I'm sorry for you but that doesn't apply to all schools.
The school I went to for fifth and sixth class was a cesspool of violence. It's also an underfunded school in a village with massive integration problems. That school is where teachers' careers go to die. The faculty isn't useful for anything and they don't enter the schoolyard during recess because they both don't give a crap and fear the children.
After that I came to a school where the faculty actually cares. We had bullying in our class. It greatly reduced in intensity when the headmaster showed up, gave the bully a dressing-down in front of the class and had him spend recess walking over the schoolyard while holding hands with the bully-ee - and promised that he'd monitor the situation and react appropriately in the future. (It helps that the now-retired headmaster was respected by the students on account of being generally awesome.)
Schools can be horrible with bullying but not all of them are. Both of the ones I attended are public; one just happens to be in a social hotspot and the other one isn't and has a really engaged faculty.
What about Samsung? I've heard good things about their SSDs - but then again I only briefly surveyed the market before deciding that getting an SSD big enough for my needs would be prohibitively expensive.
On the other hand, if they build SSDs like they build smartphones I wouldn't want to touch one...
Well, most people everywhere are stupid. It's just that most governments are too inept to do real damage while the US government is inept and capable of doing real damage. That's a scary mix.
While it's kind of neat that we're close to getting ready to make artificial elerium I don't think that we should focus on tracer cannons and tractor beams right away. First off, we have less than three decades left to develop even rudimentary flying submarines. Secondly, we're nowhere near having a robust mining infrastructure on Mars. Why develop tracer cannons when Solmine hasn't even gone public yet?
In my opinion we should focus our efforts on flying sub research and on a way to completely seal off the Gulf of Mexico from the rest of the ocean. If the latter is not feasible, arcology construction should be a concern. Once we've gotten that under control we can focus on FTL drives and extrasolar mining, at which point tracer cannons might become attractive. But seriously, we should first make sure we've got our backyard under control before building gimmicky weapons that only work properly in deep space.
And we should never fund research on robots that can single-handedly replace an entire secret paramilitary organization. Never.
I know I am. I'm not entirely certain about PV; IIRC PV panel production is a fairly toxic process. OTOH the efficiency and lifetime of those things have increased over the years, making PV a much better proposition than a few years ago. Traditionally I've been more interested in solar-thermic, myself.
I think a fair bit of the whole "nuclear vs. renewable" thing comes from the fact that people like the various Green parties are arguing that nuclear power is always evil and that renewable power is always the answer. If you get involved in this kind of discussion then you're either pro-renewable (and thus in favor of abandoning nuclear power altogether) or pro-nuclear (and thus in favor of abandoning renewable energy) - positions like "IFRs can make nuclear power part of a sustainable energy mix and help us deal with the nuclear waste problem" are not permitted because people want their world to be black and white, apparently.
But hey, it's difficult enough to get people to acknowledge the difference between "properly executed, nuclear power has great potential" and "we should do nuclear power in the future exactly as we have been doing it so far".
While the original article was a bit on the hysterical side, the basic point remains: Windows 8+ in combination with a TPM is not deemed trustworthy enough to handle sensitive documents. It's an unacceptable security risk for people who handle classified government data, which is all the BSI ever said.
Note that TPM 2.0 is required by Windows 8.1, as shown by Microsoft's certification requirements. The BSI cautions against Windows 8 because apparently Win8 supports TPM 2.0 while Win7 doesn't.
As far as I can tell (and I admit not being an expert in the field), TPM 2.0 is always enabled (it's neither opt-in nor opt-out) and under the operating system's control. As such, an OS too old to use a 2.0 TPM effectively (such as Windows 7) isn't much of an issue as one can still assert control over one's system. Likewise, an OS that can be audited (like Linux) is okay since, as long as one can replace the bootloader, one can control what the system does. Apparently the BSI assumes that this is possible.
Windows 8 and later, however, are essentially black boxes that control the system down to the TPM. And they're controlled by a foreign corporation which in turn can be ordered to do unpleasant things by its government. Also note that as of Windows 8.1/January of 2015 TPM 2.0 is mandatory for the Windows hardware certification*, which makes it likely that from 2015 onward most ready-made systems and probably also most new mainboards will come with it. The easiest way to avoid running an untrustable box seems to be to avoid Windows 8+ altogether.
Interestingly, Apple never warmed up to the technology; they added them to Macs in 2006 and reportedly dropped them in 2009, never even having written a driver. Given how they handle iOS one would expect them to be more interested in TPMs. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if they're just using similar custom hardware.
* Windows 8.1 also requires that all laptops come with a 720p-capable webcam. Insert paranoid comment here.
The concern is mainly that the system hinges on the TPM, which in version 2.0 of the standard is controlled by the OS and can't be deactivated. Either you unconditionally trust the operating system (and its vendor) or you can't trust the entire system. Plus, the NSA got to mess with the standard while at least the German BSI (who issued this warning) tried but didn't get anywhere (e.g. they failed to get an opt-out function added to the standard). Plus, all TCG members are American companies and several of them are known to have made deals with the NSA before (such as giving information about security flaws to them first).
In short: The BSI doesn't unconditionally trust Microsoft around sensitive documents and recommends that no TPM 2.0 compatible OS from Microsoft is used where those might show up because TPM 2.0 makes trust in the OS vendor mandatory. Win8/TPM2 is okay for home users who don't want to think about computer security but it has no business being around stuff that might cause harm if leaked to foreign intelligence agencies.
Meh. I didn't even buy D3; the pre-release announcements already scared me off. I have a number of friends who won't buy the addon, though. They all own Borderlands 2, which is a better Diablo than Diablo 3 is, despite being a different genre.
Again, it's possible to scan a grid of images without focusing on each one in turn. (Of course this depends on the image in question and how similar it is to other images in the grid.) If what you're looking for is the mostly-red icon in a directory full of mostly-blue icons or the image with three people in it in a folder mostly filled with landscape pictures you're not gaining anything by displaying those things in a list.
You don't need to bring each picture to the exact center of your vision in order to determine what's roughly in it. That's what a grid view is really for: Make the icons big enough that each one of them is, say, three inches across (or smaller for higly distinctive images like icons), then scroll through entire screenfuls of them. If something looks rougly like the image you'e looking for, you focus on it.
We're good at locating things that aren't organized in one row. That's what we do all day. Additionally, there is very little non-useful information present in a grid view - unlike in a list view, where an unusual bit of metadata might distract you.
I'd like to point out again that my point applies only to cases where you're visually scanning for images. In this case anything that isn't a graphical depiction of the file's contents is useless clutter and the grid view minimizes clutter while allowing our visual system to do its thing and locate the pattern we're looking for. Otherwise the list view does have advantages over the grid view, although it depends on the user whether they are actually used.
Information density when browsing for images or applications? When all you care about is the filename and a preview of the file in question (where appropriate, such as for images or movies; for applications substitute the application's icon) you have two choices:
1. Use a list view, which uses most of the application's real estate to display a bunch of metadata you don't care about. In other words it's horribly inefficient, wasting the X dimension. Depending on how large you want your preview icons to be you might also only be able to fit a couple files on a single screen, which would make browsing rather tedious.
3. Use a grid view, which uses both dimensions to display what you care about: Filenames and preview icons. Given the same icon size this allows you to fit many more files on the same screen, making visually scanning a directory of images more efficient. The human visual system is good at noticing patterns and shapes. You can browse a screenful of images and find the one you seek without carefully inspecting each one of them; just scrolling through a grid of sufficiently-sized previews is usually enough. Likewise for applications (if your OS makes all applicaitons accessible form a single browsable place): You may currently not remember what the program you're looking for is called but you might remember that its icon is a red cursive letter.
Grid views are for a different use case than list views. Both have their place and both are far less useful when used in the wrong situation.
To be honest, the alert is not particularly well-suited to be parsed by humans. Let's do this bit by bit.
"Boulevard, CA" - This part is confusing because the town has a confusing name. I suspected that it was a mangled address before I learned that there is actually a town called "Boulevard" in California. It doesn't help that this bit comes at the very beginning without any kind of context.
"AMBER Alert UPDATE:" - Clear enough.
"LIC/6WCU986 (CA)" - Come again? Is this some kind of FEMA incident code or something? Before you mentioned license plate numbers I never suspected that "LIC/" could mean "the following string is a license plate number". Unless you are aware of this acronym this part of the message is just line noise, especially since the slash suggests that "LIC" and "6WCU986" are one syntactic unit.
"Blue Nissan Versa 4 door" - Easy to understand again.
The alert is mostly reasonable. The alert isn't at fault for Boulevard, CA having a name that makes the message hard to parse. However, I think that writing the license plate information in a clearer manner would've tremendously improved readability. Or perhaps even something that makes the city name less ambiguous like this:
"UPDATE on AMBER ALERT in Boulevard, CA: Blue Nissan Versa 4 door, license plate 6WCU986 (CA)" - We first state what we're talking about. The "in [city], [state]" makes it contextually clear that we're talking about a city. Then we spell things out instead of using non-whitespace to separate an acronym from information that's written in all-capitals. Just 17 characters more (and still 68 below the usual maximum size of a text message) and the message is much clearer.
Let's assume that you stick the monitor in your lap. Now what's the advantage of the Leap? That you don't have to touch the monitor. Which is a non-issue since it's already in your lap. All you gain is that you are forced to hover your hands over the monitor in one specific place so that the Leap can track your fingertips... which is more tiring than just using a touchscreen. Okay, you gain limited 3D manipulation but due to the Leap's limitations that's not too hot, either.
If you need 2D input there's already a solution on the market. It's called the Wacom Cintiq. It's much more expensive but it comes with a high-quality display and digitizer, allows for more natural interaction with the display than the Leap and doesn't require you to keep your hands inside a small volume where it can track them.
If you need 3D input just get a Kinect and put the display back on the desk. Say what you will about Microsoft but their peripherals are decent.
On the other hand, what are the alternatives? Coal releases more radioactivity than nuclear (plus other nastiness). Japan doesn't have terribly much space so large-scale land-based wind and solar might not work. I think they also don't have enough large rivers for hydro. I'm not sure whether offshore wind parks would be feasible but given the fact that the area is tsunami-prone they might be tricky to maintain.
That essentially leaves us with geothermal (nice but only works in few areas), oil (doesn't have a good track record either) and nuclear.
Nuclear can be safe, you just need to treat it with the proper respect. The largest nuclear accidents happened because people were dangerously irresponsible. The Fukushima accident could've been avoided if a) TEPCO had listened to the experts and installed higher flood walls, b) TEPCO hadn't decided to build the backup power infrastructure in such a way that it would be guaranteed to fail once a likely threat to the plant's safety occurred and c) Japan had ensured that all offsite backup generators were actually compatible with all reactors in the country. There were other screwups involved but avoiding any of these would've made the plant flooding a non-issue.
Yes, nuclear power can be immensely dangerous if not done right. So can petrochemistry and a lot of other industries; nuclear power is just harder to clean up and thus we need to be more careful around it. I get that. But really, we can make safe, reasonably clean nuclear work if we just make damn sure that the people involed aren't idiots or willfully negligent. For instance, we could install third-party oversight committees with the power to make unannounced inspections, ask uncomfortable questions and shut down a plant if they don't like what they hear. Also, add extra-strict anti-corruption laws for eveyone involved. In case of falsified safety records (also something TEPCO did, although as far as I know not directly relevant to the disaster) launch a full-scale investigation against the entire company and jail everyone who knew of it and didn't report it, piercing the corporate veil.
Nuclear power is not somehing you dick around with. We're in agreement on that. But the way forward is not to assume that there are no responsible people on Earth and thus we can't ever use nuclear power, it's to instate harsh rules that force people to behave responsibly. That means fewer nuke plants because running one will be more expensive and will take actual effort. But those plants we get should be acceptably safe.
Except they do, and you are a liar. Not only are there other jobs, but you can also start your own business.
Starting your own business isn't exactly cheap and it's not a guarantee that you'll make a meaningful amout of money. Starting your own business is something you do when you have the financial reserves to invest in your company and take potential failure, not when you need work soon if you want to be able to pay the bills.
Starting your own business is a reasonable option for some but not for all.
What kind of weird banking system does your country have?
In Germany a personal bank account usually (if not always) comes with an overdraft credit line. If you go over you get to pay the (high but not excessively high) credit fees but that's it - and you can't go over the contractually-specified limit. As for paying off the debt: You transfer money to your account. There is no confusion because it's your account. You have the account details. If it's been closed due to long-term non-payment the bank will have involved a collections agency who will tell you where to send the money to (although that case might require paperwork to clear your credit rating afterwards).
I seriously can't comprehend how you can end up in a state where neither you nor the bank know how to pay off a debt you have with the bank. Can't be much of a bank, honestly...
Well, the GP can sue, as has explicitly been stated. It's just that such a lawsuit will probably result in unemployment down the line. For some people that is not an option, hence they have no recourse. (Well, they could just get the whole department to sue/strike together but that might just end in the deprtment being laid off. The rest of the company probably won't join as their wages aren't threatened and they're not going to rock the boat needlessly.)
Well, that and the parser. PHP's parser tends to choke on some unexpected things. For example this, which was thankfully fixed in 5.4 (but unfortunately lots of places still insist on using 5.3 so you still need to wathc out for it):
class A { public $x = 6; function y() { return array("foo"); } }
$a = new A(); echo $a->x;// prints "6" echo (new A())->x;// syntax error, unexpected T_OBJECT_OPERATOR
The laptop should be able to detect a defective cell on the Apple branded unit and actually refuse to charge it
It is. Shortly before my last MBP went out of warranty the battery symbol was replaced with a warning sign and the dropdown menu informed me that the battery required attention from a service technician and wouldn't be charged until then. At the local certified reseller they connected a Firewire drive and booted into a diagnostic program, which informed them that the battery was damaged and needed to be replaced.
I don't know if it's a reaction to the time when Sony accidentally sold IEDs instead of batteries to various manufacturers but recent Apple batteries are pretty damn smart.
Slashdot Mirror
You forgot the older WinMo versions. If I remember correctly those garnered a lot of ill will, as well.
Janeway: "There's coffee in that amplituhedron."
Sisko: "I'm going to punch it. The prophets told me not to."
Worf: "I am going to scowl at it."
Quark: "I'm going to sell it to some sucker."
Odo: "You're got going to do anything."
Winn: "The prophets told me to use it in a badly-executed power play."
Dukat: "With this amplituhedron I will be able to boost my smarminess to untold heights!"
Damar: "Who needs an amplituhedron when you're got kanar?"
I'm sorry for you but that doesn't apply to all schools.
The school I went to for fifth and sixth class was a cesspool of violence. It's also an underfunded school in a village with massive integration problems. That school is where teachers' careers go to die. The faculty isn't useful for anything and they don't enter the schoolyard during recess because they both don't give a crap and fear the children.
After that I came to a school where the faculty actually cares. We had bullying in our class. It greatly reduced in intensity when the headmaster showed up, gave the bully a dressing-down in front of the class and had him spend recess walking over the schoolyard while holding hands with the bully-ee - and promised that he'd monitor the situation and react appropriately in the future. (It helps that the now-retired headmaster was respected by the students on account of being generally awesome.)
Schools can be horrible with bullying but not all of them are. Both of the ones I attended are public; one just happens to be in a social hotspot and the other one isn't and has a really engaged faculty.
To answer myself: Yes, Samsung is good, which the very post I replied to says. My reading comprehension is godlike.
What about Samsung? I've heard good things about their SSDs - but then again I only briefly surveyed the market before deciding that getting an SSD big enough for my needs would be prohibitively expensive.
On the other hand, if they build SSDs like they build smartphones I wouldn't want to touch one...
Well, most people everywhere are stupid. It's just that most governments are too inept to do real damage while the US government is inept and capable of doing real damage. That's a scary mix.
While it's kind of neat that we're close to getting ready to make artificial elerium I don't think that we should focus on tracer cannons and tractor beams right away. First off, we have less than three decades left to develop even rudimentary flying submarines. Secondly, we're nowhere near having a robust mining infrastructure on Mars. Why develop tracer cannons when Solmine hasn't even gone public yet?
In my opinion we should focus our efforts on flying sub research and on a way to completely seal off the Gulf of Mexico from the rest of the ocean. If the latter is not feasible, arcology construction should be a concern. Once we've gotten that under control we can focus on FTL drives and extrasolar mining, at which point tracer cannons might become attractive. But seriously, we should first make sure we've got our backyard under control before building gimmicky weapons that only work properly in deep space.
And we should never fund research on robots that can single-handedly replace an entire secret paramilitary organization. Never.
I know I am. I'm not entirely certain about PV; IIRC PV panel production is a fairly toxic process. OTOH the efficiency and lifetime of those things have increased over the years, making PV a much better proposition than a few years ago. Traditionally I've been more interested in solar-thermic, myself.
I think a fair bit of the whole "nuclear vs. renewable" thing comes from the fact that people like the various Green parties are arguing that nuclear power is always evil and that renewable power is always the answer. If you get involved in this kind of discussion then you're either pro-renewable (and thus in favor of abandoning nuclear power altogether) or pro-nuclear (and thus in favor of abandoning renewable energy) - positions like "IFRs can make nuclear power part of a sustainable energy mix and help us deal with the nuclear waste problem" are not permitted because people want their world to be black and white, apparently.
But hey, it's difficult enough to get people to acknowledge the difference between "properly executed, nuclear power has great potential" and "we should do nuclear power in the future exactly as we have been doing it so far".
While the original article was a bit on the hysterical side, the basic point remains: Windows 8+ in combination with a TPM is not deemed trustworthy enough to handle sensitive documents. It's an unacceptable security risk for people who handle classified government data, which is all the BSI ever said.
Note that TPM 2.0 is required by Windows 8.1, as shown by Microsoft's certification requirements. The BSI cautions against Windows 8 because apparently Win8 supports TPM 2.0 while Win7 doesn't.
As far as I can tell (and I admit not being an expert in the field), TPM 2.0 is always enabled (it's neither opt-in nor opt-out) and under the operating system's control. As such, an OS too old to use a 2.0 TPM effectively (such as Windows 7) isn't much of an issue as one can still assert control over one's system. Likewise, an OS that can be audited (like Linux) is okay since, as long as one can replace the bootloader, one can control what the system does. Apparently the BSI assumes that this is possible.
Windows 8 and later, however, are essentially black boxes that control the system down to the TPM. And they're controlled by a foreign corporation which in turn can be ordered to do unpleasant things by its government. Also note that as of Windows 8.1/January of 2015 TPM 2.0 is mandatory for the Windows hardware certification*, which makes it likely that from 2015 onward most ready-made systems and probably also most new mainboards will come with it. The easiest way to avoid running an untrustable box seems to be to avoid Windows 8+ altogether.
Interestingly, Apple never warmed up to the technology; they added them to Macs in 2006 and reportedly dropped them in 2009, never even having written a driver. Given how they handle iOS one would expect them to be more interested in TPMs. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if they're just using similar custom hardware.
* Windows 8.1 also requires that all laptops come with a 720p-capable webcam. Insert paranoid comment here.
The concern is mainly that the system hinges on the TPM, which in version 2.0 of the standard is controlled by the OS and can't be deactivated. Either you unconditionally trust the operating system (and its vendor) or you can't trust the entire system. Plus, the NSA got to mess with the standard while at least the German BSI (who issued this warning) tried but didn't get anywhere (e.g. they failed to get an opt-out function added to the standard). Plus, all TCG members are American companies and several of them are known to have made deals with the NSA before (such as giving information about security flaws to them first).
In short: The BSI doesn't unconditionally trust Microsoft around sensitive documents and recommends that no TPM 2.0 compatible OS from Microsoft is used where those might show up because TPM 2.0 makes trust in the OS vendor mandatory. Win8/TPM2 is okay for home users who don't want to think about computer security but it has no business being around stuff that might cause harm if leaked to foreign intelligence agencies.
Meh. I didn't even buy D3; the pre-release announcements already scared me off. I have a number of friends who won't buy the addon, though. They all own Borderlands 2, which is a better Diablo than Diablo 3 is, despite being a different genre.
Again, it's possible to scan a grid of images without focusing on each one in turn. (Of course this depends on the image in question and how similar it is to other images in the grid.) If what you're looking for is the mostly-red icon in a directory full of mostly-blue icons or the image with three people in it in a folder mostly filled with landscape pictures you're not gaining anything by displaying those things in a list.
You don't need to bring each picture to the exact center of your vision in order to determine what's roughly in it. That's what a grid view is really for: Make the icons big enough that each one of them is, say, three inches across (or smaller for higly distinctive images like icons), then scroll through entire screenfuls of them. If something looks rougly like the image you'e looking for, you focus on it.
We're good at locating things that aren't organized in one row. That's what we do all day. Additionally, there is very little non-useful information present in a grid view - unlike in a list view, where an unusual bit of metadata might distract you.
I'd like to point out again that my point applies only to cases where you're visually scanning for images. In this case anything that isn't a graphical depiction of the file's contents is useless clutter and the grid view minimizes clutter while allowing our visual system to do its thing and locate the pattern we're looking for. Otherwise the list view does have advantages over the grid view, although it depends on the user whether they are actually used.
Information density when browsing for images or applications? When all you care about is the filename and a preview of the file in question (where appropriate, such as for images or movies; for applications substitute the application's icon) you have two choices:
1. Use a list view, which uses most of the application's real estate to display a bunch of metadata you don't care about. In other words it's horribly inefficient, wasting the X dimension. Depending on how large you want your preview icons to be you might also only be able to fit a couple files on a single screen, which would make browsing rather tedious.
3. Use a grid view, which uses both dimensions to display what you care about: Filenames and preview icons. Given the same icon size this allows you to fit many more files on the same screen, making visually scanning a directory of images more efficient. The human visual system is good at noticing patterns and shapes. You can browse a screenful of images and find the one you seek without carefully inspecting each one of them; just scrolling through a grid of sufficiently-sized previews is usually enough. Likewise for applications (if your OS makes all applicaitons accessible form a single browsable place): You may currently not remember what the program you're looking for is called but you might remember that its icon is a red cursive letter.
Grid views are for a different use case than list views. Both have their place and both are far less useful when used in the wrong situation.
To be honest, the alert is not particularly well-suited to be parsed by humans. Let's do this bit by bit.
"Boulevard, CA" - This part is confusing because the town has a confusing name. I suspected that it was a mangled address before I learned that there is actually a town called "Boulevard" in California. It doesn't help that this bit comes at the very beginning without any kind of context.
"AMBER Alert UPDATE:" - Clear enough.
"LIC/6WCU986 (CA)" - Come again? Is this some kind of FEMA incident code or something? Before you mentioned license plate numbers I never suspected that "LIC/" could mean "the following string is a license plate number". Unless you are aware of this acronym this part of the message is just line noise, especially since the slash suggests that "LIC" and "6WCU986" are one syntactic unit.
"Blue Nissan Versa 4 door" - Easy to understand again.
The alert is mostly reasonable. The alert isn't at fault for Boulevard, CA having a name that makes the message hard to parse. However, I think that writing the license plate information in a clearer manner would've tremendously improved readability. Or perhaps even something that makes the city name less ambiguous like this:
"UPDATE on AMBER ALERT in Boulevard, CA: Blue Nissan Versa 4 door, license plate 6WCU986 (CA)" - We first state what we're talking about. The "in [city], [state]" makes it contextually clear that we're talking about a city. Then we spell things out instead of using non-whitespace to separate an acronym from information that's written in all-capitals. Just 17 characters more (and still 68 below the usual maximum size of a text message) and the message is much clearer.
Let's assume that you stick the monitor in your lap. Now what's the advantage of the Leap? That you don't have to touch the monitor. Which is a non-issue since it's already in your lap. All you gain is that you are forced to hover your hands over the monitor in one specific place so that the Leap can track your fingertips... which is more tiring than just using a touchscreen. Okay, you gain limited 3D manipulation but due to the Leap's limitations that's not too hot, either.
If you need 2D input there's already a solution on the market. It's called the Wacom Cintiq. It's much more expensive but it comes with a high-quality display and digitizer, allows for more natural interaction with the display than the Leap and doesn't require you to keep your hands inside a small volume where it can track them.
If you need 3D input just get a Kinect and put the display back on the desk. Say what you will about Microsoft but their peripherals are decent.
On the other hand, what are the alternatives? Coal releases more radioactivity than nuclear (plus other nastiness). Japan doesn't have terribly much space so large-scale land-based wind and solar might not work. I think they also don't have enough large rivers for hydro. I'm not sure whether offshore wind parks would be feasible but given the fact that the area is tsunami-prone they might be tricky to maintain.
That essentially leaves us with geothermal (nice but only works in few areas), oil (doesn't have a good track record either) and nuclear.
Nuclear can be safe, you just need to treat it with the proper respect. The largest nuclear accidents happened because people were dangerously irresponsible. The Fukushima accident could've been avoided if a) TEPCO had listened to the experts and installed higher flood walls, b) TEPCO hadn't decided to build the backup power infrastructure in such a way that it would be guaranteed to fail once a likely threat to the plant's safety occurred and c) Japan had ensured that all offsite backup generators were actually compatible with all reactors in the country. There were other screwups involved but avoiding any of these would've made the plant flooding a non-issue.
Yes, nuclear power can be immensely dangerous if not done right. So can petrochemistry and a lot of other industries; nuclear power is just harder to clean up and thus we need to be more careful around it. I get that. But really, we can make safe, reasonably clean nuclear work if we just make damn sure that the people involed aren't idiots or willfully negligent. For instance, we could install third-party oversight committees with the power to make unannounced inspections, ask uncomfortable questions and shut down a plant if they don't like what they hear. Also, add extra-strict anti-corruption laws for eveyone involved. In case of falsified safety records (also something TEPCO did, although as far as I know not directly relevant to the disaster) launch a full-scale investigation against the entire company and jail everyone who knew of it and didn't report it, piercing the corporate veil.
Nuclear power is not somehing you dick around with. We're in agreement on that. But the way forward is not to assume that there are no responsible people on Earth and thus we can't ever use nuclear power, it's to instate harsh rules that force people to behave responsibly. That means fewer nuke plants because running one will be more expensive and will take actual effort. But those plants we get should be acceptably safe.
"Realtime", as opposed to Windows 7, which must be intended for mainframe batch processing.
The bizarre thing is that they sell home computers and even tablets with the mainframe version pre-installed.
Except they do, and you are a liar. Not only are there other jobs, but you can also start your own business.
Starting your own business isn't exactly cheap and it's not a guarantee that you'll make a meaningful amout of money. Starting your own business is something you do when you have the financial reserves to invest in your company and take potential failure, not when you need work soon if you want to be able to pay the bills.
Starting your own business is a reasonable option for some but not for all.
What kind of weird banking system does your country have?
In Germany a personal bank account usually (if not always) comes with an overdraft credit line. If you go over you get to pay the (high but not excessively high) credit fees but that's it - and you can't go over the contractually-specified limit. As for paying off the debt: You transfer money to your account. There is no confusion because it's your account. You have the account details. If it's been closed due to long-term non-payment the bank will have involved a collections agency who will tell you where to send the money to (although that case might require paperwork to clear your credit rating afterwards).
I seriously can't comprehend how you can end up in a state where neither you nor the bank know how to pay off a debt you have with the bank. Can't be much of a bank, honestly...
Well, the GP can sue, as has explicitly been stated. It's just that such a lawsuit will probably result in unemployment down the line. For some people that is not an option, hence they have no recourse. (Well, they could just get the whole department to sue/strike together but that might just end in the deprtment being laid off. The rest of the company probably won't join as their wages aren't threatened and they're not going to rock the boat needlessly.)
The obvious next step is to invade the United States and bring freedom to the American people.
The laptop should be able to detect a defective cell on the Apple branded unit and actually refuse to charge it
It is. Shortly before my last MBP went out of warranty the battery symbol was replaced with a warning sign and the dropdown menu informed me that the battery required attention from a service technician and wouldn't be charged until then. At the local certified reseller they connected a Firewire drive and booted into a diagnostic program, which informed them that the battery was damaged and needed to be replaced.
I don't know if it's a reaction to the time when Sony accidentally sold IEDs instead of batteries to various manufacturers but recent Apple batteries are pretty damn smart.