Well, yes. I mixed a couple of time periods in my rant: post-Industrial Revolution and "a hundred years ago". I should have stuck to the latter. The first antibiotic drug to be regularly used in hospitals was in the 1890s, BTW. It was somewhat hit-or-miss, but as I said, we've had refinements since.
Ninety years ago, most of your family may have been large-family farmers, but if they were doing everything manually, they were somewhat behind the times; by 1922, Ford had been shipping tractors for five years, and they were somewhat latecomers to the game, as tractors and other powered farm equipment had been around since the middle of the previous century. And while it's true that very little rural area was electrified, most of the urban environment was. For farm work, a 1917 Fordson 20 hp tractor was not functionally different from a similarly-powered Ford or other brand of tractor today: it pulls or powers implements, whether plows or trailers, threshers or pumps. Electric washing machines were first introduced in 1908, and while they bear only slight resemblance to the front-loading fully automatic machines of today, their function is very similar.
As I said before, much (not all) of what has been developed in the last hundred years has been a refinement of already-introduced platforms. The hundred years prior to that saw an age of such rapid invention that it must have been mind boggling to anyone watching.
That may be so, but his focus is all off. I mean, he's working on a plasma cutter, but he hasn't got centralized waste treatment down. His list of "essential tools for a modern society" includes a 3-D scanner. While it may be very useful for quickly developing models of already-existing artifacts that you need to do a clean-lab reproduction of, it's a long-tail need. Arguably, someone with a set of calipers and a sketchpad should be able to produce a workable set of engineering drawings sufficient to build most things that you could accurately scan with a hand-made 3D scanner. It's folly, like much of what they're pursuing.
Having said all this, I laud the core idea of what they say they'd like to achieve. However, more analysis needs to be put into their plan; more requirements gathering and architecture is needed. For instance, they have their vaunted "power cube". If you read the documentation on their site, they're all excited that future power cubes could have electric motors at their core instead of ICEs, and other power cubes have hydraulic pumps in them. What they fail to realize is that they have two different types of object here: one that generates mechanical energy from some sort of fuel (lumping electricity in with "fuel", which I realize is a stretch here on Slashdot; please keep reading), the other that translates that mechanical energy into a different format. If they had fuel-to-energy cubes (gas or diesel or methane or whatever converted to rotating mechanical), then energy-to-energy cubes (rotating mechanical to one of linear mechanical, hydraulic, or electric), and finally a rotating mechanical-to-electric generator, these objects could be combined in a variety of assemblies to produce what they need.
And it's really not clear to me what they consider "modern society" that they're trying to reproduce. To me, any sort of development since about the Industrial Revolution has been essentially a refinement of capability, including machine-based calculation (thank you Mr. Babbage). Sure, if you want to build computers using silicon instead of tubes, that's much better. But our society and level of comfort could be no worse, and arguably better, if technology never got significantly better than we had a hundred years ago. How many of the trappings of modern society do we really need, and how many just make us more comfortable? How many things did we have a hundred years ago that we could re-implement with the benefit of hindsight and have a much better life than we have today?
Sadly? Really? Those things were getting difficult to maintain when I was in (happily crewing H models) in the late eighties. My friends at Little Rock, who were stuck with E models, cussed them regularly.
IIRC, the skyhook was featured in "The Green Berets" (1968). I've definitely seen it in some Vietnam War flick. At any rate, when I was in the USAF, as a loadmaster on C-130s, I remember reading about a procedure and rig for the extraction. Definitely a corner case, though, like JATO bottles.
I once had a job where I was struggling to fit into the dog-eat-dog social hierarchy. OK, so I've had several jobs where that was the case. However, at this particular job, my boss' boss (who was thankfully not an idiot) recommended I read "The 48 Laws of Power." She said that, even if I didn't want to adopt the ideals laid out there, at least I would have an idea of "what was being done to [me]" (an instructive sentence if there ever was one). I picked up a copy, read the first two "laws," and decided that I didn't want to be that sort of person. Shortly thereafter, I exited working at that company under my own steam, and have been happier ever since. I didn't get out before she did, though. I believe her parting words were something to the effect of, "I just can't be at this place any longer."
It's likely that the "no wind farms near drone facilities" was as much about getting the builder to select US-manufactured turbines over Chinese-manufactured ones for the purpose of encouraging US manufacture of a lot of large, expensive machinery rather than some fear that the Chinese are going to embed spy cameras in windmills.
To aid in future-proofing your situation, account for machine moves in your fiber layout and hang a few loops of fiber up in the trusses on each fiber run. That way, when you (eventually) move the machines, you have enough fiber to follow the move. Electrical lines can be cut and have longer feeds patched in much cheaper than a fiber line can.
If there's a sign on the door saying ("advertising") that the bar uses this "service" ("Hey! Check out our scene before you come down! See how happenin' we are!"), it could be argued as implicit (read: clickthrough) agreement to have yourself monitored at all times. Watch for microphones in the restrooms, which will spy on people's "out of sight" conversations to determine if they really like who they're with.
We could have just waited until the time was right and the Earth was 150 gigameters from the sun, then declared the value. That is, presuming that the variance in the distance ever achieved 150 GM...
I'm sure it was a compromise of several possible values, with concessions on each side, a few attempts to filibuster it until Pluto was given recognition again, etc. No, I'm not trying to be funny.
IANAL, however, here in Oregon, at least, LLC stands for "Limited Liability Company", not "Corporation" (a common misconception, BTW). This is in some small way different from an LLP (Limited Liability Partnership). I have interests in both types of organization, but honestly let the lawyers determine what the best form of organization to create is/was. Also, corporations have two different forms, a "C-corp", which is evidently designed for large, publicly traded companies, and an "S-corp", which is a way for individuals or small companies to incorporate without all the rules (board meetings, recorded minutes, etc.) of the C-corp. My understanding is that, in the case of S-corps, income is treated as a straight pass-through to the shareholders' personal income, and the corporation itself pays no taxes directly. This is similar to an LLC and LLP. Having said all this, I'd better declare that IANATA (Tax Accountant), either.
AFAIK, TV sucks because the people with the money behind the productions want to grow that money at the fastest rate possible. Somewhere along the way, they discovered reality television, which appeals to the teeming masses of trailer-bound, beer-swilling, junk food-eating middle America by injecting imaginably-relatable drama into their otherwise boring lives. These shows are cheap to produce when contrasted with the cost of any show that is attractive to... well, anyone else. Shows like Farscape, Firefly, Outcasts, and others get dropped in favor of the likes of Ghost Hunters, Fact or Faked, and Hollywood Treasure.
But if it's their money, they should spend it the way they want. Better monetization models for "alternatively distributed" (Hulu, Netflix, etc.) shows need to be in place for content producers to feel like it's a safe bet. At an average of USD$1.5M to produce ONE episode of a decent sci-fi drama, it takes a lot of ads for triple-bladed razors or electric cars to get into profitability territory, let alone decent ROI.
Any ideas on what earnings are for a reasonably-popular show on HuluPlus?
Hard to say. The Apple Store guy only had one in stock, and I took it. It was a bit frustrating at the time, but the quality of service I received at the store really mitigated my ire. But twice in as many years is too much. We're an all-Apple household and have been for years, but this sort of thing makes me wonder about the viability of their infrastructure components.
My first time machine failed almost 18 months to the day after I bought it. I took it to the Apple store, and they replaced it for me, no hassle. I took the new one home, plugged it in, and used it for sixteen months before it crapped out again, stone cold dead. This was two weeks ago. My MacBook Pro is in dire need of replacement, and I don't want to do that before I have a reliable backup of the system I have. I'm starting to think that Apple sacrificed quality in favor of ease of use and (relatively) low price. The triangle is classic, but I'm somewhat surprised that Apple, historically leaning toward quality and ease of use, damn the price, went this way.
Slashdot Mirror
I think you mean "pole". Election day is over, at least here.
In Soviet Russia, source downloads you! In Korea, only old people download source!
Well, yes. I mixed a couple of time periods in my rant: post-Industrial Revolution and "a hundred years ago". I should have stuck to the latter. The first antibiotic drug to be regularly used in hospitals was in the 1890s, BTW. It was somewhat hit-or-miss, but as I said, we've had refinements since.
Ninety years ago, most of your family may have been large-family farmers, but if they were doing everything manually, they were somewhat behind the times; by 1922, Ford had been shipping tractors for five years, and they were somewhat latecomers to the game, as tractors and other powered farm equipment had been around since the middle of the previous century. And while it's true that very little rural area was electrified, most of the urban environment was. For farm work, a 1917 Fordson 20 hp tractor was not functionally different from a similarly-powered Ford or other brand of tractor today: it pulls or powers implements, whether plows or trailers, threshers or pumps. Electric washing machines were first introduced in 1908, and while they bear only slight resemblance to the front-loading fully automatic machines of today, their function is very similar.
As I said before, much (not all) of what has been developed in the last hundred years has been a refinement of already-introduced platforms. The hundred years prior to that saw an age of such rapid invention that it must have been mind boggling to anyone watching.
That may be so, but his focus is all off. I mean, he's working on a plasma cutter, but he hasn't got centralized waste treatment down. His list of "essential tools for a modern society" includes a 3-D scanner. While it may be very useful for quickly developing models of already-existing artifacts that you need to do a clean-lab reproduction of, it's a long-tail need. Arguably, someone with a set of calipers and a sketchpad should be able to produce a workable set of engineering drawings sufficient to build most things that you could accurately scan with a hand-made 3D scanner. It's folly, like much of what they're pursuing.
Having said all this, I laud the core idea of what they say they'd like to achieve. However, more analysis needs to be put into their plan; more requirements gathering and architecture is needed. For instance, they have their vaunted "power cube". If you read the documentation on their site, they're all excited that future power cubes could have electric motors at their core instead of ICEs, and other power cubes have hydraulic pumps in them. What they fail to realize is that they have two different types of object here: one that generates mechanical energy from some sort of fuel (lumping electricity in with "fuel", which I realize is a stretch here on Slashdot; please keep reading), the other that translates that mechanical energy into a different format. If they had fuel-to-energy cubes (gas or diesel or methane or whatever converted to rotating mechanical), then energy-to-energy cubes (rotating mechanical to one of linear mechanical, hydraulic, or electric), and finally a rotating mechanical-to-electric generator, these objects could be combined in a variety of assemblies to produce what they need.
And it's really not clear to me what they consider "modern society" that they're trying to reproduce. To me, any sort of development since about the Industrial Revolution has been essentially a refinement of capability, including machine-based calculation (thank you Mr. Babbage). Sure, if you want to build computers using silicon instead of tubes, that's much better. But our society and level of comfort could be no worse, and arguably better, if technology never got significantly better than we had a hundred years ago. How many of the trappings of modern society do we really need, and how many just make us more comfortable? How many things did we have a hundred years ago that we could re-implement with the benefit of hindsight and have a much better life than we have today?
Reducing the number of people on the planet, thereby reducing the number of jobs required, is one solution.
Can't decide whether or not I'm being sarcastic.
Hmmph... the "/sarcasm" tag didn't take...
If one of these things get built, American jobs are at risk! Stop them now! ... sort of...
Sadly, the E model is being phased out...
Sadly? Really? Those things were getting difficult to maintain when I was in (happily crewing H models) in the late eighties. My friends at Little Rock, who were stuck with E models, cussed them regularly.
IIRC, the skyhook was featured in "The Green Berets" (1968). I've definitely seen it in some Vietnam War flick. At any rate, when I was in the USAF, as a loadmaster on C-130s, I remember reading about a procedure and rig for the extraction. Definitely a corner case, though, like JATO bottles.
I once had a job where I was struggling to fit into the dog-eat-dog social hierarchy. OK, so I've had several jobs where that was the case. However, at this particular job, my boss' boss (who was thankfully not an idiot) recommended I read "The 48 Laws of Power." She said that, even if I didn't want to adopt the ideals laid out there, at least I would have an idea of "what was being done to [me]" (an instructive sentence if there ever was one). I picked up a copy, read the first two "laws," and decided that I didn't want to be that sort of person. Shortly thereafter, I exited working at that company under my own steam, and have been happier ever since. I didn't get out before she did, though. I believe her parting words were something to the effect of, "I just can't be at this place any longer."
You assume that they can even see light in visible wavelengths.
That's our visible wavelength, you insensitive clod.
"LMOL"?
It's likely that the "no wind farms near drone facilities" was as much about getting the builder to select US-manufactured turbines over Chinese-manufactured ones for the purpose of encouraging US manufacture of a lot of large, expensive machinery rather than some fear that the Chinese are going to embed spy cameras in windmills.
I think you forgot "frist psot".
To aid in future-proofing your situation, account for machine moves in your fiber layout and hang a few loops of fiber up in the trusses on each fiber run. That way, when you (eventually) move the machines, you have enough fiber to follow the move. Electrical lines can be cut and have longer feeds patched in much cheaper than a fiber line can.
Mod parent up.
If there's a sign on the door saying ("advertising") that the bar uses this "service" ("Hey! Check out our scene before you come down! See how happenin' we are!"), it could be argued as implicit (read: clickthrough) agreement to have yourself monitored at all times. Watch for microphones in the restrooms, which will spy on people's "out of sight" conversations to determine if they really like who they're with.
We could have just waited until the time was right and the Earth was 150 gigameters from the sun, then declared the value. That is, presuming that the variance in the distance ever achieved 150 GM...
I'm sure it was a compromise of several possible values, with concessions on each side, a few attempts to filibuster it until Pluto was given recognition again, etc. No, I'm not trying to be funny.
Well, you succeeded anyway.
IANAL, however, here in Oregon, at least, LLC stands for "Limited Liability Company", not "Corporation" (a common misconception, BTW). This is in some small way different from an LLP (Limited Liability Partnership). I have interests in both types of organization, but honestly let the lawyers determine what the best form of organization to create is/was. Also, corporations have two different forms, a "C-corp", which is evidently designed for large, publicly traded companies, and an "S-corp", which is a way for individuals or small companies to incorporate without all the rules (board meetings, recorded minutes, etc.) of the C-corp. My understanding is that, in the case of S-corps, income is treated as a straight pass-through to the shareholders' personal income, and the corporation itself pays no taxes directly. This is similar to an LLC and LLP. Having said all this, I'd better declare that IANATA (Tax Accountant), either.
Dunno, but I am looking forward to gravity decking! :D
AFAIK, TV sucks because the people with the money behind the productions want to grow that money at the fastest rate possible. Somewhere along the way, they discovered reality television, which appeals to the teeming masses of trailer-bound, beer-swilling, junk food-eating middle America by injecting imaginably-relatable drama into their otherwise boring lives. These shows are cheap to produce when contrasted with the cost of any show that is attractive to... well, anyone else. Shows like Farscape, Firefly, Outcasts, and others get dropped in favor of the likes of Ghost Hunters, Fact or Faked, and Hollywood Treasure.
But if it's their money, they should spend it the way they want. Better monetization models for "alternatively distributed" (Hulu, Netflix, etc.) shows need to be in place for content producers to feel like it's a safe bet. At an average of USD$1.5M to produce ONE episode of a decent sci-fi drama, it takes a lot of ads for triple-bladed razors or electric cars to get into profitability territory, let alone decent ROI.
Any ideas on what earnings are for a reasonably-popular show on HuluPlus?
Hard to say. The Apple Store guy only had one in stock, and I took it. It was a bit frustrating at the time, but the quality of service I received at the store really mitigated my ire. But twice in as many years is too much. We're an all-Apple household and have been for years, but this sort of thing makes me wonder about the viability of their infrastructure components.
My first time machine failed almost 18 months to the day after I bought it. I took it to the Apple store, and they replaced it for me, no hassle. I took the new one home, plugged it in, and used it for sixteen months before it crapped out again, stone cold dead. This was two weeks ago. My MacBook Pro is in dire need of replacement, and I don't want to do that before I have a reliable backup of the system I have. I'm starting to think that Apple sacrificed quality in favor of ease of use and (relatively) low price. The triangle is classic, but I'm somewhat surprised that Apple, historically leaning toward quality and ease of use, damn the price, went this way.