We generally 'trust' science thousands of times per today. This morning I went into a man-made 'cave' deep in the ground and got on the subway. The 'cave' didn't fall in and the subway didn't crash. The subway train didn't have a 'driver' - It was automatic and operated by a computer. I listened to my mp3 player and trusted everything.
Two weeks ago I let my doctor inject two different kinds of vaccines into my arm.
I could go on and on with examples, but the bottom line is I trust science and the mechanisms that are put in place by scientists (engineers, doctors et al) to accredit each other - And I trust these people orders of magnitude more than Palinesque drones who believe some kind of flying spaghetti monster made the world 6,000 years ago and that Fred Flintsone lived with Triceratops.
I'll second this - Our local science museum ("Science World" in Vancouver) has a water table that the kids just love, with all kinds of gates in it - Every time my toddler rushes towards it I think "Logic Gates."
I don't have a picture of the one in our city to hand, but it looks something like this, so I assume it's a standard item available for purchase by Science Museums:
While I agree the employer should work harder to cushion the fall, I feel the employees in these situations should work harder to protect themselves as well.
I live in British Columbia (Canada) - We have a lot of 'one industry' small towns (saw mills, pulp mills, paper mills, smelters, mines etc). Historically, a lot of the individuals that lived in these small towns and worked these blue-collar jobs earned good salaries, straight out of high school or community college. Often these salaries were earned in a town with a relatively low cost of living (cheaper houses, 10 minute commute to work etc.)
However, instead of saving money for a rainy day or paying down their houses quickly, many of these well-paid blue collar workers bought $60,000 SUVs, ski-boats, jet skis, cottages, plasma TVs and on and on... Then when the crash comes and at 47 they're out of work they've got nothing - No skills to retrain, and no money in the bank.
I think if you live in a one-industry town and 'work at the mill' it behooves you to live frugally and save and save and save - Because the fact remains that overnight you could be out of work, in a town with no other jobs.
However it might have ran, it certainly didn't 'save screens.' Back in the day I saw many many CRTs with their phosphors permanently 'burned' by the SETI@Home display:
If all the flotsam doesn't disable a propeller, it'll reduce its efficiency to the point where its just better than a big sea blender, rendering an already slow boat into a snail boat
Generally, the point of capturing a big freighter is to sail it away afterwards. You can't do that if you've fouled up the propeller.
Many many years before the internet, people went backpacking for a year without any problems. They dealt with their bank via phone or someone trusted back home. Why do you need 'secure' access to these systems from far?
much as TRS-DOS would be restricted to Radio Shack hardware.
TRS-DOS wasn't restricted to Radio Shack hardware - It ran on any of the TRS-80 clones, like the LMW-80. Most people ran 'better' OSes like NEWDOS, but if memory serves (and granted it was nearly 30 years ago) there was nothing preventing you from running TRS-DOS on a TRS-80 clone.
I'm not sure why these smaller companies keep trying to take on the big boys, though, when they know they'll get crushed, like a nut.
You've got Real thinking they can legally distribute software to rip DVDs to you hard drive, Psystar thinking they can legally create defacto Macs, Napster thinking they can facilitate file sharing and on and on.... Someone needs to sit down with these companies and explain how this crushing business works.
In the old days, nobody would even think about separating the software and hardware
Sure they would. In 1980 I had a TRS-80 model I, with two single-density, single-sided floppy drives. When I booted it, I could boot Radio Shack's operating system (TRS-DOS) or one of several alaternates including NEWDOS, LDOS etc.
have you stopped and considered that the application that Vlingo's application or any other developer that gets disapproved may have been disapproved for a reason...perhaps a misalignment of either company's visions?
I'll likely never have an iPhone due to my savage hatred of iTunes on the Windows platform (NO I DON'T FNCKING WANT BONJOUR STOP ASKING ME!), however for fun I'll wade in anyway.
It seems to me the issue is not that applications are disapproved for a reason, it's that that the mechanism is completely opaque, where there's no explanation of why an app was disapproved and no appeal process. It seems completely arbitrary. That's what p1sses people off, not the fact that the environment is regulated.
I'm thinking we're looking at 6+ years to break even
There's a few electric conversion cars in my neighbourhood - A minivan, an old Ford Fiesta etc. For most of the guys who have done this it's not for the cost savings (although here in BC with cheap hydro there is certainly a piece of that) - It's largely a hobby for them, in the same way some people like playing around with computers, messing about with toy trains or 'tuning' their Hondas. To be honest, this sort of project appeals to me as a hobby project, were it not for the fact I have a toddler and huge "to-do" list associated with our old house...
The other thing to consider is a lot of people keep an older car and only throw it away when the tranny needs rebuilding or it starts burning oil. When your options are 1) Spend $3K on repairs, 2) Throw in a new electric drivetrain or 3) Spend 6K on a new used car, well the electric conversion kit doesn't seem like such a bad deal.
Am I missing something obvious here? Is there a reason this is so hard it hasn't been done yet?
I don't know if it's 'obvious' but you, and many other/.ers are starting from a false premise. It's not about serving up ads per se - It's about protecting distributors in other regions who have paid for the content. For example, in Canada "The Amazing Race" airs on CTV ("Canadian TV"). When CTV airs TAR, if I watch the cable channel carrying CBS that channel is 'overwritten' with the CTV feed, i.e. both "Channel 9" (CTV) and "Channel 15" (CBS) are both carrying the same identical feed from CTV.
If I want to watch TAR online, I'm 'supposed' to do it at CTV.ca, and when I watch it at CTV.ca I see ads for Tim Horton's coffee (a big Canadian chain), Canadian Tire etc. I also see ads that are regionally specific, i.e. ads for Vancouver-based companies, which is where I am. This ad revenue flows up to CTV.
While the fact that Hulu, NBC.com et al blocks content to people like me outside of the USA is annoying, what almost drives me battier is other sites that embed/deep-link this content as well.
Ain't it Cool News is famous for this - They're always embedding or deep-linking the latest SNL video or The Office preview that doesn't work outside of the USA, and they're not alone.
Hey 'webmasters'- If people outside of the USA can't view the content hosted on video sites, stop deep linking to it on *your* sites - You wind up looking stupid.
If buying the more efficient TV will save you money, then what's the problem?
Because it needs to be a collective thing for the math to add up. If you bought an energy efficient TV, washer, dryer, fridge etc. you likely wouldn't see a payback on the $X,000 in expense for many years (if ever). Same if you built an energy efficient house, with solar panels, south facing windows etc.
However, if everyone bought them (or built them), then the collective energy savings the 'community' as a whole would be signficant, perhaps negating the need for another coal plant.
I too loved my Oki back in the mid nineties, but oh my god you could grow old waiting for that thing to finish printing. It was what, 30 seconds to first page out?
By tracking your vehicle, the state is forcing you to disclose your location at all times against your will, which is also a violation of the 5th.
There are two ways the state can track your vehicle, resulting in the 'disclosure of your location at all times against your will' -
1) Surreptitiously follow you around, photographing where you're going and taking notes. This is how it was done previously, and didn't require a warrant. Often subjects would be tracked night and day, without their knowledge. Ever heard of a 'stakeout'?
2) Use a GPS tracking device
What's the difference, other than less resources required?
It seems you've never worked with "enterprise software"
At my previous company we built 'enterprise' software. Generally the 'stagnation' you describe was a customer effect, not a vendor effect. The customers had an integrated enterprise system and refused to upgrade, even if it meant new features. We were on Version 6, but still had to support Version 3 (which amusingly required IE6) Kind of like my dad and his old volvo - If it ain't broke, they didn't fix it.
Most proprietary software companies spend little money on software development
Cite, please.
I've worked in three different for-profit, closed-source software companies in the past ten years, and in each case R&D was the largest bite of the budget.
If you're charging money for your product this has to be the case - You need a steady stream of innovations to retain existing customers, win customers from competitors and land new customers. If you spent 'little money on software development' you'd soon be out of business. It's really no different, whether you're Acme Software or General Motors...
Point well taken - But *my* point is the American population is only "selectively" risk averse to pathological levels. Spaceflight is required to be 100% safe, lots of stuff in the military which could be safer isn't.
Neither does a single civilian airliner flying today. Heck, as far as we know (Harrison Ford movies aside), neither of the two airforce Boeing VC-25s (SAM 28000 and SAM 29000) have escape systems, and those planes transport the president.
Slashdot Mirror
There has never been, nor ought their [sic] be, an automatic trust of anything, including science
"Automatic" trust? Perhaps not. "General" trust? Yes.
We generally 'trust' science thousands of times per today. This morning I went into a man-made 'cave' deep in the ground and got on the subway. The 'cave' didn't fall in and the subway didn't crash. The subway train didn't have a 'driver' - It was automatic and operated by a computer. I listened to my mp3 player and trusted everything.
Two weeks ago I let my doctor inject two different kinds of vaccines into my arm.
I could go on and on with examples, but the bottom line is I trust science and the mechanisms that are put in place by scientists (engineers, doctors et al) to accredit each other - And I trust these people orders of magnitude more than Palinesque drones who believe some kind of flying spaghetti monster made the world 6,000 years ago and that Fred Flintsone lived with Triceratops.
using water to create logic gates
I'll second this - Our local science museum ("Science World" in Vancouver) has a water table that the kids just love, with all kinds of gates in it - Every time my toddler rushes towards it I think "Logic Gates."
I don't have a picture of the one in our city to hand, but it looks something like this, so I assume it's a standard item available for purchase by Science Museums:
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/00/18/3d/8a/water-table-is-good-for.jpg
It's at least 20 feet long.
I've never seen nipples explode
Your narrative has become tiresome!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprockets_(Saturday_Night_Live)
PC LOAD LETTER
It's a difficult issue with which to grapple.
While I agree the employer should work harder to cushion the fall, I feel the employees in these situations should work harder to protect themselves as well.
I live in British Columbia (Canada) - We have a lot of 'one industry' small towns (saw mills, pulp mills, paper mills, smelters, mines etc). Historically, a lot of the individuals that lived in these small towns and worked these blue-collar jobs earned good salaries, straight out of high school or community college. Often these salaries were earned in a town with a relatively low cost of living (cheaper houses, 10 minute commute to work etc.)
However, instead of saving money for a rainy day or paying down their houses quickly, many of these well-paid blue collar workers bought $60,000 SUVs, ski-boats, jet skis, cottages, plasma TVs and on and on... Then when the crash comes and at 47 they're out of work they've got nothing - No skills to retrain, and no money in the bank.
I think if you live in a one-industry town and 'work at the mill' it behooves you to live frugally and save and save and save - Because the fact remains that overnight you could be out of work, in a town with no other jobs.
it ran as a screen saver
However it might have ran, it certainly didn't 'save screens.' Back in the day I saw many many CRTs with their phosphors permanently 'burned' by the SETI@Home display:
http://blog.sherweb.com/wp-content/uploads/seti_home_screen_l.gif
I used to advise people running SETI@Home to turn off their CRTs.
If all the flotsam doesn't disable a propeller, it'll reduce its efficiency to the point where its just better than a big sea blender, rendering an already slow boat into a snail boat
Generally, the point of capturing a big freighter is to sail it away afterwards. You can't do that if you've fouled up the propeller.
Many many years before the internet, people went backpacking for a year without any problems. They dealt with their bank via phone or someone trusted back home. Why do you need 'secure' access to these systems from far?
much as TRS-DOS would be restricted to Radio Shack hardware.
TRS-DOS wasn't restricted to Radio Shack hardware - It ran on any of the TRS-80 clones, like the LMW-80. Most people ran 'better' OSes like NEWDOS, but if memory serves (and granted it was nearly 30 years ago) there was nothing preventing you from running TRS-DOS on a TRS-80 clone.
I'm not sure why these smaller companies keep trying to take on the big boys, though, when they know they'll get crushed, like a nut.
You've got Real thinking they can legally distribute software to rip DVDs to you hard drive, Psystar thinking they can legally create defacto Macs, Napster thinking they can facilitate file sharing and on and on.... Someone needs to sit down with these companies and explain how this crushing business works.
In the old days, nobody would even think about separating the software and hardware
Sure they would. In 1980 I had a TRS-80 model I, with two single-density, single-sided floppy drives. When I booted it, I could boot Radio Shack's operating system (TRS-DOS) or one of several alaternates including NEWDOS, LDOS etc.
have you stopped and considered that the application that Vlingo's application or any other developer that gets disapproved may have been disapproved for a reason...perhaps a misalignment of either company's visions?
I'll likely never have an iPhone due to my savage hatred of iTunes on the Windows platform (NO I DON'T FNCKING WANT BONJOUR STOP ASKING ME!), however for fun I'll wade in anyway.
It seems to me the issue is not that applications are disapproved for a reason, it's that that the mechanism is completely opaque, where there's no explanation of why an app was disapproved and no appeal process. It seems completely arbitrary. That's what p1sses people off, not the fact that the environment is regulated.
I'm thinking we're looking at 6+ years to break even
There's a few electric conversion cars in my neighbourhood - A minivan, an old Ford Fiesta etc. For most of the guys who have done this it's not for the cost savings (although here in BC with cheap hydro there is certainly a piece of that) - It's largely a hobby for them, in the same way some people like playing around with computers, messing about with toy trains or 'tuning' their Hondas. To be honest, this sort of project appeals to me as a hobby project, were it not for the fact I have a toddler and huge "to-do" list associated with our old house...
The other thing to consider is a lot of people keep an older car and only throw it away when the tranny needs rebuilding or it starts burning oil. When your options are 1) Spend $3K on repairs, 2) Throw in a new electric drivetrain or 3) Spend 6K on a new used car, well the electric conversion kit doesn't seem like such a bad deal.
Am I missing something obvious here? Is there a reason this is so hard it hasn't been done yet?
I don't know if it's 'obvious' but you, and many other /.ers are starting from a false premise. It's not about serving up ads per se - It's about protecting distributors in other regions who have paid for the content. For example, in Canada "The Amazing Race" airs on CTV ("Canadian TV"). When CTV airs TAR, if I watch the cable channel carrying CBS that channel is 'overwritten' with the CTV feed, i.e. both "Channel 9" (CTV) and "Channel 15" (CBS) are both carrying the same identical feed from CTV.
If I want to watch TAR online, I'm 'supposed' to do it at CTV.ca, and when I watch it at CTV.ca I see ads for Tim Horton's coffee (a big Canadian chain), Canadian Tire etc. I also see ads that are regionally specific, i.e. ads for Vancouver-based companies, which is where I am. This ad revenue flows up to CTV.
For example Family Guy is only broadcast in the US
It airs in Canada on Global TV: http://www.globaltv.com/entertainment/shows/familyguy/index.html
...and I do mean 'airs' - You can watch it with rabbit ears if you want (we still have OTA analog TV in Canada).
Global wants you to watch Family Guy online at GlobalTV.com, not Hulu, so Global can get the ad revenue.
While the fact that Hulu, NBC.com et al blocks content to people like me outside of the USA is annoying, what almost drives me battier is other sites that embed/deep-link this content as well.
Ain't it Cool News is famous for this - They're always embedding or deep-linking the latest SNL video or The Office preview that doesn't work outside of the USA, and they're not alone.
Hey 'webmasters'- If people outside of the USA can't view the content hosted on video sites, stop deep linking to it on *your* sites - You wind up looking stupid.
Yours truly,
An Annoyed Canadian
my daughter is 17 and does not care about little mermaid anymore
Ah yes, but some point in the next decade or two your daughter's daughter will... That's the Disney Machine in action.
If buying the more efficient TV will save you money, then what's the problem?
Because it needs to be a collective thing for the math to add up. If you bought an energy efficient TV, washer, dryer, fridge etc. you likely wouldn't see a payback on the $X,000 in expense for many years (if ever). Same if you built an energy efficient house, with solar panels, south facing windows etc.
However, if everyone bought them (or built them), then the collective energy savings the 'community' as a whole would be signficant, perhaps negating the need for another coal plant.
Every entry point takes fingerprints of every visitor who is not a US Citizen or legal US Resident
Not if you're Canadian... No fingerprint / retinal requirement for us Hosers.
Loved my Okidata 600e
I too loved my Oki back in the mid nineties, but oh my god you could grow old waiting for that thing to finish printing. It was what, 30 seconds to first page out?
By tracking your vehicle, the state is forcing you to disclose your location at all times against your will, which is also a violation of the 5th.
There are two ways the state can track your vehicle, resulting in the 'disclosure of your location at all times against your will' -
1) Surreptitiously follow you around, photographing where you're going and taking notes. This is how it was done previously, and didn't require a warrant. Often subjects would be tracked night and day, without their knowledge. Ever heard of a 'stakeout'?
2) Use a GPS tracking device
What's the difference, other than less resources required?
It seems you've never worked with "enterprise software"
At my previous company we built 'enterprise' software. Generally the 'stagnation' you describe was a customer effect, not a vendor effect. The customers had an integrated enterprise system and refused to upgrade, even if it meant new features. We were on Version 6, but still had to support Version 3 (which amusingly required IE6) Kind of like my dad and his old volvo - If it ain't broke, they didn't fix it.
Most proprietary software companies spend little money on software development
Cite, please.
I've worked in three different for-profit, closed-source software companies in the past ten years, and in each case R&D was the largest bite of the budget.
If you're charging money for your product this has to be the case - You need a steady stream of innovations to retain existing customers, win customers from competitors and land new customers. If you spent 'little money on software development' you'd soon be out of business. It's really no different, whether you're Acme Software or General Motors...
Point well taken - But *my* point is the American population is only "selectively" risk averse to pathological levels. Spaceflight is required to be 100% safe, lots of stuff in the military which could be safer isn't.
It has no escape system
Neither does a single civilian airliner flying today. Heck, as far as we know (Harrison Ford movies aside), neither of the two airforce Boeing VC-25s (SAM 28000 and SAM 29000) have escape systems, and those planes transport the president.