Have you been to any of the expressway oasises? I haven't been to them all, but the northbound one on 294 has a charging station.
I travel through Chicago a few times a year now (and lived there before open road tolling existed) and did not notice them before. Great information and I do wonder if how many have them and if there is a build out plan.
If you are on a long trip, you are usually passing filling stations: very few people do 200 miles entirely on back roads. And good safety means that you should take a break about every 150 miles or so. So, as soon as filling stations do electrical recharge, the problem goes away for drivers not trying to keep going avery minute of the day. The problem is always chicken-and-egg: until people have the cars, the charging station will not exist.
In the Chicagoland area, they have a number of oasis situated on the expressway that have food, restrooms, gas. I imagine if the tollway authority added charging stations to the parking area, you would see an uptick in adoption. I know other metropolitan areas have the same type of setups; a few strategically place charging stations could start turning the tide.
Then there is the Aether theory. You think scientists are somehow magically infallible or something like that?
Not trying to go a little off topic, but
I actually think the whole concept of Aether being the medium to transmit light "waves" is a good example of science working the way it should. Individuals observed that all waves appear to need a medium to travel in. Therefore, there must be a medium for light waves.
Now, the difference between blind faith and science is that someone wanted to show that the Aether theory was correct. This was the famous Michelson-Morley experiment where the theory was shown to be wrong (yes, I know there were many experiments in this area of study with varying results) and was a stepping stone to special relativity.
So yes, scientists are fallible but that isn't the same as not willing to be show the "light" in the face of evidence.
The grandparent poster is on the mark. Would you really trust a black doctor who was a quota admit to med school?
Better you than me.
I don't know... did he or she take all the same class work as the other students? Did he or she pass the courses with sufficient grades to graduate? Did he or she successfully complete their residency? Did he or she pass the medical boards?
If yes, then I would. If they are competent and can demonstrate mastery of their craft, why would you not trust them?
So I'm perfectly happy with a society that aggressively shuns those people, regardless of judicial outcomes.
IMHO, engineers have a hard job. They constantly need to manage trade-offs, complex concepts, and scope/schedule trade-offs. Sometimes they make mistakes. I've worked in design of automation equipment, enterprise software, and medical devices and in all cases there were the occasional mistakes. People forget to update a requirements document, a change order is approved but not implemented, a drawing rev number isn't updated before sending to vendor, a critical bug is mistakenly set to low, a vendor changes a part and someone uses the old data sheet, etc.. There are recalls all the time on products through honest mistakes people make. Should we call out each of these people individually?
We would need to have a Google size site just to publish the name of every software engineer who introduced a bug into some software package. Everyone better step-up if we want to do that. I want the world to shun the individual who made a bad trade for my 401K, every person on a road crew who didn't finish a road project on time -- well, there are countless people who make mistakes who are nameless part of a bigger organization.
Americans need to toughen up. Cancelling work and school because of a bit of ice and snow?
Never underestimate just how much of a mess what we call a small amount of snow can cause in a place which doesn't normally have to deal with it.
I have always lived in the mid-west. Actually, most of it in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Wisconsin, and went to school up on Lake Superior. Driving in snow and ice should be second nature to us.
However, I see the same behavior up north at the beginning of winter. Some people who are use to driving full speed all summer and fall suddenly have a hard time dealing with the snow...and these are people who grew up in these areas. It takes a little time for many to get their "snow legs". Obviously, this isn't everyone and you would expect people to think a little before jumping in the car the first time... but it happens anyway.
Some of the distraction I find in my "smart car" features are due to poor user experience--location of hard buttons, layouts on screen of information or touch buttons,and quality of speech recognition. From the article:
Voice activated systems in newer radio systems would seem to offer an advantage over older car radios of keeping the drivers eyes on the road. (Indeed, tuning an older radio was used as a baseline task in these tests.) But according to Mehler, problems arise when the system needs clarification of what the driver wants
It's the clarification that is the problem, not that it is voice activated (i.e. user experience). I find this with Siri when I'm driving (using built-in blue tooth to integrate it like a "smart" car function) when trying to listen to or respond to a text using voice. Approximately 1 out of 5 times Siri misunderstands a word and I have to change the message. This pulls my attention from driving and I usually give up and wait for a light to try again.
This is just one example. In dash systems need more work on user experience.
You officially have me jealous! I forgot to mention I have a TRS CoCo and Apple IIgs too.
I also should mention a TI 99 4/A and Commodore SX64 is on my list of desired additions! I'm always soliciting donations of old computers from people I know. If they ever mention some old computer in the attic, I offer it a good home.
Someplace in a deep dark place with the rest of my college material there lives a picture. This thread makes me want to go dig around again! Probably sitting next to a banner saying "Commodore 128" made with Print Shop on a Citizen 120D and some really cool drawings I made on GEOS geoPaint.
I remember we named it MAXX but I cannot remember why anymore.
I have a soft place for the 8 bit machines and actually have a small collection: Osborne executive, Atari 800, Atari 400, Commodore 4+, several C64, C128, VIC20, and Apple II/IIe and a few more. Would love to find PET, MSX, and Sinclair machines.
The closest I got to robotics back then was the Radio Electronics interface board to the Armatron... I never got the Armatron...
We used the user port to drive a board with 5 volt relays that, in turn, were used to turn on and off the DC motors (re-purposed windshield wiper motors). For input, I used the joystick ports since BASIC 7 had features to react to button presses, etc. and all the I/O was essentially just switches. I could POKE on the gripper motor and have the system react when the gripper closed "fire button" was hit before turning it off.
Reading and reacting to the encoders required a machine language routing to keep up with the pulses. I think that lived in the cassette buffer but I'm fuzzy if this was the case. One final cool feature: I could use the joysticks to train the robot to move by recording it's actions and then replaying them (after trading out the joystick for the I/O plug). This was fairly amazing to most people in the late 80's.
I went from a Vic20 to C128 instead of a C64. I was amazed that I could use CPM and a very advanced basic. The power of this machine enabled me and a good friend to build a robot in college made of nothing but old car parts, DC motors, relays, and plates with holes drilled in them for encoders. That directly led to my first job as an automation engineer.
The C128 also was the last computer that fueled my dreams. I went to college to become a computer engineer so I could build what I called the "compatibility machine". This machine could execute all the major 8-bit computer software (they all had Z80's or 6502) without the user intervening or worrying what version of software they purchased. The C128 showed me it could be possible!
By the time I left school the writing was on the wall that Mac / IBM style PCs would rule the world. It didn't stop me from getting an Amiga, but it was pretty clear that CBM was on the way out.
If you display erroneous information the you will be liable.
Previous poster pointed out that this is true if sold as a medical device by an OEM. Medical device OEMs have a strict set of guidelines they need to follow for the creation of these devices--risk management, CAPA processes, demonstration that design outputs are tested against design inputs. (FDA 21 CFR Part 820, for example)
That being said, a hospital has a much less stringent set of requirements (though I believe there is much discussion in the FDA related to this). With the proper research agreements, IRB review (Institutional Review Board), and following proper research procedures (e.g. patient consent), a doctor can try new ideas, technology, or off-label use of existing device. However, Google would not be liable unless they want to sell a healthcare version.
20 years too late? Similar gadgets have been introduced and failed long before that. Seiko wrist TV is but one.
There were many examples. Timex had a watch that would sync calendar and reminders which required you to point it at a IR transmitter (for laptops). I had one and the sync failed far too often. At least it looked like a nice sports watch.
Motorola had a wristwatch pager called the Mermaid that was a large device as well. I couldn't find a link except to another collaboration between Timex and Motorola. I think there were others.
The watch space feels like the early mp3 player market. Many people trying to crack the code for what consumers will jump on but nobody quite yet has a break out product in usability and features.
First, they suck. I buy a camera, like it, don't return it, yet am then bombarded by ads from the vendor -.
I typically use blocking software on most sites, but not all. What I find is the ads are always too late to be useful.
As an example, I was looking at AutoTrader for a used car. Found one I liked, went to dealer, and purchased it. Now, weeks later I still get ads for vehicles. No problem; maybe they assume people search longer for a car. I'll buy that.
Purchased flowers for my fiance and the next day I'm getting ads for flowers. Yes, I love her but I'm not buying flowers everyday.
Basically what I'm trying to say is that the ads lag behind what I'm in the market for. They aren't predictive (maybe Google does better when scanning your email) and thus don't add much value if you're already done with the purchase. Facebook seems a bit better because they link them to topics people are discussing in posts. I like to post about cool guitar gear I find so an ad for a discount at Guitar Center might be useful. However, that is rare too.
Because no one has ever lost their job or had a medical cost they could not afford.
I cannot agree with you more. The post you responded to definitely has a narrow view of the world.
How about a sad story: A professional woman who ran a sales organization has a great career with good money and a husband who works as well. Nice home and is raising 6 children with good moral character even though one has a learning disability and another some anger management issues.
Fast forward 6 years: After two bouts with cancer and some chronic pain after surgery this woman is now on permanent disability. You know how much that pays a month? Not much. Husband and other men in her life are gone because men suck at living up to responsibility and she's stuck with no insurance, house is gone, and kids still need to eat. Thank god for government programs (which her taxes helped fund for years) so she might be able to afford food and medical care.
I am sure she's very sorry to be an undeserving leech, "welfare" mother in an otherwise perfect world the poster lives in.
How do I know all this? Well, she's my fiance and I'm looking forward to spending my life with her. Hey, that's good news...one less undeserving welfare mom for us to cover. You want to discuss fixing fraud, negative incentives for working, mismanagement of government programs, have at it, but let those deserving of some help out of it.
Tesla fails to provide required information and shatters the notion of comparison finance shopping by including the potential availability of incentives, gas savings, and tax savings into final payment quotes for prospective customers.
So the beef is that Tesla isn't being clear about everything and that upsets the dealers. hmm..
In my local paper, the dealers have ads in every Sunday that advertise a low price. As it was a few weeks ago, I was looking to buy a minivan for the family (I'm not completely domesticate, I still have my convertible). Great price of $22k for a Town and Country...pretty amazing actually. Way at the bottom of the ad were the caveats--includes first car buyer discount, veteran discount, bonus trade-in amount, etc.
Looking at the discounts there was no way you could be eligible for all of them at the same time. In my case, none of them. Yeah, those Tesla guys are devious and misleading.
Russia is a failed superpower, telling it's self what it wants to hear.
I saw an interesting show on how Russia is slowly dismantling the nuclear submarine fleet (Discovery's "Submarine: Hidden Hunters Collection"). They showed how a team of contractors and experts from former East Germany were helping decommission the fleet. There were over 200 nuclear power plants, with more still coming, sealed in part of the sub's pressure hull and being stored on cement slabs until the radioactivity had decreased enough for a later generation to tackle.
Failed super power or not, it does show how massive the military buildup between the Soviet Union and United States was during the Cold War. If the US is still sustaining that level of commitment (and number of subs as part of it), it would take quite some time for anyone (including China) to be in a position to completely wipe out our naval capability.
Just an opinion that let me mention a very interesting set of shows on subs. So yes, I had an ulterior motive to post!
Because their boxes are seriously overbuilt. The box an iPhone comes in is very nice but is far more robust and expensive packaging than is actually required for the purpose of safely conveying the product to customer's hands. They use it for marketing and to convey a sense of quality but there is no question that they over package their products.
I'm not sure I fully agree. If their product came damaged because of cheap packaging, the world would be up in arms about a $500+ device being damaged during shipping.
Also, Apple packaging is mostly just cardboard which is easy to recycle. Most of the other products I buy have packaging loaded with cardboard, Styrofoam (or press paper forms), plastic bags around everything, and plastic or wire cable ties. Apple has a screen protector, tiny plastic band around cables, and some cardboard.
My hands free reads my text back to me after I speak it and then asks for a confirmation.... That *should* be safer as I am not looking at the device...
My girlfriend would text me often when I was on the road, so I looked forward to Siri's integrated voice system so I could hear the message while driving. Overall it works well but does become more distracting than a simple phone call in some cases.
So here I am driving and get a text message: First, I need to ask Siri (I'm sure there's similar issues across platforms) to read message and HOPE it can pronounce everything right or there's a temptation to read it on the screen. Then, I wait for the question if I want to respond. I say "yes" and wait for Siri to ask for my message. All this time, I'm concentrating on hearing the prompts.
Next, I dictate my message and HOPE it understood what I was saying. (Note: I do have a bluetooth handsfree built into the car so at least I'm not holding it in one hand up to my face while driving. Although, this probably doesn't work as well as speaking directly in phone). If it repeats wrong, then I have to say "cancel" or "change it" and then wait for the prompt again. This time I concentrate more on how I pronounce everything. If all goes well, then I finally can say "send it".
So something that could be handled in a 10 second phone call now took 30+ seconds of dictating and concentrating on what the phone is saying to me. I can see how this could be just as bad.
I was very tempted, something interesting for a shrine of sorts.
I've been collecting interesting 8-bit waste computers and historic machines for a long time. I give them a home before someone throws them out (no need to buy) and think someday it will be cool to look back at them. I actually have had a chance to bring a bunch of my dinosaurs and discuss the history of computing with my daughter's tech club at school. This included a demonstration of an ENIAC simulator too!!
Many of these machines are in original boxes. As I was a Commodore guy in the past I have C64, C128, Plus4, Vic20, Amiga 500 and 2000. Also have the great pleasure of having Apple Mac 512, variety of Apple IIe's with accessories, and Apple IIgs. I have a few miscellaneous including an Atari 400, 800XL, and have a 3rd revision CoCo. My crown of the collection is an Osborne Executive...not too many of those laying around.
The only disappointment is the lack of time to fire them up and make sure everything keeps working. I'm sure the capacitors, floppies disks, and TV modulators/monitors will all be flaky if I ever get a chance to start actually playing with them.
I stopped reading comments after a while. Nothing but suggestions on security, windows jokes, and shotguns. I probably missed some good comments but let me add my own.
Personally, the first thing I would do is pick the "ecosystem" you want to play in. You a Google, Apple, MS person? For all the convergence devices, this is important to decide right away. I'm personally an Apple guy and like how all the devices sync up and it works for me...but the price is I bought in and know the limitations (For example, If I want Amazon prime on my Apple TV, I'm out of luck).
One of the nice thing is you can start standardizing on a brand for TV's and other audio/visual electronics. Most of the brands have some sort of link (proprietary?) that allows their TVs, receivers, players to work together fairly well without using universal remotes. Unfortunately, I bought most of my gear over time and many brands and only a few things are happy working together:(
Sorry that I can just suggest "the" brand to go with. I've had a robbery before and it sucks to have to rebuild. My own funny little story: I had a robbery in 1991 that told me that albums were going to die at the hands of CDs. The thief took my receiver, tape deck, 6 CD player and the heavy speakers....but left the turn table.
1) Open Sourced risk management tool. Add in the risks, controls, and likelihoods - store to a database (allows for risk templates like PCI/DSS) and output a report. As far as I know this is only available as commercial software.
I think this is a great idea. It is simple to understand the requirements (most FMEA or risk management is based on scores and a simple calculation) and has some interesting reports you could generate such as the risk waterfall by time. Most people use spreadsheets in someway which limits ability of everyone on the team to update or add status.
the $2 billion 'estimate' is based on 30% sales to every ipad sold.. which is a bit over 120 million worldwide.
i think most ipads are used mainly as toys (games, email, browsing, chatting, facebook and twitter shit, etc), not for actual 'work'.
imho, your 1% is a little low, that 30% is way high. perhaps 10-15% of ipads in north america and europe, and other "first world" (for lack of better term) markets
To build on your point, I think looking at the sales numbers (if such can be found) on the iWorks applications from Apple would at least give a better baseline than the guess they are making. If you could make a reasonable assumption on business's adoption of Office instead, then you would have a guess based more on facts.
I have an iPad I use at work every day. I use iWorks to review documents sent to me and it does an OK job as long as long as the documents are fairly standard. Unfortunately, the default MS fonts and our business's custom one cause Keynote to render PowerPoint files fairly poorly when it tries to find a font close enough.
Moral of the story: I would gladly download a copy of Office for iPad
When I called one woman to discuss why her productivity had plunged to nothing, she had to pause the phone conversation several times to tell her rug-rats to shutup while she was on the phone. The following Monday, she was back in the office, and her kids were back in daycare. Telecommuting works for some, but not for many others, and it requires significantly more management bandwidth.
See that's the thing telecommuters forget. You are still AT work, just in your home. The kids should have still been in daycare and she still could be doing business just fine. She could enjoy the coffee being two feet away, listening to the radio without headphones, etc... and still got things done.
At my company we have a very liberal work at home when needed policy. Most of the time it is due to family or other needs to be home (e.g. deliveries, repairs) so a drop in output is expected a little. However, people also use it to get stuff done without distractions of fellow employees (the curse of subject matter experts) which is a bonus to us. For my team who is permanently remote, I have to work much harder to ensure they are being successful. Touching base often, making sure we connect at a more personal level, having times they do come in the office for events, and never, ever canceling one-on-one meetings. You never get that back and don't have the luxury of catching them in the hall.
I find that if I don't have specific things to do, then I'm less productive at home. It is too easy to get distracted by other things like putting the dishes away. I'm a manager now, but I think that's why software people do succeed more at telecommuting. They can be hyper-focused on specific things, they have tangible deliverables to get done and don't let go of a problem until they solve it. I love software developers!
Slashdot Mirror
Have you been to any of the expressway oasises? I haven't been to them all, but the northbound one on 294 has a charging station.
I travel through Chicago a few times a year now (and lived there before open road tolling existed) and did not notice them before. Great information and I do wonder if how many have them and if there is a build out plan.
If you are on a long trip, you are usually passing filling stations: very few people do 200 miles entirely on back roads. And good safety means that you should take a break about every 150 miles or so. So, as soon as filling stations do electrical recharge, the problem goes away for drivers not trying to keep going avery minute of the day. The problem is always chicken-and-egg: until people have the cars, the charging station will not exist.
In the Chicagoland area, they have a number of oasis situated on the expressway that have food, restrooms, gas. I imagine if the tollway authority added charging stations to the parking area, you would see an uptick in adoption. I know other metropolitan areas have the same type of setups; a few strategically place charging stations could start turning the tide.
Then there is the Aether theory. You think scientists are somehow magically infallible or something like that?
Not trying to go a little off topic, but
I actually think the whole concept of Aether being the medium to transmit light "waves" is a good example of science working the way it should. Individuals observed that all waves appear to need a medium to travel in. Therefore, there must be a medium for light waves.
Now, the difference between blind faith and science is that someone wanted to show that the Aether theory was correct. This was the famous Michelson-Morley experiment where the theory was shown to be wrong (yes, I know there were many experiments in this area of study with varying results) and was a stepping stone to special relativity.
So yes, scientists are fallible but that isn't the same as not willing to be show the "light" in the face of evidence.
The grandparent poster is on the mark. Would you really trust a black doctor who was a quota admit to med school?
Better you than me.
I don't know... did he or she take all the same class work as the other students? Did he or she pass the courses with sufficient grades to graduate? Did he or she successfully complete their residency? Did he or she pass the medical boards?
If yes, then I would. If they are competent and can demonstrate mastery of their craft, why would you not trust them?
Why exactly is it a bad precedent?
So I'm perfectly happy with a society that aggressively shuns those people, regardless of judicial outcomes.
IMHO, engineers have a hard job. They constantly need to manage trade-offs, complex concepts, and scope/schedule trade-offs. Sometimes they make mistakes. I've worked in design of automation equipment, enterprise software, and medical devices and in all cases there were the occasional mistakes. People forget to update a requirements document, a change order is approved but not implemented, a drawing rev number isn't updated before sending to vendor, a critical bug is mistakenly set to low, a vendor changes a part and someone uses the old data sheet, etc.. There are recalls all the time on products through honest mistakes people make. Should we call out each of these people individually?
We would need to have a Google size site just to publish the name of every software engineer who introduced a bug into some software package. Everyone better step-up if we want to do that. I want the world to shun the individual who made a bad trade for my 401K, every person on a road crew who didn't finish a road project on time -- well, there are countless people who make mistakes who are nameless part of a bigger organization.
Never underestimate just how much of a mess what we call a small amount of snow can cause in a place which doesn't normally have to deal with it.
I have always lived in the mid-west. Actually, most of it in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Wisconsin, and went to school up on Lake Superior. Driving in snow and ice should be second nature to us.
However, I see the same behavior up north at the beginning of winter. Some people who are use to driving full speed all summer and fall suddenly have a hard time dealing with the snow...and these are people who grew up in these areas. It takes a little time for many to get their "snow legs". Obviously, this isn't everyone and you would expect people to think a little before jumping in the car the first time... but it happens anyway.
Some of the distraction I find in my "smart car" features are due to poor user experience--location of hard buttons, layouts on screen of information or touch buttons ,and quality of speech recognition. From the article:
It's the clarification that is the problem, not that it is voice activated (i.e. user experience). I find this with Siri when I'm driving (using built-in blue tooth to integrate it like a "smart" car function) when trying to listen to or respond to a text using voice. Approximately 1 out of 5 times Siri misunderstands a word and I have to change the message. This pulls my attention from driving and I usually give up and wait for a light to try again.
This is just one example. In dash systems need more work on user experience.
I have a PET4032...
You officially have me jealous! I forgot to mention I have a TRS CoCo and Apple IIgs too.
I also should mention a TI 99 4/A and Commodore SX64 is on my list of desired additions! I'm always soliciting donations of old computers from people I know. If they ever mention some old computer in the attic, I offer it a good home.
You don't have any pictures?
Someplace in a deep dark place with the rest of my college material there lives a picture. This thread makes me want to go dig around again! Probably sitting next to a banner saying "Commodore 128" made with Print Shop on a Citizen 120D and some really cool drawings I made on GEOS geoPaint.
I remember we named it MAXX but I cannot remember why anymore.
I have a soft place for the 8 bit machines and actually have a small collection: Osborne executive, Atari 800, Atari 400, Commodore 4+, several C64, C128, VIC20, and Apple II/IIe and a few more. Would love to find PET, MSX, and Sinclair machines.
The closest I got to robotics back then was the Radio Electronics interface board to the Armatron... I never got the Armatron...
We used the user port to drive a board with 5 volt relays that, in turn, were used to turn on and off the DC motors (re-purposed windshield wiper motors). For input, I used the joystick ports since BASIC 7 had features to react to button presses, etc. and all the I/O was essentially just switches. I could POKE on the gripper motor and have the system react when the gripper closed "fire button" was hit before turning it off.
Reading and reacting to the encoders required a machine language routing to keep up with the pulses. I think that lived in the cassette buffer but I'm fuzzy if this was the case. One final cool feature: I could use the joysticks to train the robot to move by recording it's actions and then replaying them (after trading out the joystick for the I/O plug). This was fairly amazing to most people in the late 80's.
I went from a Vic20 to C128 instead of a C64. I was amazed that I could use CPM and a very advanced basic. The power of this machine enabled me and a good friend to build a robot in college made of nothing but old car parts, DC motors, relays, and plates with holes drilled in them for encoders. That directly led to my first job as an automation engineer.
The C128 also was the last computer that fueled my dreams. I went to college to become a computer engineer so I could build what I called the "compatibility machine". This machine could execute all the major 8-bit computer software (they all had Z80's or 6502) without the user intervening or worrying what version of software they purchased. The C128 showed me it could be possible!
By the time I left school the writing was on the wall that Mac / IBM style PCs would rule the world. It didn't stop me from getting an Amiga, but it was pretty clear that CBM was on the way out.
If you display erroneous information the you will be liable.
Previous poster pointed out that this is true if sold as a medical device by an OEM. Medical device OEMs have a strict set of guidelines they need to follow for the creation of these devices--risk management, CAPA processes, demonstration that design outputs are tested against design inputs. (FDA 21 CFR Part 820, for example)
That being said, a hospital has a much less stringent set of requirements (though I believe there is much discussion in the FDA related to this). With the proper research agreements, IRB review (Institutional Review Board), and following proper research procedures (e.g. patient consent), a doctor can try new ideas, technology, or off-label use of existing device. However, Google would not be liable unless they want to sell a healthcare version.
20 years too late? Similar gadgets have been introduced and failed long before that. Seiko wrist TV is but one.
There were many examples. Timex had a watch that would sync calendar and reminders which required you to point it at a IR transmitter (for laptops). I had one and the sync failed far too often. At least it looked like a nice sports watch.
Motorola had a wristwatch pager called the Mermaid that was a large device as well. I couldn't find a link except to another collaboration between Timex and Motorola. I think there were others.
The watch space feels like the early mp3 player market. Many people trying to crack the code for what consumers will jump on but nobody quite yet has a break out product in usability and features.
First, they suck. I buy a camera, like it, don't return it, yet am then bombarded by ads from the vendor - .
I typically use blocking software on most sites, but not all. What I find is the ads are always too late to be useful.
As an example, I was looking at AutoTrader for a used car. Found one I liked, went to dealer, and purchased it. Now, weeks later I still get ads for vehicles. No problem; maybe they assume people search longer for a car. I'll buy that. Purchased flowers for my fiance and the next day I'm getting ads for flowers. Yes, I love her but I'm not buying flowers everyday.
Basically what I'm trying to say is that the ads lag behind what I'm in the market for. They aren't predictive (maybe Google does better when scanning your email) and thus don't add much value if you're already done with the purchase. Facebook seems a bit better because they link them to topics people are discussing in posts. I like to post about cool guitar gear I find so an ad for a discount at Guitar Center might be useful. However, that is rare too.
BTW, don't like ads anymore than anyone else.
Because no one has ever lost their job or had a medical cost they could not afford.
I cannot agree with you more. The post you responded to definitely has a narrow view of the world.
How about a sad story: A professional woman who ran a sales organization has a great career with good money and a husband who works as well. Nice home and is raising 6 children with good moral character even though one has a learning disability and another some anger management issues.
Fast forward 6 years: After two bouts with cancer and some chronic pain after surgery this woman is now on permanent disability. You know how much that pays a month? Not much. Husband and other men in her life are gone because men suck at living up to responsibility and she's stuck with no insurance, house is gone, and kids still need to eat. Thank god for government programs (which her taxes helped fund for years) so she might be able to afford food and medical care.
I am sure she's very sorry to be an undeserving leech, "welfare" mother in an otherwise perfect world the poster lives in.
How do I know all this? Well, she's my fiance and I'm looking forward to spending my life with her. Hey, that's good news...one less undeserving welfare mom for us to cover. You want to discuss fixing fraud, negative incentives for working, mismanagement of government programs, have at it, but let those deserving of some help out of it.
From the fine article:
Tesla fails to provide required information and shatters the notion of comparison finance shopping by including the potential availability of incentives, gas savings, and tax savings into final payment quotes for prospective customers.
So the beef is that Tesla isn't being clear about everything and that upsets the dealers. hmm..
In my local paper, the dealers have ads in every Sunday that advertise a low price. As it was a few weeks ago, I was looking to buy a minivan for the family (I'm not completely domesticate, I still have my convertible). Great price of $22k for a Town and Country...pretty amazing actually. Way at the bottom of the ad were the caveats--includes first car buyer discount, veteran discount, bonus trade-in amount, etc.
Looking at the discounts there was no way you could be eligible for all of them at the same time. In my case, none of them. Yeah, those Tesla guys are devious and misleading.
Russia is a failed superpower, telling it's self what it wants to hear.
I saw an interesting show on how Russia is slowly dismantling the nuclear submarine fleet (Discovery's "Submarine: Hidden Hunters Collection"). They showed how a team of contractors and experts from former East Germany were helping decommission the fleet. There were over 200 nuclear power plants, with more still coming, sealed in part of the sub's pressure hull and being stored on cement slabs until the radioactivity had decreased enough for a later generation to tackle.
Failed super power or not, it does show how massive the military buildup between the Soviet Union and United States was during the Cold War. If the US is still sustaining that level of commitment (and number of subs as part of it), it would take quite some time for anyone (including China) to be in a position to completely wipe out our naval capability.
Just an opinion that let me mention a very interesting set of shows on subs. So yes, I had an ulterior motive to post!
Their considering boot times to be costs.
When I read this in a story about UK, reminded me of the simple question. Have you tried turning it off and on?
Because their boxes are seriously overbuilt. The box an iPhone comes in is very nice but is far more robust and expensive packaging than is actually required for the purpose of safely conveying the product to customer's hands. They use it for marketing and to convey a sense of quality but there is no question that they over package their products.
I'm not sure I fully agree. If their product came damaged because of cheap packaging, the world would be up in arms about a $500+ device being damaged during shipping.
Also, Apple packaging is mostly just cardboard which is easy to recycle. Most of the other products I buy have packaging loaded with cardboard, Styrofoam (or press paper forms), plastic bags around everything, and plastic or wire cable ties. Apple has a screen protector, tiny plastic band around cables, and some cardboard.
My hands free reads my text back to me after I speak it and then asks for a confirmation.... That *should* be safer as I am not looking at the device...
My girlfriend would text me often when I was on the road, so I looked forward to Siri's integrated voice system so I could hear the message while driving. Overall it works well but does become more distracting than a simple phone call in some cases.
So here I am driving and get a text message: First, I need to ask Siri (I'm sure there's similar issues across platforms) to read message and HOPE it can pronounce everything right or there's a temptation to read it on the screen. Then, I wait for the question if I want to respond. I say "yes" and wait for Siri to ask for my message. All this time, I'm concentrating on hearing the prompts.
Next, I dictate my message and HOPE it understood what I was saying. (Note: I do have a bluetooth handsfree built into the car so at least I'm not holding it in one hand up to my face while driving. Although, this probably doesn't work as well as speaking directly in phone). If it repeats wrong, then I have to say "cancel" or "change it" and then wait for the prompt again. This time I concentrate more on how I pronounce everything. If all goes well, then I finally can say "send it".
So something that could be handled in a 10 second phone call now took 30+ seconds of dictating and concentrating on what the phone is saying to me. I can see how this could be just as bad.
I was very tempted, something interesting for a shrine of sorts.
I've been collecting interesting 8-bit waste computers and historic machines for a long time. I give them a home before someone throws them out (no need to buy) and think someday it will be cool to look back at them. I actually have had a chance to bring a bunch of my dinosaurs and discuss the history of computing with my daughter's tech club at school. This included a demonstration of an ENIAC simulator too!!
Many of these machines are in original boxes. As I was a Commodore guy in the past I have C64, C128, Plus4, Vic20, Amiga 500 and 2000. Also have the great pleasure of having Apple Mac 512, variety of Apple IIe's with accessories, and Apple IIgs. I have a few miscellaneous including an Atari 400, 800XL, and have a 3rd revision CoCo. My crown of the collection is an Osborne Executive...not too many of those laying around.
The only disappointment is the lack of time to fire them up and make sure everything keeps working. I'm sure the capacitors, floppies disks, and TV modulators/monitors will all be flaky if I ever get a chance to start actually playing with them.
I stopped reading comments after a while. Nothing but suggestions on security, windows jokes, and shotguns. I probably missed some good comments but let me add my own.
Personally, the first thing I would do is pick the "ecosystem" you want to play in. You a Google, Apple, MS person? For all the convergence devices, this is important to decide right away. I'm personally an Apple guy and like how all the devices sync up and it works for me...but the price is I bought in and know the limitations (For example, If I want Amazon prime on my Apple TV, I'm out of luck).
One of the nice thing is you can start standardizing on a brand for TV's and other audio/visual electronics. Most of the brands have some sort of link (proprietary?) that allows their TVs, receivers, players to work together fairly well without using universal remotes. Unfortunately, I bought most of my gear over time and many brands and only a few things are happy working together :(
Sorry that I can just suggest "the" brand to go with. I've had a robbery before and it sucks to have to rebuild. My own funny little story: I had a robbery in 1991 that told me that albums were going to die at the hands of CDs. The thief took my receiver, tape deck, 6 CD player and the heavy speakers....but left the turn table.
1) Open Sourced risk management tool. Add in the risks, controls, and likelihoods - store to a database (allows for risk templates like PCI/DSS) and output a report. As far as I know this is only available as commercial software.
I think this is a great idea. It is simple to understand the requirements (most FMEA or risk management is based on scores and a simple calculation) and has some interesting reports you could generate such as the risk waterfall by time. Most people use spreadsheets in someway which limits ability of everyone on the team to update or add status.
the $2 billion 'estimate' is based on 30% sales to every ipad sold.. which is a bit over 120 million worldwide.
i think most ipads are used mainly as toys (games, email, browsing, chatting, facebook and twitter shit, etc), not for actual 'work'.
imho, your 1% is a little low, that 30% is way high. perhaps 10-15% of ipads in north america and europe, and other "first world" (for lack of better term) markets
To build on your point, I think looking at the sales numbers (if such can be found) on the iWorks applications from Apple would at least give a better baseline than the guess they are making. If you could make a reasonable assumption on business's adoption of Office instead, then you would have a guess based more on facts.
I have an iPad I use at work every day. I use iWorks to review documents sent to me and it does an OK job as long as long as the documents are fairly standard. Unfortunately, the default MS fonts and our business's custom one cause Keynote to render PowerPoint files fairly poorly when it tries to find a font close enough.
Moral of the story: I would gladly download a copy of Office for iPad
When I called one woman to discuss why her productivity had plunged to nothing, she had to pause the phone conversation several times to tell her rug-rats to shutup while she was on the phone. The following Monday, she was back in the office, and her kids were back in daycare. Telecommuting works for some, but not for many others, and it requires significantly more management bandwidth.
See that's the thing telecommuters forget. You are still AT work, just in your home. The kids should have still been in daycare and she still could be doing business just fine. She could enjoy the coffee being two feet away, listening to the radio without headphones, etc... and still got things done.
At my company we have a very liberal work at home when needed policy. Most of the time it is due to family or other needs to be home (e.g. deliveries, repairs) so a drop in output is expected a little. However, people also use it to get stuff done without distractions of fellow employees (the curse of subject matter experts) which is a bonus to us. For my team who is permanently remote, I have to work much harder to ensure they are being successful. Touching base often, making sure we connect at a more personal level, having times they do come in the office for events, and never, ever canceling one-on-one meetings. You never get that back and don't have the luxury of catching them in the hall.
I find that if I don't have specific things to do, then I'm less productive at home. It is too easy to get distracted by other things like putting the dishes away. I'm a manager now, but I think that's why software people do succeed more at telecommuting. They can be hyper-focused on specific things, they have tangible deliverables to get done and don't let go of a problem until they solve it. I love software developers!