The PDF plugin is the worst part of Chrome, on every new install I have to remember what I did before to disable it before. I look at a lot of datasheets, and the built-in-viewer really sucks for doing anything but scanning to see if you want to search through your downloads directory to open it up in a read PDF viewer.
The cell phone companies also have the ability to determine who was near the jammer when it was turned on- they can, have, and will correlate this data to find the jammer & operator. When a device with a strong signal suddenly drops off the network, that's a giant red flag.
What bothers me about "personalized" learning is that at some point, these people will need to interact with others, so there must be commonality. Being able to communicate and share ideas is absolutely vital- and the language behind the ideas and how they are represented are a vital aspect of the idea itself. Personalization may help an individual, but it can hurt in the collective sense, where the people must work with the ideas of others.
I think the idea of Uber & Lyft are great- but I really wish they would stop calling it "Ride Sharing" as it totally misrepresents what it is. It's selling! Sharing implies "I was going in the same direction, and I could give you a ride, and I'll split the cost with you." Of course this is what Uber and Lyft want people to think they do.
It won't change things only if you look at it on a planetary scale. In this case, the heat is being moved by a great distance- where the heat is absorbed and where it is released makes a huge difference.
Tropical storms in the Atlantic are strongly affected by the weather in the Sahara- it's part of the modeling they use to determine what the hurricane season will be like. It is worrisome because we don't know what it will do- it could make the hurricanes bigger or smaller, more or less frequent- the big issue is we don't know. I can't see how a big shift in the albedo *won't* change things.
It is hard to design USB well, particularly with respect to power: a *huge* thing is making sure it's safe- Lithium batteries are dangerous when charged wrong, and if there is a fire, the lawyers will be after everyone they can possibly name in the suit. Remember that the lithium battery is very energy-dense- a lot of energy in a small space means the potential for a lot of heat in a small space.
All computers have some method of limiting the current out of their USB ports- if they don't, they can't get a USB Logo. During enumeration, a device requests more current, and the computer keeps track of the current available. If the current isn't available, enumeration fails. If a device draws too much current, the computer can crash, as it will drag the computer's 5V rail down. Most computers have current limiting in the form of a NTC resistor that will limit current but only after it heats up, so there is a delay, so short term overcurrents that aren't long enough to heat up the NTC resistor are dangerous. USB relies on the devices following the spec. If you violate the spec, you fail to get USB logo- and many of the big OEMs require logoed devices.
There are many USB hubs that can natively support more than 4 ports: Microchip's USB2517 is one (of many) I'm familiar with.
The 100W devices are coming as part of the USB C Connector, but with all that additional power, you better believe that the computer manufacturers are going to be careful as there is a much bigger chance of fire. To even get 100W, you have to have an active cable that identifies itself to the system as one that can handle the increased power. And Apple is very involved in USB type C development.
Apple is big into type-C. Using the D+/D- to signal what current/voltage to deliver is risky, as a mistake can blow up the phone and it plays hell with the signal integrity- these lines are for data.
The big things that type-C allow are: 1) up to 100W power, source and sink, 2) widely re-assignable signal paths. The spec allows for devices to both supply current and to consume current over the same connector. To get to 100W, the devices have to negotiate what kind of power to supply (voltage/current). The spec defines the communication to determine this- it doesn't happen over the USB connection, as the information has to be available before the USB connection is established (such as if the device is completely unpowered/dead battery). You also have to be able to tell if the cable is rated to support the power requested- you don't want the cable getting too hot and catching fire. Since the data pathways are re-assignable, you also have to know if the cable can support the signalling you want.
I think that Apple is big into type C as it follows with their simplicity/aesthetic. One connector is all you need for power/data/video- and that's not something you can do with lightning.
They do investigate, but investigations take expensive equipment out into the field and are extremely time consuming. The certifications are there to reduce the chance that an interfering piece of gear gets out on the market. The question is, where would the money for these investigations come from? The requirements today are mostly about paperwork and a few measurements on sample devices. For a commercial device, it's pretty effective- but the airwaves are a shared resource and we need a mechanism to prevent "the tragedy of the commons" type scenario. I'm not sure what is the best method, but I think that Bruce has a good idea.
I used to work for Dell- I remember at one of the company meetings, I think it was Michael Dell himself, referring to EMC as "Excess Margin Corporation" - of course this was before they were partnering on projects.
I got mine as a refurb from woot so I didn't have the option- but the microsoft tax is not all that big relative to the cost of the laptop, I think that you might save $50- if you're buying a $2000 laptop, that may be in the noise. I decided that there are some times that I may need windows (sometimes you can't get around it), so I decided to get another mSATA drive, and I'll just swap the whole drive when I need to go Microsoft.
I do like it- especially the screen- it's beautiful. I tried an XPS13- the combination of limited memory (8G, soldered down, so not expandable) and a 13" UHD screen made it not as desirable. Still beautiful, but there are enough programs out there that do not scale text size, It is a 13" laptop and a 13" screen, especially for development, it is still awfully small. The precision also has a more USB ports- while thicker and heavier, it is still a better option for development.
I've got one- one of the few laptops I could find that had the capability of 16G and the UHD display. Ubuntu 15.04 installed fine, but I did have to do some fiddling to get the Wifi going. Still haven't gotten bluetooth working right. Doesn't have a built-in wired ethernet port- which can make things a pain. Definitely has issues with sleep/suspend- sometimes it wakes up, sometimes not, often it starts, but the Wifi chooses not to start.
The OP actually did specifically refer to the damage to the 'bulk electric system' which I believe was referring to the grid. No matter. A serious frequency/phase excursion can FUBAR the grid. If you FUBAR the grid of a modern country,that country is pretty much instantly moved to 3rd world status, particularly if the equipment needed to manufacture the necessary parts to repair the system are themselves powered by the grid. Big transformers are not a part that is kept on the shelf in a ready to install state, at least not in any volume. Even in small scale incidents, repairs are costly and time consuming.
You're right if you're considering just the end-users, but absolutely, incredibly wrong when you consider the entire grid. When different portions of the grid are out of phase, they start fighting each other- look at it in terms of just Ohms law- when all the voltages are exactly in phase, the difference in voltage between the generators is zero- so because V=I*R, the current between the generators is zero. Add a little bit of phase difference, the instantaneous voltage difference is no longer zero, so current will flow between the generators, since by the nature of a power grid, the R factor is very, very, very low, you can get an enormous current with a small difference. Most power generation facilities are only designed to source power, not sink (absorb) it- but that power has to go somewhere. If your equipment is fast enough, fuses, breakers blow. If not fast enough or it just comes on too fast, all that energy gets shoved into pieces of the infrastructure like wires and transformers, and when the energy gets added to the system faster than it can be taken away BOOM, the catastrophic damage happens. And the things that blow up are not things that can be replaced easily- big transformers can take months to years between order and delivery. If a single event destroys a lot of the infrastructure, it could be years before the grid is restored.
With all the password hacks/cracks/thefts, my cynicism has led me to believe that password policies are not about protecting the user, they are about protecting the company. With every damn website and store loyalty program asking you to create an account, it's to the point of absurdity. But they tell you that you need to create a unique password, of course. The uniqueness is not there to protect the user, it's to protect the company from liability when their crappy data policies (storing passwords in plain text in a file protected by changing the robots.txt rules, etc) lead to a data breach. "Oh, the password that was stolen from our yahoo storefront for customized puppy faced iphone cases, and allowed Elbonian hackers to drain your bank account and charge child porn to your credit card? We told you not to reuse passwords- it isn't our fault you're now a felon on a sexual predator list."
As stated elsewhere, weight and balance are important in a plane, and accidents have happened as a result. I've taken a number of small plane commuter flights in the US and they regularly asked how much I weighed, and they definitely weighed my baggage. The smaller the plane is, the more it matters.
Safety is one aspect, efficiency is another- knowing how much you weigh also tells the airline how much fuel they must put on board, and even how much cargo they can safely take- much cargo flies on a space (weight) available basis.
Hell yeah, I want them to know how much weight is on the plane.
Because this requires jamming the original signal, this is detectable, otherwise, it is MITM. Jamming is typically very easy- you just have to generate enough energy to overcome the incoming signal- the difficult part is being able to intercept the signal in the presence of your own noise. There are ways to cancel out the noise (like noise cancellation headphones)- but it is a really hard problem, even if you know the exact "noise" you're putting out.
This may push us faster into better types of keys, such as keys with 2-way radios, or even get us out of keys altogether, incorporating the key into one of the other devices we may have on us. We haven't had those keys commonly because of the expense of the technology- technology will progress, and so will the hacks.
Biased? Maybe, I don't know enough about the economics of the situation- what I'm glad to see is that this is a tool that gives some insight to the true costs of nuclear power- as it is a model, it is incomplete (like all models), but it gives a place to start, to improve, and most importantly, to compare to other models.
For our society to survive, we need energy- lots of it. And it's going to cost us in lots of ways. But if we are going to get capital investment, we have to convince the holders of that capital that their investment will have an acceptable return over their timeline. Acceptable means a lot of different things- to some "what will my retirement account look like when I want to retire?" To others, "how will it affect my stock price next quarter?" And so on... No matter what, every means of energy production has costs. What I hope is that a tool like this will be updated, improved, and applied to all the alternatives so we have a chance of making choices not based on fear of the unknown or the marketing campaign of someone who wants to sell a resource that they have a monopoly on.
Once upon a time, the medical opinion about ulcers was that they were caused by stress, it was not until 1994 that the NIH published the opinion that most ulcers were caused by Helicobacter pylori, and in 2005 the Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to Marshall and Warren. About the first time I heard about antibiotics curing ulcers was by a radio call-in doctor (an actual MD) in the mid-80's- he also preached about a cure for asthma involving long term antibiotics. It may be only applicable to specific types of asthma- but there has been very little research into this cure (admittedly, there are real risks to long term antibiotic usage)- which involves not a new medicine, but the administration of an existing medicine.
Unfortunately, it is an economic decision by the drug maker- continue with an existing, proven (multi billion dollar/year) revenue stream, or risk that revenue stream by developing a treatment with a very small revenue potential (I believe your estimates for the cost are *way* higher than the market would bear).
The unfortunate part is that health care is not about health first, it is about money first.
Well, if you accompany discontinuing the product with publicity about how dangerous it was (but then take the medicine, tweak the formula slightly, and re-release), nobody will be able to make the generic in a profitable way. This happened with Glaxo and Salmeterol inhalers (sold as Serevent). Like any other drug, it is dangerous when not used properly. I found it was the only drug that relieved my asthma symptoms (the discussion about how it is far more profitable to treat as opposed to cure asthma is something for another time)
Always very expensive, but shortly before it was to turn generic, it was discontinued. They then combined Salmeterol with a steroid, re-released it, and continued to make a huge amount of money off of it. It has since lost patent protection, but no company is willing to make a generic, for fear of lawsuits I'm sure. Glaxo can afford a reasonable defense, but I'm sure the generic companies don't have the profit margins to be able to afford the risk of a suit.
An MBA is a vehicle to convince other people that have MBAs that you believe that an MBA is necessary to work with other people that have MBAs that share in the misguided notion that having an MBA qualifies you to manage a business. Really, it is a ticket into a network of folks that believe that shortcuts and not actual work create a business.
Most certifications are like MBAs- except that they are shortcuts for HR resume screens, who use them as an easy filter and to avoid accountability that the people that they let through are qualified... "these applicants are CERTIFIED!"... If you have the experience and you know someone, you will get the job, if not, you're in the pool of "everyone else" that has a certification. The most important factor in getting a job is networking.
No, that's not how CDC drivers work under Windows. Even *if* you work with the standard microsoft CDC drivers, you still need a signed.inf file, and you have to get that through the WHQL process. FTDI used their own drivers because the built in CDC driver from Microsoft was an unreliable POS (historically).
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The PDF plugin is the worst part of Chrome, on every new install I have to remember what I did before to disable it before. I look at a lot of datasheets, and the built-in-viewer really sucks for doing anything but scanning to see if you want to search through your downloads directory to open it up in a read PDF viewer.
The cell phone companies also have the ability to determine who was near the jammer when it was turned on- they can, have, and will correlate this data to find the jammer & operator. When a device with a strong signal suddenly drops off the network, that's a giant red flag.
7? 6 digit user IDs are the ones really ruining the place.
What bothers me about "personalized" learning is that at some point, these people will need to interact with others, so there must be commonality. Being able to communicate and share ideas is absolutely vital- and the language behind the ideas and how they are represented are a vital aspect of the idea itself. Personalization may help an individual, but it can hurt in the collective sense, where the people must work with the ideas of others.
Is transportation to your alternate universe available? Is there an Uber "Ride Selling" app for my phone?
I think the idea of Uber & Lyft are great- but I really wish they would stop calling it "Ride Sharing" as it totally misrepresents what it is. It's selling! Sharing implies "I was going in the same direction, and I could give you a ride, and I'll split the cost with you." Of course this is what Uber and Lyft want people to think they do.
It won't change things only if you look at it on a planetary scale. In this case, the heat is being moved by a great distance- where the heat is absorbed and where it is released makes a huge difference.
Tropical storms in the Atlantic are strongly affected by the weather in the Sahara- it's part of the modeling they use to determine what the hurricane season will be like. It is worrisome because we don't know what it will do- it could make the hurricanes bigger or smaller, more or less frequent- the big issue is we don't know. I can't see how a big shift in the albedo *won't* change things.
It is hard to design USB well, particularly with respect to power: a *huge* thing is making sure it's safe- Lithium batteries are dangerous when charged wrong, and if there is a fire, the lawyers will be after everyone they can possibly name in the suit. Remember that the lithium battery is very energy-dense- a lot of energy in a small space means the potential for a lot of heat in a small space.
All computers have some method of limiting the current out of their USB ports- if they don't, they can't get a USB Logo. During enumeration, a device requests more current, and the computer keeps track of the current available. If the current isn't available, enumeration fails. If a device draws too much current, the computer can crash, as it will drag the computer's 5V rail down. Most computers have current limiting in the form of a NTC resistor that will limit current but only after it heats up, so there is a delay, so short term overcurrents that aren't long enough to heat up the NTC resistor are dangerous. USB relies on the devices following the spec. If you violate the spec, you fail to get USB logo- and many of the big OEMs require logoed devices.
There are many USB hubs that can natively support more than 4 ports: Microchip's USB2517 is one (of many) I'm familiar with.
The 100W devices are coming as part of the USB C Connector, but with all that additional power, you better believe that the computer manufacturers are going to be careful as there is a much bigger chance of fire. To even get 100W, you have to have an active cable that identifies itself to the system as one that can handle the increased power. And Apple is very involved in USB type C development.
Apple is big into type-C. Using the D+/D- to signal what current/voltage to deliver is risky, as a mistake can blow up the phone and it plays hell with the signal integrity- these lines are for data.
The big things that type-C allow are: 1) up to 100W power, source and sink, 2) widely re-assignable signal paths. The spec allows for devices to both supply current and to consume current over the same connector. To get to 100W, the devices have to negotiate what kind of power to supply (voltage/current). The spec defines the communication to determine this- it doesn't happen over the USB connection, as the information has to be available before the USB connection is established (such as if the device is completely unpowered/dead battery). You also have to be able to tell if the cable is rated to support the power requested- you don't want the cable getting too hot and catching fire. Since the data pathways are re-assignable, you also have to know if the cable can support the signalling you want.
I think that Apple is big into type C as it follows with their simplicity/aesthetic. One connector is all you need for power/data/video- and that's not something you can do with lightning.
The GROL is not for just transmitting- that's a restricted license - the GROL is required to "... to adjust, maintain, or internally repair FCC licensed radiotelephone transmitters ..."
They do investigate, but investigations take expensive equipment out into the field and are extremely time consuming. The certifications are there to reduce the chance that an interfering piece of gear gets out on the market. The question is, where would the money for these investigations come from? The requirements today are mostly about paperwork and a few measurements on sample devices. For a commercial device, it's pretty effective- but the airwaves are a shared resource and we need a mechanism to prevent "the tragedy of the commons" type scenario. I'm not sure what is the best method, but I think that Bruce has a good idea.
I used to work for Dell- I remember at one of the company meetings, I think it was Michael Dell himself, referring to EMC as "Excess Margin Corporation" - of course this was before they were partnering on projects.
I got mine as a refurb from woot so I didn't have the option- but the microsoft tax is not all that big relative to the cost of the laptop, I think that you might save $50- if you're buying a $2000 laptop, that may be in the noise. I decided that there are some times that I may need windows (sometimes you can't get around it), so I decided to get another mSATA drive, and I'll just swap the whole drive when I need to go Microsoft.
I do like it- especially the screen- it's beautiful. I tried an XPS13- the combination of limited memory (8G, soldered down, so not expandable) and a 13" UHD screen made it not as desirable. Still beautiful, but there are enough programs out there that do not scale text size, It is a 13" laptop and a 13" screen, especially for development, it is still awfully small. The precision also has a more USB ports- while thicker and heavier, it is still a better option for development.
I've got one- one of the few laptops I could find that had the capability of 16G and the UHD display. Ubuntu 15.04 installed fine, but I did have to do some fiddling to get the Wifi going. Still haven't gotten bluetooth working right. Doesn't have a built-in wired ethernet port- which can make things a pain. Definitely has issues with sleep/suspend- sometimes it wakes up, sometimes not, often it starts, but the Wifi chooses not to start.
The OP actually did specifically refer to the damage to the 'bulk electric system' which I believe was referring to the grid. No matter. A serious frequency/phase excursion can FUBAR the grid. If you FUBAR the grid of a modern country,that country is pretty much instantly moved to 3rd world status, particularly if the equipment needed to manufacture the necessary parts to repair the system are themselves powered by the grid. Big transformers are not a part that is kept on the shelf in a ready to install state, at least not in any volume. Even in small scale incidents, repairs are costly and time consuming.
You're right if you're considering just the end-users, but absolutely, incredibly wrong when you consider the entire grid. When different portions of the grid are out of phase, they start fighting each other- look at it in terms of just Ohms law- when all the voltages are exactly in phase, the difference in voltage between the generators is zero- so because V=I*R, the current between the generators is zero. Add a little bit of phase difference, the instantaneous voltage difference is no longer zero, so current will flow between the generators, since by the nature of a power grid, the R factor is very, very, very low, you can get an enormous current with a small difference. Most power generation facilities are only designed to source power, not sink (absorb) it- but that power has to go somewhere. If your equipment is fast enough, fuses, breakers blow. If not fast enough or it just comes on too fast, all that energy gets shoved into pieces of the infrastructure like wires and transformers, and when the energy gets added to the system faster than it can be taken away BOOM , the catastrophic damage happens. And the things that blow up are not things that can be replaced easily- big transformers can take months to years between order and delivery. If a single event destroys a lot of the infrastructure, it could be years before the grid is restored.
So yeah, it can be catastrophic.
With all the password hacks/cracks/thefts, my cynicism has led me to believe that password policies are not about protecting the user, they are about protecting the company. With every damn website and store loyalty program asking you to create an account, it's to the point of absurdity. But they tell you that you need to create a unique password, of course. The uniqueness is not there to protect the user, it's to protect the company from liability when their crappy data policies (storing passwords in plain text in a file protected by changing the robots.txt rules, etc) lead to a data breach. "Oh, the password that was stolen from our yahoo storefront for customized puppy faced iphone cases, and allowed Elbonian hackers to drain your bank account and charge child porn to your credit card? We told you not to reuse passwords- it isn't our fault you're now a felon on a sexual predator list."
As stated elsewhere, weight and balance are important in a plane, and accidents have happened as a result. I've taken a number of small plane commuter flights in the US and they regularly asked how much I weighed, and they definitely weighed my baggage. The smaller the plane is, the more it matters.
Safety is one aspect, efficiency is another- knowing how much you weigh also tells the airline how much fuel they must put on board, and even how much cargo they can safely take- much cargo flies on a space (weight) available basis.
Hell yeah, I want them to know how much weight is on the plane.
Because this requires jamming the original signal, this is detectable, otherwise, it is MITM. Jamming is typically very easy- you just have to generate enough energy to overcome the incoming signal- the difficult part is being able to intercept the signal in the presence of your own noise. There are ways to cancel out the noise (like noise cancellation headphones)- but it is a really hard problem, even if you know the exact "noise" you're putting out.
This may push us faster into better types of keys, such as keys with 2-way radios, or even get us out of keys altogether, incorporating the key into one of the other devices we may have on us. We haven't had those keys commonly because of the expense of the technology- technology will progress, and so will the hacks.
Biased? Maybe, I don't know enough about the economics of the situation- what I'm glad to see is that this is a tool that gives some insight to the true costs of nuclear power- as it is a model, it is incomplete (like all models), but it gives a place to start, to improve, and most importantly, to compare to other models.
For our society to survive, we need energy- lots of it. And it's going to cost us in lots of ways. But if we are going to get capital investment, we have to convince the holders of that capital that their investment will have an acceptable return over their timeline. Acceptable means a lot of different things- to some "what will my retirement account look like when I want to retire?" To others, "how will it affect my stock price next quarter?" And so on... No matter what, every means of energy production has costs. What I hope is that a tool like this will be updated, improved, and applied to all the alternatives so we have a chance of making choices not based on fear of the unknown or the marketing campaign of someone who wants to sell a resource that they have a monopoly on.
Once upon a time, the medical opinion about ulcers was that they were caused by stress, it was not until 1994 that the NIH published the opinion that most ulcers were caused by Helicobacter pylori, and in 2005 the Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to Marshall and Warren. About the first time I heard about antibiotics curing ulcers was by a radio call-in doctor (an actual MD) in the mid-80's- he also preached about a cure for asthma involving long term antibiotics. It may be only applicable to specific types of asthma- but there has been very little research into this cure (admittedly, there are real risks to long term antibiotic usage)- which involves not a new medicine, but the administration of an existing medicine.
Unfortunately, it is an economic decision by the drug maker- continue with an existing, proven (multi billion dollar/year) revenue stream, or risk that revenue stream by developing a treatment with a very small revenue potential (I believe your estimates for the cost are *way* higher than the market would bear).
The unfortunate part is that health care is not about health first, it is about money first.
Well, if you accompany discontinuing the product with publicity about how dangerous it was (but then take the medicine, tweak the formula slightly, and re-release), nobody will be able to make the generic in a profitable way. This happened with Glaxo and Salmeterol inhalers (sold as Serevent). Like any other drug, it is dangerous when not used properly. I found it was the only drug that relieved my asthma symptoms (the discussion about how it is far more profitable to treat as opposed to cure asthma is something for another time)
Always very expensive, but shortly before it was to turn generic, it was discontinued. They then combined Salmeterol with a steroid, re-released it, and continued to make a huge amount of money off of it. It has since lost patent protection, but no company is willing to make a generic, for fear of lawsuits I'm sure. Glaxo can afford a reasonable defense, but I'm sure the generic companies don't have the profit margins to be able to afford the risk of a suit.
An MBA is a vehicle to convince other people that have MBAs that you believe that an MBA is necessary to work with other people that have MBAs that share in the misguided notion that having an MBA qualifies you to manage a business. Really, it is a ticket into a network of folks that believe that shortcuts and not actual work create a business.
Most certifications are like MBAs- except that they are shortcuts for HR resume screens, who use them as an easy filter and to avoid accountability that the people that they let through are qualified... "these applicants are CERTIFIED!" ... If you have the experience and you know someone, you will get the job, if not, you're in the pool of "everyone else" that has a certification. The most important factor in getting a job is networking.
No, that's not how CDC drivers work under Windows. Even *if* you work with the standard microsoft CDC drivers, you still need a signed .inf file, and you have to get that through the WHQL process. FTDI used their own drivers because the built in CDC driver from Microsoft was an unreliable POS (historically).