Don't forget, they also redefined the term Astronomer when they started letting Tyson call himself an Astronomer. The man is a shameless self-promoter and a director of a planetarium, not an observatory. A planetarium where they do laser light shows for stoners to Grateful Dead or Pink Floyd music. Unlike some true astronomers who actually discovered a planet, Tyson's planet discovery count is negative one. That's why I prefer to call him a "dwarf astronomer".
I made the error of buying a few items through Alibaba. Everything is either misrepresented, falsely speced, defective or counterfeit. While Alibaba maintains the pretext of settling disputes with the thieves, they always side with the thieves, so much so that the thieves don't even bother to dispute customers claims, they know that Alibaba always sides with them anyway. Avoid buying anything through Alibaba or buy one share of stock, if you can manage to go to the shareholder meeting and try to hold people accountable.
The plane was stolen. Forget about failures that there are no reason to think happened, about explosions or mechanical failures, about suicides or searching the ocean for debris. Just figure out where a stolen 777 was taken and you'll find the plane.
"It starts transmitting when something goes wrong"
In theory it might start transmitting when something goes wrong, but clearly things can "go wrong" that would also prevent the start of the transmission. For example, if a couple of hijackers steal a plane and fly it to Thailand, they will turn off the device around the same time that they turn off the transponder. And just diverting the plane to a different location isn't likely to be detected as "something going wrong" to start the data transmission anyway.
Either your math is off (way off) or your standards are too low. 30 years ago it had already gone to hell. Selling defective crap at inflated prices. Selling improperly spec'ed replacement transistors and similar parts. Sure, I'll grant you that they have managed to raise their prices faster than the rate of inflation since then, even when most other electronics prices are dropping, but it had already become a place to avoid 30 or even 35 years ago for anyone with a clue.
When you charge more for one button cell battery than mail order places charge for 50. including shipping costs, you don't need a lot of customers. Just a trickle of people coming in and thinking they need something or being open to being convinced they need it from the stores "experts" and who have no idea of what the fair price should be. But at least we are starting to see that business plan break down. 1100 is a good start.
As to your 20 questions complaint, they always swear that they never sell or share your info. But decades ago I started giving RS my mailing info with a middle initial of R in my name. My middle name doesn't start with an R, it was just a flag to see where my junk mail was coming from. Sure enough, within a year, I was getting junk mail from "Bell & Howell Schools" (remember them?) wanting to sell me an education in electronics, with that R prominently placed between my first and last name.
No, you're wrong. I saw a Raspberry Pi kit in a Radio Shack just last month. But at a price well over $100, it was just an insult to anyone who knows what they should sell for.
The company has for decades destroyed their reputation. If there were a RS store and an independent next to it selling similar things, I would gladly pay a bit more at the other store for similar items just to avoid buying it as RS. Not that I would have a high expectation that I would be getting something better at the other store, but at least I wouldn't be expecting things to be defective because I bought them at RS.
Decent science and electronics kits and related items are getting rarer and rarer. Even the people who say that they "built" their own computers now actually are only appliance users who just stuck together a dozen or so pre-assembled parts and never touched a soldering iron, likely don't even own one. A real brick-and-mortar store that catered to true hobbyists would be hard pressed to survive anywhere except extremely densely populated areas with above average technical customers. I don't see how they could make it as a national chain with thousands of locations, even if they had not built a reputation for selling defective items at extremely high prices.
As far as I'm concerned, Radio Shack's business model has long been to sell overpriced but inferior merchandise. In many areas it is the only place one can physically go to by some electronic parts, so it does get some traffic even from people who are reluctant to buy from them. If they were to go on-line only, I expect that they would soon be out of business completely, a result that I would not feel bad about because just maybe someone else might try to fill the void.
Even the simplest things bought from RS seem to be plagued with defects. I've bought cables from them and found them intermittent and once I bought a simple 2 to 1 telephone jack and, when my phone wouldn't dial when connected through it, I found it was wired wrong. Their electronic component "substitutes" are frequently improperly spec'ed. And as to price, I recently saw a Raspberry Pi kit in Radio Shack, it was priced well over $100.
May these stores just be the first, I'll be glad to see them all go.
More appropriately, some random, anonymous Internet entity will be able to communicate with you. Of course, the NSA will know who that entity is, so they are really only keeping their identity secret from you. Pretty much like all that spam email that you receive now.
Unfortunately, the public will be allowed only half that image quality, the best being reserved for the U.S. military.
This is somewhat to be expected for things like GPS (at least if you ignore that the taxpayers are the ones paying for it). But why is this the case when the instruments are being financed by a private company. Or, to look at it another way, the photos fall into two general categories: those outside the U.S.A. and those inside the U.S.A. It is hard to understand that our military would have many problems with us getting the best images available for locations outside the U.S.A. But it is even harder to understand that the military should get better images of the U.S.A. through Google than we can get ourselves. At least in times of peace and while they claim to not be at war with their own citizens. They have their own spy satellites for the super high resolution images (and don't kid yourself that they don't use them). So how and why has it been decided that we are to get degraded images from a private company when we could get better?
Lets just trust that the Feds would never abuse our help. That this isn't an effort on their part to examine malware in order to build better malware, or an effort to see what malware that we are able to detect to better help them build malware that we can't detect. After all, have they ever abused our trust in the past?
Sounds good. Adobe seems to be finally doing its part to kill DRM. I look forward to all the chumps who bought DRMed books no longer being able to read the library they purchased when their current reader dies.
Microsoft should stat using the Roman numeral for One for things like their services and devices. I can't imagine it would upset anyone using the lesser lowe case i for their products.
"Weatherley noted that the Bill does not currently match penalties for online infringement with...."
Are you talking about someone named William here? Or is there so much reverence to the idea of jailing someone who fights back against copyright abuse that this law is taking on god-like significance? Is there any reason at all that this reads "the Bill" rather than simply "the bill"?
No, it is real, but it might not be enough to save humanity from the next coming ice age. Some of us have been warming things up to try to prevent that disaster, but environmentalist wackos are fighting us.
Not only have the U.S. factories stopped production, but the equipment has been sold and shipped off-shore. The U.S. jobs for making these things are gone, they will not be coming back. We may end up shipping in foreign made bulbs, but since they were so inexpensive when U.S. made, expect to see the price increase and the balance of trade get worse.
Never give your Gmail account to anyone. Or any real final account. Get a free forwarding account at Spamgourmet.com and give every site that you want to sign up for a unique address. That way you can cut them off when they start to spam or when they get hacked and their database is stolen. And you can tell where spam from third parties came from if it comes through a spamgourmet address. Great people. Completely free anti-s[am service. And I can tell from the way that I structured the email address that I gave them that they have never abused the information that I gave them.
I've even had close friends get hacked and my email address harvested from them. So it is better if all of your friends send through their own unique spamgourmet addresses to reach you, that way you can change one address if an email gets harvested and not have to abandon your mail mail account and notify hundreds of contacts of the change.
As to the eight or more people that you are getting mail for, I doubt that you can do much to help them. They and/or their contacts are clearly clueless. Just remember the old saying: No good deed goes unpunished.
So if we do manage to send the ship with all of the bureaucrats and hair stylists and telephone sanitizers to Mars, what is the point of trying to maintain communications 24/7? After all, pretty much anything that you do without science fiction technology is going to have a round trip delay of up to 1/2 hour or so at some times. The "colony" has to be pretty damn independent. I don't see any real need to convince yourself that you have 24/7 communications with delays like they would experience. Even daily communication would need some sort of relay when the sun gets in the way, but trying for 24/7 is overkill and pointless.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't forget, they also redefined the term Astronomer when they started letting Tyson call himself an Astronomer. The man is a shameless self-promoter and a director of a planetarium, not an observatory. A planetarium where they do laser light shows for stoners to Grateful Dead or Pink Floyd music. Unlike some true astronomers who actually discovered a planet, Tyson's planet discovery count is negative one. That's why I prefer to call him a "dwarf astronomer".
Bullshit. They remove the bad reviews. Don't take my word for it, read what others say on Reseller Ratings.
I made the error of buying a few items through Alibaba. Everything is either misrepresented, falsely speced, defective or counterfeit. While Alibaba maintains the pretext of settling disputes with the thieves, they always side with the thieves, so much so that the thieves don't even bother to dispute customers claims, they know that Alibaba always sides with them anyway. Avoid buying anything through Alibaba or buy one share of stock, if you can manage to go to the shareholder meeting and try to hold people accountable.
Don't waste time speculating on a motive. It doesn't prove anything and does not find the plane.
Don't waste time speculating on who. It is on;y speculation and does not find the plane.
Focus on determining where the plane went, where it is and how it is being hidden. That will lead to the other answers.
The plane was stolen. Forget about failures that there are no reason to think happened, about explosions or mechanical failures, about suicides or searching the ocean for debris. Just figure out where a stolen 777 was taken and you'll find the plane.
"It starts transmitting when something goes wrong"
In theory it might start transmitting when something goes wrong, but clearly things can "go wrong" that would also prevent the start of the transmission. For example, if a couple of hijackers steal a plane and fly it to Thailand, they will turn off the device around the same time that they turn off the transponder. And just diverting the plane to a different location isn't likely to be detected as "something going wrong" to start the data transmission anyway.
Either your math is off (way off) or your standards are too low. 30 years ago it had already gone to hell. Selling defective crap at inflated prices. Selling improperly spec'ed replacement transistors and similar parts. Sure, I'll grant you that they have managed to raise their prices faster than the rate of inflation since then, even when most other electronics prices are dropping, but it had already become a place to avoid 30 or even 35 years ago for anyone with a clue.
When you charge more for one button cell battery than mail order places charge for 50. including shipping costs, you don't need a lot of customers. Just a trickle of people coming in and thinking they need something or being open to being convinced they need it from the stores "experts" and who have no idea of what the fair price should be. But at least we are starting to see that business plan break down. 1100 is a good start.
As to your 20 questions complaint, they always swear that they never sell or share your info. But decades ago I started giving RS my mailing info with a middle initial of R in my name. My middle name doesn't start with an R, it was just a flag to see where my junk mail was coming from. Sure enough, within a year, I was getting junk mail from "Bell & Howell Schools" (remember them?) wanting to sell me an education in electronics, with that R prominently placed between my first and last name.
No, you're wrong. I saw a Raspberry Pi kit in a Radio Shack just last month. But at a price well over $100, it was just an insult to anyone who knows what they should sell for.
The company has for decades destroyed their reputation. If there were a RS store and an independent next to it selling similar things, I would gladly pay a bit more at the other store for similar items just to avoid buying it as RS. Not that I would have a high expectation that I would be getting something better at the other store, but at least I wouldn't be expecting things to be defective because I bought them at RS.
Decent science and electronics kits and related items are getting rarer and rarer. Even the people who say that they "built" their own computers now actually are only appliance users who just stuck together a dozen or so pre-assembled parts and never touched a soldering iron, likely don't even own one. A real brick-and-mortar store that catered to true hobbyists would be hard pressed to survive anywhere except extremely densely populated areas with above average technical customers. I don't see how they could make it as a national chain with thousands of locations, even if they had not built a reputation for selling defective items at extremely high prices.
As far as I'm concerned, Radio Shack's business model has long been to sell overpriced but inferior merchandise. In many areas it is the only place one can physically go to by some electronic parts, so it does get some traffic even from people who are reluctant to buy from them. If they were to go on-line only, I expect that they would soon be out of business completely, a result that I would not feel bad about because just maybe someone else might try to fill the void.
Even the simplest things bought from RS seem to be plagued with defects. I've bought cables from them and found them intermittent and once I bought a simple 2 to 1 telephone jack and, when my phone wouldn't dial when connected through it, I found it was wired wrong. Their electronic component "substitutes" are frequently improperly spec'ed. And as to price, I recently saw a Raspberry Pi kit in Radio Shack, it was priced well over $100.
May these stores just be the first, I'll be glad to see them all go.
Wouldn't any first post that says "first post" in it be redundant?
More appropriately, some random, anonymous Internet entity will be able to communicate with you. Of course, the NSA will know who that entity is, so they are really only keeping their identity secret from you. Pretty much like all that spam email that you receive now.
The U.S. currently spends more on defense than the combined total of the next 12 countries, as ranked by defense spending.
But that isn't really a fair comparison. After all, a lot of that spending is really for aggression, not defense.
Unfortunately, the public will be allowed only half that image quality, the best being reserved for the U.S. military.
This is somewhat to be expected for things like GPS (at least if you ignore that the taxpayers are the ones paying for it). But why is this the case when the instruments are being financed by a private company. Or, to look at it another way, the photos fall into two general categories: those outside the U.S.A. and those inside the U.S.A. It is hard to understand that our military would have many problems with us getting the best images available for locations outside the U.S.A. But it is even harder to understand that the military should get better images of the U.S.A. through Google than we can get ourselves. At least in times of peace and while they claim to not be at war with their own citizens. They have their own spy satellites for the super high resolution images (and don't kid yourself that they don't use them). So how and why has it been decided that we are to get degraded images from a private company when we could get better?
See. They sized it at 27 kilometers. If the had made it 27 miles instead it would be much more powerfuler.
Lets just trust that the Feds would never abuse our help. That this isn't an effort on their part to examine malware in order to build better malware, or an effort to see what malware that we are able to detect to better help them build malware that we can't detect. After all, have they ever abused our trust in the past?
readers unable to buy DRMed ebooks
Sounds good. Adobe seems to be finally doing its part to kill DRM. I look forward to all the chumps who bought DRMed books no longer being able to read the library they purchased when their current reader dies.
Microsoft should stat using the Roman numeral for One for things like their services and devices. I can't imagine it would upset anyone using the lesser lowe case i for their products.
"Weatherley noted that the Bill does not currently match penalties for online infringement with...."
Are you talking about someone named William here? Or is there so much reverence to the idea of jailing someone who fights back against copyright abuse that this law is taking on god-like significance? Is there any reason at all that this reads "the Bill" rather than simply "the bill"?
No, it is real, but it might not be enough to save humanity from the next coming ice age. Some of us have been warming things up to try to prevent that disaster, but environmentalist wackos are fighting us.
Not only have the U.S. factories stopped production, but the equipment has been sold and shipped off-shore. The U.S. jobs for making these things are gone, they will not be coming back. We may end up shipping in foreign made bulbs, but since they were so inexpensive when U.S. made, expect to see the price increase and the balance of trade get worse.
Never give your Gmail account to anyone. Or any real final account. Get a free forwarding account at Spamgourmet.com and give every site that you want to sign up for a unique address. That way you can cut them off when they start to spam or when they get hacked and their database is stolen. And you can tell where spam from third parties came from if it comes through a spamgourmet address. Great people. Completely free anti-s[am service. And I can tell from the way that I structured the email address that I gave them that they have never abused the information that I gave them.
I've even had close friends get hacked and my email address harvested from them. So it is better if all of your friends send through their own unique spamgourmet addresses to reach you, that way you can change one address if an email gets harvested and not have to abandon your mail mail account and notify hundreds of contacts of the change.
As to the eight or more people that you are getting mail for, I doubt that you can do much to help them. They and/or their contacts are clearly clueless. Just remember the old saying: No good deed goes unpunished.
So if we do manage to send the ship with all of the bureaucrats and hair stylists and telephone sanitizers to Mars, what is the point of trying to maintain communications 24/7? After all, pretty much anything that you do without science fiction technology is going to have a round trip delay of up to 1/2 hour or so at some times. The "colony" has to be pretty damn independent. I don't see any real need to convince yourself that you have 24/7 communications with delays like they would experience. Even daily communication would need some sort of relay when the sun gets in the way, but trying for 24/7 is overkill and pointless.
Windows 8. 'nuff said.