You are confusing belief with theory. Theory is the basis of science. Belief is the realm of religion.
And if you are a two dimensional creature living in flatland, there is no way for you to directly prove that there exists a third dimension. Well unless some external force rotates you along an axis out of your two dimensional space.
But higher dimensions would be a very clean and intuitive solution to some of the paradoxes in Physics. Take for example the creation of a proton-anitproton pair, and deflecting them in opposite directions then once they are sufficiently far apart deflect one and watch the other react in >c time (ie reacts before the light from the other particle of the pair can reach said particle). How can one of the pair react to an action done on the other in less time than it takes light to travel the distance? If the pair are linked in a higher dimension space, it's possible for one to react by "seeing" in less than c time if the higher dimension has a shorter light path.
I'm not saying that is any sort of theory proposed by anyone, or that it is some sort of proof of higher dimensions. It is however a valid sort of topic for investigative experiment to seek out verifying the existence of higher dimensions. Since math and physics agree that higher dimensions are possible, it's much more logical to assume they do exist and try to prove that than to presume they don't exist and try to prove that.
All theory requires making an assumption. It's far easier to assume the positive and try tro prove that. Provided you have some reasonable approach to making attempts to prove.
Only if you admit there is no way to prove a hypothesis, should one say i don't believe in the existence of X. One can't prove the Existence or Nonexistence of God. There is no experiment we can imagine to do so. Therefore there is no reason to believe in God nor any reason not to believe in God. It's irrelevant, and has no place in science. It's like believing there are only three dimensions, because we can't "see" or "prove" a fourth. That in itself is an act of faith.
Science is all about trying to explain things, not saying well "we don't know". If math indicates the answer is due to higher dimensions, Okham's Razor would indicate the rational conclusion is there ARE higher dimensions. The simplest solution is usually the answer. Plus math is pretty good at predicting actual reality and the real world. Math indicates that if you add one apple to a pile of thirteen apples you will have fourteen physical apples. Threfore the realistic perspective is to conclude if math predicts greater than 3 dimensions, it's realistic to assume math is correct and there are actually more than three real dimensions.
Simply saying, "I/we don't know" is equivalent to saying, I/we refuse to speculate on the cause. It might as well be happening by magic. I'm not saying anything in the real world indicates there are higher dimensions, but to me, it is simply one more hypothesis that needs experimental proof and a valid research/theoretical topic.
You're all a damn bunch of fools! We live in the Multiverse! Heathens and Infidels! There's more than 27 dimensions, and I travel freely through them all with my point singularity amplituhedron hanging from my neck! Don't you know you keep what you kill!
Actually, a digitally signed statement that can be authenticated as coming from a certain person, making use of the under penalty of perjury clause would be found enforceable by a US court. Especially if there is a notarized paper copy attesting to the truth of that statement.
I'm a Notary Public (among many other hats I wear), and take declarations from people and notarize documents which are legally acceptable for court use and are considered as binding as any testimony given under oath in a court, along with the manifest penalties of perjury. I don't know a way of doing a digital notarization. But it is certainly possible to take a declaration from a person, and notarize it. Many companies have notaries working for them, and could do this on a daily basis.
So, while I left out this detail in my original post, it's certainly feasible. As BranMan noted, however, a court could grant immunity from prosecution and then order you to put the message "back up". But, you see there is the rub. They would have to order it before hand to prevent the deadswitch from happening in the first place. Anything after the fact would just be damage control, and probably too late. Some users would probably notice it going away, and then you'd have some explaining to do. Plus the court would have to grant immunity for every day they force you to put it back up, because each day's statement is another violation that is separately prosecutable. The court order would have to be carefully worded.
But, like I said it's an option. Foolproof? Far from it. A country that doesn't respect it's own laws can't be trusted not to do criminal and illegal things to it's citizens, and the judges are plenty capable of getting pissed off by this act and finding some grounds to prosecute. So, like I said, not legal advice, and check with a lawyer, etc, etc, if you try this. I don't run anything where this would be an issue, so I have no stake in it.
The American public, in general, seems quite content to let their government continue the ass-ramming they've been giving to our Constitution since 1783.
1) Most Americans I talk with, who know about these things happening, hate everything that is going on.
2) But a good number of people aren't paying attention to most of it. My wife, and most of my close family, being among them. And these people don't want to know, because they know they'll get upset and frustrated about it.
3) Among those who know and are disgusted, few complain about it except to friends. Why, because, most of this activity doesn't have an immediate impact on Americans ability to travel "freely", buy food, earn a comfortable living, have spendable money and the ability to spend it mostly how they want, raise a family without major restrictions, go to the church of their own choice, live in any neighborhood they can afford, eat what they what, and have entertainment they want.
In other words daily life in the USA is fairly stable and unrestricted. People are comfortable. Until, the activities of the government get so overbearing that life is no longer comfortable, few will be willing to do anything about it.
4) The American Revolution didn't happen because the middle class people weren't comfortable anymore. Life was not really that bad in American Colonies back then. The American Revolution happened because the wealthy were feeling uncomfortable and the Crown was messing with their livlihoods.
Ergo, nothing is going to change, unless:
1) The government actions start having a serious impact on the upper classes, or
2) The government makes life so hard for the average citizen that they have no choice but to revolt. You can complain to your politicians till you're blue in the face and it likely won't change anything, for long. They will relent, for a while, and then try it again when they think you aren't looking. Search your feelings, you know this to be true., or
3) Enough people get fed up and actually start a new political party, that alters the landscape.
Well, there might be a way around it. Disclaimer: This is not legal advise, blah blah blah...
It's possible to post a legally binding statement, such as "Under penalty of perjury, I/we declare we have not been contacted by the government as of yesterday."
Make this a daily post, that ages out and disappears at the end of the day. Then each day you have to re-post it. This would be an act of communication.
Now, this should work because, you cannot be forced to commit perjury, even by a court. I.E. you cannot be ordered to commit a crime, and perjury is a crime.
So, it should be workable, because if you get contacted by a secret court order, you can't commincate that without commiting a crime, but you can't put up a new statement, without committing a crime. Not puttinig the statement up is not an act of communication, but a lack of a communication. Sure the lack of a communication may imply the opposite, and the court could order you to put up a statement saying you haven't been contacted, but it can't order you to commit perjury.
Of course this assumes a pure silica glass, which doesn't exist because then it's just fused quartz. But as all the forms of glass introduce various molecular impurities which actually lower the melting point, this is the upper end. ALL glass will melt at this temperature. Glass transitions all happen at much lower temperatures. Vycor having the highest I know of between 1200 and 1520C. It can actually be used as glass at 1200C, under perfect conditions.
Despite the exciting name, all this stuff does is protect against bounces.
I'm not sure that's an accurate statement. Here's my reasoning. The product is described as twice as strong than titanium alloys. Liquuidmetal is a zirconium alloy (earlier forms included titanium in the mix with zirconium). Anyway. As strength increase so does brittleness. Or the inventers are due for a Nobel Prize in mechanical engineering. What this alloy is, is an amorphous alloy, rather than a crystalline alloy. There are uses for both alloys, but there is always a trade-off between strength and brittleness. The harder it is, the more brittle it will get. Bronze is also an amorphous alloy. Without seeing Liquidmetal's microstructure, I really can't comment much on the alloy's properties. But, I'm guessing that the molding process includes some form of work-hardening on the metal as it cools. That would be the logical thing to do to increase the strength, while preventing too much crystalization. The alloys look to be in the class of superalloys, but I lack enough information to classify them.
The linked to video shows a ball to demonstrate it's ability to absorb shock, but anyone who's ever played with glass marbles knows that the shape has every thing to do with it. A round ball has distinctly different properties than a flat sheet. What the article fails to point out, is that the attempt to use this metal in the flat part of the golf clubs resulted in a useful life of about 40 hits, before shattering.
That's not to say they done some really cool engineering work, and Apple will be coming out with some very cool cases in the future. But the laws of Physics still apply.
The OP here sets up a set of rules he knows up front results in a logic equation that has no solution. Item number three is the trick, that turns the whole contest into a trick question, like asking for the timing of a 357cu. in. engine in a 1957 Buick Skylark.
"The "benefit" can't be something that benefits all suspects equally, whether they're innocent, guilty of violating a just law, or guilty of violating an unjust law. "
Any benefit that would benefit the innocent would by necessity benefit the guilty as well, at least as much. But that's the point, the point isn't to protect the guilty, but to protect the innocent. Take for example that wonderful video, linked many times in this article "Don't Talk to the Police". But here's the OP's sought for example, anyway. Shamelessly loosely taken from the video.
Police question: "Did you know the victim?"
Innocent Suspect: "Yeah, but I never really liked the guy." [police now have motive for the innocent man - i.e. suspect didn't like him.]
Policeman tells about the murder, then asks if you killed him
Suspect, remembers hearing about the murder on TV, "So and so killed last kight in what appears to be gang-related violence.
Suspect answers: "No, I don't even own a gun.", but police never mentioned the murder weapon, nor did the TV News. This is human nature at work filling in the blanks, based on too little information. Police now have you're testimony corroborating the murder weapon.
There is your example that benefits innocent people. Innocent people get convicted on circumstantial evidence, often times as a result of police questioning. Then of course the OP has the ridiculous idea that bad guys are going to actually tell the truth when asked a question. Asking a murderer if they killed the victim isn't going to help solve the crime even without the 5th. Unless he/she is the World's dumbest criminal.
I've just been through the experience of getting Internet connectivity to an office outside the regions covered by DSL and Cable Internet (by a half mile). I had a choice to spend megabucks to have ISDN/T1/T3 run out, or choose a wireless solution. While, I'd certainly prefer DSL or Cable Internet, and then T1/T3, and only fall back to ISDN if the only other choice was dial-up. True ISDN could be coupled to get higher bandwidth, in fact you can bundle ISDN up to T1 speeds, but that's not basic ISDN.
I choose to pick up an aircard and a wireless router with a USB port for aircards (ebay and amazon under $50). The office is in a region with 4G covereage, and actually has higher throughput than the local Cable and DSL providers offer. Of course it means paying for connectivity by the inch, or rather the GB ($80 for 10). So the solution is more expensive than local Cable or DSL, but less to install and less monthly than ISDN or bundled ISDN. T1 one would be nice, but not cost effective. But even 3G speeds would beat basic ISDN, and would be cheaper. Cost is a concrern for all businesses. Size of a company and bandwidth are the determining points. This is a small office for a small company. ISDN/T1/T3 are for large offices with a need for large pipes. But fiber will eventually replace all that, it's happening now. If the ISDN/T1/T3 business doesn't adapt it will die.
Wireless and fiber are the future. Eventually enterprising people with T1s will offer wireless access and drive the prices down, and everyone will begin billing by the GB. It will all level out in the end. Without any provable collusion between the providers at all.
No and yes. It can run stock Android, but you can't install it. The hardware is locked down and the only way to run stcok Android is by booting from an SD card.
It should be noted, since the Soulskill didn't, that this update is ONLY for the newer HD series tablets.
Existing owners of older, and even the new lesser, tablets need not apply.
I'm still really pissed at B&N over this. "Oh, you'll be able to install anything you want on it."
So I bought one as a gift and immediately downloaded some apks (notably a decent browser).
Then they came out with that damn update that locked the Fucker down. I can't even apply updates to the installed Opera browser. Without wiping/cryogenning the fucker.
Never again will B&N trick me into buying into their locked down hardware. My cheap, unlocked, rooted, Chinese Tablets work just fine. When they become old, useless or die (from being prison made hacks), I'll discard them and still be better off price and content wise.
You do realize you are speaking of a rock roughly the size of a large van or small delivery truck travelling in space at extreme speeds that once they hit the atmosphere are hypersonic speeds. There aren't any designated travel lanes to look out for in space, and tryin to spot a rock the size of a truck in a 360 degree spherical space of infinite size is a lot harder than finding a sewing needle in a haystack. So, you know it'd be really freaking amazing if they actually did know about this.
On another note Independence day was about an Alien invasion. I think you might be thinking along the lines of the Armegeddon film and it's ilk. There are many issues with blow it up into littler pieces. But that idea is mostly bad for a rock of any considerable size. This meteorite is estimated to be only a few meters in size, maybe 10 tons. The football field size DA14 headed for a "safe" flyby (I'm still waiting to see if it happens to hits a satellite or two on it's way by), would produce hundreds or maybe thousands of rocks this size. While they would be unlikely to do much "surface" damage, if it passed over any metropolitan area you could probably expecte 10s or 100s of thousands injuries and possibly some fatalities and 10s to 100s of millions in property damage.
A better course is to shove to a different trajectory. Like a game of billiards. Although, I'm not happy about that idea much either. Too many variables on unwanted side affects.
I'd mod this up, but then couldn't comment in this thread. The information about this past history indeeds supports the suicidal tendency he was burdened with. I too have long had a will, and have planned many possible exits from this sometimes pain filled world. I have no doubt that this case pushed him over the edge, given the overzealous apporach taken by this felon of a prosecuting attorney. The real criminal in this case, if you ask me.
You sir, are cluesless. Only an idiot tries to commit suicide and fails. Most of the ones who try to commit suicide and fail are in desperate need of help and don't really wish to die. The ones who try and succeed actually want to die. Further, it's easy to say that faced with financial ruin, an order from a judge not to seek public financial support and facing 50+ years in prison, you wouldn't also commit suicide. Yes, many guilty and bad people face 30 years, 50 years, life or even execution for crimes fitting those terms and don't commit suicide. But how anyone can consider downloading the JSTOR Acedemic article archive as a serious felony worth 50 years in a Federal Prison, is revolting. How you got modded insightful is a mystery to me. As you clearly have no grasp of psychology or the what drives suicide.
You misunderstand my comment. I mean only, if you look closely, you'll see that Linux would far more expensive to "write" and "sell commercially", than any other program. So more expensive in "development cost", only.
As for Windows, it's actually been fairly stable for a long time.
I much prefer the Linux kernel. Although, I've had to abadon both KDE and Gnome, due to the dystopic mindset of the developers. Which has been a bit of a step backwards in the use of Linux, making things harder for me on a regular basis. The same exact type of behavior that drove me away from Windows in the first place (that and the entire concept and mindset of Linux and FOSS).
Windows is still too annoying, so it's still not an option for me [except that I need to use it for my clients who depend on it.]. On top of the licensing BS.
I know at least one person who loves Windows 8. [sends shivers down my spine, and that feeling you get when you are completely grossed out.]
Well seomtimes the right way is more expensive than an almost as good way, and the cost-benefit ratio doesn't justify the right way. Perhaps, a b-tree algorithm is the best thing to do at a point in the code, but an already written sorted list will be nearly as good. Do you take the time to write a custom b-tree function, or link to the existing sorted-list, when you need to ship in two days? The sorted list is known to be bug free and working.
Take that choice and multiply it by 500 and you get an idea of why code might look like crap, but be very stable and easy to maintain, and faster to implement.
Consider the man-hours involved in building the Linux kernel, and then figure out what you'd have to charge per copy to pay all those people a decent wage.
That is the difference between commercial software developed by for-profit companies, and open-source. I'd give odds the Linus kernel is incontrovertibly the most expensive working application ever written.
Actually the Space Shuttle Challenger was a design choice to save on the cost of shipping the tanks to Florida. The alternate one piece design didn't fit through one specific tunnel along the railroad from the plant to Florida, and would have required overland transit. It was well known within the industry. The other tank design was nearly identical to the design used by Russia. I was in an aerospace engineering class when this happened, and we studied the problem. I'm positive my professor already knew the answer, he was part of NASA's team.
This is so very true. I remember when a company I worked for hired another company to come in and upgrade our code to make it y2k compliant.
First they analysed the code and found the places it needed fixing. We spent time teaching them about parts of the code and they would frequently come and ask us about certain pieces of code. They then made the changes to the code. We knew we had a y2k issue, and where most of it was. A lot of the code they changed was very old, and not actively maintained, because of code maturity.
Five years later we were still fixing bugs they introduced to the code in the process of updating it.
Messing with stable and ugly or pretty code is a hornets nest. You might make it look better, and introduce new or even old bugs. I am guilty of that myself. I've even come back to my own code years later and said, "WTF? This is crap code". I would then "fix it", only to figure out, it was needed. Sometimes, you just need to add a hack in code to make it work. Sometimes you forget to comment that hack.
You ignore the group of people who actually enjoy coding, over the other tasks you mention. I've known excellent and poor coders, coders who've moved up the corporate ladder and coders that were utter failures. Certificate boys and lazy old-timers and lazy young slackers.
As for me, I've been doiing this for over 20 years. I still write a ton of code. I also own the company and am the majority stockholder.
I prefer to do coding over management tasks, but manage to squeeze some of that in too. I set the designs, along with others.
Perhaps you've just been unfortunate in your choices of companies. It's big world, full of many variations. I try not to make generalizations on entire categories of people. I've worked in maybe a dozen fields on multiple continents over more than 4 decades, with thousands and thousands of people. The IT field is no different than any other field, people come in every flavor imaginable, and some you'd never imagine. I've run five successful and profitable companies and done pretty much every task involved. I hold multiple degrees in various technical fields. To tell a little more about my case. You won't hurt my feelings. I'm comfortable with what I am and what I do, and don't need anyone patting me on the back. I make my own way and always have.
I disagree, while I was being rather grandiose on the submarine bit, my point was we routinely do long mission type activities. Rather than do an artificial study, there is a wealth of real world data to draw from and analyze. But apparently that leap of logic was too much for your amazing brain, and you took too literal an interpretation.
Secondly, we are still the same people. Doing a considerable amount of historical searching, one thing is clear we have not changed much in 500 years. We've gotten more advanced, and mostly better educated, most do less physically demanding work, are relatively better off financially, etc. But for the most part we've not changed much physiologically, and arestill capable of doing the things we did 100, 200, 500 or even a 1000 years ago.
Thirdly, I never said the editor was an idiot, merely that he/she didn't bother to look deep enough before posting this unworthy of/. study news.
Lastly, I'm impressed at your extreme powers of intelligence detention being able to determine an idiot from a single paragraph of a written opinion, while simultaneously ignoring higher intellect functions.
Slashdot Mirror
You are confusing belief with theory. Theory is the basis of science. Belief is the realm of religion.
And if you are a two dimensional creature living in flatland, there is no way for you to directly prove that there exists a third dimension. Well unless some external force rotates you along an axis out of your two dimensional space.
But higher dimensions would be a very clean and intuitive solution to some of the paradoxes in Physics. Take for example the creation of a proton-anitproton pair, and deflecting them in opposite directions then once they are sufficiently far apart deflect one and watch the other react in >c time (ie reacts before the light from the other particle of the pair can reach said particle). How can one of the pair react to an action done on the other in less time than it takes light to travel the distance? If the pair are linked in a higher dimension space, it's possible for one to react by "seeing" in less than c time if the higher dimension has a shorter light path.
I'm not saying that is any sort of theory proposed by anyone, or that it is some sort of proof of higher dimensions. It is however a valid sort of topic for investigative experiment to seek out verifying the existence of higher dimensions. Since math and physics agree that higher dimensions are possible, it's much more logical to assume they do exist and try to prove that than to presume they don't exist and try to prove that.
All theory requires making an assumption. It's far easier to assume the positive and try tro prove that. Provided you have some reasonable approach to making attempts to prove.
Only if you admit there is no way to prove a hypothesis, should one say i don't believe in the existence of X. One can't prove the Existence or Nonexistence of God. There is no experiment we can imagine to do so. Therefore there is no reason to believe in God nor any reason not to believe in God. It's irrelevant, and has no place in science. It's like believing there are only three dimensions, because we can't "see" or "prove" a fourth. That in itself is an act of faith.
Science is all about trying to explain things, not saying well "we don't know". If math indicates the answer is due to higher dimensions, Okham's Razor would indicate the rational conclusion is there ARE higher dimensions. The simplest solution is usually the answer. Plus math is pretty good at predicting actual reality and the real world. Math indicates that if you add one apple to a pile of thirteen apples you will have fourteen physical apples. Threfore the realistic perspective is to conclude if math predicts greater than 3 dimensions, it's realistic to assume math is correct and there are actually more than three real dimensions.
Simply saying, "I/we don't know" is equivalent to saying, I/we refuse to speculate on the cause. It might as well be happening by magic. I'm not saying anything in the real world indicates there are higher dimensions, but to me, it is simply one more hypothesis that needs experimental proof and a valid research/theoretical topic.
You're all a damn bunch of fools! We live in the Multiverse! Heathens and Infidels! There's more than 27 dimensions, and I travel freely through them all with my point singularity amplituhedron hanging from my neck! Don't you know you keep what you kill!
Actually, a digitally signed statement that can be authenticated as coming from a certain person, making use of the under penalty of perjury clause would be found enforceable by a US court. Especially if there is a notarized paper copy attesting to the truth of that statement.
I'm a Notary Public (among many other hats I wear), and take declarations from people and notarize documents which are legally acceptable for court use and are considered as binding as any testimony given under oath in a court, along with the manifest penalties of perjury. I don't know a way of doing a digital notarization. But it is certainly possible to take a declaration from a person, and notarize it. Many companies have notaries working for them, and could do this on a daily basis.
So, while I left out this detail in my original post, it's certainly feasible. As BranMan noted, however, a court could grant immunity from prosecution and then order you to put the message "back up". But, you see there is the rub. They would have to order it before hand to prevent the deadswitch from happening in the first place. Anything after the fact would just be damage control, and probably too late. Some users would probably notice it going away, and then you'd have some explaining to do. Plus the court would have to grant immunity for every day they force you to put it back up, because each day's statement is another violation that is separately prosecutable. The court order would have to be carefully worded.
But, like I said it's an option. Foolproof? Far from it. A country that doesn't respect it's own laws can't be trusted not to do criminal and illegal things to it's citizens, and the judges are plenty capable of getting pissed off by this act and finding some grounds to prosecute. So, like I said, not legal advice, and check with a lawyer, etc, etc, if you try this. I don't run anything where this would be an issue, so I have no stake in it.
But the relevant question is, are you willing to spend the rest of your short life in prison to make that point?
The American public, in general, seems quite content to let their government continue the ass-ramming they've been giving to our Constitution since 1783.
There fixed that for ya.
You need to get out more. And stop haning out at that loser bar. Your sphere of friends is too small.
You all seem to miss the important aspects here.
1) Most Americans I talk with, who know about these things happening, hate everything that is going on.
2) But a good number of people aren't paying attention to most of it. My wife, and most of my close family, being among them. And these people don't want to know, because they know they'll get upset and frustrated about it.
3) Among those who know and are disgusted, few complain about it except to friends. Why, because, most of this activity doesn't have an immediate impact on Americans ability to travel "freely", buy food, earn a comfortable living, have spendable money and the ability to spend it mostly how they want, raise a family without major restrictions, go to the church of their own choice, live in any neighborhood they can afford, eat what they what, and have entertainment they want. In other words daily life in the USA is fairly stable and unrestricted. People are comfortable. Until, the activities of the government get so overbearing that life is no longer comfortable, few will be willing to do anything about it.
4) The American Revolution didn't happen because the middle class people weren't comfortable anymore. Life was not really that bad in American Colonies back then. The American Revolution happened because the wealthy were feeling uncomfortable and the Crown was messing with their livlihoods.
Ergo, nothing is going to change, unless:
1) The government actions start having a serious impact on the upper classes, or
2) The government makes life so hard for the average citizen that they have no choice but to revolt. You can complain to your politicians till you're blue in the face and it likely won't change anything, for long. They will relent, for a while, and then try it again when they think you aren't looking. Search your feelings, you know this to be true., or
3) Enough people get fed up and actually start a new political party, that alters the landscape.
Well, there might be a way around it. Disclaimer: This is not legal advise, blah blah blah...
It's possible to post a legally binding statement, such as "Under penalty of perjury, I/we declare we have not been contacted by the government as of yesterday." Make this a daily post, that ages out and disappears at the end of the day. Then each day you have to re-post it. This would be an act of communication.
Now, this should work because, you cannot be forced to commit perjury, even by a court. I.E. you cannot be ordered to commit a crime, and perjury is a crime.
So, it should be workable, because if you get contacted by a secret court order, you can't commincate that without commiting a crime, but you can't put up a new statement, without committing a crime. Not puttinig the statement up is not an act of communication, but a lack of a communication. Sure the lack of a communication may imply the opposite, and the court could order you to put up a statement saying you haven't been contacted, but it can't order you to commit perjury.
The melting point of glass at normal pressure is less than or equal to 1600C (2912F).
LMGTFY
Of course this assumes a pure silica glass, which doesn't exist because then it's just fused quartz. But as all the forms of glass introduce various molecular impurities which actually lower the melting point, this is the upper end. ALL glass will melt at this temperature. Glass transitions all happen at much lower temperatures. Vycor having the highest I know of between 1200 and 1520C. It can actually be used as glass at 1200C, under perfect conditions.
Improbable base on the composition.
I call BS. Everything has a melting point. Drop that sucker in the Sun and watch it melt.
Despite the exciting name, all this stuff does is protect against bounces.
I'm not sure that's an accurate statement. Here's my reasoning. The product is described as twice as strong than titanium alloys. Liquuidmetal is a zirconium alloy (earlier forms included titanium in the mix with zirconium). Anyway. As strength increase so does brittleness. Or the inventers are due for a Nobel Prize in mechanical engineering. What this alloy is, is an amorphous alloy, rather than a crystalline alloy. There are uses for both alloys, but there is always a trade-off between strength and brittleness. The harder it is, the more brittle it will get. Bronze is also an amorphous alloy. Without seeing Liquidmetal's microstructure, I really can't comment much on the alloy's properties. But, I'm guessing that the molding process includes some form of work-hardening on the metal as it cools. That would be the logical thing to do to increase the strength, while preventing too much crystalization. The alloys look to be in the class of superalloys, but I lack enough information to classify them.
The linked to video shows a ball to demonstrate it's ability to absorb shock, but anyone who's ever played with glass marbles knows that the shape has every thing to do with it. A round ball has distinctly different properties than a flat sheet. What the article fails to point out, is that the attempt to use this metal in the flat part of the golf clubs resulted in a useful life of about 40 hits, before shattering.
That's not to say they done some really cool engineering work, and Apple will be coming out with some very cool cases in the future. But the laws of Physics still apply.
The OP here sets up a set of rules he knows up front results in a logic equation that has no solution. Item number three is the trick, that turns the whole contest into a trick question, like asking for the timing of a 357cu. in. engine in a 1957 Buick Skylark.
Any benefit that would benefit the innocent would by necessity benefit the guilty as well, at least as much. But that's the point, the point isn't to protect the guilty, but to protect the innocent. Take for example that wonderful video, linked many times in this article "Don't Talk to the Police". But here's the OP's sought for example, anyway. Shamelessly loosely taken from the video.
Police question: "Did you know the victim?"
Innocent Suspect: "Yeah, but I never really liked the guy." [police now have motive for the innocent man - i.e. suspect didn't like him.]
Policeman tells about the murder, then asks if you killed him
Suspect, remembers hearing about the murder on TV, "So and so killed last kight in what appears to be gang-related violence.
Suspect answers: "No, I don't even own a gun.", but police never mentioned the murder weapon, nor did the TV News. This is human nature at work filling in the blanks, based on too little information. Police now have you're testimony corroborating the murder weapon.
There is your example that benefits innocent people. Innocent people get convicted on circumstantial evidence, often times as a result of police questioning. Then of course the OP has the ridiculous idea that bad guys are going to actually tell the truth when asked a question. Asking a murderer if they killed the victim isn't going to help solve the crime even without the 5th. Unless he/she is the World's dumbest criminal.
I've just been through the experience of getting Internet connectivity to an office outside the regions covered by DSL and Cable Internet (by a half mile). I had a choice to spend megabucks to have ISDN/T1/T3 run out, or choose a wireless solution. While, I'd certainly prefer DSL or Cable Internet, and then T1/T3, and only fall back to ISDN if the only other choice was dial-up. True ISDN could be coupled to get higher bandwidth, in fact you can bundle ISDN up to T1 speeds, but that's not basic ISDN.
I choose to pick up an aircard and a wireless router with a USB port for aircards (ebay and amazon under $50). The office is in a region with 4G covereage, and actually has higher throughput than the local Cable and DSL providers offer. Of course it means paying for connectivity by the inch, or rather the GB ($80 for 10). So the solution is more expensive than local Cable or DSL, but less to install and less monthly than ISDN or bundled ISDN. T1 one would be nice, but not cost effective. But even 3G speeds would beat basic ISDN, and would be cheaper. Cost is a concrern for all businesses. Size of a company and bandwidth are the determining points. This is a small office for a small company. ISDN/T1/T3 are for large offices with a need for large pipes. But fiber will eventually replace all that, it's happening now. If the ISDN/T1/T3 business doesn't adapt it will die.
Wireless and fiber are the future. Eventually enterprising people with T1s will offer wireless access and drive the prices down, and everyone will begin billing by the GB. It will all level out in the end. Without any provable collusion between the providers at all.
Copper is dead. Long live copper ... and fiber.
No and yes. It can run stock Android, but you can't install it. The hardware is locked down and the only way to run stcok Android is by booting from an SD card.
It should be noted, since the Soulskill didn't, that this update is ONLY for the newer HD series tablets.
Existing owners of older, and even the new lesser, tablets need not apply.
I'm still really pissed at B&N over this. "Oh, you'll be able to install anything you want on it."
So I bought one as a gift and immediately downloaded some apks (notably a decent browser).
Then they came out with that damn update that locked the Fucker down.
I can't even apply updates to the installed Opera browser. Without wiping/cryogenning the fucker.
Never again will B&N trick me into buying into their locked down hardware. My cheap, unlocked, rooted, Chinese Tablets work just fine.
When they become old, useless or die (from being prison made hacks), I'll discard them and still be better off price and content wise.
You do realize you are speaking of a rock roughly the size of a large van or small delivery truck travelling in space at extreme speeds that once they hit the atmosphere are hypersonic speeds. There aren't any designated travel lanes to look out for in space, and tryin to spot a rock the size of a truck in a 360 degree spherical space of infinite size is a lot harder than finding a sewing needle in a haystack. So, you know it'd be really freaking amazing if they actually did know about this.
On another note Independence day was about an Alien invasion. I think you might be thinking along the lines of the Armegeddon film and it's ilk. There are many issues with blow it up into littler pieces. But that idea is mostly bad for a rock of any considerable size. This meteorite is estimated to be only a few meters in size, maybe 10 tons. The football field size DA14 headed for a "safe" flyby (I'm still waiting to see if it happens to hits a satellite or two on it's way by), would produce hundreds or maybe thousands of rocks this size. While they would be unlikely to do much "surface" damage, if it passed over any metropolitan area you could probably expecte 10s or 100s of thousands injuries and possibly some fatalities and 10s to 100s of millions in property damage.
A better course is to shove to a different trajectory. Like a game of billiards. Although, I'm not happy about that idea much either. Too many variables on unwanted side affects.
I'd mod this up, but then couldn't comment in this thread. The information about this past history indeeds supports the suicidal tendency he was burdened with. I too have long had a will, and have planned many possible exits from this sometimes pain filled world. I have no doubt that this case pushed him over the edge, given the overzealous apporach taken by this felon of a prosecuting attorney. The real criminal in this case, if you ask me.
You sir, are cluesless. Only an idiot tries to commit suicide and fails. Most of the ones who try to commit suicide and fail are in desperate need of help and don't really wish to die. The ones who try and succeed actually want to die. Further, it's easy to say that faced with financial ruin, an order from a judge not to seek public financial support and facing 50+ years in prison, you wouldn't also commit suicide. Yes, many guilty and bad people face 30 years, 50 years, life or even execution for crimes fitting those terms and don't commit suicide. But how anyone can consider downloading the JSTOR Acedemic article archive as a serious felony worth 50 years in a Federal Prison, is revolting. How you got modded insightful is a mystery to me. As you clearly have no grasp of psychology or the what drives suicide.
You misunderstand my comment. I mean only, if you look closely, you'll see that Linux would far more expensive to "write" and "sell commercially", than any other program. So more expensive in "development cost", only.
As for Windows, it's actually been fairly stable for a long time.
I much prefer the Linux kernel. Although, I've had to abadon both KDE and Gnome, due to the dystopic mindset of the developers. Which has been a bit of a step backwards in the use of Linux, making things harder for me on a regular basis. The same exact type of behavior that drove me away from Windows in the first place (that and the entire concept and mindset of Linux and FOSS).
Windows is still too annoying, so it's still not an option for me [except that I need to use it for my clients who depend on it.]. On top of the licensing BS.
I know at least one person who loves Windows 8. [sends shivers down my spine, and that feeling you get when you are completely grossed out.]
Well seomtimes the right way is more expensive than an almost as good way, and the cost-benefit ratio doesn't justify the right way. Perhaps, a b-tree algorithm is the best thing to do at a point in the code, but an already written sorted list will be nearly as good. Do you take the time to write a custom b-tree function, or link to the existing sorted-list, when you need to ship in two days? The sorted list is known to be bug free and working.
Take that choice and multiply it by 500 and you get an idea of why code might look like crap, but be very stable and easy to maintain, and faster to implement.
Consider the man-hours involved in building the Linux kernel, and then figure out what you'd have to charge per copy to pay all those people a decent wage.
That is the difference between commercial software developed by for-profit companies, and open-source. I'd give odds the Linus kernel is incontrovertibly the most expensive working application ever written.
Actually the Space Shuttle Challenger was a design choice to save on the cost of shipping the tanks to Florida. The alternate one piece design didn't fit through one specific tunnel along the railroad from the plant to Florida, and would have required overland transit. It was well known within the industry. The other tank design was nearly identical to the design used by Russia. I was in an aerospace engineering class when this happened, and we studied the problem. I'm positive my professor already knew the answer, he was part of NASA's team.
This is so very true. I remember when a company I worked for hired another company to come in and upgrade our code to make it y2k compliant.
First they analysed the code and found the places it needed fixing. We spent time teaching them about parts of the code and they would frequently come and ask us about certain pieces of code. They then made the changes to the code. We knew we had a y2k issue, and where most of it was. A lot of the code they changed was very old, and not actively maintained, because of code maturity.
Five years later we were still fixing bugs they introduced to the code in the process of updating it.
Messing with stable and ugly or pretty code is a hornets nest. You might make it look better, and introduce new or even old bugs. I am guilty of that myself. I've even come back to my own code years later and said, "WTF? This is crap code". I would then "fix it", only to figure out, it was needed. Sometimes, you just need to add a hack in code to make it work. Sometimes you forget to comment that hack.
You ignore the group of people who actually enjoy coding, over the other tasks you mention. I've known excellent and poor coders, coders who've moved up the corporate ladder and coders that were utter failures. Certificate boys and lazy old-timers and lazy young slackers.
As for me, I've been doiing this for over 20 years. I still write a ton of code. I also own the company and am the majority stockholder.
I prefer to do coding over management tasks, but manage to squeeze some of that in too. I set the designs, along with others.
Perhaps you've just been unfortunate in your choices of companies. It's big world, full of many variations. I try not to make generalizations on entire categories of people. I've worked in maybe a dozen fields on multiple continents over more than 4 decades, with thousands and thousands of people. The IT field is no different than any other field, people come in every flavor imaginable, and some you'd never imagine. I've run five successful and profitable companies and done pretty much every task involved. I hold multiple degrees in various technical fields. To tell a little more about my case. You won't hurt my feelings. I'm comfortable with what I am and what I do, and don't need anyone patting me on the back. I make my own way and always have.
I disagree, while I was being rather grandiose on the submarine bit, my point was we routinely do long mission type activities. Rather than do an artificial study, there is a wealth of real world data to draw from and analyze. But apparently that leap of logic was too much for your amazing brain, and you took too literal an interpretation.
Secondly, we are still the same people. Doing a considerable amount of historical searching, one thing is clear we have not changed much in 500 years. We've gotten more advanced, and mostly better educated, most do less physically demanding work, are relatively better off financially, etc. But for the most part we've not changed much physiologically, and arestill capable of doing the things we did 100, 200, 500 or even a 1000 years ago.
Thirdly, I never said the editor was an idiot, merely that he/she didn't bother to look deep enough before posting this unworthy of /. study news.
Lastly, I'm impressed at your extreme powers of intelligence detention being able to determine an idiot from a single paragraph of a written opinion, while simultaneously ignoring higher intellect functions.