I sure my paranoid friend would have just loved a dry, limestone cave in which to store his survival supplies. Unfortunately, the idea doesn't scale well.
No tracking system is going to deal with the question of home made / under the counter gun sales or construction.
It has ALWAYS been possible (and fairly easy) to make a lower receiver in the comfort and privacy of your own machine shop. Making it on a 3D printer doesn't change a thing except for requiring a different skill set.
In fact, if you wanted to create a race-to-the-finish between aficionados of 3D gun printing and the old boring machine shop way, I'm going to bet that the folks with the 3 axis Bridgeports are going to win hands down. You can teach anyone with an IQ of about 110 to use a milling machine / lathe well enough to make a simple gun in about a month. High school shops do it all the time.
By the time that the 3D folks have figured out the plans, figured out the materials and debugged the system to make a.22 popgun that won't literally melt after the third round, I'm well on my way to fabricating a raft of AK-47 clones.
Reminds me of a friend who was of a similar mind. He stored hundreds of rolls of toilet paper in a storage area cleverly located in the ceiling of his covered deck. Basically wasted space until he decided it would be a perfect place for that bulky but absolutely essential aspect of modern life.
His plan worked fine until a windstorm tore the roof off said deck and scattered the hundreds of rolls of toilet paper over a huge swath of scrub pine and chaparral downwind to the cabin. You know, it's damn hard to pick up hundreds of rolls of TP stuck in the brush. Would have made a great little picture on Google Earth, had it existed back then.
Moral of the story: Although TP is important to modern sensibilities, it's not something most people can safely store for extended periods of time. Leaves, OTOH just grow on trees although winter tends to be a bit harder concept to deal with.
The problem with your analysis is that you've put the cart before the horse. Or, more accurately, the OS before the applications.
Your friend wants to run Adobe stuff. It runs on either OS X or Windows. She has the Windows versions. She is price sensitive. She has no major beef with her current application loader (er, OS).
Yep, the no brainer advice is to keep her on the Windows platform. Because of the apps. (As an aside, it's a moderate PITA to switch out operating systems for Adobe Creative Suite products. Totally amazing here in the 21st Century, but there you have it.)
But good luck finding a Dell that actually competes with an Air in terms of wieght, size and performance. Of course, if she's doing video, then she does not want an Air - she wants a fairly beefy high end laptop. A laptop that is sold by Apple, Dell, Asus, Lenovo, probably HP and bog knows who else. Your best technical advise to here would be 'you want something with a bit more horsepower than an Air - here are a bunch of choices.
On August 31st, Twitter became self aware and launched an earthquake in the Philippines to incite a counterattack against the humans, who in panic, tried to log on to Facebook.
I actually look forward to this, and wonder how it will change the interior design of cars. Will we turn the front seat around and go for a more social living room style arrangement? Will we dispense with the view from the front windshield in favour of an immersive large-screen TV? Beds for those long drives? Will we have refrigerators and microwaves so we can get breakfast on the morning commute? The possibilities are awesome.
An autopilot in your RV and you're already there. In more ways than one.
As a bonus, since they only go 45 mph in straight lines, the system should be pretty easy to set up. Lots of room for hardware and you can use the CPU as a stove top.
OTOH, I don't have race conditions and can reboot myself if needed. My MTBF is about 50 years - better than pretty much any computer based device I've ever used.
Sit down on this cot, we're going to give you a shot which will make you much more relaxed. And then we are going to show you to your new room. Sorry, it has a very small window and you won't get out much, but you will be safe from THEM.
You must have missed the memo. The drugs are too expensive and we don't have enough space for private rooms.
If only we had some sort of reusable craft that could travel into space with a crew, use some sort of grappling arm to capture the satellite and return it to Earth.
I suppose one could dream.
Yeah, if only we had a manned space craft that could get to geosynchronous orbit. That would be cool.
The last time we had something like that was the Apollo program. The Shuttle (which I'm assuming you are referring to) only made it to LEO.
People often come to me (and I suspect most other Slashdot readers) asking for advice about computers. If I say, "Stay away from Apple," at least a large fraction of those people will do so.
At the rate Apple is going, they could buy out nVidia or AMD and make their own damned cards. It would be just like them - make a premium product that only they can sell.
I suspect that this would not go over well as the upgradeability of this prototelevision would be suspect. The business case for manufacturers neglecting upgrading in favor of upselling is too strong. See, for example, the sad tale of cell phone providers upgrading Android on a regular basis.
Slashdot Mirror
I sure my paranoid friend would have just loved a dry, limestone cave in which to store his survival supplies. Unfortunately, the idea doesn't scale well.
No tracking system is going to deal with the question of home made / under the counter gun sales or construction.
It has ALWAYS been possible (and fairly easy) to make a lower receiver in the comfort and privacy of your own machine shop. Making it on a 3D printer doesn't change a thing except for requiring a different skill set.
In fact, if you wanted to create a race-to-the-finish between aficionados of 3D gun printing and the old boring machine shop way, I'm going to bet that the folks with the 3 axis Bridgeports are going to win hands down. You can teach anyone with an IQ of about 110 to use a milling machine / lathe well enough to make a simple gun in about a month. High school shops do it all the time.
By the time that the 3D folks have figured out the plans, figured out the materials and debugged the system to make a .22 popgun that won't literally melt after the third round, I'm well on my way to fabricating a raft of AK-47 clones.
... After all, Benjamin Franklin wrote of the three degrees of lies, "there are lies, damned lies, and statistics."
Not exactly old Ben, it was somebody else.
Just a little pedantry to go along with the morning coffee.
For those of you unfamiliar with Shakesphere:
In Act IV, Scene 2 of Henry VI Part 2, Dick says "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
You keep using that quote. I do not think it means what you think it means.
The more the information is disseminated, the harder it is for Congress to deliberately make bad policy decisions.
However, Congress loves a challenge like this and will very likely rise to the occasion.
Reminds me of a friend who was of a similar mind. He stored hundreds of rolls of toilet paper in a storage area cleverly located in the ceiling of his covered deck. Basically wasted space until he decided it would be a perfect place for that bulky but absolutely essential aspect of modern life.
His plan worked fine until a windstorm tore the roof off said deck and scattered the hundreds of rolls of toilet paper over a huge swath of scrub pine and chaparral downwind to the cabin. You know, it's damn hard to pick up hundreds of rolls of TP stuck in the brush. Would have made a great little picture on Google Earth, had it existed back then.
Moral of the story: Although TP is important to modern sensibilities, it's not something most people can safely store for extended periods of time. Leaves, OTOH just grow on trees although winter tends to be a bit harder concept to deal with.
Is it really a good idea to put computers and hydrocarbons that closely together?
What if there's a fire?
Most people would put it out. What, exactly, were you thinking?
A definite change in tone :-)
Sounds like a good change in tone. Backup, cleanup, get real about doing business at work.
Love it!
The West is a overused term. That said, I see a lot of Apple laptops here in Japan.
Hell, you're way West from me, and I'm in Alaska. You're so West that you could be considered East.
Now I'm all dizzy.
The problem with your analysis is that you've put the cart before the horse. Or, more accurately, the OS before the applications.
Your friend wants to run Adobe stuff. It runs on either OS X or Windows. She has the Windows versions. She is price sensitive. She has no major beef with her current application loader (er, OS).
Yep, the no brainer advice is to keep her on the Windows platform. Because of the apps. (As an aside, it's a moderate PITA to switch out operating systems for Adobe Creative Suite products. Totally amazing here in the 21st Century, but there you have it.)
But good luck finding a Dell that actually competes with an Air in terms of wieght, size and performance. Of course, if she's doing video, then she does not want an Air - she wants a fairly beefy high end laptop. A laptop that is sold by Apple, Dell, Asus, Lenovo, probably HP and bog knows who else. Your best technical advise to here would be 'you want something with a bit more horsepower than an Air - here are a bunch of choices.
The OS is a minor issue.
I'd be worried more about the timing...
On August 31st, Twitter became self aware and launched an earthquake in the Philippines to incite a counterattack against the humans, who in panic, tried to log on to Facebook.
Be afraid.
Be very afraid.
I actually look forward to this, and wonder how it will change the interior design of cars. Will we turn the front seat around and go for a more social living room style arrangement? Will we dispense with the view from the front windshield in favour of an immersive large-screen TV? Beds for those long drives? Will we have refrigerators and microwaves so we can get breakfast on the morning commute? The possibilities are awesome.
An autopilot in your RV and you're already there. In more ways than one.
As a bonus, since they only go 45 mph in straight lines, the system should be pretty easy to set up. Lots of room for hardware and you can use the CPU as a stove top.
I'm gonna write Winnebago right now...
Who is doing the code review on your brain?
From what I've been able to determine, most people seem to be written in an early variant of Visual Basic.
Wake me up when they've been refactored.
Nobody. Same as now.
OTOH, I don't have race conditions and can reboot myself if needed. My MTBF is about 50 years - better than pretty much any computer based device I've ever used.
Upgrades are a bitch though, I'll give you that.
Sit down on this cot, we're going to give you a shot which will make you much more relaxed. And then
we are going to show you to your new room. Sorry, it has a very small window and you won't get out much,
but you will be safe from THEM.
You must have missed the memo. The drugs are too expensive and we don't have enough space for private rooms.
Here's some tinfoil. Make a nice hat.
If only we had some sort of reusable craft that could travel into space with a crew, use some sort of grappling arm to capture the satellite and return it to Earth.
I suppose one could dream.
Yeah, if only we had a manned space craft that could get to geosynchronous orbit. That would be cool.
The last time we had something like that was the Apollo program. The Shuttle (which I'm assuming you are referring to) only made it to LEO.
Why is it that all of these folks doing nefarious deeds and undermining the foundations of our society ...
are still using modems?
Does it have something to do with AOL?
People often come to me (and I suspect most other Slashdot readers) asking for advice about computers. If I say, "Stay away from Apple," at least a large fraction of those people will do so.
"No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame."
Uh huh...
At the rate Apple is going, they could buy out nVidia or AMD and make their own damned cards. It would be just like them - make a premium product that only they can sell.
I suspect that this would not go over well as the upgradeability of this prototelevision would be suspect. The business case for manufacturers neglecting upgrading in favor of upselling is too strong. See, for example, the sad tale of cell phone providers upgrading Android on a regular basis.
Funny, I thought they were pretty expensive. Campaign contributions tend to run in the 6 figures for a Congressman or Senator.
Yes, if only it were possible to train America to keep its troops onshore unless they are attacked. But apparently the rat thing is easier...
We're talking real rats. Not the Rat Thing.
Now that would be awesome. A C17 full of Rat Things.......
If it works as well as the current round of 'targeted advertising' your pregnant teenager might well get Viagra adverts.
Ourselves?