Europe is extremely expensive and the United States is dirt cheap in comparison:
From those numbers, you must be living in a part of Europe that is considered extremely expensive even for European standards (my guess would be either one of the most expensive cities in Germany (Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart) or in the UK). Heck, I live in one of these places and I find some of the numbers rather odd (the costs for food - unless, of course, you have to feed a family significantly larger than four with that).
Also, expressing all of these costs in USD is a bit unfair. It's not Europes fault that W and his buddies managed to run the value of the dollar into the ground. Seven years ago, when I started studying in the States, I was amazed at how hugely unbelievably expensive everything was there. Of course, that was when you had to pay 1.25 Euros per USD. Now, the exchange rate is 0.72 Euros per USD.
I use Matlab and Octave constantly for things everyone around me uses Excel for (I do structural engineering).
And I thought I was the only one doing that ! Most people in my department use Excel for graphs, filtering and other tasks that Matlab is so much more suited for. I'm one of the two people actually using Matlab.
Doesn't this just encourgage the hardware developers to leave it to "the community"?
Professional customers might still want a HW-developer-written driver.
Regardless of that, it's a better move than keeping the specs secret. Because in the latter case, you're totally at the mercy of the HW developer as far as driver availability and quality goes.
Shall we all abandon our bags at the front entrance and change into orange jumpsuits to make sure we don't have anything that could possibly be a bomb?
You forgot that the bomb could also be stuffed in some random cavity of your body, or even implanted. Orange jumpsuits alone just won't do... bend over now and once that's finished step over here for a full-body x-ray scan.
They require weaponsgrade explosives, and still makes the suicide bomber looks bulging like he is carring a lot of heavy stuff tied to body (not something you can carry under a t-shirt!).
At an airport, I would suppose that the bomb is hidden in a piece of luggage, not on the hypothetical bomber.
he kind of explosives you can acquire and produce in a western country will only create events like that at Glasgow, which was a joke.
2. In a situation with a possible suicide bomber fractions of a second count.
In a situation with a possible suicide bomber, you pump him (better: his head) full of lead (remember what happened to the guy in the UK) and pray that he doesn't have a dead man's switch on the thing. Since the person in question is still alive, either security didn't think that they were dealing with a possible suicide bomber or they're very poorly trained to react to one.
Exploitation happens where it's economically profitable. And unless we find something incredibly valuable or interesting in one of the nearby star systems (alien artifacts, life, habitable planets, chunks of antimatter... right now I can's think of anything else that might warrant traveling a couple of light years for), exploitation is going to be constrained to the solar system for quite a while.
Some kids wave and legend has it, they get fined extra for lack of respect.
Waving is no problem. However, giving the thing the finger or showing body parts that should normally be covered (I'll leave this one up to your imagination, but afaik there's nothing that hasn't been caught on a speeding camera yet) can present some problems.
Even if this craft can reach speeds of 10% the speed of light we would still be limited to interplanetary exploration and exploitation (human nature dictates this).
The solar system is a big enough place for exploitation, and when we're done with the planets and their moons we can look at the Kuiper belt. That should keep us busy for the next couple of centuries, at least, and also allow us to use technologies to actually analyze nearby star systems without having to send probes there just yet.
And once the solar system gets too small for use, we probably have the necessary technologies, experience and infrastructure to send something on an interstellar voyage (probably a generation ship or even a small planetoid outfitted with propulsion systems).
And it's exactly how it works in europe: there's no such thing as this credit reporting bureau bullshit.
There is, they're just being less obnoxious, and Europeans aren't as obsessed with spending more money than they have than Americans. For example the SCHUFA in Germany.
Tasered while he was having an epileptic seizure, because he was "not responding" to police orders.
Sometimes, I get the feeling the police in the US are trained to follow a rigid standard procedure when making arrests and may not deviate even a fraction of an inch from it, regardless of the circumstances. E.g.
1. Order suspect to get up. (Do not listen to anything he says ("I'm paraplegic.", "One of my legs is missing.", and the like) or accept any other reasons (suspect is deaf, unconscious, etc) for not following the order.)
2. Repeat the order, in a loder voice. (Do not listen to anything he says ("I'm paraplegic.", "One of my legs is missing.", and the like) or accept any other reasons (suspect is deaf, unconscious, etc) for not following the order.)
3. Taser the suspect.
4. If the battery is empty, proceed to 5. Else go to 2.
5. Call in SWAT team
and people learning the extent they can be an A-hole is far greater than the public's ability to stop them.
I think what we have here is someone who learned that being disruptive can get them all the attention they crave and even more, up to making national (or even international) news. If that isn't a job well done...
DC electroshock will jam your nerves and latch the muscles in a continuously contracted state, where you can't let go. OTOH AC is making the muscles jerk, preventing the latch-on effect.
Please forget about that quickly, unless you want to be a danger to yourself and others.
Low-voltage (below 500V) DC is less of danger than low-voltage (above 500V) AC at household frequencies. Your muscles can't "jerk" at 50/60 Hz. Things are reversed in case of high voltages (above 500V).
(Next try posting this after messing up the formatting)
DC electroshock will jam your nerves and latch the muscles in a continuously contracted state, where you can't let go. OTOH AC is making the muscles jerk, preventing the latch-on effect.
Please forget about that quickly, unless you want to be a danger to yourself and others.
What levels of force would you have officers employ in a situation like this?
As much as is necessary to get the guy out the door and keep him there. That may include dragging him out and dumping him in front of the door.
But the officers in the video seem to be more interested in "making an arrest" than in keeping order. They did exactly the wrong thing by trying to arrest and handcuff the guy - he was looking for attention, and they were giving him exactly that. In fact, they helped him make frickin' international headlines. The whole thing probably turned out better for him by several orders of magnitude than the guy could have ever dreamed of !
There's such a thing as public interest. Right then, "making an arrest" didn't serve public interest. Pushing (dragging if necessary) the guy to the door and dumping him outside would have.
What do you think the guy learned from the whole thing ? "Make a scene at a public event and bad things happen to you."... ? Wrong. He was looking for attention, and his behavior landed him the jackpot. Don't reward pathological attention-seekers by giving them more attention (negative or positive).
I do take issue with the benefit of keeping the credit limit low. A potential lender may see larger limits and take that as a sign that other lenders feel comfortable extending credit to you.
A potential lender might also see larger limits and think "Geez, this guy could borrow enough money with the snap of a finger to put himself in debt forever..."
True.. But if this is radio/microwave based the cornea is probably NOT going to absorb much....
I would expect much of the waves would directly heat the retina of the eye (if aimed toward it).
Sorry, that's not going to happen (and everyone who modded this insightful needs to read up on some basic physics and physiology).
Water absorbs microwaves and radio waves quite well, and there's quite a lot of water right in front of the retina (no, your eyeball isn't hollow).
Also, the lens in your eye doesn't focus microwaves or radio waves on the retina. It's job is to focus visible light, and its refractive index is just too different for anything that is that distant from visiable light.
If you want to blind people permanently, use a laser. It's coherent light with a very low divergence, and the eye's lens focuses into a tiny spot of very high power on the retina.
So you're saying a taser should only be used in the field after a full medical examination of the individual violently resisting arrest?
No, I'm saying that the little "demonstration" under controlled conditions ("See, it's entirely harmless, yaddayadda") is not suitable for demonstrating all of the effects (including unwanted side effects) of the device and encourages liberal use of the thing even under circumstance where it is entirely unnecessary (on unruly kids, already subdued victims, and the like).
So you're essentially saying police can't use guns, nightsticks, tasers, or physical restraint of any kind, hmm?
No, I'm not saying that. You're trying to put these words in my mouth. So how much TASR stock do you own, hm ?
And for all of you that are saying that they just used the taser because it's the new toy, that may be true, but you have to also be tasered before you are authorized to use one, they knew full well what the taser does.
Probably after you've had some sort of medical exam saying that you're quite likely to survive that. Do they give that benefit to people they taser in the field ?
"Walk this way or we'll taser you." ZAP!
"Get up or we'll taser you." ZAP!
"Get up or we'll taser you." ZAP!
"Get up or we'll taser you." ZAP!
(repeat until batteries are empty)
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From those numbers, you must be living in a part of Europe that is considered extremely expensive even for European standards (my guess would be either one of the most expensive cities in Germany (Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart) or in the UK). Heck, I live in one of these places and I find some of the numbers rather odd (the costs for food - unless, of course, you have to feed a family significantly larger than four with that).
Also, expressing all of these costs in USD is a bit unfair. It's not Europes fault that W and his buddies managed to run the value of the dollar into the ground. Seven years ago, when I started studying in the States, I was amazed at how hugely unbelievably expensive everything was there. Of course, that was when you had to pay 1.25 Euros per USD. Now, the exchange rate is 0.72 Euros per USD.
I'll bite: ARM.
And I thought I was the only one doing that ! Most people in my department use Excel for graphs, filtering and other tasks that Matlab is so much more suited for. I'm one of the two people actually using Matlab.
Professional customers might still want a HW-developer-written driver.
Regardless of that, it's a better move than keeping the specs secret. Because in the latter case, you're totally at the mercy of the HW developer as far as driver availability and quality goes.
You forgot that the bomb could also be stuffed in some random cavity of your body, or even implanted. Orange jumpsuits alone just won't do ... bend over now and once that's finished step over here for a full-body x-ray scan.
At an airport, I would suppose that the bomb is hidden in a piece of luggage, not on the hypothetical bomber.
he kind of explosives you can acquire and produce in a western country will only create events like that at Glasgow, which was a joke.
Madrid ? London ?
In a situation with a possible suicide bomber, you pump him (better: his head) full of lead (remember what happened to the guy in the UK) and pray that he doesn't have a dead man's switch on the thing. Since the person in question is still alive, either security didn't think that they were dealing with a possible suicide bomber or they're very poorly trained to react to one.
Exploitation happens where it's economically profitable. And unless we find something incredibly valuable or interesting in one of the nearby star systems (alien artifacts, life, habitable planets, chunks of antimatter ... right now I can's think of anything else that might warrant traveling a couple of light years for), exploitation is going to be constrained to the solar system for quite a while.
Crap. I just flew from the States to Europe with a copy of Bioshock in my checked luggage. I guess I'm screwed.
Waving is no problem. However, giving the thing the finger or showing body parts that should normally be covered (I'll leave this one up to your imagination, but afaik there's nothing that hasn't been caught on a speeding camera yet) can present some problems.
The solar system is a big enough place for exploitation, and when we're done with the planets and their moons we can look at the Kuiper belt. That should keep us busy for the next couple of centuries, at least, and also allow us to use technologies to actually analyze nearby star systems without having to send probes there just yet.
And once the solar system gets too small for use, we probably have the necessary technologies, experience and infrastructure to send something on an interstellar voyage (probably a generation ship or even a small planetoid outfitted with propulsion systems).
Crap. How about a game that's fun to play ? Yes, I know, I'm getting old and have ridiculous expectations.
There is, they're just being less obnoxious, and Europeans aren't as obsessed with spending more money than they have than Americans. For example the SCHUFA in Germany.
Sometimes, I get the feeling the police in the US are trained to follow a rigid standard procedure when making arrests and may not deviate even a fraction of an inch from it, regardless of the circumstances. E.g.
1. Order suspect to get up. (Do not listen to anything he says ("I'm paraplegic.", "One of my legs is missing.", and the like) or accept any other reasons (suspect is deaf, unconscious, etc) for not following the order.)
2. Repeat the order, in a loder voice. (Do not listen to anything he says ("I'm paraplegic.", "One of my legs is missing.", and the like) or accept any other reasons (suspect is deaf, unconscious, etc) for not following the order.)
3. Taser the suspect.
4. If the battery is empty, proceed to 5. Else go to 2.
5. Call in SWAT team
I think what we have here is someone who learned that being disruptive can get them all the attention they crave and even more, up to making national (or even international) news. If that isn't a job well done ...
Please forget about that quickly, unless you want to be a danger to yourself and others.
Low-voltage (below 500V) DC is less of danger than low-voltage (above 500V) AC at household frequencies. Your muscles can't "jerk" at 50/60 Hz. Things are reversed in case of high voltages (above 500V). (Next try posting this after messing up the formatting)
Please forget about that quickly, unless you want to be a danger to yourself and others.
Low-voltage (=500V).
As much as is necessary to get the guy out the door and keep him there. That may include dragging him out and dumping him in front of the door.
But the officers in the video seem to be more interested in "making an arrest" than in keeping order. They did exactly the wrong thing by trying to arrest and handcuff the guy - he was looking for attention, and they were giving him exactly that. In fact, they helped him make frickin' international headlines. The whole thing probably turned out better for him by several orders of magnitude than the guy could have ever dreamed of !
There's such a thing as public interest. Right then, "making an arrest" didn't serve public interest. Pushing (dragging if necessary) the guy to the door and dumping him outside would have.
What do you think the guy learned from the whole thing ? "Make a scene at a public event and bad things happen to you." ... ? Wrong. He was looking for attention, and his behavior landed him the jackpot. Don't reward pathological attention-seekers by giving them more attention (negative or positive).
A potential lender might also see larger limits and think "Geez, this guy could borrow enough money with the snap of a finger to put himself in debt forever ..."
I would expect much of the waves would directly heat the retina of the eye (if aimed toward it).
Sorry, that's not going to happen (and everyone who modded this insightful needs to read up on some basic physics and physiology).
Water absorbs microwaves and radio waves quite well, and there's quite a lot of water right in front of the retina (no, your eyeball isn't hollow).
Also, the lens in your eye doesn't focus microwaves or radio waves on the retina. It's job is to focus visible light, and its refractive index is just too different for anything that is that distant from visiable light.
If you want to blind people permanently, use a laser. It's coherent light with a very low divergence, and the eye's lens focuses into a tiny spot of very high power on the retina.
Only if you care about public opinion. If you don't, just turn the war zone into radioactive slag.
No, I'm saying that the little "demonstration" under controlled conditions ("See, it's entirely harmless, yaddayadda") is not suitable for demonstrating all of the effects (including unwanted side effects) of the device and encourages liberal use of the thing even under circumstance where it is entirely unnecessary (on unruly kids, already subdued victims, and the like).
So you're essentially saying police can't use guns, nightsticks, tasers, or physical restraint of any kind, hmm?
No, I'm not saying that. You're trying to put these words in my mouth. So how much TASR stock do you own, hm ?
Probably after you've had some sort of medical exam saying that you're quite likely to survive that. Do they give that benefit to people they taser in the field ?
"Walk this way or we'll taser you."
ZAP!
"Get up or we'll taser you."
ZAP!
"Get up or we'll taser you."
ZAP!
"Get up or we'll taser you."
ZAP!
(repeat until batteries are empty)