Just what we need, now we'll have a security checkpoint before our security checkpoint to prevent you from bringing a gun into the security checkpoint.
The car was designed for luggage for four people. The weight of the fuel should not, in of itself, pose a problem, unless the car crashes and the fuel tanks rupture, given that they're probably mounted in the trunk or where the rear seat would normally go, so not isolated from the passengers by a bulkhead like a normal under-car fuel tank is.
The Autobahn has intentionally gentler grades, slightly higher banking on turns that warrant it, and some better safety features for when there are crashes. The Autobahn is also better-maintained and from what I've read, is constructed of more durable materials, a different multilayer approach to what the Interstate is comprised of.
Thing is, they probably scouted their route well enough to know how well the roads are maintained and how conducive they are to high-speed driving, they probably used at least race-approved fuel tanks making a rupture less likely than if Bubba simply welded six sides together to make a metal box, and they probably timed their crossing to make it as traffic-free as possible. I'm not condoning what they did, but I'm not condemning it on the surface of it either, as it sounds like they did their homework to make this as not-dangerous as possible. Kind of like how a skydiver checks his gear and jumps in less populated places so that he doesn't kill anyone if his gear does fail and he hard-impacts.
It's possible to go fast and not be terribly dangerous. In an urban area where the freeway speed limits are 65MPH, traffic flows at 75-80MPH normally. On rural Interstate highways, the speed limit is commonly 75MPH and traffic definitely bumps up against 85MPH, and some states have speed limits in the 85MPH range.
If he was driving 100MPH in a 75MPH zones, then he was only 33% above the speed limit. He also picked a vehicle designed for high-speed, Autobahn driving, meant to handle at those speeds, and I expect that his route intentionally avoided metro areas as much as possible to avoid both extra law enforcement and extra traffic. I can attest to my part of the country, it would not be that hard to go 150MPH in some areas without particularly endangering anyone but one's self, as there are long stretches of straight road with little to no usage. I wouldn't recommend it from a personal safety standpoint, but if one were to wreck in those areas it'd probably be a one-car accident.
Sounds like he picked something that, while impressive in its stats on paper, was worn out and close to end-of-life. If he totaled it out or got it confiscated he wasn't exactly going to cry over it.
Heh. Yeah, I had hoarded computer stuff and already gotten rid of a fair amount of it before I met my wife. As we consolidated households I got rid of quite a bit more, and now I get rid of stuff as it enters the, "not useful to me anymore" phase. So, most SCSI and firewire cables, most flat-ribbon IDE cables, that sort of thing, gone. Most serial and parallel, gone. No reason to keep that stuff anymore, if I need it I can find plenty of it for a few cents at the thrift stores.
And you know what? I'm happier for it. I have more room for current projects, when I do need something it doesn't take me very long to find it, and I am not constantly rearranging junk.
Had them, but not anymore. Actually I had a weird ATI video card that could do the full color palette at the same time in text-mode, and could also do a full color palette in a CGA-type resolution, but could only do a four-color palette in an EGA resolution. It was odd...
I wonder how good the design process was really...
If I'm going to have a watch-type device whose purpose is to interface with my phone, I want it to do the following WELL:
Dial calls.
Show caller ID and answer calls.
Show navigation/map data.
Control audio playback.
Control method of output for phonecalls (switch between bluetooth headset, watch speakerphone, and phone speakerphone, and conventional phone).
Compass and orienteering (direction and distance).
Quick-launching, mid-resolution camera pointed out the side (2048x1536 at most for still images).
Clock.
Make it do these things well, make it cheap, and make it thin enough to not look ridiculous, and you may have something. It doesn't have to do everything, it doesn't need a notepad or high-resolution camera or Angry Birds, it just needs to do a few simple things that will allow one to leave one's phone in one's pocket or backpack or purse for the basics of communication, and give just a few more useful features.
When the Palm Pilot was designed, the designer carried around a block of wood and figured out when it would have been nice for that block of wood to do something. Hence the calendar, the notepad, the contacts list, the tasks list, and the like. This approach should work well for something watch-sized too.
Not just a two-front war, a two-theatre, multi-front war. The US was simultaneously engaged in ground operations in France, Italy, North Africa, and in islands in the Pacific, was engaged in naval maneuvers in the North Sea, the central Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Pacific, and had air/bombing operations over Europe and Asia.
The US was lucky in that vital production infrastructure wasn't located close to the war, and was far enough away that even raid-type attacks were impractical. Contrast to France where they were taken within months, and Russia, that ceded territory like mad until the Germans failed to build out enough to make up for the distance and lack of scavengable resources in Russian territory. The United Kingdom enjoyed at least a modicum of this kind of isolation, insofar as they couldn't be ground-invaded quickly, but their infrastructure was still vulnerable to both bombing and to small-teams insertion, so they had to be particularly vigilant, committing resources that the US simply didn't need to spend defensively.
The point of Doctor Who in the time that I've seen it (eighties through current) is adventure with cleverness driving the story. Every thing in the story that serves to drive it is a MacGuffin, and computers and other tools fit into that category.
Even the TARDIS itself is generally a MacGuffin. Despite people's attempts to render what the TARDIS looks like in its pocket universe within the time stream, we really don't know what it looks like or how it truly functions. Things get made up as they're needed for the story, and over-explaining may hamper storytelling in the future.
Terry Pratchett's choice to not make detailed maps of the Discworld is for the same reason, he doesn't want to tie himself down with factoids that will later hamper future story telling.
Nintendo also found a way to appeal to old people and fairly infirm people. Nintendo was the first to make a practical break from the up-down-left-right-a-b controller to something that worked without needing to push buttons, depending on the game. Yes, Nintendo is now going to have to compete with other nontraditional controller systems, but they're up for the task.
There's a lot of money to be made in appealing to non-hard-core gamers, in appealing to those who might casually game, but aren't going to play every day or even every week. There are lot more of those than there are hard-core gamers, and if you can get significant market penetration in a group that probably shouldn't even care, then you can make a lot of money.
Nintendo appears to be able to do that, moreso than other companies. Sega's position was what the other game makers' positions are today, and it ultimately cost them when they slipped and their hard-core gaming clientele left, and they didn't have a casual gaming business to sustain them.
As I elaborated, you can fire employees that don't do their jobs in your own company easier than you can compel another company to fire their employees.
Another issue with handing problems to consultants or third-parties, even if those companies have an interest in taking care of your problems, the employees of those companies may not. In short, you call with a problem, and there are layers of management and bureaucracy up your chain of authority and down theirs before the hammer can be brought down on an employee of a different company that fails to do his or her job or to otherwise provide service.
When a person who takes care of your stuff works for your organization, generally there are fewer hoops to jump through to compel that employee to do his or her job, as there's both an ability to personally address that employee, and there's a greater ability to discipline an employee that fails to do one's job.
That having been the stick, there's also the carrot, the employee in one's own company that manages to play Scotty and save the day will receive more recognition from his or her fellow coworkers than the employee of a consulting firm, so the motivation to take care of the assets is also greater with the personal connection to coworkers.
Indeed. If I have money to burn, I wouldn't burn it by getting part-of-the-way to space. That's the space-equivalent of going out to meet the prettiest gal and take her home, but ending up at the strip club and leaving with frustration.
A given quantity of ocean is as soggy as any other equivalent quantity of ocean, and there's more of that ocean in the southern half of this planet. Hence the southern hemisphere is more soggy, QED.
I worked for this boss. Unfortunately it tends to descend into a scene like in Cool Hand Luke where the two guards make him dig a hole, then fill it, then dig it, then fill it, etc... Better to just follow the original instructions and indeed, fill the time with something that looks like work. With a PC on your desk that shouldn't be all that hard to do.
Can't be any worse than an articulated bus already deals with, and an articulated subway car isn't a lot more complicated in its joint. If anything the subway car should be easier to make, since it can be specially-designed for the track that it'll run on.
Slashdot Mirror
Just what we need, now we'll have a security checkpoint before our security checkpoint to prevent you from bringing a gun into the security checkpoint.
Turtles all the way down...
The car was designed for luggage for four people. The weight of the fuel should not, in of itself, pose a problem, unless the car crashes and the fuel tanks rupture, given that they're probably mounted in the trunk or where the rear seat would normally go, so not isolated from the passengers by a bulkhead like a normal under-car fuel tank is.
The Autobahn has intentionally gentler grades, slightly higher banking on turns that warrant it, and some better safety features for when there are crashes. The Autobahn is also better-maintained and from what I've read, is constructed of more durable materials, a different multilayer approach to what the Interstate is comprised of.
Thing is, they probably scouted their route well enough to know how well the roads are maintained and how conducive they are to high-speed driving, they probably used at least race-approved fuel tanks making a rupture less likely than if Bubba simply welded six sides together to make a metal box, and they probably timed their crossing to make it as traffic-free as possible. I'm not condoning what they did, but I'm not condemning it on the surface of it either, as it sounds like they did their homework to make this as not-dangerous as possible. Kind of like how a skydiver checks his gear and jumps in less populated places so that he doesn't kill anyone if his gear does fail and he hard-impacts.
It's possible to go fast and not be terribly dangerous. In an urban area where the freeway speed limits are 65MPH, traffic flows at 75-80MPH normally. On rural Interstate highways, the speed limit is commonly 75MPH and traffic definitely bumps up against 85MPH, and some states have speed limits in the 85MPH range.
If he was driving 100MPH in a 75MPH zones, then he was only 33% above the speed limit. He also picked a vehicle designed for high-speed, Autobahn driving, meant to handle at those speeds, and I expect that his route intentionally avoided metro areas as much as possible to avoid both extra law enforcement and extra traffic. I can attest to my part of the country, it would not be that hard to go 150MPH in some areas without particularly endangering anyone but one's self, as there are long stretches of straight road with little to no usage. I wouldn't recommend it from a personal safety standpoint, but if one were to wreck in those areas it'd probably be a one-car accident.
Sounds like he picked something that, while impressive in its stats on paper, was worn out and close to end-of-life. If he totaled it out or got it confiscated he wasn't exactly going to cry over it.
Heh. Yeah, I had hoarded computer stuff and already gotten rid of a fair amount of it before I met my wife. As we consolidated households I got rid of quite a bit more, and now I get rid of stuff as it enters the, "not useful to me anymore" phase. So, most SCSI and firewire cables, most flat-ribbon IDE cables, that sort of thing, gone. Most serial and parallel, gone. No reason to keep that stuff anymore, if I need it I can find plenty of it for a few cents at the thrift stores.
And you know what? I'm happier for it. I have more room for current projects, when I do need something it doesn't take me very long to find it, and I am not constantly rearranging junk.
Had them, but not anymore. Actually I had a weird ATI video card that could do the full color palette at the same time in text-mode, and could also do a full color palette in a CGA-type resolution, but could only do a four-color palette in an EGA resolution. It was odd...
...my living room, years ago, though with more space between artifacts...
Anyone need a peek/poke ISA card for bit-wise operations?
Stop you should. Mixing metaphors, your cup of fur, isn't...
I wonder how good the design process was really...
If I'm going to have a watch-type device whose purpose is to interface with my phone, I want it to do the following WELL:
Dial calls.
Show caller ID and answer calls.
Show navigation/map data.
Control audio playback.
Control method of output for phonecalls (switch between bluetooth headset, watch speakerphone, and phone speakerphone, and conventional phone).
Compass and orienteering (direction and distance).
Quick-launching, mid-resolution camera pointed out the side (2048x1536 at most for still images).
Clock.
Make it do these things well, make it cheap, and make it thin enough to not look ridiculous, and you may have something. It doesn't have to do everything, it doesn't need a notepad or high-resolution camera or Angry Birds, it just needs to do a few simple things that will allow one to leave one's phone in one's pocket or backpack or purse for the basics of communication, and give just a few more useful features.
When the Palm Pilot was designed, the designer carried around a block of wood and figured out when it would have been nice for that block of wood to do something. Hence the calendar, the notepad, the contacts list, the tasks list, and the like. This approach should work well for something watch-sized too.
They've continued to do this, using the London Eye as an alien control transmitter in the 2005 pilot.
Not just a two-front war, a two-theatre, multi-front war. The US was simultaneously engaged in ground operations in France, Italy, North Africa, and in islands in the Pacific, was engaged in naval maneuvers in the North Sea, the central Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Pacific, and had air/bombing operations over Europe and Asia.
The US was lucky in that vital production infrastructure wasn't located close to the war, and was far enough away that even raid-type attacks were impractical. Contrast to France where they were taken within months, and Russia, that ceded territory like mad until the Germans failed to build out enough to make up for the distance and lack of scavengable resources in Russian territory. The United Kingdom enjoyed at least a modicum of this kind of isolation, insofar as they couldn't be ground-invaded quickly, but their infrastructure was still vulnerable to both bombing and to small-teams insertion, so they had to be particularly vigilant, committing resources that the US simply didn't need to spend defensively.
The point of Doctor Who in the time that I've seen it (eighties through current) is adventure with cleverness driving the story. Every thing in the story that serves to drive it is a MacGuffin, and computers and other tools fit into that category.
Even the TARDIS itself is generally a MacGuffin. Despite people's attempts to render what the TARDIS looks like in its pocket universe within the time stream, we really don't know what it looks like or how it truly functions. Things get made up as they're needed for the story, and over-explaining may hamper storytelling in the future.
Terry Pratchett's choice to not make detailed maps of the Discworld is for the same reason, he doesn't want to tie himself down with factoids that will later hamper future story telling.
No, that would star Tim Curry...
Nintendo also found a way to appeal to old people and fairly infirm people. Nintendo was the first to make a practical break from the up-down-left-right-a-b controller to something that worked without needing to push buttons, depending on the game. Yes, Nintendo is now going to have to compete with other nontraditional controller systems, but they're up for the task.
There's a lot of money to be made in appealing to non-hard-core gamers, in appealing to those who might casually game, but aren't going to play every day or even every week. There are lot more of those than there are hard-core gamers, and if you can get significant market penetration in a group that probably shouldn't even care, then you can make a lot of money.
Nintendo appears to be able to do that, moreso than other companies. Sega's position was what the other game makers' positions are today, and it ultimately cost them when they slipped and their hard-core gaming clientele left, and they didn't have a casual gaming business to sustain them.
As I elaborated, you can fire employees that don't do their jobs in your own company easier than you can compel another company to fire their employees.
Another issue with handing problems to consultants or third-parties, even if those companies have an interest in taking care of your problems, the employees of those companies may not. In short, you call with a problem, and there are layers of management and bureaucracy up your chain of authority and down theirs before the hammer can be brought down on an employee of a different company that fails to do his or her job or to otherwise provide service.
When a person who takes care of your stuff works for your organization, generally there are fewer hoops to jump through to compel that employee to do his or her job, as there's both an ability to personally address that employee, and there's a greater ability to discipline an employee that fails to do one's job.
That having been the stick, there's also the carrot, the employee in one's own company that manages to play Scotty and save the day will receive more recognition from his or her fellow coworkers than the employee of a consulting firm, so the motivation to take care of the assets is also greater with the personal connection to coworkers.
More likely that he'll become an independent and speak at a GOP nominating convention...
Penny Arcade's thoughts on Internet anonymity come to mind...
Not for that kind of money...
Indeed. If I have money to burn, I wouldn't burn it by getting part-of-the-way to space. That's the space-equivalent of going out to meet the prettiest gal and take her home, but ending up at the strip club and leaving with frustration.
Wouldn't the presence of self-awareness be a prerequisite, so just about every device should fail, before even getting to the actual test?
A given quantity of ocean is as soggy as any other equivalent quantity of ocean, and there's more of that ocean in the southern half of this planet. Hence the southern hemisphere is more soggy, QED.
I worked for this boss. Unfortunately it tends to descend into a scene like in Cool Hand Luke where the two guards make him dig a hole, then fill it, then dig it, then fill it, etc... Better to just follow the original instructions and indeed, fill the time with something that looks like work. With a PC on your desk that shouldn't be all that hard to do.
Which means, by default, that the Southern Hemisphere is soggier, given that it's got more water sitting on it and all...
...then where will the hobos excrete in private?
Can't be any worse than an articulated bus already deals with, and an articulated subway car isn't a lot more complicated in its joint. If anything the subway car should be easier to make, since it can be specially-designed for the track that it'll run on.