It would be nice if it was a bit longer (and battery technology is always improving), but I think it seems adequate enough. By this I mean, sure you've got to plug it in, but I think you wouldn't find yourself waiting around for it to charge unless you were just careless and forgot. Plus it sounds like they're being pretty smart about power management (microcontrollers on each battery pack to allow quick charging and then micromanage for uniform usage and load balancing).
Perhaps, depending on your use. My life would have to have a much smaller geographic circle I guess (others probably have such a circle - I just don't).
You could use the exercise, fatty.
Nice. Cheap shot in the place of a real insight. It might come as a suprise to you but taller folks carry more weight and despite the constantly shrinking guidelines of the FDA, there are a number of perfectly healthy people at that weight level. I would also submit that a similar weight level is common among geeks.
Not that I'm defending my personal weight. I know I'm too heavy and am trying to do something about it. OTOH, gross overgeneralizations about the "proper" weight are bunk - even my doctor knows that.
Probably more than that -- you're unlikely to fully discharge the batteries so often. But I can see this as being an acceptable maintenance cost for something that doesn't need oil changes and the like. I wonder what the hit on your electric bill will be like, though.
I don't buy it. My laptop batteries sucked so much after a year of use that they are about worthless now.
Loss, or liability? Really, it's up to the insurance companies as to what plans they'll offer. I'm sure they'll come up with something fairly soon -- hell, you can get insured against alien invasions. As for liability -- do you get insured against hitting someone with your bike?
I asked merely out of curiousity. Right now it would be in legal limbo I would think.
And as you pointed out in your remark above, I must not ever ride a bike.;)
1/10? Sounds like you just, uh, don't want one. Look at, say RealDolls. They sell for around the same price, but most of us wouldn't buy one at 1/10th the price. That doesn't mean they wouldn't be worth that price, to someone who wanted one.
If it were cheap enough I might. But $495 is a lot for a bike (for an infrequent rider like myself) not to mention something as generally non-useful as this thing.
Of course, the price is too high right now. Would you expect any different? There are so many valid reasons for this:
All good points but if the price isn't lowered I can't imagine this thing taking off. The hype wore off a long time ago (by my personal estimation - IMHO) and I think that price tag will scare off everyone but the most avid (read wealthy fanatical) customers.
These things are going to get cheaper. Significantly so. Kamen is too idealistic to let Segways just be a toy for the rich.
Agreed. But I wonder how much cheaper it will need to get before any real public interest would allow mass production. If it doesn't break that threshold then it won't go anywhere.
These are just my opinions - your milage may vary!
Doesn't seem very far to me. I think I'd be endlessly charging the thing.
Payload: 250 lbs
Geez, there is a significant portion of the population that weighs in excess of 250 lbs. I guess it's just not for us, er them, huh?
NiMH batteries
The website states they get 300-500 full charges before needing replacing. That's only about a year and a half or so before an expensive part needs replacement if you're using it daily (and for the price you'd better be).
Insurance
I didn't find anything involving insurance. How would a device like this be underwritten? Personal property? Auto? What?
Pricetag
Besides, the price tag is WAY too high (even if it were 1/10 of what it is now I would be unlikely to buy).
It's important to get the little ones using vi/vim at a young age.:)
If you weren't part of Star Trek...
on
Ask William Shatner
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
how do you think your career would have been different? (Not that the career that you have is bad in any way, just curious what you were gunning for originally.)
Went to the link inside of the link (the USGS site itself) and it demands that I either use IE or Netscape -- Mozilla is not supported (apparently neither is Apple in any form). *sigh*
Bill Gates is a smart business man. Microsoft is a successful business. As such, the $ is the bottom line. Analzying their products from any other perspective is a waste of time.
Ok, let's try it that way. American Consumer, how do you feel about having to $re-purchase$ all of your favorite applications because the original authors had such a dodgy base on which to build their programs?
It is true that hindsight is 20/20 and noone ever codes software such that it works exactly perfectly the first time out. HOWEVER, it can also be said that Microsoft had a habit of pushing whatever out the door, regardless of known bugs, poor security, or otherwise (Windows ME comes to mind). That they are now requiring the customers to pay for upgrades and such should be a message to the customer as to the type of software supplier they're dealing with -- a fly-by-nighter clothed in its own weight and self-importance.
The good is that Microsoft is finally going to fix their problems. It's about damn time. The bad is that Microsoft is spinning this thing as if they weren't greatly responsible for the mess they are about to inflict. IMHO, and it is only that, if Microsoft spent more time and resources on testing their crap in the first place instead of pushing it out the door then perhaps so MANY holes wouldn't need to be patched now. There will always be bugs and security flaws but Microsoft as made releasing filth and spinning it as if it were a good thing an art form in itself.
As always, this is just my opinion. Your milage may vary.
Dumb Question.
on
Film Gimp
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
From the article:
Movies are normally scanned at 2k wide resolution and 16-bits per pixel component. A significant difference between Gimp and Film Gimp is color depth. Gimp uses 8-bit component (24-bit rgb), and Film Gimp uses 16-bit component (48-bit rgb). Even though you can't display uncompressed 16-bit on a conventional monitor, it becomes apparent if you work in 8-bit and later print back to film. Film has more dynamic range.
If a conventional monitor can't display the colors at that depth then how does the film editor know exactly what will end up on film after printing?
The guy who came by when I got Road Runner (they didn't have self-install at the time) used his Linux box as his firewall too, so no guff about installation software.
As it reads to me, the first amendment or the U.S. Constitution only stipulate that the U.S. Congress can't create laws that regulate free speech (although there are a number of times the congress has tried and somewhat successfully). However, combined with the tenth amendment the individual states (and localities depending on the state) do have the ability to limit speech. As far as I can tell, the idea here wasn't to necessarily keep all limitations of speech off the law books but to preserve local custom/traditions and avoid setting a national standard for decency that could be quickly eroded towards totalitarianism.
Admittedly, IANAL, but one of the features of the Constitution and its amendments was supposed to be the ability for the common man (i.e., me) to be able to read and understand it. That doesn't mean different people won't have different opinions as to the meanings and intents. I am also aware that the U.S. Supreme Court has made several rulings that modify (they prefer "interpret") the limits, but those generally involve allowing localities to place limits on their own areas.
So, ultimately, when we speak of the freedom of speech we are only really talking about keeping the federal government from abridging it. Individual states and localities have differing views on how much or how little they can choose to limit any of the basic freedoms. If you don't like your local government either petition to change the law locally or move.
PS: The citizens of the US have never voted to ratify, AFAIK, any law that would grant the UN any ability to dictate law to the US. It would, if I understand correctly, require ratification by the states themselves, not just any one president. Unless something has changed radically, the UN is a treaty body not a super-government that we all live under.
PPS: As an aside, as you may guess, I think that the solution to racist speech and other like rubbish is to simply ignore it not to further regulate it. The more you give it lip service the more attention it gets. IMHO, don't abridge others' rights to be an idiot - apply your right to make more sense!
Perhaps this will mean that I will be able to buy a cell phone that can talk to my PDA without needing all the conversion kit wires. That alone would be enough to get me to upgrade my phone itself.
... or does anyone else picture some guy at the distributed computing sorta places going, "Their cycles... all their cycles... ARE MINE... ALL MINE! BWHAHAHAH!" while these programs are going on?
I have to wonder whether publishing the results of such endeavours violates the DMCA -- it sure seems like everything that involves data security does these days. I'm still happy he's published but I wonder whether the lawyer-boys in the RIAA are salivating right now... (insert hungry animal growling noise here).
Why bother?
on
See Ya .su
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Is there some other entity *wanting* the.su top-level particularly badly (I didn't see anything in the article telling me one way or the other)?
They should stop allowing new registrations within.su and raise the maintainence fees accordingly so that it dies out naturally. When it reaches zero domains (or close enough to zero for government work) nix the top-level domain. ICANN gets money, the die-hards get continued use of the domain. Problem solved right?
...when they STOP showing commercials to a captive audience before the movie. The excuse that the commercials are buffering increasing ticket prices is, IMO, bunk. Tickets here in Cinci have risen about 20% in the last couple of years. I used to go to about 10 movies a year, now it's down to about 3 and those are *matinees*.
I guess what I was trying to get at was that I would probably pay for a model that ran on refined sugar right now. I don't care about waiting for other foods, refined sugar is good enough for me if it can run my laptop.
"It has to be able to use raw materials, rather than giving it refined fuel."
Huh? I for one would happily buy one if it could run my 40W max laptop for 8 hours on an ounce and a half (about 50 grams) of refined sugar. Why does it need further refinement before use?
The Starter Kit for each ZipZaps model comes complete with a stock chassis, "performance" motor, 12:1 gearing, factory tires, factory wheels, custom rims, realistic body shell, owner's manual, a collectable trading card, and a six-way controller/charger with removable wrist strap.
Okay, I see forward/reverse and left/right. What're the other two ways or is it talking about something else?
Fastest combination I got from the website was 411 Feet Per Minute. 411 * 60 = 24660 Feet Per Hour or 4.67 Miles Per Hour -- not much faster than walking speed (how fast do they really need to go anyway). Who cares though... I still think they're nifty!
Personally, I voted based on a plethora of things which on balance made me feel one candidate was better suited to my views (plural) than the others. IMHO, voting for anyone because of *one* issue ignores all others. In our system of politics the people express our views in totality through the election of a smallish number of individuals whose actual views are 1) inaccurately portrayed, 2) promise things their office doesn't *REALLY* allow (presidency is a common case here -- IMO way too many people in this country think the President is in charge of the tax system), and 3) are only tangentially compatible with the voter's actual views.
It is unfortunate, again IMHO, that we don't first elect the direction for the country to take (what are our current priorities/needs) and then elect someone to do the job that we have demanded. Instead, we must put up with choosing the candidate least incompatible with the views of the individual voter and in the end having those views obscured.
Slashdot Mirror
It would be nice if it was a bit longer (and battery technology is always improving), but I think it seems adequate enough. By this I mean, sure you've got to plug it in, but I think you wouldn't find yourself waiting around for it to charge unless you were just careless and forgot. Plus it sounds like they're being pretty smart about power management (microcontrollers on each battery pack to allow quick charging and then micromanage for uniform usage and load balancing).
;)
Perhaps, depending on your use. My life would have to have a much smaller geographic circle I guess (others probably have such a circle - I just don't).
You could use the exercise, fatty.
Nice. Cheap shot in the place of a real insight. It might come as a suprise to you but taller folks carry more weight and despite the constantly shrinking guidelines of the FDA, there are a number of perfectly healthy people at that weight level. I would also submit that a similar weight level is common among geeks.
Not that I'm defending my personal weight. I know I'm too heavy and am trying to do something about it. OTOH, gross overgeneralizations about the "proper" weight are bunk - even my doctor knows that.
Probably more than that -- you're unlikely to fully discharge the batteries so often. But I can see this as being an acceptable maintenance cost for something that doesn't need oil changes and the like. I wonder what the hit on your electric bill will be like, though.
I don't buy it. My laptop batteries sucked so much after a year of use that they are about worthless now.
Loss, or liability? Really, it's up to the insurance companies as to what plans they'll offer. I'm sure they'll come up with something fairly soon -- hell, you can get insured against alien invasions. As for liability -- do you get insured against hitting someone with your bike?
I asked merely out of curiousity. Right now it would be in legal limbo I would think.
And as you pointed out in your remark above, I must not ever ride a bike.
1/10? Sounds like you just, uh, don't want one. Look at, say RealDolls. They sell for around the same price, but most of us wouldn't buy one at 1/10th the price. That doesn't mean they wouldn't be worth that price, to someone who wanted one.
If it were cheap enough I might. But $495 is a lot for a bike (for an infrequent rider like myself) not to mention something as generally non-useful as this thing.
Of course, the price is too high right now. Would you expect any different? There are so many valid reasons for this:
All good points but if the price isn't lowered I can't imagine this thing taking off. The hype wore off a long time ago (by my personal estimation - IMHO) and I think that price tag will scare off everyone but the most avid (read wealthy fanatical) customers.
These things are going to get cheaper. Significantly so. Kamen is too idealistic to let Segways just be a toy for the rich.
Agreed. But I wonder how much cheaper it will need to get before any real public interest would allow mass production. If it doesn't break that threshold then it won't go anywhere.
These are just my opinions - your milage may vary!
15 (really 10) miles of charge
Doesn't seem very far to me. I think I'd be endlessly charging the thing.
Payload: 250 lbs
Geez, there is a significant portion of the population that weighs in excess of 250 lbs. I guess it's just not for us, er them, huh?
NiMH batteries
The website states they get 300-500 full charges before needing replacing. That's only about a year and a half or so before an expensive part needs replacement if you're using it daily (and for the price you'd better be).
Insurance
I didn't find anything involving insurance. How would a device like this be underwritten? Personal property? Auto? What?
Pricetag
Besides, the price tag is WAY too high (even if it were 1/10 of what it is now I would be unlikely to buy).
It's important to get the little ones using vi/vim at a young age. :)
how do you think your career would have been different? (Not that the career that you have is bad in any way, just curious what you were gunning for originally.)
Went to the link inside of the link (the USGS site itself) and it demands that I either use IE or Netscape -- Mozilla is not supported (apparently neither is Apple in any form). *sigh*
It is true that hindsight is 20/20 and noone ever codes software such that it works exactly perfectly the first time out. HOWEVER, it can also be said that Microsoft had a habit of pushing whatever out the door, regardless of known bugs, poor security, or otherwise (Windows ME comes to mind). That they are now requiring the customers to pay for upgrades and such should be a message to the customer as to the type of software supplier they're dealing with -- a fly-by-nighter clothed in its own weight and self-importance.
The good is that Microsoft is finally going to fix their problems. It's about damn time. The bad is that Microsoft is spinning this thing as if they weren't greatly responsible for the mess they are about to inflict. IMHO, and it is only that, if Microsoft spent more time and resources on testing their crap in the first place instead of pushing it out the door then perhaps so MANY holes wouldn't need to be patched now. There will always be bugs and security flaws but Microsoft as made releasing filth and spinning it as if it were a good thing an art form in itself.
As always, this is just my opinion. Your milage may vary.
Ah, that does makes sense.
Thanks!
The specs are a little thin. I see an RCA cable for video, but what about audio? I mean, things still need to go *boom*, don't they?
The guy who came by when I got Road Runner (they didn't have self-install at the time) used his Linux box as his firewall too, so no guff about installation software.
As it reads to me, the first amendment or the U.S. Constitution only stipulate that the U.S. Congress can't create laws that regulate free speech (although there are a number of times the congress has tried and somewhat successfully). However, combined with the tenth amendment the individual states (and localities depending on the state) do have the ability to limit speech. As far as I can tell, the idea here wasn't to necessarily keep all limitations of speech off the law books but to preserve local custom/traditions and avoid setting a national standard for decency that could be quickly eroded towards totalitarianism.
Admittedly, IANAL, but one of the features of the Constitution and its amendments was supposed to be the ability for the common man (i.e., me) to be able to read and understand it. That doesn't mean different people won't have different opinions as to the meanings and intents. I am also aware that the U.S. Supreme Court has made several rulings that modify (they prefer "interpret") the limits, but those generally involve allowing localities to place limits on their own areas.
So, ultimately, when we speak of the freedom of speech we are only really talking about keeping the federal government from abridging it. Individual states and localities have differing views on how much or how little they can choose to limit any of the basic freedoms. If you don't like your local government either petition to change the law locally or move.
PS: The citizens of the US have never voted to ratify, AFAIK, any law that would grant the UN any ability to dictate law to the US. It would, if I understand correctly, require ratification by the states themselves, not just any one president. Unless something has changed radically, the UN is a treaty body not a super-government that we all live under.
PPS: As an aside, as you may guess, I think that the solution to racist speech and other like rubbish is to simply ignore it not to further regulate it. The more you give it lip service the more attention it gets. IMHO, don't abridge others' rights to be an idiot - apply your right to make more sense!
Perhaps this will mean that I will be able to buy a cell phone that can talk to my PDA without needing all the conversion kit wires. That alone would be enough to get me to upgrade my phone itself.
... or does anyone else picture some guy at the distributed computing sorta places going, "Their cycles ... all their cycles ... ARE MINE ... ALL MINE! BWHAHAHAH!" while these programs are going on?
I have to wonder whether publishing the results of such endeavours violates the DMCA -- it sure seems like everything that involves data security does these days. I'm still happy he's published but I wonder whether the lawyer-boys in the RIAA are salivating right now... (insert hungry animal growling noise here).
Is there some other entity *wanting* the .su top-level particularly badly (I didn't see anything in the article telling me one way or the other)?
.su and raise the maintainence fees accordingly so that it dies out naturally. When it reaches zero domains (or close enough to zero for government work) nix the top-level domain. ICANN gets money, the die-hards get continued use of the domain. Problem solved right?
They should stop allowing new registrations within
...when they STOP showing commercials to a captive audience before the movie. The excuse that the commercials are buffering increasing ticket prices is, IMO, bunk. Tickets here in Cinci have risen about 20% in the last couple of years. I used to go to about 10 movies a year, now it's down to about 3 and those are *matinees*.
I guess what I was trying to get at was that I would probably pay for a model that ran on refined sugar right now. I don't care about waiting for other foods, refined sugar is good enough for me if it can run my laptop.
"It has to be able to use raw materials, rather than giving it refined fuel."
Huh? I for one would happily buy one if it could run my 40W max laptop for 8 hours on an ounce and a half (about 50 grams) of refined sugar. Why does it need further refinement before use?
Tivo claimed to be doomed by an online magazine that is owned by a rival manufacturer (Microsoft)? What a suprise!
From the linked article:
The Starter Kit for each ZipZaps model comes complete with a stock chassis, "performance" motor, 12:1 gearing, factory tires, factory wheels, custom rims, realistic body shell, owner's manual, a collectable trading card, and a six-way controller/charger with removable wrist strap.
Okay, I see forward/reverse and left/right. What're the other two ways or is it talking about something else?
Fastest combination I got from the website was 411 Feet Per Minute. 411 * 60 = 24660 Feet Per Hour or 4.67 Miles Per Hour -- not much faster than walking speed (how fast do they really need to go anyway). Who cares though... I still think they're nifty!
It is unfortunate, again IMHO, that we don't first elect the direction for the country to take (what are our current priorities/needs) and then elect someone to do the job that we have demanded. Instead, we must put up with choosing the candidate least incompatible with the views of the individual voter and in the end having those views obscured.
... is if it was safely contained in a glued-shut box. Not that I'd buy that crud anyway.
When they get to textile DISPLAYS, then I'll pay attention. I want to wear my DOOM session damnit.