for example 'the enemy within' made a pretty good point about good and evil [...] Or the menagerie, with its central take-away that truly immersive VR is a drug
Spock's Brain. Whenever somebody brings up the nobility of Star Trek, I just remind them of "Spock's Brain."
There are a few great Star Trek episodes, with meaning and purpose. But there's also Spock's Brain, Return of the Archons, Operation: Annihilate!, Catspaw, Friday's Child, Who Mourns for Adonais, Gamesters of Triskellion, Omega Glory, Bread and Circuses, The Enterprise Incident, Spectre of the Gun, For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky, All Our Yesterdays, etc.
Another Uhura story that I heard was that there was an episode where all of the senior officers were down on the planet and Uhura was left in command. The network nixed that one pretty quick: "A woman?! A BLACK woman!? In charge of a starship!? I don't think so!"
The issue is how much collusion was there between Apple and the publishing companies to set these prices--which, according to the e-mails, was quite a bit. Apple was working to craft an agreement that all the publishers would agree to, not individual agreements with the publishers. That's collusion.
Years ago, all you people voted to ban private ownership of surface-to-air missiles. "Why would you need a surface-to-air missile?" you asked. "Duck Hunting? That's just crazy!"
Well, look who's laughing now!
(For the humor impaired, this is intended to be funny.)
As far as I'm concerned, the law should simply say, "You may not travel at a speed that is unsafe for the current road conditions." Anything demanding strict conformance to a posted number (rather than driving at a speed that feels safe) is just asking for people to ignore the law...
This always sounds like a good idea. Here's the problem, though: Who decides that the speed was unsafe?
Obviously, you wouldn't be driving at an unsafe speed. So you're cruising down that rain-slicked highway at 85 MPH and everything is fine until some other idiot who doesn't believe 85 MPH is a safe speed shows up in front you doing 50. As you slam into the back of him, you think, "This isn't my fault! It's that idiot driving 50 MPH! I was perfectly safe until he showed up!"
Yes, in an ideal world, we would all drive at a safe speed and be respectful of each other. But the reality is that you have different people with different driving abilities and different cars with different capabilities and the whole idea that everybody on the freeway can be trusted to "do the right thing" is completely absurd. That's why you need to have an arbitrary number.
as Tesla cars are not super cheap to be hijacking the market.
Depends on your definition of "the market."
If you mean the whole market for automobiles, Tesla is barely a blip. If you mean the market for high-end luxury vehicles, it appears that Tesla is doing quite well. Add to that these higher-end vehicles tend to have nice margins and it's even worse for these dealers because they'll make more selling one A8 than they will selling three A3s.
You can never regulate it - as you point out, it will not in any way stop criminals.
Depends on how dedicated the criminal is, as well as the person selling the gun. Put some of the people selling guns to criminals in jail and they might decide that isn't a business they want to be in.
You cannot effectively enforce a law against a transaction where all parties involved consent, and even trying to do so inevitably involved measures corrosive to liberty.
In the end it is a matter of what you want to do with the spacecraft. Unmanned spacecraft are cheap and reliable. Manned craft are a little more flexible, but expensive and unreliable.
Unmanned spacecraft are cheap and reliable? Not really. We've had plenty of accidents. Keep in mind that up to the year 2000, the US, Soviet Union, and Japan had launched 43 probes to Mars and 13 were successful. That's a 30% success rate. Not all that hot.
In 2012 dollars, we've spent 12.5 billion--with a B--dollars on Mars exploration. And we've learned a lot. Now, we'll say that a manned mission costs 1000x that, or 12.5 trillion--with a T. The interesting question is, would we learn 1000x more about Mars than we've learned in the last 50 years of throwing the occasional probe out there?
Let's be honest--we've sent probes to Mars because we want to do something to figure it out and the American people aren't going to spring for the money for a manned mission. So probes are the next best thing. And they're pretty good. But are they "better" than manned exploration? No.
I understand it's Slashdot and the department is "Ask Slashdot." Still, why is it when I see whiny little questions like, "What do I do about a co-worker who..." the first answer that comes to mind is "beat them severely." It's sort of a more violent version of Betteridge's Law of Headlines.
Maybe it's just me, but I feel like I'm seeing more and more of these managerial questions. Y'know, if your interpersonal skills are so bad that you need to ask a bunch of slashdotters how to deal with people, you may not be cut out for management.
But here's a hint--perhaps he doesn't see a real advantage to learning the latest buzzword-development paradigm. Perhaps, rather than scoffing at his neanderthal ways, you should consider whether or not you're gaining enough to use these techniques.
If you believe you will--and you may be right--one way to light a fire under his butt may be to show him. Have him write the code. Have you write the code using these glorious techniques. Put the two together and run it. If you can show him the benefits of learning this, he may be more inspired to do so. Similar thing with version control--show him how it benefits him to use it.
OpenStreetMap’s data is used by some of the biggest mapping names on the web, including Foursquare, Craigslist, Wikipedia, Mapquest, and Apple’s iOS Maps app.
I'm not sure they want to be so proud of the last one...
I read aloud to my 3 year old niece from her favorite Dr Suess book. Private performance.
I read aloud in front of hundreds of people who paid to attend, or were otherwise asked to attend that reading. Public performance.
Agreed. Of course, there's a pretty big gap between your 3 year-old niece and hundreds of people who paid to attend or were otherwise asked to attend.
Take the numbers, for example. If I read aloud to 1 person who paid me to read it, is it a public performance? What if I'm paid to do other things. Suppose I'm a nurse for an elderly person and I'm paid to help him out in the bathroom, cook meals, and read him books? He's paying me, I'm making money from reading him books, but it's only one other person.
What if it's two people--say a husband and wife? How about if it's 32 people in a nursing home and I'm paid to read to them in a group, as well as mop the floors and teach advanced basket-weaving? Those people also pay the nursing home for such things, as well as room and board and medical care.
Yes, the more you make, the higher rate you pay on the money over a given threshold. But if we tax income up to say, $50,000 at 32% and tax income above $50,000 at 35%--which is how the tax code works (though I'm making up the actual percentages and thresholds)--and you make $50,000, you pay $16,000 in taxes and take home $34,000. If you got a $1 a year raise to $50,001, you pay 32% on the $50,000 (that's $16,000) and 35% of the $1 (or $0.35). Which means you would bring home $34,000.65. Which is still more than you were bringing home before.
Now you might whine that if you were making $50,000 a year and your salary doubled to $100,000, you wouldn't be bringing home $68,000 a year, you'd be bringing home $66,500. So you'd pay more in taxes--both as a percentage and in raw dollars--than you if you were making half of that. But I know I'd rather bring home $66,500 a year than $34,000 a year.
If you feel that strongly about paying taxes, though, go ahead and make less money. That'll show those bastards!
Actually, my favorite Siri-choke is sunrise/sunset.
Ask Siri "What time is sunset?" and Siri will tell you. Ask Siri "What time was sunrise?" and Siri will say something to the effect that it can't tell you the weather in the past. Ask Siri "What time will sunset be next Tuesday?" and it will say something to the effect that it doesn't know how to get the weather that far ahead.
Huh? What does sunset have to do with weather? Well, Siri gets sunrise/sunset information from the same place as the weather. Sort of an "almanac" section.
The sad part? If you say "Wolfram, what time was sunset?" it will go search Wolfram-Alpha and tell you sunrise/sunset information for anywhere in the world on any date that you like.
Not a huge deal. I'm sure there are plenty of US companies that will be more than happy to come in and repair everything, if only the American taxpayer will pay them to do so.
I'm just curious--what do you consider to be a fair share of the profits?
I have no complaint with Apple's policies for their App Store (it's their store, after all). My complaint with the App Store is mostly that it is the only way to get apps on your non-jailbroken iOS device, so there's no competition. If I want to distribute it myself and handle the infrastructure/support for my own store, too bad. If someone else comes along and wants to offer a different revenue-sharing plan from Apple's 70/30, too bad.
But I'd be curious what you would consider to be "fair"--I assume you consider 70/30 to be "unfair."
Slashdot Mirror
for example 'the enemy within' made a pretty good point about good and evil [...] Or the menagerie, with its central take-away that truly immersive VR is a drug
Spock's Brain. Whenever somebody brings up the nobility of Star Trek, I just remind them of "Spock's Brain."
There are a few great Star Trek episodes, with meaning and purpose. But there's also Spock's Brain, Return of the Archons, Operation: Annihilate!, Catspaw, Friday's Child, Who Mourns for Adonais, Gamesters of Triskellion, Omega Glory, Bread and Circuses, The Enterprise Incident, Spectre of the Gun, For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky, All Our Yesterdays, etc.
Another Uhura story that I heard was that there was an episode where all of the senior officers were down on the planet and Uhura was left in command. The network nixed that one pretty quick: "A woman?! A BLACK woman!? In charge of a starship!? I don't think so!"
The issue is how much collusion was there between Apple and the publishing companies to set these prices--which, according to the e-mails, was quite a bit. Apple was working to craft an agreement that all the publishers would agree to, not individual agreements with the publishers. That's collusion.
so what I can do that with a regular camera, some electrical tape and a tongue switch of some kind that I'd need to figure out.
...and people say Google Glass makes you look like a dope.
Years ago, all you people voted to ban private ownership of surface-to-air missiles. "Why would you need a surface-to-air missile?" you asked. "Duck Hunting? That's just crazy!"
Well, look who's laughing now!
(For the humor impaired, this is intended to be funny.)
As far as I'm concerned, the law should simply say, "You may not travel at a speed that is unsafe for the current road conditions." Anything demanding strict conformance to a posted number (rather than driving at a speed that feels safe) is just asking for people to ignore the law...
This always sounds like a good idea. Here's the problem, though: Who decides that the speed was unsafe?
Obviously, you wouldn't be driving at an unsafe speed. So you're cruising down that rain-slicked highway at 85 MPH and everything is fine until some other idiot who doesn't believe 85 MPH is a safe speed shows up in front you doing 50. As you slam into the back of him, you think, "This isn't my fault! It's that idiot driving 50 MPH! I was perfectly safe until he showed up!"
Yes, in an ideal world, we would all drive at a safe speed and be respectful of each other. But the reality is that you have different people with different driving abilities and different cars with different capabilities and the whole idea that everybody on the freeway can be trusted to "do the right thing" is completely absurd. That's why you need to have an arbitrary number.
as Tesla cars are not super cheap to be hijacking the market.
Depends on your definition of "the market."
If you mean the whole market for automobiles, Tesla is barely a blip. If you mean the market for high-end luxury vehicles, it appears that Tesla is doing quite well. Add to that these higher-end vehicles tend to have nice margins and it's even worse for these dealers because they'll make more selling one A8 than they will selling three A3s.
You can never regulate it - as you point out, it will not in any way stop criminals.
Depends on how dedicated the criminal is, as well as the person selling the gun. Put some of the people selling guns to criminals in jail and they might decide that isn't a business they want to be in.
You cannot effectively enforce a law against a transaction where all parties involved consent, and even trying to do so inevitably involved measures corrosive to liberty.
So. legalized prostitution, then?
In the end it is a matter of what you want to do with the spacecraft. Unmanned spacecraft are cheap and reliable. Manned craft are a little more flexible, but expensive and unreliable.
Unmanned spacecraft are cheap and reliable? Not really. We've had plenty of accidents. Keep in mind that up to the year 2000, the US, Soviet Union, and Japan had launched 43 probes to Mars and 13 were successful. That's a 30% success rate. Not all that hot.
In 2012 dollars, we've spent 12.5 billion--with a B--dollars on Mars exploration. And we've learned a lot. Now, we'll say that a manned mission costs 1000x that, or 12.5 trillion--with a T. The interesting question is, would we learn 1000x more about Mars than we've learned in the last 50 years of throwing the occasional probe out there?
Let's be honest--we've sent probes to Mars because we want to do something to figure it out and the American people aren't going to spring for the money for a manned mission. So probes are the next best thing. And they're pretty good. But are they "better" than manned exploration? No.
I understand it's Slashdot and the department is "Ask Slashdot." Still, why is it when I see whiny little questions like, "What do I do about a co-worker who..." the first answer that comes to mind is "beat them severely." It's sort of a more violent version of Betteridge's Law of Headlines.
Maybe it's just me, but I feel like I'm seeing more and more of these managerial questions. Y'know, if your interpersonal skills are so bad that you need to ask a bunch of slashdotters how to deal with people, you may not be cut out for management.
But here's a hint--perhaps he doesn't see a real advantage to learning the latest buzzword-development paradigm. Perhaps, rather than scoffing at his neanderthal ways, you should consider whether or not you're gaining enough to use these techniques.
If you believe you will--and you may be right--one way to light a fire under his butt may be to show him. Have him write the code. Have you write the code using these glorious techniques. Put the two together and run it. If you can show him the benefits of learning this, he may be more inspired to do so. Similar thing with version control--show him how it benefits him to use it.
Oh, just admit it, you're freaked out by her robot hand.
FTA:
I'm not sure they want to be so proud of the last one...
Go to google and type in "gmo tumors" or "gmo infertility" to research for yourself.
Wow. While I was at it, I googled "measles and autism" and "moon landing hoax."
After all, they can't put anything on the Internet if it isn't true.
I read aloud to my 3 year old niece from her favorite Dr Suess book.
Private performance.
I read aloud in front of hundreds of people who paid to attend, or were otherwise asked to attend that reading.
Public performance.
Agreed. Of course, there's a pretty big gap between your 3 year-old niece and hundreds of people who paid to attend or were otherwise asked to attend.
Take the numbers, for example. If I read aloud to 1 person who paid me to read it, is it a public performance? What if I'm paid to do other things. Suppose I'm a nurse for an elderly person and I'm paid to help him out in the bathroom, cook meals, and read him books? He's paying me, I'm making money from reading him books, but it's only one other person.
What if it's two people--say a husband and wife? How about if it's 32 people in a nursing home and I'm paid to read to them in a group, as well as mop the floors and teach advanced basket-weaving? Those people also pay the nursing home for such things, as well as room and board and medical care.
Rubbish.
Yes, the more you make, the higher rate you pay on the money over a given threshold. But if we tax income up to say, $50,000 at 32% and tax income above $50,000 at 35%--which is how the tax code works (though I'm making up the actual percentages and thresholds)--and you make $50,000, you pay $16,000 in taxes and take home $34,000. If you got a $1 a year raise to $50,001, you pay 32% on the $50,000 (that's $16,000) and 35% of the $1 (or $0.35). Which means you would bring home $34,000.65. Which is still more than you were bringing home before.
Now you might whine that if you were making $50,000 a year and your salary doubled to $100,000, you wouldn't be bringing home $68,000 a year, you'd be bringing home $66,500. So you'd pay more in taxes--both as a percentage and in raw dollars--than you if you were making half of that. But I know I'd rather bring home $66,500 a year than $34,000 a year.
If you feel that strongly about paying taxes, though, go ahead and make less money. That'll show those bastards!
Well, yes, you could use that. In fact, we have about $650 billion sitting from the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The problem is, the Republicans believe that money should be used to pay down the national debt.
Actually, my favorite Siri-choke is sunrise/sunset.
Ask Siri "What time is sunset?" and Siri will tell you. Ask Siri "What time was sunrise?" and Siri will say something to the effect that it can't tell you the weather in the past. Ask Siri "What time will sunset be next Tuesday?" and it will say something to the effect that it doesn't know how to get the weather that far ahead.
Huh? What does sunset have to do with weather? Well, Siri gets sunrise/sunset information from the same place as the weather. Sort of an "almanac" section.
The sad part? If you say "Wolfram, what time was sunset?" it will go search Wolfram-Alpha and tell you sunrise/sunset information for anywhere in the world on any date that you like.
This is obviously just a publicity stunt for some movie.
And they should ALL be kissing Palm's ass because they were there first!
And they should be kissing Apple's ass because they were there firster!
I don't need really good health insurance because I'm recording you threatening me.
I hope you have a decent amount of money because you'll be paying for my injuries.
[...] they can inflict massive damage [...]
Not a huge deal. I'm sure there are plenty of US companies that will be more than happy to come in and repair everything, if only the American taxpayer will pay them to do so.
Nah. Raquel Welch attacked by antibodies FTW.
I'm just curious--what do you consider to be a fair share of the profits?
I have no complaint with Apple's policies for their App Store (it's their store, after all). My complaint with the App Store is mostly that it is the only way to get apps on your non-jailbroken iOS device, so there's no competition. If I want to distribute it myself and handle the infrastructure/support for my own store, too bad. If someone else comes along and wants to offer a different revenue-sharing plan from Apple's 70/30, too bad.
But I'd be curious what you would consider to be "fair"--I assume you consider 70/30 to be "unfair."
I always liked Whirlwind.