If they put a decent sports bike engine in the Clever Car it would sell by the bucket load as a recreational vehicle for those who don't want the risks of a motorbike.
But as an everyday enviromental commuting vehicle? Hmm. Not so sure. Ok , it might have good mileage but having gas cylinders right at the back of the car where they're a prime target to be hit and crushed? Not to mention the vehicle itself doesn't exactly look volvo-esque in its ability to protect its occupants plus its got very little storage space.
Also at one metre wide its hardly going to be able to squeeze between traffic like a bike can especially when it leans over hard.
Seems to me its got all the disadvantages of a bike (dangerous, little storage space) and a car (slow, stuck in traffic) , and none of the advantages of either.
Its ONLY selling point is its mpg and novelty value. Well sorry, but in a competitive market you need more than that to sell a vehicle.
I've had broadband issues with NTL. Thats why I always keep a dialup account (with another company I might add) as a backup. Just in case. And those cases have so far happened 6 times this year.
Just mount a floppy disk as a filesystem then eject it and try and read and write to the filesystem a few times with maybe a sync or 2. It won't take long. And if thats up to date enough for you you can play the same game with mounted USB sticks. Yes , 6.0 crashed nicely when I pulled out a stick before I unmounted it. When i complained about the floppy disk bug around version 4.3 i was told it wasn't a priority. Typical arrogant BSD team.
Quite. I wanted to use Solaris for my small company and looked into buying some ultrasparcs. Yeah , right. HOW much just for the CPU box WITHOUT monitor, keyboard or mouse and with some 5 year out of date graphics card?? Suns marketing dept are still living on Planet 1980s when Unix hardware really could command a serious premium over PCs. Not now though , at least not in the low end of the market (high end servers are another matter).
... but it still took the police almost 50 years to catch him so he must've been doing something right. I imagine the ceaser code was simply to prevent other knuckle dragging criminals from understanding the message, not a load of top crypto crackers at police HQ.
"There are strategies for filesystem layouts, memory caching, shared memory arrangement, semiphores, TCP/IP tuning, archive logging, redo files, networking, security, you name it. "
So? When I get in a rented car I adjust the seat, mirrors, air con etc. Does that make me the car? Of course not. How can tuning a few OS parameters make the DB anything like an OS?
"Oracle has its own filesystem, redundancy, clustering, you name it. Many of Oracle's "big boy" features are blurred between what an application does and what an OS does."
Yes , but compared to what an OS does thats still high(ish) level stuff. An Oracle DB doesn't catch hardware interrupts, doesn't set the data bus up for DMA, doesn't negotiate plug & play , doesn't in fact do any really to-the-metal type stuff. Just because Oracle does a few OS-ish type things , don't for a minute assume its anything close to being an operating system. If anything its more like a VM with knobs on.
Why? Because if it only penetrates a 3rd of a mil into skin then how long do you think it will take before someone develops some clothing that absorbs in the same way as skin and keeps the heat off the person? Sure , the clothing will get hot but thats easily solved with insulation.
Seems like a waste of time to me , not to mention somewhat dangerous (if you keep the beam on someone whats to stop their skin turning to pork crackling?)
The earths magnetic field extends for thousands of miles. You'd have to extend it more than a fraction. Yes , the moon causes tides but at the very most they're about 10 metres. Take that as a percentage of average ocean depth (about 5km) and its nothing. At best the moon might make the atmosphere rise a few miles which is nothing like enough to pull it out of the magnetic field.
>Tidal forces caused by the moon also pulled on the early Earth >atmosphere, causing it to expand upward beyond the protection of >the magnetic field. Once up there, the gases were swept away.
Doubtful. Even when the moon was much closer than it is now I can't see how its gravity could have bodily lifted the atmosphere high enough to drag it out of the earths magnetic field. Even if the moon was right next to the earth it would still only pull 1/6 G which means the atmosphere would overall feel 5/6G. Not small enough for it to expand anything like that far up.
...blindly follows everything his/her satnav says?? Surely one of these dumbf*cks must've noticed that there were on a boulder strewn cliff road and just perhaps a lonely braincell might've fired up briefly and thought "hey , this can't be right can it?". I mean really , if the thing had directed them off the cliff would they have just obeyed? I'm wondering whose more of a robot , the satnav or the driver.
71% may believe global warming is an important issue but I haven't noticed 71% going out and buying efficient cars. I haven't noticed 71% of companies switching off their lights after dark or turning down the air con / heating a notch.
Its easy to say you're concerned about something , its quite another matter to prove it.
Has anyone stopped to ask why this is such a great idea? A robot is just a computer with wheels (or legs). How exactly is this going to help anyone anymore than a computer does already? Oh sure , all the techno evangelists who've read one too many Sci Fi novels wheel out the old "help you in the home" rubbish. But when was the last time you saw a robot that was ANY practical use WHATSOEVER for the home? Toys yes, helpful no.
They give an example of robots teaching kids. Err , scuse me , where are the parents and teachers? Children need to interact with people when learning , not lumps of plastic, which is why classroom based computer learning is generally pretty useless for all but the simplest things.
When will people (geeks and politicians alike) realise that technology is just a tool. It doesn't solve problems on its own, it needs to be used properly otherwise theres no point. It seems to me this is just another "wouldn't it be real cool if..." type of politicans and technologists wet dream.
The average storm can generate hundreds of lightning bolts in any one area. The combined EM exposure from those is huge, far more than anything from any electrical equipment.
"They are not all imagining it."
I'm sure they're not imagining the symptoms , but its just guesswork on their part as to the cause.
Nice try but not a good example. Evidence shows that people living in highly polluted factory areas get ill and if they went and put their face inside the top of a factory chimney (which is the same as receiving a huge dose of EM from lightning) I think you'd find they get ill and die pretty damn quick if they didn't move.
AFAIK the high pitched sound from TVs *is* caused by the electron gun circuit. Its the magnetic coils controlling the flyback that induce minute occilations in themselves and surrounding metal that cause it I believe.
"Many people can't hear the sound at all without it being pointed out, but it is something that drives me crazy."
CRT tubes generally give off a frequency of about 17Khz (from memory , someone correct me if I'm out which can usually be heard by people under 30 but over 30 human hearing deteriorates to the point where *most* people can no longer hear that high. You obviously are either still fairly young or have good hearing. Or both! But one day you'll probably find that you can't hear it either anymore.
If electromagnetic fields at the sort of levels we have in our enviroment really harmed people then as soon as a bolt of lightning went off in a nearby storm all these "victims" should keel over and die given the amount of EM power a single bolt puts out. But you never hear someone saying "storms make me ill" (unless they got a direct hit of course!). Far more trendy to make out they're some victim of modern techno society so they can either kids themselves its someone elses fault they're ill (and nothing to do with hypocondria or some other mental condition) or so that they can jump on the compensation bandwagon.
Slashdot Mirror
If they put a decent sports bike engine in the Clever Car it
would sell by the bucket load as a recreational vehicle for those
who don't want the risks of a motorbike.
But as an everyday enviromental commuting vehicle? Hmm. Not so sure.
Ok , it might have good mileage but having gas cylinders right at
the back of the car where they're a prime target to be hit and crushed?
Not to mention the vehicle itself doesn't exactly look volvo-esque in
its ability to protect its occupants plus its got very little storage
space.
Also at one metre wide its hardly going to be able to squeeze
between traffic like a bike can especially when it leans over hard.
Seems to me its got all the disadvantages of a bike (dangerous, little
storage space) and a car (slow, stuck in traffic) , and none of the
advantages of either.
Its ONLY selling point is its mpg and novelty value. Well sorry, but in
a competitive market you need more than that to sell a vehicle.
I've had broadband issues with NTL. Thats why I always keep a dialup
account (with another company I might add) as a backup. Just in case.
And those cases have so far happened 6 times this year.
Just mount a floppy disk as a filesystem then eject it and try and read
and write to the filesystem a few times with maybe a sync or 2. It won't
take long. And if thats up to date enough for you you can play the same
game with mounted USB sticks. Yes , 6.0 crashed nicely when I pulled out
a stick before I unmounted it. When i complained about the floppy disk
bug around version 4.3 i was told it wasn't a priority. Typical arrogant
BSD team.
"thier 4000% margin policy"
Quite. I wanted to use Solaris for my small company and looked
into buying some ultrasparcs. Yeah , right. HOW much just
for the CPU box WITHOUT monitor, keyboard or mouse and with
some 5 year out of date graphics card?? Suns marketing dept are still living on Planet 1980s when Unix hardware really could command a serious premium over PCs.
Not now though , at least not in the low end of the market
(high end servers are another matter).
Lets hope you don't work in Wall Street as an advisor!
If they didn't want it , why did they buy it?
... but it still took the police almost 50 years to catch him
so he must've been doing something right. I imagine the ceaser
code was simply to prevent other knuckle dragging criminals from
understanding the message, not a load of top crypto crackers
at police HQ.
What are you smoking?
"There are strategies for filesystem layouts, memory caching, shared memory arrangement, semiphores, TCP/IP tuning, archive logging, redo files, networking, security, you name it. "
So? When I get in a rented car I adjust the seat, mirrors, air con
etc. Does that make me the car? Of course not. How can tuning
a few OS parameters make the DB anything like an OS?
"Oracle has its own filesystem, redundancy, clustering, you name it. Many of Oracle's "big boy" features are blurred between what an application does and what an OS does."
Yes , but compared to what an OS does thats still high(ish) level stuff. An Oracle
DB doesn't catch hardware interrupts, doesn't set the data bus up for DMA, doesn't
negotiate plug & play , doesn't in fact do any really to-the-metal type stuff. Just
because Oracle does a few OS-ish type things , don't for a minute assume its anything
close to being an operating system. If anything its more like a VM with knobs on.
Why? Because if it only penetrates a 3rd of a mil into skin
then how long do you think it will take before someone develops
some clothing that absorbs in the same way as skin and keeps the
heat off the person? Sure , the clothing will get hot but thats
easily solved with insulation.
Seems like a waste of time to me , not to mention somewhat
dangerous (if you keep the beam on someone whats to stop their
skin turning to pork crackling?)
The earths magnetic field extends for thousands of miles. You'd
have to extend it more than a fraction. Yes , the moon causes
tides but at the very most they're about 10 metres. Take that as
a percentage of average ocean depth (about 5km) and its nothing.
At best the moon might make the atmosphere rise a few miles
which is nothing like enough to pull it out of the magnetic field.
>Tidal forces caused by the moon also pulled on the early Earth >atmosphere, causing it to expand upward beyond the protection of >the magnetic field. Once up there, the gases were swept away.
Doubtful. Even when the moon was much closer than it is now I
can't see how its gravity could have bodily lifted the atmosphere
high enough to drag it out of the earths magnetic field. Even
if the moon was right next to the earth it would still only
pull 1/6 G which means the atmosphere would overall feel 5/6G.
Not small enough for it to expand anything like that far up.
...blindly follows everything his/her satnav says?? Surely one of
these dumbf*cks must've noticed that there were on a boulder strewn
cliff road and just perhaps a lonely braincell might've fired up briefly and
thought "hey , this can't be right can it?". I mean really , if the thing
had directed them off the cliff would they have just obeyed? I'm wondering
whose more of a robot , the satnav or the driver.
71% may believe global warming is an important issue but I haven't noticed
71% going out and buying efficient cars. I haven't noticed 71% of companies
switching off their lights after dark or turning down the air con / heating
a notch.
Its easy to say you're concerned about something , its quite another matter
to prove it.
>Err...by moving. Using its wheels (or legs).
Great , so it can wobble about and bump into things. Excellent.
>This weekend, as it vacuumed my house (shortness of video doesn't do it justice).
How'd it manage to do the stairs? In the corners. Around the tops
of things. Its a gimmick mate. Which was my point.
Has anyone stopped to ask why this is such a great idea? A robot is
just a computer with wheels (or legs). How exactly is this going to
help anyone anymore than a computer does already? Oh sure , all the
techno evangelists who've read one too many Sci Fi novels wheel
out the old "help you in the home" rubbish. But when was the last
time you saw a robot that was ANY practical use WHATSOEVER for
the home? Toys yes, helpful no.
They give an example of robots teaching kids. Err , scuse me , where
are the parents and teachers? Children need to interact with people
when learning , not lumps of plastic, which is why classroom based
computer learning is generally pretty useless for all but the
simplest things.
When will people (geeks and politicians alike) realise that
technology is just a tool. It doesn't solve problems on its own,
it needs to be used properly otherwise theres no point. It seems
to me this is just another "wouldn't it be real cool if..." type
of politicans and technologists wet dream.
The average storm can generate hundreds of lightning bolts in
any one area. The combined EM exposure from those is huge, far
more than anything from any electrical equipment.
"They are not all imagining it."
I'm sure they're not imagining the symptoms , but its just
guesswork on their part as to the cause.
Nice try but not a good example. Evidence shows that people
living in highly polluted factory areas get ill and if they
went and put their face inside the top of a factory chimney
(which is the same as receiving a huge dose of EM from lightning)
I think you'd find they get ill and die pretty damn quick if
they didn't move.
Probably the same sort of morons who wear crystals and magnetic
"healing" bracelets. You can't educate pork.
AFAIK the high pitched sound from TVs *is* caused by the electron gun
circuit. Its the magnetic coils controlling the flyback that induce
minute occilations in themselves and surrounding metal that cause it
I believe.
Sounds stress related to me. If I was that close to a lightning
bolt I'd get worried sick everytime there was a storm.
"Many people can't hear the sound at all without it being pointed out, but it is something that drives me crazy."
CRT tubes generally give off a frequency of about 17Khz (from memory
, someone correct me if I'm out which can usually be heard by people
under 30 but over 30 human hearing deteriorates to the point where
*most* people can no longer hear that high. You obviously are either
still fairly young or have good hearing. Or both! But one day you'll
probably find that you can't hear it either anymore.
If electromagnetic fields at the sort of levels we have in our
enviroment really harmed people then as soon as a bolt of lightning
went off in a nearby storm all these "victims" should keel over and
die given the amount of EM power a single bolt puts out. But you
never hear someone saying "storms make me ill" (unless they got a direct
hit of course!). Far more trendy to make out they're some victim of
modern techno society so they can either kids themselves its someone
elses fault they're ill (and nothing to do with hypocondria or some
other mental condition) or so that they can jump on the compensation
bandwagon.
If you need to manage data us an RDBMS.
CMSs are for idiots.