driving to the video store is easy and $3 is not a lot of money. The real reason I don't rent is mental inertia. I just don't want to get off my keister and get to the video store.
Oh yea, plus I have all of their Soprano's video's qued up now, and that's just going to be sweet.
I was lucky enough to have the ideal manager without knowing it. I worked at a pharmaceutical company designing programs for the bioligists/chemists to use. My manager had degrees in chemistry, CS, and most importantly she had been a third grade teacher.
Why was this important? It gave her an aura of being in control without being condescending. You just wanted to make her happy. I realize this is vague, so here is a specific way you can achieve this effect - protect your geeks. Make it clear that you are the only person they report to, the only person they have to worry about listening to. Don't let marketing, sales, or even your boss tell them what to do. This relieves much of the stress of being in company. Remember "Office Space"? One the guys main complaints was that he had 10 different managers to report to.
Employees who have clear objectives, and who don't have to worry about retribution from unknown, unanticipated sources are (at least one step closer to being) happy employees.
-Adam
While integrating the Phatbox with a Kenwood display is a sweet user interface improvement, the Phatbox is still severely lacking in the area of song navigation. If you have 2,000 songs on the player, how do you find a particular song that you want to listen to? Unless you have an incredibly well organized playlist setup, it is almost impossible.
What would be fantastic is an Empeg/riocar style remote control, where you can spell out the name of the song you want to hear (the same way you might spell something out on a telephone keypad). Also, you don't have to triple-click to get exact letters like you do on a cell phone, because the software automatically narrows down all possbile song names on the fly. Usually you only have to hit the first three or four letter to get your song. It's very sweet, especially if you're like me and often get the urge to listen to completly random songs when you're driving.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, it would not necessarily be worse if the source of the energy was fossil fuels. The reason is that these fossil fuels are being burned in a power plant, which more efficient than burning fuel in an internal combustion engine. So you could still have a net efficiency gain if the process of PowerPlantFossilFuel->breakUpHydrogen->useHydogenI nCar is more effecient than UseFossilFuelInCar.
As to your response to #3 - I think this is one of the most important points, and the one where your response is incomplete. As an engineering law professor at Northwestern once told us, patent exmainers are usually going to be the least skilled graduates in their areas of expertise. Don't believe me? Well, take a look at these two links:
s /gradelevels.htm
First this http://www3.uspto.gov/go/jars/sgs.html
then this http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ahrpa/ohr/job
So if I've got a degree in Chemical Engineering, I can start at the US Patent office making a whole $32,819 a year! And it gets better. If I have a masters in Chemical Engineering I can start at $47,240! And my reward for these splendid salaries? I get to sit and stare at patent applications all day. Even in this crappy enconomy, those salaries don't look that good. Imagine the kind of employee they were able to hire in the boom of the previous decade. Yeah.
I realize that I could've been nicer and more politic in this post, but...well I have no excuse. I just didn't feel like it.
Gee, if you click on the link right in the article, you can see a pitcure of this unit, and can see that it has two buttons on the front and TWO SHOULDER BUTTONS, for a grand total of FOUR BUTTONS. Not two. Four. Cripes, you didn't even have to scroll down or actually read anything, just look at the picture.
Actually, I don't believe that inevitability is assumed anywhere, as good slippery slope arguments only explain a possibility or probability of a chain of events occuring. In this way they are very useful, as history can demonstrate.
Take a look at the situation of the Jews in Nazi Germany. They lost their rights in small steps - they're restricted to certain areas, then forced to where identifying marks, then they're personal property is taken, then small groups of them at a time are "relocated" without being told where, though the eventual destination is concentration camps. Elie Wiesel provides an excellent description of this process in "Night", and how because of it few of the Jews were able to face the facts about what was being done with them. Now, had the Nazi's announced to the entire Jewish population that they were being rounded up and sent to death camps, a massive uprising would have occured.
As I said before, real slippery slope arguments express the possibility or probability that something will happen, and in such a fasion they are very useful.
I can't believe nobody picked up on the end of this quote...
'"This is huge," said Jay A. Samit, senior vice president for new media at music label EMI Group PLC. "This is the largest growth area for music companies and our artists"...But for Samit and the rest of the music industry, the most important feature of the new technology is that a fee is automatically added to the monthly cell phone bill every time a ring tone is downloaded. It's a critical development for an industry that has been severely scalded by the ability of millions of people around the world to download songs over the Internet without paying for them. "It's finally easier to buy music than to steal it," Samit said.' (emphasis added)
Hmm, do you think maybe he could take a clue from...himself? Gee, maybe if they make it easier for us to buy real music too, we (at least some of us) wouldn't steal it.
The only logical breakup that comes to mind is separating the display from the keyboard/processor. The reason you can't split those up is because Bluetooth doesn't have nearly the bandwidth to transmit that much information in real time.
adam
On a related note, the Evanston Fire department isn't not a big fan of the Northwestern University's Engineering department. Reason? In the chem labs we have stored the largest concentration (of any university in the US) of substances that are flammable upon contact with water . Oh yea, and the building that the chem labs are in happens to be the third largest low rise office building in the world (behind the pentagon and the KGB headquarters). Seven miles of hallways :).
Actually, I've read the New Scientist for some time, and IMHO it's one of the best science magazines out there. I prefer it to Popular Science, Discover, Scientific American, etc. The articles are generally more thorough, more techincal (but not prohibitively so), more interesting, and less sensationalist than most other publications.
Just my 2 cents.
I live in the US. Crap.
You might want to check up on new/upcoming surgeries which provide "super vision" - these new techniques correct for much finer imperfections in the cornea, making the limiting factor the quality of your retina. Also, supposedly this surgery does away with the risk of night vision haloing (It actually looks to improve night vision). Here's a couple of links -
Good Introduction
Super Technical
This is the stuff I'm waiting for.
...Pretty good. I was lucky enough to get a demo of this technology a couple of years ago when some Sharp guys visited a "certain company that makes processors for a certain company named after a fruit" that I happened to be working at. The effect is very good, however as they noted you have to be sitting at a very specific distance, and dead in front of the screen (at least as of two years ago). This is not too big a deal for games, at least if you're like me and you go into a 3d shooter trance as soon as Quake or the like boots up. However, for CAD type tasks I image keeping your head still for hours on end would be a bit aggravating.
Personally, if they could sell it for only 50% more than a normal moniter, and if the LCD could refresh fast enough w/o ghosting for 3d shooters, I'd pick one up in a heartbeat.
I had a similar problem of not being able to find good laptop review sites, so I made due w/ Cnet and the like.
:).
-Adam
Weight was important, but I didn't want to make huge sacrifices in screen size or usability. Originally I was looking at the superslim/superlight Toshiba (the 4000 I think?), but while screen size and weight are great it lacks built in CD-rom drive. After a lot more looking, I dug up the Fujitsu Lifebook S series. It got great reviews (especially for service), and it was some wonderful specs. It's the lightest laptop that I came across that had a swappable drive bay, 3.4 pounds w/ the bay empty I think. The only thing it doesn't have is built in WiFi, which does suck, but at least I can get a card for that. Anyhow, I fully recommend it based on my 1 hour of usage so far
I just had to say that. I think I'm going to go rent October Sky now (if you haven't seen it, you need to. It's guaranteed to make any true geek cry).
-Adam
I'm puzzled why the Morpheus and Grokster have been pushed to these measures. Despite having to fight the 800-Gorrilla named the RIAA, this should not have been a difficult case. The Napster trial set a beautiful precedent that protects any pure peer-to-peer file sharing software (as opposed to Napster's model). Here's why - the old Sony VHS case (where Hollywood wanted to make VHS decks that could record illegal) was decided in Sony's favor, because
1)There was a legitimate use for their product.
2)There was no way for Sony stop people from using their product illegally once it was sold.
This second point is what the Napster case hinged on - the courts said that Napster didn't get protection under the Sony case specifically because they could control which files users could access. In making this decision, the courts implied that any file-sharing program where it is impossible to control users access to material (such as any peer-to-peer setup) would be protected by the Sony ruling.
-Adam
While I can't say what the actual physical limits will be on a 110 GHz electron based chip, I do know that calculations such as this are flawed. While the maximum speed of an electron may be the speed of light, the maximum speed of an electron through a circuit in a single direction is nowhere near that fast. Because of the voltage difference applied electrons have slight preference for one direction of travel, however 99% of their motion is still completely random. Electrons never shoot down a circuit in one direction at the speed of light.
-Adam
"I don't think there is anything else on this Earth that would turn a normally law abiding citizen into a criminal any faster then a desire for money. "
Revenge.
-Adam
I disagree that many geeks have been "fucking over the artists...," reason being that most of us probably haven't altered our spending habits. I used to buy one CD every couple of months. Now I still buy one CD every couple of months, and I also download ~10 songs every month. My downloading isn't screwing artists over, because if I didn't download the music for free I simply wouldn't consume it at all.
Bottom line - if it doesn't affect your spending habits, downloading music isn't screwing over anyone.
-Adam
Netflix is great because although I love watching movies, I don't go rent them because it seems like too much of a hassle or because I don't want to spend $3. These are both BS reasons, as driving to the video store is easy and $3 is not a lot of money. The real reason I don't rent is mental inertia. I just don't want to get off my keister and get to the video store.
Oh yea, plus I have all of their Soprano's video's qued up now, and that's just going to be sweet.
I was lucky enough to have the ideal manager without knowing it. I worked at a pharmaceutical company designing programs for the bioligists/chemists to use. My manager had degrees in chemistry, CS, and most importantly she had been a third grade teacher.
Why was this important? It gave her an aura of being in control without being condescending. You just wanted to make her happy. I realize this is vague, so here is a specific way you can achieve this effect - protect your geeks. Make it clear that you are the only person they report to, the only person they have to worry about listening to. Don't let marketing, sales, or even your boss tell them what to do. This relieves much of the stress of being in company. Remember "Office Space"? One the guys main complaints was that he had 10 different managers to report to.
Employees who have clear objectives, and who don't have to worry about retribution from unknown, unanticipated sources are (at least one step closer to being) happy employees. -Adam
While integrating the Phatbox with a Kenwood display is a sweet user interface improvement, the Phatbox is still severely lacking in the area of song navigation. If you have 2,000 songs on the player, how do you find a particular song that you want to listen to? Unless you have an incredibly well organized playlist setup, it is almost impossible.
What would be fantastic is an Empeg/riocar style remote control, where you can spell out the name of the song you want to hear (the same way you might spell something out on a telephone keypad). Also, you don't have to triple-click to get exact letters like you do on a cell phone, because the software automatically narrows down all possbile song names on the fly. Usually you only have to hit the first three or four letter to get your song. It's very sweet, especially if you're like me and often get the urge to listen to completly random songs when you're driving.
-Adam