"...using a 1 pixel transparent GIF for a web site spacer graphic, which you _should_ know how to avoid doing by now, anyway, if you're anything resembling a well-informed web developer."
The Pixel - Reloaded details a novel technique for layering a stretched 1 pixel transparent gif over a CSS background image, and then applying an image map to it to create the illusion that elements underneath the stretched gif were clickable links. So, there are still uses for transparent 1px gif's, but just not in for layout.
So, there's a "shell" of matter just outside the event horizon of a black hole...What happens when the event horizon expands? Does it consume the shell? Is an old black hole basically just a big onion with tons of shells/layers, that remain in place as the event horizon gradually expands, in much the same way that a lake continuously deposits layers of sediment?
radiocarbon dating is reliable out to about 60,000 years - http://science.howstuffworks.com/carbon-142.htm. The error increases, the older the samples are. I think radiocarbon dating can do + or - one year for up to several thousand years ago.
What are you talking about? It sounds like you're either talking about rockets, or cars, or maybe even Lear jets, but I'm not sure. Oh, and you make cookware too? (skillets?) Either way, I think you're in manufacturing, but maybe you're in the software end of manufacturing...though it sounds as though you're managing an entire plant too, I'm not sure. And is that a mechanical thumbwheel, or a software-equivalent thumbwheel? Anyways, if you're any of the above, I'd like to know more. I don't see too many other manufacturing guys posting to slashdot.
When someone in an industrial field is forced to work 16 hour a day, 7 day a week, and has a mistake the company suffers the ramaifications, not the worker(or the workers faimly).
Actually, someone in an industrial field working those kinds of hours is likely to be injured or killed in an accident, due to fatigue. Usually, software mistakes only cost money, not body parts.
Here's a license that preserves some of the Open Source philosophy of the GPL, without strangling anyone - http://www.zesiger.com/license/ - Basically, it gives absolute freedom, as in beer and otherwise, for a period of time that allows people to do as they please before being required to release the source.
Although I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about free markets, and staying ahead by staying competitive, I think you could perhaps be missing some of the details behind why Americans are no longer competitive with the rest of the world.
It's certainly not because Americans are lazy. A typical American family has both adults, and frequently their older children as well, working 60 or more hours a week. Each American family is putting over 100 hours of labor into the US economy. Americans have a tradition of hard work, so I don't think any other countries are clearly superior in that respect.
Americans are highly educated, and they have access to the finest universities the world has to offer. But more valuable than plain education is "know how". Being a large country, Americans tend to get experience and skills with things that you can't get in a classroom setting. So, I don't think Americans are any less intelligent or skilled than the rest of the world.
Americans are highly competitive people by nature. In fact, that competitive attitude is so ingrained in American's culture that they call it "The American Way" - If you want something, work harder than everyone else, and you will have it. So, I don't think Americans are resting on their laurels either.
So, if there's nothing wrong with Americans, why are they failing in the world market? For decades, the USA was top dog in nearly every conceivable category. Now, I'm hard pressed to think of anything that the USA can clearly do better than anyone else.
I believe the USA's problems are all tied to it's government. The taxes are too high compared to the benefit received, the economic waste is way, way too high, and you can't take poo without consulting a high priced lawyer to tell you what the government's opinion is. One other thing that is rapidly becoming another serious drain is that vast swaths of the USA population are either imprisoned, or unemployable, due to convictions (or only charges) of relatively minor crimes. Millions and millions of American people are either incarcerated, or they are free, but they cannot pass standard employment background checks. The USA imprisons more of it's own citizens than any other nation in the world. The economic costs for that alone can make or break the USA, since every dollar spent on punishing people is passed along by raising the cost of doing business with the USA.
In much the same way that, despite the USA's abilities, the USA is not clearly a world leader in anything anymore, I can't help but noticing that despite all the incredible wealth that even poor people in the USA possess, it's not clear to me that they live better than anyone else in other well-developed nations. In fact, from my travels, I've noticed that many people in other nations live just as good, and frequently better than typical Americans, even though they only need to have one member of their families working for 40 hours per week. And, obviously, any families that are working more than 40 hours per week, are living much more luxuriously.
So, where is the "wealth" going? Why aren't Americans getting anything in return for their labors? Why are Americans unable to compete on a price basis with non-Americans?
I believe the fault lies squarely with the government, be it local, or national. Nothing in American life is running as efficiently as it easily could. There's a more detailed posting on slashdot that gives an excellent example of how dramatically the USA has changed into an inefficient sloth, due to the continual expansion government regulations, specifically at the city level in this case.
Agreed. How many software engineers know machining? And even more importantly, how many software engineers know what this particular company *can* machine? It's a custom, in house project all the way, and making it open source is rediculous. No one is going to bother "enhancing" such specialized software, unless they're going to use it to do exactly what the company does with it...Which means unfair competition.
There are several other companies that do exactly what emachineshop.com does, and you can probably find them listed somewhere at Modern Machine Shop.
I prefer to either buy Chinese, or work with a small local shop that can cater to my needs. The small local shop will probably be very expensive though. A part that costs $200 from emachineshop or similar, could (but not always) cost double that from a smaller local shop.
Machine shop rates in the USA have been around $60 to $90 per hour since about the 1970's...and no, that's not adjusted for inflation. What that means is that the costs for getting things made have dropped off quite a lot in the USA, due to CNC machines and their automation abilities, as well as deeply declining wages for skilled machinists - Yep, you guessed it, if you were making $10/hour as a machinist in 1970, you're STILL making $10/hour in 2004. On top of that, compared to the 1970's, the taxes and cost of living are higher too.
A one-off part that might cost you $200 in the USA could probably be had for maybe $30 from China. The reasons for this aren't simple...You can't say Americans are lazy, or the Chinese are smarter, or anything like that. My opinion is that the USA is terribly inefficient, and it's economy is being pissed away in one way or another by the goverment, and it's poor policies, all the way down to the individual level. The result is that, despite our technical know-how and hard-working tradition, the USA isn't very competitive with other nations. We have high taxes, high unemployment, low standards of living relative to our wealth, and lots of well-paid lawyers. As far as I know, despite our amazing potential and ability, America isn't a clear world leader in anything anymore, except military might (which is fading too).
For a real world example, in one area that I used to work, there were 3 machine shops. One of them had been in it's location since the 1950's and was competitive in it's pricing, and consequently, was doing quite well. One of their contracts was for making Petzl Carabiners. The second machine shop dealt heavily with government contracts, and was paid top-dollar for even simple work, and had no fear of competition. The third machine shop was only about 5 years old, privately owned, and it struggled to survive continuously. It was the last new machine shop left in the area, as all the others were already out of business.
The second machine shop, with it's steady diet of government contracts is not terribly interesting, since it's obvious why it's a success. So, I'll just tell you why the Old Shop was doing well, and the New Shop was not. Basically, the city where they were located had enacted some building regulations several years ago that required all of the buildings to be "pretty". Meaning, landscaping, fancy brick, etc, etc. So, the Old Shop was basically just a corrugated steel warehouse, that despite it's size, only cost about $20,000, and was paid-for decades ago (I asked the owner, that's what he told me). The New Shop did similar work, but it was in a fancy brick building, with city-imposed landscaping, etc.. That building cost over $100,000, and was maybe half to 3/4 the size of the Old Shop across the street. On top of this, since the property that the New Shop rested on was so pretty, it had a higher value than the industrial-looking property that the Old Shop rested on, so the New Shop had to pay substantially higher property taxes.
I made some custom medical test equipment in the New Shop, and part of the order was for some little clamps that were to be used to pull on bandages to test the strength of the adhesive. The parts were simple, but we charged the customer about $1600 for each clamp. The really sad thing is that no one bothered to tell the customer that they could do the same thing with an off the shelf clamp from home depot that cost $4.
I assure you, it is entirely possible to build a ceramic handgun. Fiber reinforced ceramics are only one material that could be employed. I just finished writing up a big, detailed report on materials, design issues, and manufacturing methods to do just that...but my browser crashed and it didn't cache the textbox I was editing in - darn. Probably better that way though, the fewer hillbillies and miscreants that have that info, the better.
I drive a 1976 Ford LTD. It is truly an environmental disaster. It weighs over 6000 pounds, and even though it's just a passenger car, it easily outweighs most of the largest vehicles on the road - yes, it even beats SUV's. I think the USA could stop building it's cities around cars, and start spending more money on public transportation. Subsidising taxi's is a good idea too. That'd get crap-mobiles like mine off the road and into the scrap heap.
I'm a machinist, and I've dealt with automotive engine blocks before. I think the big problem is going to be manufacturing costs. When machining a ceramic, it tends to chip very easily, which could raise costs due to high waste, and special manufacturing procedures that hamper productivity. However, since it's non-ferrous, you can use diamond tooling instead of the traditional carbide tooling, which will save a fortune on tooling costs
Ceramics are also very abrasive, which might drive up maintenance costs due to the need to frequently replace piston rings. The engine block itself should wear much more slowly than a normal cast iron block, however.
Ceramics can be pretty resilient even when faced with temperature stresses, but I don't know how well a car that needs to be running one moment, and parked the next would fare. I doubt people would put up with the need for a 5 minute warm up period, especially if failure to do so would destroy their car.
Another issue is that a ceramic block would be impossible to repair, and would probably be a good deal larger than a regular cast iron engine to provide strength at every location on the block that feels stresses. But, if it's possible to build ceramic handguns, I'm sure it's possible to build a durable ceramic engine block.
I doubt there's very many manufacturing experts who read slashdot, but I would be very curious to see solid numbers on the costs of ceramics manufacturing compared to traditional cast iron. I haven't done much work with ceramics, so much of the above is just educated speculation. Treat it as such.
"Ignorance of the law is no excuse" - The US Supreme Court thinks we should know each and every one of the millions upon millions of US laws by heart, once we turn 18. On top of that, we're supposed to know the infinite number of possible ways the courts will interpret the laws. The Government thinks the average joe is ignorant. Geeks think the average joe is ignorant too.
Are we REALLY ignorant? Or are we just busy living our own lives? I certainly don't have time to fuss over technical esoterica that I'm not getting paid to fuss over...At least you don't go to jail for ignorantly using IE...Oh, wait - "A rogue program corrupts an internet link and gets a family man arrested over child pornography"... "a so-called Trojan horse - that had infected his PC, probably during innocent internet surfing."
I've worked as a machinist in the past, and you can't get a job as a machinist unless you're willing to pay for the tools you use. Each employee has to have his own unique set of tools, costing thousands upon thousands of dollars. Traditionally, it was only measurement instruments you had to own, which should last a lifetime. The reason you had to have your own instruments is because they're delicate tools being used in a "rough" environment, and they will be best cared for by the person that owns them (company property gets trashed). But lately, the US economy is so bad, that companies are expecting machinists to buy their own CONSUMABLE supplies, like drills and such...These things get used up, and the employee has to keep buying them. For example, if the company is doing well, and has a lot of orders, the employee will be buying more tools to produce more revenue for the company. On top of this, it's not unheard of for an educated and skilled craftsman to make $7/hour doing robotic/automated manufacturing and programming on high tech multi-million dollar machines - You IT people have no idea how bad it can get...
I'm not an open source zealot, though I do recognize where it's valuable. I think it's safe to say that "consumer" closed source software is typically better than the open source alternatives. Opera is a great example of this. It's closed source, and miles ahead of any other browser - Yes, even Mozilla Firefox.
Now, I think the best mail client out there is Mozilla Thunderbird...so far, I haven't found a commercial product I like better - Opera's M2 mail client really sucks. Other than Thunderbird, I can't think of any "consumer" open source software that's better than the commercial versions.
Maybe we should do an "Ask Slashdot" for the best-of-class consumer open source software. I'm sure there's more out there that I don't know about, especially in games.
I think the GPL really stifles commercial contributions to software. It gives rights to a "thing" (the software), when really, it should probably be more concerned with encouraging the production of better software. In a perfect world, it would be profitable for companies to produce open source products. In some cases it is, but despite what the fanatics say, it's not that way for everything.
I'm digressing a bit, but let me plug the Zesiger License as an alternative to any other open source license. It allows people to earn a return on their software, before being required (GPL-style) to release the source code to their products. Note that this license could easily be applied to any other intellectual property, not just software.
I've been trying to get my dad to use it (with threats like, "when the russian mafia gets your credit card because you were using IE, don't complain to me"...)
Show him the browser warning. Each phrase is linked to a news article describing the things like the poor guy from the UK who got prison time after someone hacked into his IE and used his computer to trade child porn. It happens a lot more than people think, and all because people won't stop clicking the E icon. Having the Russian mafia take over your computer isn't just an idle threat, it's a daily reality for IE users. This is one case where FUD can and should be used, because it's 100% true, and you're literally saving lives.
If I were you, I'd take stronger measures than just "asking" your dad to stop using IE. Tell him the way it's going to be. This really isn't something to fool around with, your dad could have federal agents interrogating him about his ties to terrorism...
Of course, use tact whenever possible. It's your dad, so maybe you'd be better off buying him a shiny new Opera web browser and saying "happy birthday!".
Well, ever since Microsoft started blocking Opera web browsers from it's websites, Opera has been masquerading as IE by default, to trick Microsoft into letting Opera users browse the web unhindered. So, basically, for all we know, Opera usage could be 90% and no one would be the wiser, since Opera is pretending to be IE in all the stats.
Also, I don't think Mozilla's usage statistics are really all that important. The important figures are how many standards compliant browsers are in use, versus IE browsers in use. As far as I know, every browser on the market is more standards compliant than IE. When web standards are adhered to, it matters much less which browser you use, because the webpages should work equally well on any compliant browser.
So, we're guessing IE has about 90% of the browser market, and we know that Opera is included in those statistics. We also know that some people change Opera from it's defaults so that it identifies as Opera. Stats collected from those browsers amount to about 1% of all browsers. Mozilla is, unfortunately, relegated to the "other" category. As of about 3 or 4 months ago, Opera users who changed Opera's default settings to identify as Opera instead of as MSIE have surpassed the number of Mozilla users. But, it's also worthwhile to note that Mozilla is sometimes counted as Netscape, and vice versa. Netscape supposedly holds 5% of the market.
If all that isn't confusing enough, stats collected from different sources can have completely different browser usage statistics. I trust RE_INVIGORATE's browser statistics the most though, because it's stats are collected from ungodly numbers of completely different websites, not from just one or two similar websites.
This browser warning page thoroughly trashes MSIE, but every phrase is linked to a news article that uses the exact same verbiage in order to demonstrate that it isn't just anti MS FUD - It's the honest truth.
It's designed and maintained for webmasters to deliver to the IE-using visitors to their webpages. You can read the source code for some more information about that. In case you're curious, here's a paste of the text and links that it has - This should prove quite effective with anyone you're trying to convince to stop using IE:
If you suspect that your computer is already being used for criminal activity, it is critical that you seek help from a computer professional in your local area. You may also try one of the free web-based virus scanners that are available.
I feel much safer knowing that America has Europe by the balls. Heaven forbid that Europe should decide when they want to degrade their signals. That's a decision that should only be made by the US military.
Laws that are routinely broken, and especially laws that are unknowingly broken, are used by governments whenever they need to make an example of someone. Like, when someone says they want the right to vote or whatever...All a government has to do is figure out which laws they've broken, and put them in prison. Worked great for Stalin, Hitler, Lincoln, Bush, etc, etc, etc.
The browser warning at http://www.zesiger.com/browserwarning.html spells out the dangers of using IE...some of this may become irrelevant if MS makes a serious commitment to improving IE. Opera is quite a long ways ahead of both Mozilla and IE, yet for some reason, it doesn't get a lot of mentions. Certainly though, neither browser has the vast set of problems that IE has.
The trouble for me is that I don't trust anyone in government. I don't want a cop who I beat at soccer in elementary school to cause me problems later down the road, just because I was accidentally in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I wouldn't want to give my name to a criminal, and I wouldn't want to give my name to a police officer either.
If the officer thinks I'm involved in a crime, I would rather have him prove it based on facts, rather than based on what my name is. If I don't give my name, and the officer thinks that I may have been involved in a crime, then I would expect him to arrest me, fair and square. But if he can't figure out my name, and he can't link me to a crime, then he will have to release me.
Now, if I *am* a criminal, I just made his day go by much easier by telling him I don't want to reveal my name, because now he knows who to arrest first. It's a win-win situation for legitimate goverment interests, as well as private citizens.
The only reason the government would choose a solution that is not win-win for everyone is if they were making a grab for power that only serves themselves.
As long as the government must release suspicious non-name-givers who can't be linked to crimes, I think their individuality should be respected, and they should be released, no questions asked (pun!).
Take a big rock, stick it in a vise, and crush it. That's not too difficult. Take a tiny little steel ball bearing, stick it in a vise, and try your best to crush it...don't break your vise. Why do you suppose the molecules in the rock (SiO2, let's say) yield easier than the steel?
If a nano assembler tried to move metal atoms, which would break first - the nano assembler, or the metallic bonds? Think of the ball bearing and vise example. Of course, this is all assuming that the nano manipulator's arms can get a tighter grip on the metal atoms than the metal atoms have with other metal atoms. If you succeed in that, how are you going to get the manipulator to "let go" of the atom?
One more thing: Lots of very smart people think nanomanipulators are rediculous. It's quite a challenge just to get the atoms to stop sticking to the manipulator.
I bet, a hundred years from now, all the technical challenges involved with some types of nano manipulators will be solved. But even then, how is that going to be better than more ordinary techniques? Self-assembly works quite a lot better than nano assembers, it's used in industry every day, and is much more worthy of our attention.
Slashdot Mirror
"...using a 1 pixel transparent GIF for a web site spacer graphic, which you _should_ know how to avoid doing by now, anyway, if you're anything resembling a well-informed web developer."
The Pixel - Reloaded details a novel technique for layering a stretched 1 pixel transparent gif over a CSS background image, and then applying an image map to it to create the illusion that elements underneath the stretched gif were clickable links. So, there are still uses for transparent 1px gif's, but just not in for layout.
The black holes only get smaller when they've already consumed all the matter in the universe, until then, they get bigger.
So, there's a "shell" of matter just outside the event horizon of a black hole...What happens when the event horizon expands? Does it consume the shell? Is an old black hole basically just a big onion with tons of shells/layers, that remain in place as the event horizon gradually expands, in much the same way that a lake continuously deposits layers of sediment?
radiocarbon dating is reliable out to about 60,000 years - http://science.howstuffworks.com/carbon-142.htm. The error increases, the older the samples are. I think radiocarbon dating can do + or - one year for up to several thousand years ago.
What are you talking about? It sounds like you're either talking about rockets, or cars, or maybe even Lear jets, but I'm not sure. Oh, and you make cookware too? (skillets?) Either way, I think you're in manufacturing, but maybe you're in the software end of manufacturing...though it sounds as though you're managing an entire plant too, I'm not sure. And is that a mechanical thumbwheel, or a software-equivalent thumbwheel? Anyways, if you're any of the above, I'd like to know more. I don't see too many other manufacturing guys posting to slashdot.
When someone in an industrial field is forced to work 16 hour a day, 7 day a week, and has a mistake the company suffers the ramaifications, not the worker(or the workers faimly).
Actually, someone in an industrial field working those kinds of hours is likely to be injured or killed in an accident, due to fatigue. Usually, software mistakes only cost money, not body parts.
Here's a license that preserves some of the Open Source philosophy of the GPL, without strangling anyone - http://www.zesiger.com/license/ - Basically, it gives absolute freedom, as in beer and otherwise, for a period of time that allows people to do as they please before being required to release the source.
Although I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about free markets, and staying ahead by staying competitive, I think you could perhaps be missing some of the details behind why Americans are no longer competitive with the rest of the world.
It's certainly not because Americans are lazy. A typical American family has both adults, and frequently their older children as well, working 60 or more hours a week. Each American family is putting over 100 hours of labor into the US economy. Americans have a tradition of hard work, so I don't think any other countries are clearly superior in that respect.
Americans are highly educated, and they have access to the finest universities the world has to offer. But more valuable than plain education is "know how". Being a large country, Americans tend to get experience and skills with things that you can't get in a classroom setting. So, I don't think Americans are any less intelligent or skilled than the rest of the world.
Americans are highly competitive people by nature. In fact, that competitive attitude is so ingrained in American's culture that they call it "The American Way" - If you want something, work harder than everyone else, and you will have it. So, I don't think Americans are resting on their laurels either.
So, if there's nothing wrong with Americans, why are they failing in the world market? For decades, the USA was top dog in nearly every conceivable category. Now, I'm hard pressed to think of anything that the USA can clearly do better than anyone else.
I believe the USA's problems are all tied to it's government. The taxes are too high compared to the benefit received, the economic waste is way, way too high, and you can't take poo without consulting a high priced lawyer to tell you what the government's opinion is. One other thing that is rapidly becoming another serious drain is that vast swaths of the USA population are either imprisoned, or unemployable, due to convictions (or only charges) of relatively minor crimes. Millions and millions of American people are either incarcerated, or they are free, but they cannot pass standard employment background checks. The USA imprisons more of it's own citizens than any other nation in the world. The economic costs for that alone can make or break the USA, since every dollar spent on punishing people is passed along by raising the cost of doing business with the USA.
In much the same way that, despite the USA's abilities, the USA is not clearly a world leader in anything anymore, I can't help but noticing that despite all the incredible wealth that even poor people in the USA possess, it's not clear to me that they live better than anyone else in other well-developed nations. In fact, from my travels, I've noticed that many people in other nations live just as good, and frequently better than typical Americans, even though they only need to have one member of their families working for 40 hours per week. And, obviously, any families that are working more than 40 hours per week, are living much more luxuriously.
So, where is the "wealth" going? Why aren't Americans getting anything in return for their labors? Why are Americans unable to compete on a price basis with non-Americans?
I believe the fault lies squarely with the government, be it local, or national. Nothing in American life is running as efficiently as it easily could. There's a more detailed posting on slashdot that gives an excellent example of how dramatically the USA has changed into an inefficient sloth, due to the continual expansion government regulations, specifically at the city level in this case.
Agreed. How many software engineers know machining? And even more importantly, how many software engineers know what this particular company *can* machine? It's a custom, in house project all the way, and making it open source is rediculous. No one is going to bother "enhancing" such specialized software, unless they're going to use it to do exactly what the company does with it...Which means unfair competition.
First off, I am a machinist.
There are several other companies that do exactly what emachineshop.com does, and you can probably find them listed somewhere at Modern Machine Shop.
I prefer to either buy Chinese, or work with a small local shop that can cater to my needs. The small local shop will probably be very expensive though. A part that costs $200 from emachineshop or similar, could (but not always) cost double that from a smaller local shop.
Machine shop rates in the USA have been around $60 to $90 per hour since about the 1970's...and no, that's not adjusted for inflation. What that means is that the costs for getting things made have dropped off quite a lot in the USA, due to CNC machines and their automation abilities, as well as deeply declining wages for skilled machinists - Yep, you guessed it, if you were making $10/hour as a machinist in 1970, you're STILL making $10/hour in 2004. On top of that, compared to the 1970's, the taxes and cost of living are higher too.
A one-off part that might cost you $200 in the USA could probably be had for maybe $30 from China. The reasons for this aren't simple...You can't say Americans are lazy, or the Chinese are smarter, or anything like that. My opinion is that the USA is terribly inefficient, and it's economy is being pissed away in one way or another by the goverment, and it's poor policies, all the way down to the individual level. The result is that, despite our technical know-how and hard-working tradition, the USA isn't very competitive with other nations. We have high taxes, high unemployment, low standards of living relative to our wealth, and lots of well-paid lawyers. As far as I know, despite our amazing potential and ability, America isn't a clear world leader in anything anymore, except military might (which is fading too).
For a real world example, in one area that I used to work, there were 3 machine shops. One of them had been in it's location since the 1950's and was competitive in it's pricing, and consequently, was doing quite well. One of their contracts was for making Petzl Carabiners. The second machine shop dealt heavily with government contracts, and was paid top-dollar for even simple work, and had no fear of competition. The third machine shop was only about 5 years old, privately owned, and it struggled to survive continuously. It was the last new machine shop left in the area, as all the others were already out of business.
The second machine shop, with it's steady diet of government contracts is not terribly interesting, since it's obvious why it's a success. So, I'll just tell you why the Old Shop was doing well, and the New Shop was not. Basically, the city where they were located had enacted some building regulations several years ago that required all of the buildings to be "pretty". Meaning, landscaping, fancy brick, etc, etc. So, the Old Shop was basically just a corrugated steel warehouse, that despite it's size, only cost about $20,000, and was paid-for decades ago (I asked the owner, that's what he told me). The New Shop did similar work, but it was in a fancy brick building, with city-imposed landscaping, etc.. That building cost over $100,000, and was maybe half to 3/4 the size of the Old Shop across the street. On top of this, since the property that the New Shop rested on was so pretty, it had a higher value than the industrial-looking property that the Old Shop rested on, so the New Shop had to pay substantially higher property taxes.
I made some custom medical test equipment in the New Shop, and part of the order was for some little clamps that were to be used to pull on bandages to test the strength of the adhesive. The parts were simple, but we charged the customer about $1600 for each clamp. The really sad thing is that no one bothered to tell the customer that they could do the same thing with an off the shelf clamp from home depot that cost $4.
Wow sound!!!!111oneone - I think Strong Bad's Compy 386 is going to be tough to beat
I assure you, it is entirely possible to build a ceramic handgun. Fiber reinforced ceramics are only one material that could be employed. I just finished writing up a big, detailed report on materials, design issues, and manufacturing methods to do just that...but my browser crashed and it didn't cache the textbox I was editing in - darn. Probably better that way though, the fewer hillbillies and miscreants that have that info, the better.
I drive a 1976 Ford LTD. It is truly an environmental disaster. It weighs over 6000 pounds, and even though it's just a passenger car, it easily outweighs most of the largest vehicles on the road - yes, it even beats SUV's. I think the USA could stop building it's cities around cars, and start spending more money on public transportation. Subsidising taxi's is a good idea too. That'd get crap-mobiles like mine off the road and into the scrap heap.
I'm a machinist, and I've dealt with automotive engine blocks before. I think the big problem is going to be manufacturing costs. When machining a ceramic, it tends to chip very easily, which could raise costs due to high waste, and special manufacturing procedures that hamper productivity. However, since it's non-ferrous, you can use diamond tooling instead of the traditional carbide tooling, which will save a fortune on tooling costs
Ceramics are also very abrasive, which might drive up maintenance costs due to the need to frequently replace piston rings. The engine block itself should wear much more slowly than a normal cast iron block, however.
Ceramics can be pretty resilient even when faced with temperature stresses, but I don't know how well a car that needs to be running one moment, and parked the next would fare. I doubt people would put up with the need for a 5 minute warm up period, especially if failure to do so would destroy their car.
Another issue is that a ceramic block would be impossible to repair, and would probably be a good deal larger than a regular cast iron engine to provide strength at every location on the block that feels stresses. But, if it's possible to build ceramic handguns, I'm sure it's possible to build a durable ceramic engine block.
I doubt there's very many manufacturing experts who read slashdot, but I would be very curious to see solid numbers on the costs of ceramics manufacturing compared to traditional cast iron. I haven't done much work with ceramics, so much of the above is just educated speculation. Treat it as such.
"Ignorance of the law is no excuse" - The US Supreme Court thinks we should know each and every one of the millions upon millions of US laws by heart, once we turn 18. On top of that, we're supposed to know the infinite number of possible ways the courts will interpret the laws. The Government thinks the average joe is ignorant. Geeks think the average joe is ignorant too.
Are we REALLY ignorant? Or are we just busy living our own lives? I certainly don't have time to fuss over technical esoterica that I'm not getting paid to fuss over...At least you don't go to jail for ignorantly using IE...Oh, wait - "A rogue program corrupts an internet link and gets a family man arrested over child pornography" ... "a so-called Trojan horse - that had infected his PC, probably during innocent internet surfing."
I've worked as a machinist in the past, and you can't get a job as a machinist unless you're willing to pay for the tools you use. Each employee has to have his own unique set of tools, costing thousands upon thousands of dollars. Traditionally, it was only measurement instruments you had to own, which should last a lifetime. The reason you had to have your own instruments is because they're delicate tools being used in a "rough" environment, and they will be best cared for by the person that owns them (company property gets trashed). But lately, the US economy is so bad, that companies are expecting machinists to buy their own CONSUMABLE supplies, like drills and such...These things get used up, and the employee has to keep buying them. For example, if the company is doing well, and has a lot of orders, the employee will be buying more tools to produce more revenue for the company. On top of this, it's not unheard of for an educated and skilled craftsman to make $7/hour doing robotic/automated manufacturing and programming on high tech multi-million dollar machines - You IT people have no idea how bad it can get...
I'm not an open source zealot, though I do recognize where it's valuable. I think it's safe to say that "consumer" closed source software is typically better than the open source alternatives. Opera is a great example of this. It's closed source, and miles ahead of any other browser - Yes, even Mozilla Firefox.
Now, I think the best mail client out there is Mozilla Thunderbird...so far, I haven't found a commercial product I like better - Opera's M2 mail client really sucks. Other than Thunderbird, I can't think of any "consumer" open source software that's better than the commercial versions.
Maybe we should do an "Ask Slashdot" for the best-of-class consumer open source software. I'm sure there's more out there that I don't know about, especially in games.
I think the GPL really stifles commercial contributions to software. It gives rights to a "thing" (the software), when really, it should probably be more concerned with encouraging the production of better software. In a perfect world, it would be profitable for companies to produce open source products. In some cases it is, but despite what the fanatics say, it's not that way for everything.
I'm digressing a bit, but let me plug the Zesiger License as an alternative to any other open source license. It allows people to earn a return on their software, before being required (GPL-style) to release the source code to their products. Note that this license could easily be applied to any other intellectual property, not just software.
I've been trying to get my dad to use it (with threats like, "when the russian mafia gets your credit card because you were using IE, don't complain to me"...)
Show him the browser warning. Each phrase is linked to a news article describing the things like the poor guy from the UK who got prison time after someone hacked into his IE and used his computer to trade child porn. It happens a lot more than people think, and all because people won't stop clicking the E icon. Having the Russian mafia take over your computer isn't just an idle threat, it's a daily reality for IE users. This is one case where FUD can and should be used, because it's 100% true, and you're literally saving lives.
If I were you, I'd take stronger measures than just "asking" your dad to stop using IE. Tell him the way it's going to be. This really isn't something to fool around with, your dad could have federal agents interrogating him about his ties to terrorism...
Of course, use tact whenever possible. It's your dad, so maybe you'd be better off buying him a shiny new Opera web browser and saying "happy birthday!".
Well, ever since Microsoft started blocking Opera web browsers from it's websites, Opera has been masquerading as IE by default, to trick Microsoft into letting Opera users browse the web unhindered. So, basically, for all we know, Opera usage could be 90% and no one would be the wiser, since Opera is pretending to be IE in all the stats.
Also, I don't think Mozilla's usage statistics are really all that important. The important figures are how many standards compliant browsers are in use, versus IE browsers in use. As far as I know, every browser on the market is more standards compliant than IE. When web standards are adhered to, it matters much less which browser you use, because the webpages should work equally well on any compliant browser.
So, we're guessing IE has about 90% of the browser market, and we know that Opera is included in those statistics. We also know that some people change Opera from it's defaults so that it identifies as Opera. Stats collected from those browsers amount to about 1% of all browsers. Mozilla is, unfortunately, relegated to the "other" category. As of about 3 or 4 months ago, Opera users who changed Opera's default settings to identify as Opera instead of as MSIE have surpassed the number of Mozilla users. But, it's also worthwhile to note that Mozilla is sometimes counted as Netscape, and vice versa. Netscape supposedly holds 5% of the market.
If all that isn't confusing enough, stats collected from different sources can have completely different browser usage statistics. I trust RE_INVIGORATE's browser statistics the most though, because it's stats are collected from ungodly numbers of completely different websites, not from just one or two similar websites.
This browser warning page thoroughly trashes MSIE, but every phrase is linked to a news article that uses the exact same verbiage in order to demonstrate that it isn't just anti MS FUD - It's the honest truth. It's designed and maintained for webmasters to deliver to the IE-using visitors to their webpages. You can read the source code for some more information about that. In case you're curious, here's a paste of the text and links that it has - This should prove quite effective with anyone you're trying to convince to stop using IE:
Warning!Your web browser - a version of Microsoft Internet Explorer - may not function properly on this website, and could have a large number of problems that allow hackers to hijack it with viruses. These viruses could be used by criminals to secretly take over your computer, download child-pornography, or to commit acts of terrorism and fraud. You may automatically update it now with Microsoft's available patches, however, there is a possibility that a necessary patch will not be available due to Microsoft's somewhat sluggish development schedule.
The US Department of Homeland Security strongly suggests that you stop using Internet Explorer immediately.
There are several standards-compliant web browsers that you may use instead of Internet Explorer. Please install one of them as a replacement.
If you suspect that your computer is already being used for criminal activity, it is critical that you seek help from a computer professional in your local area. You may also try one of the free web-based virus scanners that are available.
I feel much safer knowing that America has Europe by the balls. Heaven forbid that Europe should decide when they want to degrade their signals. That's a decision that should only be made by the US military.
Laws that are routinely broken, and especially laws that are unknowingly broken, are used by governments whenever they need to make an example of someone. Like, when someone says they want the right to vote or whatever...All a government has to do is figure out which laws they've broken, and put them in prison. Worked great for Stalin, Hitler, Lincoln, Bush, etc, etc, etc.
The browser warning at http://www.zesiger.com/browserwarning.html spells out the dangers of using IE...some of this may become irrelevant if MS makes a serious commitment to improving IE. Opera is quite a long ways ahead of both Mozilla and IE, yet for some reason, it doesn't get a lot of mentions. Certainly though, neither browser has the vast set of problems that IE has.
The trouble for me is that I don't trust anyone in government. I don't want a cop who I beat at soccer in elementary school to cause me problems later down the road, just because I was accidentally in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I wouldn't want to give my name to a criminal, and I wouldn't want to give my name to a police officer either.
If the officer thinks I'm involved in a crime, I would rather have him prove it based on facts, rather than based on what my name is. If I don't give my name, and the officer thinks that I may have been involved in a crime, then I would expect him to arrest me, fair and square. But if he can't figure out my name, and he can't link me to a crime, then he will have to release me.
Now, if I *am* a criminal, I just made his day go by much easier by telling him I don't want to reveal my name, because now he knows who to arrest first. It's a win-win situation for legitimate goverment interests, as well as private citizens.
The only reason the government would choose a solution that is not win-win for everyone is if they were making a grab for power that only serves themselves.
As long as the government must release suspicious non-name-givers who can't be linked to crimes, I think their individuality should be respected, and they should be released, no questions asked (pun!).
Take a big rock, stick it in a vise, and crush it. That's not too difficult. Take a tiny little steel ball bearing, stick it in a vise, and try your best to crush it...don't break your vise. Why do you suppose the molecules in the rock (SiO2, let's say) yield easier than the steel?
If a nano assembler tried to move metal atoms, which would break first - the nano assembler, or the metallic bonds? Think of the ball bearing and vise example. Of course, this is all assuming that the nano manipulator's arms can get a tighter grip on the metal atoms than the metal atoms have with other metal atoms. If you succeed in that, how are you going to get the manipulator to "let go" of the atom?
One more thing: Lots of very smart people think nanomanipulators are rediculous. It's quite a challenge just to get the atoms to stop sticking to the manipulator.
I bet, a hundred years from now, all the technical challenges involved with some types of nano manipulators will be solved. But even then, how is that going to be better than more ordinary techniques? Self-assembly works quite a lot better than nano assembers, it's used in industry every day, and is much more worthy of our attention.