And the internet has weakened spelling in the English language, daily.
The Bill of Rights ought to be shredded by now. Go read a court review from a US court sometime, their business is all how the lawyers use legal precedence to ambiguate the common-man simplicity of our laws. And yet piously, they think they are improving our legal system by referencing court decisions going back two centuries.
Considering how hard it is to fire an employee these days, I do find this noteworthy that someone lost their job because it ruffled the feathers of the higher-ups. Heaven forbid someone lose their job for being an incorrigible gossip, a sloth or a fool, liar, manipulator, saboteur, or narcissistic glory hound. Of course, without folks like that in our workplace, Dilbert wouldn't exist.
I'd like to point out that the Patriot 1 missiles were scaled back in capability because of the treaty with the Soviet Union on missile programs, which Bush rightfully said "what Soviet Union" when he came into office.
Further, the Patriot 2 system in the 2nd Gulf War (also known as the Liberation of New Texas) has saved the lives of several coalition servicemen on multiple occasions. This is not counting the British pilot that was wrongly identified as an incoming threat (that'll teach them to leave their transponders off).
With the launches of Al Hussein SCUDs, which were a violation of the UN agreements with Iraq, it sure is a good thing they got the successes they did.
If you really want to talk success stories from the world of BMD Star Wars, go look up the THEL system in regular use in Israel. I think Raytheon makes it. Now if only we could get a launch system powerful enough to put the SBL into orbit.
Is it me, or were the students at Cal State Long Beach a bit ambitous to put payloads into an untested rocket system? I can't wait for Iraq to join the ol' space race in 15 years. It would be a real triumph of the free people there to step forward in technologies besides WMD.
Considering the prior, successful efforts of this inventor have been more towards "mobility" for the obese or otherwise handicapped, it brings new color to the term "special forces."
I can see Federal Motors coming out with the Hummer Short Bus any day now...
I've found it far more useful to work in a ginger or ecru. When the WWWC comes up with those hex values, Pantone will sue, mark my words! It's also easier to mess with your monitor knobs, or if you are in a real hurry, snap off a pin on your VGA connector.
On a less colorful note, has anyone started up an eBooks filesharing system, and is there a functional equivalent to the RIAA out there for good ol' text copyrighted material?
Don't most of the really good books already exist in the public domain anyway? I've found the complete works of Shakespeare, Bullfinch's Mythology, the Bible, Chaucer, etc on Oxford/MIT kinds of hosts.
So, when the Copyright lawyers find out libraries have been "filesharing" music, books, videos, (and oddly, puppets at my local library... no idea why), and even computer games, they gonna sue the ALA?
So, what DARPA has funded is basically a "soothing, gentler wave" instead of the usual "annoying sawtooth wave."
I object to the assessment that the sound of a sonic boom is annoying. It's only annoying if it is every three minutes, 24/7. What DARPA needs to work on is a quieter jet engine, like dole out some of that stealth engine technology from the 60's. It would help the airports out immensely to reduce noise. Of course, it would also help if they took better care of those planes, too. It sure makes a racket when parts fall off a jet airplane and hit the ground, all over the USA.
And on the other hand, most lawyers are Democrats. But, the real question is, what is the political leanings of the embedded systems engineer who wrote that backdoor they still haven't found, eh?
Okay, maybe this isn't as obvious, but shouldn't the Aquada, which is purported to tow water-skiers have some sort of monstrously tall, bookshelf of an air foil on the back, that doubles as a pull bar for waterskiing ropes? They've been on other makes for years now. Just watch any recent car-oriented movie, and you'll likely see one.
No, I didn't know it was Freudian. I thought it was a fancy way of saying tight-ass, which, in my mind, has always conveyed a sense of constipation.
Cyber-hacker is hackneyed and perhaps intermediate to a final term yet undetermined, and I don't like the way it is going, it seems unplanned. Apart from golf or performing arts, would you give me an example of a 'hacker' that could not be better described by another term when it comes to crimes or criminals? I mean, if you get right down to it, anyone who writes a computer virus is not just a hacker. Hacking is sometimes considered intrusion without intent, it is writing software with a taste for haste, or encoding benign routines which have an inherent gee-whiz value. Cracking is intrusion into systems with criminal intent. Slopping "cyber" on the front at best offers disambiguation from the golf-hacker, or the piano-hacker. Were I a barrister, I would use the term criminal coder, and not mince words by inferring this is merely a hobbyist. The gang from Asia that wrote the first Blaster, shoot, they probably got paid to do it. Couldn't call those guys hobbyists or amateurs! Now, if only I could earn a living writing commentary, instead of just doing it as a hacker.
Actually, I appreciate being corrected. I studied your message very carefully. I never took psychology classes (which appears to be where this might be learned), so I admit I concocted my own interpretation of the word. I suppose I could have looked it up, though. Freud doesn't sound like a good dinner party guest to me.
short for anal-retentive, a 'clever' way of articulating someone has a detail-oriented obsession or obsessive-compulsive behavior. It describes the person as unable to relax, or constipated.
Sadly, people just know 'anal' these days. Gone are days of long ago when people said what they meant, and did not lean on the spindly crutch of catchphrases and colloquialisms.
I can now imagine that this sort of intrusion detection software will be known only as Billy Goat, just as so many use 'trojan' and 'virus' when such terms are far from inappropriate to describe a specific piece of software with destructive intent. Why, just this morning, an interview with the prosecutor of Blaster.B accused author Jeffrey Lee Parsons, yielded such terms as "cyber-hacker." Since when did "cyber" need to be prefixed? I'm waiting for someone in the legal profession to butcher that term, and vomit terms like Cyber-goat.
IBM was foolish to announce this so early. I just know they will get targeted by the crackers out there for it (note, that's criminal-hacker, not ebonic-slang/slur for white peson), and then the crackers will roast the billy goat over IBM's own firewall!
For those who aren't well-educated on nursery rhymes, go read up on Three Billy Goats Gruff. You will find the proper origin of the software name there, trade-related double-entendre's notwithstanding.
Eccles, you hit on the crux of the matter, which the article misses. When labor goes overseas, it's just labor. When IT jobs go overseas, our highly-skilled labor can't retrain without a huge sense of loss. Sure, we may not be on par with lawyers and doctors (can't wait for their comeuppance, can you?) in many cases, but unemployment at the higher income brackets is really bad. Am I supposed to retrain as a carpenter now? Looks like this whole computer thing has blown over, time to try my hand at growing soybeans?
It is the same effect as those overseas factory jobs, but it isn't the same thing. Factory workers were not college-educated.
A friend of mine has left engineering for embedded systems because he can't find work. He is getting his nursing credentials now. This guy used to write code embedded into networking equipment, and now, because of the labor market, he's taking people's temperature, doing throat swabs, and doing eye chart tests. Is this what those in IT are supposed to do? Leave the industry?
That 'junk,' specifically, would be nuclear waste (which they store, because the Nevada governor doesn't want it moved out of Washington State) or it would be water. The PNNL either gets its power from the nuclear reactor they designed and built (which I doubt), another one nearby which isn't circa 1948, or one of the many hydroelectric dams along the Columbia river.
Secret labs always have contractors, like Batelle, SAIC, TRW, Northrop-Grumman, and the like. Those folks probably know.
Maybe they could use your cellular phone triangulation data to track whether the phone was moving faster than the posted limit? Then there would be a "speeding telephone" entry on your phone bill.
As the technically minded critical mass, perhaps we should develop some moral spines and simply refuse to take projects. Let the officials and politicians write some embedded systems code, that'd be fun. I've turned down interviews on moral grounds before.
This is a tax and nothing more. Someone figured out that everyone makes mistakes, even by accident. I'm imagining the sensor that detects when your car, which was moments ago slammed from behind by a semi truck, spins out of control, exceeds the posted limit, crosses a line, and goes the wrong way on the freeway, still gives you a ticket, despite the fact that your car was not on the ground, and you were knocked unconscious.
I think someone in the government there saw way too much revenue potential in an idea pioneered by the Fifth Element movie. Just think: not only will your cars cost more, but there will be a tax in place to support this system (until it pays for itself, and even then, no one ever gets rid of taxes), and everyone who moves their car is guaranteed to get a fine at least once in a while.
This is the country which requires you to license your television receivers, right?
I agree with the other George Foreman Grill purchasers, contact grilling really is fast. The no-stick kinda wore off of mine, but I can't buy a can of Teflon spray for that price, so who cares? Glorified waffle iron.
On the other hand, who would buy anything electronic, even a toothbrush, from a business like that? My wife foolishly bought one of those zig-zag hand-chopper cylinder things. What a waste. You pound on it forever, stun your palm/wrist, make a terrible racket, and you have enough room for one small apple in there. Spend an extra $7 and buy a low-end Hamilton Beach food processor.
This Roomba reminds me of the iMow (from Toro, although it's really from Friendly Machines, and just has their marketing team behind it). The iMow does its job in several hours, which could be done with a 4Hp gas mower in maybe 15 minutes. It gets stuck if you don't have an even surface, and lacks any real performance power to handle the odd fallen twigs. Still, it does work unattended. If you figure out where it gets stuck, and attend to that problem area, it is useful, but some yards, or in this case, some rooms, will never work out.
What they really need is a robot that can do vacuuming on stairs. Maybe they could make it out of a slinky?
The last thing you'd want to do is carelessly store it on your locally hosted Kazaa site, available for anonymous access, or worse yet, leave the CD in a laptop that gets loaned to a friend, who needed it for a LAN party.
You are holding onto a headache of liability. Your life will be so much simpler if it just disappears.
On the bright side, I bet your NDA expired by now. There are some internet sites out there that have preservation as you describe in mind, and do things like keep source code to games from companies out of business. You could ask them for input.
I'm impressed with your logic (not your spelling, though).
I understand the soul to be our character (as in, but not the same thing as our personality, which changes with mood). I further recognize our spirit to be who we are to God, and the two are very close together. Self is consciousness, heart is desires/passions, and mind is decisionmaking and judgement.
I would very much appreciate your comments, TroyFoley, because you seem familar with discussions of this sort.
Philosophy is going to have to come up with a term for that CPU chip it looks like we are all headed for as an implant, running off this glucose thing. MetaMind?
Yeah, now that you mention it, maybe they are just whining because of the boom in Christian Music (it is the fastest growing music industry right now), which doesn't end up typically on BMG, RCA, Sony, et al.
A quick search of the RIAA member list did yield several Christian labels, however a closer inspection shows that membership dues to the RIAA are based on gross sales. I honestly would consider a slashdot letter-writing campaign to each of these members (except maybe for the ones who never listen to anything but the bottom line), illuminating the various histrionics of the RIAA, and the legal threat they pose.
Has anyone made an insightful post about the real purpose of the RIAA yet?
Well, at the risk of continuing this off-topic thread, which wasn't my intent for the original message, yes, major gambling still belongs to the mob in the USA. Take a look at the various sultry details surrounding the San Diego City Council and Mayor's office, and the surge of opening casinos in San Diego County. It is all there for you to read at the San Diego Union/Tribune.
Responding to the other queries...
I retract the blanket statement against insurance; it only applies to gambling/contest/gameshow insurance. That was a bit unfair to condemn an industry we all rely upon, especially property/casualty and health/life insurance.
Are you familar with the demographic of folks who buy lottery tickets? I think that state sponsorship/benefit of a contest that, although voluntary, has proven to be an added burden on the most burdened of the population, and is a pallor of government selfishness so vile, that it creates a stirring to action in my heart. The wise have an obligation to protect the simple-minded, not exploit them.
Many contests and gameshows pay out with insurance money; rock concerts and live shows do the same thing. This didn't strike me as suspect in the least. Best example? Who Wants to be a Millionaire? changed its win patterns substantially after the first season. They made that first batch up to the $1000 mark of questions easy, but the difficulty from there on out was substantially above where it was in the first season. Result? More low-end pay-outs, but the ceiling of difficulty comes up faster.
Think about it. Let's take a 5-year eligibility period. In the first year, XPrize Co. pays out an initial premium and upfront policy load. XPrize doubts anyone can hit that mark, and they really figure it will be more like year 5 or beyond that a winner will emerge (and that is proving true thus far). In the meantime, the insurance company does some investment wizardry with its risk pool, to make best use of the time with the money. The insurance company has probably made money on half a dozen contests where contestants need to peer endlessly into the bottom of their Mountain Dew cans, to determine if they have won, because some prizes go unawarded, or are delayed enough (by a bump-up system) that the investment has been more than recovered before a pay-out, which is still a reduction from the total exposure, since only single-slot winners can be bumped up to the next level (once there are more than one Nth prize winners, they are cut off), and there is no payout at position N, only N+1 up to the Grand Prize.
Applying this effect back to XPrize, they have forecast some probabilities, and minimums. It is only in this year that XPrize has even started to look for a spaceport. Every time there's a governing juris diction (like the FAA) involved, that creates useful delays. It gives the insurance companies time to make more investments. XPrize creates reasonable hurdles that folks need to clear in order to win. One can engineer only so quickly. A pay-out in year 3 would really hurt the insurance company. A pay-out in year 6 means it cost XPrize Co. an extra year's worth of premiums. And that really is the greatest risk of all. Can they afford to keep paying the insurance premiums? If they cannot, well, the insurance company just made a monstrous load of cash.
If you live in a US State with a lottery, can you imagine what the contest would be like if people put money in, and rather than winning an obscene sum, won a trip into space? Sure, it goes to the schools or the environment now (Johnny, this new computer lab was brought to you on the backs of poor people who have a gambling addiction), but what if those untold millions went to space exploration instead? Insurance is just highly organized gambling, which translates to organized crime.
Mensa isn't a measure of how clever or witty you are. I believe you take one relatively easy test, and get a certain score to become accepted. I have been approached to join Mensa on at least one or two occasions, but have never felt a general draw to join.
I don't believe Mensa membership gets you discounts at the grocery store, you don't earn points towards frequent flyer programs, you can't get free upgrades on your hotel or car rental, so honestly, what is the point? You can get credit card offers and insurance anywhere.
If you are a/.'er and want to come off as elite, you can participate in:
Your local chapter of 2600
Slashdot meet-ups
Toastmasters
Association of Computing Machinery
IEEE
A user group for Linux or a retired OS, proprietary server software, programming language, etc.
If you are looking for that elite publication, some of the groups mentioned above have a more focused publication, as opposed to something across the board. Here are some of my "intelligentsia publication picks:"
IEEE Spectrum
Bohemian Club Library Notes
Science News
Policy Review
any museum quarterly/newsletter
Cinema Journal
What this all boils down to is: none of the intelligent elite crowd waste their time pirating the copyrighted material of their circles. Seriously, when was the last time a film director ran a site containing screenplays or what-not of a rival director he/she didn't like? How often do you see nuclear physicists ripping each other's ideas off? Their papers are about 30% acknowledgements/references as it is. Most truly innovative computer software is either government funded and top secret, or it is public domain and funded any number of ways.
I see the RIAA as the champion of those who make their money off of cultural information. Musicians, actors, etc. The RIAA is trying to keep the poor from having the cultural enrichment that they think is entitled to them. Think about it, people are stealing copies of Harry Potter, not Jules Verne, JRR Tolkien, or Joseph Conrad.
We live in a federalist republic. Merriam-Webster has their whole contents available on the internet. I suppose you could toss a link on the end of your post Republic: defined and that would be fair, right?
I've seen houses with solar panels. I think the total impact to the value of your house goes down dramatically. Those solar panels are positively grotesque. I'd even argue they are uglier than those oil derricks you sometimes see in parts of Anaheim.
It is beyond me why the engineers haven't thought of aesthetic yet. half a dozen aluminum folding tables bolted to your roof. Yeah, I'll take a house in a different neighborhood, thank you.
How does it harm birds? You mean those gigantic spinning blades are like a perpetual executioner's axe? How vile! They should make the blades out of Nerf, with perhaps a thin metal frame to hold its shape.
I've seen those windmills outside of TwentyNine Palms on that scary mountain pass. It sure seems to me very odd to see half of them not spinning at all. I have learned they require a ton of maintenance and are not profitable without government subsidies (which means they are a burden on society).
So, what would it take for environmentalists to allow for nuclear power plants? With stepper reactors, that supposed nuclear waste can be reduced dramatically (anyone know why stepper reactors were blocked?). You know, France leads the world with adoption of nuclear power (or Belgium or Iceland, but definitely top 3). Liberals adore France. Why don't they adore their energy policies?
Well,
There's always a chance someone on Slashdot doesn't know this, but...
Global Warming / Cooling is junk science. The proponents have blocked appropriate measures of earth's temperatures, which involve measuring the ocean's aggregate temperature, and have done so for about a decade now. The measurement would have involved a solitary underwater explosion, and the sound wave would determine the ocean's temperature (although salinity has an effect, it is far from a trivial science). This would be a tremendous mass of ocean water.
The "Save the whales" crowd resurfaced decrying the untold damage to aquatic life by doing this, which is ridiculous compared to doing nothing to find out what is happening to our planet.
Air temperature measurements are a waste of time, especially in urban areas, which have an elevated measure of heat because of the asphalt roofs, roads, etc. Measuring the ice caps is also silly, because their size changes seasonally, like with weather cycles. Everyone remembers the Halloween blizzard in Minnesota. And the 65 degree day in late December 15 years later. The only useful measurement would be of a volume of water (not a tiny pocket of air) the size of the ocean, at the equator. But that's being blocked bye environmental activists; they must have something to hide; what's a few deaf gray whales if it will save the planet?
Did you bother to mention that the various "greenhouse gasses" are mere precursors to tropospheric ozone, which is the hazardous smog that is discussed at the Weather Underground ? All of the sudden, ozone is bad and good.
I read a statistic once that in order to be entirely solar with our power, we would cover the earth 11% over with the dumb cells. Considering the nasty chemicals involved in the manufacture of solar cells, and that solar cells are not simply recycled, and fail in a decade or so (fragile materials), I can't imagine why any earth-first crowd would want yet another major source of toxic waste.
I have long thought that the only solar cells of any use on our planet (since the stuff in space is pretty handy, I'll admit) are the green ones in my lawn and garden. They produce oxygen, which every living animal needs. If you live in a newly developed neighborhood (like in suburban USA), the best thing you can do for your environment is plant plenty of trees on your lawn. Sure, it means raking, but in my neighborhood, I have 100+ year-old oak trees, and they are positively enchanting. They keep the sun off my lawn so I don't have to water, and they keep the sun off my roof (remember, these are mature oak trees) which reduces my AC costs. McDonalds passes out seedling trees on Earth Day, so it really doesn't cost you anything. Sure, it'd make more sense if they passed them out on Arbor Day, but no one remembers when that is, despite it being the more venerable day of commemoration by a good century or more.
Slashdot Mirror
The Bill of Rights ought to be shredded by now. Go read a court review from a US court sometime, their business is all how the lawyers use legal precedence to ambiguate the common-man simplicity of our laws. And yet piously, they think they are improving our legal system by referencing court decisions going back two centuries.
Considering how hard it is to fire an employee these days, I do find this noteworthy that someone lost their job because it ruffled the feathers of the higher-ups. Heaven forbid someone lose their job for being an incorrigible gossip, a sloth or a fool, liar, manipulator, saboteur, or narcissistic glory hound. Of course, without folks like that in our workplace, Dilbert wouldn't exist.
Further, the Patriot 2 system in the 2nd Gulf War (also known as the Liberation of New Texas) has saved the lives of several coalition servicemen on multiple occasions. This is not counting the British pilot that was wrongly identified as an incoming threat (that'll teach them to leave their transponders off).
With the launches of Al Hussein SCUDs, which were a violation of the UN agreements with Iraq, it sure is a good thing they got the successes they did.
If you really want to talk success stories from the world of BMD Star Wars, go look up the THEL system in regular use in Israel. I think Raytheon makes it. Now if only we could get a launch system powerful enough to put the SBL into orbit.
Is it me, or were the students at Cal State Long Beach a bit ambitous to put payloads into an untested rocket system? I can't wait for Iraq to join the ol' space race in 15 years. It would be a real triumph of the free people there to step forward in technologies besides WMD.
I can see Federal Motors coming out with the Hummer Short Bus any day now...
On a less colorful note, has anyone started up an eBooks filesharing system, and is there a functional equivalent to the RIAA out there for good ol' text copyrighted material?
Don't most of the really good books already exist in the public domain anyway? I've found the complete works of Shakespeare, Bullfinch's Mythology, the Bible, Chaucer, etc on Oxford/MIT kinds of hosts.
So, when the Copyright lawyers find out libraries have been "filesharing" music, books, videos, (and oddly, puppets at my local library... no idea why), and even computer games, they gonna sue the ALA?
I object to the assessment that the sound of a sonic boom is annoying. It's only annoying if it is every three minutes, 24/7. What DARPA needs to work on is a quieter jet engine, like dole out some of that stealth engine technology from the 60's. It would help the airports out immensely to reduce noise. Of course, it would also help if they took better care of those planes, too. It sure makes a racket when parts fall off a jet airplane and hit the ground, all over the USA.
And on the other hand, most lawyers are Democrats. But, the real question is, what is the political leanings of the embedded systems engineer who wrote that backdoor they still haven't found, eh?
Okay, maybe this isn't as obvious, but shouldn't the Aquada, which is purported to tow water-skiers have some sort of monstrously tall, bookshelf of an air foil on the back, that doubles as a pull bar for waterskiing ropes? They've been on other makes for years now. Just watch any recent car-oriented movie, and you'll likely see one.
Cyber-hacker is hackneyed and perhaps intermediate to a final term yet undetermined, and I don't like the way it is going, it seems unplanned. Apart from golf or performing arts, would you give me an example of a 'hacker' that could not be better described by another term when it comes to crimes or criminals? I mean, if you get right down to it, anyone who writes a computer virus is not just a hacker. Hacking is sometimes considered intrusion without intent, it is writing software with a taste for haste, or encoding benign routines which have an inherent gee-whiz value. Cracking is intrusion into systems with criminal intent. Slopping "cyber" on the front at best offers disambiguation from the golf-hacker, or the piano-hacker. Were I a barrister, I would use the term criminal coder, and not mince words by inferring this is merely a hobbyist. The gang from Asia that wrote the first Blaster, shoot, they probably got paid to do it. Couldn't call those guys hobbyists or amateurs! Now, if only I could earn a living writing commentary, instead of just doing it as a hacker.
Actually, I appreciate being corrected. I studied your message very carefully. I never took psychology classes (which appears to be where this might be learned), so I admit I concocted my own interpretation of the word. I suppose I could have looked it up, though. Freud doesn't sound like a good dinner party guest to me.
Sadly, people just know 'anal' these days. Gone are days of long ago when people said what they meant, and did not lean on the spindly crutch of catchphrases and colloquialisms.
I can now imagine that this sort of intrusion detection software will be known only as Billy Goat, just as so many use 'trojan' and 'virus' when such terms are far from inappropriate to describe a specific piece of software with destructive intent. Why, just this morning, an interview with the prosecutor of Blaster.B accused author Jeffrey Lee Parsons, yielded such terms as "cyber-hacker." Since when did "cyber" need to be prefixed? I'm waiting for someone in the legal profession to butcher that term, and vomit terms like Cyber-goat.
IBM was foolish to announce this so early. I just know they will get targeted by the crackers out there for it (note, that's criminal-hacker, not ebonic-slang/slur for white peson), and then the crackers will roast the billy goat over IBM's own firewall!
For those who aren't well-educated on nursery rhymes, go read up on Three Billy Goats Gruff. You will find the proper origin of the software name there, trade-related double-entendre's notwithstanding.
It is the same effect as those overseas factory jobs, but it isn't the same thing. Factory workers were not college-educated.
A friend of mine has left engineering for embedded systems because he can't find work. He is getting his nursing credentials now. This guy used to write code embedded into networking equipment, and now, because of the labor market, he's taking people's temperature, doing throat swabs, and doing eye chart tests. Is this what those in IT are supposed to do? Leave the industry?
Secret labs always have contractors, like Batelle, SAIC, TRW, Northrop-Grumman, and the like. Those folks probably know.
As the technically minded critical mass, perhaps we should develop some moral spines and simply refuse to take projects. Let the officials and politicians write some embedded systems code, that'd be fun. I've turned down interviews on moral grounds before.
I think someone in the government there saw way too much revenue potential in an idea pioneered by the Fifth Element movie. Just think: not only will your cars cost more, but there will be a tax in place to support this system (until it pays for itself, and even then, no one ever gets rid of taxes), and everyone who moves their car is guaranteed to get a fine at least once in a while.
This is the country which requires you to license your television receivers, right?
On the other hand, who would buy anything electronic, even a toothbrush, from a business like that? My wife foolishly bought one of those zig-zag hand-chopper cylinder things. What a waste. You pound on it forever, stun your palm/wrist, make a terrible racket, and you have enough room for one small apple in there. Spend an extra $7 and buy a low-end Hamilton Beach food processor.
This Roomba reminds me of the iMow (from Toro, although it's really from Friendly Machines, and just has their marketing team behind it). The iMow does its job in several hours, which could be done with a 4Hp gas mower in maybe 15 minutes. It gets stuck if you don't have an even surface, and lacks any real performance power to handle the odd fallen twigs. Still, it does work unattended. If you figure out where it gets stuck, and attend to that problem area, it is useful, but some yards, or in this case, some rooms, will never work out.
What they really need is a robot that can do vacuuming on stairs. Maybe they could make it out of a slinky?
You are holding onto a headache of liability. Your life will be so much simpler if it just disappears.
On the bright side, I bet your NDA expired by now. There are some internet sites out there that have preservation as you describe in mind, and do things like keep source code to games from companies out of business. You could ask them for input.
I'm impressed with your logic (not your spelling, though).
I understand the soul to be our character (as in, but not the same thing as our personality, which changes with mood). I further recognize our spirit to be who we are to God, and the two are very close together. Self is consciousness, heart is desires/passions, and mind is decisionmaking and judgement.
I would very much appreciate your comments, TroyFoley, because you seem familar with discussions of this sort.
Philosophy is going to have to come up with a term for that CPU chip it looks like we are all headed for as an implant, running off this glucose thing. MetaMind?
A quick search of the RIAA member list did yield several Christian labels, however a closer inspection shows that membership dues to the RIAA are based on gross sales. I honestly would consider a slashdot letter-writing campaign to each of these members (except maybe for the ones who never listen to anything but the bottom line), illuminating the various histrionics of the RIAA, and the legal threat they pose.
Has anyone made an insightful post about the real purpose of the RIAA yet?
Responding to the other queries...
I retract the blanket statement against insurance; it only applies to gambling/contest/gameshow insurance. That was a bit unfair to condemn an industry we all rely upon, especially property/casualty and health/life insurance.
Are you familar with the demographic of folks who buy lottery tickets? I think that state sponsorship/benefit of a contest that, although voluntary, has proven to be an added burden on the most burdened of the population, and is a pallor of government selfishness so vile, that it creates a stirring to action in my heart. The wise have an obligation to protect the simple-minded, not exploit them.
Think about it. Let's take a 5-year eligibility period. In the first year, XPrize Co. pays out an initial premium and upfront policy load. XPrize doubts anyone can hit that mark, and they really figure it will be more like year 5 or beyond that a winner will emerge (and that is proving true thus far). In the meantime, the insurance company does some investment wizardry with its risk pool, to make best use of the time with the money. The insurance company has probably made money on half a dozen contests where contestants need to peer endlessly into the bottom of their Mountain Dew cans, to determine if they have won, because some prizes go unawarded, or are delayed enough (by a bump-up system) that the investment has been more than recovered before a pay-out, which is still a reduction from the total exposure, since only single-slot winners can be bumped up to the next level (once there are more than one Nth prize winners, they are cut off), and there is no payout at position N, only N+1 up to the Grand Prize.
Applying this effect back to XPrize, they have forecast some probabilities, and minimums. It is only in this year that XPrize has even started to look for a spaceport. Every time there's a governing juris diction (like the FAA) involved, that creates useful delays. It gives the insurance companies time to make more investments. XPrize creates reasonable hurdles that folks need to clear in order to win. One can engineer only so quickly. A pay-out in year 3 would really hurt the insurance company. A pay-out in year 6 means it cost XPrize Co. an extra year's worth of premiums. And that really is the greatest risk of all. Can they afford to keep paying the insurance premiums? If they cannot, well, the insurance company just made a monstrous load of cash.
If you live in a US State with a lottery, can you imagine what the contest would be like if people put money in, and rather than winning an obscene sum, won a trip into space? Sure, it goes to the schools or the environment now (Johnny, this new computer lab was brought to you on the backs of poor people who have a gambling addiction), but what if those untold millions went to space exploration instead? Insurance is just highly organized gambling, which translates to organized crime.
I don't believe Mensa membership gets you discounts at the grocery store, you don't earn points towards frequent flyer programs, you can't get free upgrades on your hotel or car rental, so honestly, what is the point? You can get credit card offers and insurance anywhere.
If you are a
- Your local chapter of 2600
- Slashdot meet-ups
- Toastmasters
- Association of Computing Machinery
- IEEE
- A user group for Linux or a retired OS, proprietary server software, programming language, etc.
If you are looking for that elite publication, some of the groups mentioned above have a more focused publication, as opposed to something across the board. Here are some of my "intelligentsia publication picks:"- IEEE Spectrum
- Bohemian Club Library Notes
- Science News
- Policy Review
- any museum quarterly/newsletter
- Cinema Journal
What this all boils down to is: none of the intelligent elite crowd waste their time pirating the copyrighted material of their circles. Seriously, when was the last time a film director ran a site containing screenplays or what-not of a rival director he/she didn't like? How often do you see nuclear physicists ripping each other's ideas off? Their papers are about 30% acknowledgements/references as it is. Most truly innovative computer software is either government funded and top secret, or it is public domain and funded any number of ways.I see the RIAA as the champion of those who make their money off of cultural information. Musicians, actors, etc. The RIAA is trying to keep the poor from having the cultural enrichment that they think is entitled to them. Think about it, people are stealing copies of Harry Potter, not Jules Verne, JRR Tolkien, or Joseph Conrad.
We live in a federalist republic. Merriam-Webster has their whole contents available on the internet. I suppose you could toss a link on the end of your post Republic: defined and that would be fair, right?
I've seen houses with solar panels. I think the total impact to the value of your house goes down dramatically. Those solar panels are positively grotesque. I'd even argue they are uglier than those oil derricks you sometimes see in parts of Anaheim.
It is beyond me why the engineers haven't thought of aesthetic yet. half a dozen aluminum folding tables bolted to your roof. Yeah, I'll take a house in a different neighborhood, thank you.
How does it harm birds? You mean those gigantic spinning blades are like a perpetual executioner's axe? How vile! They should make the blades out of Nerf, with perhaps a thin metal frame to hold its shape.
I've seen those windmills outside of TwentyNine Palms on that scary mountain pass. It sure seems to me very odd to see half of them not spinning at all. I have learned they require a ton of maintenance and are not profitable without government subsidies (which means they are a burden on society).
So, what would it take for environmentalists to allow for nuclear power plants? With stepper reactors, that supposed nuclear waste can be reduced dramatically (anyone know why stepper reactors were blocked?). You know, France leads the world with adoption of nuclear power (or Belgium or Iceland, but definitely top 3). Liberals adore France. Why don't they adore their energy policies?
Well, There's always a chance someone on Slashdot doesn't know this, but... Global Warming / Cooling is junk science. The proponents have blocked appropriate measures of earth's temperatures, which involve measuring the ocean's aggregate temperature, and have done so for about a decade now. The measurement would have involved a solitary underwater explosion, and the sound wave would determine the ocean's temperature (although salinity has an effect, it is far from a trivial science). This would be a tremendous mass of ocean water.
The "Save the whales" crowd resurfaced decrying the untold damage to aquatic life by doing this, which is ridiculous compared to doing nothing to find out what is happening to our planet.
Air temperature measurements are a waste of time, especially in urban areas, which have an elevated measure of heat because of the asphalt roofs, roads, etc. Measuring the ice caps is also silly, because their size changes seasonally, like with weather cycles. Everyone remembers the Halloween blizzard in Minnesota. And the 65 degree day in late December 15 years later. The only useful measurement would be of a volume of water (not a tiny pocket of air) the size of the ocean, at the equator. But that's being blocked bye environmental activists; they must have something to hide; what's a few deaf gray whales if it will save the planet?
Did you bother to mention that the various "greenhouse gasses" are mere precursors to tropospheric ozone, which is the hazardous smog that is discussed at the Weather Underground ? All of the sudden, ozone is bad and good.
I read a statistic once that in order to be entirely solar with our power, we would cover the earth 11% over with the dumb cells. Considering the nasty chemicals involved in the manufacture of solar cells, and that solar cells are not simply recycled, and fail in a decade or so (fragile materials), I can't imagine why any earth-first crowd would want yet another major source of toxic waste.
I have long thought that the only solar cells of any use on our planet (since the stuff in space is pretty handy, I'll admit) are the green ones in my lawn and garden. They produce oxygen, which every living animal needs. If you live in a newly developed neighborhood (like in suburban USA), the best thing you can do for your environment is plant plenty of trees on your lawn. Sure, it means raking, but in my neighborhood, I have 100+ year-old oak trees, and they are positively enchanting. They keep the sun off my lawn so I don't have to water, and they keep the sun off my roof (remember, these are mature oak trees) which reduces my AC costs. McDonalds passes out seedling trees on Earth Day, so it really doesn't cost you anything. Sure, it'd make more sense if they passed them out on Arbor Day, but no one remembers when that is, despite it being the more venerable day of commemoration by a good century or more.