There are certain advantages to having a computer chip incorporated into our minds to be able to seamlessly transfer data between each other quickly without the meatspace limitation on bandwidth. I could see a certain portion of the population jumping on something like this.
That said, how long will it be until those who are part of this network collective decide that their way of doing things is obviously superior, and therefore try to force those not part of it into their collective?
I have a 5S that I bought when it was the top-of-the-line flagship iPhone. It's served me really well.
Every time a new model has been released, I have evaluated whether it was worth the cost of upgrading given the amount of improvement I would see. With the 6 and 7 series, the only real difference in terms of how I would use it would be the addition of Apple Pay. The technical performance isn't enough better to be worth the price tag (at least to me) and Apple Pay isn't available in the stores that I would use it most if it were an option. So, those are out.
I have no real interest in the X because I don't want FaceID. Let me stick with using my thumb with TouchID. I might have considered the 8, but the loss of the headphones port (something I use often) represents a loss in functionality in a very real way. In other words, for me the 8 is actually a downgrade from the 5s for my use case.
Aside from that, I prefer the form factor of the 5s. I know that the SE would be an upgrade, but it's a case of not being a big enough upgrade to justify the price tag (plus they don't even make those anymore).
As it stands right now, the 5s still runs the latest iOS. I don't know how much longer that will continue, but as long as it does I see no reason to upgrade, and some compelling reasons to stay where I am. I'm not sure what I'll do when the 5s gets obsoleted. I'm hoping for an updated SE that still has a headphone port, but I'm not holding my breath. It's going to be a tough decision.
It's because chess is well-known around the world. Xiang Qi, not so much. Chess has a long and storied history in western society, so for China to produce a world-champion chess player would be like them saying to us, "We're beating you at your own game!" Ultimately, it's all about appearances.
That comment in the summary probably could have been worded better, but I think it was intended to say that it does a better job of preserving image quality per amount of space used when compared to other image compression algorithms, such as.jpg (which is the defacto standard right now).
That would just reintroduce the problem that creating discrete time zones was intended to solve over a century ago. That being that when each locality has it's own clock, it becomes virtually impossible to coordinate scheduling between them (back then it was railroad schedules that were affected). Only now, in the 21st century and the amount of long distance and even international coordination that takes place via the internet, scheduling anything over a distance would become a nightmare in the system you propose.
I, myself, hold a music degree and am working my way up an IT career. While I am not currently qualified to be the Chief Security Officer of a major company, it is a distinct possibility that in the future I will be. I don't like how the article and at least some of the comments are blasting her just because of her educational background.
Maybe she did something wrong in her position at Equifax. Maybe not. It's entirely possible that she was doing her job in the best way possible but was stonewalled by the business people out of properly implementing security. Either is possible. It's possible we'll find out as investigations are performed, but it's also possible that we'll never know. Her music degree has nothing to do with it.
For what it's worth, many of the musicians I know are very intelligent people who have been successful in IT or other technical fields.
(Honestly, I don't think I would want to be a Chief Security Officer. Even if you do your job perfectly, a breach is possible, and when it does happen you're the one to take the fall)
I live in Colorado, and have a 2-year-old daughter. She occasionally gets to play games on my wife's iPad, but we have to moderate how much because if she spends too much time on it she gets cranky. She won't have her own smartphone until she is at least 13 (probably older).
I can certainly see where this group is coming from, but I strongly disagree that it should be made a law. Every kid is different, and every family is different. Parents need to make decisions based on what's best for their kids and their family. Even if I happen to agree with them about keeping kids away from smartphones until they are old enough to mentally handle them, I disagree that it is something that should be forced. I do not support taking away parents' choice on the matter.
If I see one of those petitioners collecting signatures to put this on the ballot, I will refuse to sign. If it makes it to the ballot, I will be voting against it.
Why was his laptop not encrypted and if it was in what way did it prove to be insufficient? What is the best way to encrypt a laptop and keep it safe from prying eyes?
He did encrypt his laptop. The agents that arrested him watched him from a distance until he logged in. Then they moved in, making sure they didn't give him a chance to lock it.
But they most certainly are not selling a 4 year old computer.
They actually are. As of this writing, the non-retina Macbook Pro is still available for sale on Apple's site. Go to apple.com, click Mac -> Macbook Pro -> Buy and then scroll about halfway down the page. That model, which is being sold for $1099, hasn't been updated since June 2012, though it did have a $100 price cut in July 2014.
I don't know if all of the logs do, but a substantial amount of them do. This is the "fleet learning" that Tesla talks about. Even when Autopilot isn't active, it's still watching, and comparing what it would do with what the human driver actually does as part of that fleet learning system.
Note that this is opt-in. When you purchase a Tesla, one of the forms they ask you to sign gives them permission to collect this data. You can decline to sign it, which will result in much of the online functionality of the car being disabled, but it doesn't stop the purchase and you can still use the car as a car.
My advice, for whatever it's worth, is that if you are running Windows 8 or 8.1, you should go ahead and update. 10 fixes many of the issues that people have with 8, and it will be supported for longer.
As for upgrading from 7, I used to recommend it, but I've changed my mind on that one. The way Microsoft is being extremely pushy about the update is a huge turnoff, and I don't want to support that behavior. If you are running 7, and you are happy with it, then stick with it. Just keep in mind the end of support date for Windows 7 (January 14, 2020) and make sure you migrate from it to something else before then. You still have 3 and a half years, so it's not yet urgent, but it is something you should have in mind.
(On a related token, no machine running XP should be connected to the internet at all, and if you have one you can be certain that it is compromised. Windows Vista support ends in about a year on April 11, 2017, so it is getting to the urgent stage to replace if you are still running that)
The problem I see with this is that sometimes security vulnerabilities are accidentally found by people that aren't even looking for them. Such a person should be able to report the vulnerability without fear of legal reprisal, but the current legal landscape makes that impossible.
Interesting timing on this story, considering the situation I find myself in and was considering options just this morning. I own a 3+ year old iPhone 5s that has a dying battery, meaning it will suddenly shut off with a dead battery even though it was reporting a 40% or greater charge just a few moments earlier. I obviously need to do something, so I decided to take stock of my options:
Replace the battery in my existing phone and continue to use it.
Apple quotes $80. The nearby Batteries+Bulbs quotes $60. I could do it myself for about $30, but I'm not sure if I want to mess with it.
Replace the entire phone with a newer model.
The iPhone SE is the only option I'm seriously considering, as I have no interest in Android and the 6 and 6S are too big for my liking. The SE starts at $400, but I can get a $150 credit by trading in my existing phone, bringing the out of pocket cost to $250 (I wouldn't do financing on it).
I haven't yet decided, though I am leaning to keeping the 5S. My existing phone, with a new battery, would probably have at least 2 years of useful life left in it. The SE doesn't really have anything in it that is all that compelling to me compared to the 5S except for Apple Pay support, but I don't shop at Apple Pay locations very often. If my phone were a 5 or 5C, it would be a different story, but the 5S has aged remarkably well and holds up well to Apple's more recent offerings.
In general I agree. Major changes should be avoided, but minor tweaks here and there would be good. I support adding Unicode support, as that doesn't change the nature of the site at all but adds some useful functionality. HTTPS support should be there as well.
I also feel that the site should be IPv6 enabled. This wouldn't change a thing about how the site operates, as most users (even those that understand the difference) won't know whether they are connected to it with IPv4 or IPv6 unless they specifically check, but as a tech site, it should be blazing the way on this, not lagging behind.
In any case, I'm glad the beta site has been scrapped.
iOS can do this as well. It's under the iCloud Family Sharing system. There is an "Organizer" account, and then each member of the family gets their own account that is linked to the family, either as an Adult or Child account. Every account shares payment information. Adult accounts are able to make purchases without oversight, whereas when a Child account attempts to make a purchase, it sends a request to the Organizer to approve/deny the purchase. When a child comes of age, their account should be removed from the family sharing, at which point they can add in their own payment information.
I don't let my kids know my password for any service, and this article illustrates one of the main reasons why.
I thought someone might say something like this, but there is a clear response to it that fits the theme of my original post.
Yes, it is true that most movie and video game music is pretty boring without being attached to its original material (much like Beethoven's Egmont suite I mentioned in my original post - with the exception of the overture, essentially the equivalent of a Main Title theme in modern terms - it's not all that interesting). That said, the vast majority of music written during the 17th through 19th centuries (the period of time that what people now call "classical" was written) is not heard any more. What we hear now is the best music, the music that has survived the test of time. The same will be true in 100 years - most video game music will be virtually lost, never heard again unless someone happens to dig up the actual game. Some of it, however, is actually quite good, and will survive to become part of the standard classical repertoire. I think the Zelda Symphony alluded to in the article is a potential example of this.
I am a performing professional classical musician who also happens to enjoy video games.
I am saddened by the attitude that many people have that by performing music such as what comes from games that the orchestras are somehow "cheapening their brand" or that it is "diluting the culture." To claim this is to completely ignore why people listen to music in the first place, and where much of "classical" music came from. This elitist attitude is what has significantly contributed to the decline in attendance numbers seen over the last few decades.
Mozart was a party animal. He was essentially a 18th century rock star, complete with the fame and lavish lifestyle that implies. As much as he was a musical genius, he was terrible at managing his personal affairs and died penniless, buried in an unmarked grave.
Beethoven, who is often called the "Father of the Modern Symphony" (thanks to his groundbreaking work in his 9 Symphonies), was also very much involved in the popular music scene of his day. His Egmont is music that was written to be performed alongside a production of a play of the same name (only the overture is performed with any regularity today, as the play itself is pretty awful). This makes it essentially 19th century movie music.
When Stravinsky's Rite of Spring was first premiered, a riot broke out among the audience. This wasn't just because of the nature of the music itself, but because that was the culture of performance at the turn of the 20th century - the audience was looking for something to get riled up over, and the music hit that emotional chord perfectly.
Modern performances are often formal affairs that remove the context of the music from its original conception. This isn't always a bad thing, as a good performance of a Mozart Symphony can be very exciting, but to try to stick to that because of some idea that it's meant to be that way is to ignore what the music actually is. Modern orchestral composers don't compose symphonies any more, they compose for movies and video games. That movie and video game music of today will be tomorrow's classical music. I've already seen performances of movie music from 50 years ago or so programmed into classical performances (not the pops concerts where such music usually resides), and such will become more and more common as time goes on.
In any case, something that increases awareness of the medium is a good thing. Today's kid that attends a video game concert performance might be tomorrow's grandmaster concert soloist, inspired by the music they heard when they were young. Even someone just making the leap from attending a video game concert to deciding to attend a classical concert isn't a very big one, but is extremely important to the long-term health and survivability of the genre.
I hope that this effort of GM's succeeds at least well enough for them to continue R&D into EV's, but there are 2 significant problems I see that they'll need to overcome:
First, they'll need a high-speed charging network that will allow for long-distance road trips. Public charging infrastructure is too slow to realistically allow for a trip that is further than what one can do on a single charge. Granted, with 200 miles instead of 40, this is significantly better than what's out there now, it's still not good enough for someone that wants to occasionally take their car on a multi-state road trip. Tesla's supercharger network gives them a competitive advantage, and GM will need something similar. Tesla has said that they are willing to share access, but it has to be on their terms. If GM is willing to buy in on that, we might see a Bolt capable of using Tesla superchargers - this would solve this issue for GM.
Second, the established dealer network has no interest in selling EV's. Most of their profits come from after-market service, and EV's have (theoretically) significantly less service needs. To this end, the dealers are motivated to push traditional ICE's over EV's in virtually every case. This is the major reason why Tesla does not use the traditional dealership sales model. No car salesman will direct you to a Bolt - you'll only get one if you come in specifically wanting one and push past their sales tactics to get you into something else. Buyers of the Nissan Leaf have reported resistance to and sometimes outright hostility from dealerships over wanting to purchase an EV. Unless GM is somehow able to break the dealership cartel and begin direct sales themselves, this issue won't be overcome anytime soon.
Another thought: at $30,000, I strongly suspect it is priced as a loss-leader, meaning it is being sold under cost. Tesla needs the economies of scale of their massive battery factory they call their "gigafactory" now under construction in Nevada in order to achieve a $35,000 price point for the Model 3. It seems unlikely to me that GM has managed to bring the cost down so much without a gigafactory of their own. It seems likely to me that the Model 3, at $5000 more expensive, will be superior to the Bolt in virtually every respect (Tesla has repeatedly said that their 200 mile range will be a real-world figure, while the Bolt's 200 mile range will probably be an ideal figure in perfect conditions, though I'd love to be proven wrong about the Bolt).
All this assumes that GM actually delivers as promised, which is far from guaranteed.
That said, more competition in the EV space is a good thing, so I hope the Bolt does at least well enough for GM to continue research in the area.
Well, if your current ICE does last 3-4 years like you hope, maybe you'll be able to replace it with a Tesla Model 3. 200 miles of range, base price of $35k, expected release in the 2017-2018 time frame.
I'm actually in a similar situation - my car is showing signs of age, and while it is running fine now, I can't be sure how much longer it will. Most of my daily driving is under 30 miles, so a Nissan Leaf would do the majority of the time, however once a month I take a trip that is about 100 miles round trip. Granted, unlike you, it's generally pre-planned (I actually have one tomorrow), but it's often enough that the idea of renting a car whenever I do it sounds like too much of a hassle. Also, since my 30 miles of normal driving still happens on those days, an EV has to have a minimum of 130 miles of real world range before it is even an option. To be an option I'll consider, 200 miles is minimum to cover those one-off cases of needing to go even further.
The Tesla Model S is currently the only option that meets that requirement, but it's far too expensive for my budget. That said, I have high hopes that the Model 3 will be my next car.
My experience with Comcast as an ISP is that the service itself is actually pretty good, if a tad expensive. I have a high-speed, low latency connection with native IPv6. However, I cringe whenever I have to contact their customer service for any reason. Their policies seem designed to make any customer interaction as painful as possible, and I have never had a positive experience when I have had to call them. This recording does not surprise me at all, as the representatives that cancel service probably have metrics that state they must save a certain percentage of those that call to cancel (my guess is that particular rep had been threatened by his boss that if he didn't do better in that regard that he'd lose his job).
If they want to fix their bad CS, they need to make fundamental changes to the way they approach customer service. A good starting point is to give their reps more authority to deal with issues themselves and not be beholden to policy. If the company doesn't trust their employees to make good judgement calls on what's good for the customer and the business, then they shouldn't have hired them in the first place. When someone calls to cancel, it is OK to politely ask why once, but if the person refuses to answer it should be left at that. Remove any metrics that are in place about how many saves a rep must perform.
If it hits, Opportunity is hosed no matter what. The comet will kick up such a dust cloud that Opportunity's solar panels will not be able to keep it powered. The comet is big enough that it will have a direct effect on the entire planet.
Curiosity, on the other hand, would do fine unless it is unlucky enough to be caught within the blast radius. Note that even if they know now exactly where it will hit, if Curiosity is within the dead zone, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it - it can't move anywhere near fast enough to get out of the way when faced with something this big. The best we'd be able to hope for is that it would be able to get some spectacular shots of the final approach and is able to transmit them fast enough before the end.
That said, assuming it does survive the initial blast (pretty good odds, actually, given just how big a planet really is), having a functional probe on the ground would provide invaluable data about the resulting dust cloud and how it affects the climate.
"...have the Librarian of Congress revisit that decision" != "Make Cell Phone Unlocking Legal"
That is all.
The summary is poor. The petition itself actually states "We ask that the White House ask the Librarian of Congress to rescind this decision, and failing that, champion a bill that makes unlocking permanently legal."
Probably laziness. You need an integer variable, you just use int without thinking about whether the value might ever go negative or not. This probably happens all the time, but it is extremely rare that it actually becomes an issue. After all, a signed int can store a number up to just above 2 billion - how often do you need to store numbers even approaching that big? The same thing happened in World of Warcraft with gold. For a while, the gold cap was (2^31)-2 copper (which translates to 214,748 gold, 36 silver, 46 copper) - which indicates they used a signed int despite the fact that it's impossible to have a negative value of money in the game.
At some point (I'm not sure exactly when, but I think it was during the Wrath of the Lich King years), they changed it to use a 64-bit value, and the gold cap is now 1 copper shy of 1 million gold. That was an artificial limitation - there's no real reason why they couldn't just use the entire 64 bits if they wanted to - I don't think anyone would ever be able to reach the 2^63 (assuming a signed 64-bit integer) that it could store.
Slashdot Mirror
There are certain advantages to having a computer chip incorporated into our minds to be able to seamlessly transfer data between each other quickly without the meatspace limitation on bandwidth. I could see a certain portion of the population jumping on something like this.
That said, how long will it be until those who are part of this network collective decide that their way of doing things is obviously superior, and therefore try to force those not part of it into their collective?
Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
Here's my 2 cents, FWIW.
I have a 5S that I bought when it was the top-of-the-line flagship iPhone. It's served me really well.
Every time a new model has been released, I have evaluated whether it was worth the cost of upgrading given the amount of improvement I would see. With the 6 and 7 series, the only real difference in terms of how I would use it would be the addition of Apple Pay. The technical performance isn't enough better to be worth the price tag (at least to me) and Apple Pay isn't available in the stores that I would use it most if it were an option. So, those are out.
I have no real interest in the X because I don't want FaceID. Let me stick with using my thumb with TouchID. I might have considered the 8, but the loss of the headphones port (something I use often) represents a loss in functionality in a very real way. In other words, for me the 8 is actually a downgrade from the 5s for my use case.
Aside from that, I prefer the form factor of the 5s. I know that the SE would be an upgrade, but it's a case of not being a big enough upgrade to justify the price tag (plus they don't even make those anymore).
As it stands right now, the 5s still runs the latest iOS. I don't know how much longer that will continue, but as long as it does I see no reason to upgrade, and some compelling reasons to stay where I am. I'm not sure what I'll do when the 5s gets obsoleted. I'm hoping for an updated SE that still has a headphone port, but I'm not holding my breath. It's going to be a tough decision.
It's because chess is well-known around the world. Xiang Qi, not so much. Chess has a long and storied history in western society, so for China to produce a world-champion chess player would be like them saying to us, "We're beating you at your own game!" Ultimately, it's all about appearances.
That comment in the summary probably could have been worded better, but I think it was intended to say that it does a better job of preserving image quality per amount of space used when compared to other image compression algorithms, such as .jpg (which is the defacto standard right now).
That would just reintroduce the problem that creating discrete time zones was intended to solve over a century ago. That being that when each locality has it's own clock, it becomes virtually impossible to coordinate scheduling between them (back then it was railroad schedules that were affected). Only now, in the 21st century and the amount of long distance and even international coordination that takes place via the internet, scheduling anything over a distance would become a nightmare in the system you propose.
I, myself, hold a music degree and am working my way up an IT career. While I am not currently qualified to be the Chief Security Officer of a major company, it is a distinct possibility that in the future I will be. I don't like how the article and at least some of the comments are blasting her just because of her educational background.
Maybe she did something wrong in her position at Equifax. Maybe not. It's entirely possible that she was doing her job in the best way possible but was stonewalled by the business people out of properly implementing security. Either is possible. It's possible we'll find out as investigations are performed, but it's also possible that we'll never know. Her music degree has nothing to do with it.
For what it's worth, many of the musicians I know are very intelligent people who have been successful in IT or other technical fields.
(Honestly, I don't think I would want to be a Chief Security Officer. Even if you do your job perfectly, a breach is possible, and when it does happen you're the one to take the fall)
I live in Colorado, and have a 2-year-old daughter. She occasionally gets to play games on my wife's iPad, but we have to moderate how much because if she spends too much time on it she gets cranky. She won't have her own smartphone until she is at least 13 (probably older).
I can certainly see where this group is coming from, but I strongly disagree that it should be made a law. Every kid is different, and every family is different. Parents need to make decisions based on what's best for their kids and their family. Even if I happen to agree with them about keeping kids away from smartphones until they are old enough to mentally handle them, I disagree that it is something that should be forced. I do not support taking away parents' choice on the matter.
If I see one of those petitioners collecting signatures to put this on the ballot, I will refuse to sign. If it makes it to the ballot, I will be voting against it.
Why was his laptop not encrypted and if it was in what way did it prove to be insufficient? What is the best way to encrypt a laptop and keep it safe from prying eyes?
He did encrypt his laptop. The agents that arrested him watched him from a distance until he logged in. Then they moved in, making sure they didn't give him a chance to lock it.
But they most certainly are not selling a 4 year old computer.
They actually are. As of this writing, the non-retina Macbook Pro is still available for sale on Apple's site. Go to apple.com, click Mac -> Macbook Pro -> Buy and then scroll about halfway down the page. That model, which is being sold for $1099, hasn't been updated since June 2012, though it did have a $100 price cut in July 2014.
The vast majority of owners have signed it, yes.
I don't know if all of the logs do, but a substantial amount of them do. This is the "fleet learning" that Tesla talks about. Even when Autopilot isn't active, it's still watching, and comparing what it would do with what the human driver actually does as part of that fleet learning system.
Note that this is opt-in. When you purchase a Tesla, one of the forms they ask you to sign gives them permission to collect this data. You can decline to sign it, which will result in much of the online functionality of the car being disabled, but it doesn't stop the purchase and you can still use the car as a car.
My advice, for whatever it's worth, is that if you are running Windows 8 or 8.1, you should go ahead and update. 10 fixes many of the issues that people have with 8, and it will be supported for longer.
As for upgrading from 7, I used to recommend it, but I've changed my mind on that one. The way Microsoft is being extremely pushy about the update is a huge turnoff, and I don't want to support that behavior. If you are running 7, and you are happy with it, then stick with it. Just keep in mind the end of support date for Windows 7 (January 14, 2020) and make sure you migrate from it to something else before then. You still have 3 and a half years, so it's not yet urgent, but it is something you should have in mind.
(On a related token, no machine running XP should be connected to the internet at all, and if you have one you can be certain that it is compromised. Windows Vista support ends in about a year on April 11, 2017, so it is getting to the urgent stage to replace if you are still running that)
The problem I see with this is that sometimes security vulnerabilities are accidentally found by people that aren't even looking for them. Such a person should be able to report the vulnerability without fear of legal reprisal, but the current legal landscape makes that impossible.
I haven't yet decided, though I am leaning to keeping the 5S. My existing phone, with a new battery, would probably have at least 2 years of useful life left in it. The SE doesn't really have anything in it that is all that compelling to me compared to the 5S except for Apple Pay support, but I don't shop at Apple Pay locations very often. If my phone were a 5 or 5C, it would be a different story, but the 5S has aged remarkably well and holds up well to Apple's more recent offerings.
In general I agree. Major changes should be avoided, but minor tweaks here and there would be good. I support adding Unicode support, as that doesn't change the nature of the site at all but adds some useful functionality. HTTPS support should be there as well.
I also feel that the site should be IPv6 enabled. This wouldn't change a thing about how the site operates, as most users (even those that understand the difference) won't know whether they are connected to it with IPv4 or IPv6 unless they specifically check, but as a tech site, it should be blazing the way on this, not lagging behind.
In any case, I'm glad the beta site has been scrapped.
iOS can do this as well. It's under the iCloud Family Sharing system. There is an "Organizer" account, and then each member of the family gets their own account that is linked to the family, either as an Adult or Child account. Every account shares payment information. Adult accounts are able to make purchases without oversight, whereas when a Child account attempts to make a purchase, it sends a request to the Organizer to approve/deny the purchase. When a child comes of age, their account should be removed from the family sharing, at which point they can add in their own payment information.
I don't let my kids know my password for any service, and this article illustrates one of the main reasons why.
I thought someone might say something like this, but there is a clear response to it that fits the theme of my original post.
Yes, it is true that most movie and video game music is pretty boring without being attached to its original material (much like Beethoven's Egmont suite I mentioned in my original post - with the exception of the overture, essentially the equivalent of a Main Title theme in modern terms - it's not all that interesting). That said, the vast majority of music written during the 17th through 19th centuries (the period of time that what people now call "classical" was written) is not heard any more. What we hear now is the best music, the music that has survived the test of time. The same will be true in 100 years - most video game music will be virtually lost, never heard again unless someone happens to dig up the actual game. Some of it, however, is actually quite good, and will survive to become part of the standard classical repertoire. I think the Zelda Symphony alluded to in the article is a potential example of this.
I am a performing professional classical musician who also happens to enjoy video games.
I am saddened by the attitude that many people have that by performing music such as what comes from games that the orchestras are somehow "cheapening their brand" or that it is "diluting the culture." To claim this is to completely ignore why people listen to music in the first place, and where much of "classical" music came from. This elitist attitude is what has significantly contributed to the decline in attendance numbers seen over the last few decades.
Mozart was a party animal. He was essentially a 18th century rock star, complete with the fame and lavish lifestyle that implies. As much as he was a musical genius, he was terrible at managing his personal affairs and died penniless, buried in an unmarked grave.
Beethoven, who is often called the "Father of the Modern Symphony" (thanks to his groundbreaking work in his 9 Symphonies), was also very much involved in the popular music scene of his day. His Egmont is music that was written to be performed alongside a production of a play of the same name (only the overture is performed with any regularity today, as the play itself is pretty awful). This makes it essentially 19th century movie music.
When Stravinsky's Rite of Spring was first premiered, a riot broke out among the audience. This wasn't just because of the nature of the music itself, but because that was the culture of performance at the turn of the 20th century - the audience was looking for something to get riled up over, and the music hit that emotional chord perfectly.
Modern performances are often formal affairs that remove the context of the music from its original conception. This isn't always a bad thing, as a good performance of a Mozart Symphony can be very exciting, but to try to stick to that because of some idea that it's meant to be that way is to ignore what the music actually is. Modern orchestral composers don't compose symphonies any more, they compose for movies and video games. That movie and video game music of today will be tomorrow's classical music. I've already seen performances of movie music from 50 years ago or so programmed into classical performances (not the pops concerts where such music usually resides), and such will become more and more common as time goes on.
In any case, something that increases awareness of the medium is a good thing. Today's kid that attends a video game concert performance might be tomorrow's grandmaster concert soloist, inspired by the music they heard when they were young. Even someone just making the leap from attending a video game concert to deciding to attend a classical concert isn't a very big one, but is extremely important to the long-term health and survivability of the genre.
I hope that this effort of GM's succeeds at least well enough for them to continue R&D into EV's, but there are 2 significant problems I see that they'll need to overcome:
First, they'll need a high-speed charging network that will allow for long-distance road trips. Public charging infrastructure is too slow to realistically allow for a trip that is further than what one can do on a single charge. Granted, with 200 miles instead of 40, this is significantly better than what's out there now, it's still not good enough for someone that wants to occasionally take their car on a multi-state road trip. Tesla's supercharger network gives them a competitive advantage, and GM will need something similar. Tesla has said that they are willing to share access, but it has to be on their terms. If GM is willing to buy in on that, we might see a Bolt capable of using Tesla superchargers - this would solve this issue for GM.
Second, the established dealer network has no interest in selling EV's. Most of their profits come from after-market service, and EV's have (theoretically) significantly less service needs. To this end, the dealers are motivated to push traditional ICE's over EV's in virtually every case. This is the major reason why Tesla does not use the traditional dealership sales model. No car salesman will direct you to a Bolt - you'll only get one if you come in specifically wanting one and push past their sales tactics to get you into something else. Buyers of the Nissan Leaf have reported resistance to and sometimes outright hostility from dealerships over wanting to purchase an EV. Unless GM is somehow able to break the dealership cartel and begin direct sales themselves, this issue won't be overcome anytime soon.
Another thought: at $30,000, I strongly suspect it is priced as a loss-leader, meaning it is being sold under cost. Tesla needs the economies of scale of their massive battery factory they call their "gigafactory" now under construction in Nevada in order to achieve a $35,000 price point for the Model 3. It seems unlikely to me that GM has managed to bring the cost down so much without a gigafactory of their own. It seems likely to me that the Model 3, at $5000 more expensive, will be superior to the Bolt in virtually every respect (Tesla has repeatedly said that their 200 mile range will be a real-world figure, while the Bolt's 200 mile range will probably be an ideal figure in perfect conditions, though I'd love to be proven wrong about the Bolt).
All this assumes that GM actually delivers as promised, which is far from guaranteed.
That said, more competition in the EV space is a good thing, so I hope the Bolt does at least well enough for GM to continue research in the area.
Well, if your current ICE does last 3-4 years like you hope, maybe you'll be able to replace it with a Tesla Model 3. 200 miles of range, base price of $35k, expected release in the 2017-2018 time frame.
I'm actually in a similar situation - my car is showing signs of age, and while it is running fine now, I can't be sure how much longer it will. Most of my daily driving is under 30 miles, so a Nissan Leaf would do the majority of the time, however once a month I take a trip that is about 100 miles round trip. Granted, unlike you, it's generally pre-planned (I actually have one tomorrow), but it's often enough that the idea of renting a car whenever I do it sounds like too much of a hassle. Also, since my 30 miles of normal driving still happens on those days, an EV has to have a minimum of 130 miles of real world range before it is even an option. To be an option I'll consider, 200 miles is minimum to cover those one-off cases of needing to go even further.
The Tesla Model S is currently the only option that meets that requirement, but it's far too expensive for my budget. That said, I have high hopes that the Model 3 will be my next car.
My experience with Comcast as an ISP is that the service itself is actually pretty good, if a tad expensive. I have a high-speed, low latency connection with native IPv6. However, I cringe whenever I have to contact their customer service for any reason. Their policies seem designed to make any customer interaction as painful as possible, and I have never had a positive experience when I have had to call them. This recording does not surprise me at all, as the representatives that cancel service probably have metrics that state they must save a certain percentage of those that call to cancel (my guess is that particular rep had been threatened by his boss that if he didn't do better in that regard that he'd lose his job).
If they want to fix their bad CS, they need to make fundamental changes to the way they approach customer service. A good starting point is to give their reps more authority to deal with issues themselves and not be beholden to policy. If the company doesn't trust their employees to make good judgement calls on what's good for the customer and the business, then they shouldn't have hired them in the first place. When someone calls to cancel, it is OK to politely ask why once, but if the person refuses to answer it should be left at that. Remove any metrics that are in place about how many saves a rep must perform.
Cue Beethoven Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, Movement 1, >:)
That's all fine, until the fourth movement starts. ;-)
If it hits, Opportunity is hosed no matter what. The comet will kick up such a dust cloud that Opportunity's solar panels will not be able to keep it powered. The comet is big enough that it will have a direct effect on the entire planet.
Curiosity, on the other hand, would do fine unless it is unlucky enough to be caught within the blast radius. Note that even if they know now exactly where it will hit, if Curiosity is within the dead zone, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it - it can't move anywhere near fast enough to get out of the way when faced with something this big. The best we'd be able to hope for is that it would be able to get some spectacular shots of the final approach and is able to transmit them fast enough before the end.
That said, assuming it does survive the initial blast (pretty good odds, actually, given just how big a planet really is), having a functional probe on the ground would provide invaluable data about the resulting dust cloud and how it affects the climate.
"...have the Librarian of Congress revisit that decision" != "Make Cell Phone Unlocking Legal"
That is all.
The summary is poor. The petition itself actually states "We ask that the White House ask the Librarian of Congress to rescind this decision, and failing that, champion a bill that makes unlocking permanently legal."
Probably laziness. You need an integer variable, you just use int without thinking about whether the value might ever go negative or not. This probably happens all the time, but it is extremely rare that it actually becomes an issue. After all, a signed int can store a number up to just above 2 billion - how often do you need to store numbers even approaching that big? The same thing happened in World of Warcraft with gold. For a while, the gold cap was (2^31)-2 copper (which translates to 214,748 gold, 36 silver, 46 copper) - which indicates they used a signed int despite the fact that it's impossible to have a negative value of money in the game.
At some point (I'm not sure exactly when, but I think it was during the Wrath of the Lich King years), they changed it to use a 64-bit value, and the gold cap is now 1 copper shy of 1 million gold. That was an artificial limitation - there's no real reason why they couldn't just use the entire 64 bits if they wanted to - I don't think anyone would ever be able to reach the 2^63 (assuming a signed 64-bit integer) that it could store.