Instead of sending everyone to another blog to view the postage stamp sized video in an embedded player, here's the link to the original video at YouTube:
If you're not familiar with the US system of districting, how it works is that an area, like the state of New York gets a number of representatives (29 in NY's case) based on its population. The geography of the state is then split up into 29 regions and each region gets to choose its own representative. After the once-a-decade census, like we just had in 2010, states often will redistrict, which means that they pick the boundaries of those 29 regions. For the political parties involved, they want to draw the district boundaries such that they end up with a majority of citizens who will vote for their party in each district. They use voter registration records and census records to do so. The census records, while they don't include political party preference, do include race, age, family size, and income, all of which are good indicators of how someone will vote. As a result, redistricting is usually contentious, and often abused process.
I know that this probably isn't a complete or 100% accurate description of the process; feel free to correct me if I made any mistakes.
What do you have to do to watch? I'm assuming that there are public viewing areas setup. Do you need to pay for admission or parking? Is there food and such available on site?
It's no different than the games industry where DRM requires a phone-home activation, disc in the drive, no daemon tools running, and a CD-key, but the cracked version removes all of this and sometimes even fixes bugs the original developer never fixed.
Or how hour-long TV shows have gone from being ~52 mins long in the 1960's to ~44 mins long today and in the process have alienated so many customers that they now turn to Hulu or pirating, where the profits are less.
I could go on about "CD"s that don't meet Red Book specs or how newspaper's classified prices basically created Craigslist. Unfortunately, content creators always seem to find ways to hurt the ones who want to buy their stuff.
Just the existing software needs a recompile. I'm sure that Microsoft will port over their development environments and then all that's left is to port any ASM sections in your code and recompile. For something like Firefox, it could take all of fifteen minutes to create the ARM version.
But similar to the PowerPC->Intel x86 transition that Apple went through, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft came out with support for "universal binaries", along with automatic generation of said binaries in their Visual Studio IDEs.
Oh God, AT modem commands. I haven't given those any thought in probably over a decade. Wow, I remember having a particular command string that I liked for some particular reason (I think it gave me an extra 1200bps at the loss of some stability). Thanks for the nostalgia.
-They use your existing credit card. You report it to the credit card company who disables your card and sends out a new one. For the week that you don't have the card, you can't use it. The law allows the credit card company to hold you responsible for the first $50 of fraudulent activity. Some credit card companies charge for a new card if your old one is stolen or misused (mine charges $10). In the end, you can't use your card for a week, and you could be out $60.
-They use your existing debit card. You report it to the bank who disables your card. The bank, however, is not responsible for refunding the fraudulent charges. Your entire bank account could be wiped out and you could be left with numerous overdraft fees. In the end, you're broke.
-They open a new line of credit in your name. You don't find out until you go to buy a car or a house or change jobs and only then you find out that you're considered an extreme credit risk. Some credit lines adjust your interest rate based on your credit score, so you could find that your existing credit card interest rate goes through the roof, even though that particular card isn't involved. It can take years to correct bad credit information, so in the end, you can't make any major purchases and you might not even be able to get a job.
Yes, these are the extreme examples, but they aren't that far-fetched.
CdTe PV panels are a popular choice, but CdTe is an inhalation hazard, toxic if ingested, and irritates the skin. Hg is used in the production of some (not all) panels. As a general rule of thumb, the more efficient the panel, the nastier the materials they use to make them.
Of course, you are correct, you can make very safe panels out of everyday materials that you might even be able to find around your house, but the end result won't be nearly efficient enough to be worthwhile.
It's not that anyone wants a pony, it's that Sony has seriously put a lot of people's information at risk. A stolen credit card can lead to your credit card being shut off at very inopportune times (I once had mine stolen and shutoff at the beginning of a month long trip in Europe. I had trouble even checking into my hotel because the credit card I gave them to hold the reservation no longer worked.). Even worse, if the thieves manage to damage your credit, that is exceptionally hard to repair and will stay with you for at least seven years. In the extreme, you could find yourself unable to buy a car or a house, or even turned down for a job (since some employers check credit history).
The question is that given Sony has put some many people at so much risk, are two games of their choosing and some credit monitoring enough to compensate?
Let's define safe though. Coal power dumps tons and tons of pollutants into the air, so it has long term safety effects (acid rain, global warming, etc). Solar power is generated using panels made with toxic substances. Wind power kills thousands of birds each year. No matter what you do, there will always be some risk and the goal is to minimize it, not eliminate it.
I think that a 40 year old nuclear plant suffered a magnitude 9 earthquake followed by a gigantic tsunami and only suffered a partial meltdown is a testament to the amount of safety, planning, and engineering that goes into these plants. This series of events has only made me feel safer about nuclear energy. Afterall, if that's what it takes to cause a problem at a 40 year old plant, then what would it take to cause a problem at one designed with the latest techniques, expertise, and equipment?
Your snide comments aside, this really isn't a problem. The reactor is housed inside of a containment vessel, which means that the melted material should be contained. There has been some evidence that there were minor cracks in the vessel, but as far I understand it, they were sealed weeks ago.
The big deal here is that instead of being able to remove the rods and cleanup the site, they now have a building that has a puddle of radioactive material at the bottom, which may be too difficult to clean up, so as a result, I would expect that they will probably just seal this up and leave it there for the rest of time. But it shouldn't pose any danger to the outside world.
I'm just kidding, but I agree with what you're saying - the tracks would be cheaper to build. And to the earlier poster who asked about the performance of this train in wind or rain, as long as you're building half of a concrete tunnel, you almost might as well build the other half and not have to worry about most storms.
I can't see how it could save energy. At it's simplest, maglev requires two permanent magnets to provide the "lift" (or technically, the repulsion) and then some motor to provide the forward motion. This requires a motor to provide the forward motion and the lift.
Or put another way, maglev must overcome the friction of the body. This must overcome the friction of the body and the wings.
The only possible energy savings that I see is that the current generation of maglevs use superconducting magnets which require a refrigeration unit to remain magnetic. But (crossing my fingers here) future high temperature superconductors should be able to work at room temperature (i.e., the operational temperature of the train).
Yeah, I'll second that. I usually pick a MB on the basis of chipset and supported CPU power. Chipset is important because there are real clunkers and real winners out there. CPU power is important because you might want to use a 65W processor today, but upgrade to a 125W one next year.
But as far as manufacturers are concerned, I've used numerous Foxconn boards, several MSI boards, and a couple of Gigabyte boards. And I have never had a major issue with any of the brands.
One extra anecdote: After blowing out an MSI MB with a defective powersupply (Antec, go figure), their tech support/RMA process was a breeze to work with and had me my new board in a couple of days with minimal fuss.
You do deserve at least a partial refund if you bought it for an advertised purpose (ie, multiplayer) and Sony can't deliver. At this point, I wouldn't say that three lost weeks of online multiplayer is worth much, but if this goes on much longer, anyone who owns/plays games on PSN wouldn't be in the wrong for wanting a little more compensation than just a free month.
The referrer is the wrong way to fix hot-linking. You're attempting to maintain costs by using the user's browser. Instead, you should use your web server. Something like the JPG is only available if the HTML page it is on has been recently requested by the same IP. (I'm basically making a fox guarding the hen house argument.)
And the user-agent header is the wrong way to fix content issues. The best way would be to supply all of the content to the other browser and let the user decide what format they want to see your site. Or for the browser not to identify itself specifically, but have a more general description of capabilities (such as mobile, small screen, large type, etc). The problem with providing specific browser versions is that website owners tend to over-specialize their content. A few times I have been unable to use a site after I downloaded a new browser since the site didn't recognize the latest version.
I don't want to wait 15 minutes or even 5 to recharge.
You should time yourself the next time you fill your car up. Most fuel pumps are fairly slow and 8 minutes to refill your car (from the time you enter the station, until you leave) is fairly reasonable. Now, these chargers would be something you wouldn't need to use regularly, since most of the time you would just charge up at home. So, a 15 minute charge time would only be an issue when you're on a longer trip.
Back in the 90's in So. Cal. and Arizona, there were quite a few chargers placed around for electric vehicles, but these weren't placed at gas stations, but rather at malls and shopping centers. So the convenience factor goes way up if instead of having to sit at a gas station for 15 minutes, you can go into a bookstore, or get a bite to eat at a restaurant, etc.
I'm not a resident of Minnesota and I'm not even a liberal, but I have to agree with you that just about everything I hear about Al Franken makes me smile. The guy seems honestly interested in improving things for his constituents. I just wish more politicians, on both sides of the aisle, would do so.
Well, keep in mind that there is a difference between being asked and being told to do something. If a cop asks you:
"Can I see your cellphone?"
Then, you're under no obligation to answer in the affirmative. However, if he says:
"Hand over your cellphone."
That's a demand and you're legally required (with some exceptions) to comply. Although cops are well-trained and they know how to phrase a question such that it sounds like a demand:
"I'm going to take a look at your cellphone. Would you hand it to me?"
The point is that when talking to the police, stay calm and listen to exactly what they're saying. If you're not clear if something is a question or a demand, then ask for clarification.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm referring to what looks like an HDR shot at 0:45, btw.
Instead of sending everyone to another blog to view the postage stamp sized video in an embedded player, here's the link to the original video at YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFpeM3fxJoQ
Nice use of HDR in the video. How did they do that?
If you're not familiar with the US system of districting, how it works is that an area, like the state of New York gets a number of representatives (29 in NY's case) based on its population. The geography of the state is then split up into 29 regions and each region gets to choose its own representative. After the once-a-decade census, like we just had in 2010, states often will redistrict, which means that they pick the boundaries of those 29 regions. For the political parties involved, they want to draw the district boundaries such that they end up with a majority of citizens who will vote for their party in each district. They use voter registration records and census records to do so. The census records, while they don't include political party preference, do include race, age, family size, and income, all of which are good indicators of how someone will vote. As a result, redistricting is usually contentious, and often abused process.
I know that this probably isn't a complete or 100% accurate description of the process; feel free to correct me if I made any mistakes.
What do you have to do to watch? I'm assuming that there are public viewing areas setup. Do you need to pay for admission or parking? Is there food and such available on site?
It's no different than the games industry where DRM requires a phone-home activation, disc in the drive, no daemon tools running, and a CD-key, but the cracked version removes all of this and sometimes even fixes bugs the original developer never fixed.
Or how hour-long TV shows have gone from being ~52 mins long in the 1960's to ~44 mins long today and in the process have alienated so many customers that they now turn to Hulu or pirating, where the profits are less.
I could go on about "CD"s that don't meet Red Book specs or how newspaper's classified prices basically created Craigslist. Unfortunately, content creators always seem to find ways to hurt the ones who want to buy their stuff.
Just the existing software needs a recompile. I'm sure that Microsoft will port over their development environments and then all that's left is to port any ASM sections in your code and recompile. For something like Firefox, it could take all of fifteen minutes to create the ARM version.
But similar to the PowerPC->Intel x86 transition that Apple went through, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft came out with support for "universal binaries", along with automatic generation of said binaries in their Visual Studio IDEs.
... which is what our imbecilic author is implying.
Are you implying that Timothy has a less-than-perfect IQ score?
Has Rockstar given up on the PC for good? Has anyone heard if there will be a PC version of Red Dead Redemption or LA Noire?
Um, facial expressions, interrogations, plot-driven instead of action-driven, etc.
Oh God, AT modem commands. I haven't given those any thought in probably over a decade. Wow, I remember having a particular command string that I liked for some particular reason (I think it gave me an extra 1200bps at the loss of some stability). Thanks for the nostalgia.
Worst case scenarios:
-They use your existing credit card. You report it to the credit card company who disables your card and sends out a new one. For the week that you don't have the card, you can't use it. The law allows the credit card company to hold you responsible for the first $50 of fraudulent activity. Some credit card companies charge for a new card if your old one is stolen or misused (mine charges $10). In the end, you can't use your card for a week, and you could be out $60.
-They use your existing debit card. You report it to the bank who disables your card. The bank, however, is not responsible for refunding the fraudulent charges. Your entire bank account could be wiped out and you could be left with numerous overdraft fees. In the end, you're broke.
-They open a new line of credit in your name. You don't find out until you go to buy a car or a house or change jobs and only then you find out that you're considered an extreme credit risk. Some credit lines adjust your interest rate based on your credit score, so you could find that your existing credit card interest rate goes through the roof, even though that particular card isn't involved. It can take years to correct bad credit information, so in the end, you can't make any major purchases and you might not even be able to get a job.
Yes, these are the extreme examples, but they aren't that far-fetched.
CdTe PV panels are a popular choice, but CdTe is an inhalation hazard, toxic if ingested, and irritates the skin. Hg is used in the production of some (not all) panels. As a general rule of thumb, the more efficient the panel, the nastier the materials they use to make them.
Of course, you are correct, you can make very safe panels out of everyday materials that you might even be able to find around your house, but the end result won't be nearly efficient enough to be worthwhile.
It's not that anyone wants a pony, it's that Sony has seriously put a lot of people's information at risk. A stolen credit card can lead to your credit card being shut off at very inopportune times (I once had mine stolen and shutoff at the beginning of a month long trip in Europe. I had trouble even checking into my hotel because the credit card I gave them to hold the reservation no longer worked.). Even worse, if the thieves manage to damage your credit, that is exceptionally hard to repair and will stay with you for at least seven years. In the extreme, you could find yourself unable to buy a car or a house, or even turned down for a job (since some employers check credit history).
The question is that given Sony has put some many people at so much risk, are two games of their choosing and some credit monitoring enough to compensate?
Let's define safe though. Coal power dumps tons and tons of pollutants into the air, so it has long term safety effects (acid rain, global warming, etc). Solar power is generated using panels made with toxic substances. Wind power kills thousands of birds each year. No matter what you do, there will always be some risk and the goal is to minimize it, not eliminate it.
I think that a 40 year old nuclear plant suffered a magnitude 9 earthquake followed by a gigantic tsunami and only suffered a partial meltdown is a testament to the amount of safety, planning, and engineering that goes into these plants. This series of events has only made me feel safer about nuclear energy. Afterall, if that's what it takes to cause a problem at a 40 year old plant, then what would it take to cause a problem at one designed with the latest techniques, expertise, and equipment?
Your snide comments aside, this really isn't a problem. The reactor is housed inside of a containment vessel, which means that the melted material should be contained. There has been some evidence that there were minor cracks in the vessel, but as far I understand it, they were sealed weeks ago.
The big deal here is that instead of being able to remove the rods and cleanup the site, they now have a building that has a puddle of radioactive material at the bottom, which may be too difficult to clean up, so as a result, I would expect that they will probably just seal this up and leave it there for the rest of time. But it shouldn't pose any danger to the outside world.
An extruder? Like this:
http://www.jovian.com.au/contents/media/Extruder.jpg
I'm just kidding, but I agree with what you're saying - the tracks would be cheaper to build. And to the earlier poster who asked about the performance of this train in wind or rain, as long as you're building half of a concrete tunnel, you almost might as well build the other half and not have to worry about most storms.
I can't see how it could save energy. At it's simplest, maglev requires two permanent magnets to provide the "lift" (or technically, the repulsion) and then some motor to provide the forward motion. This requires a motor to provide the forward motion and the lift.
Or put another way, maglev must overcome the friction of the body. This must overcome the friction of the body and the wings.
The only possible energy savings that I see is that the current generation of maglevs use superconducting magnets which require a refrigeration unit to remain magnetic. But (crossing my fingers here) future high temperature superconductors should be able to work at room temperature (i.e., the operational temperature of the train).
Yeah, I'll second that. I usually pick a MB on the basis of chipset and supported CPU power. Chipset is important because there are real clunkers and real winners out there. CPU power is important because you might want to use a 65W processor today, but upgrade to a 125W one next year.
But as far as manufacturers are concerned, I've used numerous Foxconn boards, several MSI boards, and a couple of Gigabyte boards. And I have never had a major issue with any of the brands.
One extra anecdote: After blowing out an MSI MB with a defective powersupply (Antec, go figure), their tech support/RMA process was a breeze to work with and had me my new board in a couple of days with minimal fuss.
You do deserve at least a partial refund if you bought it for an advertised purpose (ie, multiplayer) and Sony can't deliver. At this point, I wouldn't say that three lost weeks of online multiplayer is worth much, but if this goes on much longer, anyone who owns/plays games on PSN wouldn't be in the wrong for wanting a little more compensation than just a free month.
The referrer is the wrong way to fix hot-linking. You're attempting to maintain costs by using the user's browser. Instead, you should use your web server. Something like the JPG is only available if the HTML page it is on has been recently requested by the same IP. (I'm basically making a fox guarding the hen house argument.)
And the user-agent header is the wrong way to fix content issues. The best way would be to supply all of the content to the other browser and let the user decide what format they want to see your site. Or for the browser not to identify itself specifically, but have a more general description of capabilities (such as mobile, small screen, large type, etc). The problem with providing specific browser versions is that website owners tend to over-specialize their content. A few times I have been unable to use a site after I downloaded a new browser since the site didn't recognize the latest version.
Kids, play nice or you're both going to have a timeout.
When I watch my pathetic users try to access an unfamiliar feature...
And we wonder why most people can't stand the IT guy...
I don't want to wait 15 minutes or even 5 to recharge.
You should time yourself the next time you fill your car up. Most fuel pumps are fairly slow and 8 minutes to refill your car (from the time you enter the station, until you leave) is fairly reasonable. Now, these chargers would be something you wouldn't need to use regularly, since most of the time you would just charge up at home. So, a 15 minute charge time would only be an issue when you're on a longer trip.
Back in the 90's in So. Cal. and Arizona, there were quite a few chargers placed around for electric vehicles, but these weren't placed at gas stations, but rather at malls and shopping centers. So the convenience factor goes way up if instead of having to sit at a gas station for 15 minutes, you can go into a bookstore, or get a bite to eat at a restaurant, etc.
I'm not a resident of Minnesota and I'm not even a liberal, but I have to agree with you that just about everything I hear about Al Franken makes me smile. The guy seems honestly interested in improving things for his constituents. I just wish more politicians, on both sides of the aisle, would do so.
Well, keep in mind that there is a difference between being asked and being told to do something. If a cop asks you:
"Can I see your cellphone?"
Then, you're under no obligation to answer in the affirmative. However, if he says:
"Hand over your cellphone."
That's a demand and you're legally required (with some exceptions) to comply. Although cops are well-trained and they know how to phrase a question such that it sounds like a demand:
"I'm going to take a look at your cellphone. Would you hand it to me?"
The point is that when talking to the police, stay calm and listen to exactly what they're saying. If you're not clear if something is a question or a demand, then ask for clarification.