In my case, the games I play are appearing on tablets. I spend more time on my tablet each day than on my computer.
I tried out knoppix and was reasonably happy with it. And I made a strategy of finding and getting used to opensource programs that worked both on windows and on linux equally well. So when I swap over, I'll be familiar with my software stack.
I suspect the windows 8.1 pc I bought will be the last microsoft desktop computer I'll ever buy.
But I'm probably going to either use an older windows box or just bite the bullet and go to linux for my "real" machine. I might use windows for a gaming machine.
I've used openoffice then libre office for years now and no longer even occasionally dip back into Word.
I've disliked the tighter microsoft email/social account integration for a while now.
I really dislike what I'm hearing about the new o/s. I stopped using facebook because of similar actions. it's like being fabulously wealthy isn't enough. If windows 10 goes forward as is, I probably won't go with it.
I'm sure the VP of doing terrible things to people and making up horrific ways to die (some of which exceed the book from what I hear.. which is pretty damn hard) doesn't.
Well, about 2000 chinese noodle chefs were replaced by robot noodle chefs for the same reason robots are used everywhere.
Robots were less expensive (even than chinese noodle chefs), could work double shifts every day, 7 days a week and on holidays. When sick, they could be replaced the same day with a new one. The robots were more accurate, made less mistakes, had no legal liablity (no cut fingers, etc.) and the investors got to keep more money.
It's the end game that doesn't work. When 25% of the population can't get work because anything they can do can be done better, cheaper, and longer by a robot (or automated process -- i.e. computerized receptionists) then the system breaks down.
By definition, half the people are less than average intelligence. And many high intelligence jobs are being and will be automated as well. The return is enormous (replace one or more highly paid humans with a machine or program) so the incentive is high.
The robot designer above is an excellent example. Sure- she'll continue to have work. But that's 1 job created for 1,000 jobs destroyed.
When people can't trade their labor for value/goods/housing/food what do you think is going to happen?
The chinese solar panel market receives substantial subsidies from the chinese government. This allowed them to sell the panels at lower profit markets. The logical reason would be an attempt to capture the solar panel market.
The problem was... solar panels are still dropping rapidly in price. So while some 1st world companies went bankrupt, new ones arose.
Now, I wouldn't call two trillion dollars spent fighting a war to protect oil fields a subsidy.
Please. With those amounts you need something more like "mega subsidy!"
Oil company subsidies are embedded into the system so well that we don't even notice them most the time.
If solar can cut oil demand by 10%.. then the price of oil will never recover and we can start saving oil for unique things instead of burning it for energy.
Actually the price of PV cells dropped at an amazingly consistent rate since 1987 (the oldest figures I could find) when it was $15 per watt.
The inflection in price occurred in 1987. Prior to that the price was declining geometrically. Without the space program, it would probably be several years behind the current prices.
The price as of 2015 is 30 cents per watt.
At current rates of decline, the price will be under 10 cents per watt by 2020.
However, as you say -- quality panels will cost more, outperform, and last longer.
Solar cells are going to collapse fuel demand world wide. While the need for fuelbased generators will remain until we get better batteries (also improving about 5% per year pretty consistently for a long time) if we could cut fuel usage by 30%, it would probably collapse the price of diesel.
Of just use solar when it's day and not raining. Otherwise use diesel as normal. If you are wise, take a portion of the savings and funnel it into batteries.
I didn't doubt her veracity. I think she said exactly what she meant and what her fellows at RIAA meant. So I am not accusing her of lying. Only of trying to kill public domain.
RIAA Says There's No Value In The Public Domain from the true-colors dept While I've already written about the hearings for the Copyright Office concerning copyright on pre-1972 sound recordings, but I wanted to call out one particularly egregious and ridiculous statement from the RIAA. The RIAA's Jennifer Pariser claimed that there's no value to a work in the public domain. Apparently Pariser is unfamiliar with the works of Shakespeare. Or Beethoven. Is she serious? I mean, you could make the argument that it makes life more difficult to sell those works for the labels she represents, but those works have tremendous value. Pariser, of course, is famous for making ridiculous statements, sometimes under oath. Back when she worked for Sony-BMG she made some statements, on the stand and under oath, in the Jammie Thomas trial that were blatantly untrue. Only much later, after the jury had ruled, did the RIAA admit that Pariser "misspoke" while on the stand. One hopes she "misspoke" here as well, but I get the feeling she actually believes the blatantly incorrect statement she made.
It's just not worth it for people to develop virii for the 123 phones in use.
Seriously... I use a Lumia 521 windows phone. I might go back to android or iphone (had both) but it's cheap and it works. So I might buy a newer phone soon since I dropped mine a couple weeks ago for the 10th time or so and I have a crack. And... lol, I put that clear packing tape on it and the screen works as good as ever so I'm taking my time.
It's much clearer to say poverty, low income, middle income, high income, and wealthy.
Everyone from low income to high income (i.e. over 80% of the citizens) is "middle class" these days. Only those in poverty and who are wealthy don't qualify. And by wealthy- I don't mean people who have to work ever. People who make over $400,000 a year self describe as middle class while people who make $40,000 also self describe as middle class.
If almost everyone is middle class, then no one really is middle class.
Middle income and middle class are not the same thing.
The middle class was the professional class of doctors, lawyers, and business owners between the truly wealthy and everyone else. They didn't have to worry about job security since they were the owner/proprietor. They had high incomes but not enough to qualify as "wealthy". Today, they would be the 91 to 98% bracket (perhaps even the 95 to 98% bracket).
It was useful for politicians to conflate middle income and middle class and so the terms have become mostly interchangeable in the united states.
It amazes me that so many people are smart enough to know sphygmomanometer instead of using "blood pressure cuff" but they are ignorant that a stethoscope is required for the procedure.
If they only used a sphygmomanometer, they would put it on your arm, pump it up, nothing would happen, no measurements would be possible... and I guess they'd eventually take it off.
I'm retired at 54. I've had scores of blood pressure tests in my life. I think it was obvious from context that I meant blood pressure cuff and stethoscope with a human performing the procedure. But low hanging fruit. Mea Culpa.. oh yea... Mea Culpa Maxima... I better include that part before a raft of people hop in to tell me Mea Culpa isn't the full phrase.
You are absolutely correct on the calculated vs calibrated of course. Stupid autocorrect.
I should have said "stethoscope and blood pressure cuff" too. You are as incorrect saying that sphygmomanometers are used to check blood pressure as I am was in only mentioning the stethoscope. The test is done with both a blood pressure cuff and a stethoscope, so if you want to be picky and precise then do it correctly.:-)
None of this changes my warning / the main point of the post that automated blood pressure cuffs grow increasingly unreliable with use until they are calibrated again yet give the illusion of hi tech goodness. Compounding this is the fact that they are calibrated infrequently so the likely result is that they will error to the high side.
Well... once you have the 3d printer, it's a sunk cost except for the printing materials and the maintenance you incur thru use.
In many cases, the 3-d printer operator is simply an existing employee. They may be using time that would have been unproductive (chatting at the water cooler) or they may be using real time taken from other activities.
The electricity is a non-factor (a couple cents at most).
The lease is a sunk cost unless the 3d printer takes up an entire room the space was being leased anyway.
---
Your point is valid but a bit overstated.
But saying the stethoscope was really 10x the cost.. it would still be $3 vs $200 (assuming similar durability).
---
One factor is.. the more you print, the cheaper a particular print is. I.e. if you buy the printer and make one stethoscope and that's it... then you paid $2000 for the stethoscope.
I use a similar logic for boardgames. If I'm likely to play it 10 times, a $90 boardgame is cheaper than a $50 board game that I'll play three times.
Slashdot Mirror
There could be interesting implications to the search for life there.
Say spectral analysis showed a higher than expected concentration of helium around certain stars...
Interstellar pollution..
I appreciate the advice and will look into mint.
The reason I tried Knoppix was the "no install boot disk".
I'm familiar with unix from college but there will still be quite a learning curve once I get past the pretty face.
In my case, the games I play are appearing on tablets. I spend more time on my tablet each day than on my computer.
I tried out knoppix and was reasonably happy with it. And I made a strategy of finding and getting used to opensource programs that worked both on windows and on linux equally well. So when I swap over, I'll be familiar with my software stack.
I suspect the windows 8.1 pc I bought will be the last microsoft desktop computer I'll ever buy.
I've been with windows for close to two decades.
But I'm probably going to either use an older windows box or just bite the bullet and go to linux for my "real" machine. I might use windows for a gaming machine.
I've used openoffice then libre office for years now and no longer even occasionally dip back into Word.
I've disliked the tighter microsoft email/social account integration for a while now.
I really dislike what I'm hearing about the new o/s. I stopped using facebook because of similar actions.
it's like being fabulously wealthy isn't enough. If windows 10 goes forward as is, I probably won't go with it.
I'm sure the VP of doing terrible things to people and making up horrific ways to die (some of which exceed the book from what I hear.. which is pretty damn hard) doesn't.
Well, about 2000 chinese noodle chefs were replaced by robot noodle chefs for the same reason robots are used everywhere.
Robots were less expensive (even than chinese noodle chefs), could work double shifts every day, 7 days a week and on holidays. When sick, they could be replaced the same day with a new one. The robots were more accurate, made less mistakes, had no legal liablity (no cut fingers, etc.) and the investors got to keep more money.
It's the end game that doesn't work. When 25% of the population can't get work because anything they can do can be done better, cheaper, and longer by a robot (or automated process -- i.e. computerized receptionists) then the system breaks down.
By definition, half the people are less than average intelligence. And many high intelligence jobs are being and will be automated as well.
The return is enormous (replace one or more highly paid humans with a machine or program) so the incentive is high.
The robot designer above is an excellent example. Sure- she'll continue to have work. But that's 1 job created for 1,000 jobs destroyed.
When people can't trade their labor for value/goods/housing/food what do you think is going to happen?
I stopped reading certain characters in the book.. and as soon as certain people are on screen, I fastforward.
if something happens, I'll know about it from tyrian's perspective.
There is a lot of stuff that is as.. wait.. more repulsive than "Human Centipede 3".
The boobs are nice.
The chinese solar panel market receives substantial subsidies from the chinese government. This allowed them to sell the panels at lower profit markets. The logical reason would be an attempt to capture the solar panel market.
The problem was... solar panels are still dropping rapidly in price. So while some 1st world companies went bankrupt, new ones arose.
Now, I wouldn't call two trillion dollars spent fighting a war to protect oil fields a subsidy.
Please. With those amounts you need something more like "mega subsidy!"
Oil company subsidies are embedded into the system so well that we don't even notice them most the time.
If solar can cut oil demand by 10%.. then the price of oil will never recover and we can start saving oil for unique things instead of burning it for energy.
Actually the price of PV cells dropped at an amazingly consistent rate since 1987 (the oldest figures I could find) when it was $15 per watt.
The inflection in price occurred in 1987. Prior to that the price was declining geometrically. Without the space program, it would probably be several years behind the current prices.
The price as of 2015 is 30 cents per watt.
At current rates of decline, the price will be under 10 cents per watt by 2020.
However, as you say -- quality panels will cost more, outperform, and last longer.
Solar cells are going to collapse fuel demand world wide. While the need for fuelbased generators will remain until we get better batteries (also improving about 5% per year pretty consistently for a long time) if we could cut fuel usage by 30%, it would probably collapse the price of diesel.
Of just use solar when it's day and not raining. Otherwise use diesel as normal. If you are wise, take a portion of the savings and funnel it into batteries.
Imagine if these cut diesel fuel usage in africa by 30% over the next 5 years.
Find a restaurant where the staff is actually there the 2nd time you visit. Tip well.
Service should be increasingly better after that. At small family owned restaurants (mostly indian) the service can reach extraordinary levels.
Tipping only provides a weak herd benefit at most restaurants since the staff you have today won't be there next month or at least not next quarter.
Robots pick the pieces and then humans have to work like robots to verify and box them. pretty ugly.
Currently the 750ti is at that price point (or slightly lower).
And will the new card be as quiet as the 750ti (inaudible so suitable for living room use.)
Unreported income that no income tax is paid on.
I didn't doubt her veracity. I think she said exactly what she meant and what her fellows at RIAA meant.
So I am not accusing her of lying. Only of trying to kill public domain.
https://www.techdirt.com/artic...
RIAA Says There's No Value In The Public Domain
from the true-colors dept
While I've already written about the hearings for the Copyright Office concerning copyright on pre-1972 sound recordings, but I wanted to call out one particularly egregious and ridiculous statement from the RIAA. The RIAA's Jennifer Pariser claimed that there's no value to a work in the public domain. Apparently Pariser is unfamiliar with the works of Shakespeare. Or Beethoven. Is she serious? I mean, you could make the argument that it makes life more difficult to sell those works for the labels she represents, but those works have tremendous value. Pariser, of course, is famous for making ridiculous statements, sometimes under oath. Back when she worked for Sony-BMG she made some statements, on the stand and under oath, in the Jammie Thomas trial that were blatantly untrue. Only much later, after the jury had ruled, did the RIAA admit that Pariser "misspoke" while on the stand. One hopes she "misspoke" here as well, but I get the feeling she actually believes the blatantly incorrect statement she made.
I get high security from a $50 windows phone.
It's just not worth it for people to develop virii for the 123 phones in use.
Seriously... I use a Lumia 521 windows phone. I might go back to android or iphone (had both) but it's cheap and it works. So I might buy a newer phone soon since I dropped mine a couple weeks ago for the 10th time or so and I have a crack. And ... lol, I put that clear packing tape on it and the screen works as good as ever so I'm taking my time.
The terms are meaningless.
It's much clearer to say poverty, low income, middle income, high income, and wealthy.
Everyone from low income to high income (i.e. over 80% of the citizens) is "middle class" these days. Only those in poverty and who are wealthy don't qualify. And by wealthy- I don't mean people who have to work ever. People who make over $400,000 a year self describe as middle class while people who make $40,000 also self describe as middle class.
If almost everyone is middle class, then no one really is middle class.
Middle income and middle class are not the same thing.
The middle class was the professional class of doctors, lawyers, and business owners between the truly wealthy and everyone else. They didn't have to worry about job security since they were the owner/proprietor. They had high incomes but not enough to qualify as "wealthy". Today, they would be the 91 to 98% bracket (perhaps even the 95 to 98% bracket).
It was useful for politicians to conflate middle income and middle class and so the terms have become mostly interchangeable in the united states.
It amazes me that so many people are smart enough to know sphygmomanometer instead of using "blood pressure cuff" but they are ignorant that a stethoscope is required for the procedure.
If they only used a sphygmomanometer, they would put it on your arm, pump it up, nothing would happen, no measurements would be possible... and I guess they'd eventually take it off.
I'm retired at 54. I've had scores of blood pressure tests in my life. I think it was obvious from context that I meant blood pressure cuff and stethoscope with a human performing the procedure. But low hanging fruit. Mea Culpa .. oh yea... Mea Culpa Maxima... I better include that part before a raft of people hop in to tell me Mea Culpa isn't the full phrase.
But double checking, it should actually be
Mea Culpa,
Mea Culpa,
Mea Culpa,
Mea Culpa Maxima.
You are absolutely correct on the calculated vs calibrated of course. Stupid autocorrect.
I should have said "stethoscope and blood pressure cuff" too. You are as incorrect saying that sphygmomanometers are used to check blood pressure as I am was in only mentioning the stethoscope. The test is done with both a blood pressure cuff and a stethoscope, so if you want to be picky and precise then do it correctly. :-)
None of this changes my warning / the main point of the post that automated blood pressure cuffs grow increasingly unreliable with use until they are calibrated again yet give the illusion of hi tech goodness. Compounding this is the fact that they are calibrated infrequently so the likely result is that they will error to the high side.
Well... once you have the 3d printer, it's a sunk cost except for the printing materials and the maintenance you incur thru use.
In many cases, the 3-d printer operator is simply an existing employee. They may be using time that would have been unproductive (chatting at the water cooler) or they may be using real time taken from other activities.
The electricity is a non-factor (a couple cents at most).
The lease is a sunk cost unless the 3d printer takes up an entire room the space was being leased anyway.
---
Your point is valid but a bit overstated.
But saying the stethoscope was really 10x the cost.. it would still be $3 vs $200 (assuming similar durability).
---
One factor is .. the more you print, the cheaper a particular print is. I.e. if you buy the printer and make one stethoscope and that's it... then you paid $2000 for the stethoscope.
I use a similar logic for boardgames. If I'm likely to play it 10 times, a $90 boardgame is cheaper than a $50 board game that I'll play three times.
Just so you know.. those devices are unreliable unless calculated weekly.
Two doctor visits ago, I showed a 175/110. I panicked... they panicked. They got a stethoscope and I was 122/78.
Last doctor visit, they were no longer using the electronic devices and had gone back to stethoscopes.