Nuclear power designed, executed and managed by scientists and engineers is safe, and arguably has always been safe. Nuclear power designed, executed and managed by politicians was not and will not be safe. I put my faith in cadre of IEEE and the like, not the MBAs and Lawyers. They have their place but not where the the truth matters more than the message.
We gravitate toward the bipedal design as it is most like us but we are repulsed by the design when it gets too human like.
We understand balance in a personal sense as we understand stereo scopic site. We attempt to duplicate these abilities in robots in part because these abilities are how we relate to the world. Mapping this to the machine is easier because we use these tools ourselves. But we also have the Uncanny Valley where the more human like the robot the more uncomfortablewe are.
Email would be easier, and USB jump drives need to get cheaper. Floppies are basically free
Floppies: on the road to a client and you need 5 floppies. Floppies are not free, in a pinch they can cost a buck a piece.
email: Yes, it is easy, ubiquitous and fast. It also requires knowledge. Many if not most users have no idea where an attachment goes when saved much less where is it cached on receipt.
Further, they are so scared of viruses that the presence of an attachment leads to a compulsive need to download spyware infested fake clean-up tools.
Speaking as a computer shop owner of 10 years, we do not charge enough. My rates are $70/hr and we have four to six machines going at once and clear 2 a day on bad days. The typical bill is $70 not the $280 the time used really warrants.
Really good professional shops are few and far between anymore because it is hard to make money this way.
The professional shop, however, can usually save your data for you instead of just wiping the drive. And geeks love to through off wiping and reinstalling a system as trivial. Well, most people in the daily light world have no idea where the driver or proram disks are and of course no backups.
So, $70 vs. $400. And keep in mind that $400 gets you an eMachine or toy Compaq. Trashing a $1000 pc for want of cleaning it up is in excusable.
And the first thing the people get after buying the $400 pc (and loosing the disks) is Simms 2 or Guild Wars. Now they need a $150 video card.
Until all PCs in business offices have USB ports, the sneaker net will run on floppies. It is interesting how fast folks take to the USB jump drives. They are an easy analog for a floppy drive in peoples minds, they understand them because they understand floppies. Of course unless you are running 98 wich brings us back to floppies.
In the cleaning supplies section of the grocery store they have various scrubbing pads. Several of these can be made into a good filter that doesn't block a lot of air.
Economic advantage is not in and of itself a valid purpose or justification for copyright or patent laws.
Another great point. This is even more to the point if you consider it as Short-term Economic advantage as these entertainment copyright enforcers wish to use the law.
A new casualty of this war was announced yesterday, Dataplay has shut down. Among the causes of their demize was the pressure put on them by record lables and those that enforce entertainment copyright.
I have to agree with this point. The interface for the type of equipment is well established and ergonomic, the remote or clicker.The problem is not with the interface but with the lack of interface. The man wants his clicker empowered, not a new audio-video interface.
I do not know of a product that allows universal-remote control of a Linux PC. Perhaps looking into what folk have done with IR on linux. I presume someone has their PC telling their Furby what to say. The TV remote would not be a stretch.
The article that started this really is a good read. If 50% of the potential is realized it still like going from team horses to TEAM HORSEPOWER.
The standout feature here is as they put it "wired" power. There is a motor at each wheel. Need speed or torque or both? An electric motor scales. Need more power? Add more fuelcell capacity. It scales.
The article mentions changing body styles as needed. The minvan for the weekend and the pickup for work. How about adding allowing adjusting the length, within limits. Pickup body all week then scrunch the underbody down to fit the Cobra replica body. It scales, to work a tired the phrase.
Think of the machines that could be made. Clean, cool, spark proof underground mining vehicles. Rovers with three foot diameter motors cupped inside five foot tires. And 12 wheel drive. It sc.. you know.
This is the kind of innovation that let's the public in on how hard science research and advanced engineering are integrated into our lives.
GM should be lauded for their efforts thus far and supported (not subsiduzed) in moving ahead. With any luck their accountants won't have been ordered to overstate GM's value by 20 billion dollars.
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Nuclear power designed, executed and managed by scientists and engineers is safe, and arguably has always been safe. Nuclear power designed, executed and managed by politicians was not and will not be safe. I put my faith in cadre of IEEE and the like, not the MBAs and Lawyers. They have their place but not where the the truth matters more than the message.
We understand balance in a personal sense as we understand stereo scopic site. We attempt to duplicate these abilities in robots in part because these abilities are how we relate to the world. Mapping this to the machine is easier because we use these tools ourselves. But we also have the Uncanny Valley where the more human like the robot the more uncomfortablewe are.
(I know that blonde Cylon certainly has that effect on me.)
This little swede robo, though, is incredible. Makes me think of Puppet Master. Creepy, sort of.
Floppies: on the road to a client and you need 5 floppies. Floppies are not free, in a pinch they can cost a buck a piece.
email: Yes, it is easy, ubiquitous and fast. It also requires knowledge. Many if not most users have no idea where an attachment goes when saved much less where is it cached on receipt.
Further, they are so scared of viruses that the presence of an attachment leads to a compulsive need to download spyware infested fake clean-up tools.
Remember, most users think AOL is the internet.
Really good professional shops are few and far between anymore because it is hard to make money this way.
The professional shop, however, can usually save your data for you instead of just wiping the drive. And geeks love to through off wiping and reinstalling a system as trivial. Well, most people in the daily light world have no idea where the driver or proram disks are and of course no backups.
So, $70 vs. $400. And keep in mind that $400 gets you an eMachine or toy Compaq. Trashing a $1000 pc for want of cleaning it up is in excusable.
And the first thing the people get after buying the $400 pc (and loosing the disks) is Simms 2 or Guild Wars. Now they need a $150 video card.
Until all PCs in business offices have USB ports, the sneaker net will run on floppies. It is interesting how fast folks take to the USB jump drives. They are an easy analog for a floppy drive in peoples minds, they understand them because they understand floppies. Of course unless you are running 98 wich brings us back to floppies.
Many new machines will see a usb jump drive plugged in at boot time as an atlternative boot device.
What I do for the SATA install of XP is put the drivers on a CD and "load additional drivers" early in the setup process.
In the cleaning supplies section of the grocery store they have various scrubbing pads. Several of these can be made into a good filter that doesn't block a lot of air.
Economic advantage is not in and of itself a valid purpose or justification for copyright or patent laws. Another great point. This is even more to the point if you consider it as Short-term Economic advantage as these entertainment copyright enforcers wish to use the law.
A new casualty of this war was announced yesterday, Dataplay has shut down. Among the causes of their demize was the pressure put on them by record lables and those that enforce entertainment copyright.
SliMP3 is the answer to the orgininal question. That thing looks handy. Give it a PCMCIA slot for Wi-Fi and it would be really useful, and $499.
I have to agree with this point. The interface for the type of equipment is well established and ergonomic, the remote or clicker.The problem is not with the interface but with the lack of interface. The man wants his clicker empowered, not a new audio-video interface. I do not know of a product that allows universal-remote control of a Linux PC. Perhaps looking into what folk have done with IR on linux. I presume someone has their PC telling their Furby what to say. The TV remote would not be a stretch.
The article that started this really is a good read. If 50% of the potential is realized it still like going from team horses to TEAM HORSEPOWER.
The standout feature here is as they put it "wired" power. There is a motor at each wheel. Need speed or torque or both? An electric motor scales. Need more power? Add more fuelcell capacity. It scales.
The article mentions changing body styles as needed. The minvan for the weekend and the pickup for work. How about adding allowing adjusting the length, within limits. Pickup body all week then scrunch the underbody down to fit the Cobra replica body. It scales, to work a tired the phrase.
Think of the machines that could be made. Clean, cool, spark proof underground mining vehicles. Rovers with three foot diameter motors cupped inside five foot tires. And 12 wheel drive. It sc.. you know.
This is the kind of innovation that let's the public in on how hard science research and advanced engineering are integrated into our lives.
GM should be lauded for their efforts thus far and supported (not subsiduzed) in moving ahead. With any luck their accountants won't have been ordered to overstate GM's value by 20 billion dollars.