That's going to be difficult. Would you want to live on titan? Much better to spend the colossal amount of money on fixing this world.
Manned space flight seems like a waste of money as well. What's the point? It makes everything massively heavier and more expensive for very little return.
We *should* be going to the moon - for Helium3.
Why can't there be a checkbox which says "Hide the password" at the side of the input box? If you're in a public place you can just check that before typing.
Ok, smart guy.. maybe you can explain to us why Microsoft makes you type in your password twice when you log onto a wireless network.
Around here that's 26 random characters which you have to get right, twice. That's so horrible to use it must be really secure, right?
Same thing with email addresses in online forms, why do I always have to type those in twice? Luckily those aren't asterisked out so I can copy paste them. I'm sure there must be a good security reason for entering them twice.
10-12 years lifetime isn't enough fro this to be green. For "green" you need to recover the energy you saved plus the energy used to produce/transport/install the panels, plus a bit extra. Only the "bit extra" is the green part.
(And this assumes you didn't pollute anything when you made them)
What's really needed is a mesh network (like the XO/OLPC) between Wifi peers which reaches to the border so the day-saving politicians can take it from there. All it needs is a sufficient density of WiFi enabled PCs.
Doesn't matter. You can erect five turbines and use the energy output from them to make a hundred more. With those hundred turbines you can make ten thousand. It's called a windfarm because that's where you breed new turbines.
Most laptops never leave home but they *do* move between living room and kitchen.
I suspect women like them because they can be tidied away when not in use. A desktop machine is always there making the place look untidy.
Between Google Street View and Facebook there's enough pics for any future historian.
All those laptop hard disks can die with no real loss to humanity.
I can't imagine the briefcase that can't hold a 'standard' laptop.
I'm with OP - thickness is the least important dimension. I love my Eee PC but I have no idea how thick it is.
Maybe I'm not stylish enough to appreciate this concept. To me "thin" just makes me think of bent laptops and cracked screens.
A page reload for every mouse click and scroll down every time because of all the useless crap at the top of the page? They'd get ten times more results if they employed somebody who know basic HTML 3.0 instead of all this new-fangled stuff.
Whatever the reason... the games industry is MAKING MONEY. So is the DVD industry, the movie industry, the cellphone/ringtone industry, etc., etc..
The RIAA isn't making money because it's stuck in a rut with a 1990's business model. A big reason that people pirate music is because the RIAA isn't giving them what they want and the P2P networks are. What most people want is that song they heard on the radio in a format that works on their MP3 player (and no trip to the shops to get it). Apple is doing Ok with their iTunes store because they're doing this (though it's still a bit heavy handed with the DRM - I want files I can put on a USB stick and plug it into my car/HiFI).
The CD sales model? Not so much. The only people I know who still buy CDs are the ones who aren't handy with a PC. This is doomed business model. Period.
I don't care if the RIAA dies but I do care about all the laws they're buying that are rushed and later get misused (eg. DMCA).
But... their bottom line *could* benefit if they add value to the physical items they sell (eg. if their CD comes with an official t-shirt, sew-on patch, etc).
The idea of programming as a semiskilled task, practiced by people with a few months' training, is dangerous. We wouldn't tolerate plumbers or accountants that poorly educated. We don't have as an aim that architecture (of buildings) and engineering (of bridges and trains) should become more accessible to people with progressively less training. Indeed, one serious problem is that currently, too many software developers are undereducated and undertrained.
Obviously, we don't want our tools--including our programming languages--to be more complex than necessary. But one aim should be to make tools that will serve skilled professionals--not to lower the level of expressiveness to serve people who can hardly understand the problems, let alone express solutions. We can and do build tools that make simple tasks simple for more people, but let's not let most people loose on the infrastructure of our technical civilization or force the professionals to use only tools designed for amateurs.
What about all the human-caused accidents? You conveniently leave those out of your anti-computer diatribe.
eg. In 2008, non-Airbus Spanair Flight 5022 crashed on takoff killing 154 people because the human at the controls forgot to extend the flaps before takeoff (something you'd think they'd know was important...)
In this case a computer *might* have spotted the lack of lift and done something to compensate.
>"we don't know if the Brazilian crash has anything to do with this."
Well, looking at the automated messages sent by the computer (nb. we didn't hear anything from either the 'infallible' pilot or copilot) I'd say it was damage to the plane, not computer error.
>I'd like to see a computer know to, and successfully land in the Hudson though!
Computers don't take decisions on *where* to fly, only how to set the controls. It was a human who flew into the middle of a giant thundercloud, not a computer.
And, errrr the Hudson landing thing was done in an Airbus. Somehow the pilot managed to steer and land an Airbus with no engines even though the computers were fighting him and obstructing his every move.
Slashdot Mirror
Complete the following sentence: The USA needs 25% of the world's energy because...?
That's going to be difficult. Would you want to live on titan? Much better to spend the colossal amount of money on fixing this world. Manned space flight seems like a waste of money as well. What's the point? It makes everything massively heavier and more expensive for very little return. We *should* be going to the moon - for Helium3.
Why can't there be a checkbox which says "Hide the password" at the side of the input box? If you're in a public place you can just check that before typing.
Ok, smart guy.. maybe you can explain to us why Microsoft makes you type in your password twice when you log onto a wireless network.
Around here that's 26 random characters which you have to get right, twice. That's so horrible to use it must be really secure, right?
Same thing with email addresses in online forms, why do I always have to type those in twice? Luckily those aren't asterisked out so I can copy paste them. I'm sure there must be a good security reason for entering them twice.
Ummm.. I think this one was made in New Zealand.
10-12 years lifetime isn't enough fro this to be green. For "green" you need to recover the energy you saved plus the energy used to produce/transport/install the panels, plus a bit extra. Only the "bit extra" is the green part. (And this assumes you didn't pollute anything when you made them)
What's really needed is a mesh network (like the XO/OLPC) between Wifi peers which reaches to the border so the day-saving politicians can take it from there. All it needs is a sufficient density of WiFi enabled PCs.
Well, he's a politician so we can make educated guesses about the depth of his knowledge.
We've received signals from Saturn using a transmitter which is only as powerful as a mobile phone.
Can't we turn it into biodiesel with algae farms? That would be win-win.
Doesn't matter. You can erect five turbines and use the energy output from them to make a hundred more. With those hundred turbines you can make ten thousand. It's called a windfarm because that's where you breed new turbines.
Most laptops never leave home but they *do* move between living room and kitchen. I suspect women like them because they can be tidied away when not in use. A desktop machine is always there making the place look untidy.
Between Google Street View and Facebook there's enough pics for any future historian. All those laptop hard disks can die with no real loss to humanity.
I can't imagine the briefcase that can't hold a 'standard' laptop. I'm with OP - thickness is the least important dimension. I love my Eee PC but I have no idea how thick it is. Maybe I'm not stylish enough to appreciate this concept. To me "thin" just makes me think of bent laptops and cracked screens.
A page reload for every mouse click and scroll down every time because of all the useless crap at the top of the page? They'd get ten times more results if they employed somebody who know basic HTML 3.0 instead of all this new-fangled stuff.
"Get the FUD" more like...
Whatever the reason ... the games industry is MAKING MONEY. So is the DVD industry, the movie industry, the cellphone/ringtone industry, etc., etc..
The RIAA isn't making money because it's stuck in a rut with a 1990's business model. A big reason that people pirate music is because the RIAA isn't giving them what they want and the P2P networks are. What most people want is that song they heard on the radio in a format that works on their MP3 player (and no trip to the shops to get it). Apple is doing Ok with their iTunes store because they're doing this (though it's still a bit heavy handed with the DRM - I want files I can put on a USB stick and plug it into my car/HiFI).
The CD sales model? Not so much. The only people I know who still buy CDs are the ones who aren't handy with a PC. This is doomed business model. Period.
I don't care if the RIAA dies but I do care about all the laws they're buying that are rushed and later get misused (eg. DMCA).
You want media companies to run stories on how copyright might be bad?
Email me privately, I've got an offer you'll be interested in.
But ... their bottom line *could* benefit if they add value to the physical items they sell (eg. if their CD comes with an official t-shirt, sew-on patch, etc).
Maybe it's piezo-electric.
The idea of programming as a semiskilled task, practiced by people with a few months' training, is dangerous. We wouldn't tolerate plumbers or accountants that poorly educated. We don't have as an aim that architecture (of buildings) and engineering (of bridges and trains) should become more accessible to people with progressively less training. Indeed, one serious problem is that currently, too many software developers are undereducated and undertrained.
Obviously, we don't want our tools--including our programming languages--to be more complex than necessary. But one aim should be to make tools that will serve skilled professionals--not to lower the level of expressiveness to serve people who can hardly understand the problems, let alone express solutions. We can and do build tools that make simple tasks simple for more people, but let's not let most people loose on the infrastructure of our technical civilization or force the professionals to use only tools designed for amateurs.
- Bjarne S.
A Phalanx system would be more efficient.
What about all the human-caused accidents? You conveniently leave those out of your anti-computer diatribe.
eg. In 2008, non-Airbus Spanair Flight 5022 crashed on takoff killing 154 people because the human at the controls forgot to extend the flaps before takeoff (something you'd think they'd know was important...)
In this case a computer *might* have spotted the lack of lift and done something to compensate.
>"we don't know if the Brazilian crash has anything to do with this."
Well, looking at the automated messages sent by the computer (nb. we didn't hear anything from either the 'infallible' pilot or copilot) I'd say it was damage to the plane, not computer error.
>I'd like to see a computer know to, and successfully land in the Hudson though!
Computers don't take decisions on *where* to fly, only how to set the controls. It was a human who flew into the middle of a giant thundercloud, not a computer.
And, errrr the Hudson landing thing was done in an Airbus. Somehow the pilot managed to steer and land an Airbus with no engines even though the computers were fighting him and obstructing his every move.
Or maybe they weren't.
So.... are we saying that a human pilot should be allowed to fly a plane in a 25 knot window?
I hope not.