Except a USB charger that can use AA batteries could be used to charge your phone, and any other number of things that can be powered by USB: netbooks, some tablets, handheld gps units, etc.
I keep one at home in case the power goes out and I need to recharge my phone, and one in my car in case my phone is dying and I have to leave my car and take it with me. Since I can put rechargeable AA batteries in them, in makes perfect sense.
Also, who says you have to wait to charge the flashlight? Most things that charge by USB can be used while they are plugged in.
How about a portable strobe light (dim the power from 500 lumens and select your own flash rate)? You can also use it for stop motion analysis, or for some interesting photography effects. Program SOS Morse code into it and see who shows up? Get a few of them, set random blink rates, put them on a remote control helicopter, and go have some fun with the UFO enthusiasts?
It's a bright flashlight that can be used to blind an attacker at night, plus it fits into your hand in case you need to hit back (similar to holding a roll of quarters, but more useful).
I think the idea is to see what programs or uses people can come up with for an easy to program high powered flashlight.
Well, if you wanted to use it while jumpstarting your car at night, you could always plug it into whatever you are using to jumpstart your car. Unless somehow you can jumpstart your car without electricity . . .
I'm assuming, like most things that charge by USB, that you can use it while it's charging.
No where does it say humans were altered to look like children. I believe what they were trying to explain was humans that were already short (dwarfs, little people, race-horse jockeys) were altered to look like aliens.
When I was an undergrad studying computer science at the University of Michigan, they wanted me to pay the higher engineering tuition level, even though my CS degree was in the college of Literature, Science, and Arts.
Therefore, I didn't declare my major until halfway through my second-to-last semester. Why pay the higher level tuition for all the LS&A courses they required me to take as well? Engineering level tuition for French, Creative Writing, and my Race & Ethnicity Requirement? I don't think so.
No, there is money in creating new stories, and it happens all the time. But there are hundreds if not thousands of new stories every year, and the movie studios buy hundreds of these scripts every year, and most of the time it's a guessing game as to which script will be a money maker, and which will bomb terribly.
They take chances on a small number of new stories, and some of them might make money.
Even the franchise movies sometimes fail, but the chances are higher that they won't. It's a simple money equation.
And the house will not always come out ahead. People find ways to tilt the odds in their favor all the time (some of them are actually legal, where cheating isn't involved). When this happens, the house will make changes and adjustments, but that still doesn't mean the there aren't ways to change the odds in your favor.
Counting cards in blackjack isn't illegal, it isn't cheating either. When someone figured out how to predict where a roulette ball was going to land using an infrared laser measuring device, that wasn't illegal or cheating either.
But these activities aren't allowed by the casinos. It's their building and their operation, so you have to play by their rules.
Don't be so naive as to think Casinos are infallible or perfect money making operations. People are always looking for an edge, and will find them where possible.
I heard about this originally a couple of years ago (maybe in a Paul Allen interview?), but while they were working on MS-DOS, he overheard Bill Gates discussing how to get back Paul Allen's company shares if he should die from his disease (Hodgkins), so that Paul's family doesn't have any control of the company.
One of the co-founders has a potentially deadly disease, but is still hard at work for the company, and Gates is trying to figure out how to screw him and his family over if he dies.
Yeah, Gates is not a bad person at all. Paul then mentioned that after this, he kept a close eye on Gates and what was going on, and planned on getting out as soon as he could, albeit with his Billions of dollars . . .
Or how about Apple's monopoly on the iPhone/iPad apps?
Want to develop software that the iPhone already provides? Good luck. Your own browser version? It's possible, but it'll be slow because only Safari can be fast, and that's how Jobs wants it. Your own email client? Maybe, maybe not. Their rules for letting apps competing with stock applications into the App store aren't really that clear, regardless of what their criteria actually says.
Haven't they learned anything from all of Microsoft's troubles? Or does Jobs think he's immune to all of that nonsense because Apple Lovers don't complain much. Whatever Apple does is the right way to do it. Pass the Kool-Aid please.
Odd that Intel would use "Thunderbolt" when it is also the name of the latest Android phone coming out for Verizon (was supposed to be out today), and although Intel claims to have a trademark, Verizon actually has one: http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4008:ncmpfb.6.1
Too many big words for you? I did suggest you have someone buy you a Dictionary and Thesaurus, but those words probably confused you too, huh?
Odd that you can tell I understand English fine (nice grammar btw), but you could only tell from my second post, because apparently it wasn't obvious to you from my first post, but you "didn't bother reading [my] comment".
Wow, you really are an idiot. And not just a regular idiot either, but rather one that should be forced to wear a helmet if you go outdoors, provided that you are allowed outdoors, which I don't think you should be. Actually, that's not fair, I didn't intend to insult the mentally challenged by lumping you into the same category as them. My apologies.
but just where do you draw the line about people protecting you from bad things? There's no bad answer here as long as you have some rational justification for drawing the line
I'm sorry, people protecting you from bad things?! The original poster said flash was bad, this was an opinion, as in, I think seafood is bad, Apple is bad, Glenn Beck is bad, not bad as in wrong, illegal, immoral, unethical, etc. (Get a thesaurus and a dictionary if you're still confused, and given your less-than-intelligent response, I'm sure you are.) It's not something from which one needs to be protected. Just like seafood, I don't need anyone to protect me from it (you might, given your helmet-wearing needs).
People don't need to be, nor shouldn't be, protected from things that other people disagree with. If you don't like something, don't use it, do it, eat it, listen to it, etc. You have a choice in these matters. Ask someone which one is right for you, I'm sure any 3rd grader would be able to explain it to you.
The original poster thinks flash is bad, that's fine, he doesn't have to use it, but he shouldn't be barred from using it because someone else doesn't like it. This is very similar to my opinion that seafood is bad, but nobody should tell me I can't eat seafood. This is why you are apparently incapable of making analogies. My analogy is opinion-opinion, not opinion-capital crime as in your analogy.
Out of your 3 options, option 2 refers to actions. Read this slowly so you are more likely to understand it: "flash" is not an action, so you can't be allowed or not allowed to do it. We're not talking about "flashing", which is a different thing altogether, but with your feeble-mindedness, I'm sure you have a difficult time telling the difference.
You also left out other options, so it's not mandatory that I *must* fall into one of your pathetic excuses for choices. How about things that are bad for you in large amounts, but are fine in moderation? (Mod-er-a-tion, which means you can do it sometimes or every now and then, which is quite different than Prevention.) Some examples would be alcohol, eating red meat, eating fried foods, etc. Another option your puny brain forgot to include would be location-based activities, e.g. hunting, where it would be "bad" to do it in downtown Manhattan, but is fine, and even beneficial sometimes in low-population areas like Montana.
I won't even get into the insane notion that somehow a "personal right" could disallow anybody else from doing anything when it doesn't affect me. I mean, "right to design products" and "right to life"? Seriously, did you stop taking your meds or something? In any case, seek professional help. (And don't forget your helmet.)
That is probably one of the worst analogies I've ever seen.
How about not eating fish, and not being allowed to eat fish. I think fish is bad (especially with the mercury problems) but telling everyone they aren't allowed to eat fish is much worse.
Or how about driving everywhere you go, and not being allowed to do anything but drive if you want to go somewhere?
Or not listening to Barbara Streisand, and not being allowed to listen to Barbara Streisand?
It isn't that hard to come up with analogies that make sense. For God sakes at least pick an activity that a large number of people want to do legally.
The levels of these phones, both Android and iOS, and still pretty new, and therefore lack a lot of desired functionality when compared to computers, Android just recently acquired Flash capability, iOS still hasn't. That's a large part of the internet that isn't available.
With all the publicity around the phone and tablet releases, people are paying much more attention to OS releases, and feature upgrades. Comments such as "the new iPhone is coming out, but I just got mine 6 months ago, but at least they'll upgrade mine to have some of the new functionality" are very common.
With most people locked into device upgrades only 18 - 24 months, you bet they are concerned about new functionality, especially when everybody around them has a phone that can do things their phone can't, unless they get an upgrade to provide some of those same capabilities.
I know T-Mobile has nothing to do with it and won't support it, and HTC would only support the hardware, so I'm pretty sure it's a Google thing, but no posts on their twitter account and no updates or apologies after they didn't deliver when they said they would makes me think things are seriously falling apart. If I worked there I'd switch over to Facebook too like so many other googlers have done (not to mention the stock options for working at Facebook before the inevitable IPO). Is this why Eric Schmidt is leaving? Things are a mess and he doesn't want to deal with it anymore?
There's always been certain things about Android that weren't all that great to begin with, but you deal with it because there should be another update coming along soon to hopefully fix those things and provide a better UI. I mean, there isn't even a way to empty the trash folder on the built-in email software. Is this really something they haven't been able to figure out yet?
But if they lie about the OTA release dates, or are incapable of meeting deadlines, or can't fix bugs in their software on a timely basis, it's no longer worth dealing with and you switch to something more reliable.
If the Nexus One isn't updated by this weekend I'm putting CM7 on it, and will not be buying an Android anything in the future.
And apparently it isn't about existing users either. No updates and no word about what's going on. Eric Schmidt, their twitter account, and their blog all said 2.3 was coming out in a few weeks, and this was in November/December, and the Nexus One was supposed to be among the first to get it, but it's now the middle of February and Nothing!
No explanations, no apologies for the delay, just a bunch of hype last year that it was coming out and then silence.
You'd think a multi-billion dollar global corporation would have better PR than this.
And if they're holding it back to boost sales of new phones, then they are in fact Evil and I'll throw this crap away and get something that isn't Android or iPhone because I trust Apple about as much as I trust M$.
Oh, do you mean, "Shouldn't they focus on pressuring Android phone manufacturers and network providers to release their own OTA updates to existing phones?"
Google don't play that.
May I recommend Cyanogenmod nightlies? I'm running CM7 Nightly 30 and it's rocking Android 2.3.2 flawlessly on my CDMA HTC Desire. If you're waiting for your network-providing gatekeeping overlords... well, I hope you enjoy waiting.
Yeah, see I have a Nexus One, so I'm not sure how they would pressure themselves . . . ? And with no updates and no word on when it will happen, I figure something must be falling apart over there. Apparently these days, Google doesn't play much at all. But they do like to talk about how much they are doing.
I'll give it a few more days and then I'll go the cyanogenmod route. I was just being too lazy to want to deal with any quirks or bugs not worked out yet with the nightlies.
Shouldn't they focus on something like, oh I don't know, actually Releasing Gingerbread for existing phones, like they said they were doing "in a few weeks" back in November/December?
No updates, no word from Google about why they aren't sending it out. Looks like things might be falling apart over there.
It's like the catholic church. Listen to what we say, and do not think for yourself. Only we know what God really wants, so you should listen to us. Also, you must come to us to ask for forgiveness from your sins. I know the Bible says otherwise, but trust us, you must come here and do it, often. And don't forget to donate a bunch of money to us so we can continue to provide these services for you.
I don't know, Google is really starting to bug me with all of this.
Android 2.3 Gingerbread came out on the new Nexus S last year, and they said that they will send the updates out to other users (Nexus One and others) soon . . .
So last week my Nexus One gets a notification about a software upgrade to 2.2. Seriously!? Where is 2.3? And there wasn't even any noticeable changes.
I know someone who works at Google, and he has the same phone, and he got it upgraded to 2.3 at work somehow (he doesn't work anywhere near the android area.) So, I now the software works on the phone.
What the hell is taking so long? Android has never been really all that great to begin with (still better than iPhone, maybe), but I keep the phone because I expect updates to happen slightly more frequently, and on a better schedule than "soon". If it's not ready for older devices, say so, and give us a date. This whole process seems like a Mickey Mouse operation, and not something a Multi-Billion Dollar Multi-National corporation would do. Seriously, how difficult is it? It is already released for new phones, how hard is it to run on the previous generation phone?
I really don't want to have to mess around with my phone all that much, but if Google is going to be this annoying, I'll just use CyanogenMod. It seems like they're putting move effort into it anyway.
Depends on the company. At a company I was doing contract work for, one of their engineers made a dumb mistake, by not paying enough attention to detail, (only a modest amount was needed anyway), and it ended up costing the company $500K. He wasn't fired, but his department and others had to come up with ways to keep it from happening again.
Knowing that the chances of you getting fired are pretty low for making even a stupid mistake helps people to acknowledge and own up to the mistakes faster and with less fear. Then the problems can be dealt with and fixed on a timely basis.
Thinking you might be fired if people find out about your mistake leads to people trying to hide it, cover it up, blame it on someone else, or do whatever they can to keep people from finding out that they did it. This makes it much more difficult to identify, track down, and come up with solutions for the problem.
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Except a USB charger that can use AA batteries could be used to charge your phone, and any other number of things that can be powered by USB: netbooks, some tablets, handheld gps units, etc.
I keep one at home in case the power goes out and I need to recharge my phone, and one in my car in case my phone is dying and I have to leave my car and take it with me. Since I can put rechargeable AA batteries in them, in makes perfect sense.
Also, who says you have to wait to charge the flashlight? Most things that charge by USB can be used while they are plugged in.
How about a portable strobe light (dim the power from 500 lumens and select your own flash rate)? You can also use it for stop motion analysis, or for some interesting photography effects. Program SOS Morse code into it and see who shows up? Get a few of them, set random blink rates, put them on a remote control helicopter, and go have some fun with the UFO enthusiasts?
It's a bright flashlight that can be used to blind an attacker at night, plus it fits into your hand in case you need to hit back (similar to holding a roll of quarters, but more useful).
I think the idea is to see what programs or uses people can come up with for an easy to program high powered flashlight.
Well, if you wanted to use it while jumpstarting your car at night, you could always plug it into whatever you are using to jumpstart your car. Unless somehow you can jumpstart your car without electricity . . .
I'm assuming, like most things that charge by USB, that you can use it while it's charging.
And cell phones are now in the same "Possible" carcinogenic group as Caffeine. So I shouldn't drink my cell phone then . . . ?
No where does it say humans were altered to look like children. I believe what they were trying to explain was humans that were already short (dwarfs, little people, race-horse jockeys) were altered to look like aliens.
When I was an undergrad studying computer science at the University of Michigan, they wanted me to pay the higher engineering tuition level, even though my CS degree was in the college of Literature, Science, and Arts.
Therefore, I didn't declare my major until halfway through my second-to-last semester. Why pay the higher level tuition for all the LS&A courses they required me to take as well? Engineering level tuition for French, Creative Writing, and my Race & Ethnicity Requirement? I don't think so.
No, there is money in creating new stories, and it happens all the time. But there are hundreds if not thousands of new stories every year, and the movie studios buy hundreds of these scripts every year, and most of the time it's a guessing game as to which script will be a money maker, and which will bomb terribly.
They take chances on a small number of new stories, and some of them might make money.
Even the franchise movies sometimes fail, but the chances are higher that they won't. It's a simple money equation.
And the house will not always come out ahead. People find ways to tilt the odds in their favor all the time (some of them are actually legal, where cheating isn't involved). When this happens, the house will make changes and adjustments, but that still doesn't mean the there aren't ways to change the odds in your favor.
Counting cards in blackjack isn't illegal, it isn't cheating either. When someone figured out how to predict where a roulette ball was going to land using an infrared laser measuring device, that wasn't illegal or cheating either.
But these activities aren't allowed by the casinos. It's their building and their operation, so you have to play by their rules.
Don't be so naive as to think Casinos are infallible or perfect money making operations. People are always looking for an edge, and will find them where possible.
I heard about this originally a couple of years ago (maybe in a Paul Allen interview?), but while they were working on MS-DOS, he overheard Bill Gates discussing how to get back Paul Allen's company shares if he should die from his disease (Hodgkins), so that Paul's family doesn't have any control of the company.
One of the co-founders has a potentially deadly disease, but is still hard at work for the company, and Gates is trying to figure out how to screw him and his family over if he dies.
Yeah, Gates is not a bad person at all. Paul then mentioned that after this, he kept a close eye on Gates and what was going on, and planned on getting out as soon as he could, albeit with his Billions of dollars . . .
I wish I had mod points today. Nicely done.
Or how about Apple's monopoly on the iPhone/iPad apps?
Want to develop software that the iPhone already provides? Good luck. Your own browser version? It's possible, but it'll be slow because only Safari can be fast, and that's how Jobs wants it. Your own email client? Maybe, maybe not. Their rules for letting apps competing with stock applications into the App store aren't really that clear, regardless of what their criteria actually says.
Haven't they learned anything from all of Microsoft's troubles? Or does Jobs think he's immune to all of that nonsense because Apple Lovers don't complain much. Whatever Apple does is the right way to do it. Pass the Kool-Aid please.
I heard a report on the news about the differences between Japanese and American news reporting. It went something like this:
In America, the news likes to broadcast the worst possible outcomes, the worst-cast scenarios, and then be grateful when it doesn't happen.
In Japan, the news broadcasts what is actually happening, without any predictions or sensationalizing.
Odd that Intel would use "Thunderbolt" when it is also the name of the latest Android phone coming out for Verizon (was supposed to be out today), and although Intel claims to have a trademark, Verizon actually has one: http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4008:ncmpfb.6.1
Too many big words for you? I did suggest you have someone buy you a Dictionary and Thesaurus, but those words probably confused you too, huh?
Odd that you can tell I understand English fine (nice grammar btw), but you could only tell from my second post, because apparently it wasn't obvious to you from my first post, but you "didn't bother reading [my] comment".
but just where do you draw the line about people protecting you from bad things? There's no bad answer here as long as you have some rational justification for drawing the line
I'm sorry, people protecting you from bad things?! The original poster said flash was bad, this was an opinion, as in, I think seafood is bad, Apple is bad, Glenn Beck is bad, not bad as in wrong, illegal, immoral, unethical, etc. (Get a thesaurus and a dictionary if you're still confused, and given your less-than-intelligent response, I'm sure you are.) It's not something from which one needs to be protected. Just like seafood, I don't need anyone to protect me from it (you might, given your helmet-wearing needs).
People don't need to be, nor shouldn't be, protected from things that other people disagree with. If you don't like something, don't use it, do it, eat it, listen to it, etc. You have a choice in these matters. Ask someone which one is right for you, I'm sure any 3rd grader would be able to explain it to you.
The original poster thinks flash is bad, that's fine, he doesn't have to use it, but he shouldn't be barred from using it because someone else doesn't like it. This is very similar to my opinion that seafood is bad, but nobody should tell me I can't eat seafood. This is why you are apparently incapable of making analogies. My analogy is opinion-opinion, not opinion-capital crime as in your analogy.
Out of your 3 options, option 2 refers to actions. Read this slowly so you are more likely to understand it: "flash" is not an action, so you can't be allowed or not allowed to do it. We're not talking about "flashing", which is a different thing altogether, but with your feeble-mindedness, I'm sure you have a difficult time telling the difference.
You also left out other options, so it's not mandatory that I *must* fall into one of your pathetic excuses for choices. How about things that are bad for you in large amounts, but are fine in moderation? (Mod-er-a-tion, which means you can do it sometimes or every now and then, which is quite different than Prevention.) Some examples would be alcohol, eating red meat, eating fried foods, etc. Another option your puny brain forgot to include would be location-based activities, e.g. hunting, where it would be "bad" to do it in downtown Manhattan, but is fine, and even beneficial sometimes in low-population areas like Montana.
I won't even get into the insane notion that somehow a "personal right" could disallow anybody else from doing anything when it doesn't affect me. I mean, "right to design products" and "right to life"? Seriously, did you stop taking your meds or something? In any case, seek professional help. (And don't forget your helmet.)
That is probably one of the worst analogies I've ever seen.
How about not eating fish, and not being allowed to eat fish. I think fish is bad (especially with the mercury problems) but telling everyone they aren't allowed to eat fish is much worse.
Or how about driving everywhere you go, and not being allowed to do anything but drive if you want to go somewhere?
Or not listening to Barbara Streisand, and not being allowed to listen to Barbara Streisand?
It isn't that hard to come up with analogies that make sense. For God sakes at least pick an activity that a large number of people want to do legally.
I heartily disagree.
The levels of these phones, both Android and iOS, and still pretty new, and therefore lack a lot of desired functionality when compared to computers, Android just recently acquired Flash capability, iOS still hasn't. That's a large part of the internet that isn't available.
With all the publicity around the phone and tablet releases, people are paying much more attention to OS releases, and feature upgrades. Comments such as "the new iPhone is coming out, but I just got mine 6 months ago, but at least they'll upgrade mine to have some of the new functionality" are very common.
With most people locked into device upgrades only 18 - 24 months, you bet they are concerned about new functionality, especially when everybody around them has a phone that can do things their phone can't, unless they get an upgrade to provide some of those same capabilities.
I know T-Mobile has nothing to do with it and won't support it, and HTC would only support the hardware, so I'm pretty sure it's a Google thing, but no posts on their twitter account and no updates or apologies after they didn't deliver when they said they would makes me think things are seriously falling apart. If I worked there I'd switch over to Facebook too like so many other googlers have done (not to mention the stock options for working at Facebook before the inevitable IPO). Is this why Eric Schmidt is leaving? Things are a mess and he doesn't want to deal with it anymore?
There's always been certain things about Android that weren't all that great to begin with, but you deal with it because there should be another update coming along soon to hopefully fix those things and provide a better UI. I mean, there isn't even a way to empty the trash folder on the built-in email software. Is this really something they haven't been able to figure out yet?
But if they lie about the OTA release dates, or are incapable of meeting deadlines, or can't fix bugs in their software on a timely basis, it's no longer worth dealing with and you switch to something more reliable.
If the Nexus One isn't updated by this weekend I'm putting CM7 on it, and will not be buying an Android anything in the future.
And apparently it isn't about existing users either. No updates and no word about what's going on. Eric Schmidt, their twitter account, and their blog all said 2.3 was coming out in a few weeks, and this was in November/December, and the Nexus One was supposed to be among the first to get it, but it's now the middle of February and Nothing!
No explanations, no apologies for the delay, just a bunch of hype last year that it was coming out and then silence.
You'd think a multi-billion dollar global corporation would have better PR than this.
And if they're holding it back to boost sales of new phones, then they are in fact Evil and I'll throw this crap away and get something that isn't Android or iPhone because I trust Apple about as much as I trust M$.
Gingerbread? 2.3?
It's released.
Oh, do you mean, "Shouldn't they focus on pressuring Android phone manufacturers and network providers to release their own OTA updates to existing phones?"
Google don't play that.
May I recommend Cyanogenmod nightlies? I'm running CM7 Nightly 30 and it's rocking Android 2.3.2 flawlessly on my CDMA HTC Desire. If you're waiting for your network-providing gatekeeping overlords... well, I hope you enjoy waiting.
Yeah, see I have a Nexus One, so I'm not sure how they would pressure themselves . . . ? And with no updates and no word on when it will happen, I figure something must be falling apart over there. Apparently these days, Google doesn't play much at all. But they do like to talk about how much they are doing.
I'll give it a few more days and then I'll go the cyanogenmod route. I was just being too lazy to want to deal with any quirks or bugs not worked out yet with the nightlies.
I have the Nexus One, so my "OEM" is Google.
Shouldn't they focus on something like, oh I don't know, actually Releasing Gingerbread for existing phones, like they said they were doing "in a few weeks" back in November/December?
No updates, no word from Google about why they aren't sending it out. Looks like things might be falling apart over there.
It's like the catholic church. Listen to what we say, and do not think for yourself. Only we know what God really wants, so you should listen to us. Also, you must come to us to ask for forgiveness from your sins. I know the Bible says otherwise, but trust us, you must come here and do it, often. And don't forget to donate a bunch of money to us so we can continue to provide these services for you.
I don't know, Google is really starting to bug me with all of this.
Android 2.3 Gingerbread came out on the new Nexus S last year, and they said that they will send the updates out to other users (Nexus One and others) soon . . .
So last week my Nexus One gets a notification about a software upgrade to 2.2. Seriously!? Where is 2.3? And there wasn't even any noticeable changes.
I know someone who works at Google, and he has the same phone, and he got it upgraded to 2.3 at work somehow (he doesn't work anywhere near the android area.) So, I now the software works on the phone.
What the hell is taking so long? Android has never been really all that great to begin with (still better than iPhone, maybe), but I keep the phone because I expect updates to happen slightly more frequently, and on a better schedule than "soon". If it's not ready for older devices, say so, and give us a date. This whole process seems like a Mickey Mouse operation, and not something a Multi-Billion Dollar Multi-National corporation would do. Seriously, how difficult is it? It is already released for new phones, how hard is it to run on the previous generation phone?
I really don't want to have to mess around with my phone all that much, but if Google is going to be this annoying, I'll just use CyanogenMod. It seems like they're putting move effort into it anyway.
Depends on the company. At a company I was doing contract work for, one of their engineers made a dumb mistake, by not paying enough attention to detail, (only a modest amount was needed anyway), and it ended up costing the company $500K. He wasn't fired, but his department and others had to come up with ways to keep it from happening again.
Knowing that the chances of you getting fired are pretty low for making even a stupid mistake helps people to acknowledge and own up to the mistakes faster and with less fear. Then the problems can be dealt with and fixed on a timely basis.
Thinking you might be fired if people find out about your mistake leads to people trying to hide it, cover it up, blame it on someone else, or do whatever they can to keep people from finding out that they did it. This makes it much more difficult to identify, track down, and come up with solutions for the problem.
Which would you rather have your employees doing?