I made up the 20% figure. But just out of curiosity I opened Walmart.ca and Walmart.com and compared prices on a netbook, and it was 12% more in Canada. Factor the current exchange rate in and it's more like 17% so, sadly, I was pretty close.
The only things I can think of are a) Some kind of import tarriff. b) Higher transportation costs (wouldn't explain all of the discrepancy though). c) Canadians are used to being hosed by retailers, so they continue to do it.
I'm Canadian. I shop online, from stores in the US on occasion. My girlfriend does so quite frequently (You'd think she was a centipede the way she buys shoes...). If/When this "Internet ID" thing comes around, it's going to mean one of two things for us: A) No ID? No shoppy-shoppy. Please return to your local mall to be price gouged by Canadian retailers who will charge you a 20% premium for no apparent reason even though our dollar is once again stronger than the greenback. PS: Your own government will implement their version of this in 5-10 years. B) Sign here, here, and here. In blood. Congrats, the USA gubbernmint now has you by the balls, and you have absolutely no rights because you're not even a US citizen!
Engaging... unauthorized access... SONY PRODUCT under the terms of any.... license agreement or terms of use.... whether or not Hotz has accepted such agreement or terms of use
Whaaaaaaaaat the holy fuck?
Isn't the whole point of a contractual agreement that both parties have to agree to it first? Hotz just gave Sony a rubber stamp with his signature on it! If he so much as looks at a Sony product sideways, they could pin his ass to the wall any time for any reason. That's insane! The whole thing could be simplified if it was just:
1. Mr. Hotz agrees to never purchase, use, or be affiliated with the use of any Sony product. Evar. Byebye!
Sheesh.
And secondly... how is this even legal? I didn't think it was possible to sign away your ability to sign a contract./boggle
My university Bio prof had to dance around it too. And even though he did a very good job of it - dividing science, religion, and philosophy as the questions "how", "who" and "why" - it was still embarrassing to witness.
I think there's a distinction to be made between faith and trust. Religion requires faith, because it cannot be demonstrably proven to be true. Science does not require faith (arguably, it discourages it), but it does require trust. A long history of proofs - even things the layman can do for themselves - has built a trust in most people that allows them to accept the (often difficult, confusing, nebulous) forefront of science. If people only accepted the things they could see and touch, we would still be a tribal civilization.
TL:DR: Science delivars -> ++Trust Religion does not -> Faith required
I think you're talking about ABS (reducing braking power to avoid wheel lockups, so that steering input still has an effect) but what you've quoted is a long-winded way of saying Emergency Braking Assist, which is becoming fairly common. ABS will override EBA, but EBA is more about the speedy application of brakes than finding the upper limit of available traction (ABS' job).
I don't think people realize just how automated their vehicles already are. Sure, it's nice to be able to point to something and go "It parks itself! Ohmigawd!" but if you dig deeper you'll realize that the beginning of the "cars driving themselves" era has already passed us by. Thirty years ago when you mashed the brakes in your car, it pushed on a hydraulic, vacuum-assisted cylinder, and forced a fluid down to the brakes. That's it.
Now when you nail the brakes, a computer is deciding that the "rapid engagement of the brakes" is really a request for 100% braking power and fully actuates the master cylinder by itself regardless of your exact input. Some cars will even adjust your steering inputs for you. Meanwhile another computer is looking at the rotating speed of each wheel, comparing them, and reducing and/or modulating the pressure to keep them from locking up. Another computer (or maybe the same one) is checking the speed of all four wheels versus the angle of the steering wheel versus roll/pitch/yaw sensors, and further adjusting the brakes and engine torque split to ensure that the vehicle isn't spinning or attempting to roll. Yet another computer is seeing that a massive load is being placed on the front suspension and actuates a set of valves or magnets to firm up the front shocks to reduce braking dive. Meanwhile a front facing sensor is comparing your rate of deceleration with the speed at which you're approaching an object, and when the check fails it weighs each occupant and primes a series of airbags for them, fires the seatbelt pretensioners, unlocks the doors, brings the seats upright, rolls up the windows, closes the sunroof, disables non-essential electrical systems, and basically does it's best to prepare the cabin for a crash. Some cars even have microphones tuned to listen for the sound of impact as a queue for firing the airbags! And how many cars these days phone home (OnStar, etc) when you're in an accident? You smash into a tree and before the fog clears from your eyes there's a friendly sounding lady on the phone going "We've detected a crash. Sir, are you alright?"
Cars already drive themselves. We just point them in the direction we want to go. One day we won't even have to do that, we'll just say "take me home" and it will figure out the rest. Why that is so much more terrifying than our present state is largely a matter of perception.
Why? It's not like nuclear meltdowns happen every day. This is only the fourth large scale commercial meltdown in the nearly 60 years of nuclear power's history. Odds are pretty good that this will be Japans only such incident for a long, long time.
One problem with GP's plan: Where do you land a Galaxy? Big planes need big runways. So you'd still have to tow the things across whatever ruins still count as a highway system.
I think Fukushima is going to go down as one of those "perfect storm" type disasters where so much went wrong so quickly that no one had ever considered it could ever happen.
Why are these things connected to the internet? Does mission control watch Youtube while they're waiting for the countdown or what? TFA is kind of sketchy on details though, so i'm wondering if anyone knows anything more about these "servers... that control spacecraft." Sounds like ignorant reporting to me.
I have yet to meet a "green" fanatic who supports nuclear energy. Mostly they're convinced some combination of wind/solar/geothermal/hydro/fairy dust will solve the world's energy problems.
Unfortunately, Illegal != Does not exist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponsorship_scandal One of many examples of our illustrious politicians throwing handfuls of money at their friends. Some of which they see back via "fundraising". It's our form of corporate contributions, and even though it's limited it still stains politics.
We've an election very soon and I feel there is no one to vote for that isn't either corrupt or bat-shit crazy (or both).:(
Truck stops often offer a free shower in their facility with a minimum fuel purchase. Given that fuel prices are high and trucks have rather large fuel tanks, spending $250 on a fill up is not at all uncommon. Thus if you flip things around, it becomes 'free diesel' with the purchase of a '$250 shower'. Just a way of making it sound cute, especially when the facilities aren't exactly up to par.
And a lot lizard, for those still unsure, is just a prostitute that works a truck stop.
Why should I chill out? The fact that a giant separatist parasite exists as a national party disgusts me. I don't care how many other redeeming qualities they have, or who they're representing. The people of Quebec can have their grievances heard, in turn, just like every other province.
Or at least that's how a democracy is supposed to work. I'm not sure what the fuck we're running now.
See, I don't get this streaming shit. Why is EVERYTHING a goddamn streaming service nowadays? What happens if my MP3 player doesn't have battery-sucking wifi? What happens when my shitty ISP charges out the wazoo for overages and throttles whatever they feel like? What happens if I don't have an overpriced smartphone? What happened to actually feeling like you owned a music collection? What am I supposed to listen to when i'm out jogging in the woods? What happens when the power goes out? I hate hate HATE streaming services! Mostly because it seems like 99% of them are "Sorry, because you aren't American or British, we really don't give a fuck about you and so our service is not available in your country. Kindly go fuck yourself."
BitTorrent isn't bite sized. It's for grabbing big 'chunks' of stuff. Movies, programs, albums. Your average top40's music lover wants a single song. No one seeds single songs (what would be the point?), they do the whole album. And that adds another layer of searching that people just don't want to bother with. I tried to get my girlfriend to switch from Frostwire to BT but she quickly got frustrated: "What do you mean I have to find the album first? I don't know what album it's on! It's a remix or something, I just want to find that ONE SONG I HEARD ON THE RADIO." BT is like handing someone a pneumatic nail gun when they want to hang a single picture. Yes, it will work, but it's really not the right tool for the job.
Actually, the Wikipedia article does state that it is intended to be logarithmic. And it makes sense, because the difference between a 1 and a 2 is "Bob dropped his coffee" and "Bob dropped his coffee in the storage pool, now we gotta drain it", but the difference between a 6 and a 7 is "Might want to consider moving a couple dozen miles down the road" and "Might want to consider moving to a different hemisphere";)
When I worked in an oil warehouse, all of our portable pumps were AC. Granted, most of them had speed control modules because at full snort they would either a) make a gigantic splashing mess with light viscosity oil, or b) throw breakers like they were going out of style while pushing the high viscosity stuff.:)
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I made up the 20% figure. But just out of curiosity I opened Walmart.ca and Walmart.com and compared prices on a netbook, and it was 12% more in Canada. Factor the current exchange rate in and it's more like 17% so, sadly, I was pretty close.
The only things I can think of are
a) Some kind of import tarriff.
b) Higher transportation costs (wouldn't explain all of the discrepancy though).
c) Canadians are used to being hosed by retailers, so they continue to do it.
I'm guessing it's mostly C.
A (very) slight increase in horsepower too.
"But in a subsequent statement the organisation says RAND did not compare the fighting qualities of particular aircraft."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/25/2373632.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/29/2377266.htm
So it only *might* be an overpriced piece of junk. We don't know yet.
And that matters how?
I'm Canadian. I shop online, from stores in the US on occasion. My girlfriend does so quite frequently (You'd think she was a centipede the way she buys shoes...).
If/When this "Internet ID" thing comes around, it's going to mean one of two things for us:
A) No ID? No shoppy-shoppy. Please return to your local mall to be price gouged by Canadian retailers who will charge you a 20% premium for no apparent reason even though our dollar is once again stronger than the greenback. PS: Your own government will implement their version of this in 5-10 years.
B) Sign here, here, and here. In blood. Congrats, the USA gubbernmint now has you by the balls, and you have absolutely no rights because you're not even a US citizen!
I am not looking forward to this crap.
Wait wait wait wait wait.
Engaging... unauthorized access... SONY PRODUCT under the terms of any.... license agreement or terms of use.... whether or not Hotz has accepted such agreement or terms of use
Whaaaaaaaaat the holy fuck?
Isn't the whole point of a contractual agreement that both parties have to agree to it first? Hotz just gave Sony a rubber stamp with his signature on it! If he so much as looks at a Sony product sideways, they could pin his ass to the wall any time for any reason. That's insane! The whole thing could be simplified if it was just:
1. Mr. Hotz agrees to never purchase, use, or be affiliated with the use of any Sony product. Evar. Byebye!
Sheesh.
And secondly... how is this even legal? I didn't think it was possible to sign away your ability to sign a contract. /boggle
Seriously? There are like, 70+ in Canada. I think there are four in my metro area alone (~1mil pop).
If you DON'T find cloud services useful... you must have a very nice basement you enjoy spending all of your time in.
My university Bio prof had to dance around it too. And even though he did a very good job of it - dividing science, religion, and philosophy as the questions "how", "who" and "why" - it was still embarrassing to witness.
I think there's a distinction to be made between faith and trust. Religion requires faith, because it cannot be demonstrably proven to be true. Science does not require faith (arguably, it discourages it), but it does require trust. A long history of proofs - even things the layman can do for themselves - has built a trust in most people that allows them to accept the (often difficult, confusing, nebulous) forefront of science. If people only accepted the things they could see and touch, we would still be a tribal civilization.
TL:DR:
Science delivars -> ++Trust
Religion does not -> Faith required
I think you're talking about ABS (reducing braking power to avoid wheel lockups, so that steering input still has an effect) but what you've quoted is a long-winded way of saying Emergency Braking Assist, which is becoming fairly common. ABS will override EBA, but EBA is more about the speedy application of brakes than finding the upper limit of available traction (ABS' job).
I don't think people realize just how automated their vehicles already are. Sure, it's nice to be able to point to something and go "It parks itself! Ohmigawd!" but if you dig deeper you'll realize that the beginning of the "cars driving themselves" era has already passed us by. Thirty years ago when you mashed the brakes in your car, it pushed on a hydraulic, vacuum-assisted cylinder, and forced a fluid down to the brakes. That's it.
Now when you nail the brakes, a computer is deciding that the "rapid engagement of the brakes" is really a request for 100% braking power and fully actuates the master cylinder by itself regardless of your exact input. Some cars will even adjust your steering inputs for you. Meanwhile another computer is looking at the rotating speed of each wheel, comparing them, and reducing and/or modulating the pressure to keep them from locking up. Another computer (or maybe the same one) is checking the speed of all four wheels versus the angle of the steering wheel versus roll/pitch/yaw sensors, and further adjusting the brakes and engine torque split to ensure that the vehicle isn't spinning or attempting to roll. Yet another computer is seeing that a massive load is being placed on the front suspension and actuates a set of valves or magnets to firm up the front shocks to reduce braking dive. Meanwhile a front facing sensor is comparing your rate of deceleration with the speed at which you're approaching an object, and when the check fails it weighs each occupant and primes a series of airbags for them, fires the seatbelt pretensioners, unlocks the doors, brings the seats upright, rolls up the windows, closes the sunroof, disables non-essential electrical systems, and basically does it's best to prepare the cabin for a crash. Some cars even have microphones tuned to listen for the sound of impact as a queue for firing the airbags! And how many cars these days phone home (OnStar, etc) when you're in an accident? You smash into a tree and before the fog clears from your eyes there's a friendly sounding lady on the phone going "We've detected a crash. Sir, are you alright?"
Cars already drive themselves. We just point them in the direction we want to go. One day we won't even have to do that, we'll just say "take me home" and it will figure out the rest. Why that is so much more terrifying than our present state is largely a matter of perception.
Fukushima is a nuclear meltdown.
Chernobyl was essentially a dirty bomb.
Why? It's not like nuclear meltdowns happen every day. This is only the fourth large scale commercial meltdown in the nearly 60 years of nuclear power's history. Odds are pretty good that this will be Japans only such incident for a long, long time.
One problem with GP's plan: Where do you land a Galaxy? Big planes need big runways. So you'd still have to tow the things across whatever ruins still count as a highway system.
I think Fukushima is going to go down as one of those "perfect storm" type disasters where so much went wrong so quickly that no one had ever considered it could ever happen.
Why are these things connected to the internet? Does mission control watch Youtube while they're waiting for the countdown or what?
TFA is kind of sketchy on details though, so i'm wondering if anyone knows anything more about these "servers... that control spacecraft." Sounds like ignorant reporting to me.
I have yet to meet a "green" fanatic who supports nuclear energy. Mostly they're convinced some combination of wind/solar/geothermal/hydro/fairy dust will solve the world's energy problems.
Unfortunately, Illegal != Does not exist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponsorship_scandal
One of many examples of our illustrious politicians throwing handfuls of money at their friends. Some of which they see back via "fundraising". It's our form of corporate contributions, and even though it's limited it still stains politics.
We've an election very soon and I feel there is no one to vote for that isn't either corrupt or bat-shit crazy (or both). :(
Truck stops often offer a free shower in their facility with a minimum fuel purchase. Given that fuel prices are high and trucks have rather large fuel tanks, spending $250 on a fill up is not at all uncommon. Thus if you flip things around, it becomes 'free diesel' with the purchase of a '$250 shower'. Just a way of making it sound cute, especially when the facilities aren't exactly up to par.
And a lot lizard, for those still unsure, is just a prostitute that works a truck stop.
Why should I chill out? The fact that a giant separatist parasite exists as a national party disgusts me. I don't care how many other redeeming qualities they have, or who they're representing. The people of Quebec can have their grievances heard, in turn, just like every other province.
Or at least that's how a democracy is supposed to work. I'm not sure what the fuck we're running now.
Yeah, Hitler had some great ideas on how to run a country too. Except for that whole "kill the jews" bit.
The day the Bloq forms a federal government is the day I either leave the country for good, or die trying to take parliament hill by force.
See, I don't get this streaming shit. Why is EVERYTHING a goddamn streaming service nowadays? What happens if my MP3 player doesn't have battery-sucking wifi? What happens when my shitty ISP charges out the wazoo for overages and throttles whatever they feel like? What happens if I don't have an overpriced smartphone? What happened to actually feeling like you owned a music collection? What am I supposed to listen to when i'm out jogging in the woods? What happens when the power goes out?
I hate hate HATE streaming services! Mostly because it seems like 99% of them are "Sorry, because you aren't American or British, we really don't give a fuck about you and so our service is not available in your country. Kindly go fuck yourself."
It's infuriating.
I'll keep downloading.
BitTorrent isn't bite sized. It's for grabbing big 'chunks' of stuff. Movies, programs, albums. Your average top40's music lover wants a single song. No one seeds single songs (what would be the point?), they do the whole album. And that adds another layer of searching that people just don't want to bother with. I tried to get my girlfriend to switch from Frostwire to BT but she quickly got frustrated: "What do you mean I have to find the album first? I don't know what album it's on! It's a remix or something, I just want to find that ONE SONG I HEARD ON THE RADIO." BT is like handing someone a pneumatic nail gun when they want to hang a single picture. Yes, it will work, but it's really not the right tool for the job.
My experience anyways.
"Clearly this evolution thing needs more bug testing. I've created a race largely composed of idiots."
Actually, the Wikipedia article does state that it is intended to be logarithmic. ;)
And it makes sense, because the difference between a 1 and a 2 is "Bob dropped his coffee" and "Bob dropped his coffee in the storage pool, now we gotta drain it", but the difference between a 6 and a 7 is "Might want to consider moving a couple dozen miles down the road" and "Might want to consider moving to a different hemisphere"
When I worked in an oil warehouse, all of our portable pumps were AC. Granted, most of them had speed control modules because at full snort they would either a) make a gigantic splashing mess with light viscosity oil, or b) throw breakers like they were going out of style while pushing the high viscosity stuff. :)