Actually, this is probably a good case for a cost-benefit analysis. A proper analysis would show that a 1% chance of a huge disaster very well justifies an investment in prevention of the problem.
The problem isn't the power sent into the tank to run the sensors, it's that a failure elsewhere in the plane's electrical system could cause excessive current to flow into the fuel tank sensor line. A plane was brought down by this several years ago: the insulation on the wires in a wiring harness had deteriorated with age and several wires became exposed. IIRC, voltage was shorted from the in-flight entertainment system into the fuel-sensor line. This caused a spark in the tank which ignited it and brought the plane down. Everyone died.
If there's a wire running into the tank, it's too hard to ensure that nothing ever puts an unsafe voltage onto that line. If you replace the line with a glass fiber, you ensure that you never have more voltage in the tank than you intended. It's easy then to arrange your physical design to keep that voltage within limits that cannot ignite the fuel under any circumstances.
I shopped there once or twice, but stopped buying from them because of their restrictive return policies. Best Buy and Circuit City have comparable prices, and were flexible on returns. Easy choice.
I agree. I'm not one of those who is opposed to this new model of music industry. I'd love to see the big music companies die off and be replaced by flexible distribution over the internet, combined with smaller businesses that provide services to musicians with growing careers--publicity, help with distributing music to radio stations, etc.
I wouldn't be suprised if the new model reduces income at the high end. Fewer superstars making huge incomes from music. Music could even become more like other careers, where you have a large "middle class" that makes a solid but not excessive income from live shows and selling their music online.
No, but a new band starting out can't afford to run a national publicity campaign. That's been the main legitimate thing the record companies have to offer, now that distribution can be done more cheaply through the internet. Record companies are willing to fund the campaign in the hopes of making the money back in future revenue from record sales. A new band couldn't do that on their own.
Yep. Same principle as the GPL, in fact. Everything distributed under the GPL is copyrighted, and the copyright holders require those who wish to copy it to do so under the terms of the GPL. Any other copying of the work would be a violation of the authors' copyright.
Not at all. The US signed a treaty with other nations, and they expect the US to hold up its end of the bargain. Demanding that a country live up to the agreements it signed is not "overriding its sovereignity".
One point that seems to be missing in this discussion is that driving is not a right. You're free to do whatever you want in general, but if you want to drive your car on publicly-owned roads you require a license from the state. That license comes with terms and conditions, among them that you be properly trained and tested and that you operate the vehicle in accordance with the law. That law includes the requirement to wear a seat belt. If you don't like the terms of the license, you are free to not choose to be licensed and to simply not drive. Your choice.
Note that in most states passengers found to be not wearing a seatbelt are not fined. The driver is fined, for operating the vehicle while a passenger was not properly secured. The state has no right to tell you what to do with your body, but they certainly do have a right to tell you how you may drive your car (on publicly-owned roads).
Unfortunately, the US system seems to not even have achieved two of the three. It is arguably effective, but I don't think a good case can be made for either efficient or cheap.
Yeah, but Windows comes pre-installed on the computer. For your average computer user, that's a win. Zero installation time vs. an hour or two to find Linux, download it, and install it. Plus, the average user already knows how to run Windows. Why try anything else?
Unless computers are your hobby or your profession, there is really very little incentive to try Linux, from a user point of view. The equation may be different for a government or corporate IT department. For Linux' sake, I hope so.
No, they are being jackasses because they are deadly afraid of municipalities implementing their own city-wide wireless internet. Other municipalities have tried to do this, and it scares the phone and cable companies silly, because if this is implemented nobody will need to pay them for internet access. Worse, with VOIP nobody may need to pay for phone service either. Municipal wireless internet equals an entire municipal market lost to the telecomm companies. They do not want this effort in New Orleans to succeed.
I have often noticed that medical doctors and engineers seem to make the best crackpots. Interestingly, this guy seems to be both. The reason seems to be that engineers and M.D.'s have enough science and math training to think they understand science, and can do math well enough to think they have 'proved' their crackpot theory. They don't, however, have enough background to understand how things like quantum mechanics and relativity actually work, and they aren't really trained in the scientific method so they don't understand how to actually support or refute a theory.
In the real world, a lot of engineering gets done in standard, particularly in the US. The reason? If I walk to the hardware store, they are gonna sell me a 2"x4" piece of wood, not 40mm X 90mm.
Actually, a "green" American 2 x 4 is 40 x 90 mm. Dried they end up a little smaller. Measure one some time if you don't believe me.
Microsoft owes us the security patches and updates. Any manufacturer that ships a defective product is responsible to fix the problem, at their own expense. If they want to charge some sort of fee for other upgrades, that's fine with me.
True enough, but given such evidence that the machine is capable of giving an incorrect reading, it seems to me that the onus would then be on the prosecution to demonstrate that the machine could not have given an incorrect reading under the conditions that led to the defendant being charged. That may have required expert testimony that was not available at the time.
You can buy commercial pillow (and mattress) covers that are designed to be impervious to dust mite allergens, yet still allow the pillow to breathe. The texture is much nicer than wrapping the pillow in plastic.
The key difference is how you open an old document. In a true document-oriented system, the most natural way to open a previously-created document is to locate the document, based on where you stored it (perhaps by date, or by project, or by some other classification that suits you). In an application-oriented environment, it's more natural to locate the application that created the document, and then open the document from within that application. Windows has elements of both.
The document-oriented approach is probably more intuitive and encourages better organization of files (e.g. storing documents by topic rather than by what application created them). One downside is that the user still needs to be aware of applications, as some tasks don't naturally have a 'document'.
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Actually, this is probably a good case for a cost-benefit analysis. A proper analysis would show that a 1% chance of a huge disaster very well justifies an investment in prevention of the problem.
The problem isn't the power sent into the tank to run the sensors, it's that a failure elsewhere in the plane's electrical system could cause excessive current to flow into the fuel tank sensor line. A plane was brought down by this several years ago: the insulation on the wires in a wiring harness had deteriorated with age and several wires became exposed. IIRC, voltage was shorted from the in-flight entertainment system into the fuel-sensor line. This caused a spark in the tank which ignited it and brought the plane down. Everyone died.
If there's a wire running into the tank, it's too hard to ensure that nothing ever puts an unsafe voltage onto that line. If you replace the line with a glass fiber, you ensure that you never have more voltage in the tank than you intended. It's easy then to arrange your physical design to keep that voltage within limits that cannot ignite the fuel under any circumstances.
I shopped there once or twice, but stopped buying from them because of their restrictive return policies. Best Buy and Circuit City have comparable prices, and were flexible on returns. Easy choice.
I agree. I'm not one of those who is opposed to this new model of music industry. I'd love to see the big music companies die off and be replaced by flexible distribution over the internet, combined with smaller businesses that provide services to musicians with growing careers--publicity, help with distributing music to radio stations, etc.
I wouldn't be suprised if the new model reduces income at the high end. Fewer superstars making huge incomes from music. Music could even become more like other careers, where you have a large "middle class" that makes a solid but not excessive income from live shows and selling their music online.
No, but a new band starting out can't afford to run a national publicity campaign. That's been the main legitimate thing the record companies have to offer, now that distribution can be done more cheaply through the internet. Record companies are willing to fund the campaign in the hopes of making the money back in future revenue from record sales. A new band couldn't do that on their own.
Yep. Same principle as the GPL, in fact. Everything distributed under the GPL is copyrighted, and the copyright holders require those who wish to copy it to do so under the terms of the GPL. Any other copying of the work would be a violation of the authors' copyright.
Power can always be measured in watts (and multiples thereof). You're talking nonsense.
Deserts have ecosystems too. Paving the desert with solar cells is not a good environmental solution to our power needs.
The distinction is likely to be based on whether it connects to the POTS phone system. If so, it will probably be taxed.
Not at all. The US signed a treaty with other nations, and they expect the US to hold up its end of the bargain. Demanding that a country live up to the agreements it signed is not "overriding its sovereignity".
One point that seems to be missing in this discussion is that driving is not a right. You're free to do whatever you want in general, but if you want to drive your car on publicly-owned roads you require a license from the state. That license comes with terms and conditions, among them that you be properly trained and tested and that you operate the vehicle in accordance with the law. That law includes the requirement to wear a seat belt. If you don't like the terms of the license, you are free to not choose to be licensed and to simply not drive. Your choice.
Note that in most states passengers found to be not wearing a seatbelt are not fined. The driver is fined, for operating the vehicle while a passenger was not properly secured. The state has no right to tell you what to do with your body, but they certainly do have a right to tell you how you may drive your car (on publicly-owned roads).
Not to mention, that these are also customers.
Unfortunately, the US system seems to not even have achieved two of the three. It is arguably effective, but I don't think a good case can be made for either efficient or cheap.
Yeah, but Windows comes pre-installed on the computer. For your average computer user, that's a win. Zero installation time vs. an hour or two to find Linux, download it, and install it. Plus, the average user already knows how to run Windows. Why try anything else?
Unless computers are your hobby or your profession, there is really very little incentive to try Linux, from a user point of view. The equation may be different for a government or corporate IT department. For Linux' sake, I hope so.
No, they are being jackasses because they are deadly afraid of municipalities implementing their own city-wide wireless internet. Other municipalities have tried to do this, and it scares the phone and cable companies silly, because if this is implemented nobody will need to pay them for internet access. Worse, with VOIP nobody may need to pay for phone service either. Municipal wireless internet equals an entire municipal market lost to the telecomm companies. They do not want this effort in New Orleans to succeed.
Not to mention that if your noise cancelling headset slips into phase with the LRAD sound it will blow out your eardrums.
I have often noticed that medical doctors and engineers seem to make the best crackpots. Interestingly, this guy seems to be both. The reason seems to be that engineers and M.D.'s have enough science and math training to think they understand science, and can do math well enough to think they have 'proved' their crackpot theory. They don't, however, have enough background to understand how things like quantum mechanics and relativity actually work, and they aren't really trained in the scientific method so they don't understand how to actually support or refute a theory.
Physics Letters A is a reputable journal. The other paper was from a conference proceedings, not a peer-reviewed journal.
Actually, a "green" American 2 x 4 is 40 x 90 mm. Dried they end up a little smaller. Measure one some time if you don't believe me.
How much energy does that processing take? If it takes more energy than you get from the fuel produced, you're SOL.
Microsoft owes us the security patches and updates. Any manufacturer that ships a defective product is responsible to fix the problem, at their own expense. If they want to charge some sort of fee for other upgrades, that's fine with me.
True enough, but given such evidence that the machine is capable of giving an incorrect reading, it seems to me that the onus would then be on the prosecution to demonstrate that the machine could not have given an incorrect reading under the conditions that led to the defendant being charged. That may have required expert testimony that was not available at the time.
Got any evidence for your assertion that we have "far less" natural immunity against pathogens than most animals and plants? I call B.S.
You can buy commercial pillow (and mattress) covers that are designed to be impervious to dust mite allergens, yet still allow the pillow to breathe. The texture is much nicer than wrapping the pillow in plastic.
The document-oriented approach is probably more intuitive and encourages better organization of files (e.g. storing documents by topic rather than by what application created them). One downside is that the user still needs to be aware of applications, as some tasks don't naturally have a 'document'.