I can't remember where I saw this... some British drama... Police investigating a break-in and disappearance, found a cricket bat in the bedroom. One cop speculated that if the owner had a cricket bat in his bedroom, he must have been spoiling for a fight. And everyone just nodded their heads. This is where I lose hope for humanity.
if applied in practice, produce a police force entirely compatible with anarchism.
But only guaranteed if someone were to enforce your rule #1... which of course would be incompatible with anarchism.
Hence the flaw in many arguments for various non-centralized forms of government. If the rules aren't enforced, they're likely to forcibly change. If they're enforced by some central authority, the government is no longer what you said it was.
My favorite example was the young woman interviewed during Occupy Wall Street, who said we should all abandon money and civilization and go back to being an agrarian society. When it was pointed out to her that such a decision would cause a massive die-off of American citizens, her response was "well, people die."
Ok, let's look at that for a minute, sweetness. You and your colorful friends develop an agrarian society somewhere, and let's say you're actually successful, in that you can adequately and sustainably feed all of your members with a little left over.
Then, one day a bunch of hungry brutes with guns arrive, and suddenly you find that the survivors in your little community are working for the brute squad, and life isn't nearly as nice. What are you gonna do about it? "Mike check!"
"Small arms". Whether this covers death rays depends, I guess, on how compact the death ray is whenever it's invented, and whether the supreme court decides at the time that the 2nd includes energy weapons. (I could see it going either way.)
But doomsday devices, no. That doesn't fit the definition of "small arms".
If you take a CCW course in a state where CCW is allowed, they'll cover what arms are allowed and what are not. (You can take the course without actually getting the permit, if you have a moral objection to carrying concealed.)
In my state, oddly enough, a concealed carry permit does not cover edged weapons. The specific example was the sword cane -- illegal to carry even with a CCW. (I asked this question specifically because I carry a cane. But it can't be a sword cane. Oh well.)
But just over the border (in another state) you can carry edged weapons of arbitrary length, as long as they are not concealed. I've been told that there is a guy walking the streets with a broadsword strapped to his back.
To manufacturers, this is a problem. When phones are good enough that there's nothing substantially better to upgrade to, people tend not to buy new hardware. A way has to be found to force them to upgrade. Hence, the lack of SD cards (no way to put in a bigger one) and the lack of a replaceable battery.
It's not that simple. The problem is that market is saturated with lots of bad sd cards. SD card forgery is rampant. 2gb marked as 16gb is something way too common.
Now what happens when user insert lousy card? He complains that phone is slow or broken and blames the phone (and not himself for buying card for 1/4 of its real market price). And manufacturers see this as their biggest problem. No sd card slot, no problem.
I use Adobe Lightroom a lot. It's the main use of my primary computer. I've noticed that with each update it seems to be allocating more and more memory. Well, so does Firefox and Chrome, so I shouldn't be surprised.
Point is, just last weekend I noticed that with 8 GB installed (Win 7 64 bit) I'm running out of RAM when simultaneously uploading two photos, working on a third, and have Firefox on the taskbar. (Which is my usual workflow.) I've worked around by not having any apps open except Lightroom when I'm using it, but I suspect this is only a stopgap. 8 GB isn't enough anymore. (Also, 10 GB/sec upload isn't enough anymore...)
Live tiles are different across users, and across computers, so that wouldn't be it. But, Microsoft is placing ads for store apps in the taskbar, if you don't turn it off.
There's a way to turn it off? I'm a little surprised.
> And for fuck's sake, it doesn't have to be anyone named Bush or Clinton!
Hear hear. As my own views don't fit well with either party, I've been known to re-register as dem or pub depending on who has what I consider to be the most important primary. But this year... do I register dem and vote against Clinton, or register pub and vote against Bush?
Seriously, we need someone like Hillary in office. She is the only person running that is vicious enough to get something done after the soft but firm Obama
How are those rose-colored glasses doing?
When it's all said and done, Hillary is going to make RMN look like a saint.
Well, I think the OP is right that (a) Hillary has the capacity to be vicious, and (b) she does get things done. Whether they're the things we want done is another topic.
I mean what's really the benefit of getting the latest phone? Note 4 has a removable battery and a microsd card. It has a great screen, can be used as a vr screen. Honestly why bother getting anything else?
To manufacturers, this is a problem. When phones are good enough that there's nothing substantially better to upgrade to, people tend not to buy new hardware. A way has to be found to force them to upgrade. Hence, the lack of SD cards (no way to put in a bigger one) and the lack of a replaceable battery.
I have been explaining this to friends and colleges for quite a while now. New technologies work on a sort of an exponential curve. In the beginning there is plenty of room for new features and improvements. After a while they are feature saturated and the improvements are minimal. This applies to things like: Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Linux, Smart phones, Android, iOS, etc. etc.
Exactly. So, if it looks like you have a successful product, you should be looking ahead at what your business model is going to change to when the curve flattens out. Apps is a good one. Service is another. But it's easier to enforce periodic unneeded upgrades.
I mean what's really the benefit of getting the latest phone? Note 4 has a removable battery and a microsd card. It has a great screen, can be used as a vr screen. Honestly why bother getting anything else?
To manufacturers, this is a problem. When phones are good enough that there's nothing substantially better to upgrade to, people tend not to buy new hardware. A way has to be found to force them to upgrade. Hence, the lack of SD cards (no way to put in a bigger one) and the lack of a replaceable battery.
Motorola Droid M. When I was issued this, the battery would barely last 8 hours. Now six-eight months later, I take it off the charger at home, and by lunchtime it's blinking red and I have to put it on the charger at work. With the earlier Droids with removable batteries, I could (a) carry a spare, and (b) replace the battery easily when it stops taking a charge. I guess, well I guess you're supposed to just throw the phone out now and buy a new one.
I thought it had been known for some time that diet drinks generally didn't help people lose weight. Whether this is a direct effect or indirect depends on whom you ask.
Gads!! Don't use cigarette lighter outlets for DC! Huge fire/shock risk. Much better to go with Anderson plugs or something that can be mildly tamper resistant! How do you fuse the outlets?!
I haven't heard this before. How is this a huge fire risk? 12 volts DC even at high current isn't a shock risk at all, unless you put the leads in your mouth or across your braces. This is one of the advantages of switching to 12 volts DC.
I haven't heard of Anderson plugs until now. (I googled it, and see that they're used in battery backup applications.) I went with lighter-type outlets because they were available and cheap and there are already a lot of device power supplies (example: phone chargers) that will plug into them directly.
Currently there's a fusible link in the cable from the storage batteries to the wall outlets. A direct short will cause some sparks but should pop the link. Were it a bigger installation (it's only one room) I might have put in a fuse box.
Good point, and the usual reaction to a dying (or not-well) industry is to lock things down even more and raise prices.
They can't control the price of paper, and they have lots of competition, including the "why the fuck do we need to print this anyway" argument, so raising prices will just make that argument even stronger.
That's exactly true, but it doesn't stop companies from trying it. I'm a little surprised that Epson appears to be doing something rational.
I have a detached structure that runs entirely off solar/batteries. (There being no legal way to run power to it -- long story.) For the one or two things that actually require A/C I have an industrial inverter, but I try to use it for as few things as possible. To that end, all the lights are 12 volt DC.
I didn't have to rewire anything -- you can get 12 volt bulbs (even CFLs) that screw into standard sockets at any RV supply store.
The plugs in the wall of the structure are car-type cigarette-lighter round plugs. (Except for 2 standard AC which go to the inverter.) I use car adapters for electronics like laptops and music and phones. The lighter-type wall plugs use the same size and shape wall opening as a standard 110 plug.
The point is, most of this stuff already exists, and will retrofit easily into an existing home. You don't have to replace the light fixtures, and replacing the wall plugs is dead simple.
I have natural gas for cooking and heating and hot water. The gas stove and central heat are backed up with a wood stove, so I could even lose the gas and not be inconvenienced too much. Wood instead of propane, because I can go out and chop down a tree myself, whereas I can't refine propane by myself.
> The Bloomberg article makes a good point: it's never been easier to not print things.
Good point, and the usual reaction to a dying (or not-well) industry is to lock things down even more and raise prices. Epson should be commended for going the other direction, and make their printers more attractive. Good differentiation, too.
Just a few weeks ago I replaced mother-in-law's Epson printer with a color laser printer (2400X2400, probably dithered). It's not quite the same tonal quality, even with photo paper, but she was tired of finding that one or more cartridges had dried up or run out every time she wanted to print something. The cartridge model sucks in general, but it *really* sucks for the casual user. Had this come out a month earlier, we might have gone with it instead.
Now all they need is a pro continuous roll version. The epson pro printers have larger cartridges, but they're still cartridges.
...but I think the "tipping point" assumes breakthroughs in technology that aren't quite here yet. And to this degree, it's still speculation. Moreover, the electricity needs to come from somewhere, and I'm not sure that solar by itself scales up sufficiently. Hydrogen fusion for electricity generation might *really* provide the tipping point, but it's been "just a few years from now" for decades.
Moreover, huge new usages for electricity make me a little nervous, considering our aging electricity infrastructure.
Heck, I'd like a fast, silent car that I could refuel at home. But I don't see a personal use case for it yet.
Slashdot Mirror
I can't remember where I saw this... some British drama ... Police investigating a break-in and disappearance, found a cricket bat in the bedroom. One cop speculated that if the owner had a cricket bat in his bedroom, he must have been spoiling for a fight. And everyone just nodded their heads. This is where I lose hope for humanity.
Did you know, you can legally own a flamethrower in many states?
It was excepted from many restrictions due to the use as a brush clearing device for farmers, but it is a very effective self defense weapon as well!
Although a little indiscriminate. And a tendency to collateral damage.
Pretty difficult to conceal a broadsword.
Fishing rod case?
if applied in practice, produce a police force entirely compatible with anarchism.
But only guaranteed if someone were to enforce your rule #1... which of course would be incompatible with anarchism.
Hence the flaw in many arguments for various non-centralized forms of government. If the rules aren't enforced, they're likely to forcibly change. If they're enforced by some central authority, the government is no longer what you said it was.
My favorite example was the young woman interviewed during Occupy Wall Street, who said we should all abandon money and civilization and go back to being an agrarian society. When it was pointed out to her that such a decision would cause a massive die-off of American citizens, her response was "well, people die."
Ok, let's look at that for a minute, sweetness. You and your colorful friends develop an agrarian society somewhere, and let's say you're actually successful, in that you can adequately and sustainably feed all of your members with a little left over.
Then, one day a bunch of hungry brutes with guns arrive, and suddenly you find that the survivors in your little community are working for the brute squad, and life isn't nearly as nice. What are you gonna do about it? "Mike check!"
If the Police can have it....then so should we the citizenry....
you mean the ability to murder without consequence?
I think we were talking the equipment, not the use to which it is put.
"Small arms". Whether this covers death rays depends, I guess, on how compact the death ray is whenever it's invented, and whether the supreme court decides at the time that the 2nd includes energy weapons. (I could see it going either way.)
But doomsday devices, no. That doesn't fit the definition of "small arms".
If you take a CCW course in a state where CCW is allowed, they'll cover what arms are allowed and what are not. (You can take the course without actually getting the permit, if you have a moral objection to carrying concealed.)
In my state, oddly enough, a concealed carry permit does not cover edged weapons. The specific example was the sword cane -- illegal to carry even with a CCW. (I asked this question specifically because I carry a cane. But it can't be a sword cane. Oh well.)
But just over the border (in another state) you can carry edged weapons of arbitrary length, as long as they are not concealed. I've been told that there is a guy walking the streets with a broadsword strapped to his back.
To manufacturers, this is a problem. When phones are good enough that there's nothing substantially better to upgrade to, people tend not to buy new hardware. A way has to be found to force them to upgrade. Hence, the lack of SD cards (no way to put in a bigger one) and the lack of a replaceable battery.
It's not that simple. The problem is that market is saturated with lots of bad sd cards. SD card forgery is rampant. 2gb marked as 16gb is something way too common.
Now what happens when user insert lousy card? He complains that phone is slow or broken and blames the phone (and not himself for buying card for 1/4 of its real market price). And manufacturers see this as their biggest problem. No sd card slot, no problem.
Yeah, sorry, I don't believe that.
I use Adobe Lightroom a lot. It's the main use of my primary computer. I've noticed that with each update it seems to be allocating more and more memory. Well, so does Firefox and Chrome, so I shouldn't be surprised.
Point is, just last weekend I noticed that with 8 GB installed (Win 7 64 bit) I'm running out of RAM when simultaneously uploading two photos, working on a third, and have Firefox on the taskbar. (Which is my usual workflow.) I've worked around by not having any apps open except Lightroom when I'm using it, but I suspect this is only a stopgap. 8 GB isn't enough anymore. (Also, 10 GB/sec upload isn't enough anymore...)
My company decided to ignore 8.X entirely. And they're adopting wait-and-see on Windows 10. We're happy on Win7.
Live tiles are different across users, and across computers, so that wouldn't be it. But, Microsoft is placing ads for store apps in the taskbar, if you don't turn it off.
There's a way to turn it off? I'm a little surprised.
> And for fuck's sake, it doesn't have to be anyone named Bush or Clinton!
Hear hear. As my own views don't fit well with either party, I've been known to re-register as dem or pub depending on who has what I consider to be the most important primary. But this year... do I register dem and vote against Clinton, or register pub and vote against Bush?
Seriously, we need someone like Hillary in office. She is the only person running that is vicious enough to get something done after the soft but firm Obama
How are those rose-colored glasses doing?
When it's all said and done, Hillary is going to make RMN look like a saint.
Well, I think the OP is right that (a) Hillary has the capacity to be vicious, and (b) she does get things done. Whether they're the things we want done is another topic.
I mean what's really the benefit of getting the latest phone? Note 4 has a removable battery and a microsd card. It has a great screen, can be used as a vr screen. Honestly why bother getting anything else?
To manufacturers, this is a problem. When phones are good enough that there's nothing substantially better to upgrade to, people tend not to buy new hardware. A way has to be found to force them to upgrade. Hence, the lack of SD cards (no way to put in a bigger one) and the lack of a replaceable battery.
I have been explaining this to friends and colleges for quite a while now. New technologies work on a sort of an exponential curve. In the beginning there is plenty of room for new features and improvements. After a while they are feature saturated and the improvements are minimal. This applies to things like: Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Linux, Smart phones, Android, iOS, etc. etc.
Exactly. So, if it looks like you have a successful product, you should be looking ahead at what your business model is going to change to when the curve flattens out. Apps is a good one. Service is another. But it's easier to enforce periodic unneeded upgrades.
I mean what's really the benefit of getting the latest phone? Note 4 has a removable battery and a microsd card. It has a great screen, can be used as a vr screen. Honestly why bother getting anything else?
To manufacturers, this is a problem. When phones are good enough that there's nothing substantially better to upgrade to, people tend not to buy new hardware. A way has to be found to force them to upgrade. Hence, the lack of SD cards (no way to put in a bigger one) and the lack of a replaceable battery.
Motorola Droid M. When I was issued this, the battery would barely last 8 hours. Now six-eight months later, I take it off the charger at home, and by lunchtime it's blinking red and I have to put it on the charger at work. With the earlier Droids with removable batteries, I could (a) carry a spare, and (b) replace the battery easily when it stops taking a charge. I guess, well I guess you're supposed to just throw the phone out now and buy a new one.
I thought it had been known for some time that diet drinks generally didn't help people lose weight. Whether this is a direct effect or indirect depends on whom you ask.
(a) he can afford it, (b) it keeps his name in the news. In a good way, I mean.
Gads!! Don't use cigarette lighter outlets for DC! Huge fire/shock risk. Much better to go with Anderson plugs or something that can be mildly tamper resistant! How do you fuse the outlets?!
I haven't heard this before. How is this a huge fire risk? 12 volts DC even at high current isn't a shock risk at all, unless you put the leads in your mouth or across your braces. This is one of the advantages of switching to 12 volts DC.
I haven't heard of Anderson plugs until now. (I googled it, and see that they're used in battery backup applications.) I went with lighter-type outlets because they were available and cheap and there are already a lot of device power supplies (example: phone chargers) that will plug into them directly.
Currently there's a fusible link in the cable from the storage batteries to the wall outlets. A direct short will cause some sparks but should pop the link. Were it a bigger installation (it's only one room) I might have put in a fuse box.
> I cringe to think some of these combinations coming together at the same table. There would be bloodshed.
That might be interesting to watch, in a meta way.
Good point, and the usual reaction to a dying (or not-well) industry is to lock things down even more and raise prices.
They can't control the price of paper, and they have lots of competition, including the "why the fuck do we need to print this anyway" argument, so raising prices will just make that argument even stronger.
That's exactly true, but it doesn't stop companies from trying it. I'm a little surprised that Epson appears to be doing something rational.
I have a detached structure that runs entirely off solar/batteries. (There being no legal way to run power to it -- long story.) For the one or two things that actually require A/C I have an industrial inverter, but I try to use it for as few things as possible. To that end, all the lights are 12 volt DC.
I didn't have to rewire anything -- you can get 12 volt bulbs (even CFLs) that screw into standard sockets at any RV supply store.
The plugs in the wall of the structure are car-type cigarette-lighter round plugs. (Except for 2 standard AC which go to the inverter.) I use car adapters for electronics like laptops and music and phones. The lighter-type wall plugs use the same size and shape wall opening as a standard 110 plug.
The point is, most of this stuff already exists, and will retrofit easily into an existing home. You don't have to replace the light fixtures, and replacing the wall plugs is dead simple.
I have natural gas for cooking and heating and hot water. The gas stove and central heat are backed up with a wood stove, so I could even lose the gas and not be inconvenienced too much. Wood instead of propane, because I can go out and chop down a tree myself, whereas I can't refine propane by myself.
> The Bloomberg article makes a good point: it's never been easier to not print things.
Good point, and the usual reaction to a dying (or not-well) industry is to lock things down even more and raise prices. Epson should be commended for going the other direction, and make their printers more attractive. Good differentiation, too.
Just a few weeks ago I replaced mother-in-law's Epson printer with a color laser printer (2400X2400, probably dithered). It's not quite the same tonal quality, even with photo paper, but she was tired of finding that one or more cartridges had dried up or run out every time she wanted to print something. The cartridge model sucks in general, but it *really* sucks for the casual user. Had this come out a month earlier, we might have gone with it instead.
Now all they need is a pro continuous roll version. The epson pro printers have larger cartridges, but they're still cartridges.
Moreover, huge new usages for electricity make me a little nervous, considering our aging electricity infrastructure.
Heck, I'd like a fast, silent car that I could refuel at home. But I don't see a personal use case for it yet.