The advantage is that you have control over the placement of the plant. A well-placed seawater plant would take advantage of both wind and tidal energy (and possibly solar), as well as using seawater as raw material. The economies of scale come into effect - there's a limit to how large a solar panel you can fit to a car, but you have a bit more freedom with a solar plant (along with the guarantee that the plant will never travel through a tunnel).
Even if the plant uses plain old fossil fuels, it can run at greater efficiency than a car engine (partially offsetting the inefficiency of hydrogen fuel in the first place), and it means that harmful emissions can be either contained using carbon capture, or at the very least discharged into the atmosphere away from urban centres, reducing city centre smog.
I didn't realise you were referring specifically to packet switching. This was developed by a Polish-born American, Paul Baran, for the US Air Force, and independently by Donald Davies at the UK's National Physics Laboratory. A packet switched network was in operation here from 1970 to 1986, and it was Davies who coined the term 'packet switching'.
Prevented Sony dominating the living room, with the XBox, XBox 360 and Live, and killed Sega.
Small point - the death of Sega as a hardware manufacturer was mostly Sony's doing. Dreamcast hardware production ceased before the Xbox was even released.
Microsoft has been convicted of abusing its monopoly. Having a monopoly is not something one can be convicted of.
I wouldn't say that this constitutes an abuse of a monopoly. This is akin to Apple placing iPod adverts in the iTunes installer, a newspaper placing job adverts in its own jobs page, or Microsoft placing an MSN advert on the desktop on a fresh Windows install.
You don't have a clue how patents work. To be awarded a patent, you have to provide details of how your invention works. These details are published, and you gain the exclusive right to that invention for a maximum of 20 years. After that, anybody can copy your invention using the details you published.
If anything, this would have helped the Romans. 20 years was not a long time in the era's stonemason business.
Gah, I meant 'contradiction', not 'flaw'. My brain was failing me when I wrote it.
Did any of the comments posted give you the impression that anyone was advocating that?
I got the impression that "Get out of our country" implied that the penalty should be deportation.
As it happens, I was reading about the UK's Press Complaints Commission Code of Practice, and a BBC article on its possible application to blogs. They've recognised that a mandatory set of rules is unworkable but I think their proposal of a voluntary code of practice is a step in the right direction. But a quote from the article I think is insightful - "Mr Toulmin described the phrases 'free speech' and 'free press' as relative terms." Free speech should exist within reason - I guess the 'reason' bar is set lower in the US than elsewhere.
Isn't it a fundamental flaw of free speech that it can be used to express one's opposition to free speech? Or do you believe that free speech should be restricted in order to prevent such opposition being expressed?
There are two bridges over the Firth of Forth. The rail bridge was opened in 1890. The road bridge was opened in 1964. One is facing closure within the next decade due to wear and tear, the other is not. Guess which one is which?
If I had an ultraviolet light, I'd get a photo of my licence under it for you. The royal coat of arms shows up in full colour. I'd be very surprised if the technology to print this is more readily available than the technology to write data to magnetic strips, and it's relatively easy to place a UV light at the entrance to a pub/club - in fact, many will have one anyway for checking banknotes.
Nor is there actually a reason for age/DOB to actually be on the document.
In the UK, you can apply for and receive your provisional licence before you turn 17 (so that you can start to drive on your 17th birthday). Although I guess there's no good reason for them to be on the full licence, other than for use as an identity document.
personal data stored on the license -- the customer's name, address, license number, perhaps even height, weight, and eye color
Why is information like height, weight and eye colour even being stored on your licences? It has nothing to do with your ability to drive. Looks like the fight for privacy should be on two fronts in this instance.
Personally I'd be suspicious of anybody that wanted to swipe my ID for the purposes of checking my age, when my DOB is printed on the card itself. Mind you, my licence is just laminated card...
Just because the letters aren't printed on your keyboard doesn't mean it won't type them. Have a look at the list of keyboard layouts in your OS. Sure, it's an inconvenience for you, but less of an inconvenience than it is to the people for whom it is a barrier to entry. Or you could use Google - a lot of people don't even bother typing in domain names any more, they just search.
The whole point about this is that it avoids walled gardens, because the DNS records are still held by ICANN. The alternative is that China decides it's had enough, and creates its own root servers, causing a very real split.
Why? Why should anyone do anything other than what is "best" for them and them alone?
I think you missed my point; what I meant was that the concept is not limited to theists. But the idea is that this situation is benificial in the long run.
Nope, that is you just rationalizing being atheistic...
I think you're oversimplifying. Read about the stag hunt scenario, where the only pareto-optimal situation is Co-op/Co-op. Another more everyday example would be the relationship between you and your employer. There's also the issue of short-term pain for long-term gain.
Everybody expects some return for their 'moral' behaviour, whether it's being nice to a girl in order to get laid, treating a customer well in order to retain their business, or giving to charity in order to feel good about yourself (or to alleviate guilt).
I dislike the term 'atheist', because it can imply association (ie. religion) where none exists, or lack of beliefs where they do exist. However, I don't believe in a god, so for the purposes of this comment I am an atheist.
An atheist by definition ought to be amoral at least for everyone else.
I would say that 'treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself' is a concept that can be appreciated by everyone, religious or not. All other moral rules can be derived from there. However, it all comes down to game theory in the end; the only difference between theists and atheists in this respect is that theists are factoring the fear of hell into the equation.
Define Murder. Does it include 9mo near term abortions? How about 3mo old babies. How about 6 month pregnancy? Where does an atheist draw the mythical line in the sand, and can they give a "logical" reason that is any better than any other mythical line in the sand.
It depends on whether you believe life starts at birth or conception. These are not arbitrarily-chosen points, remember. There's also the issue of premature babies and resuscitation to consider.
Actually, the problem with your argument is that you're assuming that religious morals aren't just as arbitrary as atheist ones. If there are no gods, then logically theists must be deferring to other humans (or aliens I suppose) for their moral values, a position I would say is even worse.
Really, we've had "atheist" governments, and contrary to popular mythology they were (are) among the worst in regards to "human rights".
Some of the worst are also strictly religious. Saudi Arabia, Sudan (Darfur) and Taleban-controlled Afghanistan spring to mind. You can't derive a correlation between religious countries and good records of human rights; democracy is a much better yardstick.
But at a roundabout, you look to your left, and it can be really hard to tell whether there's traffic coming your way, because (a) the road has a sharp curve in it, with the center sometimes obstructed by trees/statues/whatever;
The difference is that with normal junctions, traffic with the right-of-way will not have to slow down at all, meaning that the increased viewing distance (assuming that the road is straight) is negated by the increased speed of the traffic it carries. On a roundabout, everybody has to slow down, except for some roundabouts where visibility is particularly good.
That second roundabout ('like') is utterly mad. Why is there a road running straight through it?
No idea... I'd guess that it'd be treated as a spoiled ballot and the candidate that gathered the most votes wins. I've also heard it proposed that nominations should be re-opened.
I've got to admit that I find it strange that your T-Mobile plan doesn't include free texts as well as free minutes; most do in the UK, and you can usually add an extra text allowance by paying a couple of pounds a month extra. In fact, there are some contracts that are geared to giving you more free texts than free minutes.
Another consideration, with regard to voice messages, is that some UK carriers will charge you either a fixed charge or a per-minute charge to retrieve voice messages, which can make them more expensive than texts - especially if you like to keep them for future reference. Then there's the noise issue - with the ringer turned off, I could send text messages from the library without annoying anybody, and I could read and understand them in a loud pub, where I wouldn't be able to conduct a phone call.
I love T9 predictive text, primarily because it makes using real English quicker and easier than using SMS-speak. But the number of common words, like 'home' and 'good', that appear on the same keys means that you have to take care when typing messages.
I don't know if this is an urban myth or not, but I remember hearing about one guy that ended up fighting a sexual harrassment lawsuit. He had sent the following message to a female co-worker who was off sick, but didn't pay attention to what the predictive text was doing:
Slashdot Mirror
The fact that the moon was claimed moments before for Norway by Thor Heyerdahl is a little known part of history.
The advantage is that you have control over the placement of the plant. A well-placed seawater plant would take advantage of both wind and tidal energy (and possibly solar), as well as using seawater as raw material. The economies of scale come into effect - there's a limit to how large a solar panel you can fit to a car, but you have a bit more freedom with a solar plant (along with the guarantee that the plant will never travel through a tunnel).
Even if the plant uses plain old fossil fuels, it can run at greater efficiency than a car engine (partially offsetting the inefficiency of hydrogen fuel in the first place), and it means that harmful emissions can be either contained using carbon capture, or at the very least discharged into the atmosphere away from urban centres, reducing city centre smog.
I didn't realise you were referring specifically to packet switching. This was developed by a Polish-born American, Paul Baran, for the US Air Force, and independently by Donald Davies at the UK's National Physics Laboratory. A packet switched network was in operation here from 1970 to 1986, and it was Davies who coined the term 'packet switching'.
HTTP/HTML: made in Europe.
Small point - the death of Sega as a hardware manufacturer was mostly Sony's doing. Dreamcast hardware production ceased before the Xbox was even released.
Microsoft has been convicted of abusing its monopoly. Having a monopoly is not something one can be convicted of.
I wouldn't say that this constitutes an abuse of a monopoly. This is akin to Apple placing iPod adverts in the iTunes installer, a newspaper placing job adverts in its own jobs page, or Microsoft placing an MSN advert on the desktop on a fresh Windows install.
You don't have a clue how patents work. To be awarded a patent, you have to provide details of how your invention works. These details are published, and you gain the exclusive right to that invention for a maximum of 20 years. After that, anybody can copy your invention using the details you published.
If anything, this would have helped the Romans. 20 years was not a long time in the era's stonemason business.
Is this ATM machine based on Windows NT technology?
My phone is too old, I kept running out of memory when trying this out. I need a newer phone.
Like sheep. You can have a box of sheep, you can build things out of sheep bricks, but there are no such things as sheeps.
Gah, I meant 'contradiction', not 'flaw'. My brain was failing me when I wrote it.
I got the impression that "Get out of our country" implied that the penalty should be deportation.
As it happens, I was reading about the UK's Press Complaints Commission Code of Practice, and a BBC article on its possible application to blogs. They've recognised that a mandatory set of rules is unworkable but I think their proposal of a voluntary code of practice is a step in the right direction. But a quote from the article I think is insightful - "Mr Toulmin described the phrases 'free speech' and 'free press' as relative terms." Free speech should exist within reason - I guess the 'reason' bar is set lower in the US than elsewhere.
Isn't it a fundamental flaw of free speech that it can be used to express one's opposition to free speech? Or do you believe that free speech should be restricted in order to prevent such opposition being expressed?
There are two bridges over the Firth of Forth. The rail bridge was opened in 1890. The road bridge was opened in 1964. One is facing closure within the next decade due to wear and tear, the other is not. Guess which one is which?
I had to read that twice... 'flyover' means 'overpass' outside of America, so you gave me an interesting mental image of Utah.
If I had an ultraviolet light, I'd get a photo of my licence under it for you. The royal coat of arms shows up in full colour. I'd be very surprised if the technology to print this is more readily available than the technology to write data to magnetic strips, and it's relatively easy to place a UV light at the entrance to a pub/club - in fact, many will have one anyway for checking banknotes.
In the UK, you can apply for and receive your provisional licence before you turn 17 (so that you can start to drive on your 17th birthday). Although I guess there's no good reason for them to be on the full licence, other than for use as an identity document.
Why is information like height, weight and eye colour even being stored on your licences? It has nothing to do with your ability to drive. Looks like the fight for privacy should be on two fronts in this instance.
Personally I'd be suspicious of anybody that wanted to swipe my ID for the purposes of checking my age, when my DOB is printed on the card itself. Mind you, my licence is just laminated card...
Just because the letters aren't printed on your keyboard doesn't mean it won't type them. Have a look at the list of keyboard layouts in your OS. Sure, it's an inconvenience for you, but less of an inconvenience than it is to the people for whom it is a barrier to entry. Or you could use Google - a lot of people don't even bother typing in domain names any more, they just search.
The whole point about this is that it avoids walled gardens, because the DNS records are still held by ICANN. The alternative is that China decides it's had enough, and creates its own root servers, causing a very real split.
I think you missed my point; what I meant was that the concept is not limited to theists. But the idea is that this situation is benificial in the long run.
I think you're oversimplifying. Read about the stag hunt scenario, where the only pareto-optimal situation is Co-op/Co-op. Another more everyday example would be the relationship between you and your employer. There's also the issue of short-term pain for long-term gain.
Everybody expects some return for their 'moral' behaviour, whether it's being nice to a girl in order to get laid, treating a customer well in order to retain their business, or giving to charity in order to feel good about yourself (or to alleviate guilt).
I dislike the term 'atheist', because it can imply association (ie. religion) where none exists, or lack of beliefs where they do exist. However, I don't believe in a god, so for the purposes of this comment I am an atheist.
I would say that 'treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself' is a concept that can be appreciated by everyone, religious or not. All other moral rules can be derived from there. However, it all comes down to game theory in the end; the only difference between theists and atheists in this respect is that theists are factoring the fear of hell into the equation.
It depends on whether you believe life starts at birth or conception. These are not arbitrarily-chosen points, remember. There's also the issue of premature babies and resuscitation to consider.
Actually, the problem with your argument is that you're assuming that religious morals aren't just as arbitrary as atheist ones. If there are no gods, then logically theists must be deferring to other humans (or aliens I suppose) for their moral values, a position I would say is even worse.
Some of the worst are also strictly religious. Saudi Arabia, Sudan (Darfur) and Taleban-controlled Afghanistan spring to mind. You can't derive a correlation between religious countries and good records of human rights; democracy is a much better yardstick.
The difference is that with normal junctions, traffic with the right-of-way will not have to slow down at all, meaning that the increased viewing distance (assuming that the road is straight) is negated by the increased speed of the traffic it carries. On a roundabout, everybody has to slow down, except for some roundabouts where visibility is particularly good.
That second roundabout ('like') is utterly mad. Why is there a road running straight through it?
No idea... I'd guess that it'd be treated as a spoiled ballot and the candidate that gathered the most votes wins. I've also heard it proposed that nominations should be re-opened.
Compulsory voting always requires there to be a 'none of the above' box on the ballot. This is the case in Australia.
I've got to admit that I find it strange that your T-Mobile plan doesn't include free texts as well as free minutes; most do in the UK, and you can usually add an extra text allowance by paying a couple of pounds a month extra. In fact, there are some contracts that are geared to giving you more free texts than free minutes.
Another consideration, with regard to voice messages, is that some UK carriers will charge you either a fixed charge or a per-minute charge to retrieve voice messages, which can make them more expensive than texts - especially if you like to keep them for future reference. Then there's the noise issue - with the ringer turned off, I could send text messages from the library without annoying anybody, and I could read and understand them in a loud pub, where I wouldn't be able to conduct a phone call.
I love T9 predictive text, primarily because it makes using real English quicker and easier than using SMS-speak. But the number of common words, like 'home' and 'good', that appear on the same keys means that you have to take care when typing messages.
I don't know if this is an urban myth or not, but I remember hearing about one guy that ended up fighting a sexual harrassment lawsuit. He had sent the following message to a female co-worker who was off sick, but didn't pay attention to what the predictive text was doing:
"Are you home in bed?"