No, I'm convinced this is the decades old bog-standard problem with cruise control, automatic transmissions, and hills. Fixing it would require computerizing the automatic transmission which is more expensive than running it off of hydraulics powered by engine vacuum.
You have absolutely no idea how a Prius drivetrain works, do you?
Here are a few hints: First, the Prius doesn't have anything resembling a normal automatic transmission. Second, it has to be computerized because there's no easy mechanical way to implement the algorithm that decides how much power needs to come from the gasoline engine and how much of it needs to come from the electric motor. Third, even normal transmissions are computerized these days (e.g. anything with "Tiptronic" or paddle shifters).
A Prius does have gears, actually. Its CVT uses a planetary gearset (as opposed to cones or belts, like other CVTs). The difference is that the Prius's gears are arranged differently than in a normal transmission.
A kill switch, such as that found on every(?) motorcycle made in the past N decades. Separate from the ignition switch (which used to be a kick-start lever) and the key switch, it's got a consistent and obvious location, color, and purpose. And you think it's an idiot-knob, until you need it.
That already exists (yes, even on Priuses). It's called the BRAKE PEDAL!
The interesting thing is I've not heard any Haiti jokes. I don't know if that's because I'm not in school now as I was during Challenger, or if there actually aren't as many jokes around.
Two other possibilities:
It's too soon (not likely).
School kids aren't paying much attention to Haiti.
The latter is a trend in general in the US: try asking a random person what the biggest natural disaster in the last decade was, and I'll bet they'll say "Katrina" -- completely forgetting that the Indian Ocean tsunami the year before killed two orders of magnitude more people (~230,000 vs. ~2500).
The fantasy isn't "I like 13 yr olds" (or whatever), that's a justification. Or perhaps symptom is a better word. The REAL fantasy is "I like complete domination of another. I can do whatever I want. I'm a God" The fantasy of control for people who are overwhelmed by being powerless.
What makes you think all people who look at kiddy porn want to be the adult? Maybe some want to be the kid!
And a pedophile can't? Counseling and self-help groups help alcoholics stay dry. Why can't they help pedophiles? Is pedophilia really stronger than alcohol addiction? Yes, it's a sexual urge but there are ways of handling urges.
That argument applies equally well (or poorly) to homosexuality. Do you assert that being homosexual is also some kind of condition that needs treatment, or are you a hypocrite?
What if it's not just about the sex drive? If a driving force is a desire to dominate, to have control over another... well, porn isn't going to satisfy THAT urge.
Then why would the person be messing around with the stupid cartoon porn in the first place?!
Either the cartoon porn satisfies the urge, or it doesn't. If it does, it's harmless. If it doesn't, the person wouldn't bother to obtain it anyway. There is no problem here!
Oh, he HAD to change my router, cause changing channels made his customer's router nonstandard and would cause trouble for other techs. I asked him to have his supervisor tell me this, hopefully with a straight face.
Wow, you must be very polite! If I had been in that situation, it would have sounded a lot more like "fuck you, and get off of my property!"
My first Mac was an iBook. When I got it, I was really worried about the one-button thing, but it turned out that I actually liked it better than having two buttons. The reason why is that, since I generally rested my left hand on the keyboard anyway, it was easy to hit the modifier keys (Apple, option, and control) when I needed to -- easier, in fact, than moving my right thumb around to find a (hypothetical) second trackpad button. If you think about it, it's a lot like the spacebar on the keyboard: your other fingers are used to type several keys each, but your thumbs only have to press the spacebar (and they don't have to be precise about it either, since it's so wide).
Incidentally, I now have a Thinkpad x60t (I sacrificed Mac OS because I wanted to try a Tablet PC). I like the trackpoint better than a trackpad, but I wouldn't miss the 2nd and 3rd buttons if they suddenly disappeared.
you can only expect to target Windows, X-Box, and Windows Mobile. If you want to find the sticking point in that line of thought, look long and hard at the last item. That's the also-ran there in the lineup.
X-Box is an "also-ran" too, compared to the Wii (and especially compared to the Wii and PS3 combined).
If you want to target the smart phone platforms that're actually dominant right at the moment (for titles that can go there...and there's quite a few...) you're NOT going to be using D3D as your sole one. If you're going to pick a sole target, you're better off with OpenGL/OpenGL ES as it'll pretty much hit everything out of box.
Are there that many games targeting mobile and non-mobile platforms with the same codebase anyway? There are so many differences between mobile and non-mobile (screen size & resolution, controls, amount of time the player has per sitting, etc.) that, realistically, if you want to target both things then you want to make two entirely different games to begin with.
You know, I was halfway through writing a rant (about how the bill doesn't go down because the cellular industry is an oligopoly and doesn't offer the customer the choice to have a lower rate without a contract and whatnot) when I decided to add an example. I went to the T-Mobile site to research it, and you know what I found?
T-Mobile, at least, DOES have monthly plans that are cheaper when they're not subsidizing a phone! Their 500-minute "Even More" plan includes a phone subsidy, has a 2-year contract, and costs $40/month. Their "Even More Plus" plan that's equivalent except that it doesn't include the subsidy or contract is $30/month. An actual difference! This is something new.... last I checked (a few months ago), the plans were $40/month whether you got a subsidy and contract or not.
Not that I'm a T-Mobile shill or anything -- in fact, I'm currently an AT&T customer -- but that's actually some pretty good progress!
I wonder if any other major carriers have jumped on that bandwagon yet?
In criminal law (such as the rape you alluded to), sure. But we're talking about contract law here. "She was asking for it" is not only an acceptable argument, it's pretty much the canonical argument that all others simplify to!
You can't steal music (except by stuffing CDs down your pants at the store) because the data is published (not to mention broadcast). Confidential information, on the other hand, can be "stolen" because, while you're still merely copying the data, you're stealing the secret.
WTF are you talking about? The first modern, professional fire department was founded in the 1850s (well within the time of the horse and carriage), police have existed since probably the middle ages, and as for EMS, the doctor came to you instead!
Even those smelly, slow diesel cars that foreign automakers want to push on the US again (anyone above 20 remembers the Mercedes turbo diesels that people ended up passing on the wrong side of the road or breakdown lanes due to their sulphur belching stench and multi minute 0-60 times.)
Wow, you're really an ignorant prick, aren't you? New Diesel cars are nothing whatsoever like they used to be 20 years ago. In fact, even 10-year-old diesel cars are just as powerful and clean as the average gasoline vehicle (my '98 VW TDI can easily outrun the average compact Honda and runs on either Ultra-Low-Sulfur-Diesel (15 PPM sulfur), as mandated in the US since 2007, or biodiesel which contains no sulfur whatsoever). And even the least-powerful 2009-model Diesel car sold in the US, the Jetta TDI "Clean Diesel," has 140 HP. That means it has more power than most of its competitors, let alone its massive advantage in torque!
Don't misunderstand me: I'm not arguing for a return to the Dark Ages or something like that; I'm just saying that you need to get your facts straight before mouthing off!
So then the problem was the government-mandated pricing, not the functional separation of companies! Or in other words, what was tried in 1996 was essentially something completely different than what the grandparent post proposes.
Augh, if only I hadn't already posted in this discussion! Your comment deserves not only "+5, insightful" but also to be continuously displayed on news tickers everywhere until everyone finally gets it.
No, he's just (probably) American. You, on the other hand, appear to live somewhere that's a secondary market with fucked-up release dates (which is a problem too, but a different one than the topic of this thread).
Writers, musicians, and movie makers usually don't get paid for the time they work--they work on spec, or on borrowed money, and hope that they can pay it back. This makes these high risk ventures, and no one is going to bother with high risk ventures unless the occasional success covers the cost of failed attempts.
AND NOTHING OF VALUE WAS LOST.
As it is, publishers do their best to trap writers in a contract which states that they are "writers for hire"--that is, they get paid only a fixed some for their time (as you suggest they should) while the publisher gets to keep any extra profits, because they now own the rights entirely. So, you see, the corporations agree with you entirely.
On the contrary, if copyright were abolished as the O.P. desires, those "rights" would cease to exist and there'd be no extra profit for the publisher to keep. The publisher would have to compete based on the physical costs of production, just like in every other industry.
I'll put it this way: my grandfather was a fairly prolific and successful composer in his day, with several hundred works still under copyright and performed every once in a while, and as a result my family gets about $25 a year of royalty payments.
Moreover, there's no reason why your family should get that $25/year anyway -- it was your grandfather did that work (and has long since been paid for it), not you!
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You have absolutely no idea how a Prius drivetrain works, do you?
Here are a few hints: First, the Prius doesn't have anything resembling a normal automatic transmission. Second, it has to be computerized because there's no easy mechanical way to implement the algorithm that decides how much power needs to come from the gasoline engine and how much of it needs to come from the electric motor. Third, even normal transmissions are computerized these days (e.g. anything with "Tiptronic" or paddle shifters).
Read this.
A Prius does have gears, actually. Its CVT uses a planetary gearset (as opposed to cones or belts, like other CVTs). The difference is that the Prius's gears are arranged differently than in a normal transmission.
That already exists (yes, even on Priuses). It's called the BRAKE PEDAL!
Two other possibilities:
The latter is a trend in general in the US: try asking a random person what the biggest natural disaster in the last decade was, and I'll bet they'll say "Katrina" -- completely forgetting that the Indian Ocean tsunami the year before killed two orders of magnitude more people (~230,000 vs. ~2500).
It might undermine all the religious brainwashing.
What makes you think all people who look at kiddy porn want to be the adult? Maybe some want to be the kid!
That argument applies equally well (or poorly) to homosexuality. Do you assert that being homosexual is also some kind of condition that needs treatment, or are you a hypocrite?
Then why would the person be messing around with the stupid cartoon porn in the first place?!
Either the cartoon porn satisfies the urge, or it doesn't. If it does, it's harmless. If it doesn't, the person wouldn't bother to obtain it anyway. There is no problem here!
It's worth it. The NRA, ACLU, and EFF aren't natural persons either!
Semantics always matter, because otherwise people never learn them in the first place.
Wow, you must be very polite! If I had been in that situation, it would have sounded a lot more like "fuck you, and get off of my property!"
No, we're complaining that all they make is car stereos when what we really want is a boombox!
My first Mac was an iBook. When I got it, I was really worried about the one-button thing, but it turned out that I actually liked it better than having two buttons. The reason why is that, since I generally rested my left hand on the keyboard anyway, it was easy to hit the modifier keys (Apple, option, and control) when I needed to -- easier, in fact, than moving my right thumb around to find a (hypothetical) second trackpad button. If you think about it, it's a lot like the spacebar on the keyboard: your other fingers are used to type several keys each, but your thumbs only have to press the spacebar (and they don't have to be precise about it either, since it's so wide).
Incidentally, I now have a Thinkpad x60t (I sacrificed Mac OS because I wanted to try a Tablet PC). I like the trackpoint better than a trackpad, but I wouldn't miss the 2nd and 3rd buttons if they suddenly disappeared.
X-Box is an "also-ran" too, compared to the Wii (and especially compared to the Wii and PS3 combined).
Are there that many games targeting mobile and non-mobile platforms with the same codebase anyway? There are so many differences between mobile and non-mobile (screen size & resolution, controls, amount of time the player has per sitting, etc.) that, realistically, if you want to target both things then you want to make two entirely different games to begin with.
You know, I was halfway through writing a rant (about how the bill doesn't go down because the cellular industry is an oligopoly and doesn't offer the customer the choice to have a lower rate without a contract and whatnot) when I decided to add an example. I went to the T-Mobile site to research it, and you know what I found?
T-Mobile, at least, DOES have monthly plans that are cheaper when they're not subsidizing a phone! Their 500-minute "Even More" plan includes a phone subsidy, has a 2-year contract, and costs $40/month. Their "Even More Plus" plan that's equivalent except that it doesn't include the subsidy or contract is $30/month. An actual difference! This is something new.... last I checked (a few months ago), the plans were $40/month whether you got a subsidy and contract or not.
Not that I'm a T-Mobile shill or anything -- in fact, I'm currently an AT&T customer -- but that's actually some pretty good progress!
I wonder if any other major carriers have jumped on that bandwagon yet?
In criminal law (such as the rape you alluded to), sure. But we're talking about contract law here. "She was asking for it" is not only an acceptable argument, it's pretty much the canonical argument that all others simplify to!
You can't steal music (except by stuffing CDs down your pants at the store) because the data is published (not to mention broadcast). Confidential information, on the other hand, can be "stolen" because, while you're still merely copying the data, you're stealing the secret.
WTF are you talking about? The first modern, professional fire department was founded in the 1850s (well within the time of the horse and carriage), police have existed since probably the middle ages, and as for EMS, the doctor came to you instead!
Wow, you're really an ignorant prick, aren't you? New Diesel cars are nothing whatsoever like they used to be 20 years ago. In fact, even 10-year-old diesel cars are just as powerful and clean as the average gasoline vehicle (my '98 VW TDI can easily outrun the average compact Honda and runs on either Ultra-Low-Sulfur-Diesel (15 PPM sulfur), as mandated in the US since 2007, or biodiesel which contains no sulfur whatsoever). And even the least-powerful 2009-model Diesel car sold in the US, the Jetta TDI "Clean Diesel," has 140 HP. That means it has more power than most of its competitors, let alone its massive advantage in torque!
Don't misunderstand me: I'm not arguing for a return to the Dark Ages or something like that; I'm just saying that you need to get your facts straight before mouthing off!
So then the problem was the government-mandated pricing, not the functional separation of companies! Or in other words, what was tried in 1996 was essentially something completely different than what the grandparent post proposes.
Augh, if only I hadn't already posted in this discussion! Your comment deserves not only "+5, insightful" but also to be continuously displayed on news tickers everywhere until everyone finally gets it.
No, he's just (probably) American. You, on the other hand, appear to live somewhere that's a secondary market with fucked-up release dates (which is a problem too, but a different one than the topic of this thread).
AND NOTHING OF VALUE WAS LOST.
On the contrary, if copyright were abolished as the O.P. desires, those "rights" would cease to exist and there'd be no extra profit for the publisher to keep. The publisher would have to compete based on the physical costs of production, just like in every other industry.
Moreover, there's no reason why your family should get that $25/year anyway -- it was your grandfather did that work (and has long since been paid for it), not you!
You already get absurdly excessive rewards for your work! If that's not enough, then we don't NEED the work of greedy, totalitarian assholes like you!