If you have a good technical idea that would help a company then it is generally a waste of time to talk to the person in charge of the technical stuff. Rather talk to the person in charge of sales/marketing. Why?
To the techie (engineering manager, web admin etc) just sees this as more hard work.
The marketing/sales person sees this as revenue/business development opportunity.
This does not only apply to external companies, but also within a company. If you're a techie (chances you are if you're on/.) and you have an idea that might make the company money then don't try sell it to the engineering people (who will generally try to squash the idea) - rather tell the marketing people (who see it as a chance to make money).
How much would you pay for a gallon jug of air? You might value being able to breath but you'd probably be very reluctant to pay for air until your head wasunderwater?
People are very resistant to pay for something that they feel should be free. The same people that would pay a hundred dollars or more for MS Office would feel screwed if they paid $10 for OpenOffice.
Value to the economy is very different to the value marketeers attach to something. Wikipedia, Linux and many other free products are very valuable to those that use them, but taht does nopt mean people would willingly pay for them. Marketeers would see that these products have no value because you cannot make money out of them.
Most Linux systems are already embedded systems (phones and the like). These far outstrip Linux usage in desktops and servers. The trend will only grow as more and more phones switch to Linux and desktop usage stays about the same.
Just so long as you don't confuse education with the crap they serve at schools.
What hope does a kid have of thinking critically and rationally about US military/foreign policy when (s)he's been quoting the pledge of allegiance since his diaper-years?
Sure, I only know very few game writes, so the stats are a bit thin, but the game writers I know are the worst pirates of all the people I know. They will readily pirate both material as well as development tools, OSs etc then bitch like hell if anyone rips off their games.
Remember what the goals are folks: giving the user a perceived sense of security and making a simple to use mechanism so that you don't end up having to deal with tons of helpdesk/support calls. On those criteria the current mechanisms are great.
That the perception does not match reality is of lesser consequence for the site admin.
Join up with some dodgy site and they harvest your mother's maiden name, pet's name etc. then thy use that info on a site you care about. It doesn't matter if the snswers are bullshit, so long as they match.
Once you start taking any drugs to compensate for physical deficiencies, then where do you reasonably draw the line? What about taking body building supplements to combat your physical weakness? Or, in other words, what conditions are allowable for compensation and which are not?
For example many athletes take asthma medication to improve respiration because they get out of breath after heavy exertion.
BTW Using a steriod cream for psoriasis is very different to taking the amounts used for body building/weight lifting, though the steroid cream would possibly trigger first-level tests.
You've had oil presidents and railroad presidents but no internet presidents (or even phone presidents). So far all the lobbying in that area has been from the telcos trying to make the most money with the least input. In good old America you will need to lobby for an internet based economy.
One flaw with your railroad/roading infrastructure argument though: internet infrastructure does not last as long and nobody is keen to make the investment in something that will be obsolete in three years.
They put a 1V signal in and find a place where a 100mV signal shows itself and take that as an output. That is then used to stimulate the robot platform's turning logic.
So they'll just export the pollution to a different city which will manufacture goods for them. The roads will still be made of concrete (made with huge energy inputs) and they'll still use diesel earthmoving machines to build the place.
The people will still eat meat (probably only second to transport as a way people generate carbon footprint).
Just blaming your DNA is rather defeatist. You can typically still do some things that help. Exercise and diet can make a big difference for many people.
Being able to meddle with these things also brings to mind the question: where is the threshold between OK and defective. If you can't get straight As or run a 4 minute mile then are you defective and should you be considered disadvantaged?
We end up with huge moral issues too: Is a criminal really a bad person or is he just a victim of his DNA?
In countries with the dole, where do you draw the line between lazy and a victim of their DNA: given all kinds of handout and assistance because they are disadvantaged.
Why the hell should every American be able to afford an automobile?
Most Americans are better off than they were 50 years ago. Just most Americans have forgotten how to be frugal and now impulse buy all kinds of crap on credit cards then wonder why they're screwed when the credit card bills roll in.
Go to digikey.com and you can buy a bunch of different ARM micros for less than $10 in single units (search for Luminary, AT91SAM or LPC2). You can quite easily make your own PCB.
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To the techie (engineering manager, web admin etc) just sees this as more hard work.
The marketing/sales person sees this as revenue/business development opportunity.
This does not only apply to external companies, but also within a company. If you're a techie (chances you are if you're on /.) and you have an idea that might make the company money then don't try sell it to the engineering people (who will generally try to squash the idea) - rather tell the marketing people (who see it as a chance to make money).
Tell boss the patent wont fly because of this prior art and you're saving the company $10k+
People are very resistant to pay for something that they feel should be free. The same people that would pay a hundred dollars or more for MS Office would feel screwed if they paid $10 for OpenOffice.
Value to the economy is very different to the value marketeers attach to something. Wikipedia, Linux and many other free products are very valuable to those that use them, but taht does nopt mean people would willingly pay for them. Marketeers would see that these products have no value because you cannot make money out of them.
Most Linux systems are already embedded systems (phones and the like). These far outstrip Linux usage in desktops and servers. The trend will only grow as more and more phones switch to Linux and desktop usage stays about the same.
What hope does a kid have of thinking critically and rationally about US military/foreign policy when (s)he's been quoting the pledge of allegiance since his diaper-years?
Sure, I only know very few game writes, so the stats are a bit thin, but the game writers I know are the worst pirates of all the people I know. They will readily pirate both material as well as development tools, OSs etc then bitch like hell if anyone rips off their games.
That the perception does not match reality is of lesser consequence for the site admin.
Join up with some dodgy site and they harvest your mother's maiden name, pet's name etc. then thy use that info on a site you care about. It doesn't matter if the snswers are bullshit, so long as they match.
BTW Using a steriod cream for psoriasis is very different to taking the amounts used for body building/weight lifting, though the steroid cream would possibly trigger first-level tests.
One flaw with your railroad/roading infrastructure argument though: internet infrastructure does not last as long and nobody is keen to make the investment in something that will be obsolete in three years.
A random bag of paper clips would do the same.
Call me back when they have decision making.
I was going to make a hissstorical pun but that's pointless.
They also need to be fully transparent about the whole process. Just hiding pollution by exporting it does not make it go away.
The people will still eat meat (probably only second to transport as a way people generate carbon footprint).
Basically its just a greenwashing exercise.
Being able to meddle with these things also brings to mind the question: where is the threshold between OK and defective. If you can't get straight As or run a 4 minute mile then are you defective and should you be considered disadvantaged?
We end up with huge moral issues too: Is a criminal really a bad person or is he just a victim of his DNA?
In countries with the dole, where do you draw the line between lazy and a victim of their DNA: given all kinds of handout and assistance because they are disadvantaged.
Examples: ISO11783 and NMEA2000 (forked from J1939), Embedded C++ (from C++), MISRA C (from C), etc etc
Why does anyone expect it to be factual?
You can freeze and melt water quite a few times before it wears out.
Perhaps they can work in series to achieve greater temperature differences.
Unless this is more efficient than at least Peltier it won't become commercially viable.
The GPS places a sonar station and sonar places the vehicle. A few simple calculations and you have a GPS position extended to an underwater location.
GPS will work down to a foot or so if you have the right antenna.
Most Americans are better off than they were 50 years ago. Just most Americans have forgotten how to be frugal and now impulse buy all kinds of crap on credit cards then wonder why they're screwed when the credit card bills roll in.
Rotten cheese probably supports life.
Go to digikey.com and you can buy a bunch of different ARM micros for less than $10 in single units (search for Luminary, AT91SAM or LPC2). You can quite easily make your own PCB.
Or you can go to http://www.olimex.com/dev/index.html and find a lot of different pre-built header boards for $25 or so. For $10 to $50 you can add a JTAG debugger from olimex or amonex. All the dev software is free: http://www.olimex.com/dev/index.html and openocd.
Whatever way you choose, there are plenty that will give you change from $100.