Good point. Maybe the nanotubes actually mesh between each other - kind of like the teeth in gears. Can't see it being easy to manufacture, but that would definitely provide a massive increase in closest-point surface area.
I've seen cases of heroin and alcohol addicts who would have literally died from chemical shock if they hadn't received a fix within a couple of days. Keep a gaming or exercise addict strapped down for a couple of days and they'll hate you, but they won't die.
Like I said, the physiological impact of habit is not unkown, but it's not even in the same league. You can bet your ass that this Gaming Detox Clinic doesn't shoot endorphins through these kids' meninges just to keep them alive.
All true - I oversimplified my description, but the basic point was that detoxing is about weaning off chemicals, and I don't think that applies in this situation.
Missed the earlier article, so I'll post in the dupe.
You can't "detox" from a non-chemical addiction. A detox clinic is somewhere you go to make it nigh-on impossible to obtain whatever chemical it is that your body is used to and, thus, craves.
While clinics do also have programs and counsellors to help deal with the underlying cause of the addiction - eg emotional stress, habit or associative behaviour - these are to help prevent addicts from returning to their chemical addiction. These services are also available outside of a detox clinic.
For a purely habitual addiction - whether it be sex, gaming, work or anything else without a direct chemical impact - you can only provide the counselling. Detoxing, making the object of your obsession unavailable, is just a way of providing a stop-gap for weak-willed people to break their habit while they're in counselling, and calling it a detox clinic is a way for those same people to legitimise their pathetic behaviour. I really don't have much sympathy, and I wouldn't expect any if I were in that situation.
Don't talk to me about adrenaline highs or any of the self-induced psychosomatic hormonal impacts of addiction; that's just the physiological aspect of a neural, habit-forming process. It's a million miles from chemical addiction. They really can't be compared.
"Oh, who can tell the difference between HD-TV and normal, eh?"
Look, we heard that one before with CDs replacing cassettes/vinyl, and look what happened. Yes, it was (more) expensive initially, but there were small but noticeable benefits and, lets face it, we in the 1st World are consumer whores. Given the amount of time we spend watching TV as a society nowadays, I really won't be surprised when nearly everyone has a HD-TV in 3 years' time just for that improved resolution or whatever.
Accept that it's going to happen. The only question left is which way the chips will fall. I would rather see Blu-Ray win out simply because it has a far better spec than HD-DVD, but unfortunately I think the gap between X-Box360 and PS3 release will push markets towards the latter. C'est la vie.
What if I hear the music pumping out of someone else's stereo? Who do I pay for the privilege?
I'm sorry, but this issue is really grinding me down now.
1: At least they're keeping money pumping around the US economy, as opposed to spending it in their countries of economy. Whether you're a die-hard US patriot or not, you have to agree that this is a good thing, in relative terms, when you consider how much outsourcing is done to eastern countries for the sake of profit. (In the UK, you're damned lucky if you can phone your bank and get someone with a decipherable accent).
2: If you want to solve the problem (as a nation) then abolish the abuse of the H1b (or working-visa, or whatever). If you can't effectively "indenture" foreign nationals by holding the visa-noose around their necks, they're in exactly the same position as any other US citizen. They're on equal ground, and nobody can complain that they're cheaper for any reason other than that they're choosing to work for less. They can make the same demands as everyone else. Then it's up to US programmers to be more competitive, if that's how it plays out.
Good ol' free-market economy again. After all, isn't that the corner-stone of the US economy and society? Can't get more patriotic than that...
FTA: "There has been a misconception -- and a helpful one -- among many government bureaucrats that the Internet is a non-geographic phenomenon," said Mr. Zittrain. "But it can be reworked to correspond to national jurisdictions and boundaries."
Damn damn damn. This is exactly what made t'interweb great, and it's all gonna go to hell. And what has allowed this state of affairs to continue?
Well, to put it plainly, hippy-geekery. For years, the only people to have any real understanding and input into the architecture of the internet since its original incarnations have been those of the open-source, weirdy-beardy persuasion (crass generalisation, but you get the picture).
So which of these turn-coat bastards went and explained the whole thing to government party-line whores? How did they manage to develop a sufficient understanding of it all to be able to engineer a monumental cock-up like the one we're now expecting?
This is one of those rare occasions where the original knowledge and ownership of a fantastic new technological, cultural phenomenon was in the hands of the RIGHT people (i.e. "left" people), and now governments and corporations are trying to wrestle it away from its owners in order to serve their own ideals.
Instead of the other way around.
Damn!
Sounds silly, but there's a major practical barrier here:
If a user doesn't have the time and/or inclination to leave their browser of (informed) choice downloading critical updates to browser, OS, AV, anti-spyware and so on, then they're more likely to go "Ah, skip it - I can get them later, and anything dodgy will get cleared out then."
If you don't have the bandwidth to match your impatience, you're less likely to keep your critical software up-to-date. Simple psychology.
Re:Just someone else to get sued
on
Robots in Medicine
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
To the best of my knowledge, it's human oversight that causes most drug administration accidents...
Eep! Imagine the barcode scenario...
on
Robots in Medicine
·
· Score: 3, Funny
The power is generated by the action of wind on the kite producing lift on half of the loop, and through manipulation of control surfaces, subsequent down-force on the other side of the loop. It's the mechanical conversion of wind-power that is harnessed here, so the simple lift generated by a blimp wouldn't work - how does it go down after it's ascent?
However, I think you'd be correct in another regard - having the kites anchored to a floating point (for example a blimp) would allow for a much more efficient system since the kites wouldn't have to go through thousands of feet of significantly slower wind each cycle. There's hope yet...
The inherent problems are astronomical - lift/weight ratio of kite-to-cable, vast amounts of airspace used etc. - but even the most basic feasibility requirements of this project cannot be met.
Have a look at some of the plans and protoype pics of this behemoth, and it becomes clear (if not in the article) that the intention is for the ladder to be ground-originated, not just ground-anchored. This means the kites are travelling up from the ground to 5 miles and back again. The volume occupied by such a structure - especially one as non-static as this - would be monumental, not to mention the massive safety margin required to have more than one in operation within a few miles of any other ladder.
So if we're looking at 400 ladders to generate enough to power a city, we're look at a good 3000+ square miles of land if we're to be sure that no ladder is to collide with another. Not practical on any scale, I suspect.
Now if we're to be sure the things don't come down every time there's a spot of bad weather, we are looking at getting them up above the common cloud-cover atmospheric strata. In that case, why the hell not just use bigger kites, no ridiculous ladder-arrangement, and use the kite-wing surface-area to convert solar-energy? If the kites are well-engineered and -controlled enough to be able to operate in such a stringently unified fashion, I'm sure the same technology could be used to keep solar-kites in the air. True, the strain on the cables would be even greater if they have to be reliable electrical conduits as well, but that's really only one of several major flaws in this project.
Frankly, we'd be better off burning drug-addled research-scientists as fuel. They're renewable, at least.
Wait, does this mean the Wacom tablet was originally designed with serial-connection in mind? That's a bit daft, surely. Shame - it's a really nice bit of kit, and I've been aching to get it running.
Slashdot Mirror
Good point. Maybe the nanotubes actually mesh between each other - kind of like the teeth in gears. Can't see it being easy to manufacture, but that would definitely provide a massive increase in closest-point surface area.
I'm sick of that bloody rabbit. Now it's going to last forever. Perfect.
I've seen cases of heroin and alcohol addicts who would have literally died from chemical shock if they hadn't received a fix within a couple of days. Keep a gaming or exercise addict strapped down for a couple of days and they'll hate you, but they won't die. Like I said, the physiological impact of habit is not unkown, but it's not even in the same league. You can bet your ass that this Gaming Detox Clinic doesn't shoot endorphins through these kids' meninges just to keep them alive.
See Psychotria's reply, then sue me for over-simplifying.
All true - I oversimplified my description, but the basic point was that detoxing is about weaning off chemicals, and I don't think that applies in this situation.
You can't "detox" from a non-chemical addiction. A detox clinic is somewhere you go to make it nigh-on impossible to obtain whatever chemical it is that your body is used to and, thus, craves.
While clinics do also have programs and counsellors to help deal with the underlying cause of the addiction - eg emotional stress, habit or associative behaviour - these are to help prevent addicts from returning to their chemical addiction. These services are also available outside of a detox clinic.
For a purely habitual addiction - whether it be sex, gaming, work or anything else without a direct chemical impact - you can only provide the counselling. Detoxing, making the object of your obsession unavailable, is just a way of providing a stop-gap for weak-willed people to break their habit while they're in counselling, and calling it a detox clinic is a way for those same people to legitimise their pathetic behaviour. I really don't have much sympathy, and I wouldn't expect any if I were in that situation.
Don't talk to me about adrenaline highs or any of the self-induced psychosomatic hormonal impacts of addiction; that's just the physiological aspect of a neural, habit-forming process. It's a million miles from chemical addiction. They really can't be compared.
"Oh, who can tell the difference between HD-TV and normal, eh?"
Look, we heard that one before with CDs replacing cassettes/vinyl, and look what happened. Yes, it was (more) expensive initially, but there were small but noticeable benefits and, lets face it, we in the 1st World are consumer whores. Given the amount of time we spend watching TV as a society nowadays, I really won't be surprised when nearly everyone has a HD-TV in 3 years' time just for that improved resolution or whatever.
Accept that it's going to happen. The only question left is which way the chips will fall. I would rather see Blu-Ray win out simply because it has a far better spec than HD-DVD, but unfortunately I think the gap between X-Box360 and PS3 release will push markets towards the latter. C'est la vie.
Don't shoot the messenger.
Trying to remove all the spyware from a Windows installation... Wood for the Trees anyone?
What if I hear the music pumping out of someone else's stereo? Who do I pay for the privilege? I'm sorry, but this issue is really grinding me down now.
I want to see Mr Kipling get involved.
Obligatory b3ta post.
WHERE are the tag-clouds? I was promised TAG-CLOUDS!
*sulk*
Every second of every day...
</deep>
Didn't you RTFA? They give a free Google T-shirt to whoever won the "design a festive Google-logo" painting competition.
Is 400 bigger than a Google?
2: If you want to solve the problem (as a nation) then abolish the abuse of the H1b (or working-visa, or whatever). If you can't effectively "indenture" foreign nationals by holding the visa-noose around their necks, they're in exactly the same position as any other US citizen. They're on equal ground, and nobody can complain that they're cheaper for any reason other than that they're choosing to work for less. They can make the same demands as everyone else. Then it's up to US programmers to be more competitive, if that's how it plays out.
Good ol' free-market economy again. After all, isn't that the corner-stone of the US economy and society? Can't get more patriotic than that...
FTA: "There has been a misconception -- and a helpful one -- among many government bureaucrats that the Internet is a non-geographic phenomenon," said Mr. Zittrain. "But it can be reworked to correspond to national jurisdictions and boundaries." Damn damn damn. This is exactly what made t'interweb great, and it's all gonna go to hell. And what has allowed this state of affairs to continue? Well, to put it plainly, hippy-geekery. For years, the only people to have any real understanding and input into the architecture of the internet since its original incarnations have been those of the open-source, weirdy-beardy persuasion (crass generalisation, but you get the picture). So which of these turn-coat bastards went and explained the whole thing to government party-line whores? How did they manage to develop a sufficient understanding of it all to be able to engineer a monumental cock-up like the one we're now expecting? This is one of those rare occasions where the original knowledge and ownership of a fantastic new technological, cultural phenomenon was in the hands of the RIGHT people (i.e. "left" people), and now governments and corporations are trying to wrestle it away from its owners in order to serve their own ideals. Instead of the other way around. Damn!
Proof of an extinct alien life form then - fossilized bricks and dynamos.
I only use Gentoo and Firefox. I can still buy viagra on-line, can't I?
If a user doesn't have the time and/or inclination to leave their browser of (informed) choice downloading critical updates to browser, OS, AV, anti-spyware and so on, then they're more likely to go "Ah, skip it - I can get them later, and anything dodgy will get cleared out then."
If you don't have the bandwidth to match your impatience, you're less likely to keep your critical software up-to-date. Simple psychology.
To the best of my knowledge, it's human oversight that causes most drug administration accidents...
Boop...
Boop...
Brrz!
"Benzadrine. Price check on Benzadrine."
*shudders*
The power is generated by the action of wind on the kite producing lift on half of the loop, and through manipulation of control surfaces, subsequent down-force on the other side of the loop. It's the mechanical conversion of wind-power that is harnessed here, so the simple lift generated by a blimp wouldn't work - how does it go down after it's ascent?
However, I think you'd be correct in another regard - having the kites anchored to a floating point (for example a blimp) would allow for a much more efficient system since the kites wouldn't have to go through thousands of feet of significantly slower wind each cycle. There's hope yet...
Have a look at some of the plans and protoype pics of this behemoth, and it becomes clear (if not in the article) that the intention is for the ladder to be ground-originated, not just ground-anchored. This means the kites are travelling up from the ground to 5 miles and back again. The volume occupied by such a structure - especially one as non-static as this - would be monumental, not to mention the massive safety margin required to have more than one in operation within a few miles of any other ladder.
So if we're looking at 400 ladders to generate enough to power a city, we're look at a good 3000+ square miles of land if we're to be sure that no ladder is to collide with another. Not practical on any scale, I suspect.
Now if we're to be sure the things don't come down every time there's a spot of bad weather, we are looking at getting them up above the common cloud-cover atmospheric strata. In that case, why the hell not just use bigger kites, no ridiculous ladder-arrangement, and use the kite-wing surface-area to convert solar-energy? If the kites are well-engineered and -controlled enough to be able to operate in such a stringently unified fashion, I'm sure the same technology could be used to keep solar-kites in the air. True, the strain on the cables would be even greater if they have to be reliable electrical conduits as well, but that's really only one of several major flaws in this project.
Frankly, we'd be better off burning drug-addled research-scientists as fuel. They're renewable, at least.
Wait, does this mean the Wacom tablet was originally designed with serial-connection in mind? That's a bit daft, surely. Shame - it's a really nice bit of kit, and I've been aching to get it running.