Personally, I believe in some IP protection - tech research is becoming so expensive that companies need to be able to protect their findings so that they can re-coup their expenditures. Imagine - a company spends a couple of billions to develop some medicine that will eradicate most diseases - and another company just comes along offering a generica version of it really cheap, because it doesn't have to pay for the research? That would be a "not-good-thing"(TM).
How exactly would that be a not-good-thing? The possibility of eradicating most diseases at a low cost sounds to me like the best thing since sliced bread. In fact, even slightly better than sliced bread.
The 'intelligent design' moniker always makes me expect intelligence in the designed product. Decisions like this seem to falsify the theory - after all, neither the design nor the entity that designed something like this seem to be distinctively intelligent.
This makes a great topic for furious discussions and in the end isn't really that much of an issue - after all, the worst they can do is refuse usage of root servers and not allocate IP addresses. I have 2 computers here, I can make a perfectly functional internet. The technology is there, and it's open, so while some central control over standards and roots etc is nice to have, abuse of it will not end the world.
What I feel more uncomfortable about is carriers not playing fair. I expect bandwith providers to start tailoring their offerings to only work with content they approve of or promote - eg a broadband provider preferring his own VOIP service over competition services or his own digital TV access over the one from others. How long till 'internet access' means a big fat pipe to my provider, and a little trickle to the rest of the world, instead of the universal 'do as you please' open network we enjoy today? Unlike root servers, I cannot self provide my bandwith.
My (monopolist) cable provider bugs me with his ridiculously priced VOIP access. I currently use competition, but I expect them any day now to throttle access to the competition's IP block by just enough to not make it work anymore....
Who modded this offtopic? It's one of the most insightful posts in the thread.
I do this whenever I need software, especially on the job. Makes sure I won't get caught not abiding to the license/not being able to document my installations/other requirements of the license.
In addition to the feel-good-factor it saves lots of work managing the licenses.
In terms of pure weight on the tarmac the A380 actually isn't 'worse' than the 747. It's been specifically built with enough set of wheels to be 747 compatible in that respect, so that hardly any 747 serving airport will need work.
Gate distances are compatible as well, however to make the bird turn around reasonably quick there's a need for double level terminals and jet bridges. That way one can move passengers in and out without forcing them through the bottleneck of the aircraft stairs. These facilities (as well as large enough immigration areas/multiple baggage carousels etc) is what some large airports are still missing.
It is quite striking that wherever there's a predominently american crowd, the gut reaction to anything global warming related is denial - even with a comparably smart crowd like this one.
I sincerely hope we're not at the brink of self inflicted global destruction. But are you guys so addicted to your gas guzzlers and inefficient houses that you refuse to even discuss your behaviour's more or less possible/probable consequences?
I don't have gmail access (anybody having a spare invitation?), so I'm just theoretizing on this:
Why would you use a POP3 mail client with gmail? I thought the clever bit about it was that you can search your mail with the Google search algorythms and therefore can get rid of stuff like folders, filters etc...
Unless they deliver their search methods into your mail client obviously:-)
With the slight difference that the 150 hp has beefed up bearings, additional piston cooling and tighter tolerances on the valve train and still blows up in disturbingly high numbers. Tune your 130 hp to get 150 hp (more is possible) and join the club.
There's a good reason why the 150hp isn't sold any more.
Pal of mine used to do development on TDI's. 210 to 220 hp is no problem on the 1.9 engines - mostly by software changes. Maximum 10000 km, and emissions in the heavy truck range.
Of course companies hedge exchange rates so they don't suffer from fluctuations - you can do that as a consumer too...
With the kind of monetary politics the US follow - basically printing more dollars once they're all spent - it'd be very bad management not to hedge.:-)
The problem here isn't import taxes and duties, either. When I buy an article, I pay the duties, whether I import on my own or have it done by a local reseller.
The real problem is that the vendor decides to up his price for you based on your whereabouts and makes sure it's very tough for you to get around this. That goes from things like region coding for DVD's over artificially high shipping charges to other countries to flatly refusing to sell high price items to foreigners.
The european commission fights this behaviour as much as possible, but obviously concentrates on inner european cases.
A company can move, source, produce and sell pretty much wherever it wants. However, as a consumer my possibilities to buy goods and services where I see fit is severely hampered.
Ever tried to buy something from an Amazon affiliate not in your part of the world? Heck, I'm in Luxembourg, and there's many articles within amazon.de that they refuse to ship to anywhere but Germany.
A Toyota Prius is 20000 USD in the US, and 25000 EUR over here. Can I import one from the US? Sure. Will Toyota US sell me one? Sure not.
Of course, I could jump through hoops and get my stuff (I sometimes do). But we're far away from having consumers being able to use globalization to his advantage...
The german watchmaker Junghans manufactures a range of watches that have a solar cell covered face, so you don't need to care about energy. They adjust by radio, so you don't care about the 'right' time. They have a treatened glass and ceramic housing, so they are virtually indestructible.
Sure, it has no GPS, Calculator, IR sender etc. But it's probably the best watch you can get for knowing the time. Plus, it looks good. Although probably more geared to the grown up geek. The one who doesn't have 17 dock apps running and Laetitia Casta as his desktop wallpaper...
French TGV does 515 km/h.
Yes. But do that 10 times and you can replace the tracks.
TGV's, ICE's and the like are marvels of modern public transports, and imho make a lot more sense than regional jets on many routes.
but let 300 km/h be enough for rail technology.
There's not much WWII and nazi related stuff Germany is not 'allowed' to see. What they're basically after is making sure nobody denies the holocaust. Hogan's Heroes reruns on german TV, and nobody cares.
It's not the laws and regulations that are restrictive, it's the people that are sensitive, in this case.
As for the violence in video games... you can show a lot in late night TV. You can show very much in prime time. I was just watching Full Metal Jacket at 9 PM. And no, it wasn't cut at all.
Been heavily involved in a huge IT project. It ran purely on IM.
IM is just invaluable when you deal with dozens or hundreds of people in a handful of time zones, many of them travelling around, often no phones around... there's nothing as useful as dropping a message and get near instant return on your question.
People in Iraq actually voted for Hussein. Contrary to Bush, he actually got the majority of the votes.
Well, it wouldn't have changed a lot. He owned justice in Iraq just as well as Bush ownz it in the USA...
Re:colour me unimpressed
on
The Bionic Office
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Ever worked in a cube farm, no daylight, no quiet, chatter all around and always feeling somebody watched you from behind?
Preferably close to a manufacturing area, not only the white noise from computers, but whatever droning sound is being generated within 20 meters doesn't leave you alone?
And when by pure chance electricity goes down once, the most noticeable thing not being the darkness, but the quiet?
Yes, there are. The whole range of Airbus planes (except for the A300/A310 series) are as fly-by-wire as can be. Joysticks in the cockpit, no linkage between the pilot and the wings.
These planes do not request from their pilots to manipulate the moving surfaces in such a way as to obtain the desired attitude of the plane, they just need input as to what the attitude should be and then move the plane like that. Rather like a computer game, really.
The most visible advantage of this is that the pilot cannot 'stall' the airplane. The airplane will not put itself in a situation where it would stop flying. One simply cannot 'pull up' or deccelerate so much that the airplane would crash. Quite amazing technology, an entirely not Microsoft powered.;-)
.ch is Switzerland, Chirac is the pesident of France. Geneva as mentioned in the link, is indeed a swiss city.
Chirac has been voted with an 80+ majority at the last elections because his opponent was a right wing nationalist. Voting for him was the lesser evil.
Chirac made quite some mistakes during his career, but ignoring Bush's call to arms was not one of them. The majority of Chirac's constituents are behind him on that one.
Slashdot Mirror
How exactly would that be a not-good-thing? The possibility of eradicating most diseases at a low cost sounds to me like the best thing since sliced bread. In fact, even slightly better than sliced bread.
But maybe I haven't understood capitalism...
The 'intelligent design' moniker always makes me expect intelligence in the designed product. Decisions like this seem to falsify the theory - after all, neither the design nor the entity that designed something like this seem to be distinctively intelligent.
This makes a great topic for furious discussions and in the end isn't really that much of an issue - after all, the worst they can do is refuse usage of root servers and not allocate IP addresses. I have 2 computers here, I can make a perfectly functional internet. The technology is there, and it's open, so while some central control over standards and roots etc is nice to have, abuse of it will not end the world.
What I feel more uncomfortable about is carriers not playing fair. I expect bandwith providers to start tailoring their offerings to only work with content they approve of or promote - eg a broadband provider preferring his own VOIP service over competition services or his own digital TV access over the one from others. How long till 'internet access' means a big fat pipe to my provider, and a little trickle to the rest of the world, instead of the universal 'do as you please' open network we enjoy today? Unlike root servers, I cannot self provide my bandwith.
My (monopolist) cable provider bugs me with his ridiculously priced VOIP access. I currently use competition, but I expect them any day now to throttle access to the competition's IP block by just enough to not make it work anymore....
How would one build something like that? Battery backup with integrated solar recharging looks like a fine project.
Yugoslavia ceased to exist in 2003.
;-)
Assuming you're american, I wonder what happened to the numbers if one averaged you out of the statistics
Who modded this offtopic? It's one of the most insightful posts in the thread.
I do this whenever I need software, especially on the job. Makes sure I won't get caught not abiding to the license/not being able to document my installations/other requirements of the license.
In addition to the feel-good-factor it saves lots of work managing the licenses.
In terms of pure weight on the tarmac the A380 actually isn't 'worse' than the 747. It's been specifically built with enough set of wheels to be 747 compatible in that respect, so that hardly any 747 serving airport will need work.
Gate distances are compatible as well, however to make the bird turn around reasonably quick there's a need for double level terminals and jet bridges. That way one can move passengers in and out without forcing them through the bottleneck of the aircraft stairs. These facilities (as well as large enough immigration areas/multiple baggage carousels etc) is what some large airports are still missing.
The reason is that a lock between the seats has a lower chance of rearranging your right knee in case of an accident.
That was the reasoning in the 'good old times' anyways. I guess with seat belt tensioners and airbags it's less of an issue.
It is quite striking that wherever there's a predominently american crowd, the gut reaction to anything global warming related is denial - even with a comparably smart crowd like this one.
I sincerely hope we're not at the brink of self inflicted global destruction. But are you guys so addicted to your gas guzzlers and inefficient houses that you refuse to even discuss your behaviour's more or less possible/probable consequences?
I don't have gmail access (anybody having a spare invitation?), so I'm just theoretizing on this:
:-)
Why would you use a POP3 mail client with gmail? I thought the clever bit about it was that you can search your mail with the Google search algorythms and therefore can get rid of stuff like folders, filters etc...
Unless they deliver their search methods into your mail client obviously
Yes, indeed.
With the slight difference that the 150 hp has beefed up bearings, additional piston cooling and tighter tolerances on the valve train and still blows up in disturbingly high numbers. Tune your 130 hp to get 150 hp (more is possible) and join the club.
There's a good reason why the 150hp isn't sold any more.
Pal of mine used to do development on TDI's. 210 to 220 hp is no problem on the 1.9 engines - mostly by software changes. Maximum 10000 km, and emissions in the heavy truck range.
With the kind of monetary politics the US follow - basically printing more dollars once they're all spent - it'd be very bad management not to hedge. :-)
The problem here isn't import taxes and duties, either. When I buy an article, I pay the duties, whether I import on my own or have it done by a local reseller.
The real problem is that the vendor decides to up his price for you based on your whereabouts and makes sure it's very tough for you to get around this. That goes from things like region coding for DVD's over artificially high shipping charges to other countries to flatly refusing to sell high price items to foreigners.
The european commission fights this behaviour as much as possible, but obviously concentrates on inner european cases.
A company can move, source, produce and sell pretty much wherever it wants. However, as a consumer my possibilities to buy goods and services where I see fit is severely hampered.
Ever tried to buy something from an Amazon affiliate not in your part of the world? Heck, I'm in Luxembourg, and there's many articles within amazon.de that they refuse to ship to anywhere but Germany.
A Toyota Prius is 20000 USD in the US, and 25000 EUR over here. Can I import one from the US? Sure. Will Toyota US sell me one? Sure not.
Of course, I could jump through hoops and get my stuff (I sometimes do). But we're far away from having consumers being able to use globalization to his advantage...
Depends obviously where one puts the focus on:
The german watchmaker Junghans manufactures a range of watches that have a solar cell covered face, so you don't need to care about energy. They adjust by radio, so you don't care about the 'right' time. They have a treatened glass and ceramic housing, so they are virtually indestructible.
Sure, it has no GPS, Calculator, IR sender etc. But it's probably the best watch you can get for knowing the time. Plus, it looks good. Although probably more geared to the grown up geek. The one who doesn't have 17 dock apps running and Laetitia Casta as his desktop wallpaper...
French TGV does 515 km/h.
Yes. But do that 10 times and you can replace the tracks.
TGV's, ICE's and the like are marvels of modern public transports, and imho make a lot more sense than regional jets on many routes.
but let 300 km/h be enough for rail technology.
Go cable, then. Cable in Luxembourg, where available by Eltrona, is 40 Eur, 256/64 with 10GB monthly. Coditel has similar pricing.
There's not much WWII and nazi related stuff Germany is not 'allowed' to see. What they're basically after is making sure nobody denies the holocaust. Hogan's Heroes reruns on german TV, and nobody cares.
It's not the laws and regulations that are restrictive, it's the people that are sensitive, in this case.
As for the violence in video games... you can show a lot in late night TV. You can show very much in prime time. I was just watching Full Metal Jacket at 9 PM. And no, it wasn't cut at all.
My Epia M10000 based Tivo clone with a PVR-350 and a hd comes in at around 20W idle, and 30-35W when in use.
Tivo's are not available in this part of the world, so I can't compare. But I guess it wouldn't come in much lower...
Been heavily involved in a huge IT project. It ran purely on IM.
IM is just invaluable when you deal with dozens or hundreds of people in a handful of time zones, many of them travelling around, often no phones around... there's nothing as useful as dropping a message and get near instant return on your question.
People in Iraq actually voted for Hussein. Contrary to Bush, he actually got the majority of the votes.
Well, it wouldn't have changed a lot. He owned justice in Iraq just as well as Bush ownz it in the USA...
Ever worked in a cube farm, no daylight, no quiet, chatter all around and always feeling somebody watched you from behind?
Preferably close to a manufacturing area, not only the white noise from computers, but whatever droning sound is being generated within 20 meters doesn't leave you alone?
And when by pure chance electricity goes down once, the most noticeable thing not being the darkness, but the quiet?
I'd kill to sit in an office like that!
Yes, there are. The whole range of Airbus planes (except for the A300/A310 series) are as fly-by-wire as can be. Joysticks in the cockpit, no linkage between the pilot and the wings.
;-)
These planes do not request from their pilots to manipulate the moving surfaces in such a way as to obtain the desired attitude of the plane, they just need input as to what the attitude should be and then move the plane like that. Rather like a computer game, really.
The most visible advantage of this is that the pilot cannot 'stall' the airplane. The airplane will not put itself in a situation where it would stop flying. One simply cannot 'pull up' or deccelerate so much that the airplane would crash. Quite amazing technology, an entirely not Microsoft powered.
Ugh. /.ing...
Well, I guess that makes a point in reading the article before commenting.
On the other side, it might help loadbalancing the
Interesting Register Story on the subject....