I think they're just trying to point out that things are simpler when there are 2 sexes, regarding laws and organizing things in general.
Which is an silly thing to believe. Technology didn't cause transgender people to exist. Humanity existed for millenia without laws to require people to use a particular toilet, and there is no reason we need such laws now.
In the same way that things are simpler when there are no wars.
Wars are far, far LESS common that they were in the past. Why? Answer: Technology. A century ago, millions of soldiers were 97 days into the hundred days offensive (it ended at 11am on Nov 11th) in one of the dumbest and most pointless wars ever fought. It started because of gross misjudgements of the intentions and motivations of both allies and enemies. That is much more unlikely today, when everyone is just a cell call away.
The fact that it sucks doesn't mean it isn't continuously uploading what you say to Samsung.
The fact that it communicates through my local Wifi, and sends only a tiny blip of data if, and only if, I say the "Hello Bixby" trigger, means that it is extremely unlikely to be "continuously uploading" anything.
You should find a more plausible conspiracy theory to glom onto. The Flat Earth Society is looking for new members.
Bixby is a crappy interface, but I don't think you can extrapolate from that to say that smart appliances are inherently crappy.
I also have an Alexa, which requires no acknowledgement, and understands what I say 99% of the time. If the fridge had an Alexa interface, and I could just say "Alexa, show the contents", it would be fine.
My wife bought a Samsung "smart refrigerator" with Bixby built-in. I can assure you that Bixby is no where near the privacy threat that Alexa and Siri are, because IT DOESN'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING YOU SAY.
Bixby is way behind where Siri and Alexa were even back in 2015. The interface is clunky: You say "Hello Bixby" and then wait for it to acknowledge (which it often fails to do), and then you make your request, which it then either ignores or misunderstands.
Using the Bixby voice interface to, say, show the contents of the refrigerator on the touchscreen, is going to take ten times as long as just opening the door and looking.
It is not all bad. The speakers on the Samsung smart fridge are actually very good, with a deep base and full range. So if nice sound quality is something you look for in a refrigerator, it might be a good choice.
And who would that small company be? I only know of Qualcomm, Intel, MediaTek and Samsung as suppliers of mobile basebands. If you know of any others, please do tell.
Broadcom. But they are only slightly smaller than Qualcomm ($17B vs $22B in annual revenue).
Apple's best option is to win their lawsuit, and force Qualcomm to give them a better deal. If they lose, they may decide to build or buy.
Apple's cash pile is over $290B, so they can certainly afford to do either. But Apple tends to do far fewer acquisitions than other big tech companies.
Nearly all coke used in steel production is made from low sulfur metallurgical coal.
The American steel industry was located in Pennsylvania because of the quality of the coal there. It is cheaper to bring the iron ore to the coal than the other way around.
Today, the biggest producers of metallurgical coal and coke are Dongbei (Manchuria) and Neimenggu (Inner Mongolia).
Tackling homelessness and taking homeless people off the street improves location desirability, which increases people's desire to live and work there.
You are assuming that the new spending will actually be effective. That may or may not be true. Homelessness is a difficult problem to solve, and SF already has plenty of shelters and programs that don't work. More spending on homelessness will also pull more homeless people from other areas of the country, which may actually make the problem worse on the streets of San Francisco.
actually done for textiles and prostitution, people promised immigration to American, then at LAX with the help of criminal employees there the people are whisked off to factory or brothel.
Can you cite an actual example of this happening? A quick Google search found several politicians talking about human trafficking thru LAX, but none of them provided any evidence that it had actually happened even once.
And anyway, isn't 1 kilogram already defined at 1 L of pure H2O?
No, it is not. RTFA. It is defined as the mass of a slug of platinum-iridium alloy in Paris.
Where are you going to get a liter of pure H2O? Water contains about 0.1% deuterium and three different stable isotopes of oxygen, all in varying concentrations depending on the source of the water. You could distill it, but never get it completely pure. And how are you going to determine the purity? By weighing it?
Using water as the basis is way worse than using metal, because water evaporates, absorbs gases from the air, absorbs ions from the container, etc.
Meanwhile the law made phony plans with no coverage illegal. So people who were paying $50+/mo for basically nothing suddenly had to have insurance for pay the fine.
The cheap plans were not for "nothing". They were for catastrophic-only plans. That is how insurance should work.
Car analogy: Catastrophic-only health insurance is like car insurance that pays for collision repairs. "Normal" health insurance is like car insurance that covers gasoline, and requires three forms and a $100 admin fee every time you fill your tank.
I was under the impression that the costs for supplies, equipment, and medicines are what has been growing so fast.
The biggest contributor to rising medical costs is administration. Many clinics and hospitals have more people dealing with insurance and regulatory compliance forms than treating patients.
The second biggest contributor is big ticket equipment. It is questionable how much value these bring. When hospitals install MRI machines, costing millions of dollars each, there is no measurable improvement in patient outcomes.
I remember fondly, when one doctor called me to complain about my program I wrote for him He said it behaved erratically, especially if they lay down a heavy binder on the keyboard to check something.
Instead of blaming the user, maybe you should have fixed your program. If it is used in an environment where objects may be placed on the keyboard, then perhaps you should ignore spurious input like rapidly repeating keys.
Cobol is a very easy language to learn. In fact, ease of use was Grace's primary design goal. It was supposed to be a language that anyone could read or write.
When I first had to change a Cobol program, I read the manual for less than an hour, and then started coding. I never had any significant problems.
If your friend already had a programming background, there is no way he should need two years to learn Cobol.
If Bitcoin was only mined with off-peak electricity, making Bitcoin the only sustainable currency on the planet.
"Off-peak" does not mean sustainable. Most off-peak power in America comes from gas or coal.
Most bitcoins are mined in China. China is also the biggest aluminum producer, producing more than the rest of the world combined.
There are 3.6 megajoules per kwh. Wholesale electricity in China is about 4 US-cents per kwh.
So if aluminum really needs 122mj = 34 kwh = $1.35 worth of electricity, to make $1 worth of aluminum, then the Chinese smelters are either getting really low prices on power, or are getting subsidies. So Trump was right.
The 17 mj for $1 worth of bitcoin costs about 19 US-cents.
Nobody wants climate change to be real, so an optimist is able to ignore evidence that it is.
Stupid analogy.
For climate change, there is overwhelming evidence that it is real.
For "job losses to automation" there is overwhelming evidence that it is nonsense. It didn't happen in the past, it is not happening now, and areas of the world that failed to automate are much poorer.
Slashdot Mirror
I think they're just trying to point out that things are simpler when there are 2 sexes, regarding laws and organizing things in general.
Which is an silly thing to believe. Technology didn't cause transgender people to exist. Humanity existed for millenia without laws to require people to use a particular toilet, and there is no reason we need such laws now.
In the same way that things are simpler when there are no wars.
Wars are far, far LESS common that they were in the past. Why? Answer: Technology. A century ago, millions of soldiers were 97 days into the hundred days offensive (it ended at 11am on Nov 11th) in one of the dumbest and most pointless wars ever fought. It started because of gross misjudgements of the intentions and motivations of both allies and enemies. That is much more unlikely today, when everyone is just a cell call away.
when the electricity goes out, a candle and a good book is always appreciated. ;-)
Sure, as long as it is a rechargable LED candle. It is better for your eyes and the environment than an inefficient CO2-spewing wax candle.
Another option would be to sit in the dark and listen to an audiobook.
China obviously wants war. Why else would they put their country right next to so many American military bases?
The fact that it sucks doesn't mean it isn't continuously uploading what you say to Samsung.
The fact that it communicates through my local Wifi, and sends only a tiny blip of data if, and only if, I say the "Hello Bixby" trigger, means that it is extremely unlikely to be "continuously uploading" anything.
You should find a more plausible conspiracy theory to glom onto. The Flat Earth Society is looking for new members.
Bixby is a crappy interface, but I don't think you can extrapolate from that to say that smart appliances are inherently crappy.
I also have an Alexa, which requires no acknowledgement, and understands what I say 99% of the time. If the fridge had an Alexa interface, and I could just say "Alexa, show the contents", it would be fine.
My wife bought a Samsung "smart refrigerator" with Bixby built-in. I can assure you that Bixby is no where near the privacy threat that Alexa and Siri are, because IT DOESN'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING YOU SAY.
Bixby is way behind where Siri and Alexa were even back in 2015. The interface is clunky: You say "Hello Bixby" and then wait for it to acknowledge (which it often fails to do), and then you make your request, which it then either ignores or misunderstands.
Using the Bixby voice interface to, say, show the contents of the refrigerator on the touchscreen, is going to take ten times as long as just opening the door and looking.
It is not all bad. The speakers on the Samsung smart fridge are actually very good, with a deep base and full range. So if nice sound quality is something you look for in a refrigerator, it might be a good choice.
And who would that small company be? I only know of Qualcomm, Intel, MediaTek and Samsung as suppliers of mobile basebands. If you know of any others, please do tell.
Broadcom. But they are only slightly smaller than Qualcomm ($17B vs $22B in annual revenue).
Apple's best option is to win their lawsuit, and force Qualcomm to give them a better deal. If they lose, they may decide to build or buy.
Apple's cash pile is over $290B, so they can certainly afford to do either. But Apple tends to do far fewer acquisitions than other big tech companies.
Nearly all coke used in steel production is made from low sulfur metallurgical coal.
The American steel industry was located in Pennsylvania because of the quality of the coal there. It is cheaper to bring the iron ore to the coal than the other way around.
Today, the biggest producers of metallurgical coal and coke are Dongbei (Manchuria) and Neimenggu (Inner Mongolia).
Tackling homelessness and taking homeless people off the street improves location desirability, which increases people's desire to live and work there.
You are assuming that the new spending will actually be effective. That may or may not be true. Homelessness is a difficult problem to solve, and SF already has plenty of shelters and programs that don't work. More spending on homelessness will also pull more homeless people from other areas of the country, which may actually make the problem worse on the streets of San Francisco.
If they are bringing in foreign workers they need green cards or H1B.
Only W-2 employees need green cards or H1B visas. None of that is required for independent contractors.
actually done for textiles and prostitution, people promised immigration to American, then at LAX with the help of criminal employees there the people are whisked off to factory or brothel.
Can you cite an actual example of this happening? A quick Google search found several politicians talking about human trafficking thru LAX, but none of them provided any evidence that it had actually happened even once.
The purity of water is defined by electrical resistance.
That doesn't work for isotopes.
Read this: Comparative Advantage.
You are repeating an economic fallacy that was debunked by David Ricardo more than 200 years ago.
That will include management, engineering, art, creativity, diplomacy, empathic understanding of people's feelings, you name it
That is science fiction, and is no where on the horizon. If you think that "deep learning" is leading to general AI, you are mistaken.
And anyway, isn't 1 kilogram already defined at 1 L of pure H2O?
No, it is not. RTFA. It is defined as the mass of a slug of platinum-iridium alloy in Paris.
Where are you going to get a liter of pure H2O? Water contains about 0.1% deuterium and three different stable isotopes of oxygen, all in varying concentrations depending on the source of the water. You could distill it, but never get it completely pure. And how are you going to determine the purity? By weighing it?
Using water as the basis is way worse than using metal, because water evaporates, absorbs gases from the air, absorbs ions from the container, etc.
Meanwhile the law made phony plans with no coverage illegal. So people who were paying $50+/mo for basically nothing suddenly had to have insurance for pay the fine.
The cheap plans were not for "nothing". They were for catastrophic-only plans. That is how insurance should work.
Car analogy: Catastrophic-only health insurance is like car insurance that pays for collision repairs. "Normal" health insurance is like car insurance that covers gasoline, and requires three forms and a $100 admin fee every time you fill your tank.
Care to comment?
No.
I was under the impression that the costs for supplies, equipment, and medicines are what has been growing so fast.
The biggest contributor to rising medical costs is administration. Many clinics and hospitals have more people dealing with insurance and regulatory compliance forms than treating patients.
The second biggest contributor is big ticket equipment. It is questionable how much value these bring. When hospitals install MRI machines, costing millions of dollars each, there is no measurable improvement in patient outcomes.
Weren't premiums supposed to go DOWN???
No. Obamacare was always about the rich/healthy subsidizing the poor/sick. Nobody ever said that everyone's premiums would go down.
Sooo, we're supposed to give the clowns that pawned Obamacare off on us ANOTHER chance?
No. Obamacare is a federal program. All the programs in TFA are happening at the state and local level.
The difference between the doctor and the cat is that the cat isn't paying you to fix his problems.
I remember fondly, when one doctor called me to complain about my program I wrote for him
He said it behaved erratically, especially if they lay down a heavy binder on the keyboard to check something.
Instead of blaming the user, maybe you should have fixed your program. If it is used in an environment where objects may be placed on the keyboard, then perhaps you should ignore spurious input like rapidly repeating keys.
Cobol is a very easy language to learn. In fact, ease of use was Grace's primary design goal. It was supposed to be a language that anyone could read or write.
When I first had to change a Cobol program, I read the manual for less than an hour, and then started coding. I never had any significant problems.
If your friend already had a programming background, there is no way he should need two years to learn Cobol.
The experience of watching 1,2,3,1,2 would not be at all the same as watching 1,2,3 ; 2,3,1 ; and 3,1,2
It would be if you have anterograde amnesia.
If Bitcoin was only mined with off-peak electricity, making Bitcoin the only sustainable currency on the planet.
"Off-peak" does not mean sustainable. Most off-peak power in America comes from gas or coal.
Most bitcoins are mined in China. China is also the biggest aluminum producer, producing more than the rest of the world combined.
There are 3.6 megajoules per kwh. Wholesale electricity in China is about 4 US-cents per kwh.
So if aluminum really needs 122mj = 34 kwh = $1.35 worth of electricity, to make $1 worth of aluminum, then the Chinese smelters are either getting really low prices on power, or are getting subsidies. So Trump was right.
The 17 mj for $1 worth of bitcoin costs about 19 US-cents.
Owners start to see a significant drop in sales.
Do you mean like the drop of sales when the steam engine was invented?
Oh, wait, that didn't happen. Sales went up.
Or the drop in sales when the automatic loom was invented?
Oh, that didn't happen either. Sales went up more.
Or the drop in sales when agriculture was mechanized?
Nope, that didn't happen either. Sales went WAY up.
Or the drop of sales when assembly lines and electrification became come?
Nope. The economy boomed.
So your theory that "rising productivity causes sales to decline" doesn't seem to be connected to reality.
Nobody wants climate change to be real, so an optimist is able to ignore evidence that it is.
Stupid analogy.
For climate change, there is overwhelming evidence that it is real.
For "job losses to automation" there is overwhelming evidence that it is nonsense. It didn't happen in the past, it is not happening now, and areas of the world that failed to automate are much poorer.