I can tell you're not an astronomer. The white light pollution is the worst, at least with sodium lights you can use a filter and still do some spectography.
There are cell phones and watches [Datalink by Timex and MSoft] that are more useful as personal data storage devices, than most PDAs.
My personal system is to put highly dynamic or temporary data onto tiny scraps of paper that go into a special pocket in my pants, and my long term numbers and names are stored in my nifty Datalink wrist watch. I don't have a cell, but if I did, I could take notes with that. IF I had an MP3 player, I'd have an FM radio for new data, and MP3s to listen to. If it could be used to store other data files from a USB port, that would be even better.
I am waiting for the first James Bond cell phone wrist watch, with a camera, data input/retrieval, wireless web surfing, and of course a stopwatch. I think battery technology is all that is holding this device away from the assembly line.
We have a lot of cultural greed in North America, so its understandable how some other cultures would perceive us as greedy. It's too bad they don't realize that the people they scammed do not get paid back for the money they lose.
If I were stuck in a 3rd world country with corrupt governments and no legitimate way to feed myself, I'd be tempted to turn to scamming "rich" people too. And in North America, the middle class is rich compared to most of the world's population. In Canada it would take about 5 Earths* to sustain our current level of consumption. [*source: The Nature of Things from a few days ago.]
"In mandating hybrids the average cost of a car doubles, meaning large segments of the population can't afford to drive. What George Bush really needs to do is levy a large tribute in oil from Iraq in payment for freeing their country. Say 25% of their production. GDub rocks!"
From the last part of your comment, it's clear you're just joking. And simple economics tells us that with more hybrids supplied to us, the cost will go down. Most Americans are going to have trouble filling their 10MPG SUV in a couple years, if you want to talk about absurd points. And those are only the Americans who can afford an SUV, there are millions more with no car at all.
What do you mean you couldn't hack Oregon Trail? Did you die of dysentry or something?/Wonders how many "Poop lies here" tombstones are out there on 5 1/4" floppies...
"The Antikythera mechanism, as it is now known, was originally housed in a wooden box about the size of a shoebox, with dials on the outside and a complex assembly of bronze gear wheels within."
Anyone place odds on our gold and copper monstrosities from the 70's on surviving thousands of years and people figuring out what they were used for? There's something to be said about elegantly simple one use devices like calculators.
"What is a nano-toxin? How does it differ from a toxin? In what way does the creation of a small macromolecule in the shape of a car contribute to toxicity?"
HAHAHAHA, you didn't get my joke? Well, I wasn't clear I was joking, and there are loons out there so I forgive you.
The two others who replied to you got the joke. I was also thinking of posting a link to the nano-fibers/. article from yesterday, but didn't because my back kinda hurts and I didn't want to do more clicking.
My family has owned at least one, it was Sanyo I think, although it might have been RCA. It wasn't a generic Walmart model, and this was about 4 years ago.
The option is to turn the feature on [which is now broken in some parts of North America], or off.
" Personal vehicles do not make up 50% of all oil consumption in the US. "
Nice comprehension there AC. What's 50% of 50%? 25%.
But that's not the point. The point is about 50% of the oil consumed for transportation in all new vehicles could be saved by making all new vehicles twice as efficient. It's a lofty goal, but not unattainable.
Yes, you're right, I was referring to oil in the transportation industry, where we have the technology to roll out more efficient engines, but we aren't doing it because it's more important for people to have the RIGHT to buy a 9MPG SUV, than it is to have the right to breath.
"My computers will adjust correctly." Only if they are patched, or work off a time server. And even then, you might not realize a bug is there until something goes wrong.
If DST is such a non-issue, then why is Bush and gang touting it as such a monumental energy saver? When was the last time you saw a business besides pro sports or construction not using lights simply because it was daytime outside? How is it going to benefit children and the workforce to go to school and work in the dark?
"You are so right! I think you've convinced me that if we can't reduce consumption by at least [arbitrary] percent then we shouldn't reduce consumption at all! What a logical thought!" Why thank you. It's good of you to notice that red herrings should be ignored, instead of being touted as energy saving measures. This is a make-work project for computer programmers, while giving the ignorant population the warm fuzzy feeling that Bush really gives half a crap about energy conservation, while it doesn't really conserve a significant portion of energy.
There are real ways of conserving energy, and DST isn't one of them.
I've seen plenty of devices that switch times when they should not. I should know, I'm in a place that doesn't change the time when DST rolls around, yet the devices change anyway. This includes radios, VCRs, and probably microwaves too [if they bothered to insert a DST rule for it.]
I'm aware of VCRs that have the ability to get the time signal from the cable. I own one.
"So we shouldn't do it because it doesn't hit some arbitrary limit."
As with any choice there are trade-offs. Saving oil is good, but there are better ways to do it, and ways that cause less harm or disruption like this new time law.
"The high price of oil products will address this issue without dragging Bush into the equation. Free Market strikes again."
The only thing high oil prices addresses is the Bush family pocketbook. Oil is a commodity that people can't avoid having a stake in, since all of our goods rely on it. If you aren't an oil owner, you're an oil buyer, so high oil prices hurt even if you buy a Prius. Farmers aren't going to combine using a Prius.
In Canada it's up to each province how they deal with time law. In Saskatchewan we don't change our clocks for DST, we are on it year round. This means that in the Summer we are on MST essentially, and in the Winter on CST. We're used to our American stations having their timeslots "shifted" an hour every 6 months, and I for one like it. I lived in Ontario for a bit, and the time shift sucked. Who wants to go to work an hour earlier in the spring?
This time change is such a boondoggle. Here's some facts:
- The amount of oil predicted to be saved over the several weeks involved in the time shift, is less than all of the oil the USA uses in a SINGLE day.
- There are going to be millions of VCRs and other hard coded devices designed to change to the old DST law, meaning many will auto-adjust to the wrong time.
- Airlines and other businesses that depend on time are going to have to reprogram many things, and thus this will impact their bottom line. [Is this a good thing when so many are going bankrupt?]
- If we legislated that vehicles must achieve twice the MPG rating they have today, then we'd use approximately half as much oil. That's a savings of 50% every single day. [Maybe if George thought about that every...single...day, just like he thinks about the Iraq War every..single..Day, then we wouldn't have to put up and deal with this stupid time change!]
I'll trust eBay with my phone...when pigs fly! They can't program an HTML editor, much less something like Skype.
"Thank you for reaching 911, please hold while you listen to an ad for one of our sponsors."
"You cannot make this call because either your feedback has dropped to -1, or your PayPal balance has been frozen. Please try again later after you've built up more positive feedback, or fax us your drivers license."
"How would you rate your conversation? Positive, Negative, or Neutral?"
eBay, and PayPal running the phone company? The irony is, it's about the only multi-billion dollar, multi-national corporation I know of that doesn't have a published toll free contact number for customer service. If you try to post the number to their help forums, they remove the post.
All this time, geeks on Slashdot have been telling people that the Hubble isn't equipped to look at the Moon, and that it can't resolve a detail as fine as the Apollo landers.
I haven't RTFA, so I assume it's looking for minerals through some sort of spectographic analysis, much like we use telescopes to determine the matter composition of distant light sources like stars?
I didn't mean that it would be boosted too far. I meant it would be boosted to a safe height, and then reboosted over the coming decades as it's been boosted the past years.
BitTorrent I'm downloading it right now. I've used the beta and RC1 version for months now, and I've only seen it crash once, and I've used it on various computers.
A million Microsoft shareholders cried out in pain today.
"Other scientists think there is no danger because we have been exposed to nanoparticles for thousands of years, such as ashes from volcanic eruptions. "/sarcasm on/ And humans haven't had ANY as of yet unexplained health problems over those thousands of years either./sarcasm off/
I think it was a bloody shame that the EPA declared New York's air safe to breath after the attack on the World Trade Center, when trillions of nano-toxins were released into the air for cleanup and emergency crews to inhale. We're going to see more of New York Lung, in the years to come.
I'm hoping that they don't coat the balloons with a flamable doping, so that there's no chance of flaming zeplins of doom from falling out of the skies. It would bring a new meaning to the "Internet being down" though, wouldn't it?
Slashdot Mirror
I can tell you're not an astronomer. The white light pollution is the worst, at least with sodium lights you can use a filter and still do some spectography.
There are cell phones and watches [Datalink by Timex and MSoft] that are more useful as personal data storage devices, than most PDAs.
My personal system is to put highly dynamic or temporary data onto tiny scraps of paper that go into a special pocket in my pants, and my long term numbers and names are stored in my nifty Datalink wrist watch. I don't have a cell, but if I did, I could take notes with that. IF I had an MP3 player, I'd have an FM radio for new data, and MP3s to listen to. If it could be used to store other data files from a USB port, that would be even better.
I am waiting for the first James Bond cell phone wrist watch, with a camera, data input/retrieval, wireless web surfing, and of course a stopwatch. I think battery technology is all that is holding this device away from the assembly line.
We have a lot of cultural greed in North America, so its understandable how some other cultures would perceive us as greedy. It's too bad they don't realize that the people they scammed do not get paid back for the money they lose.
If I were stuck in a 3rd world country with corrupt governments and no legitimate way to feed myself, I'd be tempted to turn to scamming "rich" people too. And in North America, the middle class is rich compared to most of the world's population. In Canada it would take about 5 Earths* to sustain our current level of consumption. [*source: The Nature of Things from a few days ago.]
"In mandating hybrids the average cost of a car doubles, meaning large segments of the population can't afford to drive. What George Bush really needs to do is levy a large tribute in oil from Iraq in payment for freeing their country. Say 25% of their production. GDub rocks!"
From the last part of your comment, it's clear you're just joking. And simple economics tells us that with more hybrids supplied to us, the cost will go down.
Most Americans are going to have trouble filling their 10MPG SUV in a couple years, if you want to talk about absurd points. And those are only the Americans who can afford an SUV, there are millions more with no car at all.
What do you mean you couldn't hack Oregon Trail? Did you die of dysentry or something? /Wonders how many "Poop lies here" tombstones are out there on 5 1/4" floppies...
"The Antikythera mechanism, as it is now known, was originally housed in a wooden box about the size of a shoebox, with dials on the outside and a complex assembly of bronze gear wheels within."
Anyone place odds on our gold and copper monstrosities from the 70's on surviving thousands of years and people figuring out what they were used for? There's something to be said about elegantly simple one use devices like calculators.
"What is a nano-toxin? How does it differ from a toxin? In what way does the creation of a small macromolecule in the shape of a car contribute to toxicity?"
/. article from yesterday, but didn't because my back kinda hurts and I didn't want to do more clicking.
HAHAHAHA, you didn't get my joke? Well, I wasn't clear I was joking, and there are loons out there so I forgive you.
The two others who replied to you got the joke. I was also thinking of posting a link to the nano-fibers
My family has owned at least one, it was Sanyo I think, although it might have been RCA. It wasn't a generic Walmart model, and this was about 4 years ago.
The option is to turn the feature on [which is now broken in some parts of North America], or off.
" Personal vehicles do not make up 50% of all oil consumption in the US. "
Nice comprehension there AC. What's 50% of 50%? 25%.
But that's not the point. The point is about 50% of the oil consumed for transportation in all new vehicles could be saved by making all new vehicles twice as efficient. It's a lofty goal, but not unattainable.
Yes, you're right, I was referring to oil in the transportation industry, where we have the technology to roll out more efficient engines, but we aren't doing it because it's more important for people to have the RIGHT to buy a 9MPG SUV, than it is to have the right to breath.
"My computers will adjust correctly."
Only if they are patched, or work off a time server. And even then, you might not realize a bug is there until something goes wrong.
If DST is such a non-issue, then why is Bush and gang touting it as such a monumental energy saver? When was the last time you saw a business besides pro sports or construction not using lights simply because it was daytime outside?
How is it going to benefit children and the workforce to go to school and work in the dark?
"You are so right! I think you've convinced me that if we can't reduce consumption by at least [arbitrary] percent then we shouldn't reduce consumption at all! What a logical thought!"
Why thank you. It's good of you to notice that red herrings should be ignored, instead of being touted as energy saving measures. This is a make-work project for computer programmers, while giving the ignorant population the warm fuzzy feeling that Bush really gives half a crap about energy conservation, while it doesn't really conserve a significant portion of energy.
There are real ways of conserving energy, and DST isn't one of them.
...Perfect for producing nano-toxins that is.
I've seen plenty of devices that switch times when they should not. I should know, I'm in a place that doesn't change the time when DST rolls around, yet the devices change anyway. This includes radios, VCRs, and probably microwaves too [if they bothered to insert a DST rule for it.]
I'm aware of VCRs that have the ability to get the time signal from the cable. I own one.
"So we shouldn't do it because it doesn't hit some arbitrary limit."
As with any choice there are trade-offs. Saving oil is good, but there are better ways to do it, and ways that cause less harm or disruption like this new time law.
"The high price of oil products will address this issue without dragging Bush into the equation. Free Market strikes again."
The only thing high oil prices addresses is the Bush family pocketbook. Oil is a commodity that people can't avoid having a stake in, since all of our goods rely on it. If you aren't an oil owner, you're an oil buyer, so high oil prices hurt even if you buy a Prius. Farmers aren't going to combine using a Prius.
In Canada it's up to each province how they deal with time law. In Saskatchewan we don't change our clocks for DST, we are on it year round. This means that in the Summer we are on MST essentially, and in the Winter on CST. We're used to our American stations having their timeslots "shifted" an hour every 6 months, and I for one like it. I lived in Ontario for a bit, and the time shift sucked. Who wants to go to work an hour earlier in the spring?
I'll trust eBay with my phone...when pigs fly! They can't program an HTML editor, much less something like Skype.
"Thank you for reaching 911, please hold while you listen to an ad for one of our sponsors."
"You cannot make this call because either your feedback has dropped to -1, or your PayPal balance has been frozen. Please try again later after you've built up more positive feedback, or fax us your drivers license."
"How would you rate your conversation?
Positive, Negative, or Neutral?"
eBay, and PayPal running the phone company? The irony is, it's about the only multi-billion dollar, multi-national corporation I know of that doesn't have a published toll free contact number for customer service. If you try to post the number to their help forums, they remove the post.
"I'll assume that the first paragraph was a dead-panned joke."
All my yokes die in the pan, I over-fry them.
...Or maybe the second time, when all "obligatory Simpsons quote" is Ontopic.
What's become of the cross screen adaptation for the Simpsons Movie? Has Brooks or Groaning [spelling funny] let any tidbits slip about it yet?
All this time, geeks on Slashdot have been telling people that the Hubble isn't equipped to look at the Moon, and that it can't resolve a detail as fine as the Apollo landers.
I haven't RTFA, so I assume it's looking for minerals through some sort of spectographic analysis, much like we use telescopes to determine the matter composition of distant light sources like stars?
I didn't mean that it would be boosted too far. I meant it would be boosted to a safe height, and then reboosted over the coming decades as it's been boosted the past years.
BitTorrent I'm downloading it right now. I've used the beta and RC1 version for months now, and I've only seen it crash once, and I've used it on various computers.
A million Microsoft shareholders cried out in pain today.
"Other scientists think there is no danger because we have been exposed to nanoparticles for thousands of years, such as ashes from volcanic eruptions. " /sarcasm on/ /sarcasm off/
And humans haven't had ANY as of yet unexplained health problems over those thousands of years either.
I think it was a bloody shame that the EPA declared New York's air safe to breath after the attack on the World Trade Center, when trillions of nano-toxins were released into the air for cleanup and emergency crews to inhale. We're going to see more of New York Lung, in the years to come.
I'm hoping that they don't coat the balloons with a flamable doping, so that there's no chance of flaming zeplins of doom from falling out of the skies. It would bring a new meaning to the "Internet being down" though, wouldn't it?
Oh the Humanity! My wireless quit!
I have an idea!
/sorry, this is a DoS attack. It's a joke.
We'll get every Firefox browser to send a special packet to a website at the same time, and the website will count how many browsers are running!
Might I suggest Microsoft.com as a destination address for the tally figures?