You DO realize that we're not actually STUCK in the 1960s, and that Ferraris no longer suck? Did you know Pontiac doesn't even exist any more, let alone make the goat? And, the goat's latest iteration was little more than a rebadged Aussie family sedan and in no way compared to any contemporary Ferrari?
There are some treatments available for Alzheimer's disease now - I suggest you start looking into the various options.;)
> Linux still doesn't "just work." If it does "just work," it's probably because you have old hardware. Linux will probably never be ready for the desktop unless hardware stops changing.
Your post would have been true ~15 years ago. Around 2005 it became far more plug & play than Windows ever will be. Sometime between 2007 and 2009 it became much better than Windows at supporting various WiFi chipsets out of the box. Even setting up printing is stupid-easy in Linux now (ironically, largely due to Michael Sweet, then later, Apple - THANK YOU for CUPS!).
Is it perfect? Hell no. However it is much closer to the ideal than the state which you imply.
Not satisfied with alienating the general public, Mozilla, who are hell-bent on losing all market share, have now successfully alienated their remaining userbase: enterprise users, with this:
"Mandatory add-on signing refers to Firefox preventing users from installing any add-ons that have not been approved by Mozilla's testers."
They will no longer have to listen to the userbase complaining about the many memory leaks and race conditions in Firefox because they have finally gotten rid of the annoying users.
Seriously folks.. do you really expect proprietary extensions used by various companies to be signed and submitted to the Mozilla repository? No, I don't think so. Many of us use Firefox not for its performance (it sucks), its compliance to standards (again, it sucks), but for its extensibility. Now that you have made it inflexible as well as slow, bloated, and crappy, what userbase are you now targeting?
Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.
Give them a couple of days to write a ransomware-style patch which will force upgrade the PC and require your credit card to unlock. I wouldn't rule that scenario out given their tactics so far.
I used to hate watching movies in the theater. First, the movie would be invariably out of focus - but the advert projector they play before the movie would be in perfect focus. Secondly, the seating sucked - but that has improved in recent years. It isn't as comfy as home, but at least now I get more legroom than an airline seat. Third, the sound systems used to totally suck. Now, they've gotten much, much better. I still much prefer my own sound system but theater sound is actually quite good now. Lastly... the sticky floors and all the trash left behind by the fucking slobs who sat there previously. WTF, people! Clean up after yourselves - if not out of concern for others, but to prove that you don't completely lack all sense of class and self-respect.
"and also cited the case of an Oakland TSA officer who for two years helped smugglers slip more than 220 pounds of marijuana through airport security checkpoints, "
I see no problem with this, other than that they had to smuggle it. The DEA and FDA have already admitted that not only is cannabis harmless and nonaddictive, but has many health benefits and that the government has lied for decades. The guy who assisted the smugglers should be commended for doing what is right, not cited for wrongdoing.
> That's right. Raw, or unpasteurized milk, is much better. It builds a strong healthy body.
It tastes better, that's for sure, but whether it is actually better has not been substantiated. There are however major health risks associated with raw milk from cows in factory-style dairy farms.
I like raw milk but unless it's from a small farm verified to maintain proper health of each individual cow, I'd prefer to stick with pasteurized because without knowing the farmer's methodologies personally how can you verify the safety?
I want the opposite - I have a Samsung Gear S2 Classic and am thinking about either buying the 3G version of it, or the nextgen version of it (I wish they would include a speaker as well as mic on the non-3G version). I want the built-in speaker and cell connection and added functionality. Its primary use for me is fitness tracking (I've owned a Vivofit and it sucked, and the Fitbit I tried was almost as inaccurate and limited) and I find it is very accurate in its tracking my workouts and steps throughout the day. For the first few weeks I wore both during the day and counted my steps and compared - the Gear was very close to my count but the vivo was way off - over 1,000 more than my count and the Gear S2's count.
Another thing that is great is the GPS tracking - I keep that turned on and when I go out skating, walking, jogging, the distance tracking is usually dead-on and I can view a map of where I went after the workout, with my highest speeds indicated on the map, as well as nice graphs with heart rate and pace. Also, I easily get 24 hours on my watch, although since it has lithium cells I top it off as often as I can to avoid deep cycling the battery when it is not necessary.
However I do agree it would be nice to have low-end devices for folks who don't care about those capabilities. But, at the low end you're unlikely to get a large screen + good interface + sound + mic + bt + water resistance + good battery life; you're more likely to get just a couple of those features with the rest sucking or omitted entirely.
For me, fitness training. It tracks distance, heart rate, and calculates calories burned based on the workout, heartrate, age, and weight. I previously tried a vivofit but it sucked. It tracked only steps throughout the day, and was highly inaccurate.
I also use my smartwatch for sleep tracking, because I tend to be a night owl and am trying to correct that. The vivofit did track sleep very well but my primary goal is tracking fitness and for that the vivofit sucks.
It was the biting of an apple that gave man free will, and it is all the fault of a woman and a talking snake. It was all planned by the lizard people who run the illuminati and put Obama in office.
Also, the earth is flat, and even if global warming is real, jeebus is gonna come riding in on a winged unicorn to save us from a sky dragon!
Trump 2016!!!
(I'm kidding. Obviously. As evidenced by the "Trump 2016" - no sane person would vote Trump)
User error again, so the SEC investigation is unwarranted. Why are they not investigating GM for covering up the fatal ignition switch problems, or Toyota for their safety issues, or VW for cheating emissions tests across VW and Audi vehicle lines?
> At the time, well-regulated meant in proper working order.
Their writings also indicate that they meant not only that the weapons are in good working order, but that The People knew how to use their firearms effectively and responsibly, and knew how to use their arms to kill tyrants and enemies. Our founding fathers were progressive liberals, not pussies like today's moonbats.
I have a Saab 9-3 and use the night mode regularly. However it still will prevent your eyes to fully adjusting for night vision. When driving at night you're looking at 1,800 to 6,000 lumens being sprayed out in front of your car, and even with "night mode" enabled on the Saab, you're still looking at, at minimum, 2/3 of an illuminated speedo cluster and your infotainment and HVAC buttons (although those can also be turned off if you turn your headlight switch off - pretty much the headlight switch's only function in US models that haven't been reprogrammed for ROW functionality).
You still will not have night vision unless you are driving with NO gauge illumination AND your headlamps are turned off.
> If I park it in an area that does not seem safe I attach a club to the steering wheel. This is old school but no one is going to hack it with a laptop.
Even the hardest steels might take a minute to get through. A hacksaw will also eat through it, although more slowly. From what I've read, the hardened steel used in The Club takes a max of 15 seconds for a cordless angle grinder to take out. No laptop required.
Then, your "old school" Dodge Ram likely requires simple manipulation of the switches on the column, which avoids the need to cut wires. The "ignition switch" key in many modern vehicles isn't a switch but operates levers which in turn manipulate the switches mounted lower on the steering column. This makes hotwiring easier as there is no guessing as to which wires turn on the pump and ECU, which turns on the starter relay, etc. - just break or remove the dashboard cover, pry up the levers the keyswitch drive, and play with the switch positions.
Having multi-factor authentication in the chain (chip in key, ICM, ECU/ECM all having the correct tokens, key code knowledge, etc.) is far better security. As this article points out it isn't perfect, but it a good deal better than your old school truck's shitty idea of security.
Some newer cars (and even some older cars dating back to 2003) require that the ECU and ICM be replaced if you lose all keys for the vehicle - so you're looking at $150 per key, plus about $1900 to $1500 worth of computers to replace plus the labor to tear down the dashboard when those modules are installed behind the dash rather than under the hood.
Now, I appreciate a LOT of advancements in auto technology. Performance and economy have both improved (hell, some sedans can spank the hell out of my mildly-tuned ZR-1 off the line - and they are totally stock without any aftermarket tunes), safety has improved, as has pretty much everything else - except serviceability. Lots of thought has gone into cramming lots of stuff into tiny spaces, and very little regard is given to level of effort involved in replacing any of it when servicing is required. Hell, lamp replacement in some vehicles requires removal of the front bumper cover, which in turn requires removal of spoilers, inner fenders, belly pans, and so on. Replacement of heater/AC blower requires removal of about 1/4 of the dashboard, and the ECU, BCM/BCU, and other modules sometimes require total removal of the dashboard and center console. Wtf?
Oh and to add to the human eye sensitivity thing - you won't be able to see anything at all in your mirrors at 5lux because your eyes will not have adjusted for night vision thanks to the dashboard lighting. I neglected to take that into account when making the above post.
So, FLIR is unnecessary. A halfway decent bullet camera will have a CCD or CMOS sensor that is far more light-sensitive than the human eye. Hell, even a cheap chinese CCTV camera will be more sensitive than your eye. A better choice would be a sensitive WDR/HDR CMOS with per-pixel DSP. Those generally wholesale for $600 on up, but economy of scale will drive the price way, way down when the cost of 3-4 cameras per vehicle are spread across several hundred vehicles per year. Want to add IR emitters? No problem - high-output IR LEDs wholesale for a few cents each at volume.
And yet your eyes will start failing to see even large objects in the mirror below 4-5lux, while a good CCD will be sensitive to.00003lux, and a good CMOS down to.0003lux (or lower if you're willing to deal with serious lag and blur). Resolution: Your eyes do not have >8K resolution outside of the fovea. Water resistance: the rearview cams would be IP68 rated, which is actually overkill because people generally do not drive while your vehicle is submerged.
Add in the fact that about 80% of American drivers are fucktards who aim both side mirrors to look behind the vehicle rather than aim them properly (which would eliminate blind spots), then you should let the facts sway you toward not having that idiotic opinion of mirrors vs. cameras.
If your mirrors are properly adjusted you do not have to turn your head to check, because the blind spots are covered by the mirrors when they are properly aimed.
Slashdot Mirror
One where the 455 threw a rod, cracking the block and someone dropped in a Buick GNX twin-turbo V6. ;)
All right, Gramps, we'll get off your lawn.
You DO realize that we're not actually STUCK in the 1960s, and that Ferraris no longer suck?
Did you know Pontiac doesn't even exist any more, let alone make the goat?
And, the goat's latest iteration was little more than a rebadged Aussie family sedan and in no way compared to any contemporary Ferrari?
There are some treatments available for Alzheimer's disease now - I suggest you start looking into the various options. ;)
> Linux still doesn't "just work." If it does "just work," it's probably because you have old hardware. Linux will probably never be ready for the desktop unless hardware stops changing.
Your post would have been true ~15 years ago. Around 2005 it became far more plug & play than Windows ever will be. Sometime between 2007 and 2009 it became much better than Windows at supporting various WiFi chipsets out of the box. Even setting up printing is stupid-easy in Linux now (ironically, largely due to Michael Sweet, then later, Apple - THANK YOU for CUPS!).
Is it perfect? Hell no. However it is much closer to the ideal than the state which you imply.
Not satisfied with alienating the general public, Mozilla, who are hell-bent on losing all market share, have now successfully alienated their remaining userbase: enterprise users, with this:
"Mandatory add-on signing refers to Firefox preventing users from installing any add-ons that have not been approved by Mozilla's testers."
They will no longer have to listen to the userbase complaining about the many memory leaks and race conditions in Firefox because they have finally gotten rid of the annoying users.
Seriously folks.. do you really expect proprietary extensions used by various companies to be signed and submitted to the Mozilla repository? No, I don't think so. Many of us use Firefox not for its performance (it sucks), its compliance to standards (again, it sucks), but for its extensibility. Now that you have made it inflexible as well as slow, bloated, and crappy, what userbase are you now targeting?
Certainly. ReactOS should be able to run most Windows 7 software sometime around the year 2158.
Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.
I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters. But, now I miss because GPS is off.
Give them a couple of days to write a ransomware-style patch which will force upgrade the PC and require your credit card to unlock. I wouldn't rule that scenario out given their tactics so far.
I used to hate watching movies in the theater.
First, the movie would be invariably out of focus - but the advert projector they play before the movie would be in perfect focus.
Secondly, the seating sucked - but that has improved in recent years. It isn't as comfy as home, but at least now I get more legroom than an airline seat.
Third, the sound systems used to totally suck. Now, they've gotten much, much better. I still much prefer my own sound system but theater sound is actually quite good now.
Lastly... the sticky floors and all the trash left behind by the fucking slobs who sat there previously. WTF, people! Clean up after yourselves - if not out of concern for others, but to prove that you don't completely lack all sense of class and self-respect.
It's also worth noting that the H-4 was never flown above its ground effect so flightworthiness was never proven.
"and also cited the case of an Oakland TSA officer who for two years helped smugglers slip more than 220 pounds of marijuana through airport security checkpoints, "
I see no problem with this, other than that they had to smuggle it. The DEA and FDA have already admitted that not only is cannabis harmless and nonaddictive, but has many health benefits and that the government has lied for decades. The guy who assisted the smugglers should be commended for doing what is right, not cited for wrongdoing.
> That's right. Raw, or unpasteurized milk, is much better. It builds a strong healthy body.
It tastes better, that's for sure, but whether it is actually better has not been substantiated. There are however major health risks associated with raw milk from cows in factory-style dairy farms.
I like raw milk but unless it's from a small farm verified to maintain proper health of each individual cow, I'd prefer to stick with pasteurized because without knowing the farmer's methodologies personally how can you verify the safety?
I want the opposite - I have a Samsung Gear S2 Classic and am thinking about either buying the 3G version of it, or the nextgen version of it (I wish they would include a speaker as well as mic on the non-3G version). I want the built-in speaker and cell connection and added functionality. Its primary use for me is fitness tracking (I've owned a Vivofit and it sucked, and the Fitbit I tried was almost as inaccurate and limited) and I find it is very accurate in its tracking my workouts and steps throughout the day. For the first few weeks I wore both during the day and counted my steps and compared - the Gear was very close to my count but the vivo was way off - over 1,000 more than my count and the Gear S2's count.
Another thing that is great is the GPS tracking - I keep that turned on and when I go out skating, walking, jogging, the distance tracking is usually dead-on and I can view a map of where I went after the workout, with my highest speeds indicated on the map, as well as nice graphs with heart rate and pace. Also, I easily get 24 hours on my watch, although since it has lithium cells I top it off as often as I can to avoid deep cycling the battery when it is not necessary.
However I do agree it would be nice to have low-end devices for folks who don't care about those capabilities. But, at the low end you're unlikely to get a large screen + good interface + sound + mic + bt + water resistance + good battery life; you're more likely to get just a couple of those features with the rest sucking or omitted entirely.
> what are the killer features of a smart watch?
For me, fitness training. It tracks distance, heart rate, and calculates calories burned based on the workout, heartrate, age, and weight. I previously tried a vivofit but it sucked. It tracked only steps throughout the day, and was highly inaccurate.
I also use my smartwatch for sleep tracking, because I tend to be a night owl and am trying to correct that. The vivofit did track sleep very well but my primary goal is tracking fitness and for that the vivofit sucks.
Oh, what goes on in Lantern Waste is of no consequence.. it is near War Drobe and Spare Oom.
It was the biting of an apple that gave man free will, and it is all the fault of a woman and a talking snake. It was all planned by the lizard people who run the illuminati and put Obama in office.
Also, the earth is flat, and even if global warming is real, jeebus is gonna come riding in on a winged unicorn to save us from a sky dragon!
Trump 2016!!!
(I'm kidding. Obviously. As evidenced by the "Trump 2016" - no sane person would vote Trump)
Well, not that shocked.
User error again, so the SEC investigation is unwarranted. Why are they not investigating GM for covering up the fatal ignition switch problems, or Toyota for their safety issues, or VW for cheating emissions tests across VW and Audi vehicle lines?
> At the time, well-regulated meant in proper working order.
Their writings also indicate that they meant not only that the weapons are in good working order, but that The People knew how to use their firearms effectively and responsibly, and knew how to use their arms to kill tyrants and enemies. Our founding fathers were progressive liberals, not pussies like today's moonbats.
I have a Saab 9-3 and use the night mode regularly. However it still will prevent your eyes to fully adjusting for night vision. When driving at night you're looking at 1,800 to 6,000 lumens being sprayed out in front of your car, and even with "night mode" enabled on the Saab, you're still looking at, at minimum, 2/3 of an illuminated speedo cluster and your infotainment and HVAC buttons (although those can also be turned off if you turn your headlight switch off - pretty much the headlight switch's only function in US models that haven't been reprogrammed for ROW functionality).
You still will not have night vision unless you are driving with NO gauge illumination AND your headlamps are turned off.
> If I park it in an area that does not seem safe I attach a club to the steering wheel. This is old school but no one is going to hack it with a laptop.
http://www.makitatools.com/en-...
Even the hardest steels might take a minute to get through. A hacksaw will also eat through it, although more slowly.
From what I've read, the hardened steel used in The Club takes a max of 15 seconds for a cordless angle grinder to take out.
No laptop required.
Then, your "old school" Dodge Ram likely requires simple manipulation of the switches on the column, which avoids the need to cut wires. The "ignition switch" key in many modern vehicles isn't a switch but operates levers which in turn manipulate the switches mounted lower on the steering column. This makes hotwiring easier as there is no guessing as to which wires turn on the pump and ECU, which turns on the starter relay, etc. - just break or remove the dashboard cover, pry up the levers the keyswitch drive, and play with the switch positions.
Having multi-factor authentication in the chain (chip in key, ICM, ECU/ECM all having the correct tokens, key code knowledge, etc.) is far better security. As this article points out it isn't perfect, but it a good deal better than your old school truck's shitty idea of security.
Some newer cars (and even some older cars dating back to 2003) require that the ECU and ICM be replaced if you lose all keys for the vehicle - so you're looking at $150 per key, plus about $1900 to $1500 worth of computers to replace plus the labor to tear down the dashboard when those modules are installed behind the dash rather than under the hood.
Now, I appreciate a LOT of advancements in auto technology. Performance and economy have both improved (hell, some sedans can spank the hell out of my mildly-tuned ZR-1 off the line - and they are totally stock without any aftermarket tunes), safety has improved, as has pretty much everything else - except serviceability. Lots of thought has gone into cramming lots of stuff into tiny spaces, and very little regard is given to level of effort involved in replacing any of it when servicing is required. Hell, lamp replacement in some vehicles requires removal of the front bumper cover, which in turn requires removal of spoilers, inner fenders, belly pans, and so on. Replacement of heater/AC blower requires removal of about 1/4 of the dashboard, and the ECU, BCM/BCU, and other modules sometimes require total removal of the dashboard and center console. Wtf?
Ah yes, don't let facts get in the way of your empty argument composed entirely of hand-waving.
Oh and to add to the human eye sensitivity thing - you won't be able to see anything at all in your mirrors at 5lux because your eyes will not have adjusted for night vision thanks to the dashboard lighting. I neglected to take that into account when making the above post.
So, FLIR is unnecessary. A halfway decent bullet camera will have a CCD or CMOS sensor that is far more light-sensitive than the human eye. Hell, even a cheap chinese CCTV camera will be more sensitive than your eye. A better choice would be a sensitive WDR/HDR CMOS with per-pixel DSP. Those generally wholesale for $600 on up, but economy of scale will drive the price way, way down when the cost of 3-4 cameras per vehicle are spread across several hundred vehicles per year. Want to add IR emitters? No problem - high-output IR LEDs wholesale for a few cents each at volume.
And yet your eyes will start failing to see even large objects in the mirror below 4-5lux, while a good CCD will be sensitive to .00003lux, and a good CMOS down to .0003lux (or lower if you're willing to deal with serious lag and blur). Resolution: Your eyes do not have >8K resolution outside of the fovea. Water resistance: the rearview cams would be IP68 rated, which is actually overkill because people generally do not drive while your vehicle is submerged.
Add in the fact that about 80% of American drivers are fucktards who aim both side mirrors to look behind the vehicle rather than aim them properly (which would eliminate blind spots), then you should let the facts sway you toward not having that idiotic opinion of mirrors vs. cameras.
If your mirrors are properly adjusted you do not have to turn your head to check, because the blind spots are covered by the mirrors when they are properly aimed.