I'll be a convert in year 2 of this move to LEDs in the household. (whem competition brings the prices down)
I've been waiting for this day.
After Christmas a few years back I bought a pile of the LED Christmas lights (Sale...) and life got easy. No more dicking around with broken bulbs, burnouts, Testing, heat, blah blah. They're interior / exterior and bulletproof. The wires will probably disintegrate before the bulbs.
I can see gradually converting the house over to these new LED house lights in time (All at once would cost me over $1,000 at starting prices). I see the long term payoff but really who had $1K sitting around to buy lightbulbs. Starting with my exterior front door light which we keep on all night.
As far as non-north-american countries go - the UAE is very progressive. But a former client of mine who spent 8 yrs there working in administration pointed out - "in North America we are an odd country and culture - we simply take it as the norm that nobody will listen to us. That level of privacy is not the norm, it's unusual"
He was in a senior healthcare position and essentially knew as a foreigner in a position of influence that he would be monitored regularly if not constantly.
I went to enroll my son in Hockey this year (Canada... We enroll our kids in June at the latest for Hockey Season which starts in Sept/Oct) and the Hockey Canada website doesn't allow IE6 to be used.
That's a problem for me from work - where we also only have IE6 only. We can't fart without permission on our systems.
I long for the day that a Kindle-like app will make things free and universal as the Ipod has. However closer it brings us to that moment- it's not there yet and simply buying the book is a wonderful choice that gets people out of this discussion.
"Compare with the earth being struck by a cataclysmic asteroid. In this case, there's no analogous process building up over time so it is fallacious to conclude that the chances are getting bigger every day that we don't get struck."
The Toronto Maple Leafs are the perfect analogy to the asteroid... They didn't win last year... it doesn't mean they'll be closer to winning next year.
OK back to serious issues: The potential problem is there - how do we deal with it? nothing will help if you are at ground zero of the impact zone or if the solar storm tears through us and peels our atmosphere off (conceptually...). BUT, we should all have that emergency kit ready and food and heat source (for us northern folks...ie buy a cord of wood) and be prepared. It's the best we can do and in fact came in handy when we lost power for 3 days in the blackout in the eastern half of Canada/US a few years back.
I've read the book - (a must read!) Gladwell very actively promotes the idea that it was a lot of circumstance about Gates being able to have access to a computer PLUS a lot of work and effort as well. He could have done anything else with his time but he chose to play with the freely offered computer system.
The hockey thing is fascinating - he focuses on hockey but also references that it shows up in soccer in Europe and South America as well. His point is kids that might only be marginally better at the start become massively better over time because they veered down the path in the first part of their lives and receive marginally better coaching and a lot more ice time from the get-go. He isn't saying "Don't try" he's saying the system is steeped against you if you were born late in the year. Having said that - Sidney Crosby's birthday is August 7th. There's a guy in the OHL named John Tavares who plays for the London Knights who was born in Sept who is slated to go first overall this year. It can be done.
What was lacking here (perfectly visible with hindsight) is critical oversight of what the formula and theory results were really stating. And importantly we have all learned that trying to contain randomness of massively diverse circumstances is probably impossible.
I recall a seldom used saying about this - Don't put all of your eggs in one basket - it works for investors still whether people run hedge funds or their own personal finances.
Torontoman.
Our country is continuously littered with news of regulators supposedly established to help me 'the little guy' when in fact all they do is help keep monopolies and oligarchies from losing control. In fact the regulatory bodies up here continually vote in favour of screwing the little guy for the big corps.
CRTC Forces us folks to keep lazy and lousy TV content providers in business through fees even though I only watch the Asian/Indian/Far East/5 french channels only for the few minutes per week when my fetish mood kicks in. The CRTC won't even touch the internet neutrality issues up here - 'not our problem' we don't regulate the internet - however they are the ones who require the fees set at X. DNS hijacking isn't our problem etc etc.
Heck - we have a regulatory body that allows a few farmers to charge whatever they want for milk and cheese and butter with NO ability for the 99% of the rest of the country who buy the damn stuff to voice an opinion that we should allow open market forces into the sway. Sounds funny - but since the rural ridings have a disproportionate amount of sway in parliament- the farmers get their way at the expense of the consumers.
Worst of all perhaps is the fact that we have governemtns who regulate the minimum price of beer to help the two large breweries and stifle competition. Enabling fat laziness to take hold in corporate Canada.
I don't imagine we'd WANT the US. We should just keep them down as a country and let the more ambitious folks come in illegally and use them as servants, crop workers and snow shovellers.
To let others in on a little secret if you're coming to Ontario (Canada...) ANY 400 series highway in Ontario (ie - 4 lanes or more) you are socially expected to drive at least 115 KPH. In fact at that speed you'll be passed like you are standing still. Personally I drive at 125KPH most of the time on the 401 (busiest highway in North Amercia) and have never had a ticket. I get passed at that speed by a few cars per minute doing 130+ but I sort of crawl past people moving doing 122kph. My personaly theory is that there are enough people 'really' speeding scooting by me to filter out the speed trap cops - and yet I'm not zipping by people at reckless levels that would be 'dangerous' if a cop saw me.
Another tidbit -
There was a guy a few years back (I'm sure someone can source the article...) that received a ticket for speeding at something like 115 KPH on the 401 - while he was doing what is legally sound to do - Move with the flow of traffic. "But your honour - I was going with the flow of traffic" (Judge's decision - you were speeding). To make his point him and some of his family members drove side by side from one end of Toronto to the other on the 401 doing EXACTLY 100 KPH in several lanes - legally following the speed limit. He caused a backlog of traffic several kilometers long and was fined a massive amount and lost his license for several months - "But your honour I was doing the speed limit" (Judge's Decision - you weren't keeping up with the flow of traffic)
The companies making the games have people who set the price points and a major factor is the correlation between price and piracy level. (Lower price = less piracy).
there has to be a happy middle ground in the DRM issue too. Make it a mildly inconvenient DRM - don't make it draconian. Why not a registration required item like a manual when I buy a power tool ? Mail it in. That kind of jazz.
Silly giant company.
True... I don't recall seeing a Disc player at the Gym in a LOOOOOONG time. I guess it'll have it's niches but it'll be squeezed more and more into irrelevance.
This is blatantly obvious to us Canadians when we have the choice of watching CBC or a US station... We watch the CBC live (whenever it happens to be...) and with 'low level editing' - and just sort of laugh at the US version which is in prime time and so altered it is just awful. The CBC primetime event is an exact copy of the live event. (Probably because it's cheaper just to hit play and not to edit...)
Slashdot Mirror
I'll be a convert in year 2 of this move to LEDs in the household. (whem competition brings the prices down)
I've been waiting for this day.
After Christmas a few years back I bought a pile of the LED Christmas lights (Sale...) and life got easy. No more dicking around with broken bulbs, burnouts, Testing, heat, blah blah. They're interior / exterior and bulletproof. The wires will probably disintegrate before the bulbs.
I can see gradually converting the house over to these new LED house lights in time (All at once would cost me over $1,000 at starting prices). I see the long term payoff but really who had $1K sitting around to buy lightbulbs. Starting with my exterior front door light which we keep on all night.
Overall this is a wonderful change. Can't wait!
Casinos launching anti-gambling campaigns. Tobacco industry launching anti-smoking campaigns. Hmmm
They simply need to affix a bright yellow warning label on the front which will outline the dangers of wearing the helmets.
As far as non-north-american countries go - the UAE is very progressive. But a former client of mine who spent 8 yrs there working in administration pointed out - "in North America we are an odd country and culture - we simply take it as the norm that nobody will listen to us. That level of privacy is not the norm, it's unusual" He was in a senior healthcare position and essentially knew as a foreigner in a position of influence that he would be monitored regularly if not constantly.
I went to enroll my son in Hockey this year (Canada... We enroll our kids in June at the latest for Hockey Season which starts in Sept/Oct) and the Hockey Canada website doesn't allow IE6 to be used.
That's a problem for me from work - where we also only have IE6 only. We can't fart without permission on our systems.
I long for the day that a Kindle-like app will make things free and universal as the Ipod has. However closer it brings us to that moment- it's not there yet and simply buying the book is a wonderful choice that gets people out of this discussion.
"Compare with the earth being struck by a cataclysmic asteroid. In this case, there's no analogous process building up over time so it is fallacious to conclude that the chances are getting bigger every day that we don't get struck."
The Toronto Maple Leafs are the perfect analogy to the asteroid... They didn't win last year... it doesn't mean they'll be closer to winning next year.
OK back to serious issues: The potential problem is there - how do we deal with it? nothing will help if you are at ground zero of the impact zone or if the solar storm tears through us and peels our atmosphere off (conceptually...). BUT, we should all have that emergency kit ready and food and heat source (for us northern folks...ie buy a cord of wood) and be prepared. It's the best we can do and in fact came in handy when we lost power for 3 days in the blackout in the eastern half of Canada/US a few years back.
And I imagine the recharge time would be quick.
(I also am imagining a charger that looks like a miniature warp engine from the USS enterprise... pulsing along. COOL)
My European grandmother made a cake that could easily withstand the middle stages of a nuclear explosion.
Wouldn't it be ironic if the missing ingredient in making Fogbank was Butter?
Torontoman
I've read the book - (a must read!) Gladwell very actively promotes the idea that it was a lot of circumstance about Gates being able to have access to a computer PLUS a lot of work and effort as well. He could have done anything else with his time but he chose to play with the freely offered computer system.
The hockey thing is fascinating - he focuses on hockey but also references that it shows up in soccer in Europe and South America as well. His point is kids that might only be marginally better at the start become massively better over time because they veered down the path in the first part of their lives and receive marginally better coaching and a lot more ice time from the get-go. He isn't saying "Don't try" he's saying the system is steeped against you if you were born late in the year. Having said that - Sidney Crosby's birthday is August 7th. There's a guy in the OHL named John Tavares who plays for the London Knights who was born in Sept who is slated to go first overall this year. It can be done.
Torontoman
What was lacking here (perfectly visible with hindsight) is critical oversight of what the formula and theory results were really stating. And importantly we have all learned that trying to contain randomness of massively diverse circumstances is probably impossible. I recall a seldom used saying about this - Don't put all of your eggs in one basket - it works for investors still whether people run hedge funds or their own personal finances. Torontoman.
Our country is continuously littered with news of regulators supposedly established to help me 'the little guy' when in fact all they do is help keep monopolies and oligarchies from losing control. In fact the regulatory bodies up here continually vote in favour of screwing the little guy for the big corps.
CRTC Forces us folks to keep lazy and lousy TV content providers in business through fees even though I only watch the Asian/Indian/Far East/5 french channels only for the few minutes per week when my fetish mood kicks in. The CRTC won't even touch the internet neutrality issues up here - 'not our problem' we don't regulate the internet - however they are the ones who require the fees set at X. DNS hijacking isn't our problem etc etc.
Heck - we have a regulatory body that allows a few farmers to charge whatever they want for milk and cheese and butter with NO ability for the 99% of the rest of the country who buy the damn stuff to voice an opinion that we should allow open market forces into the sway. Sounds funny - but since the rural ridings have a disproportionate amount of sway in parliament- the farmers get their way at the expense of the consumers.
Worst of all perhaps is the fact that we have governemtns who regulate the minimum price of beer to help the two large breweries and stifle competition. Enabling fat laziness to take hold in corporate Canada.
I don't imagine we'd WANT the US. We should just keep them down as a country and let the more ambitious folks come in illegally and use them as servants, crop workers and snow shovellers.
I've had a few things land on my computer and the free online scanner at eset.com seemed to pull off the trojan as well as some spyware. Torontoman.
And the Sim became a little too real.
ID is about as legit as Scientology.
To let others in on a little secret if you're coming to Ontario (Canada...) ANY 400 series highway in Ontario (ie - 4 lanes or more) you are socially expected to drive at least 115 KPH. In fact at that speed you'll be passed like you are standing still. Personally I drive at 125KPH most of the time on the 401 (busiest highway in North Amercia) and have never had a ticket. I get passed at that speed by a few cars per minute doing 130+ but I sort of crawl past people moving doing 122kph. My personaly theory is that there are enough people 'really' speeding scooting by me to filter out the speed trap cops - and yet I'm not zipping by people at reckless levels that would be 'dangerous' if a cop saw me.
Another tidbit -
There was a guy a few years back (I'm sure someone can source the article...) that received a ticket for speeding at something like 115 KPH on the 401 - while he was doing what is legally sound to do - Move with the flow of traffic. "But your honour - I was going with the flow of traffic" (Judge's decision - you were speeding). To make his point him and some of his family members drove side by side from one end of Toronto to the other on the 401 doing EXACTLY 100 KPH in several lanes - legally following the speed limit. He caused a backlog of traffic several kilometers long and was fined a massive amount and lost his license for several months - "But your honour I was doing the speed limit" (Judge's Decision - you weren't keeping up with the flow of traffic)
The companies making the games have people who set the price points and a major factor is the correlation between price and piracy level. (Lower price = less piracy). there has to be a happy middle ground in the DRM issue too. Make it a mildly inconvenient DRM - don't make it draconian. Why not a registration required item like a manual when I buy a power tool ? Mail it in. That kind of jazz. Silly giant company.
True... I don't recall seeing a Disc player at the Gym in a LOOOOOONG time. I guess it'll have it's niches but it'll be squeezed more and more into irrelevance.
This is blatantly obvious to us Canadians when we have the choice of watching CBC or a US station... We watch the CBC live (whenever it happens to be...) and with 'low level editing' - and just sort of laugh at the US version which is in prime time and so altered it is just awful. The CBC primetime event is an exact copy of the live event. (Probably because it's cheaper just to hit play and not to edit...)
Hey - what about an engine that uses the expansion of Dry ice from solid to gas as the catalyst to push the piston?
10 print "Hello"
20 goto 10.
A ROOF! If you want to get complicated - make it a retractible roof.
I used to recall even shortening LOAD to "L O"