Rather than replacing drivers it is hoped that the technology will be used to study ways to complement drivers' abilities
That's become the problem with ABS, traction control, airbags and many other safety features: make drivers feel like they're safer, they will drive more like idiots. I'd far rather this system was developed to replace drivers; granted it will take more work to make it completely reliable, but it would mean fewer people thinking that because they've got the latest safety systems in their car they don't have to pay as much attention to their driving.
I've read and seen 2001. Read my post again. I didn't say "it's not possible", I said "no method has yet been [put into practice]".
Of course it's possible. But building a 1.8km diameter torus requires an awful lot of material, and getting that material up there requires an awful lot of energy. I'd guess that it would require more material and energy than the sum of all space missions so far.
No method has yet been created (as in, put into practice) to enable human bodies to withstand prolonged microgravity. Physiologically we're just not built for it. Our bodies have grown in earth's gravity, our blood vessels below the chest have grown to return blood against gravity back to the heart. As yet, there's no viable method for keeping a human able to do what they need to do in microgravity for a very long period and enable them to function properly once they reach the surface (and gravity environment) of another planet.
...but a lot of this gets omitted from the political rhetoric and financial posturing because we don't like admitting that we're squishy earth-bound creatures.
That's a shame - those mice tended to eventually suffer problems with the cord where it entered the mouse casing. They're really easy to fix (remove the pads off the bottom and undo the four screws, find faulty wire, repair). I'm still using mine. Great mouse.
As another person from the UK I think you're completely wrong. You've named three programs I despise. I think UK programme making is, in parts, excellent. Mostly in the parts where it has distanced itself from US-style ad-break-centred "tempo" necessitating mini-cliffhangers every seven minutes (or whatever) and cartoon-like plot development, or make-a-fat-girl-cry "reality" TV.
The "exclusive DRM laden deal" will still only be lucrative if it's better than the alternatives. And as long as Safari remains on the iPad and people can still read the other papers in normal webspace, I can't see many people bothering to pay for the DRM-laden app that can only read a small tranche of papers.
I love your moral flexibility in calling one thing logical and one thing subjective. It has no objective basis. You're, at best, highlighting points on a spectrum that has free speech at one point and paedophilia at another. This point of view works fine until you start thinking what comes between the two and what is "right" and what is "wrong", and until you start understanding that someone else may have a different perception of that spectrum because it has no absolutes. Or that that spectrum may not be linear, and someone else may put freedom of speech as "worse" than paedophilia.
"It's just plain wrong. Period." is facile and ill thought through.
I doubt it was done for commercial purposes. But here in the U.K. we have a newspaper (though I hesitate to call it that) called the "Daily Mail". I'm sure the U.S. has an equivalent but I don't know enough about their media to name it.
On the front page (and most other pages) of the Daily Mail, almost every day, you will find a story with a large headline designed to shock. The story will then go on to detail how some problem or another is the fault of a minority. With inflammatory language and a very tenuous grasp of any facts involved, the finger will be pointed, implicitly or explicitly, at immigrants, Muslims, scientists, the government, single mothers, paedophiles, drug addicts, the mentally ill, doctors, teachers, liberals, "fat cat" industry leaders and just about any other stereoptypical group. I haven't tried to verify it, but I remember hearing a quote from one of the founders of the paper along the lines of "give 'em something to hate and they'll keep buying."
This story may not have begun for commercial purposes, but there will certainly be a lot of people profiting from it.
It is not understandable to me that people are so upset about a few cartoons that they threaten to kill the cartoonist or even actually physically assault him, nor is it understandable to me that you demand that freedom of speech should be curtailed because of it.
FTFY. Just because you haven't bothered to try and understand it, does not prevent it being understandable.
I think the coloured titanium is a great idea, but it's only any good if it's recognised as information. This made me think: what if someone's done this before? Buried lots of information in the ground, in an extremely long-lived form, very deep underground where it will be safe.
...and we've dug down to it, had a bit of a chemical tinker with it, split it into bits and used it to fuel incredibly inefficient personal transport machines? I'm fairly sure that in a couple of centuries' time "petrol" will be the biggest joke of the 20th & 21st centuries.
Or if that's too far-fetched, what about gemstones and diamonds? Are millions of people walking round with small fragments of immensely complicated archive information because instead of thinking "what could this mean", mankind tends to think "ooh, that's pretty..."?
For this argument, I'd be opening the word processor to do the same thing in both cases: create a Word document, i.e. type some stuff in, maybe spell check it, change formatting in a couple of pages, possibly split it into columns, adjust the page margins and save and print it. For 98% of my word processor usage, Word 3 would probably still suit me fine.
Chrome, on Linux, still has the really irritating disabled backspace key. On any other browser you can toggle using the backspace as a back button; Chrome's new release simply disabled it. With no option to change. about:config is still one of the greatest things about Firefox, IMO.
Yes, my first thought was "oh, there are at least three different kinds of those sticks you attach to your head to type when you have no hands - that's interesting..."
Sadly I think it's usual wear and tear. I've had the same problem on a couple of Dell Latitudes - even though it was only a slow drift, it seemed to be something to do with a gradual shift of the components on the circuit board. I found sometimes that picking up the laptop and physically "twisting" it a little ameliorated the problem. Or caused it to get worse. Either way, it had some effect, so by manipulating the main body of the laptop itself I was often able to cure the problem. Until it p*ssed me off too much and I bought another cheap laptop...
So when the bits of the elevator are pulled in, they will want to continue moving too,
However, to follow your skater/arms analogy, the bits of the elevator will be pulled in straight towards the axis of the earth (in the only remaining direction a force will be still acting on them), and the earth will spin faster. Albeit not significantly faster, but I see no reason why the forces acting on the ribbon would suddenly change direction.
Although maybe I sound like one of those people who think a plane would take off from a conveyor belt...;)
Slashdot Mirror
Rather than replacing drivers it is hoped that the technology will be used to study ways to complement drivers' abilities
That's become the problem with ABS, traction control, airbags and many other safety features: make drivers feel like they're safer, they will drive more like idiots. I'd far rather this system was developed to replace drivers; granted it will take more work to make it completely reliable, but it would mean fewer people thinking that because they've got the latest safety systems in their car they don't have to pay as much attention to their driving.
(if the show isn't a trick...) - or just doesn't credit all the research it does.
d'oh... remember to insert link... Mythbusters on Youtube
At the risk of "look, they did it on TV so it must be true", Mythbusters made it look very straightforward...Link to Youtube
...except people in Australia rarely drink Foster's itself. It's vile. More usually VB or Tooheys, but it's a pretty regional-preference thing.
I've got all this work to do, and you're bothering me with THIS?!
I've read and seen 2001. Read my post again. I didn't say "it's not possible", I said "no method has yet been [put into practice]". Of course it's possible. But building a 1.8km diameter torus requires an awful lot of material, and getting that material up there requires an awful lot of energy. I'd guess that it would require more material and energy than the sum of all space missions so far.
No method has yet been created (as in, put into practice) to enable human bodies to withstand prolonged microgravity. Physiologically we're just not built for it. Our bodies have grown in earth's gravity, our blood vessels below the chest have grown to return blood against gravity back to the heart. As yet, there's no viable method for keeping a human able to do what they need to do in microgravity for a very long period and enable them to function properly once they reach the surface (and gravity environment) of another planet.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_medicine
...but a lot of this gets omitted from the political rhetoric and financial posturing because we don't like admitting that we're squishy earth-bound creatures.
That's a shame - those mice tended to eventually suffer problems with the cord where it entered the mouse casing. They're really easy to fix (remove the pads off the bottom and undo the four screws, find faulty wire, repair). I'm still using mine. Great mouse.
But are those southern Japanese houses usually air-conditioned? If not, the comparison is irrelevant.
...how much energy you'd save by turning off The Intelligent Home Energy Management proof-of-concept device?
As another person from the UK I think you're completely wrong. You've named three programs I despise. I think UK programme making is, in parts, excellent. Mostly in the parts where it has distanced itself from US-style ad-break-centred "tempo" necessitating mini-cliffhangers every seven minutes (or whatever) and cartoon-like plot development, or make-a-fat-girl-cry "reality" TV.
The "exclusive DRM laden deal" will still only be lucrative if it's better than the alternatives. And as long as Safari remains on the iPad and people can still read the other papers in normal webspace, I can't see many people bothering to pay for the DRM-laden app that can only read a small tranche of papers.
I love your moral flexibility in calling one thing logical and one thing subjective. It has no objective basis. You're, at best, highlighting points on a spectrum that has free speech at one point and paedophilia at another. This point of view works fine until you start thinking what comes between the two and what is "right" and what is "wrong", and until you start understanding that someone else may have a different perception of that spectrum because it has no absolutes. Or that that spectrum may not be linear, and someone else may put freedom of speech as "worse" than paedophilia.
"It's just plain wrong. Period." is facile and ill thought through.
I doubt it was done for commercial purposes. But here in the U.K. we have a newspaper (though I hesitate to call it that) called the "Daily Mail". I'm sure the U.S. has an equivalent but I don't know enough about their media to name it.
On the front page (and most other pages) of the Daily Mail, almost every day, you will find a story with a large headline designed to shock. The story will then go on to detail how some problem or another is the fault of a minority. With inflammatory language and a very tenuous grasp of any facts involved, the finger will be pointed, implicitly or explicitly, at immigrants, Muslims, scientists, the government, single mothers, paedophiles, drug addicts, the mentally ill, doctors, teachers, liberals, "fat cat" industry leaders and just about any other stereoptypical group. I haven't tried to verify it, but I remember hearing a quote from one of the founders of the paper along the lines of "give 'em something to hate and they'll keep buying."
This story may not have begun for commercial purposes, but there will certainly be a lot of people profiting from it.
It is not understandable to me that people are so upset about a few cartoons that they threaten to kill the cartoonist or even actually physically assault him, nor is it understandable to me that you demand that freedom of speech should be curtailed because of it.
FTFY. Just because you haven't bothered to try and understand it, does not prevent it being understandable.
...what we need to fund is BIGGER ATTACK!
I think the coloured titanium is a great idea, but it's only any good if it's recognised as information. This made me think: what if someone's done this before? Buried lots of information in the ground, in an extremely long-lived form, very deep underground where it will be safe.
...and we've dug down to it, had a bit of a chemical tinker with it, split it into bits and used it to fuel incredibly inefficient personal transport machines? I'm fairly sure that in a couple of centuries' time "petrol" will be the biggest joke of the 20th & 21st centuries.
Or if that's too far-fetched, what about gemstones and diamonds? Are millions of people walking round with small fragments of immensely complicated archive information because instead of thinking "what could this mean", mankind tends to think "ooh, that's pretty..."?
For this argument, I'd be opening the word processor to do the same thing in both cases: create a Word document, i.e. type some stuff in, maybe spell check it, change formatting in a couple of pages, possibly split it into columns, adjust the page margins and save and print it. For 98% of my word processor usage, Word 3 would probably still suit me fine.
Chrome, on Linux, still has the really irritating disabled backspace key. On any other browser you can toggle using the backspace as a back button; Chrome's new release simply disabled it. With no option to change. about:config is still one of the greatest things about Firefox, IMO.
Granted a) I'm coming in late to this, and b) I'm using Wikipedia,
IRC appeared in 1988 whereas the Short Message Service was defined in 1985.
...so, remember that there were text messages before anyone knew what an "IRC" was.
Yes, my first thought was "oh, there are at least three different kinds of those sticks you attach to your head to type when you have no hands - that's interesting..."
Sadly I think it's usual wear and tear. I've had the same problem on a couple of Dell Latitudes - even though it was only a slow drift, it seemed to be something to do with a gradual shift of the components on the circuit board. I found sometimes that picking up the laptop and physically "twisting" it a little ameliorated the problem. Or caused it to get worse. Either way, it had some effect, so by manipulating the main body of the laptop itself I was often able to cure the problem. Until it p*ssed me off too much and I bought another cheap laptop...
So when the bits of the elevator are pulled in, they will want to continue moving too,
However, to follow your skater/arms analogy, the bits of the elevator will be pulled in straight towards the axis of the earth (in the only remaining direction a force will be still acting on them), and the earth will spin faster. Albeit not significantly faster, but I see no reason why the forces acting on the ribbon would suddenly change direction.
Although maybe I sound like one of those people who think a plane would take off from a conveyor belt... ;)
- ditto the magic black goo. It's very hard to put it back in again, and even if you do, the component won't work...