Sure, but it does get us closer to getting rid of fossil fuels, as vehicles are one of the main consumers of fossil fuels. Electricity can be converted from many sources, it definitely seems a smarter route to go than bio-fuels and the like. The power stations eventually should all be nuclear, maybe they'll even get some fusion reactors going..
Bleh, I'm always leaving stuff out these days. When I said "anywhere", I meant anywhere in public. They can do what they want in their homes.
The point is that as long as they're still making more money than they're losing from it, the government isn't going to make smoking itself illegal (in private).
I'm happy for them to ban smoking anywhere. If it wasn't dangerous to health then of course they shouldn't ban it. But smokers do not, and should not, have any right to force their smoke onto other people.
Car exhausts aren't great either, but at least they don't smell so bad, and usually aren't right there next to you.
There is of course a 64 bit version of XP too though.
Being out of support isn't great, but since you actually have to pay to upgrade XP, if I were still using Windows I'd not upgrade until I was getting a new machine anyway. I was happily using Windows 98 up until 2004 or so. I only upgraded because Lego Star Wars required XP:/
Sure, here you can't smoke in pubs and clubs etc anymore, but smoking in public is still allowed, and smoking in private definitely is, as long as it's just tobacco. I wish smoking everywhere was illegal, it's very unpleasant to have cigarette smoke being blown your way. If people were smoking cigars or peat that would be fine though, those smell great.
Then they would only be using Win7 to run XP Mode 24x7, which defeats the whole purpose of upgrading.
As far as I can tell, the "whole purpose of upgrading" for 99% of users is simply because the upgrade is there. They want new and shiny. This is how people think. This is why we keep getting new versions of Microsoft Office and EA Sports games every year or two.
What years were those? While Firefox was the first browser to take a real chunk out of IE, there have always been competitors. Netscape Navigator was the main one. It's what we had at University, and trying to develop cool stuff that worked both in IE and Netscape was what put me off web development for so many years.. I didn't want to have to write browser specific software.
Probably the simplest solution for a company that needs IE6 on desktops for one task or application would be to use Citrix or Terminal server, and just keep a well locked down copy of IE6 on a dedicated server.
But will that work for apps that integrate IE6? I remember one version of our fluid dynamics software that broke when you installed IE7, because parts of it were displayed using the IE rendering engine..
There aren't going to be any laws that force people to stop smoking. Not while they can make so much money from it. If Microsoft were smart, they would just start charging businesses for continued XP support or something.
Meant to say "only times my ABS has been active in the last year". I have had it kick in on real roads on occasion, usually in very wet or icy conditions.
Well, put it this way. In the same timeframe that I had my Golf (no ABS, no airbags, no aircon, no nothin!), I also had access to my mum's car which had ABS and was faster. I was 19. I didn't consciously take more risks simply because the car had ABS and airbags. Certainly I have become a better driver with experience and further training, but I don't rely on electronic driving aids to keep me on the road. The only times my ABS has been active have been in wide open areas like carparks or muddy areas where I'm purposely messing about.
I've grown up very slightly - in large part due to taking an advanced driving course and having a subsequent driving ban due to speed, rather than simply because I'm older - but the point is that I definitely don't take risks just because I know my vehicle is "safer".
I suppose if someone doesn't actually know what ABS does then they may be more inclined to allow less time for braking etc, but ABS can actually increase stopping distance, for the sake of retaining directional control.
An interesting point from the article someone linked above is that ABS reduced the number of accidents "caused by the driver", but increased the number of accidents which "they had no control over". I'm presuming this to mean that they were better able to avoid obstacles and retain control of their vehicle, but in situations where there was nowhere safe to turn, the extra stopping distance caused them to crash.
People who are concerned about this sort of thing lost all their privacy years ago anyway, because they're dumb.
I think you have just hit the nail on the head. The thing that's been annoying me whenever people whine about this stuff, yet they are the ones who have shared all this information in the first place, and continue to do so, then get affronted when everyone else can see it. I find it really hard to put into words sometimes how stupid it all is, but you have said it perfectly.
I've even traced the life story of an AC on Slashdot (who jeered my "easily trackable" Slashdot account, despite me not using this nick anywhere else) just by using the initials they signed at the bottom of their AC posts..
You can't block people from seeing what you comment about on other people's walls without preventing people from commenting on your own wall.
Actually I completely agree about that being annoying. The way the privacy settings are worded is rather poor. I thought I had simply disabled people from seeing my posts to friends' walls (ie the friends that they aren't friends with), but I think it just disabled people from being able to post on my wall.
You could create a private group for only your family and post all your pics etc up there?
Well duh. If you don't want your friends seeing who you're talking to, either don't friend them, or change your privacy settings so that they can't read your wall posts etc. Otherwise they have exactly the same information already available, just in a slightly less convenient format.
Sure it's a little creepy, but you already see a lot of this stuff on the main updates page anyway, this is just making it more comprehensive.
Who do you know that drives more like an idiot because their car has safety features? I drove like an idiot even when my car didn't have ABS, and these days even though all cars I drive have ABS, I drive like less of an idiot.
Traction control is no use for driving like an idiot. I switch it off when I want to have some fun.
Let the man dream. Maybe one day he'll get a car where everything has rusted solid, and the only thing that can now move is the rearview mirror. Or possibly one wheel, but I'm not sure what use that would do.
It seems rather pointless for everyone to buy their own high speed automated charging station. If you're at home you can just leave the car charging overnight at much safer power levels. If you're doing more than 350 miles a day, chances are you're not going to be at home anyway.
What's wrong with letting the gas stations buy these things and using them similar to the way you would a gas pump (but with a bit more automation so that you don't end up all crispy!)?
(having re-read my comment I'll respond to critics in advance and point out that yes, I know 125cc is 0.125 of a litre, but generally 1 litre is the smallest engine you get in cars)
HA! You are an order of magnitude too low. Otherwise we'd all be installing 50cc moped motors into our cars. I think 30-40 HP is what it takes to overcome air resistance
So, we could all be installing 125cc motors into our cars? You can have over 40bhp pretty easily with a 125. I don't see that happening anytime soon though. Some people are happy to drive around with 1 litre engines, but a lot of people (like me) prefer a car that is actually enjoyable to drive.
I think it's better to get the electrical infrastructure in place and worry about reducing pollution and the power stations. It's probably much easier to increase efficiency there than it is on a per vehicle basis. Obviously you have to factor in manufacturing and recycling of batteries for each vehicle, but since the overall car designs are simpler etc then they'll require less maintenance which will reduce a lot of unecessary parts transport etc.. though that would probably be bad for the economy! Lots of factors.
How about the guys in the article who just did 375 miles at 55mph on a single charge?
The 6 minutes charge time is theoretical with some very high powered tech. Home charging would take around 4 hours (source: one of the comments in the article where a guy works it out from mains power vs the battery capacity).
I don't see what sounds too good to be true here, it sounds pretty reasonable to me. If the manufacturers standardise the battery port and charging stations that are in use in future electric vehicles, then this is full of win.
More expensive and inefficient than drilling for oil, refining it, and sending trucks around the country to fuel stations?
Presumably most people (ie the ones who aren't millionaires) wouldn't bother with a high powered recharge station at home, at least not for the first few years, so the recharging stations will get a lot of use to offset whatever waste that was incurred while making them. Combine that with nuclear and especially renewable energy and I'd think things get a whole lot more efficient overall (even if the renewable sources themselves aren't very efficient, they're basically "free").
anything larger is going to cause serious problems unless you create an infrastructure that regulates how many vehicles can charge at any one time. Which would turn the entire process into one giant-bidding war; kinda like the old warez FTP sites, only far worse. I can just imagine a million people all standing beside their cars, constantly hammering the grid to try and beat the que.
I doubt people are going to have the necessary hardware to charge that fast from home. I think the place you're most likely to get a fast charge is at a gas station. Then it's just like filling up your car, albeit 3-4 minutes slower.
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Sure, but it does get us closer to getting rid of fossil fuels, as vehicles are one of the main consumers of fossil fuels. Electricity can be converted from many sources, it definitely seems a smarter route to go than bio-fuels and the like. The power stations eventually should all be nuclear, maybe they'll even get some fusion reactors going..
Bleh, I'm always leaving stuff out these days. When I said "anywhere", I meant anywhere in public. They can do what they want in their homes.
The point is that as long as they're still making more money than they're losing from it, the government isn't going to make smoking itself illegal (in private).
I live in Scotland.
I'm happy for them to ban smoking anywhere. If it wasn't dangerous to health then of course they shouldn't ban it. But smokers do not, and should not, have any right to force their smoke onto other people.
Car exhausts aren't great either, but at least they don't smell so bad, and usually aren't right there next to you.
There is of course a 64 bit version of XP too though.
Being out of support isn't great, but since you actually have to pay to upgrade XP, if I were still using Windows I'd not upgrade until I was getting a new machine anyway. I was happily using Windows 98 up until 2004 or so. I only upgraded because Lego Star Wars required XP :/
Sure, here you can't smoke in pubs and clubs etc anymore, but smoking in public is still allowed, and smoking in private definitely is, as long as it's just tobacco. I wish smoking everywhere was illegal, it's very unpleasant to have cigarette smoke being blown your way. If people were smoking cigars or peat that would be fine though, those smell great.
Then they would only be using Win7 to run XP Mode 24x7, which defeats the whole purpose of upgrading.
As far as I can tell, the "whole purpose of upgrading" for 99% of users is simply because the upgrade is there. They want new and shiny. This is how people think. This is why we keep getting new versions of Microsoft Office and EA Sports games every year or two.
What years were those? While Firefox was the first browser to take a real chunk out of IE, there have always been competitors. Netscape Navigator was the main one. It's what we had at University, and trying to develop cool stuff that worked both in IE and Netscape was what put me off web development for so many years.. I didn't want to have to write browser specific software.
Probably the simplest solution for a company that needs IE6 on desktops for one task or application would be to use Citrix or Terminal server, and just keep a well locked down copy of IE6 on a dedicated server.
But will that work for apps that integrate IE6? I remember one version of our fluid dynamics software that broke when you installed IE7, because parts of it were displayed using the IE rendering engine..
There aren't going to be any laws that force people to stop smoking. Not while they can make so much money from it. If Microsoft were smart, they would just start charging businesses for continued XP support or something.
Meant to say "only times my ABS has been active in the last year". I have had it kick in on real roads on occasion, usually in very wet or icy conditions.
Well, put it this way. In the same timeframe that I had my Golf (no ABS, no airbags, no aircon, no nothin!), I also had access to my mum's car which had ABS and was faster. I was 19. I didn't consciously take more risks simply because the car had ABS and airbags. Certainly I have become a better driver with experience and further training, but I don't rely on electronic driving aids to keep me on the road. The only times my ABS has been active have been in wide open areas like carparks or muddy areas where I'm purposely messing about.
I've grown up very slightly - in large part due to taking an advanced driving course and having a subsequent driving ban due to speed, rather than simply because I'm older - but the point is that I definitely don't take risks just because I know my vehicle is "safer".
I suppose if someone doesn't actually know what ABS does then they may be more inclined to allow less time for braking etc, but ABS can actually increase stopping distance, for the sake of retaining directional control.
An interesting point from the article someone linked above is that ABS reduced the number of accidents "caused by the driver", but increased the number of accidents which "they had no control over". I'm presuming this to mean that they were better able to avoid obstacles and retain control of their vehicle, but in situations where there was nowhere safe to turn, the extra stopping distance caused them to crash.
People who are concerned about this sort of thing lost all their privacy years ago anyway, because they're dumb.
I think you have just hit the nail on the head. The thing that's been annoying me whenever people whine about this stuff, yet they are the ones who have shared all this information in the first place, and continue to do so, then get affronted when everyone else can see it. I find it really hard to put into words sometimes how stupid it all is, but you have said it perfectly.
I've even traced the life story of an AC on Slashdot (who jeered my "easily trackable" Slashdot account, despite me not using this nick anywhere else) just by using the initials they signed at the bottom of their AC posts..
You can't block people from seeing what you comment about on other people's walls without preventing people from commenting on your own wall.
Actually I completely agree about that being annoying. The way the privacy settings are worded is rather poor. I thought I had simply disabled people from seeing my posts to friends' walls (ie the friends that they aren't friends with), but I think it just disabled people from being able to post on my wall.
You could create a private group for only your family and post all your pics etc up there?
Well duh. If you don't want your friends seeing who you're talking to, either don't friend them, or change your privacy settings so that they can't read your wall posts etc. Otherwise they have exactly the same information already available, just in a slightly less convenient format.
Sure it's a little creepy, but you already see a lot of this stuff on the main updates page anyway, this is just making it more comprehensive.
Who do you know that drives more like an idiot because their car has safety features? I drove like an idiot even when my car didn't have ABS, and these days even though all cars I drive have ABS, I drive like less of an idiot.
Traction control is no use for driving like an idiot. I switch it off when I want to have some fun.
Let the man dream. Maybe one day he'll get a car where everything has rusted solid, and the only thing that can now move is the rearview mirror. Or possibly one wheel, but I'm not sure what use that would do.
It seems rather pointless for everyone to buy their own high speed automated charging station. If you're at home you can just leave the car charging overnight at much safer power levels. If you're doing more than 350 miles a day, chances are you're not going to be at home anyway.
What's wrong with letting the gas stations buy these things and using them similar to the way you would a gas pump (but with a bit more automation so that you don't end up all crispy!)?
It is, but the TNT can release its energy very quickly without much provocation, whereas the gasoline doesn't.
(having re-read my comment I'll respond to critics in advance and point out that yes, I know 125cc is 0.125 of a litre, but generally 1 litre is the smallest engine you get in cars)
HA! You are an order of magnitude too low. Otherwise we'd all be installing 50cc moped motors into our cars. I think 30-40 HP is what it takes to overcome air resistance
So, we could all be installing 125cc motors into our cars? You can have over 40bhp pretty easily with a 125. I don't see that happening anytime soon though. Some people are happy to drive around with 1 litre engines, but a lot of people (like me) prefer a car that is actually enjoyable to drive.
I think it's better to get the electrical infrastructure in place and worry about reducing pollution and the power stations. It's probably much easier to increase efficiency there than it is on a per vehicle basis. Obviously you have to factor in manufacturing and recycling of batteries for each vehicle, but since the overall car designs are simpler etc then they'll require less maintenance which will reduce a lot of unecessary parts transport etc.. though that would probably be bad for the economy! Lots of factors.
How about the guys in the article who just did 375 miles at 55mph on a single charge?
The 6 minutes charge time is theoretical with some very high powered tech. Home charging would take around 4 hours (source: one of the comments in the article where a guy works it out from mains power vs the battery capacity).
I don't see what sounds too good to be true here, it sounds pretty reasonable to me. If the manufacturers standardise the battery port and charging stations that are in use in future electric vehicles, then this is full of win.
More expensive and inefficient than drilling for oil, refining it, and sending trucks around the country to fuel stations?
Presumably most people (ie the ones who aren't millionaires) wouldn't bother with a high powered recharge station at home, at least not for the first few years, so the recharging stations will get a lot of use to offset whatever waste that was incurred while making them. Combine that with nuclear and especially renewable energy and I'd think things get a whole lot more efficient overall (even if the renewable sources themselves aren't very efficient, they're basically "free").
anything larger is going to cause serious problems unless you create an infrastructure that regulates how many vehicles can charge at any one time. Which would turn the entire process into one giant-bidding war; kinda like the old warez FTP sites, only far worse. I can just imagine a million people all standing beside their cars, constantly hammering the grid to try and beat the que.
I doubt people are going to have the necessary hardware to charge that fast from home. I think the place you're most likely to get a fast charge is at a gas station. Then it's just like filling up your car, albeit 3-4 minutes slower.