>I have a number of electronics and programming projects I want to do, I find I don't really want to do them. I've got a major case of Meh
I hear that. I blame my job, my wife, my kids, the pets... whatever. But the truth is I've got 3 or 4 projects lined up I COULD work on a few hours at a time, but while I'm really enthusiastic about the concepts I simply can't drum up the enthusiasm to actual sit down and do the work.
I mean, what the hell is so awesome about doing something uncountable others have already done before me, and probably better than I ever would? Meh. Work a bit longer, buy the finished product... leave that box of supplies in the workshop.
>it's just that I don't *have* to do them, so I'm not bothered to get after it.
First world problems. We have everything we need and thus don't have the ambition to acquire something we need.
Because as best I can tell from the linked prediction animation, you need to be in Alaska to have a hope of seeing this, because all the other states are at least 4 degrees too far south.
And Canada doesn't have a hell of a lot of people living north of James Bay, either.
First, I'm Canadian, so no horse in the race. Second, our conservatives are more like your democrats and I lean a bit further left than that (though I dislike our historically fairly corrupt Liberal party).
Having said that... Trump ran a dirty campaign without any ethics at all, and then he was voted in according to the American system. The system has mechanisms for doing something about it quickly, but it isn't politically expedient. Other mechanisms are slower, but are rolling along and MAY eventually do something. Or may not. Or Trump could go scorched Earth on his way out and finish shitting on the system by granting immunity to everyone including himself and lock up the legal system so long he gets to die free and unpunished. Or finish up his term (or even get re-elected!) while polling historically low the whole time and declaring himself vindicated.
Maybe ya'll oughta look into two things: fixing whatever caused your society to vote him in (minority vote or not, he got a huge chunk of voters to back him), and upgrading the systems that let him get so far and are so slow to correct themselves.
Maybe try a parliamentary democracy out for a few years and break the back of that overly adversarial two-party system you have going. (As a Canadian, I'm probably biased on that one)
> I think it's time we either change the law and say if you manage to sneak in you can stay, or enforce the existing laws and deport anyone who didn't arrive legally.
The first reason for the waffling, in my opinion, is that the immigration is economically net positive (they generally start with jobs locals won't take at rates other locals will pay). The second is that once they're established, they're part of the community and ripping them out is bad PR and potentially vote-losing.
Rather than opening the borders or massive round-ups, I think an honest review of the benefits of immigration and then ultimately opening the gates enough to let in similar numbers to those who have been historically sneaking in would be best. And probably political suicide.
The Republican party is happy to fail at pretty much everything on their platform so long as doing so is the best way to maintain power.
Which likely means they're getting SOMETHING out of it and most of us just aren't seeing it or understanding the significance of what we're seeing.
Even my most negative assessment of politicians in general doesn't have them seeking high office for the sake of it. They want something, it's just not necessarily what they say they want, what they promise to do, or what they are seen to be doing.
If you allow people to benefit from their crimes, you're condoning and providing an incentive for those crimes. In this case, American life for their children. On the other hand... I disagree with punishing the son for the sins of the father. God might be big on that (we're all still paying for Adam and Eve's disobedience right?), but I'm not.
So this is ultimately the kind of action you support if you're a religious fundamentalist, a racist, or simply ignorant and terrified that a flood of illegal immigrants are destroying everything you know.
I would obviously tend to the liberal position, but it does still bother me that the parents 'get away with it'. I'm OK with a nation setting rules for who can cross its borders and then enforcing those rules. That's kind of one of the fundamental jobs of a government.
That needs to be an app. Something that chooses a random sensitive topic and makes a few related google searches in a logical progression at a rate that makes it look like human activity.
Bomb making, disposing of dead hookers, and presidential assassination tips would be awesome.
Yep. And with employees who have some ethics, it's not a problem because they keep their mouths shut and don't share what they see.
I've worked in multiple environments like that. I've also seen a few not so ethical people get fired because in addition to looking at what they shouldn't, they couldn't resist blabbing about the bits they found interesting.
As a general rule, all people are occasionally stupid and some people are constantly stupid.
Data is useless if it is inaccessible. Eventually, one of your authorized users will break an access rule, and on occasion they will do so in a way that gets them caught.
Ancestry.com is low quality (most of the data is not properly verified).
There's a good hunk of my family tree in there, and it's over 50% bullshit entered by a well-intentioned relative who doesn't understand how to do proper genealogical research.
Still, it would pretty much have to be an improvement over 'randomly connect two Facebook accounts' so it would not surprise me to find out Facebook has licenced the data.
No matter what you do, you're running at least one cable (ideally in your wall for a nice clean look).
It would be nice if that was omnibus cable that did everything, but there's also something to be said for using multiple standard cables... you can put up standard wall plates and connect to a new screen if you replace the existing one, for instance.
I'd like to see a standard for recessed wall plates that can handle all the likely connectors and the required cable slack so you can have a truly flush-mounted screen. And a matching standard for the screens to have the most common connectors in the same position every time.
Look for a monitor instead. You won't get a handy remote, but if it's any better than 'crap' it'll go into standby after a minute or two without an input signal, and whatever you're using to drive the image will have its own remote anyway.
Aircraft have well-defined places to take off and land, with very strictly enforced rules. In transit there is nothing like trying to weave through unmarked construction with cyclists and pedestrians trying to cross your path without warning.
There's more to worry about with the craft control itself, but that's where computers excel.
I'd get in a pilotless plane long before I'd be a passenger in a driverless car.
Skin tight suits have issues with creasing pinching the wearer's skin. Now, for a suit you're only wearing in case of a cockpit pressure failure, you may be willing to risk that in return for a more comfortable suit.
Another option is the constant volume suit - and we've been making those since the 60s. They have their advantages, but they probably are better for situations where you're not mostly depending on your spacecraft for pressure anyway.
>There's less cruelty necessarily involved in raising an animal for food than there is in your morning commute.
It's a matter of whether the blood's on our hands or Nature's. And the most efficient methods are not pleasant.
>I'm having a hard time imagining making meat in factories having zero or positive environmental impact.
They would require far less water and land than raising animals. After all, you aren't supporting a brain, mobility, or reproductive systems. You're only growing the meat.
So... use the current, working financial system but for some reason expect banks to start running the back end in Bitcoin instead of their domestic currency, and expect stores to switch too?
We could just change the name on our money and it'd be a LOT more efficient a change to enact.
>this "clean meat" is just meat for the hygiene-obssessed elite.
Perhaps for some. For others it's the ability to put meat on the table with a small fraction of the environmental impact and none of the necessary cruelty involved in raising an animal for food.
WWIII isn't something I'd care to survive... but I live far enough away from probable targets that I would likely get to enjoy radiation sickness instead of simply getting vapourized. Yay. But you know what? That kind of news would get to me without having to look for it. You know, when everyone's running around in a panic because it's on every radio station and television channel.
A zombie apocalypse is not what I'd call likely. And as a Canadian with a well-stocked fridge and a bunch of medieval weapons and some chain mail... I think I'd do OK if the impossible came to pass. Especially since any day now the whole damn country will freeze over and make zombies easy pickings.
Mostly I dig for science and tech news, the bleeding edge of human knowledge and engineering stuff (except I'm looking at the pop science reporting, not the actual research / studies).
I've learned to put it all aside for most of my day and relax. It's way too easy to waste your time looking for the next bit of interesting information and never find it.
The truth is that nothing (that I can do anything about) is going to happen on a time scale of days. If I read about something tomorrow even in a week... the delay is not going to affect my life, I'm not actually missing out on anything.
>I still haven't tied a credit card to any of my mobile phones or accounts
Until it's a LOT safer to do so, I never will. One wrong click and you've agreed to pay for something. But without a credit card on record, I can never ever make that mistake nor be subject to all sorts of potential risk from the vendor (or my phone or tablet) getting hacked.
And that's without even considering how much easier it makes it for companies like Facebook and Google to collect data on you. Convenience in return for allowing corporations (and through them the government) to spy on my every action? Just on general principles... NO.
>Lillium has no strategy for emergency power-off failure.
On small enough vehicles, you can have a ballistic chute sufficient to bring the whole vehicle to ground at a survivable velocity. They make them for ultralight aircraft. Lillium may not have thought of this yet, but it's a realistic option.
As for automatic navigation... I've seen some amazing commercial drone software. Current rules (here) are that the drone must be in visual range of the operator, but I have to tell you that those things can compensate so quickly for a gust of wind you barely see them move... they fly their route like they're on rails. It's just a matter of time before they're certified as more reliable than a human operator.
What I don't see is these things being cost-effective... ever. No matter how good the batteries get, it'll always be massively more efficient to use them to power a ground vehicle. Something that doesn't have to use energy just to fight gravity. Something that only the most extreme weather makes unsafe to operate.
What we're seeing here is a slightly less expensive commuter helicopter alternative so more of the slightly-less-rich can fly above the rest of us proles.
>Incompetence is why I'd never want to be a dictator
When I was young I used to dream of world domination. As I got older I just kept thinking, "Why would I ever want that?"
I just want to go about my business without having to worry about much that isn't directly affecting me, and I certainly don't want to deal with the masses questioning my every move.
I really don't think anyone who wants to be head of state of a nation can be completely sane.
Slashdot Mirror
1. Thank you.
2. I should comically smack myself in the forehead while saying "Do'h!" for missing that.
>I have a number of electronics and programming projects I want to do, I find I don't really want to do them. I've got a major case of Meh
I hear that. I blame my job, my wife, my kids, the pets... whatever. But the truth is I've got 3 or 4 projects lined up I COULD work on a few hours at a time, but while I'm really enthusiastic about the concepts I simply can't drum up the enthusiasm to actual sit down and do the work.
I mean, what the hell is so awesome about doing something uncountable others have already done before me, and probably better than I ever would? Meh. Work a bit longer, buy the finished product... leave that box of supplies in the workshop.
>it's just that I don't *have* to do them, so I'm not bothered to get after it.
First world problems. We have everything we need and thus don't have the ambition to acquire something we need.
Because as best I can tell from the linked prediction animation, you need to be in Alaska to have a hope of seeing this, because all the other states are at least 4 degrees too far south.
And Canada doesn't have a hell of a lot of people living north of James Bay, either.
First, I'm Canadian, so no horse in the race. Second, our conservatives are more like your democrats and I lean a bit further left than that (though I dislike our historically fairly corrupt Liberal party).
Having said that... Trump ran a dirty campaign without any ethics at all, and then he was voted in according to the American system. The system has mechanisms for doing something about it quickly, but it isn't politically expedient. Other mechanisms are slower, but are rolling along and MAY eventually do something. Or may not. Or Trump could go scorched Earth on his way out and finish shitting on the system by granting immunity to everyone including himself and lock up the legal system so long he gets to die free and unpunished. Or finish up his term (or even get re-elected!) while polling historically low the whole time and declaring himself vindicated.
Maybe ya'll oughta look into two things: fixing whatever caused your society to vote him in (minority vote or not, he got a huge chunk of voters to back him), and upgrading the systems that let him get so far and are so slow to correct themselves.
Maybe try a parliamentary democracy out for a few years and break the back of that overly adversarial two-party system you have going. (As a Canadian, I'm probably biased on that one)
>3 horizontal lines for menu? or was it dots?, WTF is wrong with writing menu
I suspect that every symbol replacing text is another item they don't need to translate for non-English markets.
That still doesn't excuse blending buttons into the rest of the content.
> I think it's time we either change the law and say if you manage to sneak in you can stay, or enforce the existing laws and deport anyone who didn't arrive legally.
The first reason for the waffling, in my opinion, is that the immigration is economically net positive (they generally start with jobs locals won't take at rates other locals will pay). The second is that once they're established, they're part of the community and ripping them out is bad PR and potentially vote-losing.
Rather than opening the borders or massive round-ups, I think an honest review of the benefits of immigration and then ultimately opening the gates enough to let in similar numbers to those who have been historically sneaking in would be best. And probably political suicide.
The Republican party is happy to fail at pretty much everything on their platform so long as doing so is the best way to maintain power.
Which likely means they're getting SOMETHING out of it and most of us just aren't seeing it or understanding the significance of what we're seeing.
Even my most negative assessment of politicians in general doesn't have them seeking high office for the sake of it. They want something, it's just not necessarily what they say they want, what they promise to do, or what they are seen to be doing.
If you allow people to benefit from their crimes, you're condoning and providing an incentive for those crimes. In this case, American life for their children. On the other hand... I disagree with punishing the son for the sins of the father. God might be big on that (we're all still paying for Adam and Eve's disobedience right?), but I'm not.
So this is ultimately the kind of action you support if you're a religious fundamentalist, a racist, or simply ignorant and terrified that a flood of illegal immigrants are destroying everything you know.
I would obviously tend to the liberal position, but it does still bother me that the parents 'get away with it'. I'm OK with a nation setting rules for who can cross its borders and then enforcing those rules. That's kind of one of the fundamental jobs of a government.
That needs to be an app. Something that chooses a random sensitive topic and makes a few related google searches in a logical progression at a rate that makes it look like human activity.
Bomb making, disposing of dead hookers, and presidential assassination tips would be awesome.
Yep. And with employees who have some ethics, it's not a problem because they keep their mouths shut and don't share what they see.
I've worked in multiple environments like that. I've also seen a few not so ethical people get fired because in addition to looking at what they shouldn't, they couldn't resist blabbing about the bits they found interesting.
As a general rule, all people are occasionally stupid and some people are constantly stupid.
Data is useless if it is inaccessible. Eventually, one of your authorized users will break an access rule, and on occasion they will do so in a way that gets them caught.
Ancestry.com is low quality (most of the data is not properly verified).
There's a good hunk of my family tree in there, and it's over 50% bullshit entered by a well-intentioned relative who doesn't understand how to do proper genealogical research.
Still, it would pretty much have to be an improvement over 'randomly connect two Facebook accounts' so it would not surprise me to find out Facebook has licenced the data.
No matter what you do, you're running at least one cable (ideally in your wall for a nice clean look).
It would be nice if that was omnibus cable that did everything, but there's also something to be said for using multiple standard cables... you can put up standard wall plates and connect to a new screen if you replace the existing one, for instance.
I'd like to see a standard for recessed wall plates that can handle all the likely connectors and the required cable slack so you can have a truly flush-mounted screen. And a matching standard for the screens to have the most common connectors in the same position every time.
Look for a monitor instead. You won't get a handy remote, but if it's any better than 'crap' it'll go into standby after a minute or two without an input signal, and whatever you're using to drive the image will have its own remote anyway.
Aircraft have well-defined places to take off and land, with very strictly enforced rules. In transit there is nothing like trying to weave through unmarked construction with cyclists and pedestrians trying to cross your path without warning.
There's more to worry about with the craft control itself, but that's where computers excel.
I'd get in a pilotless plane long before I'd be a passenger in a driverless car.
You have made it clear you aren't as short on opinion as you are on knowledge.
Skin tight suits have issues with creasing pinching the wearer's skin. Now, for a suit you're only wearing in case of a cockpit pressure failure, you may be willing to risk that in return for a more comfortable suit.
Another option is the constant volume suit - and we've been making those since the 60s. They have their advantages, but they probably are better for situations where you're not mostly depending on your spacecraft for pressure anyway.
>There's less cruelty necessarily involved in raising an animal for food than there is in your morning commute.
It's a matter of whether the blood's on our hands or Nature's. And the most efficient methods are not pleasant.
>I'm having a hard time imagining making meat in factories having zero or positive environmental impact.
They would require far less water and land than raising animals. After all, you aren't supporting a brain, mobility, or reproductive systems. You're only growing the meat.
So... use the current, working financial system but for some reason expect banks to start running the back end in Bitcoin instead of their domestic currency, and expect stores to switch too?
We could just change the name on our money and it'd be a LOT more efficient a change to enact.
>this "clean meat" is just meat for the hygiene-obssessed elite.
Perhaps for some. For others it's the ability to put meat on the table with a small fraction of the environmental impact and none of the necessary cruelty involved in raising an animal for food.
WWIII isn't something I'd care to survive... but I live far enough away from probable targets that I would likely get to enjoy radiation sickness instead of simply getting vapourized. Yay. But you know what? That kind of news would get to me without having to look for it. You know, when everyone's running around in a panic because it's on every radio station and television channel.
A zombie apocalypse is not what I'd call likely. And as a Canadian with a well-stocked fridge and a bunch of medieval weapons and some chain mail... I think I'd do OK if the impossible came to pass. Especially since any day now the whole damn country will freeze over and make zombies easy pickings.
Mostly I dig for science and tech news, the bleeding edge of human knowledge and engineering stuff (except I'm looking at the pop science reporting, not the actual research / studies).
I've learned to put it all aside for most of my day and relax. It's way too easy to waste your time looking for the next bit of interesting information and never find it.
The truth is that nothing (that I can do anything about) is going to happen on a time scale of days. If I read about something tomorrow even in a week... the delay is not going to affect my life, I'm not actually missing out on anything.
>I still haven't tied a credit card to any of my mobile phones or accounts
Until it's a LOT safer to do so, I never will. One wrong click and you've agreed to pay for something. But without a credit card on record, I can never ever make that mistake nor be subject to all sorts of potential risk from the vendor (or my phone or tablet) getting hacked.
And that's without even considering how much easier it makes it for companies like Facebook and Google to collect data on you. Convenience in return for allowing corporations (and through them the government) to spy on my every action? Just on general principles... NO.
>Lillium has no strategy for emergency power-off failure.
On small enough vehicles, you can have a ballistic chute sufficient to bring the whole vehicle to ground at a survivable velocity. They make them for ultralight aircraft. Lillium may not have thought of this yet, but it's a realistic option.
As for automatic navigation... I've seen some amazing commercial drone software. Current rules (here) are that the drone must be in visual range of the operator, but I have to tell you that those things can compensate so quickly for a gust of wind you barely see them move... they fly their route like they're on rails. It's just a matter of time before they're certified as more reliable than a human operator.
What I don't see is these things being cost-effective... ever. No matter how good the batteries get, it'll always be massively more efficient to use them to power a ground vehicle. Something that doesn't have to use energy just to fight gravity. Something that only the most extreme weather makes unsafe to operate.
What we're seeing here is a slightly less expensive commuter helicopter alternative so more of the slightly-less-rich can fly above the rest of us proles.
>Incompetence is why I'd never want to be a dictator
When I was young I used to dream of world domination. As I got older I just kept thinking, "Why would I ever want that?"
I just want to go about my business without having to worry about much that isn't directly affecting me, and I certainly don't want to deal with the masses questioning my every move.
I really don't think anyone who wants to be head of state of a nation can be completely sane.