Well, that guy or not, you are (sadly) correct. China has far too much economic influence in the world for any nation (even my much beloved USA) to stand up to them.
The Norks, on the other hand, hold no such distinction. The only reason they haven't been stomped into the ground yet is both their proximity to China (China doesn't want a war in it's back yard and all the Nork refugees that would come with it) and the fact that they really are that unimportant in the world.
Of course, should they actually get a viable nuke missile program off the ground AND the USA gets a president with some backbone (Unlike the current "teleprompter-in-chief") then something might be done about it. Maybe. At the rate China is divesting itself of US Bonds, the US won't owe them much debt fairly soon, and will be more free to act.
The next several years should be "interesting" to say the least.
Actually, I've often wondered why the very powerful onboard computer systems of large commercial and military vessels do NOT have some kind of fallback system. Perhaps they do and we simply don't know about it? (How many Sailors are there on/.?)
I would think that a system that calculates position based on both the relative motion of the vessel combined with observable star and land positions (using motion, wind, light and radar sensors) would be an excellent fallback system. Not as accurate as GPS, but much more difficult to mess with technologically.
I like Yvanhoe's "synthetic star" system as well, although that might have the same issues as GPS. Unless one was using reflected visible light via mirrors on the satellites. but then, one would have to think about issues of blocking visible actual stars with giant sunlight reflecting mirrors. I can't imagine the astronomical community around the globe liking you very much if you start washing out the universe with local sunlight reflection.
Most of the really good indie games are on the PC or on phones anyway. (Humble Bundle, 2DBoy games, etc.) The Indie scene on xbox live is a skeleton compared to the PC world.
The change over from FF2.x to 3.x was bad enough (I hate you "awesome" bar!) We don't NEED another major UI overhaul. I personally won't touch the Chrome browser with a thousand-foot pole, precisely because it's more a TOY than a browser.
Focus on making FF faster and lighten it's footprint while retaining the nice BOXY, MODULAR look of the browser.
Freakin' UI designers are out of control. Stop making everything look so damn minimalist and shiny! I want my browser boxy, ugly and crammed full of useful features that I can access with a MOUSE. I don't want to have half the features stripped out, and then half of what's left buried under a set of complex and obscure keyboard commands. This isn't the DOS days. Keyboards are for TYPING. The mouse is there for navigation on the PC. DESIGN FOR IT!
Oh, and NO software designers should design for the Win8 PC Metro UI. That POS should be starved to death from lack of software and allowed to die a Vista-esque death. Seriously. Think of the users, IGNORE the PC METRO UI when you design your software. Pretend it doesn't exist. If enough designers do this then Microsoft will be forced to drop this horror and get back to a proper desktop UI.
Why the hell was this modded "Flamebait"? I was serious! Must be the Chrome fanatics.
A foreign power conquering such a populace, if they chose to fight, would be near impossible. The whole "getting shot from every window" would be a fairly literal reality. Blowing shit up is easy from afar, but occupation requires soldiers in cities and that is where the problem would be.
Not only that, but WMD's would be all but useless against the armed portion of the populace as the larger portion of them live outside major metropolitan areas.
You could nuke every single major city in the U.S. and still have a near-impossible task of taking the country over.
Some might say you would have a doubly-difficult problem because by nuking the cities, you have shown you have no interest in peaceful occupation. You would wake the "sleeping giant" and find out like the Japanese did that it is a VERY bad idea.
That said, eliminating the standing army and crippling the country economically by socializing all medical care under Medicare (which would require a 10 fold increase in medicare spending, which is already roughly 30% of the national budget) as AKMark suggests is both an invitation to outside invasion and to internal revolution. AKMark's presidency would be short-lived indeed, particularly when he has to declare martial law on the revolting citizenship and has no standing army to do it with. I suspect that AKMark would find himself looking at the wrong end of one of those citizen-owned firearms (or a noose) before he could finish his term.
The change over from FF2.x to 3.x was bad enough (I hate you "awesome" bar!) We don't NEED another major UI overhaul. I personally won't touch the Chrome browser with a thousand-foot pole, precisely because it's more a TOY than a browser.
Focus on making FF faster and lighten it's footprint while retaining the nice BOXY, MODULAR look of the browser.
Freakin' UI designers are out of control. Stop making everything look so damn minimalist and shiny! I want my browser boxy, ugly and crammed full of useful features that I can access with a MOUSE. I don't want to have half the features stripped out, and then half of what's left buried under a set of complex and obscure keyboard commands. This isn't the DOS days. Keyboards are for TYPING. The mouse is there for navigation on the PC. DESIGN FOR IT!
Oh, and NO software designers should design for the Win8 PC Metro UI. That POS should be starved to death from lack of software and allowed to die a Vista-esque death. Seriously. Think of the users, IGNORE the PC METRO UI when you design your software. Pretend it doesn't exist. If enough designers do this then Microsoft will be forced to drop this horror and get back to a proper desktop UI.
Thankfully most schools are aware of this potential tactic and usually have multiple points of egress and multiple gathering locations around the building. This is the way it was with fire drills when I was a kid back in the '70's and '80's, and continues with the company i work for today.
Besides that, a bomb inside a building, even if not near a structural weak point, has a greater killing potential than one placed in an open air area like a parking lot.
Nationalism in and of itself is also the hallmark of a healthy and free society. This alone doesn't mean anything. But we'll leave the check here.
Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
The United States is one of the leading countries in fighting for Human Rights. It's not perfect, and doesn't recognize some of the absurd twaddle that some HR orgs call "Human Rights" (such as free ISP service), but to state that there is an organized government disdain of Human Rights by the US government is a gross mis-characterization of the first order. UNCHECK
Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
Last I checked, other than Obama blaming Bush/the GOP/The Right for pretty much everything that's gone wrong in his administration, I haven't seen any organized pushes for ostracization of "The Other" A-la "Da Jooos" like in Nazi germany or Modern Day [insert Islamic country name here]. Gonna have to uncheck this one too.
Supremacy of the Military
We do spend too much on our military. But then we spend too much on pretty much everything, which is a big part of our problem. Just remember: 60% of our budget is Social spending (Medicaid, Medicare, SS + other smaller programs) so the Military, while large, is hardly "Supreme". Uncheck.
Rampant Sexism
WAAA HAA HAA HAA!! You have GOT to be kidding me! Maybe against MEN, but certainly not against WOMEN. Come on, you cannot have a serious thought process going on if you think sexism is rampant in our society. If this is confusing to you, go visit ANY Islamic country and see how women are treated. Hell, GO TO JAPAN and see how women are treated. Americans today have NO FUCKING CLUE about sexism and what it's really all about. UNCHECK.
Controlled Mass Media - check
I'll give you this one, as most of the MSM has joined the Media Complex and continually promotes anything statist and covers for their political allies. Thankfully we have the New Media to help fight it.
Obsession with National Security - check
Well, national security is always an important thing, but we have gone WAY overboard in some areas and in some very creepy ways. I'll give you this one too.
Religion and Government are Intertwined
Pfffft! Another knee slapper! What, because our Constitution is based around Judeo-Christian principles and religious people are actually ALLOWED to be politicians that means that they are intertwined? Ugh. so stupid. Try being a Christian home schooler sometime and you will see just how much the government is intertwined with religion as multiple government orgs come down on your head to make your life miserable. The U.S. Government is more Atheist every day. No State Religion here. UNCHECK
Corporate Power is Protected - check
Grant you this one. Too much crony capitalism going on.
Labor Power is Suppressed
Um... Didn't Obama basically just GIVE GM and Chrysler to the AFL-CIO via executive order? And didn't we just unionize the biggest waste of taxpayer money ever, the TSA? Yeah, Unions aren't NEARLY suppressed enough. They are doing crappy in the private sector, because people don't want or need them. They are flourishing anywhere the government is though. Uncheck.
Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Private arts funding is at or near all time highs. Public assistance is down, because the coffers are empty. And intellectuals aren't disdained, just pseudo-intellectuals trying to pass off Frankfurt School bullshit as solutions to manufactured problems. Uncheck.
You seem to have missed the fact that most of our elected "representatives" seem far more interested in expanding their own power than in following the Constitution. Right now the only ones that seem even slightly interested in sticking by the Constitution are the Tea Party affiliated reps like Rep. Ryan and Rep. Paul.
Most of the rest are just roling down the Gramsci/Marcuse/Alinsky crypto socialist road towards the ultimate destruction of the Constitution and most of traditional American society with the goal of replacing it with totalitarian Socialism of some kind. The only difference is the SPEED that they want to do it at. Dems want to step on the gas, Pubs want a "go slow" approach. But NEITHER party seems interested in preserving the Union all that terribly much, other than a few Tea Party infiltrators in the GOP.
So I support Tea Party Conservative/Libertarians when and where I can, keep my powder dry and my food stocks full and prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. What else can you do?
I don't know how much experience you have with Autism, but I can assure you, as the parent of TWO ASD children, it goes well beyond "quirky".
"Quirky" is when a kid likes to wear silly hats, or insists on wearing tights with everything, or like to dance and sing at not always appropriate times. That's quirky.
"Quirky" is NOT being unable to dress yourself properly or being unable to BATHE yourself, or sitting on your bed making moaning and grunting noises while rocking back and forth and flipping through toy magazines and then stripping your clothes off and shredding your underwear into teeny tiny bits before having a poop accident and then smearing it all over yourself and your walls. At 11 years old. THAT is Autism. Not "Quirky".
I think far too many/.ers have a really inaccurate idea of what Autism actually is. Many here seem to think that it's all Aspies. Trust me, it's not. Aspies are the tiny minority of ASD sufferers. MOST ASD sufferers are so social and learning disabled that even doing basic day-to-day living activities such as toileting or bathing or even feeding themselves is a challenge. So this isn't the kind of thing taken lightly by researchers. If there has been a substantive increase in diagnosis, then I am wont to believe it.
While the UK has had quite a bit of immigration in recent years, particularly among the semetic peoples of the world. (what we in the US call "middle eastern" and what the UK refer to as "asian") the UK is still a VERY largely white population.
I would posit that among the countries of the world, the US is the most genetically diverse, and thus comparisons with other individual countries would be inadequate. A more proper response would be to compare the US against the entire rest of the world, with adjustments for the Chinese population. (Still more Chinese than anyone else in the world, by a large margin.)
If aliens were to make contact with us, they would be either attacked or worshiped as gods. So unless they want one of those two things, they would keep quiet until we grow up some more.
I have to respectfully disagree on this point. At least in western countries it is far more likely that we would not only be able to live peaceable with them, but that we would proactively seek to begin political and economic relations with them.
Speaking for myself (and I know I'm a bit odd in this respect) If i was ever to meet aliens from the titular "scout mission/temporarily disabled spacecraft/ first contact mission/other random encounter", while I would initially be cautious in my approach (just to be sure they aren't a predator-style hunting party) I would not only welcome them, but would almost immediately set about wrangling terms for an exclusive "Earth Products" distributorship arrangement and start selling Coke and Marlboros (or their poison of choice) to the aliens. I'd also work on getting them to sell me an "FTL capable" (or whatever they use) ship or two on consignment as part of the deal. I would then set about building my interstellar economic empire.
Really, I can imagine quite a few other people would take the same approach. I think it's far more likely the Aliens would be overwhelmed with business offers and people wanting to go for a ride than anything else.
Particularly for home users (which TFA seems to indicate is the case here) a simple mirrored RAID array will do the trick. I recommend the following setup:
Buy 4 2TB drives.
Put 2 drives in a Mirrored array using motherboard-based RAID.
Put 1 drive in a USB 2.0, 3.0 or eSATA drive enclosure and back up RAID array to this drive.
Keep 4th drive as a spare.
Replace all 4 drives with larger drives as needed and available.
Done. You will almost never lose data using this method. If you REALLY want to, you can purchase a Carbonite (or Mozy, or whatever) cloud storage backup service and back up your most critical and valuable data to the cloud, or you can simply archive to DVD or BD and store appropriately.
The only concern I would have for this setup for TFA writer is that he appears to actually be OVER the 2TB level already, which means he's looking at some pretty pricey 3 or 4TB drives. Unfortunately, at this data capacity level the solutions can be technically simple but they are never CHEAP. No matter what, to store that kind of data, TFA writer will be spending close to a grand, regardless of what solution they pursue (Home built RAID with big drives, buying a large NAS, Etc.)
Actually, the use of the wii-mote motion sensors for flight related utility is not at all uncommon. Although for flying PEOPLE it is uncommon, to be sure.
The most common current use is to use the wii "nunchuck" wired into a standard rc tx unit to allow fluid motion control of an rc plane or mutli-rotor heli. These received wide acceptance in the FPV RC community as they provide a very "natural" interface for FPV flying.
So using a wii motion control isn't THAT farfetched at all. Doesn't make the video in question any less fake, of course, but it does make it a smarter fake.
By "deal with" I mean "interact with the phone". I have used a Windows phone before. Tested one out for my company. It was AWFUL. The metro UI is ugly, difficult and unintuitive to use, clunky, slow, and just generally a PITA.
Look at the sales numbers. Almost NOBODY wants this, and I can understand why. It's just not a well made platform. Its something that Microsoft threw together because they see the writing on the wall for desktops and laptops. Maybe after a couple years of refinement, a UI revamp and after Microsoft has spent billions paying all the iOS and android developers to support them so they have a pre-filled app library, but not in time to save Nokia.
Yep. Seen one, used one. It was awful. Never want to use one again.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not, despite sounding like one, a raving Android fanboy. As I said before, I'm STILL using my webOS 1.4.5 Pre- on Sprint. (Speaking of dying OSes. *rimshot*) and I have some serious issues with Android, most notably the pervasive advertisements (I sometimes call it "Ad-droid") and the clunky non-multitasking UI. But of the available successful choices, Android is the only one that Nokia could use. So I recommend them making at least a few Android phones.
No, we're NOT. I already corrected you on this, apparently you haven't read it yet. But I will reiterate;
There is no separate "Android" market! there is just "The Market" and the mobile phone segment of it. Nokia is ALREADY IN the mobile phone market, competing against Samsung and HTC etc. The difference is that they are competing with a featured OS that people DO NOT WANT, Windows.
As I stated before: It's not that people don't want Nokia phones. It's that they don't want Windows and Symbian and they DO want iOS and Android.
Nokia needs to put out some high-end Android phones and give the people a product they will want to buy. They already have arguably better quality hardware than Samsung or HTC, now they just need the software to go with it.
It's not entering a new market, it's competing in a market they are already part of more efficiently and effectively.
I suppose one could go with open webOS once it's ready to go. You'll probably need a G-nex or some other unlocked and supported phone to flash it onto, but that could work for you.
Keep in mind that even with webOS you still need a webOS (HP) account. It also needs your CC or Debit Card info so you can buy stuff from the App Catalog. Just no getting away from that.
I'm going to get a G-nex once Sprint has them. I'll keep my pre- around as a wifi-only device, and keep an eye on webOS to see how it fares. I hope to be able to come back to webOS someday. It's really the only GOOD mobile OS, just hobbled by crappy marketing, crappy hardware, and bad luck. In the meantime, ICS will have to do.
See my reply to missing meter. Nokia is already in compettition with the Android handset makers. There isn't a separate "Windows market" and a "Symbian market" and an "Android market", as though changing OSes would be somehow entering a new market. There is simply "The Market". In this case the "Mobile Phone" portion of that market, which they are already very much in.
While I agree that having OS schizophrenia is a bad thing, if your Symbian OS is dying, and your Windows OS is DOA, why on God's Green Earth would you EVER stick with them? it makes NO sense. Put in a feature that your customers want, Android OS.
People aren't buying Nokia because Nokia is suddenly a bad handset maker. They aren't buying Nokia because they aren't Apple (iOS) and they don't have Android. It's really that simple. Give the people what they want and gain customers.
Nokia is in the Mobile Phone market. They compete against ALL other mobile phone makers. The OS the mobile phone runs is just one part of the overall feature set. All they have done by going with the crappy Windows one is hobble themselves unnecessarily by adding a rotten feature. Take the same exact hardware, put Android on it, and it would sell like hotcakes!
I don't see why removing a bad OS and replacing it with a good one makes them LESS able to compete for market share with Samsung, HTC, ET AL.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, that guy or not, you are (sadly) correct. China has far too much economic influence in the world for any nation (even my much beloved USA) to stand up to them.
The Norks, on the other hand, hold no such distinction. The only reason they haven't been stomped into the ground yet is both their proximity to China (China doesn't want a war in it's back yard and all the Nork refugees that would come with it) and the fact that they really are that unimportant in the world.
Of course, should they actually get a viable nuke missile program off the ground AND the USA gets a president with some backbone (Unlike the current "teleprompter-in-chief") then something might be done about it. Maybe. At the rate China is divesting itself of US Bonds, the US won't owe them much debt fairly soon, and will be more free to act.
The next several years should be "interesting" to say the least.
Actually, I've often wondered why the very powerful onboard computer systems of large commercial and military vessels do NOT have some kind of fallback system. Perhaps they do and we simply don't know about it? (How many Sailors are there on /.?)
I would think that a system that calculates position based on both the relative motion of the vessel combined with observable star and land positions (using motion, wind, light and radar sensors) would be an excellent fallback system. Not as accurate as GPS, but much more difficult to mess with technologically.
I like Yvanhoe's "synthetic star" system as well, although that might have the same issues as GPS. Unless one was using reflected visible light via mirrors on the satellites. but then, one would have to think about issues of blocking visible actual stars with giant sunlight reflecting mirrors. I can't imagine the astronomical community around the globe liking you very much if you start washing out the universe with local sunlight reflection.
Most of the really good indie games are on the PC or on phones anyway. (Humble Bundle, 2DBoy games, etc.) The Indie scene on xbox live is a skeleton compared to the PC world.
THIS!
The change over from FF2.x to 3.x was bad enough (I hate you "awesome" bar!) We don't NEED another major UI overhaul. I personally won't touch the Chrome browser with a thousand-foot pole, precisely because it's more a TOY than a browser.
Focus on making FF faster and lighten it's footprint while retaining the nice BOXY, MODULAR look of the browser.
Freakin' UI designers are out of control. Stop making everything look so damn minimalist and shiny! I want my browser boxy, ugly and crammed full of useful features that I can access with a MOUSE. I don't want to have half the features stripped out, and then half of what's left buried under a set of complex and obscure keyboard commands. This isn't the DOS days. Keyboards are for TYPING. The mouse is there for navigation on the PC. DESIGN FOR IT!
Oh, and NO software designers should design for the Win8 PC Metro UI. That POS should be starved to death from lack of software and allowed to die a Vista-esque death. Seriously. Think of the users, IGNORE the PC METRO UI when you design your software. Pretend it doesn't exist. If enough designers do this then Microsoft will be forced to drop this horror and get back to a proper desktop UI.
Why the hell was this modded "Flamebait"? I was serious! Must be the Chrome fanatics.
Not only that, but WMD's would be all but useless against the armed portion of the populace as the larger portion of them live outside major metropolitan areas.
You could nuke every single major city in the U.S. and still have a near-impossible task of taking the country over.
Some might say you would have a doubly-difficult problem because by nuking the cities, you have shown you have no interest in peaceful occupation. You would wake the "sleeping giant" and find out like the Japanese did that it is a VERY bad idea.
That said, eliminating the standing army and crippling the country economically by socializing all medical care under Medicare (which would require a 10 fold increase in medicare spending, which is already roughly 30% of the national budget) as AKMark suggests is both an invitation to outside invasion and to internal revolution. AKMark's presidency would be short-lived indeed, particularly when he has to declare martial law on the revolting citizenship and has no standing army to do it with. I suspect that AKMark would find himself looking at the wrong end of one of those citizen-owned firearms (or a noose) before he could finish his term.
THIS!
The change over from FF2.x to 3.x was bad enough (I hate you "awesome" bar!) We don't NEED another major UI overhaul. I personally won't touch the Chrome browser with a thousand-foot pole, precisely because it's more a TOY than a browser.
Focus on making FF faster and lighten it's footprint while retaining the nice BOXY, MODULAR look of the browser.
Freakin' UI designers are out of control. Stop making everything look so damn minimalist and shiny! I want my browser boxy, ugly and crammed full of useful features that I can access with a MOUSE. I don't want to have half the features stripped out, and then half of what's left buried under a set of complex and obscure keyboard commands. This isn't the DOS days. Keyboards are for TYPING. The mouse is there for navigation on the PC. DESIGN FOR IT!
Oh, and NO software designers should design for the Win8 PC Metro UI. That POS should be starved to death from lack of software and allowed to die a Vista-esque death. Seriously. Think of the users, IGNORE the PC METRO UI when you design your software. Pretend it doesn't exist. If enough designers do this then Microsoft will be forced to drop this horror and get back to a proper desktop UI.
Whoops! Scratch that. It loaded, but slowly.
Yep, page is already down.
Thankfully most schools are aware of this potential tactic and usually have multiple points of egress and multiple gathering locations around the building. This is the way it was with fire drills when I was a kid back in the '70's and '80's, and continues with the company i work for today.
Besides that, a bomb inside a building, even if not near a structural weak point, has a greater killing potential than one placed in an open air area like a parking lot.
Aw man, I'm totally jealous. Nothing like that around here. I'm also suddenly hungry...
Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - check
Nationalism in and of itself is also the hallmark of a healthy and free society. This alone doesn't mean anything. But we'll leave the check here.
Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
The United States is one of the leading countries in fighting for Human Rights. It's not perfect, and doesn't recognize some of the absurd twaddle that some HR orgs call "Human Rights" (such as free ISP service), but to state that there is an organized government disdain of Human Rights by the US government is a gross mis-characterization of the first order. UNCHECK
Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
Last I checked, other than Obama blaming Bush/the GOP/The Right for pretty much everything that's gone wrong in his administration, I haven't seen any organized pushes for ostracization of "The Other" A-la "Da Jooos" like in Nazi germany or Modern Day [insert Islamic country name here]. Gonna have to uncheck this one too.
Supremacy of the Military
We do spend too much on our military. But then we spend too much on pretty much everything, which is a big part of our problem. Just remember: 60% of our budget is Social spending (Medicaid, Medicare, SS + other smaller programs) so the Military, while large, is hardly "Supreme". Uncheck.
Rampant Sexism
WAAA HAA HAA HAA!! You have GOT to be kidding me! Maybe against MEN, but certainly not against WOMEN. Come on, you cannot have a serious thought process going on if you think sexism is rampant in our society.
If this is confusing to you, go visit ANY Islamic country and see how women are treated. Hell, GO TO JAPAN and see how women are treated. Americans today have NO FUCKING CLUE about sexism and what it's really all about. UNCHECK.
Controlled Mass Media - check
I'll give you this one, as most of the MSM has joined the Media Complex and continually promotes anything statist and covers for their political allies. Thankfully we have the New Media to help fight it.
Obsession with National Security - check
Well, national security is always an important thing, but we have gone WAY overboard in some areas and in some very creepy ways. I'll give you this one too.
Religion and Government are Intertwined
Pfffft! Another knee slapper! What, because our Constitution is based around Judeo-Christian principles and religious people are actually ALLOWED to be politicians that means that they are intertwined? Ugh. so stupid. Try being a Christian home schooler sometime and you will see just how much the government is intertwined with religion as multiple government orgs come down on your head to make your life miserable. The U.S. Government is more Atheist every day. No State Religion here. UNCHECK
Corporate Power is Protected - check
Grant you this one. Too much crony capitalism going on.
Labor Power is Suppressed
Um... Didn't Obama basically just GIVE GM and Chrysler to the AFL-CIO via executive order? And didn't we just unionize the biggest waste of taxpayer money ever, the TSA? Yeah, Unions aren't NEARLY suppressed enough. They are doing crappy in the private sector, because people don't want or need them. They are flourishing anywhere the government is though. Uncheck.
Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Private arts funding is at or near all time highs. Public assistance is down, because the coffers are empty. And intellectuals aren't disdained, just pseudo-intellectuals trying to pass off Frankfurt School bullshit as solutions to manufactured problems. Uncheck.
Obsession with Crime and Punishment
No more than normal. uncheck.
You seem to have missed the fact that most of our elected "representatives" seem far more interested in expanding their own power than in following the Constitution. Right now the only ones that seem even slightly interested in sticking by the Constitution are the Tea Party affiliated reps like Rep. Ryan and Rep. Paul.
Most of the rest are just roling down the Gramsci/Marcuse/Alinsky crypto socialist road towards the ultimate destruction of the Constitution and most of traditional American society with the goal of replacing it with totalitarian Socialism of some kind. The only difference is the SPEED that they want to do it at. Dems want to step on the gas, Pubs want a "go slow" approach. But NEITHER party seems interested in preserving the Union all that terribly much, other than a few Tea Party infiltrators in the GOP.
So I support Tea Party Conservative/Libertarians when and where I can, keep my powder dry and my food stocks full and prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. What else can you do?
I don't know how much experience you have with Autism, but I can assure you, as the parent of TWO ASD children, it goes well beyond "quirky".
"Quirky" is when a kid likes to wear silly hats, or insists on wearing tights with everything, or like to dance and sing at not always appropriate times. That's quirky.
"Quirky" is NOT being unable to dress yourself properly or being unable to BATHE yourself, or sitting on your bed making moaning and grunting noises while rocking back and forth and flipping through toy magazines and then stripping your clothes off and shredding your underwear into teeny tiny bits before having a poop accident and then smearing it all over yourself and your walls. At 11 years old. THAT is Autism. Not "Quirky".
I think far too many /.ers have a really inaccurate idea of what Autism actually is. Many here seem to think that it's all Aspies. Trust me, it's not. Aspies are the tiny minority of ASD sufferers. MOST ASD sufferers are so social and learning disabled that even doing basic day-to-day living activities such as toileting or bathing or even feeding themselves is a challenge. So this isn't the kind of thing taken lightly by researchers. If there has been a substantive increase in diagnosis, then I am wont to believe it.
Mod up.
While the UK has had quite a bit of immigration in recent years, particularly among the semetic peoples of the world. (what we in the US call "middle eastern" and what the UK refer to as "asian") the UK is still a VERY largely white population.
I would posit that among the countries of the world, the US is the most genetically diverse, and thus comparisons with other individual countries would be inadequate. A more proper response would be to compare the US against the entire rest of the world, with adjustments for the Chinese population. (Still more Chinese than anyone else in the world, by a large margin.)
If aliens were to make contact with us, they would be either attacked or worshiped as gods. So unless they want one of those two things, they would keep quiet until we grow up some more.
I have to respectfully disagree on this point. At least in western countries it is far more likely that we would not only be able to live peaceable with them, but that we would proactively seek to begin political and economic relations with them.
Speaking for myself (and I know I'm a bit odd in this respect) If i was ever to meet aliens from the titular "scout mission/temporarily disabled spacecraft/ first contact mission/other random encounter", while I would initially be cautious in my approach (just to be sure they aren't a predator-style hunting party) I would not only welcome them, but would almost immediately set about wrangling terms for an exclusive "Earth Products" distributorship arrangement and start selling Coke and Marlboros (or their poison of choice) to the aliens. I'd also work on getting them to sell me an "FTL capable" (or whatever they use) ship or two on consignment as part of the deal. I would then set about building my interstellar economic empire.
Really, I can imagine quite a few other people would take the same approach. I think it's far more likely the Aliens would be overwhelmed with business offers and people wanting to go for a ride than anything else.
Agree with this, mod up.
Particularly for home users (which TFA seems to indicate is the case here) a simple mirrored RAID array will do the trick. I recommend the following setup:
Buy 4 2TB drives.
Put 2 drives in a Mirrored array using motherboard-based RAID.
Put 1 drive in a USB 2.0, 3.0 or eSATA drive enclosure and back up RAID array to this drive.
Keep 4th drive as a spare.
Replace all 4 drives with larger drives as needed and available.
Done. You will almost never lose data using this method. If you REALLY want to, you can purchase a Carbonite (or Mozy, or whatever) cloud storage backup service and back up your most critical and valuable data to the cloud, or you can simply archive to DVD or BD and store appropriately.
The only concern I would have for this setup for TFA writer is that he appears to actually be OVER the 2TB level already, which means he's looking at some pretty pricey 3 or 4TB drives. Unfortunately, at this data capacity level the solutions can be technically simple but they are never CHEAP. No matter what, to store that kind of data, TFA writer will be spending close to a grand, regardless of what solution they pursue (Home built RAID with big drives, buying a large NAS, Etc.)
Actually, the use of the wii-mote motion sensors for flight related utility is not at all uncommon. Although for flying PEOPLE it is uncommon, to be sure.
The most common current use is to use the wii "nunchuck" wired into a standard rc tx unit to allow fluid motion control of an rc plane or mutli-rotor heli. These received wide acceptance in the FPV RC community as they provide a very "natural" interface for FPV flying.
So using a wii motion control isn't THAT farfetched at all. Doesn't make the video in question any less fake, of course, but it does make it a smarter fake.
By "deal with" I mean "interact with the phone". I have used a Windows phone before. Tested one out for my company. It was AWFUL. The metro UI is ugly, difficult and unintuitive to use, clunky, slow, and just generally a PITA.
Look at the sales numbers. Almost NOBODY wants this, and I can understand why. It's just not a well made platform. Its something that Microsoft threw together because they see the writing on the wall for desktops and laptops. Maybe after a couple years of refinement, a UI revamp and after Microsoft has spent billions paying all the iOS and android developers to support them so they have a pre-filled app library, but not in time to save Nokia.
Android, meet Hemorrhoid. Hemorrhoid, meet Android. [/troll]
Needs more cowbell.
Yep. Seen one, used one. It was awful. Never want to use one again.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not, despite sounding like one, a raving Android fanboy. As I said before, I'm STILL using my webOS 1.4.5 Pre- on Sprint. (Speaking of dying OSes. *rimshot*) and I have some serious issues with Android, most notably the pervasive advertisements (I sometimes call it "Ad-droid") and the clunky non-multitasking UI. But of the available successful choices, Android is the only one that Nokia could use. So I recommend them making at least a few Android phones.
No, we're NOT. I already corrected you on this, apparently you haven't read it yet. But I will reiterate;
There is no separate "Android" market! there is just "The Market" and the mobile phone segment of it. Nokia is ALREADY IN the mobile phone market, competing against Samsung and HTC etc. The difference is that they are competing with a featured OS that people DO NOT WANT, Windows.
As I stated before: It's not that people don't want Nokia phones. It's that they don't want Windows and Symbian and they DO want iOS and Android.
Nokia needs to put out some high-end Android phones and give the people a product they will want to buy. They already have arguably better quality hardware than Samsung or HTC, now they just need the software to go with it.
It's not entering a new market, it's competing in a market they are already part of more efficiently and effectively.
I thought I had heard about that. Is it bog-standard Android or some custom Asian dealie? (Just curious. I can't get one anyway, being on Sprint.)
Liking this ALOT.
(Still on my Sprint Pre-!)
I suppose one could go with open webOS once it's ready to go. You'll probably need a G-nex or some other unlocked and supported phone to flash it onto, but that could work for you.
Keep in mind that even with webOS you still need a webOS (HP) account. It also needs your CC or Debit Card info so you can buy stuff from the App Catalog. Just no getting away from that.
I'm going to get a G-nex once Sprint has them. I'll keep my pre- around as a wifi-only device, and keep an eye on webOS to see how it fares. I hope to be able to come back to webOS someday. It's really the only GOOD mobile OS, just hobbled by crappy marketing, crappy hardware, and bad luck. In the meantime, ICS will have to do.
See my reply to missing meter. Nokia is already in compettition with the Android handset makers. There isn't a separate "Windows market" and a "Symbian market" and an "Android market", as though changing OSes would be somehow entering a new market. There is simply "The Market". In this case the "Mobile Phone" portion of that market, which they are already very much in.
While I agree that having OS schizophrenia is a bad thing, if your Symbian OS is dying, and your Windows OS is DOA, why on God's Green Earth would you EVER stick with them? it makes NO sense. Put in a feature that your customers want, Android OS.
People aren't buying Nokia because Nokia is suddenly a bad handset maker. They aren't buying Nokia because they aren't Apple (iOS) and they don't have Android. It's really that simple. Give the people what they want and gain customers.
And how are they NOT competing against them now?
Nokia is in the Mobile Phone market. They compete against ALL other mobile phone makers. The OS the mobile phone runs is just one part of the overall feature set. All they have done by going with the crappy Windows one is hobble themselves unnecessarily by adding a rotten feature. Take the same exact hardware, put Android on it, and it would sell like hotcakes!
I don't see why removing a bad OS and replacing it with a good one makes them LESS able to compete for market share with Samsung, HTC, ET AL.