I forgot to mention though, the Japanese toilets are awesome. At first, the water spraying in your ass is really strange, but it cleans much better than wiping.
I have to totally agree. I was trying to use this shower in Japan, but it took me 10 minutes to figure out how to use it. There was a huge control panel full of buttons to adjust temperature, pressure, shower head type, and so on. From then on, I truly appreciated the simplicity of the single lever tap.
I have to agree. I'm surprised by the number of people who prefer glossy displays. Do glossy screens look more vibrant because of the screen surface, or is it because of the actual LCD?
The problem is essentially economics. With artificially low prices, there's no incentive to recover helium. On top of that, helium cheap enough to waste on party balloons. If we remove the price distortions on helium, it will encourage recovery and reuse of helium, plus reduce the wasteful usage of helium.
The energy needed to power it might be rather big (20Hz spinning of a 40 inch mirror?)
Once the mirror is spinning at speed, the only energy input required would be to fight friction and wind resistance. I haven't done any calculations, but I don't think would require that much energy to keep spinning the mirror. I think the hardest thing would be to make a large mirror that won't break under centrifugal force.
Parent is exactly right. Why do all US universities have such amazing gym facilities? However, I believe that with better government policies, these kind of subsidies CAN work. In Canada, there are Government supported loans, however, there are limits on tuition prices. This prevents universities from being able to take advantage of the ability for students to get credit. The sport facilities in Canadian universities are definitely not top notch, but I think it's a good compromise to affordable education.
Yes, Waterloo has really good opportunities for tech people, but it is a social black hole for single people not in university. The male-female ratio is completely out of whack.
Yes, this is definitely a problem in Canada. A lot of skilled workers go to the US. Although there are many software jobs in Canada, it is really lacking in hardware. The problem is, how can Canada compete with Silicon Valley? I heard that around 300K Canadians live in Silicon Valley. That's like 1% of Canada's population. Maybe RIM might need FPGA guys.
I think Canada has maintained a good balance between free markets and social needs. This is evident with the lack of bank failures during the crisis. I think this is due to the politics, with more parties to vote for and more awareness by the citizens. Canadians won't stand for any sort of corruption, even if it's for a meager $1M of crony contracts. Americans don't get angry enough about the massive corruption in the US government, like with Haliburton, the bank bailout for the rich, lobbyists buying politicians. And with only 2 viable parties, the Republicans and Democrats are essentially an oligopoly.
And let me tell you, Germans are very burdened by their tax system. Much of their wealth is squandered in government bureaucracy. Do you know that the Finanzamt (the German tax authority) has 110K+ employees? Compare that to the IRS, which has about 100K employees AND the population of Germany is about 1/4 of the US. The Finanzamt is essentially a bloated beast, 4 times the size of the IRS with respect to population.
That's entirely missing the point of the parent post. There's a huge difference between an invention and a discovery. Should the discovery of gravity be patentable?
Also, think of what this means for laptops. First, you save a huge amount of space by not having to have a separate GPU chip on the board. Have you seen how crammed the mainboard is on the macbook? And with the significant improvements in power consumption, it's a win-win for the laptop market.
Isn't this some kind of insider trading? They are trading based on information before it is made public, but in the milliseconds range. The problem is the big players are given huge advantages, like free money from the Fed, while the rest of us suffer from the resulting inflation. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are way too powerful, they are powerful enough to destroy a currency, like the Euro.
Wow, really? In Australia? It seems that Australians are striving to progress to 16th century. What's next? Suspected witches can be burned? People must acknowledge that the world is flat?
Using Intel's near monopoly, Intel and Rambus were trying to force proprietary RDRAM technology into the mainstream. If the other memory makers wanted to make RDRAM, they would have had to pay huge royalties to Rambus. If Rambus became standard, it would mean that the memory makers would be slaves to Rambus. Also, I would bet those patents were as ridiculous as the 1-Click patent and no technology was actually stolen, but was obvious enough to be invented independantly.
The patent issue is a whole different can of worms. But there is no amount of PR that could have changed the fact that DDR was faster or equal to RDRAM in terms of overall performance, and at a significantly lower price. Also, the memory makers have not formed a cartel. Almost all are selling their chips at a loss, which is a clear indication of heavy competition.
Slashdot Mirror
I forgot to mention though, the Japanese toilets are awesome. At first, the water spraying in your ass is really strange, but it cleans much better than wiping.
I have to totally agree. I was trying to use this shower in Japan, but it took me 10 minutes to figure out how to use it. There was a huge control panel full of buttons to adjust temperature, pressure, shower head type, and so on. From then on, I truly appreciated the simplicity of the single lever tap.
I have to agree. I'm surprised by the number of people who prefer glossy displays. Do glossy screens look more vibrant because of the screen surface, or is it because of the actual LCD?
Prince should kiss the Internet's ass. Without it, everyone would have forgotten about him already.
The problem is essentially economics. With artificially low prices, there's no incentive to recover helium. On top of that, helium cheap enough to waste on party balloons. If we remove the price distortions on helium, it will encourage recovery and reuse of helium, plus reduce the wasteful usage of helium.
Welcome to the land of the free.
This cyberwar BS is totally overblown. How exactly can someone send a satellite spinning out of orbit with just a computer and an internet connection?
I'm counting on the porn industry to invent that.
The energy needed to power it might be rather big (20Hz spinning of a 40 inch mirror?)
Once the mirror is spinning at speed, the only energy input required would be to fight friction and wind resistance. I haven't done any calculations, but I don't think would require that much energy to keep spinning the mirror. I think the hardest thing would be to make a large mirror that won't break under centrifugal force.
Parent is exactly right. Why do all US universities have such amazing gym facilities? However, I believe that with better government policies, these kind of subsidies CAN work. In Canada, there are Government supported loans, however, there are limits on tuition prices. This prevents universities from being able to take advantage of the ability for students to get credit. The sport facilities in Canadian universities are definitely not top notch, but I think it's a good compromise to affordable education.
Yes, Waterloo has really good opportunities for tech people, but it is a social black hole for single people not in university. The male-female ratio is completely out of whack.
Yes, this is definitely a problem in Canada. A lot of skilled workers go to the US. Although there are many software jobs in Canada, it is really lacking in hardware. The problem is, how can Canada compete with Silicon Valley? I heard that around 300K Canadians live in Silicon Valley. That's like 1% of Canada's population. Maybe RIM might need FPGA guys.
I think Canada has maintained a good balance between free markets and social needs. This is evident with the lack of bank failures during the crisis. I think this is due to the politics, with more parties to vote for and more awareness by the citizens. Canadians won't stand for any sort of corruption, even if it's for a meager $1M of crony contracts. Americans don't get angry enough about the massive corruption in the US government, like with Haliburton, the bank bailout for the rich, lobbyists buying politicians. And with only 2 viable parties, the Republicans and Democrats are essentially an oligopoly.
And let me tell you, Germans are very burdened by their tax system. Much of their wealth is squandered in government bureaucracy. Do you know that the Finanzamt (the German tax authority) has 110K+ employees? Compare that to the IRS, which has about 100K employees AND the population of Germany is about 1/4 of the US. The Finanzamt is essentially a bloated beast, 4 times the size of the IRS with respect to population.
Have you read TFA? Have you read some comments? There is clearly a good reason why tapes are appealing. It just doesn't fit your needs.
Exactly, so lending books should be illegal too! Arrest all librarians!
That's entirely missing the point of the parent post. There's a huge difference between an invention and a discovery. Should the discovery of gravity be patentable?
Also, think of what this means for laptops. First, you save a huge amount of space by not having to have a separate GPU chip on the board. Have you seen how crammed the mainboard is on the macbook? And with the significant improvements in power consumption, it's a win-win for the laptop market.
Isn't this some kind of insider trading? They are trading based on information before it is made public, but in the milliseconds range. The problem is the big players are given huge advantages, like free money from the Fed, while the rest of us suffer from the resulting inflation. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are way too powerful, they are powerful enough to destroy a currency, like the Euro.
but mere friendships are usually tolerated
Are there any workplaces that don't tolerate friendships?
Interesting, I guess parties on both sides were up to shenanigans. I'm curious to see what electrical engineers in the field think of the patents.
Wow, really? In Australia? It seems that Australians are striving to progress to 16th century. What's next? Suspected witches can be burned? People must acknowledge that the world is flat?
So that's why there was so much traffic to goatse lately. Stock piling some goatse WMDs I see?
Using Intel's near monopoly, Intel and Rambus were trying to force proprietary RDRAM technology into the mainstream. If the other memory makers wanted to make RDRAM, they would have had to pay huge royalties to Rambus. If Rambus became standard, it would mean that the memory makers would be slaves to Rambus. Also, I would bet those patents were as ridiculous as the 1-Click patent and no technology was actually stolen, but was obvious enough to be invented independantly.
The patent issue is a whole different can of worms. But there is no amount of PR that could have changed the fact that DDR was faster or equal to RDRAM in terms of overall performance, and at a significantly lower price. Also, the memory makers have not formed a cartel. Almost all are selling their chips at a loss, which is a clear indication of heavy competition.