"comfortable switching" is really important. Give people the applications on Windows, get them used to it and then switching them to Linux will be less of a shock.
I'd love to see cold fusion come in, but I'm not expecting it for at least 30 years.
Space based solar farms sound good, except the energy loss would seem to be huge, and I'd imagine the infrastructure cost of such a project would be immense.
I'm really thinking about what we've got that's tried and tested right now. Wind power is a great idea, but without dramatic reduction in consumption just doesn't make much difference (incidentally, reducing consumption is probably the most cost-effective thing we can do).
I think it went wrong when people stopped accepting death and risk as the stuff of life, and that they should have a risk-free existence and everything is the government's fault.
Actually Liechtenstein is not a bad choice for hosting. It's outside the EU and the USA. Maybe Switzerland will become the hosting capital of the world.
Laws like this are a pretty good way of destroying your web hosting industries and getting them to move elsewhere.
It gives the impression of "the majority doesn't care for long-term storage of traffic data, but we don't care what the majority thinks. We're going to impose our way on you whether you like it or not."
You are not "the majority", nor are the majority of people on/. "The Majority" are shit scared of all sorts of things that governments and media have whipped up stories about. A lot of them aren't on the internet and couldn't care less about your rights, as long as they can still sit in front of the football with a beer and aren't going to get bombed by evil terrorists.
You do know that we Brits are the culinary laughing stock of the world?
No, but it's an unfair criticism. I've heard it a few times here on/. from Americans, probably who have been to London and eaten in some tourist rip-off joint.
Sure, if you go to your local crappo chain pub then you'll get overpriced microwaved crap. Find a real good pub in the country and you'll get some really fine food that's up there with the best in the world.
The pitch is that "home cinema" is like real cinema without the kids with cellphones and the person behind asking stupid questions.
I've been to people's houses with "home cinema" setups and it's not a patch on the experience of the big screen. And all for the cost of about 5 years of going to the cinema.
The problem with HD is going to be mass acceptance. To get people to upgrade, they really have to upgrade their TVs as well. And yet the TV signals they are receiving from cable/satellite will be no different. I think acceptance will be slow, particularly if people perceive that there's a HD+ around the corner.
The most important thing to be done is to ensure that applications work cross-platform.
I'm gradually replacing proprietary software on my Windows machine with open cross-platform software. Then, one day, I'll get a Linux box set up and wave goodbye to Windows. I'm not going to go setting up Linux and have to run two entirely different bits of software for two systems.
I own a Palm (bought recently) and was thinking about doing some development, but concerned about the life of the device. Making it Linux based seems like a very good idea from this point of view.
I've used a WinCE machine, and absolutely loathed the way it operated for getting the information I needed RIGHT NOW! Palm machines just work much better for me.
I have a whole shiatload of stuff on there. Sure, phones are great, but can I take a note of someone's phone number or look up another phone number whilst I'm on the phone?
I've got maps of the London underground on there, task details including start times, notes, whatever. I've got all sorts of snippets which means I can go from site to site and not have a laptop on a client's desk (looks v.bad).
For time management, I'd much rather use a Palm than a phone or notebook.
Phones are not bad if basically your contacts are social ones. For business contacts where I want the details, notes and all that, spending out $200 on a Palm every few years is not a big expense.
I used to do stuff as a kid to do with numbers, rolling them around in my head and things. When I was bored in a car, I'd add up license plate numbers, and could do it really fast after a while.
The more you play around with numbers and arithmetic, the more familiar you get with them. I remember being taught about how to add up a series of numbers, but I'd already worked it out years before, by playing with numbers in my head.
It's like composition to me. A lot of composers and songwriters spent their youth learning how to play the piano, and so got good with the raw material.
Do you play maths games with your son? There are puzzle books of them with little games involving maths but set in a practical context. If he's interested in that sort of thing, then he's probably up for further maths education. Interest in a subject is really all that matters. Children work much harder on things they are interested in things than things they are not.
It's interesting to me that the cellular companies here in the UK paid out a ton of money for the 3G licenses, and there's now things like wifi hotspots that are nearly as useful and cheaper.
The march of wifi seems to be ongoing, and may end up trumping 3G. Partly I think it's the low cost and flexible market.
I've compared the price of 3G cards with using a hotspot. For £25/month from BT I can get 4,000 minutes on hotspots(16 hours). For £23.50 from Vodafone I can get a massive 75mb (yes mb) of data downloaded per month. Whilst 3G may be more useful in terms of use anywhere (although coverage is not that great yet), the price is just rubbish. If I'm going to get 75mb, I may as well just use GPRS.
Personally, I couldn't stand the first Lion King (and I'm quite a fan of some of Disney's films), so was going to avoid any sequels anyway.
The reason they "green light that shit" is that it makes money and it's a safe bet. You don't really have to do anything to promote a sequel - people already have some familiarity. Shopkeepers selling DVDs will stock sequels because aunts will buy it for their nephew for his birthday because they consider it a safe bet.
The whole problem with articles about "make traffic lights more efficient" is that it doesn't deal with the big problem, that being that people don't have any idea whatsoever about time, how to manage it, and how to live their lives well.
Here in the UK I see it all the time... people driving miles and miles for shopping or work, doing lots of little journeys where a little planning would mean they could do 3 tasks in the same area at the same time.
Want to make your driving more efficient? Think about your journeys, which you can do together, and which can be replaced by an alternative (eg internet shopping/buying locally).
Slashdot Mirror
The moon's fine, except it's a bit lacking in atmosphere ;)
"comfortable switching" is really important. Give people the applications on Windows, get them used to it and then switching them to Linux will be less of a shock.
Space based solar farms sound good, except the energy loss would seem to be huge, and I'd imagine the infrastructure cost of such a project would be immense.
I'm really thinking about what we've got that's tried and tested right now. Wind power is a great idea, but without dramatic reduction in consumption just doesn't make much difference (incidentally, reducing consumption is probably the most cost-effective thing we can do).
I think it went wrong when people stopped accepting death and risk as the stuff of life, and that they should have a risk-free existence and everything is the government's fault.
Laws like this are a pretty good way of destroying your web hosting industries and getting them to move elsewhere.
India maybe?
You are not "the majority", nor are the majority of people on /. "The Majority" are shit scared of all sorts of things that governments and media have whipped up stories about. A lot of them aren't on the internet and couldn't care less about your rights, as long as they can still sit in front of the football with a beer and aren't going to get bombed by evil terrorists.
I think you should read that article again. IIRC the legislation did not end up being as the article says .
There are only 2 real current answers to our energy problems - reduce consumption or switch to nuclear power.
I'd rather see every home have a solar roof than wind power as well.
Indian food is great. Don't know Woking, but Indian food in Birmingham and London is particularly good.
No-one does a breakfast like we do, either.
If a Frenchman or Italian wants to criticise our cuisine, fair enough. But the food in most of the world is no better than food in England.
So, just how many days did you spend in London, Paris or Rome then?
Go on then... and while you are there, tell us where you had it.
So, tell me, what do you know of British cookery?
No, but it's an unfair criticism. I've heard it a few times here on /. from Americans, probably who have been to London and eaten in some tourist rip-off joint.
Sure, if you go to your local crappo chain pub then you'll get overpriced microwaved crap. Find a real good pub in the country and you'll get some really fine food that's up there with the best in the world.
And there was me thinking I could turn my stack of AOL CDs into gold.
I've been to people's houses with "home cinema" setups and it's not a patch on the experience of the big screen. And all for the cost of about 5 years of going to the cinema.
The problem with HD is going to be mass acceptance. To get people to upgrade, they really have to upgrade their TVs as well. And yet the TV signals they are receiving from cable/satellite will be no different. I think acceptance will be slow, particularly if people perceive that there's a HD+ around the corner.
The most important thing to be done is to ensure that applications work cross-platform.
I'm gradually replacing proprietary software on my Windows machine with open cross-platform software. Then, one day, I'll get a Linux box set up and wave goodbye to Windows. I'm not going to go setting up Linux and have to run two entirely different bits of software for two systems.
I've used a WinCE machine, and absolutely loathed the way it operated for getting the information I needed RIGHT NOW! Palm machines just work much better for me.
I have a whole shiatload of stuff on there. Sure, phones are great, but can I take a note of someone's phone number or look up another phone number whilst I'm on the phone?
I've got maps of the London underground on there, task details including start times, notes, whatever. I've got all sorts of snippets which means I can go from site to site and not have a laptop on a client's desk (looks v.bad).
For time management, I'd much rather use a Palm than a phone or notebook.
Phones are not bad if basically your contacts are social ones. For business contacts where I want the details, notes and all that, spending out $200 on a Palm every few years is not a big expense.
I used to do stuff as a kid to do with numbers, rolling them around in my head and things. When I was bored in a car, I'd add up license plate numbers, and could do it really fast after a while.
The more you play around with numbers and arithmetic, the more familiar you get with them. I remember being taught about how to add up a series of numbers, but I'd already worked it out years before, by playing with numbers in my head.
It's like composition to me. A lot of composers and songwriters spent their youth learning how to play the piano, and so got good with the raw material.
Do you play maths games with your son? There are puzzle books of them with little games involving maths but set in a practical context. If he's interested in that sort of thing, then he's probably up for further maths education. Interest in a subject is really all that matters. Children work much harder on things they are interested in things than things they are not.
If the school won't do it, get a tutor.
and with that much microwave power, you can use it to cook your lunch too.
There's pieces of work that I could have done badly, but chose the right and honest way, not the cheapskate "fuck 'em, that will do".
Scientists are human, but in many cases are more interested in a search for the truth - that's their motivation.
Not everyone does things just for the money.
The march of wifi seems to be ongoing, and may end up trumping 3G. Partly I think it's the low cost and flexible market.
I've compared the price of 3G cards with using a hotspot. For £25/month from BT I can get 4,000 minutes on hotspots(16 hours). For £23.50 from Vodafone I can get a massive 75mb (yes mb) of data downloaded per month. Whilst 3G may be more useful in terms of use anywhere (although coverage is not that great yet), the price is just rubbish. If I'm going to get 75mb, I may as well just use GPRS.
The reason they "green light that shit" is that it makes money and it's a safe bet. You don't really have to do anything to promote a sequel - people already have some familiarity. Shopkeepers selling DVDs will stock sequels because aunts will buy it for their nephew for his birthday because they consider it a safe bet.
Here in the UK I see it all the time... people driving miles and miles for shopping or work, doing lots of little journeys where a little planning would mean they could do 3 tasks in the same area at the same time.
Want to make your driving more efficient? Think about your journeys, which you can do together, and which can be replaced by an alternative (eg internet shopping/buying locally).