"Joking aside, how things have turned around hey? Although to be fair to Dell..."
Want to be fair? Let's take another look at the Dell business model, shall we?
The industry works according to many 'rules', one of which is the 80/20 citation, saying between two parties, for every dollar transacted at the end, one party will get 80% and the other 20%.
As an example, let's say HP sells a monitor, that is actually manufactured by Samsung. HP knows it will garner approx. 80% of every dollar transacted on the final sale. One monitor sold, at a retail price of USD100.00, which Samsung charged HP $50 for, means a profit of USD$50.00. HP knows that after all expenses are paid, they will net 80%, or USD $40.00 out of that USD$50.00. Samsung knows that after all expenses are paid on their end, they will net USD$10.00 (20% out of that USD$50.00 profit on the back).
As an investor, you typically assume that if you buy HP stock, they will work to maintain that 80% - same with Samsung being expected to negotiate their 20%.
If you learned that HP was settling for 70% and letting Samsung get away with 30%, you might be less inclined to invest in HP and start throwing money into Samsung instead, right? And if that kept up, it would just be a matter of time before HP went out of business, as it rightly should, under such circumstances.
Dell, on the other hand, ignores the gentleman's agreed 80/20 and pushes for as much more as they can get...90/10, anyone? 95/5? 100/0...? Been there, seen that.
Substitute Dell for HP in the above, and then consider...what happens? Dell is a GREAT company and investors love the ROI. Samsung, on the other hand, needs to tread lightly - perhaps it can afford to participate at 90/10 for a short time, hoping that Dell will eventually back off and both sides can move towards a profit balance, but if Samsung continues and doesn't pay attention, it soon starts to collapse. Can't pay bills or negotiate decent contracts with suppliers...investors start walking away. Samsung dies because Dell hollowed them out.
This is the Dell model. Hollow out your suppliers and when one dies, move to another. Scorched earth 21st century style. Nice for Dell, right? Not in the long run, because the day will come when there are either no more suppliers to kill, or no supplier will do business with them. Both of those have happened, and that is where we are today.
Dell is dead, period, as we know it. Maybe Micheal should consider selling sugared water:) I'd rather he stayed away from business altogether.
...for every individual that eventually surfaces, such as the in this case, there are dozens more that manage to stay just outside the spotlite - those are the really interesting stories.
"...the failure of more CIOs to become CEO has to be one of the biggest mysteries of our age"
When it comes to CIOs, there are at least two types of individuals involved. [a] Those that did this, that & the other, eventually finding themselves as CIO's [b] Those that did the very same things, came from the same backgrounds, had the same basic skill sets, etc., yet never served as CIOs, eventually finding themselves as CEOs.
An assumption/expectation that a CIO's next step is to CEO, is analogous to saying "My cat was old and slow and got eaten by large dogs. Why don't more old cats end up being eaten by large dogs? I mean, since they're old and slow, they seem to be prime targets for such a demise. I'm shocked!" Some do, some don't - some die from natural causes...some die from unnatural causes, but mostly, many never get old because they die before joining that particular club. The forking occurs much earlier than this guy thinks, that's all.
With the possibility that NASA will embrace the metric system, they could find this as an excuse to redeploy every sensor that previously flew. Screw spreadsheet conversions, we want real data, just to be sure.
Sarcasm aside, NASA stopped being relevant years ago, so there should not be any surprise to hear that various information gathering projects/systems are soon to be extinct.
Naturally, when NASA needs a cash infusion, it cries to the public, Jane and John Doe - don't forget how many mission manifests were DoD related. I don't recall all that information moving into the public domain.
I'm sure the EU and/or the Chinese will be happy to take over for the next few decades. And why not - it seems about time someone else's tax $$ were spent instead of mine.
"
I believe it could be done if it were an automatically generated tag set...it would be hard for anyone to disagree."
Gotta luv those ifs - With English due to be a minority language before ye' know it, and since I already know Chinese/Japanese/Korean, let's just jump right ahead and use strokes. What? You don't have a clue? But what about the math-proven, optimally certain, shit-in-my-pants if it ain't true proposal ya'll just laid out...? Lead by example, ok?
"My question to that organization is, why in the year 2006 do you have employees who do not possess the skills to use basic, standard tools to process basic business information..."
I'm reminded of a govt. study, days gone by, that claimed it took 7 hours average to train an employee on a Mac OS and 17 days for Windows.
Those 'basic skills' you mention are tied to the tools, no? Put an employee in a building where the door handles and light switches make sense and off they go - put them into another building where door handles and light switches are no longer consistent and you can expect call after call on how to enter a given room and where the hell is the light switch. File a complaint with HR about hiring unskilled workers and guess what...? You forgot to mention which building they would be assigned to work in, perhaps, and now who is root cause?
Now, don't get me wrong - I agree that too many staffers don't know their way around a virtual desktop. But blaming them is perhaps throwing a blanket over the entire problem. How many staffers lie on their resume about being 'MS OFFICE' capable? How many are even tested for basic typing skills? Clamp down on just those two examples and the workplace would come to a screeching halt. Then the real excrement hits the ventilator. 100% full resume and skills alignment from HR before hiring? 30 days to bring all employees into compliance?...starting with managers, and while we're at it, let's do some logic tests just to be through. Uh oh...not me...I meant go after all those OTHER idiots. I'm fine, trust me - just get the bottom-feeders off the payroll and we can all go back to work.
"Call it iCisco. Turnabout is fair play and I doubt they trademarked that specific name."
Been around that tree a few times, already.
There was one new product that had progressed so far as to have only received internal project status, and was named 'Sagan', out of admiration for Carl Sagan. Sagan's attorneys had a fit and jumped all over Apple when word leaked out about this...not like Apple was going to use it in public or anything.
Apple had to back off, and as a result, they changed the project name to 'butt-head astronomer'.
"As slick as Apple's UI is, they have no way of replicating such a simple and critical feature as the ability to locate a "home" key on your device's interface for "no-look" dialing."
And no need. The iPhone has one button, lower front/middle, called the 'Home' button. Punch it...say the name you want and wait for the other party to come online - no answer? You will have the option to SMS, email or IM that same number.
Why carry your library around when you can tap into it from ***anywhere*** (via Rendeouvous, as one example)...? You can serve up your iTunes library from your home, using your Mac as a server and a bit PHP. Just tap into the server and play any song or playlist you desire.
As for the price - look at what an array of devices that provide the collective functions of this one device would cost. iPod ($200); cellphone ($300); digital camera ($200); PDA ($300) - Comes to $1000.00. Sure, you can have similar and spend less, such as getting a 'free' phone w/service, but the point is still the same. Look at just how much it would cost to carry a single 8gb storage device, and then think of that same device with WiFi and Bluetooth. Or that same device that can output to your TV wirelessly? Point is, the size of your media library and the iPhone cost are not the factors they may seem to be, especially using 'in the box' thinking that pertains to technology that is already mainstream.
Buckminster Fuller wanted to give every other person a lathe, and have the first thing each of them made to be another lathe - so, buy a 3D printer and make another one for a friend:)
"Bill Gates yesterday on live CNN at CES voiced his backing of..."
The chump also said that the world wants and needs 'variety', claiming that Apple is at a significant disadvantage due to the 'lock-in' as demonstrated by iTS. I want some of what he seems to be smoking...
BG has never shown much vision in terms of knowing what lies ahead. Note that his book 'The Road Ahead' is now pretty much just a list of things he got wrong back then - and there is nothing now that so much as hints the clown's predictive skills have improved.
"I am pretty sure that Microsoft makes sony look like a joke right now."
Both look like jokes and both are fully capable of achieving said status all on their own, without help from the other.
"You're in trouble the first time you try selling the water bag to someone whose car you repaired a few weeks previously."
Well, duh:)
A good con man always remembers the mark... Not stepping in it is all part of the dodge. Most times, during those days, it was one way, and the odds of seeing the same mark were pretty low. Families and individuals going to California to make a new start for their future, right after the war, were all part of an influx that would last for decades.
U-Haul celebrated 60 successful years in 2005, which puts them in business starting in 1945. The 'American Dream' that drove the migration west kept U-Haul busy and growing, and it wasn't until 1987 before their records revealed more equipment leaving California than was going in.
"Pollution outside the factory...
In 1977, Union Carbide constructed Solar Evaporation Ponds - covering an area of 14 hectares - 400 metres north of it's factory. The land was acquired by the Department of Industries, Madhya Pradesh government, from five farmers who were paid no compensation. Chemical toxic wastes and by-products were henceforth also dumped at these sites."
That's what the press release(s) said - once the White House spin machine got hold of it, and someone noticed that 'historectioptimy' was too long for the average American to grasp & that neither 'arse' nor 'butt' was the right way to spell 'face', history took yet another slight left turn and viola...story now garners sympathy rather than guffawpathy.
"Please give examples or something of how this could be used for ill purposes. Yes, I realize it is obvious to most people but I'm a beginner."
A beginner & an AC - wants to know exactly how to execute the 'bad thing', and promises not to inhale:)
Oh...rudimentary...well, that's different. Since Acer would presumably have the power to control any aspect of your computer when you use it to log onto any webpage, all they need to do is to wait for you to access a site under their control, and bingo, they can lift all of your installation logs, cookies, saved passwords, MS WORD docs containing the words 'budget; personal; finance; medical; records; debt; sex, SSN (and all applicable variants),etc.
OK, let's say you are gullible enough to think that they can take all of that they want, and still not put you at risk - now, think for just a moment about who 'they' are...? What are the odds of 'they' going to all that trouble and not having some plan to do something with what they glean that you will not be pleased with...? Still not impressed?
How's this... Acer sits around and waits for just the right time and boom - they toggle a flag on your computer that makes it appear that it needs to have XYZ repaired, and what do you know, the only resource is...ACER!!
A new age variation on the old water-bag trick. One guy owned two service stations. One station was the last stop before heading out of LA, into the desert, heading for Palm Springs. The other was the last service station before heading out of Palm Springs, out across the desert, heading for LA. When a car stops on the LA side, the station staff sell the unaware traveler a scary story about being in the desert and having the car break down from overheating. Seems, tho, if you buy a canvas water-bag filled with water, and hang it on your car's front grille, it will supposedly help cool the air before it flows across the radiator. Best insurance money can buy. Thank ya now, ya'll have a safe trip!:)
Problem is, that big 'ol canvas bag actually blocks the airflow, and by the time you get near the other side of the desert, your car overheats and you have to pay the Palm Springs service station to come and tow your car and fix everything that broke from overheating. Not a small fee, even in those days. They explain how the bag is what did the damage, and the hapless owner tells them to keep it.
What do you think the Palm Springs service station guys do with the demon water-bag? Well, of course, they sell it to the next dupe going from there to LA, and even help by attaching it to the grille of his car. Thank ya now, ya'll have a safe trip!:)
I figure that one bag most likely made dozens of round trips across the Mohave, and put at least two generations of kids thru law school:)
Rumor has it owning those two stations was the fastest way to retirement until the big casinos came in and the real pocket-picking took off.
"Also, I'd love to see you provide a modern example of people being dislocated from their farm-land in order to build an oil field (or any other kind of business), and then having no option but to work for that company."
For some reason I get the distinct impression that you're just talking out of your ass.:)
China, Three Gorges Project - 1.3 million relocated
China, Hunan Province, 2006 - Water Pollution Control Facility ...the list goes on & on.
1.) What does the 25+ year old orbiter have to do with a pair of terrain crawlers on Mars, specifically (rhetorically)? And what does flight software have to do with them now, please explain, thanks.
2.) "You have not the slightest idea what these spacecraft-software guys are capable of and how insanely bulletproof their code is."
You simplify things to no end, I see...sorry for that. Let's start, and end, with the failure to convert from standard to metric that caused that one Mars surface mission fail, shall we? Opps. The best software in the galaxy means nothing if the overall effort isn't done right, so please don't worry that someone may have made fun of just the code:) Funny tho, that all the software people got so easily rankled over a hint that there may be issues there - if there is no worry, why so much diatribe towards software's defense:) A bit of thin skin for some reason, eh? And please try to also understand, it was a joke...laugh...it's funny.
I'm not talking about JUST the software... I am talking about the overall logic of the tasked individuals and their efforts that lead to decisions such as this one, which in this case, happened to involve software specifically, but certainly not only. The original live time for these two rovers was 90 days - after that, new ideas are on the table...that's why it is called 'free' time, because it is all 'extra' time that was never planned for and now begs to be utilized.
As good a thing as that is, someone, sooner or later, is going to ask the question why didn't they know this? And for anyone that shouts "This is Mars! anything can happen!", yes, of course...but why did the original plan not include at least some options for extended runs then, instead of working them now as if the two units were a sandbox, that's all I'm saying.
Concept...you know - an idea that prompts another idea, as an example?
Your.79c socket matured decades ago, and will willingly flow power to any conductor able to penetrate one of the hot slots. And despite your very rigid non-stated Edwardian beliefs and desire to put-down something that falls outside that dormant little box you live in, these sheets won't be available @ HD any time soon at any price, so put away the fud and go back to reading by candle light:)
They are simply another proof-of-concept...something the Japanese love to put on display, of course. I can imagine being able to lay devices on such a device to charge my cell-phone, etc. - anything needing charging...flashlite; iPod; bluetooth headphones; police radio; personal vibrator; PDA...a circuit to detect and communicate with whatever is in contact would be trivial, and an obvious part of any marketable product. You could drop conductors on it all day long, including water, and without a controller to initiate power to the contact zone, nada. Lick it for all it cares.
Recall the topic here recently about China and South Korea moving to standardized chargers? This falls into the same area, being concept-driven, as it seems to be. Additional/separate & wired chargers would be 'standardized' (as in gone) because they would not be needed with something like this around. The charger-less product would then sell for less, since your home or apartment or hotel room or office desk or car/boat/plane/train armrest would already have one of these built-in.
Have you lived in either country? I've lived in both, and believe me, these days I'll take China (where I'm living now) over the peninsula any day of the week.
Oh, and since when is governmental mandatory hardware configuration democratic..?
Slashdot Mirror
"Joking aside, how things have turned around hey? Although to be fair to Dell..."
:) I'd rather he stayed away from business altogether.
Want to be fair? Let's take another look at the Dell business model, shall we?
The industry works according to many 'rules', one of which is the 80/20 citation, saying between two parties, for every dollar transacted at the end, one party will get 80% and the other 20%.
As an example, let's say HP sells a monitor, that is actually manufactured by Samsung. HP knows it will garner approx. 80% of every dollar transacted on the final sale. One monitor sold, at a retail price of USD100.00, which Samsung charged HP $50 for, means a profit of USD$50.00. HP knows that after all expenses are paid, they will net 80%, or USD $40.00 out of that USD$50.00. Samsung knows that after all expenses are paid on their end, they will net USD$10.00 (20% out of that USD$50.00 profit on the back).
As an investor, you typically assume that if you buy HP stock, they will work to maintain that 80% - same with Samsung being expected to negotiate their 20%.
If you learned that HP was settling for 70% and letting Samsung get away with 30%, you might be less inclined to invest in HP and start throwing money into Samsung instead, right? And if that kept up, it would just be a matter of time before HP went out of business, as it rightly should, under such circumstances.
Dell, on the other hand, ignores the gentleman's agreed 80/20 and pushes for as much more as they can get...90/10, anyone? 95/5? 100/0...? Been there, seen that.
Substitute Dell for HP in the above, and then consider...what happens? Dell is a GREAT company and investors love the ROI. Samsung, on the other hand, needs to tread lightly - perhaps it can afford to participate at 90/10 for a short time, hoping that Dell will eventually back off and both sides can move towards a profit balance, but if Samsung continues and doesn't pay attention, it soon starts to collapse. Can't pay bills or negotiate decent contracts with suppliers...investors start walking away. Samsung dies because Dell hollowed them out.
This is the Dell model. Hollow out your suppliers and when one dies, move to another. Scorched earth 21st century style. Nice for Dell, right? Not in the long run, because the day will come when there are either no more suppliers to kill, or no supplier will do business with them. Both of those have happened, and that is where we are today.
Dell is dead, period, as we know it. Maybe Micheal should consider selling sugared water
...the fat lady just finished.
Game over man, GAME OVER!!!!!!
...for every individual that eventually surfaces, such as the in this case, there are dozens more that manage to stay just outside the spotlite - those are the really interesting stories.
"...the failure of more CIOs to become CEO has to be one of the biggest mysteries of our age"
When it comes to CIOs, there are at least two types of individuals involved. [a] Those that did this, that & the other, eventually finding themselves as CIO's [b] Those that did the very same things, came from the same backgrounds, had the same basic skill sets, etc., yet never served as CIOs, eventually finding themselves as CEOs.
An assumption/expectation that a CIO's next step is to CEO, is analogous to saying "My cat was old and slow and got eaten by large dogs. Why don't more old cats end up being eaten by large dogs? I mean, since they're old and slow, they seem to be prime targets for such a demise. I'm shocked!" Some do, some don't - some die from natural causes...some die from unnatural causes, but mostly, many never get old because they die before joining that particular club. The forking occurs much earlier than this guy thinks, that's all.
With the possibility that NASA will embrace the metric system, they could find this as an excuse to redeploy every sensor that previously flew. Screw spreadsheet conversions, we want real data, just to be sure.
Sarcasm aside, NASA stopped being relevant years ago, so there should not be any surprise to hear that various information gathering projects/systems are soon to be extinct.
Naturally, when NASA needs a cash infusion, it cries to the public, Jane and John Doe - don't forget how many mission manifests were DoD related. I don't recall all that information moving into the public domain.
I'm sure the EU and/or the Chinese will be happy to take over for the next few decades. And why not - it seems about time someone else's tax $$ were spent instead of mine.
" I believe it could be done if it were an automatically generated tag set...it would be hard for anyone to disagree."
Gotta luv those ifs - With English due to be a minority language before ye' know it, and since I already know Chinese/Japanese/Korean, let's just jump right ahead and use strokes. What? You don't have a clue? But what about the math-proven, optimally certain, shit-in-my-pants if it ain't true proposal ya'll just laid out...? Lead by example, ok?
"My question to that organization is, why in the year 2006 do you have employees who do not possess the skills to use basic, standard tools to process basic business information..."
...starting with managers, and while we're at it, let's do some logic tests just to be through. Uh oh...not me...I meant go after all those OTHER idiots. I'm fine, trust me - just get the bottom-feeders off the payroll and we can all go back to work.
I'm reminded of a govt. study, days gone by, that claimed it took 7 hours average to train an employee on a Mac OS and 17 days for Windows.
Those 'basic skills' you mention are tied to the tools, no? Put an employee in a building where the door handles and light switches make sense and off they go - put them into another building where door handles and light switches are no longer consistent and you can expect call after call on how to enter a given room and where the hell is the light switch. File a complaint with HR about hiring unskilled workers and guess what...? You forgot to mention which building they would be assigned to work in, perhaps, and now who is root cause?
Now, don't get me wrong - I agree that too many staffers don't know their way around a virtual desktop. But blaming them is perhaps throwing a blanket over the entire problem. How many staffers lie on their resume about being 'MS OFFICE' capable? How many are even tested for basic typing skills? Clamp down on just those two examples and the workplace would come to a screeching halt. Then the real excrement hits the ventilator. 100% full resume and skills alignment from HR before hiring? 30 days to bring all employees into compliance?
...Rocky's Boots - my 4 year old knew more about feedback circuits than 1/2 the engineering students in the local college.
'...by any other name' - thanks :)
"Call it iCisco. Turnabout is fair play and I doubt they trademarked that specific name."
Been around that tree a few times, already.
There was one new product that had progressed so far as to have only received internal project status, and was named 'Sagan', out of admiration for Carl Sagan. Sagan's attorneys had a fit and jumped all over Apple when word leaked out about this...not like Apple was going to use it in public or anything.
Apple had to back off, and as a result, they changed the project name to 'butt-head astronomer'.
"As slick as Apple's UI is, they have no way of replicating such a simple and critical feature as the ability to locate a "home" key on your device's interface for "no-look" dialing."
And no need. The iPhone has one button, lower front/middle, called the 'Home' button. Punch it...say the name you want and wait for the other party to come online - no answer? You will have the option to SMS, email or IM that same number.
Why carry your library around when you can tap into it from ***anywhere*** (via Rendeouvous, as one example)...? You can serve up your iTunes library from your home, using your Mac as a server and a bit PHP. Just tap into the server and play any song or playlist you desire.
As for the price - look at what an array of devices that provide the collective functions of this one device would cost. iPod ($200); cellphone ($300); digital camera ($200); PDA ($300) - Comes to $1000.00. Sure, you can have similar and spend less, such as getting a 'free' phone w/service, but the point is still the same. Look at just how much it would cost to carry a single 8gb storage device, and then think of that same device with WiFi and Bluetooth. Or that same device that can output to your TV wirelessly? Point is, the size of your media library and the iPhone cost are not the factors they may seem to be, especially using 'in the box' thinking that pertains to technology that is already mainstream.
Buckminster Fuller wanted to give every other person a lathe, and have the first thing each of them made to be another lathe - so, buy a 3D printer and make another one for a friend :)
"Bill Gates yesterday on live CNN at CES voiced his backing of ..."
The chump also said that the world wants and needs 'variety', claiming that Apple is at a significant disadvantage due to the 'lock-in' as demonstrated by iTS. I want some of what he seems to be smoking...
BG has never shown much vision in terms of knowing what lies ahead. Note that his book 'The Road Ahead' is now pretty much just a list of things he got wrong back then - and there is nothing now that so much as hints the clown's predictive skills have improved.
"I am pretty sure that Microsoft makes sony look like a joke right now."
Both look like jokes and both are fully capable of achieving said status all on their own, without help from the other.
Ok, I'll bite...
"You're in trouble the first time you try selling the water bag to someone whose car you repaired a few weeks previously."
:)
Well, duh
A good con man always remembers the mark... Not stepping in it is all part of the dodge. Most times, during those days, it was one way, and the odds of seeing the same mark were pretty low. Families and individuals going to California to make a new start for their future, right after the war, were all part of an influx that would last for decades.
U-Haul celebrated 60 successful years in 2005, which puts them in business starting in 1945. The 'American Dream' that drove the migration west kept U-Haul busy and growing, and it wasn't until 1987 before their records revealed more equipment leaving California than was going in.
Fair enough, tho w/6 degrees I'm fairly sure the connection could be made.
Ok, let's try Bhopal...? Contamination and peril were already present for the workers, at least two years before the explosion(s) that killed thousands..
"Pollution outside the factory...
In 1977, Union Carbide constructed Solar Evaporation Ponds - covering an area of 14 hectares - 400 metres north of it's factory. The land was acquired by the Department of Industries, Madhya Pradesh government, from five farmers who were paid no compensation. Chemical toxic wastes and by-products were henceforth also dumped at these sites."
Or blood diamonds in SA...?
That's what the press release(s) said - once the White House spin machine got hold of it, and someone noticed that 'historectioptimy' was too long for the average American to grasp & that neither 'arse' nor 'butt' was the right way to spell 'face', history took yet another slight left turn and viola...story now garners sympathy rather than guffawpathy.
"Please give examples or something of how this could be used for ill purposes. Yes, I realize it is obvious to most people but I'm a beginner."
:)
:)
:)
:)
A beginner & an AC - wants to know exactly how to execute the 'bad thing', and promises not to inhale
Oh...rudimentary...well, that's different. Since Acer would presumably have the power to control any aspect of your computer when you use it to log onto any webpage, all they need to do is to wait for you to access a site under their control, and bingo, they can lift all of your installation logs, cookies, saved passwords, MS WORD docs containing the words 'budget; personal; finance; medical; records; debt; sex, SSN (and all applicable variants),etc.
OK, let's say you are gullible enough to think that they can take all of that they want, and still not put you at risk - now, think for just a moment about who 'they' are...? What are the odds of 'they' going to all that trouble and not having some plan to do something with what they glean that you will not be pleased with...? Still not impressed?
How's this... Acer sits around and waits for just the right time and boom - they toggle a flag on your computer that makes it appear that it needs to have XYZ repaired, and what do you know, the only resource is...ACER!!
A new age variation on the old water-bag trick. One guy owned two service stations. One station was the last stop before heading out of LA, into the desert, heading for Palm Springs. The other was the last service station before heading out of Palm Springs, out across the desert, heading for LA. When a car stops on the LA side, the station staff sell the unaware traveler a scary story about being in the desert and having the car break down from overheating. Seems, tho, if you buy a canvas water-bag filled with water, and hang it on your car's front grille, it will supposedly help cool the air before it flows across the radiator. Best insurance money can buy. Thank ya now, ya'll have a safe trip!
Problem is, that big 'ol canvas bag actually blocks the airflow, and by the time you get near the other side of the desert, your car overheats and you have to pay the Palm Springs service station to come and tow your car and fix everything that broke from overheating. Not a small fee, even in those days. They explain how the bag is what did the damage, and the hapless owner tells them to keep it.
What do you think the Palm Springs service station guys do with the demon water-bag? Well, of course, they sell it to the next dupe going from there to LA, and even help by attaching it to the grille of his car. Thank ya now, ya'll have a safe trip!
I figure that one bag most likely made dozens of round trips across the Mohave, and put at least two generations of kids thru law school
Rumor has it owning those two stations was the fastest way to retirement until the big casinos came in and the real pocket-picking took off.
"Also, I'd love to see you provide a modern example of people being dislocated from their farm-land in order to build an oil field (or any other kind of business), and then having no option but to work for that company."
:)
...the list goes on & on.
For some reason I get the distinct impression that you're just talking out of your ass.
China, Three Gorges Project - 1.3 million relocated
China, Hunan Province, 2006 - Water Pollution Control Facility
"..failed to recognize it and killed it by accident"
I seem to recall Cheney using a similar excuse when he shotgunned a hunting partner in his ass...
1.) What does the 25+ year old orbiter have to do with a pair of terrain crawlers on Mars, specifically (rhetorically)? And what does flight software have to do with them now, please explain, thanks.
:) Funny tho, that all the software people got so easily rankled over a hint that there may be issues there - if there is no worry, why so much diatribe towards software's defense :) A bit of thin skin for some reason, eh? And please try to also understand, it was a joke...laugh...it's funny.
2.) "You have not the slightest idea what these spacecraft-software guys are capable of and how insanely bulletproof their code is."
You simplify things to no end, I see...sorry for that. Let's start, and end, with the failure to convert from standard to metric that caused that one Mars surface mission fail, shall we? Opps. The best software in the galaxy means nothing if the overall effort isn't done right, so please don't worry that someone may have made fun of just the code
I'm not talking about JUST the software... I am talking about the overall logic of the tasked individuals and their efforts that lead to decisions such as this one, which in this case, happened to involve software specifically, but certainly not only. The original live time for these two rovers was 90 days - after that, new ideas are on the table...that's why it is called 'free' time, because it is all 'extra' time that was never planned for and now begs to be utilized.
As good a thing as that is, someone, sooner or later, is going to ask the question why didn't they know this? And for anyone that shouts "This is Mars! anything can happen!", yes, of course...but why did the original plan not include at least some options for extended runs then, instead of working them now as if the two units were a sandbox, that's all I'm saying.
"If it's not broken, boys....."
I guess since the two units are on free time, they figure it is ok to screw them up now.
Concept...you know - an idea that prompts another idea, as an example?
.79c socket matured decades ago, and will willingly flow power to any conductor able to penetrate one of the hot slots. And despite your very rigid non-stated Edwardian beliefs and desire to put-down something that falls outside that dormant little box you live in, these sheets won't be available @ HD any time soon at any price, so put away the fud and go back to reading by candle light :)
Your
They are simply another proof-of-concept...something the Japanese love to put on display, of course. I can imagine being able to lay devices on such a device to charge my cell-phone, etc. - anything needing charging...flashlite; iPod; bluetooth headphones; police radio; personal vibrator; PDA...a circuit to detect and communicate with whatever is in contact would be trivial, and an obvious part of any marketable product. You could drop conductors on it all day long, including water, and without a controller to initiate power to the contact zone, nada. Lick it for all it cares.
Recall the topic here recently about China and South Korea moving to standardized chargers? This falls into the same area, being concept-driven, as it seems to be. Additional/separate & wired chargers would be 'standardized' (as in gone) because they would not be needed with something like this around. The charger-less product would then sell for less, since your home or apartment or hotel room or office desk or car/boat/plane/train armrest would already have one of these built-in.
'At least South Korea is democratic.'
Have you lived in either country? I've lived in both, and believe me, these days I'll take China (where I'm living now) over the peninsula any day of the week.
Oh, and since when is governmental mandatory hardware configuration democratic..?