The funny thing is, I really like the idea of sitting up high in my car and being able to see further. That is probably the only reason SUV's are so popular. Looks like they could accomplish that in a macho looking vehicle without these problems.
Image and possibily towing capacity are probably the only reasons that minivans aren't more popular. They can carry the same (or more) people more comfortably than most SUVs, have higher seating (and provide greater visiblity) than most cars, and have plenty of cargo capacity as well. Minivans are generally safer to neighboring cars as well.
Thanks for the link. From the company's description, this concept has two main advantages - it's heavier than air, using wings and such, so problems with ballasting and the need to release the buoyant gas are reduced or eliminated. The second advantage is that it can supposedly land like an airplane, with wheels, that eliminates docking/landing issues of traditional airships.
However, the concept summary notes that it is designed to take crosswinds of up to 30 knots when unloaded. I'm wondering if that's sufficient - wouldn't that potentially limit the operational use of these airships in poor weather conditions?
Actually, I thought it was World War I that taught us that blimps weren't effective as combatants (bombers). German Zeppelins burned pretty intensely after getting hit. They were only used for long range ocean recon in WW II, right? The Hindenburg incident probably didn't help much either.
After reading the article, it looks like it's just a blimp with more engines, and not really an airplane. The article doesn't provide much info about the speed, range and payload capacity of this "hybrid", so it's hard to say how cost effective it would be.
If you're talking about theft of intellectual property, people everywhere are guilty of that, not just those in Asia. Just look at the popularity of technologies like BitTorrent, where some people "liberate" content. Furthermore, isn't the free flow of ideas something that/.-ers generally prefer to see? Technical innovation can consist of both inspiration and perspiration. Developing technology isn't strictly a pure brute-force process, I'd guess that clever researchers in all parts of the world have been able to advance science and technology.
Technology-wise, many of these Japanese and Taiwanese firms that you're bashing have pushed the technological boundaries farther than their Western compatriots. As another poster mentioned, much of the laptop designs these days are done in Taiwan. While you might bash their work as being cookie-cutter, the engineers there had to be be creative in order to create things that could be easily mass-produced. That takes a certain type of engineering brilliancel, wouldn't you say? If you're talking purely stylistic things, like the industrial design used by the iPod, that's pretty subjective - what works for some people don't necessarily work for everyone. However, there are high end design firms in East Asia as well. Witness some of the high end electronics vendors, particularly the Japanese. A lot of their gadgets, while possibly not "useful", are pretty creative, right?
I'm also assuming that you haven't watched East Asian movies? I'd say that the choreography of many martial arts movies are pretty creative, much more than some of the recent Hollywood flicks that have come out. And then there's anime. While not to the taste of some viewers, on the whole I'd say that they're much more creative, in many respects, than Western cartoons.
In any case, copyright is a Western legal idea that has some mixed blessings, as some of our/. compatriots can attest to. Copyright can be used to protect ideas, as well as to stifle creativity. It all depends on the legal structures that enforce copyright, the legislative bodies that codify the laws, and the judicial processes used to enforce them. A lot of the more "loosely" enforced nations seem to have higher growth rates, oddly enough.
China doesn't have the technology, just yet, for chips as complex as high-speed CPUs, so I'd say probably another 5 years.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Taiwanese companies may already have set up foundries in China to take advantage of the lower costs there. If that's the case, then they should have access to all of the necessary technologies to crank out cheap CPUs.
I just got back from a month-long trip from the US to China with my wife, who is originally Chinese.
Minor nit, but "originally Chinese" sounds a bit funny. How about something like "who came from China" or "who is a native of China."
The post itself is very true. It's sad that certain companies there spend so much effort creating low level knockoffs - they should've focused more on the Japanese strategy of creating higher quality goods. This stuff hurts the image of the country, but a lot of the "businesspeople" are really shortsighted and only want to make a quick buck.
And if you'll notice, that dye chemist who actually solved the problem is not listed on the company's website at all. It's like he doesn't exist!
Unfortunately, nothing new there. Most coders (or technical experts) don't get their names publicized outside of their companies or departments. Somehow, credit always ends up with a PHB.
If there's a hot female security guard on duty, I'm gonna SO lie so I'll get searched by her.
Of course, while she might be asking the questions, you might get lucky and run into her huge Neanderthal compatriot that is manning the strip search station.
And your ISP will charge you for each Address you use!
In a scheme where there are enough available addresses to give one to every grain of sand, the laws of supply and demand suggest that the value of each IP address will approach zero.
Unfortunately, if you want sand, say for a sandbox in the backyard, you still need to go buy sand (unless you visit a local beach or park and "acquire" some). And bottled water costs more per gallon than gasoline!
Most likely, there will be a base price set up by the ISP to account for the infrastructure and personnel that they'd need to keep the network running. It may be true that additional IP addresses will be cheaper than they are now, but the track record of ISP leads me to believe that we'll still end up paying plenty for IPv6 addresses.
Do you realize that the shuttle can't get more than 300 or so miles from the earth's surface?
Yes, I'm aware of that, but I figured if they got so far as to strap rocket boosters onto asteroids, NASA or some other space agency could also design and launch at least one spacecraft to handle short range communications. After all, something like that could probably be used for a Mars mission.
Crew? Why would this need a crew? a computer could do this job easily and you could provide basic commands remotely abit with a large time delay.
In addition, if the time lag is a big deal, just have a shuttle or other spaceship trail the anti-asteroid destroyer and have a manned crew control it there. It'd reduce the lag and give better control. There's already been experience doing remote control for space probes and rovers, and unmanned Predators or other UAVs, for that matter.
It's a good thing that the school district got its hand slapped for enforcing a stupid rule and then refusing to state the rule that was violated. How can someone be held liable for what another person put in a guestbook? And then to top it off, suspending a kid from school and not allowing him to go on a field trip or play sports for no justification? Jeez, at least tell the guy exactly what rule he violated. That school district just taught its students a lesson in the abuse of authority.
As nice as wind turbines are, you're never gonna get enough to gnerate enough power, nor are you getting enough people agreeing to have them built.
True enough there. In California, a lot of the wind turbines on the Altamont Pass have to be shutdown because of concerns that birds are getting killed. Looks like it's tough being green - support wild animals or clean power?
I'll grant that a lot of power, particularly in the Western US, is generated by natural gas.
One of the main reasons that oil-fired plants aren't popular is that they have a lot of pollutants, such as mercury. Many oil producing countries find it cheaper to use oil for their power plants.
It's nice to see that Microsoft admires the courage behind the decision to change the controller interface. Of course, they're probably hoping that the Revolution falls flat on its face so that it really will only be a two horse console race.
Wouldn't be too surprised to see an imitation controller from Microsoft down the road if the Revolution reviews are good. Embrace and extend, right?
My buddy complained that his wife ignored him now and never wanted to hang out, talk or take any interest in him whatsoever. He said it started when he installed Sims2 for her. I installed Sims2 for MY wife that very night.
And that's a good thing?:)
Parent is right, too. I've not heard a single complaint about my gaming (PC or console) since. As long as I keep the expansion packs coming...
Well, if the goal is to get some quality gaming time in, that would work, but still...
"We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone"?
You can refuse to deal with a customer because they are a jerk, they want to do something illegal and open you up to liability -- especially if you were told of their intent in the first place. The gun store in question can refuse, and if the customer makes a scene the store calls the police to handle a trespassing issue. I'm sure the customer would love to wait for the cops to explain the reason why she (or he, according to recent court decisions) was asked to leave.
You cannot refuse service based on certain other reasons that are protected, like race, sex, religion, etc.
All very true, but the person explaining why he/she was kicked out would start screaming about all the reasons that the store owner/clerk was discriminating. It would probably turn in to a "he said, she said" type of deal.
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The funny thing is, I really like the idea of sitting up high in my car and being able to see further. That is probably the only reason SUV's are so popular. Looks like they could accomplish that in a macho looking vehicle without these problems.
Image and possibily towing capacity are probably the only reasons that minivans aren't more popular. They can carry the same (or more) people more comfortably than most SUVs, have higher seating (and provide greater visiblity) than most cars, and have plenty of cargo capacity as well. Minivans are generally safer to neighboring cars as well.Thanks for the link. From the company's description, this concept has two main advantages - it's heavier than air, using wings and such, so problems with ballasting and the need to release the buoyant gas are reduced or eliminated. The second advantage is that it can supposedly land like an airplane, with wheels, that eliminates docking/landing issues of traditional airships.
However, the concept summary notes that it is designed to take crosswinds of up to 30 knots when unloaded. I'm wondering if that's sufficient - wouldn't that potentially limit the operational use of these airships in poor weather conditions?
Actually, I thought it was World War I that taught us that blimps weren't effective as combatants (bombers). German Zeppelins burned pretty intensely after getting hit. They were only used for long range ocean recon in WW II, right? The Hindenburg incident probably didn't help much either.
After reading the article, it looks like it's just a blimp with more engines, and not really an airplane. The article doesn't provide much info about the speed, range and payload capacity of this "hybrid", so it's hard to say how cost effective it would be.
Trust me, Gmail's guy is set for life too. Have you seen Google's stock price yet?
It's only a paper profit at this point, unless he actually sold some of his shares.If somebody came up with a real-time version of a game like chess that was sufficiently fun that it became popular...
Wasn't there an old game called Archon. Effectively, it was something like battle chess.If you're talking about theft of intellectual property, people everywhere are guilty of that, not just those in Asia. Just look at the popularity of technologies like BitTorrent, where some people "liberate" content. Furthermore, isn't the free flow of ideas something that /.-ers generally prefer to see? Technical innovation can consist of both inspiration and perspiration. Developing technology isn't strictly a pure brute-force process, I'd guess that clever researchers in all parts of the world have been able to advance science and technology.
Technology-wise, many of these Japanese and Taiwanese firms that you're bashing have pushed the technological boundaries farther than their Western compatriots. As another poster mentioned, much of the laptop designs these days are done in Taiwan. While you might bash their work as being cookie-cutter, the engineers there had to be be creative in order to create things that could be easily mass-produced. That takes a certain type of engineering brilliancel, wouldn't you say? If you're talking purely stylistic things, like the industrial design used by the iPod, that's pretty subjective - what works for some people don't necessarily work for everyone. However, there are high end design firms in East Asia as well. Witness some of the high end electronics vendors, particularly the Japanese. A lot of their gadgets, while possibly not "useful", are pretty creative, right?
I'm also assuming that you haven't watched East Asian movies? I'd say that the choreography of many martial arts movies are pretty creative, much more than some of the recent Hollywood flicks that have come out. And then there's anime. While not to the taste of some viewers, on the whole I'd say that they're much more creative, in many respects, than Western cartoons.
In any case, copyright is a Western legal idea that has some mixed blessings, as some of our /. compatriots can attest to. Copyright can be used to protect ideas, as well as to stifle creativity. It all depends on the legal structures that enforce copyright, the legislative bodies that codify the laws, and the judicial processes used to enforce them. A lot of the more "loosely" enforced nations seem to have higher growth rates, oddly enough.
Teehee... hate to belabor the point, but:
(Emphasis mine.)
On my screen, it says 6:14 PM, so it's probably something to do with your timezone.China doesn't have the technology, just yet, for chips as complex as high-speed CPUs, so I'd say probably another 5 years.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Taiwanese companies may already have set up foundries in China to take advantage of the lower costs there. If that's the case, then they should have access to all of the necessary technologies to crank out cheap CPUs.Most people in Japan have tankless water heaters, which makes sense in a country with a dearth of space and great surpluses of energy.
Are you sure they have great surpluses of energy? I was under the impression that the Japanese are net energy importers.I just got back from a month-long trip from the US to China with my wife, who is originally Chinese.
Minor nit, but "originally Chinese" sounds a bit funny. How about something like "who came from China" or "who is a native of China."
The post itself is very true. It's sad that certain companies there spend so much effort creating low level knockoffs - they should've focused more on the Japanese strategy of creating higher quality goods. This stuff hurts the image of the country, but a lot of the "businesspeople" are really shortsighted and only want to make a quick buck.I wonder if that includes the equipment to acquire and play that music...
And if you'll notice, that dye chemist who actually solved the problem is not listed on the company's website at all. It's like he doesn't exist!
Unfortunately, nothing new there. Most coders (or technical experts) don't get their names publicized outside of their companies or departments. Somehow, credit always ends up with a PHB.If there's a hot female security guard on duty, I'm gonna SO lie so I'll get searched by her.
Of course, while she might be asking the questions, you might get lucky and run into her huge Neanderthal compatriot that is manning the strip search station.Sounds like Montreal-based Mega Blocks had home court advantage in this particular case.
In a scheme where there are enough available addresses to give one to every grain of sand, the laws of supply and demand suggest that the value of each IP address will approach zero.
Unfortunately, if you want sand, say for a sandbox in the backyard, you still need to go buy sand (unless you visit a local beach or park and "acquire" some). And bottled water costs more per gallon than gasoline!Most likely, there will be a base price set up by the ISP to account for the infrastructure and personnel that they'd need to keep the network running. It may be true that additional IP addresses will be cheaper than they are now, but the track record of ISP leads me to believe that we'll still end up paying plenty for IPv6 addresses.
Do you realize that the shuttle can't get more than 300 or so miles from the earth's surface?
Yes, I'm aware of that, but I figured if they got so far as to strap rocket boosters onto asteroids, NASA or some other space agency could also design and launch at least one spacecraft to handle short range communications. After all, something like that could probably be used for a Mars mission.Crew? Why would this need a crew? a computer could do this job easily and you could provide basic commands remotely abit with a large time delay.
In addition, if the time lag is a big deal, just have a shuttle or other spaceship trail the anti-asteroid destroyer and have a manned crew control it there. It'd reduce the lag and give better control. There's already been experience doing remote control for space probes and rovers, and unmanned Predators or other UAVs, for that matter.It's a good thing that the school district got its hand slapped for enforcing a stupid rule and then refusing to state the rule that was violated. How can someone be held liable for what another person put in a guestbook? And then to top it off, suspending a kid from school and not allowing him to go on a field trip or play sports for no justification? Jeez, at least tell the guy exactly what rule he violated. That school district just taught its students a lesson in the abuse of authority.
As nice as wind turbines are, you're never gonna get enough to gnerate enough power, nor are you getting enough people agreeing to have them built.
True enough there. In California, a lot of the wind turbines on the Altamont Pass have to be shutdown because of concerns that birds are getting killed. Looks like it's tough being green - support wild animals or clean power?Actually, while there aren't many oil-powered power plants in the US, some do exist, mainly in the East. See articles for details:
Oil spill at Maine power plantWikipedia article about various types of power plants
I'll grant that a lot of power, particularly in the Western US, is generated by natural gas.
One of the main reasons that oil-fired plants aren't popular is that they have a lot of pollutants, such as mercury. Many oil producing countries find it cheaper to use oil for their power plants.
and have the University fire the professors for sparing the rod!
Not if the professors are tenured.It's nice to see that Microsoft admires the courage behind the decision to change the controller interface. Of course, they're probably hoping that the Revolution falls flat on its face so that it really will only be a two horse console race.
Wouldn't be too surprised to see an imitation controller from Microsoft down the road if the Revolution reviews are good. Embrace and extend, right?
My buddy complained that his wife ignored him now and never wanted to hang out, talk or take any interest in him whatsoever. He said it started when he installed Sims2 for her. I installed Sims2 for MY wife that very night.
And that's a good thing?Parent is right, too. I've not heard a single complaint about my gaming (PC or console) since. As long as I keep the expansion packs coming...
Well, if the goal is to get some quality gaming time in, that would work, but still..."We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone"?
You can refuse to deal with a customer because they are a jerk, they want to do something illegal and open you up to liability -- especially if you were told of their intent in the first place. The gun store in question can refuse, and if the customer makes a scene the store calls the police to handle a trespassing issue. I'm sure the customer would love to wait for the cops to explain the reason why she (or he, according to recent court decisions) was asked to leave.
You cannot refuse service based on certain other reasons that are protected, like race, sex, religion, etc.
All very true, but the person explaining why he/she was kicked out would start screaming about all the reasons that the store owner/clerk was discriminating. It would probably turn in to a "he said, she said" type of deal.