IP rights are extremely complicated in the entertainment industry -- especially for older works where all parties didn't decide up-front what residuals would be from "streaming media" which didn't exist at the time of filming. Writers guilds, actor's guilds, and each and every person listed in the credits can get involved with how much they should get paid for what region, how, and when the film or tv show is aired. A lot of actors, writers, and directors want a cut of residuals as well as a paycheck up front. I have friends that are extras in lots of tv shows and movies and occasionally get paid bit parts. They get nothing when someone airs something they were in as an extra, but the bit parts -- if they're in the credits, they get a check every single time some network plays a movie they were in. They're called "residuals" and you better believe they're a complicated mess when 10 years down the line the production company wants to change the rules on distribution to include Netflix an/or a new country. How many phone calls are made to find each and every person in the credits for a work -- including "local jerk #3" to renegotiate his contract 10 years later? Have you seen how many names scroll by at the end of movies?!?!? Sure, for new works it's easier b/c they try to include future tech in the contracts, but it's crazy to expect a lot of entertainment producers to do the work to get the rights to distribute their own works through a different distribution channel than their contract allows.
I'm astonished Netflix even bothered going with so many countries for programming when just the USA and Canada was a nightmare to work out. They've probably been in talks for years to get approvals for other countries. The VPN/proxy ban was probably part of that discussion.
Netfix is not to blame, but the content providers themselves may not be to blame either -- they're bound by a lot of contracts, too. Follow the money if you want to know where this comes from. Lots of actors get X up front, a percent of domestic, and a percent of global through DVD, Bluray, theaters, syndication on TV networks, and many also have Netflix/Hulu/streaming percentages as well. The US Tax code is probably less complicated.
dang it... 0.2 cents, not 2 cents... so, it would be more cost effective to go either pure zinc, pure aluminum, or a zinc/aluminum alloy rather than a copper/zinc alloy for sure. Still, not sure what the total cost to make the new ones would be -- just that the raw materials would be 1/5 a cent to make a cent. Factor in property, plant, equipment, power and other utils, wages, quality control, etc. Probably more.
Aluminum is worth about 70 cents per pound right now (sometimes goes as high as 85 cents per pound). Zinc is also worth about 71 cents per pound as of today, though it has gone as high as $1.35/lb recently.
Pennies are mostly zinc, so I don't know how switching them to aluminum helps anything if their values are basically the same. Even if you make the penny pure aluminum like the Japanese yen, you'd use 1 gram of aluminum to make 1 cent. That aluminum coin would be worth almost 2 cents as scrap metal. It's still a loss.
With the high cost of most metals, I wonder what the profit is on creating counterfeit coins. Seems like even the higher coin values would be a pain to make quality forgeries... making it not worth the time which could be spent on more lucrative ventures.
Change is hard. (pun intended.) But seriously, yeah... inertia of the old system is difficult to overcome. You can see in other countries how conversion to metric, for example, was done in phases and still isn't complete yet. Some global industries haven't switched at all. I was surprised at a lot of construction materials that have yet to go metric.
The US at least has learned its lesson with NASA and requires metric for a lot of science, medicine, and engineering. I wouldn't place any bets on swapping miles for kilometers in the near future, though a few places have tried to at least introduce signs that post both.
It doesn't help that the USA is a relatively large country with a huge, complex economy whose citizens (in general) rarely travel to other countries where they might regularly encounter use of the metric system in everyday life. (shocked at how many people have never even left their home state or seen an ocean) It's a chicken 'n egg problem with industries combined with a "why should we switch anyway?" attitude.
I'm just glad we have metric measurements on foods, drinks, and medicines. Can you imagine if doctors had to figure out how to mix up a solution for an IV without metric units? Hmm.. 1/4 teaspoon in a half pint. How many cups per gallon is that again?
Do we really even need coins? Is there any purchase (total sale, not an individual item) you make with cash that a buyer or seller would be upset about rounding completely to the dollar?
When I shop, I seldom even use cash. But, either way, I rarely look at the cents on the receipt and mentally round to the dollar (or hundred dollars if it's a sizable purchase.) I propose doing away with coins completely, but keep the cents as "micro-transactions" -- or just as gas stations note pricing in dollars, cents, and hundredths of a cent ($1.5099 per gallon is common on signs, but most people ignore it)
I think perhaps garage sales are the only place I know of where people haggle over a quarter or half dollar.
If I plan to pay in cash, I never take change with me -- unless it's to a vending machine. I always assume I'll be given change from an establishment... which I'll promptly place in a charity or tip dish or a jar at my house where it will sit for ages 'til I finally take it to the bank change machine.
Most vending machines stopped taking pennies a very long time ago. You might have luck w/ nickels, but I think the weight of the CA nickel wasn't the same as the USA one... but, if you shove it in w/ some force to it, the machine will register that force as the missing weight sometimes.
Sorry... rational solutions to problems isn't our thing in the USA. I mean... first we'd stop making and circulating the penny, then we'd legalize medical marijuana, switch to the metric system, and finally embrace universal healthcare. That's just crazy talk!
While the design of the bulb makes a difference, it also helps if the bulb is almost never switched off. The bulb you refer to is currently burning at only 4 Watts instead of its likely rated 60 watts and is never turned off. It will likely go for thousands of years at that rate. Crank that bulb back up to the full 60 watts and turn it off and on again 5 or 10 times a day, and we'll see how much longer it holds up.
Incandescent bulbs blow due to 3 main factors -- vaporization of the filament, oxidation of the filament, and the power spike from turning the bulb on which causes rapid expansion of the filament -- some parts faster than others which creates tension and breaking. Also, if a part of the filament becomes too thin and/or oxidized, it can no longer carry the required power and blows like a fuse... but that's more rare. Usually bulbs blow right when you turn them on -- b/c the rapid uneven expansion of the filament will make it break at any weak points from oxidation or vaporization... or just weak tension points in general as some bits expand faster than others.
Keeping the famous bulb burning at only 4 watts continuously keeps the vaporization and oxidation low while making power spikes and rapid expansion almost non-existent.
If you want an incandescent that lasts really long, you need one sealed with a noble or inert gas (pure nitrogen might work on the cheap), some sort of dimmer or ballast to lessen the physical trauma from being switched on, and a filament thick enough to resist vaporization while in use. That won't solve the energy problem as it's still basically making light from a hot resister, but it should last a long while.
I can't speak for specifics, especially with virtualbox as I usually use VMware, but linux in general has had driver issues with 3D rendering in virtual machines for a while... and it's recently gotten worse.
I fought w/ a bug for months before I got a resolution - the fix was to set virtual hardware from version 11 to 12 on the VM for vmware, upgrade to the 4.3.x kernel, and update to Mesa 11.1 or higher so i could use OpenGL 3.3 -- the OpenGL 2 fall-back had the bug.
It's possible your issue has nothing to do w/ KDE btw... just like mine had nothing to do with Cinnamon.
Southern California relies on the Colorado River -- which is drying up due to drought, dams, and water being diverted for farmlands. It now ends 50 miles inland instead of reaching the sea.
California doesn't receive enough rainfall to support the agriculture grown in the region (except maybe the north west portion). Almonds may not be the biggest crop, but they are among the ones which require the most water, and almond growers say that even though they're now giving their almond trees brackish water from wells, they plan to grow more almond trees b/c they're very profitable -- water shortage be damned.
Most farmland is in mid-eastern to eastern half of the US... which gets enough rainfall to support crops. California generally doesn't rely on rainfall - it needs water pumped from rivers, aqueducts, and aquifers. The areas of CA that get the most rainfall are the mountains which feed a few rivers. It's not sustainable. Water rights issues won't matter if there's no water to squabble over. CA needs to build more storage for fresh water -- often, when it rains, water washes quickly into concrete channels and is fed out to the sea instead of stored. Sad, really.
What is the use-case for virtual desktops? They're a part of Windows 10, and have been available on Linux for a while now, but I've never felt the need to use them.
I consider myself to be a power user... often have dozens of programs open at a time -- including a browser with dozens of tabs open. I even have a 3 monitor setup. I've just never had the thought "fark this, I need to completely hide all of this and start another program in a different virtual desktop because reasons. Then switch back to this later."
Clearly, there are people like yourself who laud the capability, so there must be a use-case... I just can't imagine what it is.
I have a hard time believing Red Hat Enterprise Linux would intentionally push a "disaster" on their customers. I have yet to see a single case of using systemd that didn't have a work-around to restore previous workflow or require a minor step to complete.
Most arguments against systemd are philosophical or are a rant that goes something like "Hey, this setup isn't supported!" followed by a reply of "It was never supported before the way you were doing it -- systemd just gave you a warning, but you can ignore the warning." Or they're just plain misinformation followed by an insightful reply to correct it.
Systemd is just part of modernizing and simplifying Linux so it can be a better platform (same as pulse audio, etc). There's no reason sysadmins can't fork the code to do what they want if they can justify the cost of maintaining the fork to their corporate overlords -- or that companies who rely on the old init to come together to support a fork like Duvian if it really matters to their specific situations.
Problem is, supersymmetry (SUSY) is the only theory that even attempts to explain why the masses of particles are as small as they are -- including the Higgs particle. Without SUSY, the Higgs, W, and Z bosons become nearly infinitely massive due to loops in their feynmen diagrams. It's the SUSY that cancels out infinities in a lot of equations to make the string theory results make sense.
Many expect SUSY particles (sparticles) to start showing up at a multiple of the Higgs mass -- say... close to the Higgs mass or an order of magnitude higher, but not much higher. Sparticles are a good candidate for dark matter, but they're unlikely to be detected by the LHC.
Also, we know that string theory can give the same answers as other quantum theories for known values... so it's not "wrong" so much as it's a different way to do the same math... but ST requires SUSY because it's a necessary result of the math. If you compute a universe that allows both bosons and fermions, then for each boson, there is complementary fermion and vice versa -- only SUSY predicts that they have the same mass, but clearly they don't -- so the symmetry is broken.
If no sparticles are found at higher energy levels, then someone will have to explain what's wrong with particle physics in general -- because the math works.... so, what is it about the math that is correct that we're incorrectly interpreting as reality? Even if string theory is discounted in favor of another theory... you can wipe out the theory, but not the math. The math is just a different formulation of a problem to get the same answer. If I say 3 + 2 = 5, and the 2 is the sparticle in my theory... then when we find sparticles don't exist, what the heck is it that I'm adding to 3 to make it 5 ?!?!? There must be some unknown physics that string theory is describing as super particles that may actually be something else we don't understand. We don't even know why the symmetry is "broken" in the current theory to begin with.
The problem is that its equations are quite elegant and simple -- because its goal was to unify the fundamental forces... and by doing so, created so many variables, functions, and possibilities, you can describe just about any universe that might exist. Each particle exists in 11 dimensions with varying degrees of freedom -- and we have few hints at the shapes of those hidden dimensions. Pinning it down to our universe is hard -- really hard. Like 10 ^ 99 possibilities hard. And, there's still the possibility that it's wrong, but there are a very long list of possibilities to go through before they can figure that out. Even if they find one that matches perfectly, just because the math agrees doesn't mean it says anything about how the universe really works -- just that the math works.
But, say you want to describe fundamental forces -- easy... the equations for light, gravity, strong force, and weak force look identical in string theory except for a function tacked on the end -- same for particles and their properties. (Also, as the energy level reaches a certain point, the forces converge towards a point where they are all equal.... as if they are all aspects of the same force that split into different dimensions.)
The same sort of thing was done to predict the Higgs. Equations were written as if all particles were massless plus some function based on interaction with the Higgs. Without the Higgs, the equations were ugly and none of the equations for the particles looked alike, but factor in the Higgs, and they all fall beautifully into place as identical plus some Higgs function. So much was based on this math, that it was understood that it HAD to be right -- years before the particle from the field was discovered.
The irony is -- string theory is a bit like creating epicycles to make the Earth the center of the solar system in the sense that string theory was created to unify the forces -- and in doing so, necessitated the creation of multiple curled up dimensions. It made some things very easy by postulating something strange. Einstein described gravity as the curvature of spacetime, and this gave string theorists the initiative to do the same with the other forces. It may be right -- it's probably right... it looks right in how elegant the math is... but... there's no way to test it -- yet. The theory says more about what can be rather than what must be, so it'll be a while before it matures enough to be called true "science."
Well said, however, I disagree regarding cold fusion in particular. It should be shunned because it flies in the face of physical laws. Creating sustained energy from room temperature fusion is as laughable as someone levitating with the power of their mind.
Simply put, fusion requires nucleons to:
1) physically strike the nucleus of another atom (protons have to overcome the electrical field of electrons surrounding the atom unless it's a plasma where the electrons have been stripped away; neutrons can penetrate, but must come from another nuclear source as neutrons decay into protons very quickly) There's an awful lot of space inside an atom, and it's hard to target the nucleus. That's why you need density -- if you fire at one and miss, you might hit the one next to it or behind it... or the one behind that, maybe.
2) fuse with the nucleus rather than ricochet or split the nucleus
The only known way to do that is with intense heat (heat is just movement -- so fast moving particles) and pressure (pressure is just density of the fast-moving particles). So, when you have a lot of hydrogen in a compact space moving around fast, you get collisions that occasionally fuse. Even with stars the size of our Sun, it takes quantum mechanics to create sustained fusion -- as even with the heat and pressure of our star, the fusion rate would be low save for the protons being close enough to quantum tunnel to fuse.
If you want cold fusion, yes, you can set up a neutron beam from a nuclear source and it'll bombard atoms with neutrons which will fuse with the nuclei, then decay into protons causing the atoms to transmute due the fusion... but, it's not a sustained reaction and gives off little energy. It'll stop when you turn the beam off.
If you want real sustainable H2 to He fusion reactions, you have to have the hydrogen as a dense plasma. That's never going to happen at room temperature or pressure. Sure, some stray cosmic rays will cause fusion in the upper atmosphere and occasionally random radioactive atoms emit particles that fuse with surrounding atoms... but, it's not going to power a nuclear plant. May as well claim you can run a car on tap water instead of gasoline.
The kid was sent to juvenile detention -- not prison. So, they didn't treat him "like an adult." He made a bomb threat -- joke or not. That's what happens when you make a bomb threat. If he'd called from a cell phone to report a bomb in the building, same thing would happen. He'd likely get the same treatment if he'd pulled the fire alarm. If he'd brought a toy gun or a pocket knife to school, he might have just gotten suspended.
Parents should have been notified immediately, and as a minor, he should not be questioned without an adult present.
I agree that zero tolerance is bullshit, but that's the world we live in these days. No room for nuance or good judgement based upon circumstances.
Don't make bomb jokes at schools, theaters, malls, airports, etc. People don't think they're funny anymore & you'll get sent up the river for creating a scare.
I dunno... I could easily see where entire planets, if not races adapted to primarily serve one industry -- when we're talking about a galactic economy. I mean, West Virginia is responsible for about 16% of the USA's fossil fuels and WV is heavily dependent on that industry. Other states in the past were heavily dependent on the production of a single crop or resource.
As for the ST universe, even races that were primarily known for one industry still had scientists working in other areas outside of the primary industry, but that supported the primary industry. ie... they still had material scientists, cooks/chefs, diplomats, warp core engineers, military, etc.
A planet with one uniform climate, however seems a physical impossibility.
I'm not sure why human memory vs computer storage needs to come into play here at all. Are all the delivery drivers memorizing these 3 words for delivery, or are they instead written down on the parcel or a manifest and checking against a computer system??? Seems the latter is more likely. Do the people at these addresses intend to stay at their location which would justify a sane simple numbering system. Or, will they roam around like nomads picking up their tents and/or makeshift housing every so often, thus justifying their need for a simple 3 word system??? The example given is shacks in Brazil that just don't have a decent addressing system. Seems a coordinate system would work better for stationary locations and delivery systems. There's no need to translate into random words and back when the underlying GPS system works just fine as-is.
Perhaps you are not as likely to recall a string of numbers as you are words, but many others do just fine. I recall my zip code, SSN, and the complete address of the many places I have lived without issue. I have no trouble remembering my phone number -- even with the area code! I'm sure I could remember my GPS coordinates if that were the system I regularly relied upon to send and receive mail.
The first 3x3 digits before the decimal of GPS are for a 110 Km x 85 Km area. That's a much larger area than most zip codes at the cost of maybe a digit. If somehow you forgot your 110x85 km code, you could ask your neighbor... or generally anyone within your city. As for the latter digits after the decimal, 4x4 digits is usually enough to specify a location to the precision of this new method. 5x5 is even better than the new method.
Saying you can't recall 4 to 6 digits for your city plus 8 to 10 digits for your house is ridiculous (Total 12 to 16). Most Americans know their 9 digit telephone number, 9 digit SSN, and their house number and zip code which are usually 9 digits as well. I'm sure human beings can adapt to memorizing 12 to 16 numbers with ease -- especially when many are the equivalent of a "zip code" that all neighbors share.
Also, for delivery drivers, it helps when distance is easily measurable or at least approximated. With this awful new system, you're completely reliant on the database and an active GPS signal to find out which direction to travel and how far to your destination. Purple.Monkey.Dishwasher could be miles from Battery.Horse.Stapler -- and in any direction! Even if the database works offline without an internet connection, how does a driver sync that database to walking/driving without an active GPS system? With GPS, at least if the power goes out or stormy weather blocks signals, you can know to drive in a general direction and approximate how far you had left to go or ask locals who know their own GPS coordinates for help in which way to go based on the coordinates of where you are and where you want to go.
"arrest" -- from the French arrêter -- meaning "to stop."
If you are stopped and prevented from leaving, you are arrested (stopped.) If you are stopped/detained against your will without either charges or probable cause, the party that stopped you is guilty of false arrest. The police most definitely stopped this person against their will and detained them. That's an arrest. It's legal because they had probable cause a crime had been committed, but they chose not to press charges.
If you think this wasn't an arrest, then as a civilian, try putting cuffs on another random innocent civilian against their will and detaining them. You'd likely be charged with false arrest -- same as if the police did the same thing without probable cause.
It's the only rational decision for someone who wishes to stay with Microsoft, at least. If one is using Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1, then one may as well move to Windows 10 for free and keep the free support and updates coming. The worst parts of Win 10 are being pushed to the older OSes anyway and will likely be required to take more updates.
I enjoy Linux, but the drivers suck -- same for even OSX. Same exact hardware and Windows kills at FPS on games.
I'm slowly making all my Windows machines dual-boot to Linux in the hope that many if not all of them can go to Linux exclusively, but seriously... until AMD and nVidia get their collective butts together to make competent, competitive OpenGL drivers, DirectX is going to mop the floor w/ Linux/OSX on games and future VR tech. I'm anxiously awaiting Wayland or Mir just to replace the ancient X Windows system. I'm starting to think that GNU/Linux might need a complete architectural re-write just to get decent graphics performance. Even Steam can't get great performance out of their linux steamboxes yet -- and their core business is selling and distributing games! I was really hoping Valve/Steam would bring some great tech to Linux to boost things... but alas, no dice yet.
There was a fork called GIMPshop that made the UI more like photoshop. Unfortunately, the author abandoned the project after someone else scooped up the website gimpshop.com and made money off of ads and installer/crapware (and donations as well, I think).
Would be nice if someone would fork it again, but there's the rub -- not everyone that cares is a coder and those that are must be working on more rewarding projects... or have lives or something.
That's a heck of a spin on the situation. Google paid to be Firefox's default search engine for 10 years. It released the Chrome browser in 2008 and many wondered why it still paid Firefox to be their default search engine when Chrome had the same or higher market share. (answer was it was still worth it!)
When Google was just a search engine, they were fine paying Mozilla for Google to be Firefox's default search engine. After Google Chrome's market share far exceeded Firefox's, they had their own solid browser platform to push Google as a default search engine. Their strategy changed. They no longer had to pay to get a wide audience, and the best way to get more browsers with Google as default was to push Google Chrome and crush Firefox. I'm sure they would have given something to be Firefox's default, but not as much as Yahoo was offering -- and likely nowhere near the amount they'd been paying prior to the Yahoo offer either.
Yahoo needed a win to boost their search income, and they got it. It was a large increase for Yahoo, but a small loss for Google... and Google is winning firefox users over to Chrome, and helping remaining firefox users to switch their search back to Google.
It made perfect sense for Google to shrug off the tiny, declining value of Firefox search engine users as they expected to pick up market share from those leaving Firefox as well as continuing to pick up market share from those scampering off the sinking IE ship.
Meanwhile, Mozilla is running out of cash and slashing features on Firefox to save on expenses while picking up crap like Pocket to survive. It's truly sad that they're likely getting 90% of their revenue from another dying company (Yahoo) and wasting money on developing phones no one asked for. I fear they may not recover from this death spiral. (over 90% of their revenues from previous years came from Google... and you know that was more money than Yahoo gave them b/c they admit they're slashing expenses and begging for cash).
I used to love AMD (even used to own shares in the company at one time)... and their graphics cards always had better specs for the price, but... no. Their drivers are crap.
More importantly, AMD and nVidia typically don't make their own graphics cards -- they just sell the chips and give a reference spec to others. Then, they release regular driver updates to the spec, but caution that your card manufacturer may have better drivers and/or not meet the specs so the drivers may not work right. Most card manufacturers quit supporting the boards after only a year or so. That leaves you twisting in the wind hoping someone will release a good driver for your card before they consider it obsolete and stop updating it.
You're really better off with nVidia. They don't tend to care about open sourcing their drivers like AMD, but they do tend to try to fix bugs and release drivers often.
I have a ROG Asus laptop with nVidia, and I often get monthly "game ready" drivers with specific tweaks for upcoming/popular games. Maybe AMD does something similar, but I was impressed with nVidia being on the ball about such stuff. They even have game-specific graphics settings for popular games to tweak.
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IP rights are extremely complicated in the entertainment industry -- especially for older works where all parties didn't decide up-front what residuals would be from "streaming media" which didn't exist at the time of filming. Writers guilds, actor's guilds, and each and every person listed in the credits can get involved with how much they should get paid for what region, how, and when the film or tv show is aired. A lot of actors, writers, and directors want a cut of residuals as well as a paycheck up front. I have friends that are extras in lots of tv shows and movies and occasionally get paid bit parts. They get nothing when someone airs something they were in as an extra, but the bit parts -- if they're in the credits, they get a check every single time some network plays a movie they were in. They're called "residuals" and you better believe they're a complicated mess when 10 years down the line the production company wants to change the rules on distribution to include Netflix an/or a new country. How many phone calls are made to find each and every person in the credits for a work -- including "local jerk #3" to renegotiate his contract 10 years later? Have you seen how many names scroll by at the end of movies?!?!? Sure, for new works it's easier b/c they try to include future tech in the contracts, but it's crazy to expect a lot of entertainment producers to do the work to get the rights to distribute their own works through a different distribution channel than their contract allows.
I'm astonished Netflix even bothered going with so many countries for programming when just the USA and Canada was a nightmare to work out. They've probably been in talks for years to get approvals for other countries. The VPN/proxy ban was probably part of that discussion.
Netfix is not to blame, but the content providers themselves may not be to blame either -- they're bound by a lot of contracts, too. Follow the money if you want to know where this comes from. Lots of actors get X up front, a percent of domestic, and a percent of global through DVD, Bluray, theaters, syndication on TV networks, and many also have Netflix/Hulu/streaming percentages as well. The US Tax code is probably less complicated.
dang it... 0.2 cents, not 2 cents... so, it would be more cost effective to go either pure zinc, pure aluminum, or a zinc/aluminum alloy rather than a copper/zinc alloy for sure. Still, not sure what the total cost to make the new ones would be -- just that the raw materials would be 1/5 a cent to make a cent. Factor in property, plant, equipment, power and other utils, wages, quality control, etc. Probably more.
Aluminum is worth about 70 cents per pound right now (sometimes goes as high as 85 cents per pound). Zinc is also worth about 71 cents per pound as of today, though it has gone as high as $1.35/lb recently.
Pennies are mostly zinc, so I don't know how switching them to aluminum helps anything if their values are basically the same. Even if you make the penny pure aluminum like the Japanese yen, you'd use 1 gram of aluminum to make 1 cent. That aluminum coin would be worth almost 2 cents as scrap metal. It's still a loss.
With the high cost of most metals, I wonder what the profit is on creating counterfeit coins. Seems like even the higher coin values would be a pain to make quality forgeries... making it not worth the time which could be spent on more lucrative ventures.
Change is hard. (pun intended.) But seriously, yeah... inertia of the old system is difficult to overcome. You can see in other countries how conversion to metric, for example, was done in phases and still isn't complete yet. Some global industries haven't switched at all. I was surprised at a lot of construction materials that have yet to go metric.
The US at least has learned its lesson with NASA and requires metric for a lot of science, medicine, and engineering. I wouldn't place any bets on swapping miles for kilometers in the near future, though a few places have tried to at least introduce signs that post both.
It doesn't help that the USA is a relatively large country with a huge, complex economy whose citizens (in general) rarely travel to other countries where they might regularly encounter use of the metric system in everyday life. (shocked at how many people have never even left their home state or seen an ocean) It's a chicken 'n egg problem with industries combined with a "why should we switch anyway?" attitude.
I'm just glad we have metric measurements on foods, drinks, and medicines. Can you imagine if doctors had to figure out how to mix up a solution for an IV without metric units? Hmm.. 1/4 teaspoon in a half pint. How many cups per gallon is that again?
Do we really even need coins? Is there any purchase (total sale, not an individual item) you make with cash that a buyer or seller would be upset about rounding completely to the dollar?
When I shop, I seldom even use cash. But, either way, I rarely look at the cents on the receipt and mentally round to the dollar (or hundred dollars if it's a sizable purchase.) I propose doing away with coins completely, but keep the cents as "micro-transactions" -- or just as gas stations note pricing in dollars, cents, and hundredths of a cent ($1.5099 per gallon is common on signs, but most people ignore it)
I think perhaps garage sales are the only place I know of where people haggle over a quarter or half dollar.
If I plan to pay in cash, I never take change with me -- unless it's to a vending machine. I always assume I'll be given change from an establishment... which I'll promptly place in a charity or tip dish or a jar at my house where it will sit for ages 'til I finally take it to the bank change machine.
Most vending machines stopped taking pennies a very long time ago. You might have luck w/ nickels, but I think the weight of the CA nickel wasn't the same as the USA one... but, if you shove it in w/ some force to it, the machine will register that force as the missing weight sometimes.
*aren't /thought I'd fixed that before submitting
Sorry... rational solutions to problems isn't our thing in the USA. I mean... first we'd stop making and circulating the penny, then we'd legalize medical marijuana, switch to the metric system, and finally embrace universal healthcare. That's just crazy talk!
While the design of the bulb makes a difference, it also helps if the bulb is almost never switched off. The bulb you refer to is currently burning at only 4 Watts instead of its likely rated 60 watts and is never turned off. It will likely go for thousands of years at that rate. Crank that bulb back up to the full 60 watts and turn it off and on again 5 or 10 times a day, and we'll see how much longer it holds up.
Incandescent bulbs blow due to 3 main factors -- vaporization of the filament, oxidation of the filament, and the power spike from turning the bulb on which causes rapid expansion of the filament -- some parts faster than others which creates tension and breaking. Also, if a part of the filament becomes too thin and/or oxidized, it can no longer carry the required power and blows like a fuse... but that's more rare. Usually bulbs blow right when you turn them on -- b/c the rapid uneven expansion of the filament will make it break at any weak points from oxidation or vaporization... or just weak tension points in general as some bits expand faster than others.
Keeping the famous bulb burning at only 4 watts continuously keeps the vaporization and oxidation low while making power spikes and rapid expansion almost non-existent.
If you want an incandescent that lasts really long, you need one sealed with a noble or inert gas (pure nitrogen might work on the cheap), some sort of dimmer or ballast to lessen the physical trauma from being switched on, and a filament thick enough to resist vaporization while in use. That won't solve the energy problem as it's still basically making light from a hot resister, but it should last a long while.
I can't speak for specifics, especially with virtualbox as I usually use VMware, but linux in general has had driver issues with 3D rendering in virtual machines for a while... and it's recently gotten worse.
I fought w/ a bug for months before I got a resolution - the fix was to set virtual hardware from version 11 to 12 on the VM for vmware, upgrade to the 4.3.x kernel, and update to Mesa 11.1 or higher so i could use OpenGL 3.3 -- the OpenGL 2 fall-back had the bug.
It's possible your issue has nothing to do w/ KDE btw... just like mine had nothing to do with Cinnamon.
Southern California relies on the Colorado River -- which is drying up due to drought, dams, and water being diverted for farmlands. It now ends 50 miles inland instead of reaching the sea.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/...
California doesn't receive enough rainfall to support the agriculture grown in the region (except maybe the north west portion). Almonds may not be the biggest crop, but they are among the ones which require the most water, and almond growers say that even though they're now giving their almond trees brackish water from wells, they plan to grow more almond trees b/c they're very profitable -- water shortage be damned.
Most farmland is in mid-eastern to eastern half of the US... which gets enough rainfall to support crops. California generally doesn't rely on rainfall - it needs water pumped from rivers, aqueducts, and aquifers. The areas of CA that get the most rainfall are the mountains which feed a few rivers. It's not sustainable. Water rights issues won't matter if there's no water to squabble over. CA needs to build more storage for fresh water -- often, when it rains, water washes quickly into concrete channels and is fed out to the sea instead of stored. Sad, really.
https://www.crwr.utexas.edu/gi...
What is the use-case for virtual desktops? They're a part of Windows 10, and have been available on Linux for a while now, but I've never felt the need to use them.
I consider myself to be a power user... often have dozens of programs open at a time -- including a browser with dozens of tabs open. I even have a 3 monitor setup. I've just never had the thought "fark this, I need to completely hide all of this and start another program in a different virtual desktop because reasons. Then switch back to this later."
Clearly, there are people like yourself who laud the capability, so there must be a use-case... I just can't imagine what it is.
I have a hard time believing Red Hat Enterprise Linux would intentionally push a "disaster" on their customers. I have yet to see a single case of using systemd that didn't have a work-around to restore previous workflow or require a minor step to complete.
Most arguments against systemd are philosophical or are a rant that goes something like "Hey, this setup isn't supported!" followed by a reply of "It was never supported before the way you were doing it -- systemd just gave you a warning, but you can ignore the warning." Or they're just plain misinformation followed by an insightful reply to correct it.
Systemd is just part of modernizing and simplifying Linux so it can be a better platform (same as pulse audio, etc). There's no reason sysadmins can't fork the code to do what they want if they can justify the cost of maintaining the fork to their corporate overlords -- or that companies who rely on the old init to come together to support a fork like Duvian if it really matters to their specific situations.
Problem is, supersymmetry (SUSY) is the only theory that even attempts to explain why the masses of particles are as small as they are -- including the Higgs particle. Without SUSY, the Higgs, W, and Z bosons become nearly infinitely massive due to loops in their feynmen diagrams. It's the SUSY that cancels out infinities in a lot of equations to make the string theory results make sense.
Many expect SUSY particles (sparticles) to start showing up at a multiple of the Higgs mass -- say... close to the Higgs mass or an order of magnitude higher, but not much higher. Sparticles are a good candidate for dark matter, but they're unlikely to be detected by the LHC.
Also, we know that string theory can give the same answers as other quantum theories for known values... so it's not "wrong" so much as it's a different way to do the same math... but ST requires SUSY because it's a necessary result of the math. If you compute a universe that allows both bosons and fermions, then for each boson, there is complementary fermion and vice versa -- only SUSY predicts that they have the same mass, but clearly they don't -- so the symmetry is broken.
If no sparticles are found at higher energy levels, then someone will have to explain what's wrong with particle physics in general -- because the math works.... so, what is it about the math that is correct that we're incorrectly interpreting as reality? Even if string theory is discounted in favor of another theory... you can wipe out the theory, but not the math. The math is just a different formulation of a problem to get the same answer. If I say 3 + 2 = 5, and the 2 is the sparticle in my theory... then when we find sparticles don't exist, what the heck is it that I'm adding to 3 to make it 5 ?!?!? There must be some unknown physics that string theory is describing as super particles that may actually be something else we don't understand. We don't even know why the symmetry is "broken" in the current theory to begin with.
The problem is that its equations are quite elegant and simple -- because its goal was to unify the fundamental forces... and by doing so, created so many variables, functions, and possibilities, you can describe just about any universe that might exist. Each particle exists in 11 dimensions with varying degrees of freedom -- and we have few hints at the shapes of those hidden dimensions. Pinning it down to our universe is hard -- really hard. Like 10 ^ 99 possibilities hard. And, there's still the possibility that it's wrong, but there are a very long list of possibilities to go through before they can figure that out. Even if they find one that matches perfectly, just because the math agrees doesn't mean it says anything about how the universe really works -- just that the math works.
But, say you want to describe fundamental forces -- easy... the equations for light, gravity, strong force, and weak force look identical in string theory except for a function tacked on the end -- same for particles and their properties. (Also, as the energy level reaches a certain point, the forces converge towards a point where they are all equal.... as if they are all aspects of the same force that split into different dimensions.)
The same sort of thing was done to predict the Higgs. Equations were written as if all particles were massless plus some function based on interaction with the Higgs. Without the Higgs, the equations were ugly and none of the equations for the particles looked alike, but factor in the Higgs, and they all fall beautifully into place as identical plus some Higgs function. So much was based on this math, that it was understood that it HAD to be right -- years before the particle from the field was discovered.
The irony is -- string theory is a bit like creating epicycles to make the Earth the center of the solar system in the sense that string theory was created to unify the forces -- and in doing so, necessitated the creation of multiple curled up dimensions. It made some things very easy by postulating something strange. Einstein described gravity as the curvature of spacetime, and this gave string theorists the initiative to do the same with the other forces. It may be right -- it's probably right... it looks right in how elegant the math is... but... there's no way to test it -- yet. The theory says more about what can be rather than what must be, so it'll be a while before it matures enough to be called true "science."
Well said, however, I disagree regarding cold fusion in particular. It should be shunned because it flies in the face of physical laws. Creating sustained energy from room temperature fusion is as laughable as someone levitating with the power of their mind.
Simply put, fusion requires nucleons to:
1) physically strike the nucleus of another atom (protons have to overcome the electrical field of electrons surrounding the atom unless it's a plasma where the electrons have been stripped away; neutrons can penetrate, but must come from another nuclear source as neutrons decay into protons very quickly) There's an awful lot of space inside an atom, and it's hard to target the nucleus. That's why you need density -- if you fire at one and miss, you might hit the one next to it or behind it... or the one behind that, maybe.
2) fuse with the nucleus rather than ricochet or split the nucleus
The only known way to do that is with intense heat (heat is just movement -- so fast moving particles) and pressure (pressure is just density of the fast-moving particles). So, when you have a lot of hydrogen in a compact space moving around fast, you get collisions that occasionally fuse. Even with stars the size of our Sun, it takes quantum mechanics to create sustained fusion -- as even with the heat and pressure of our star, the fusion rate would be low save for the protons being close enough to quantum tunnel to fuse.
If you want cold fusion, yes, you can set up a neutron beam from a nuclear source and it'll bombard atoms with neutrons which will fuse with the nuclei, then decay into protons causing the atoms to transmute due the fusion... but, it's not a sustained reaction and gives off little energy. It'll stop when you turn the beam off.
If you want real sustainable H2 to He fusion reactions, you have to have the hydrogen as a dense plasma. That's never going to happen at room temperature or pressure. Sure, some stray cosmic rays will cause fusion in the upper atmosphere and occasionally random radioactive atoms emit particles that fuse with surrounding atoms... but, it's not going to power a nuclear plant. May as well claim you can run a car on tap water instead of gasoline.
The kid was sent to juvenile detention -- not prison. So, they didn't treat him "like an adult." He made a bomb threat -- joke or not. That's what happens when you make a bomb threat. If he'd called from a cell phone to report a bomb in the building, same thing would happen. He'd likely get the same treatment if he'd pulled the fire alarm. If he'd brought a toy gun or a pocket knife to school, he might have just gotten suspended.
Parents should have been notified immediately, and as a minor, he should not be questioned without an adult present.
I agree that zero tolerance is bullshit, but that's the world we live in these days. No room for nuance or good judgement based upon circumstances.
Don't make bomb jokes at schools, theaters, malls, airports, etc. People don't think they're funny anymore & you'll get sent up the river for creating a scare.
I dunno... I could easily see where entire planets, if not races adapted to primarily serve one industry -- when we're talking about a galactic economy. I mean, West Virginia is responsible for about 16% of the USA's fossil fuels and WV is heavily dependent on that industry. Other states in the past were heavily dependent on the production of a single crop or resource.
As for the ST universe, even races that were primarily known for one industry still had scientists working in other areas outside of the primary industry, but that supported the primary industry. ie... they still had material scientists, cooks/chefs, diplomats, warp core engineers, military, etc.
A planet with one uniform climate, however seems a physical impossibility.
I'm not sure why human memory vs computer storage needs to come into play here at all. Are all the delivery drivers memorizing these 3 words for delivery, or are they instead written down on the parcel or a manifest and checking against a computer system??? Seems the latter is more likely. Do the people at these addresses intend to stay at their location which would justify a sane simple numbering system. Or, will they roam around like nomads picking up their tents and/or makeshift housing every so often, thus justifying their need for a simple 3 word system??? The example given is shacks in Brazil that just don't have a decent addressing system. Seems a coordinate system would work better for stationary locations and delivery systems. There's no need to translate into random words and back when the underlying GPS system works just fine as-is.
Perhaps you are not as likely to recall a string of numbers as you are words, but many others do just fine. I recall my zip code, SSN, and the complete address of the many places I have lived without issue. I have no trouble remembering my phone number -- even with the area code! I'm sure I could remember my GPS coordinates if that were the system I regularly relied upon to send and receive mail.
The first 3x3 digits before the decimal of GPS are for a 110 Km x 85 Km area. That's a much larger area than most zip codes at the cost of maybe a digit. If somehow you forgot your 110x85 km code, you could ask your neighbor... or generally anyone within your city. As for the latter digits after the decimal, 4x4 digits is usually enough to specify a location to the precision of this new method. 5x5 is even better than the new method.
Saying you can't recall 4 to 6 digits for your city plus 8 to 10 digits for your house is ridiculous (Total 12 to 16). Most Americans know their 9 digit telephone number, 9 digit SSN, and their house number and zip code which are usually 9 digits as well. I'm sure human beings can adapt to memorizing 12 to 16 numbers with ease -- especially when many are the equivalent of a "zip code" that all neighbors share.
Also, for delivery drivers, it helps when distance is easily measurable or at least approximated. With this awful new system, you're completely reliant on the database and an active GPS signal to find out which direction to travel and how far to your destination. Purple.Monkey.Dishwasher could be miles from Battery.Horse.Stapler -- and in any direction! Even if the database works offline without an internet connection, how does a driver sync that database to walking/driving without an active GPS system? With GPS, at least if the power goes out or stormy weather blocks signals, you can know to drive in a general direction and approximate how far you had left to go or ask locals who know their own GPS coordinates for help in which way to go based on the coordinates of where you are and where you want to go.
"arrest" -- from the French arrêter -- meaning "to stop."
If you are stopped and prevented from leaving, you are arrested (stopped.) If you are stopped/detained against your will without either charges or probable cause, the party that stopped you is guilty of false arrest. The police most definitely stopped this person against their will and detained them. That's an arrest. It's legal because they had probable cause a crime had been committed, but they chose not to press charges.
If you think this wasn't an arrest, then as a civilian, try putting cuffs on another random innocent civilian against their will and detaining them. You'd likely be charged with false arrest -- same as if the police did the same thing without probable cause.
It's the only rational decision for someone who wishes to stay with Microsoft, at least. If one is using Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1, then one may as well move to Windows 10 for free and keep the free support and updates coming. The worst parts of Win 10 are being pushed to the older OSes anyway and will likely be required to take more updates.
I enjoy Linux, but the drivers suck -- same for even OSX. Same exact hardware and Windows kills at FPS on games.
I'm slowly making all my Windows machines dual-boot to Linux in the hope that many if not all of them can go to Linux exclusively, but seriously... until AMD and nVidia get their collective butts together to make competent, competitive OpenGL drivers, DirectX is going to mop the floor w/ Linux/OSX on games and future VR tech. I'm anxiously awaiting Wayland or Mir just to replace the ancient X Windows system. I'm starting to think that GNU/Linux might need a complete architectural re-write just to get decent graphics performance. Even Steam can't get great performance out of their linux steamboxes yet -- and their core business is selling and distributing games! I was really hoping Valve/Steam would bring some great tech to Linux to boost things... but alas, no dice yet.
There was a fork called GIMPshop that made the UI more like photoshop. Unfortunately, the author abandoned the project after someone else scooped up the website gimpshop.com and made money off of ads and installer/crapware (and donations as well, I think).
Would be nice if someone would fork it again, but there's the rub -- not everyone that cares is a coder and those that are must be working on more rewarding projects... or have lives or something.
That's a heck of a spin on the situation. Google paid to be Firefox's default search engine for 10 years. It released the Chrome browser in 2008 and many wondered why it still paid Firefox to be their default search engine when Chrome had the same or higher market share. (answer was it was still worth it!)
When Google was just a search engine, they were fine paying Mozilla for Google to be Firefox's default search engine.
After Google Chrome's market share far exceeded Firefox's, they had their own solid browser platform to push Google as a default search engine. Their strategy changed. They no longer had to pay to get a wide audience, and the best way to get more browsers with Google as default was to push Google Chrome and crush Firefox. I'm sure they would have given something to be Firefox's default, but not as much as Yahoo was offering -- and likely nowhere near the amount they'd been paying prior to the Yahoo offer either.
Yahoo needed a win to boost their search income, and they got it. It was a large increase for Yahoo, but a small loss for Google... and Google is winning firefox users over to Chrome, and helping remaining firefox users to switch their search back to Google.
http://computing.dcu.ie/~humph...
It made perfect sense for Google to shrug off the tiny, declining value of Firefox search engine users as they expected to pick up market share from those leaving Firefox as well as continuing to pick up market share from those scampering off the sinking IE ship.
Meanwhile, Mozilla is running out of cash and slashing features on Firefox to save on expenses while picking up crap like Pocket to survive. It's truly sad that they're likely getting 90% of their revenue from another dying company (Yahoo) and wasting money on developing phones no one asked for. I fear they may not recover from this death spiral. (over 90% of their revenues from previous years came from Google... and you know that was more money than Yahoo gave them b/c they admit they're slashing expenses and begging for cash).
I used to love AMD (even used to own shares in the company at one time)... and their graphics cards always had better specs for the price, but... no. Their drivers are crap.
More importantly, AMD and nVidia typically don't make their own graphics cards -- they just sell the chips and give a reference spec to others. Then, they release regular driver updates to the spec, but caution that your card manufacturer may have better drivers and/or not meet the specs so the drivers may not work right. Most card manufacturers quit supporting the boards after only a year or so. That leaves you twisting in the wind hoping someone will release a good driver for your card before they consider it obsolete and stop updating it.
You're really better off with nVidia. They don't tend to care about open sourcing their drivers like AMD, but they do tend to try to fix bugs and release drivers often.
I have a ROG Asus laptop with nVidia, and I often get monthly "game ready" drivers with specific tweaks for upcoming/popular games. Maybe AMD does something similar, but I was impressed with nVidia being on the ball about such stuff. They even have game-specific graphics settings for popular games to tweak.