FTA: The problems don't necessarily mean tech firms are suddenly designing shoddy products, NPD's Baker says. But they are outsourcing more to save money..
I'm not an overly-critical person, but I think the article is FULL of juicy, one-sentence generalizations like the above.
I'd be more interested in knowing the frequency of this type of issues, the actual brand to which these things have happened (beyond Phillips' issue), and the nature of the issues.
By the way, getting service on a TV, VCR, CD, or DVD machine is interesting. Contrary to the article's statment, you'd be surprised at how many brands are actually in the food chain of a very few companies.
Receiving funding is pretty wonderful. Especially when you really want to expand what you're doing, or to hire more really smart people.
But bear something in mind: Investors want something back (profitability, future value, etc. - as well they should), and that something also includes the investor's desire to control the path their investment takes.
In a similar analogy: I'm independent (read: not able to sell any of my music in amounts larger than one or two) and can make any music I want, on any schedule I want, and I don't have business people deciding anything for me - artistic freedom is fantastic (even if it doesn't cover the costs of instruments or even dinners out with the family). Getting externally-sourced money is great if you can get it, but it isn't a free ride or a free lunch. All investor (or record label) money comes with built-in responsibility and some level of strings attached.
Why is it that when I read these things, I Robot comes to mind?
On another note, it wouldn't be a bad thing to have some facility in older folks' homes that can sense extreme health events. More than the buttons for "I've fallen and can't get up." Something that can sense seizures, heart events, and labored breathing.
The good news is, that dogs can be trained to "see" many of these types of events, and can help their owner out quite a bit. Dogs have the added benefit of giving their owner companionship. The only shortcoming of the dog caregiver is that they have trouble communicating with the outside world - a bot might be better able to communicate with emergency services or family members.
The very first thing that jumped out into my mind was the governmental acts that gave telephone lines and electrical lines to (MOST, not ALL) most of the rural and remote communities of the US. The government subsidized the energy companies and the telco(s) to make sure they could run the expense of running out hardware to even farmer Jane's house in the middle of (rural state here).
For the most part, this was a very good thing. At the time, the telcos were loathe to spend the bucks to run lines to anywhere but where lots of people lived... there were massive numbers of people who did not have access to telephones. Lots of good stuff happens for rural communities...
Fast forward to today... The government is still paying subsidies to the telcos for the rural telecommunications act... even though the telcos aren't really doing much new line work for basic POTS. Many billions of dollars in unintended windfalls have been paid out to companies that recouped their rural investments decades ago.
Will this new legislation cause good and bad consequences, too?
I really like my CDs when it comes to hearing "all the sound." A well-recorded CD is only a bit shy of the original format AIFFs from my recordings.
I honestly think that there will have to be some changes in the electronic-downloaded-music world before CDs become obsolete.
Are other mediums likely to take over? Yes. I wouldn't bet on anything that says a given (physical or electronic) format is the "be all and end all" for a given media. Technology and smart people will improve things over time. However, I don't think that CDs will go away for quite some time. I still enjoy my vinyl...
I'm really excited about this type of work. Those who used to be sighted that have lost their sight (or had their sight impaired) may be able to regain the senses they once had. The medical implications of these technologies are exciting.
I would like to play the thinker's advocate, though. It is important to understand the other side of this... blind culture, much like deaf culture, is a distinct means of life - one that doesn't think that blind (or deaf) people are "broken" in some way. Yes, folks with all five of their senses tend to look at those with less-than-five as though something is "wrong" with them. But, from the perspective of a great many blind and deaf people, they're not "broken" or "impaired" at all. Indeed, in some places, the deaf and the blind communities celebrate their different-ness and have wonderful, productive lives. You can see a few starting points here at this simple Wikipedia article: Wikipedia article on deaf culture.
With all that said... if indeed this technology leads to folks (that want to see (or see again)) having new or regained sight, then I'm really interested in this. I'd like to see this technology extended to nerve damage, spinal repairs (particularly spinal injury repair).
It seems (to me, a musician, not an intellectual property lawyer) that what they're doing is technically safe from getting nailed. However... laws governing the physical world are rife with clauses concerning "aiding and abetting."
I think I'd probably wager that the entertainment industry will discern or lobby a means of providing either law or precedence that will enable the industry to go after folks that enable non-sanctioned file sharing services. Has there already been precedence for shutting down servers like The Pirate Bay? For now, it seems, hosting and transmitting (catalogues of?) information isn't getting slammed.
I have not read the patent in detail. However, for a moment, assuming the article and summary are correct, then I think one of the big issues is whether or not a given business activity should be shut down/suspended when a patent challenger indicates infringement.
If eBay patently (no pun intended) infringed on the patent, then they must reach settlement with the patent holder, no doubt. But - I don't think the business activity should necessarily be shut down until such a settlement can be reached. (Please bear in mind that I'm over-simplifying to stimulate the point here...)
If a patent holder wishes to interrupt the business of an alleged infringer, there should be a fixed set of things that must occur before the alleged infringer must cease the patented activity or product. OTOH, two judges have already agreed that eBay is infringing. Are the judges' decisions enough evidence for suspension of activity or product?
In all seriousness, the biggest things in an automated home for me are (mostly existing technologies):
Rooms that dimly light when I come in the room if it is night outside the home.
Comfort zones of a home that are not hard to manage (something like each room is thermostatically controlled, and is allowed to have priority/override concerns).
Extremely flexible and easy to alter/maintain networking throughout the house (means: wired networking, not wifi (necessarily))
A household door that can be opened with a key fob (or maybe with some secure hardware thing) (with a physical override from within the house);
All seriousness aside, I do want a new-age garage that makes {safely!} parking my floating and flying car a breeze (this is the future, right?)
My main reason for lack of adoption of eBooks is really very straightforward: I like holding the in my hands. I enjoy the look, smell, and feel of book/newspaper print. Don't misunderstand... there's more to it:
When I read something that is in my hand, the format of the size of the page is such that I can bring it closer to my face, change its position in relation to the light, and easily flip back and forth in such a way as to make me more comfortable during the reading process.
Most online/computer-based reading suffers from the fact that I don't have tons of screen real-estate, and there are always issues with getting things jockeyed around to make the e-reading marginally comfortable. In addition, I almost never read printed materials sitting at a desk. I also find it very uncomfortable trying to sit in a chair (a chair that I find relaxing in which to sit) and have a laptop positioned to make the screen readable.
With all of that said, I do have one very good future use for eBooks in my life: The ability to read books and printed material to which I have no access - like an online viewable book of a realGutenberg Bible, or maybe one of Poe's original manuscripts of The Raven. Reading priceless (and sometimes fragile) texts from the past would be REALLY exciting. As a musician, I'd love to have easy access (even on a computer) to scans/images of original musical masterpieces and even some folk traditional stuff from centuries gone by.
Danger: what follows is strictly opinion. Thank you.
I think the new generation of what becomes the evolution of the digital versatile disk will have to pass the BetaMax test. Most folks who have the money to purchase "the next big technology" of video interaction have either experienced or heard about the VHS vs. BetaMax battle. Without exception, the people to whom I have spoken (about next-generation "DVD") have said, "I'm waiting until the dust settles, and then I'll start thinking about buying one of the new-technology devices." The second thing they have said (again, without exception) is, "I hope the players will play my stack of old-format DVDs."
I have the strong feeling that the manufacturers and implementers will fight it out, and the consumer will watch and wait. Whomever wins out will get the lion's share of the "going forward" business.
Something that is very important to me: I hope that the "battle" will be short-lived. Here's to hoping that once things settle, the economies of scale and availability will make the next generation DVD-type disks (and players) quickly affordable.
If my family wants to see Harry Potter [insert episode here] at the movie theater, we'll go see it so we can have a blast sitting in the dark listening to the overly-amped up sound and get a fun thrill from the big screen.
However, if the DVD were available at the same time, we'd still go to the theater to do the family thing, then buy the DVD if we liked it.
Means this: we go to the theaters to see the things in which we are interested - irrespective of DVD availability. We then wait with anticipation for the DVD for a release (and generally buy it on the day it is released) if we really liked the film. What I'm trying to say is, if we like it enough to patronize the film, we'll see it several times.
Enter the music industry: The industry is trying to figure out how to stay in business, and along the way, they're forgetting something critical: the fans. If the fans like it, the ones who pay for music will buy it (and some of us will buy the CD if we want to support the musician(s)). Those that don't buy music probably won't buy the downloads or the CDs.
Key point: If the artist makes the fans happy, they'll buy whatever makes the fan happy (CD or individual download). Preventing one of the means of purchasing is not helping the artist or the label. Truthfully, (this is a personal opinion, folks) if I really like a given artist, I'll buy the CD - even if there are some tunes to which I won't listen - so I can patronize the artist. If I like one tune of a given artist - but the artist doesn't generally float my boat, then I'll download the one tune and not buy the CD.
Cutting off means of distribution is not a smart business tactic.
I do hope this works well for the average Jane or Joe... I'd like to see less incedences where my mom forwards mails to me (thinking she's either been doing something wrong {like, her bank account is overdrafted, please go to this special web page and fix it}, or has gotten something great for free).
Honestly, I think Wall Street is good for folks to make money - Retirement, investments, etc. However, Wall Street seems to think it is a function of everyday business in every company - a proxy Board Member, if you will. (Yes, I know I am a lowly software engineer and musician... but hear me out...)
I think it is very important that publicly-traded companies are accountable for their actions. I also think that they have duty to both those inside the business and those who hold shares. However, I don't think that the generalists on Wall Street should be in the business of making a company run one way or another - it is not incumbent on investors to decide company policy. Market forces will take care of businesses that don't do the right thing. Said differently, the company needs to be the one minding its business - Wall Street will punish or reward based on the merits of the company.
What an ingenious invention! It looks like a koala crossed with a chameleon crossed with a sloth.
This could have really great applications in search and rescue. Things like vertical tunnels, high-wire-stranded utility worker rescue, and maybe even super-high building rescue and search efforts. (Not to mention the military applications...) This type of robotic cyberkoala should have excellent searching capabilities where wheel-/track-based robots cannot tread due to vertical or surface condition issues.
From TFA, The researchers said that while legions of new ocean species are discovered each year, it is quite rare to find one that merits a new family. - That's great. However, I don't think I'll be lining up to get one at my local sushi bar... Also, I don't think I'd invite it over for drinks or anything - it is actually kind of scary looking
It would be interesting to find out if this particular creature is strictly zoned, or is at many different levels in other parts of the world.
I'd like to see a comprehensive cost/benefit analysis in a real-world application. On the one hand, ridding ourselves of zillions of cubic yards of polystyrene materials (yes, Styrofoam is a trademarked name). On the other hand, releasing a bacteria through animal (?) husbandry may have repercussions about which we have not thought. I'd be very interested to see an analysis of whether or not these particular bacteria can have detrimental excretions, or even have an issue with the bacteria mutating into an "undesireable" breed.
I'm glad this type of research is ongoing. We really need to help old lady Earth out as much as possible these days.
Moderation is good, but sometimes our bodies force something on us.
I had to quit caffeine all together because of atrial fibrullation. I don't miss the Diet Mountain Dew or dark roast coffee. Really I don't. I just had to put up with a few headaches the first day or so. I figured that a stroke was not worth any number of cups of coffee.
CAFFEINE SEZ:ARE YOU REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY SURE THAT COFFEE CAN BE BAD FOR US BECAUSE YOU KNOW THAT IT HAS SUCH WONDERFUL BENEFITS LIKE MAKING SURE YOUR BRAIN IS OPERATING AT OPTIMUM WARP AND CAN EVEN KEEP YOU AWAKE LONG ENOUGH TO SIT THROUGH YET ANOTHER MEETING WITH PEOPLE THAT WANT TO ARGUE ABOUT NITS BUT REALLY IT ISN'T THE CAFFEINE IT IS ALL ABOUT THAT WONDERFUL BREWED-IN-THE-SAME-POT-FOR-10-YEARS-WITHOUT-CLEANI NG TASTE BUT REALLY YOU CAN SOMETIMES STICK A FORK IN IT AND THE FORK WILL STAND UP.
But seriously folks... so many things we consume are not good for us. Some coffee additives add loads of cholesterol, and others add chemicals that we don't fully understand.
However, coffee is a social drink that doesn't cause accidents, and is great when you're cold or when your throat has dust bunnies first thing in the morning. If nothing else, life is what we make of it - and the social interaction that often surrounds coffee is generally a very good thing. I sincerely hope that conclusive studies don't find major issues with coffee - it adds to the experience of life these days.
Besides, Tim Horton's/Starbucks are great places to meet folks! (In other news Starbucks and Tim Horton's merge into Timbucks...)
First, and absolutely foremost, let me say this: the security and safety of both our armed forces women/men and the security and safety of our country are absolute trump cards. Period.
With that said, if the armed forces is a bit clampy about keeping access to/from the interweb filtered and monitored, I don't really blame them. Although our forefathers/foremothers paid dearly for our bill of rights, including some level of free speech, I don't think that reasonable filtering of information access is a bad thing. In a world (the world of being in the armed forces) where you can easily be harmed or killed, information is a powerful weapon - and correctly-kept information is a powerful armor.
Before anyone yells at me (yes, I 'r' ThinSkinned), I do find this troubling: If TFA's target articles are true, then I don't understand why http://www.alfrankenshow.com/">propaganda is filtered, but http://www.billoreilly.com/">propaganda is not. Politics and war have always been uncomfortable bed-buddies, but the latter issue makes me very uncomfortable.
I think the competition has been good for all of us. AMD's strength in the market has kept Intel on its toes, and advances from IBM's Power processors has kept many architectures running pretty well.
I (this is IMHO) believe that Intel has been doing some laurel-resting for a number of years now. I do believe that they will come to bear with better stuff on a gradual basis. My only fear is that Intel will allow itself to do like GM, Ford, AT&T... allow itself to be way too slow to be quick to adapt. I personally would like to see IBM, AMD, and Intel all have truly great, smokin' processors going way into the future - it seems that it would only be good for us in the long run.
Slashdot Mirror
FTA: The problems don't necessarily mean tech firms are suddenly designing shoddy products, NPD's Baker says. But they are outsourcing more to save money..
I'm not an overly-critical person, but I think the article is FULL of juicy, one-sentence generalizations like the above.
I'd be more interested in knowing the frequency of this type of issues, the actual brand to which these things have happened (beyond Phillips' issue), and the nature of the issues.
By the way, getting service on a TV, VCR, CD, or DVD machine is interesting. Contrary to the article's statment, you'd be surprised at how many brands are actually in the food chain of a very few companies.
Receiving funding is pretty wonderful. Especially when you really want to expand what you're doing, or to hire more really smart people.
But bear something in mind: Investors want something back (profitability, future value, etc. - as well they should), and that something also includes the investor's desire to control the path their investment takes.
In a similar analogy: I'm independent (read: not able to sell any of my music in amounts larger than one or two) and can make any music I want, on any schedule I want, and I don't have business people deciding anything for me - artistic freedom is fantastic (even if it doesn't cover the costs of instruments or even dinners out with the family). Getting externally-sourced money is great if you can get it, but it isn't a free ride or a free lunch. All investor (or record label) money comes with built-in responsibility and some level of strings attached.
Why is it that when I read these things, I Robot comes to mind?
On another note, it wouldn't be a bad thing to have some facility in older folks' homes that can sense extreme health events. More than the buttons for "I've fallen and can't get up." Something that can sense seizures, heart events, and labored breathing.
The good news is, that dogs can be trained to "see" many of these types of events, and can help their owner out quite a bit. Dogs have the added benefit of giving their owner companionship. The only shortcoming of the dog caregiver is that they have trouble communicating with the outside world - a bot might be better able to communicate with emergency services or family members.
The very first thing that jumped out into my mind was the governmental acts that gave telephone lines and electrical lines to (MOST, not ALL) most of the rural and remote communities of the US. The government subsidized the energy companies and the telco(s) to make sure they could run the expense of running out hardware to even farmer Jane's house in the middle of (rural state here).
For the most part, this was a very good thing. At the time, the telcos were loathe to spend the bucks to run lines to anywhere but where lots of people lived... there were massive numbers of people who did not have access to telephones. Lots of good stuff happens for rural communities...
Fast forward to today... The government is still paying subsidies to the telcos for the rural telecommunications act... even though the telcos aren't really doing much new line work for basic POTS. Many billions of dollars in unintended windfalls have been paid out to companies that recouped their rural investments decades ago.
Will this new legislation cause good and bad consequences, too?
I really like my CDs when it comes to hearing "all the sound." A well-recorded CD is only a bit shy of the original format AIFFs from my recordings.
I honestly think that there will have to be some changes in the electronic-downloaded-music world before CDs become obsolete.
Are other mediums likely to take over? Yes. I wouldn't bet on anything that says a given (physical or electronic) format is the "be all and end all" for a given media. Technology and smart people will improve things over time. However, I don't think that CDs will go away for quite some time. I still enjoy my vinyl...
I'm really excited about this type of work. Those who used to be sighted that have lost their sight (or had their sight impaired) may be able to regain the senses they once had. The medical implications of these technologies are exciting.
I would like to play the thinker's advocate, though. It is important to understand the other side of this... blind culture, much like deaf culture, is a distinct means of life - one that doesn't think that blind (or deaf) people are "broken" in some way. Yes, folks with all five of their senses tend to look at those with less-than-five as though something is "wrong" with them. But, from the perspective of a great many blind and deaf people, they're not "broken" or "impaired" at all. Indeed, in some places, the deaf and the blind communities celebrate their different-ness and have wonderful, productive lives. You can see a few starting points here at this simple Wikipedia article: Wikipedia article on deaf culture.
With all that said... if indeed this technology leads to folks (that want to see (or see again)) having new or regained sight, then I'm really interested in this. I'd like to see this technology extended to nerve damage, spinal repairs (particularly spinal injury repair).
It seems (to me, a musician, not an intellectual property lawyer) that what they're doing is technically safe from getting nailed. However... laws governing the physical world are rife with clauses concerning "aiding and abetting."
I think I'd probably wager that the entertainment industry will discern or lobby a means of providing either law or precedence that will enable the industry to go after folks that enable non-sanctioned file sharing services. Has there already been precedence for shutting down servers like The Pirate Bay? For now, it seems, hosting and transmitting (catalogues of?) information isn't getting slammed.
I have not read the patent in detail. However, for a moment, assuming the article and summary are correct, then I think one of the big issues is whether or not a given business activity should be shut down/suspended when a patent challenger indicates infringement.
If eBay patently (no pun intended) infringed on the patent, then they must reach settlement with the patent holder, no doubt. But - I don't think the business activity should necessarily be shut down until such a settlement can be reached. (Please bear in mind that I'm over-simplifying to stimulate the point here...)
If a patent holder wishes to interrupt the business of an alleged infringer, there should be a fixed set of things that must occur before the alleged infringer must cease the patented activity or product. OTOH, two judges have already agreed that eBay is infringing. Are the judges' decisions enough evidence for suspension of activity or product?
The files they are gone. It seems McAfee ate them. The backup saved us. or The files they are gone. It seems McAfee ate them. Go home from work now.
In all seriousness, the biggest things in an automated home for me are (mostly existing technologies):
Rooms that dimly light when I come in the room if it is night outside the home.
Comfort zones of a home that are not hard to manage (something like each room is thermostatically controlled, and is allowed to have priority/override concerns).
Extremely flexible and easy to alter/maintain networking throughout the house (means: wired networking, not wifi (necessarily))
A household door that can be opened with a key fob (or maybe with some secure hardware thing) (with a physical override from within the house);
All seriousness aside, I do want a new-age garage that makes {safely!} parking my floating and flying car a breeze (this is the future, right?)
My main reason for lack of adoption of eBooks is really very straightforward: I like holding the in my hands. I enjoy the look, smell, and feel of book/newspaper print. Don't misunderstand... there's more to it:
When I read something that is in my hand, the format of the size of the page is such that I can bring it closer to my face, change its position in relation to the light, and easily flip back and forth in such a way as to make me more comfortable during the reading process.
Most online/computer-based reading suffers from the fact that I don't have tons of screen real-estate, and there are always issues with getting things jockeyed around to make the e-reading marginally comfortable. In addition, I almost never read printed materials sitting at a desk. I also find it very uncomfortable trying to sit in a chair (a chair that I find relaxing in which to sit) and have a laptop positioned to make the screen readable.
With all of that said, I do have one very good future use for eBooks in my life: The ability to read books and printed material to which I have no access - like an online viewable book of a real Gutenberg Bible, or maybe one of Poe's original manuscripts of The Raven . Reading priceless (and sometimes fragile) texts from the past would be REALLY exciting. As a musician, I'd love to have easy access (even on a computer) to scans/images of original musical masterpieces and even some folk traditional stuff from centuries gone by.
Danger: what follows is strictly opinion. Thank you.
I think the new generation of what becomes the evolution of the digital versatile disk will have to pass the BetaMax test. Most folks who have the money to purchase "the next big technology" of video interaction have either experienced or heard about the VHS vs. BetaMax battle. Without exception, the people to whom I have spoken (about next-generation "DVD") have said, "I'm waiting until the dust settles, and then I'll start thinking about buying one of the new-technology devices." The second thing they have said (again, without exception) is, "I hope the players will play my stack of old-format DVDs."
I have the strong feeling that the manufacturers and implementers will fight it out, and the consumer will watch and wait. Whomever wins out will get the lion's share of the "going forward" business.
Something that is very important to me: I hope that the "battle" will be short-lived. Here's to hoping that once things settle, the economies of scale and availability will make the next generation DVD-type disks (and players) quickly affordable.
Stick with me on this for a minute:
If my family wants to see Harry Potter [insert episode here] at the movie theater, we'll go see it so we can have a blast sitting in the dark listening to the overly-amped up sound and get a fun thrill from the big screen.
However, if the DVD were available at the same time, we'd still go to the theater to do the family thing, then buy the DVD if we liked it.
Means this: we go to the theaters to see the things in which we are interested - irrespective of DVD availability. We then wait with anticipation for the DVD for a release (and generally buy it on the day it is released) if we really liked the film. What I'm trying to say is, if we like it enough to patronize the film, we'll see it several times.
Enter the music industry: The industry is trying to figure out how to stay in business, and along the way, they're forgetting something critical: the fans. If the fans like it, the ones who pay for music will buy it (and some of us will buy the CD if we want to support the musician(s)). Those that don't buy music probably won't buy the downloads or the CDs.
Key point: If the artist makes the fans happy, they'll buy whatever makes the fan happy (CD or individual download). Preventing one of the means of purchasing is not helping the artist or the label. Truthfully, (this is a personal opinion, folks) if I really like a given artist, I'll buy the CD - even if there are some tunes to which I won't listen - so I can patronize the artist. If I like one tune of a given artist - but the artist doesn't generally float my boat, then I'll download the one tune and not buy the CD.
Cutting off means of distribution is not a smart business tactic.
Yes, thank you! I think I was slapped with the stupid stick this morning...
Incidences...
I do hope this works well for the average Jane or Joe... I'd like to see less incedences where my mom forwards mails to me (thinking she's either been doing something wrong {like, her bank account is overdrafted, please go to this special web page and fix it}, or has gotten something great for free).
Honestly, I think Wall Street is good for folks to make money - Retirement, investments, etc. However, Wall Street seems to think it is a function of everyday business in every company - a proxy Board Member, if you will. (Yes, I know I am a lowly software engineer and musician... but hear me out...)
I think it is very important that publicly-traded companies are accountable for their actions. I also think that they have duty to both those inside the business and those who hold shares. However, I don't think that the generalists on Wall Street should be in the business of making a company run one way or another - it is not incumbent on investors to decide company policy. Market forces will take care of businesses that don't do the right thing. Said differently, the company needs to be the one minding its business - Wall Street will punish or reward based on the merits of the company.
What an ingenious invention! It looks like a koala crossed with a chameleon crossed with a sloth.
This could have really great applications in search and rescue. Things like vertical tunnels, high-wire-stranded utility worker rescue, and maybe even super-high building rescue and search efforts. (Not to mention the military applications...) This type of robotic cyberkoala should have excellent searching capabilities where wheel-/track-based robots cannot tread due to vertical or surface condition issues.
From TFA, The researchers said that while legions of new ocean species are discovered each year, it is quite rare to find one that merits a new family. - That's great. However, I don't think I'll be lining up to get one at my local sushi bar... Also, I don't think I'd invite it over for drinks or anything - it is actually kind of scary looking
It would be interesting to find out if this particular creature is strictly zoned, or is at many different levels in other parts of the world.
Science harkens, "hither!"
I'd like to see a comprehensive cost/benefit analysis in a real-world application. On the one hand, ridding ourselves of zillions of cubic yards of polystyrene materials (yes, Styrofoam is a trademarked name). On the other hand, releasing a bacteria through animal (?) husbandry may have repercussions about which we have not thought. I'd be very interested to see an analysis of whether or not these particular bacteria can have detrimental excretions, or even have an issue with the bacteria mutating into an "undesireable" breed.
I'm glad this type of research is ongoing. We really need to help old lady Earth out as much as possible these days.
Moderation is good, but sometimes our bodies force something on us.
I had to quit caffeine all together because of atrial fibrullation. I don't miss the Diet Mountain Dew or dark roast coffee. Really I don't. I just had to put up with a few headaches the first day or so. I figured that a stroke was not worth any number of cups of coffee.
CAFFEINE SEZ:ARE YOU REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY SURE THAT COFFEE CAN BE BAD FOR US BECAUSE YOU KNOW THAT IT HAS SUCH WONDERFUL BENEFITS LIKE MAKING SURE YOUR BRAIN IS OPERATING AT OPTIMUM WARP AND CAN EVEN KEEP YOU AWAKE LONG ENOUGH TO SIT THROUGH YET ANOTHER MEETING WITH PEOPLE THAT WANT TO ARGUE ABOUT NITS BUT REALLY IT ISN'T THE CAFFEINE IT IS ALL ABOUT THAT WONDERFUL BREWED-IN-THE-SAME-POT-FOR-10-YEARS-WITHOUT-CLEANI NG TASTE BUT REALLY YOU CAN SOMETIMES STICK A FORK IN IT AND THE FORK WILL STAND UP.
But seriously folks... so many things we consume are not good for us. Some coffee additives add loads of cholesterol, and others add chemicals that we don't fully understand.
However , coffee is a social drink that doesn't cause accidents, and is great when you're cold or when your throat has dust bunnies first thing in the morning. If nothing else, life is what we make of it - and the social interaction that often surrounds coffee is generally a very good thing. I sincerely hope that conclusive studies don't find major issues with coffee - it adds to the experience of life these days.
Besides, Tim Horton's/Starbucks are great places to meet folks! (In other news Starbucks and Tim Horton's merge into Timbucks...)
Errr... links be broke... One can infer the correct bits. I'm a musician, not a link surgeon...
First, and absolutely foremost, let me say this: the security and safety of both our armed forces women/men and the security and safety of our country are absolute trump cards. Period.
With that said, if the armed forces is a bit clampy about keeping access to/from the interweb filtered and monitored, I don't really blame them. Although our forefathers/foremothers paid dearly for our bill of rights, including some level of free speech, I don't think that reasonable filtering of information access is a bad thing. In a world (the world of being in the armed forces) where you can easily be harmed or killed, information is a powerful weapon - and correctly-kept information is a powerful armor.
Before anyone yells at me (yes, I 'r' ThinSkinned), I do find this troubling: If TFA's target articles are true, then I don't understand why http://www.alfrankenshow.com/">propaganda is filtered, but http://www.billoreilly.com/">propaganda is not. Politics and war have always been uncomfortable bed-buddies, but the latter issue makes me very uncomfortable.
I think the competition has been good for all of us. AMD's strength in the market has kept Intel on its toes, and advances from IBM's Power processors has kept many architectures running pretty well.
I (this is IMHO) believe that Intel has been doing some laurel-resting for a number of years now. I do believe that they will come to bear with better stuff on a gradual basis. My only fear is that Intel will allow itself to do like GM, Ford, AT&T... allow itself to be way too slow to be quick to adapt. I personally would like to see IBM, AMD, and Intel all have truly great, smokin' processors going way into the future - it seems that it would only be good for us in the long run.