There have, of course, been substantial enhancements in safety technology since the 1970s--tire design, computer-simulated crash structures, airbags, seatbelt pretensioners and force limiters, softer, non-protruding dashboard surfaces, more airbags, electronic stability control systems, and yet more airbags--and you have a much safer package than thirty years ago.
Of course, these could be applied to any vehicle, small or huge, and it would improve safety.
However, all other factors being equal, a lighter-weight vehicle will accelerate and brake faster than a larger one. Smaller cars almost universally handle better than larger ones, with less body lean and a more natural-feeling steering weight.
If you intend to get into an accident, then without a doubt the bigger vehicle is the safer one.
However, the fallacy lies in the presumption that accidents are inevitable. SUVs are involved in more accidents, vehicle for vehicle. On top of the natural difficulties in avoiding accidents in a larger, heavier vehicle, SUVs add an increased ride height--hence, a higher rollover rate.
The best way to survive an accident is to avoid one, and the best way to avoid one would be to drive a small car. (But not a sports car, necessarily--despite better performance characteristics, they tend to inspire drivers to behave badly.)
So, the US Government executed a search-and-siezure warrant, signed by a federal judge in a court decision on public record, against the operators of websites it accused of violating its laws within its borders?
Meaning, it didn't just wipe those sites off the internet, using its total, unilateral control over the DNS?
Would you seriously expect the UN/EU to be this accommodating should they assume control over the DNS?
Yeah, so there's a fairy-tale love story in there. There's also fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes and miracles. Oh, yeah, and the whole thing's a satire.
But you're not the first one to think it was a kissing book.
Japan has a clean nonexisting slate in aircraft manufacturing, whereas everyone else in the industry, airlines especially, have scarred rapsheets
1. I'd say that neither Boeing nor Airbus, nor any of the smaller players (Embraer or Bombardier-Canadair) has a "scarred rapsheet." On the contrary, they've built planes that have proven themselves in hundreds of thousands of hours of safe flight, all over the world, over the last several decades.
2. Japanese subcontractors are building about 35% of Boeing's next plane, the 787. Including the wings and parts of the fuselage.
But we, with the full benefit of hindsight...we get it. Just like those little-known geniuses, writing papers in the bowels of university research labs and Xerox PARC. We get it now. We are so friggin' smart. So much better than those short-sighted billionaires who pillaged and plundered the ideas of their betters twenty years ago.
The IBM PC wasn't successful because of its price (the Apple II was cheaper and more open) or because of its technology. It was successful because the nameplate on the front had a big, prominent IBM logo.
If the Lisa had been an IBM product, it would've been vastly more successful. Same with the Macintosh, Commodore 64, anything. Businesses bought IBM, because it was IBM and because IBM knew how to support corporate customers. Such was the power of the brand in those days, and there's nothing like it in the computer market today.
Clones sprang up around the IBM because it was the hot thing. They reverse-engineered the PC BIOS because that was the only way to go. No other computer could've justified the R&D necessary to create a clone, but the IBM could.
Get out your wallet and buy something better. Do your research and get the best model, like you said. If a 1.42GHz mini is not what you need/want, then go buy a G5 or whatever. Or wait until Apple is willing to guarantee you a 1.5GHz unit.
I can't believe you'd complain because there's a chance you might get more than you paid for. Do you get annoyed when you see those "20% More Cheez Doodles!" packages in the supermarket two days after you bought a regular-sized bag?
JVC + Panasonic: Developed the VHS format Sony + Phillips: Developed the CD format Thomson: Developer of the SECAM televison standards; acquired Telefunken and RCA (Which developed the PAL and NTSC standards)
Yeah, I'd say BluRay is doomed. None of those companies knows how to foster a standard.
If video editing on the Mac is dead, and this is why Adobe pulled Premiere...
Why does Adobe continue to update AfterEffects on the Mac?
Probably, because AfterEffects is a viable product. Premiere died because it was too lame to compete with FCP. On Windows, the competition is lighter, so it survived there. But FinalCut-using editors still use AE for finishing, because it's a genuinely useful program.
The PDF viewer manages to achieve device dependence on a device that isn't even in use (paper).
Wake up and smell the wood pulp. Many more people use computers to put stuff on paper than vice versa. Whether you think it's "upside down" or not, for most people, "digital" is a word meaning "not printed yet." The paperless office is something out of Star Trek. (And only Star Trek: The Next Generation at that.) It's not real, even if it is technologically feasible.
If anything, PDF is the best thing to happen to the idea of the Paperless Office. Because PDF at least carries the possibility that someone could say, "No, that's not what I want to print." As opposed to, "Print out a test copy and I'll see if it's what I want."
Since the beginning of Airbus vs. Boeing (Indeed, since Boeing vs. Lockheed vs. Douglas) there has been one rule:
Don't impugn the safety of the competitor's aircraft.
By and large, these huge, competitive companies have all followed that rule. They bribed, called in political favors, exaggerated, waged huge PR campaigns against their competitors...but nobody at Airbus claims that a 737 is unsafe, and nobody at Boeing claims that an A320 is unsafe. Because everybody knows that passengers don't know squat about aircraft, and that the flying public only flies because it has faith that all flying machines are equally, perfectly, safe.
There have been a few minor skirmishes over the years, several having to do with the number of engines needed to safely carry a plane over an ocean. But all of the players (which is, both of them now) have largely refrained from saying "The other guy's planes will fall out of the sky!"
If this is a Boeing PR move, it's a dangerous and stupid one.
It was at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company, a division of AT&T at the time. (See the Wikipedia link posted nearby.) Yes, it was fiddling with the lights, but as part of a controlled experiment.
The Music Store has been solidly profitable for years now, according to the quarterly conference calls.
When Apple was dealing with the setup costs, the store was a break-even endeavor. Those costs are now over, and the store is profitable, though with small margins (compared to the 20-30% it makes selling iPods and G5s.)
An X11 app that happens to compile and execute under OS X is not a Mac port.
WordPerfect, back when it was the dominant DOS word processor, tried that approach. WP-Mac was basically WP-DOS in a Macintosh window. It flopped.
Microsoft tried to use the same codebase with Word 6.0 on the Mac and WIndows. Identical user interface and feature set. It flopped. New customers actually paid to downgrade to 5.1.
The Mac market values a clean UI that integrates with other Mac apps. An X11 app has no chance of "killing" Word 2004 on the Mac, though quite a few people might use it.
In the South, public transit is closely linked with race. Segregated busses were symbolic of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s: black people made up the majority of the ridership, and the majority of African Americans did not have cars. the only way that southern whites could be convinced to ride them is if they could be assured a "better" seat.
When the busses desegregated, whites said, "Screw it, I'll just drive."
Such overt racism is not practiced anymore, of course. And most black people have cars. But busses and subways where they exist (Atlanta, for one) still carry the stigma of being the less-desirable mode of transportation. The ridership today still consists of the poor (mostly black) and the homeless. Nobody who can afford a car will take public transit.
It's not limited to the south, or event to the US, either.
You're on Slashdot: you're probably not giving up your PC. But you're not the target market for this change.
Take away the PC and replace it with (say) an iPod, a console-with-DVD-Player and a SunRay (The thin-client device that Sun is pushing.) Assume that the SunRay has some sort of reasonable connection (say, twice the speed of an ordinary DSL line) and that Google starts offering some sort of "GDesktop" web application service
(I know, a lot of ifs.)
The iPod would provide about the same music experience as a PC. The DVD player in the PlayStation, connected to a TV, would give a better video experience than the PC. Console vs. PC gaming is a personal choice; call it a toss up.
This hypothetical consumer is "free" from having to maintain, troubleshoot, upgrade, or replace a PC, yet he or she gets all the utility, and possibly more, for less money up front.
It's Microsoft's worst nightmare. This is why Microsoft hates Google: because it fears web services could be divorced from PCs. It's why Microsoft makes a console system. It's why Apple makes iPods and sells music online.
Microsoft wants your desktop, TV, game console, car, music player, and vacuum cleaner to be differently shaped PCs running Windows. I really hope that never happens.
I like having my own system. But many people don't, and many would be better served by discrete devices.
(And incidentally, I don't work for any of the companies listed herein, nor am I paid to endorse them.)
The proper way to "prepare" for a disaster like Katrina is to get the heck out. No amount of MREs, flashlights, or first aid kits would have made a difference in a city that's below sea level.
Most hurricanes don't kill more than a few unlucky people. Even highly destructive storms only result in a few dozen dead. Katrina was an exception, because New Orleans is below sea level, and is surrounded on three sides by a lake, a river, and the ocean. Compounding the geography was the bureaucracy. FEMA and the local officials failed to take into account the (widely documented) special circumstances when planning for the storm.
The proper way to deal with a disaster is to evacuate. Mandatory Evacuations should be just that. People who have no means should be given transportation. People who want to stay should be required to sign documents acknowledging that they are engaging in life-threatening behavior.
If the government were to give disaster kits to citizens, it would lull those citizens into a false sense of security. "Why evacuate, I've got everything I need right here?" "Why stock up, the state gave me everything I'll need?"
Then the disaster hits, and the victims discover that the batteries are dead. The food runs out in a week instead of two. The hand-cranked radio breaks. And it's still the government's fault for failing to equip these people properly.
Slashdot Mirror
There have, of course, been substantial enhancements in safety technology since the 1970s--tire design, computer-simulated crash structures, airbags, seatbelt pretensioners and force limiters, softer, non-protruding dashboard surfaces, more airbags, electronic stability control systems, and yet more airbags--and you have a much safer package than thirty years ago.
Of course, these could be applied to any vehicle, small or huge, and it would improve safety.
However, all other factors being equal, a lighter-weight vehicle will accelerate and brake faster than a larger one. Smaller cars almost universally handle better than larger ones, with less body lean and a more natural-feeling steering weight.
If you intend to get into an accident, then without a doubt the bigger vehicle is the safer one.
However, the fallacy lies in the presumption that accidents are inevitable. SUVs are involved in more accidents, vehicle for vehicle. On top of the natural difficulties in avoiding accidents in a larger, heavier vehicle, SUVs add an increased ride height--hence, a higher rollover rate.
The best way to survive an accident is to avoid one, and the best way to avoid one would be to drive a small car. (But not a sports car, necessarily--despite better performance characteristics, they tend to inspire drivers to behave badly.)
So, the US Government executed a search-and-siezure warrant, signed by a federal judge in a court decision on public record, against the operators of websites it accused of violating its laws within its borders?
Meaning, it didn't just wipe those sites off the internet, using its total, unilateral control over the DNS?
Would you seriously expect the UN/EU to be this accommodating should they assume control over the DNS?
Yeah, so there's a fairy-tale love story in there. There's also fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes and miracles. Oh, yeah, and the whole thing's a satire.
But you're not the first one to think it was a kissing book.
Where have you been?
" On October 15, 2003 Yang Liwei became China's first astronaut on the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft."
"Flight 15P of SpaceShipOne was the first privately-funded human spaceflight. It took place on June 21, 2004."
From the Wikipedia article, needless to say.
Japan has a clean nonexisting slate in aircraft manufacturing, whereas everyone else in the industry, airlines especially, have scarred rapsheets
1. I'd say that neither Boeing nor Airbus, nor any of the smaller players (Embraer or Bombardier-Canadair) has a "scarred rapsheet." On the contrary, they've built planes that have proven themselves in hundreds of thousands of hours of safe flight, all over the world, over the last several decades.
2. Japanese subcontractors are building about 35% of Boeing's next plane, the 787. Including the wings and parts of the fuselage.
Why compare two processors from totally different time periods?!
So Jobs didn't get it.
Gates didn't get it.
Sun didn't quite get it.
But we, with the full benefit of hindsight...we get it. Just like those little-known geniuses, writing papers in the bowels of university research labs and Xerox PARC. We get it now. We are so friggin' smart. So much better than those short-sighted billionaires who pillaged and plundered the ideas of their betters twenty years ago.
We get it. We are so brilliant. We totally rock.
The IBM PC wasn't successful because of its price (the Apple II was cheaper and more open) or because of its technology. It was successful because the nameplate on the front had a big, prominent IBM logo.
If the Lisa had been an IBM product, it would've been vastly more successful. Same with the Macintosh, Commodore 64, anything. Businesses bought IBM, because it was IBM and because IBM knew how to support corporate customers. Such was the power of the brand in those days, and there's nothing like it in the computer market today.
Clones sprang up around the IBM because it was the hot thing. They reverse-engineered the PC BIOS because that was the only way to go. No other computer could've justified the R&D necessary to create a clone, but the IBM could.
I want the one with better specs.
Get out your wallet and buy something better. Do your research and get the best model, like you said. If a 1.42GHz mini is not what you need/want, then go buy a G5 or whatever. Or wait until Apple is willing to guarantee you a 1.5GHz unit.
I can't believe you'd complain because there's a chance you might get more than you paid for. Do you get annoyed when you see those "20% More Cheez Doodles!" packages in the supermarket two days after you bought a regular-sized bag?
JVC + Panasonic: Developed the VHS format
Sony + Phillips: Developed the CD format
Thomson: Developer of the SECAM televison standards; acquired Telefunken and RCA (Which developed the PAL and NTSC standards)
Yeah, I'd say BluRay is doomed. None of those companies knows how to foster a standard.
If video editing on the Mac is dead, and this is why Adobe pulled Premiere...
Why does Adobe continue to update AfterEffects on the Mac?
Probably, because AfterEffects is a viable product. Premiere died because it was too lame to compete with FCP. On Windows, the competition is lighter, so it survived there. But FinalCut-using editors still use AE for finishing, because it's a genuinely useful program.
Same thing with Maya. It's the best 3D package on the Mac. And the Mac accounts for about 25% of Alias' Maya sales. If Autodesk kills it, it'll be to their detriment.
The PDF viewer manages to achieve device dependence on a device that isn't even in use (paper).
Wake up and smell the wood pulp. Many more people use computers to put stuff on paper than vice versa. Whether you think it's "upside down" or not, for most people, "digital" is a word meaning "not printed yet." The paperless office is something out of Star Trek. (And only Star Trek: The Next Generation at that.) It's not real, even if it is technologically feasible.
If anything, PDF is the best thing to happen to the idea of the Paperless Office. Because PDF at least carries the possibility that someone could say, "No, that's not what I want to print." As opposed to, "Print out a test copy and I'll see if it's what I want."
That's my presumption as well; I didn't make that clear. I don't think that Boeing or anyone else is behind this; they're not that stupid.
Since the beginning of Airbus vs. Boeing (Indeed, since Boeing vs. Lockheed vs. Douglas) there has been one rule:
Don't impugn the safety of the competitor's aircraft.
By and large, these huge, competitive companies have all followed that rule. They bribed, called in political favors, exaggerated, waged huge PR campaigns against their competitors...but nobody at Airbus claims that a 737 is unsafe, and nobody at Boeing claims that an A320 is unsafe. Because everybody knows that passengers don't know squat about aircraft, and that the flying public only flies because it has faith that all flying machines are equally, perfectly, safe.
There have been a few minor skirmishes over the years, several having to do with the number of engines needed to safely carry a plane over an ocean. But all of the players (which is, both of them now) have largely refrained from saying "The other guy's planes will fall out of the sky!"
If this is a Boeing PR move, it's a dangerous and stupid one.
It was at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company, a division of AT&T at the time. (See the Wikipedia link posted nearby.) Yes, it was fiddling with the lights, but as part of a controlled experiment.
The Music Store has been solidly profitable for years now, according to the quarterly conference calls.
When Apple was dealing with the setup costs, the store was a break-even endeavor. Those costs are now over, and the store is profitable, though with small margins (compared to the 20-30% it makes selling iPods and G5s.)
Can you reach any of those pages?
b s&sbrftog=1&catref=C6&fstype=1&from=R10&satitle=na zi+hitler&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&bs=Search&sargn=- 1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=ZIP%2FPostal&ftrt=1&f trv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction =compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search&fgtp= from Germany or France.
http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage/
http://www.korea-dpr.com/
http://www.iran-daily.com/1384/2389/html/
http://www.cubaweb.cu/
If so, you're making use of a system maintained by the US Government.
Now try acessing
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/coredocs.html/ from China or
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=
Seriously, who would you rather have in charge of the internet?
An X11 app that happens to compile and execute under OS X is not a Mac port.
WordPerfect, back when it was the dominant DOS word processor, tried that approach. WP-Mac was basically WP-DOS in a Macintosh window. It flopped.
Microsoft tried to use the same codebase with Word 6.0 on the Mac and WIndows. Identical user interface and feature set. It flopped. New customers actually paid to downgrade to 5.1.
The Mac market values a clean UI that integrates with other Mac apps. An X11 app has no chance of "killing" Word 2004 on the Mac, though quite a few people might use it.
And what does New York (or Philly, for that matter) have to do with the South?
Hint: Click the Parent link before you post things that have nothing to do with the topic at hand.
No, they both work. The term "average" does not necessarily imply arithmetic mean; the median is a perfectly legitimate average value.
So if a child steals from a store that they go to without a parent, it should be OK because the minor can't afford to purchase the item?
o nsibility
Maybe not "OK," but should the child be prosecuted, fined $1000, and jailed for six months as if she were an adult?
Not in most US states
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_criminal_resp
In the South, public transit is closely linked with race. Segregated busses were symbolic of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s: black people made up the majority of the ridership, and the majority of African Americans did not have cars. the only way that southern whites could be convinced to ride them is if they could be assured a "better" seat.
When the busses desegregated, whites said, "Screw it, I'll just drive."
Such overt racism is not practiced anymore, of course. And most black people have cars. But busses and subways where they exist (Atlanta, for one) still carry the stigma of being the less-desirable mode of transportation. The ridership today still consists of the poor (mostly black) and the homeless. Nobody who can afford a car will take public transit.
It's not limited to the south, or event to the US, either.
You're on Slashdot: you're probably not giving up your PC. But you're not the target market for this change.
Take away the PC and replace it with (say) an iPod, a console-with-DVD-Player and a SunRay (The thin-client device that Sun is pushing.) Assume that the SunRay has some sort of reasonable connection (say, twice the speed of an ordinary DSL line) and that Google starts offering some sort of "GDesktop" web application service
(I know, a lot of ifs.)
The iPod would provide about the same music experience as a PC. The DVD player in the PlayStation, connected to a TV, would give a better video experience than the PC. Console vs. PC gaming is a personal choice; call it a toss up.
This hypothetical consumer is "free" from having to maintain, troubleshoot, upgrade, or replace a PC, yet he or she gets all the utility, and possibly more, for less money up front.
It's Microsoft's worst nightmare. This is why Microsoft hates Google: because it fears web services could be divorced from PCs. It's why Microsoft makes a console system. It's why Apple makes iPods and sells music online.
Microsoft wants your desktop, TV, game console, car, music player, and vacuum cleaner to be differently shaped PCs running Windows. I really hope that never happens.
I like having my own system. But many people don't, and many would be better served by discrete devices.
(And incidentally, I don't work for any of the companies listed herein, nor am I paid to endorse them.)
...turns up a link to Firefox as #1.
But I'm sure you knew that.
Interestingly enough, Mozilla, Opera, Netscape, and Safari are all listed before IE.
The proper way to "prepare" for a disaster like Katrina is to get the heck out. No amount of MREs, flashlights, or first aid kits would have made a difference in a city that's below sea level.
Most hurricanes don't kill more than a few unlucky people. Even highly destructive storms only result in a few dozen dead. Katrina was an exception, because New Orleans is below sea level, and is surrounded on three sides by a lake, a river, and the ocean. Compounding the geography was the bureaucracy. FEMA and the local officials failed to take into account the (widely documented) special circumstances when planning for the storm.
The proper way to deal with a disaster is to evacuate. Mandatory Evacuations should be just that. People who have no means should be given transportation. People who want to stay should be required to sign documents acknowledging that they are engaging in life-threatening behavior.
If the government were to give disaster kits to citizens, it would lull those citizens into a false sense of security. "Why evacuate, I've got everything I need right here?" "Why stock up, the state gave me everything I'll need?"
Then the disaster hits, and the victims discover that the batteries are dead. The food runs out in a week instead of two. The hand-cranked radio breaks. And it's still the government's fault for failing to equip these people properly.